source
stringlengths 620
29.3k
| target
stringlengths 12
1.24k
|
|---|---|
How to put stuff inside baked sandwich and bread? I would like to cook some rolls or bread with the condiments already inside. The condiments that I like range include tomatoes, olives, sliced ham, and bacon. Notice that I mentioned acidic and fatty foods. Can these ingredients derail the development of the dough, particularly the leavening? I currently do not have much trouble baking a good focaccia or piece of bread that I like. My question is how and when should these ingredients be added to the dough? <Q> Adding inclusions like vegetables, fruits, nuts, and meats to bread loaves and rolls is usually done either during the initial mixing stage or during shaping. <S> When you should add the inclusions really depends on how large the ingredients are and how you want them distributed in the final loaf. <S> When adding inclusions at the initial mix it is advisable to add them late in the mix/knead, after some gluten development has already occurred. <S> Adding them early in the mix can increase your kneading time, break up or pulverize your inclusion, or give an uneven or "off" color to the crumb from juices and colors bleeding out of the included ingredient. <S> Smaller, minced, or chopped inclusions can be added during the mix if you want it distributed evenly or at shaping if you want it to appear in a distinct layer. <S> Larger inclusions are easier to add during shaping. <S> Inclusions with high water (like fresh tomatoes) or fat content (like raw bacon or pepperoni) will cause large cavity formation and layer separation that might make it difficult to use the bread as a base for sandwiches and can lead to doughy undercooked areas around the inclusion. <S> To reduce this effect you can use a drier/dried version of fruits and vegetables such as dried tomatoes or raisins; you should render out the fat from bacon or pepperoni by pre-cooking. <S> Cheese can be added at either stage and can cause issues related to both water and fat if the wrong type of cheese is used. <S> Cheeses that tend to release oil and separate (like Cheddar and most aged cheeses) are better grated and added in the initial mix. <S> Cheeses (like Jack, Colby, Havarti, or American) that melt well can be added grated at either stage. <S> Most inclusions have little noticeable effect on leavening. <S> Cured meats and cheeses contain salt so you may need to reduce the total salt added to the dough; the curing salts used in cured meats may slightly reduce yeast activity. <S> Spices like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and nutmeg can increase yeast activity, while mustard inhibits yeast activity. <S> Other Tips on Bread Inclusions <A> If you want high fat, there's a regional thing in West Virgnia of 'pepperoni rolls', which you can use as a basic dough and technique. <S> You could likely adapt it for other fatty foods ... except for the bacon; I wouldn't use bacon, even if you pre-cooked it first, just because it'd be too firm. <S> For the bacon, I'd cook it, break it into bits, and then stir it into a high-hydration dough. <S> (I have a recipe for a ham & cheese bread where it'd work well), and then put it into muffin tins to bake. <S> For the tomatoes, I'd switch to sun-dried tomatoes, as otherwise you'd have too much moisture. <S> Not only would it cause problems with baking, but also would dramatically shorten how long you could store them. <S> Other sources of inspiration would be stromboli, calzones, or baked empanadas. <A> There's a chinese dish call "bau" that fulfills your requirements, and cooks the bread component by steaming. <S> This is an example of this dish using a special type of barbeque pork. <S> This site has some useful information about making the bun component, and it definitely keeps the bun and the filler as distinct entities.
|
If you pre-cook your bacon or pepperoni before you mix the other ingredients you can add some of the rendered fat to the mix so that the flavor permeates the bread, just reduce the amount of butter or oil called for in your original recipe.
|
Can raw soured milk be used to make cheese I have 10 liters of raw cow milk and my fridge has stopped working for last 12 hours. Basically the milk has soured or spoiled, but I'm not sure. There are small culture particles in the milk and it smells a little sour. What can I use this for now? Can I still make cheese, say feta or ricotta? Would love some advice. <Q> Actually, you might. <S> Depending on the strain(s) of bacteria in your milk, you might be well on the first steps for making "Handkäs", a speciality from the Frankfurt area in Germany. <S> It uses no curdling agent like lemon juce (for fromage blanc) or rennet. <S> Try this recipe, (english version at the bottom) <S> : Handcheese with music <A> Is milk sour or did it spoil? <S> Its a big difference! <S> If it doesn't have foul (not rotten) <S> odor, yellowish and slimy appearance (trust your nose and your eyes!), it is soured milk and you can make cheese with it. <S> Harzer for example, is cheese made from sour milk. <S> Or you can make cottage cheese if you prefer. <S> Check this link. <A> If you're not sure if your milk has soured or spoiled, then you are playing with fire. <S> Either way, I'm sticking with the science on this one: doing anything without first pasteurizing what you have would be at the risk of acquiring a foodborne illness. <S> To make any other recommendation on this site I believe would be irresponsible. <S> The fact that that quantity of milk would turn in only 12 hours without refrigeration seems a bit suspect to begin with. <S> At the very least, you should think about it this way - would you be willing to drink the soured/spoiled milk you have as-is? <S> If not then why would you want to eat something made from milk you wouldn't want to drink? <S> I understand that 10 liters is a LOT of milk, but is it worth risking your well being?
|
While soured milk is perfectly edible, spoiled milk can be toxic!
|
What are these called in english? I'm looking for the names of "Rollfondant" and "Modellierfondant" in english. I'm new to the métier but as far as I can tell, Rollfondant is used to cover a whole cake, while Modellierfondant is used for modelling small figures to put on the cake. Thanks! <Q> Wikipedia differentiates between "rolled fondant" and "sculpting fondant": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fondant_icing <A> or it's what they call "gumpaste", which is typically used for making flowers and other more delicate items. <S> There's also "modeling chocolate" (chocolate based), and <S> of course Marzipan (which might be called "Almond Paste") for <A> The generic term for sugar-water pastes used to decorate food is icing or frosting . <S> Rollfondant sounds like ready-to-roll icing, but it could be royal icing , which contains egg white. <S> Modellierfondant sounds like modelling paste. <S> There are various recipes which use different additives to the core ingredients of sugar and water in order to obtain a suitable consistency and to dry without cracking.
|
" Rollfondant " is "Rolled Fondant" or simply "Fondant" I can't say for certain, but I suspect that " Modellierfondant " is also called "Fondant", but a different consistency (and we don't differentiate in English) ...
|
How can I prevent a thick layer of tikka marinade on my chicken? I make chicken tikka on and off and I normally marinade the meat for over 24 hours every time I do it. I notice that, after grilling the chicken it still has a cake-like coating. I have noticed this regardless of whether I use yogurt in my marinade or not. Is there anything I could do to get more of a drier, less cakey coating in the end product? <Q> If you see chicken tikka marinading in a restaurant, you'll note that is only lightly coated. <S> Failing 1. <S> , simply wipe off the excess marinade before cooking. <A> Grill on high heat. <S> The marinate, together with the fat, will form a delicious crust, something special indeed. <S> If heat is not high, it will not chat, but become soft and gooey. <A> I think it is due the marination you are using to cook the chicken pieces. <S> You should use a balanced and simple marination. <S> Use a little more oil in the marination,it will help to roast the coating properly. <S> Oil play an important part while cooking Tikka or kebabs. <S> It not only help to cook properly but also keep them moist. <S> If you like you can check the recipe of tandoori masala used in restaurants for chicken Tikka or kebabs. <S> Restaurant style Tandoori masala
|
Use a higher chicken-to-marinade ratio, so a small amount of chicken isn't sitting in masses of marinade.
|
Is oven an important factor in getting great baking results? I bake almost everyday, sometimes I am very happy with my baking results and sometimes I am not and when I don't like it, I think it's me as a beginner, I might have done something wrong or not quite right. After 15/16 months of baking at home, I feel like something is wrong with the oven I use. I use the upper level to get better results and I even bought a new baking tray. It actually made the result better but the result did not meet my expectations. I would pay for a better oven if it makes a very big difference. How important is oven in getting great baking results? <Q> For reliable baking you need to know what your oven is doing. <S> If the internal temperature fluctuates wildly, you're dead in the water: replace it. <S> If it's fairly stable, spend some time learning it. <S> Get a decent oven thermometer; set the oven's temperature control to, say, 350 degrees (F) and let it settle; check what the oven thermometer says. <S> Then work through various other temperatures, so that you know what you need to set the oven's temperature control to in order to get the internal temperature that you want. <S> For example, to cook something at 350 with my oven <S> I set the control to 325; to cook at 450 <S> I set it to 420. <A> In terms of typical baked goods, radiant heat is radiant heat. <S> Different ovens are not going to provide you with different heat. <S> However...a couple of things to consider: Most consumer ovens are fairly inaccurate in terms of actual temperature vs. temp. <S> on the dial. <S> Get an oven thermometer and keep it in your oven so that you know how "off" yours is, and you can compensate. <S> Secondly, convection vs. non convection can make a difference. <S> A convection fan moves air in the oven, providing you with, essentially, a higher temperature. <S> However, you will likely have to rotate your product for even browning. <S> The only place where I could see the actual mechanics of the oven making a difference is in bread baking. <S> Most artisan, professional bread bakers use ovens that allow the injection of steam. <S> Bottom line given your question: <A> The best advice here is the recommendation of an oven thermometer. <S> I suddenly had issues with a fairly new stove that had baked superbly. <S> Many disasters until I did two things: store my flour, sugar and other dry baking goods in the refrigerator (my area is exceptionally humid these days) and purchase a thermometer. <S> Turns out <S> my oven was 25 degrees hotter than it read on the dial. <S> And my dry goods were storing moisture so it weighed more in mixing <S> but when the moisture baked out it was flat and cooked unevenly. <S> Also, be sure your baking racks are placed in the center of the oven and your goods are on the denter of the rack. <A> 15/16 months and now you're questioning the oven. <S> A new oven with new features is ALWAYS a good thing, but you will still need to adapt to it, and it's not going to be perfect. <S> I've baked in a variety of commercial ovens and home ovens and each has its issues. <S> It's easy to say "of course" steam, or "of course" convection, or gas or electric or whatever. <S> In real world practice, we bakers just adapt and get on with it.
|
Start by checking your oven temperature.
|
How to make a beef or vegetable broth more dense? The broth tends to be very low in density, it's basically water with a flavour, and I would like to make it a little bit more smooth and dense like a good pasta sauce; nothing like gelatin or something that will generate blocks or blobs, just a more dense preparation that will still retain the properties of a liquid or smooth sauce . What can I use for this ? <Q> You're very likely going to need a thickener, especially if you don't make your own stock. <S> (On a side note - I highly recommend making your own stock at least once. <S> You end up with a vastly different stock/broth when you do, and in this case, it might achieve the consistency you're looking for, because a good animal based stock has gelatin in it already.) <S> Gelatin shouldn't generate "blocks or blobs" when incorporated correctly, but if you don't want to use gelatin, you can also add corn starch, arrowroot powder, potato starch, tapioca flour, or other starch to thicken the broth. <S> (Flour is an option, too, but I prefer other thickeners, since in my experience, it often takes more flour to thicken something, especially later in a cooking, and the dish takes on some of the flour's flavor and texture.) <S> Xanthan gum is pretty easy to come by, though you may also be able to find guar gum. <S> These usually only require fractions of a teaspoon, so shouldn't be enough to affect taste or most of the other properties of the broth except thickness. <S> For all of these, the usual way to incorporate them correctly, so they don't create blobs, is to thoroughly dissolve them in some water before adding them to the cooking pot. <S> You'll want to use a whisk or similar utensil, to ensure any blobs are broken up. <S> If you want something more akin to stew, as opposed to gravy, you should only need to cook down the liquid in the broth for a while, or just drain off some of the broth when serving. <S> The increases the ratio of vegetables and meat to liquid, which gives the dish as a whole a heartier and more filling feel, without actually making any of the components thicker. <S> This is essentially how tomato sauce vs paste works -- the sauce has a higher water content than the paste. <S> Because the tomato puree doesn't dissolve in the water, the result is a thicker or thinner solution. <S> You can puree the ingredients in the soup (vegetables, meat, etc) to get a tomato sauce/paste kind of consistency. <A> A higher meat/bone to water ratio will result in a more viscous stock. <S> Also, using the correct bones...those that contain the gelatin that will provide a better mouth feel. <S> Finally, a long cooking time is helpful. <S> It dramatically reduces the time it takes and allows for an improved final product. <A> After the broth is ready whisk in the roux or mash potato as the broth slowly simmers. <S> This is a very classical technique. <S> I make bone broth for my wife all the time.i <S> In make my stock then after I strain the stock <S> I fry a mirequoix of veg <S> then after I deglace with the white wine I reduce it right out back to oil then make a blonde roux over the vegetables. <S> Add stock to make a veloute. <S> Once you achieve the correct consistency add your whole garnish like kidney beans, pasta, green veg.
|
You can either work with some roux or you can make some dry mash potato. I highly recommend making stocks with a pressure cooker. Gums (the compounds often used to give non-dairy milks their creamier qualities) can also work.
|
When is MSG suitable and when is it not? Does adding msg to any recipe or dish always make it taste better? It doesn't seem to have much of a taste on its own. EDIT I'm not asking HOW it makes things taste better, I'm asking which dishes it would work well with, and which dishes it won't. Apologies for the misunderstanding. <Q> MSG does have a taste on its own - umami. <S> ElendilTheTall says in another question : As you are no doubt aware, there are 5 basic tastes - salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami. <S> Umami is the savoury flavour of mushrooms, cheese, cured meats, and so on. <S> MSG is essentially 'pure' umami. <S> In other words, MSG is to umami what salt is to salty and sugar is to sweet. <S> So if you add it to savoury dishes [...] it enhances their savouriness. <S> EDIT: <S> For example savory foods are meat, vegetables, mushrooms, cheeses (if not used for sweet dishes / desserts). <S> I think everything which has not a focus on its sweetness [*] or its ... uhm ... <S> neutral-ness <S> [**] can be considered as savory. <S> You might have a look this this question here on cooking. <S> SE: <S> What is the formal definition of savory? <S> [*] like fruits served as a dessert, mousse au chocolat, cookies etc. <S> However, I would consider tomatoes, caramelized onions, paprika etc., which might be sweet but not "sugary", as savory. <S> [**] pancakes, "common" bread (nothing fancy), rice, ... <A> My short answer would be no. <S> If you wish to unlock the secrets of MSG, I would recommend tasting it in the raw (go to any Asian mart). <S> To me it reminds me most of instant ramen noodle powder. <S> The proposition that grilled mushrooms, roasted meat and otherwise hearty flavors taste like MSG is a farce. <S> While MSG plays a role in why those foods taste so good, you cannot take a piece of celery and sprinkle it in MSG and expect it to taste like grilled meat. <A> There is one category of dishes where actual (powder/crystal) MSG is the more useful choice vs naturally glutamate-rich ingredients: These where you need to keep the water content to a minimum. <S> For example, if one wants to make a fried starch (rice,noodle,...) <S> dish from cooked ingredients that are already on the too-moist side, the last thing one wants to do is add even more water with dashi, soy sauce, fish sauce, tomato paste or other "natural" umami bearers - <S> getting rid of the excess water by reducing tends to have textural side effects that are not always welcome. <S> Nutritional yeast is also not always a good substitute for the same reason (it soaks up water but tends to act as a binder).
|
MSG improves the savoriness, therefore it can be used in savory dishes in general.
|
Oolong leaves not unfurling I just ordered some new loose leaf oolong , and I've noticed that the leaves don't unfurl all that much--even after two or three steeps. I've noticed with past oolongs that the leaves open up nice and big, but not really with this one. It still makes amazing tea, but I'm wondering if I'm missing out on some flavor. I typically use not-quite-boiling water and steep a couple teaspoons of tea for about 4 minutes. Are non-unfurling tea leaves an indication of...anything? Is there more flavor to be had with fully opened leaves? <Q> Not sure if this is the situation in your case, but here's a possible stab. <S> I hope it's informative (and correct!) <S> anyway. <S> :) <S> Depending on the look of the leaves (can't tell from your link), you might have just the tips and buds, rather than fully formed and unfurled leaves. <S> If this is the case, this can indicate higher quality (or at least more desirable, commercially speaking) tea, and perhaps the time of year of harvest. <S> If very young, these buds won't unfurl much (or at all). <S> When harvesting tea, one could pick the more mature (older) <S> leaves further up the branch (toward the trunk of the tree), or further down toward the end of the branch (toward the newest buds), which will be smaller and more delicate. <S> The latter (buds and smaller leaves) are "better" in various respects, and are generally more expensive in respects of harvesting, processing, etc., and correspondingly less common and more valuable. <S> Take a look at tea leaf grading guides; the Wikipedia article on tea grading for more on the concept. <S> There are many more guides if you search on that term. <S> Though usually applied to black teas, I hope it illustrates the point I'm trying to make. <S> Grades of "FOP" ("Flowery Orange Pekoe") and higher will have some quantity of the buds; more words means "better" in some regard <S> (Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery... <S> I have heard of SFTGFOP1, but I am certainly not refined enough to appreciate it). <S> Good white teas (e.g., the picture on this page is an example of leaves that are "hairy" because the buds are just opening) sometimes have lots of buds, which won't unfurl when steeping. <S> Again, you're talking oolong, but hopefully this illustrates the concept. <S> Other teas are mechanically rolled (e.g., gunpowder green tea ) so the look of the leaves before steeping could be similar between buds and processed teas. <S> Gunpowder tea (the stuff that that I get, anyway) is relatively lower quality, made from more mature leaves, which unfurl completely into large leaves after steeping. <S> As an aside: For good quality tea, I find using too-hot water yields less desirable tea. <S> YMMV. <S> I hope you've got a great tea! <A> Just make sure it is super hot when it goes in the pot an cover it to keep the heat in. <A> Given your description of the tea, it's probably a lightly oxidised, tightly rolled oolong. <S> Those oolongs should be steeped at as high temperature as possible with highly isolating teaware. <S> And instead of 4 minutes steeping time, you should go for much lower steeping times (around 20-30 seconds). <S> Since the leaves don't unfurl easily. <S> You can first do a 20 second quick rinse, by discarding the first steep. <S> The leaves should start to release nice flavour from the second steep. <S> Ideally you should use a small Yixing teapot or small gaiwan to brew the tea.
|
for chinese teas its important that your water is boiling hot as you pour it in otherwise the leaves wont unfurl.
|
How should I clean my metal mesh tea strainer? I have one of these teeli tea strainers , and it's wonderful. It's a very fine metal mesh basket with plastic frame. I've had it for perhaps 10+ years and it's still working well after brewing thousands of cups of tea. The Problem: However, it seems that the metal mesh is slowly becoming "clogged" or something. The tea still infuses fine, but it's more prone to spilling and dripping because water doesn't pass through as quickly. How should I clean this thing? What I've tried... I generally don't bother to clean it (just empty and reuse...) because it doesn't get "dirty" as such. Occasionally, I'll give it a rinse in the sink, or a scrub with regular dish detergent and sponge. Sometimes when bits seem to be stuck, I'll take a toothbrush or other dish brush to scour a little more thoroughly. I've also tried soaking in water. What "They" Say: The teeli web site doesn't seem to have any suggestions for cleaning; hardly surprising since it's not needed any significant maintenance in 10 years of service. Searching for this yields a lot of links. Many are about strainers with larger holes, or bigger mesh (closer to a regular kitchen strainer), or about removing stains. Others suggest what I've tried, and I'm not sure about the other suggestions I've seen: a couple posts say to soak in vinegar. I am afraid this might corrode the metal or make the plastic (and all further cups of tea!) taste like vinegar...? eHow even suggests to soak in bleach ?? Yikes. Before I start soaking my beloved tea strainer in various household chemicals, I wanted to see if anyone here had this problem and has a good solution? Long-term soaking? Boiling? Vinegar? Baking soda? Special brush? Alcohol? Compressed air? BLEACH?! Anything that you've tried that should I avoid? <Q> Good news: I finally got 'round to cleaning the strainer, and it's clean and works well again. <S> Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions. <S> I ran it through the dishwasher (twice), with no benefit; still clogged. <S> Next, I put dishwasher detergent (not dish soap) and the strainer into a small cup. <S> Then I added boiling water and let it sit overnight. <S> The residue came off easily with a toothbrush. <S> Bingo; clean and clear. <S> Works well now! <S> Thanks to all. <S> Pictures follow! <A> If you are washing it every day, you should only need to use a kitchen sponge after beating out the leaves lightly. <S> You should not need vinegar and should never use bleach, as bleach can cause many metals to rust. <S> if this strainer was sold with the teapot, treat it like gold - sometimes it can be hard to find a strainer that fits in your tea pot PERFECTLY and can be stored there, too. <A> If you push baking soda through a mesh screen it unclogs and cleans it really well too. <A> A denture cleaning tablet, used as instructed, followed by a little brush action does a pretty good job of cleaning up a tea filter cup! <S> I've also used it on my tea cups to clean the insides. <A> I use my strainer for chai. <S> So in addition to tea, there are spices I grind to add to the tea. <S> The strainer clogs pretty quickly. <S> I finally remembered the device used to clean fine crud from tight spaces. <S> I use a disposable electric toothbrush and sprinkle baking soda on the mesh (and water). <S> I do this regularly and my mesh is starting to regain its original color <S> and I have no clogs. <A> One of the only thing that seem to chemically dissolve tea deposit is acetone. <S> Soak overnight and brush gently. <S> Be careful, some plastics are attacked by acetone. <A> Please Use Extreme Caution Looking at the item <S> I would say use caustic soda lye . <S> Place the item in a stainless steel pot or container and add 3/4 of the capacity with water and 2 tablespoons of caustic <S> this should start to get hot. <S> DO NOT use any aluminium or alloy container as this will be dissolved by the the solution. <S> WEAR SAFETY PROTECTION <S> ideally such as shoulder-arm Neoprene gloves as well as safety goggle's: <S> and the item will be as good as new. <A> Use Viacal: immerse the strainer overnight, rinse thoroughly next day and wash with washing up liquid; rinse again. <S> The used Viacal can then be put back into its container, and used again. <S> In fact, Viacal is a more effective cleaner than other proprietary kitchen and bathroom cleaners – though care should be taken in terms of possible skin allergies or respiratory problems that may affect some people. <S> But again, it's often worth experimenting with cleaning products: for example, spray window cleaners are perfect for cleaning book covers! <S> Solvents can often remove stains that no other cleaners will, but as these are highly flammable, great care should be taken in their use. <A> Use oxi laundry powder. <S> You can buy this cheap in pound shops. <S> One scoop in a jug plus boiling water soak strainer for a few minutes This will remove all stains. <A> Lemon juice hot water soak overnight. <S> Rinse in morning. <S> Safe and very effective.
|
caustic soda lye is very harmful to human skin when at full strength, let it soak for half an hour then hold container with filter under running tap and dilute all the caustic solution away drain and rinse with vinegar to neutralize any caustic that is left over on the strainer then rinse with water again
|
About 'sharpening"; do you PUSH OR PULL the blade across the stone? Do you PUSH or PULL the blade across the stone?? <Q> Depends on the stone. <S> If it's a countertop wetstone , then you want to angle the blade slightly, while you pull and slide outwards. <S> You never want a purely straight pull. <S> If it's a handheld micro-sharpener , then (while holding the blade at the sharpener designated angle) out and up, minding your fingers and wrist. <S> If it's a sharpening steel , there's a quite intricate motion that I can't quite describe in words, so I would suggest you visit YouTube. <S> For more on knife sharpening and diagrams, see: http://www.buckknives.com/about-knives/knife-sharpening/ To clarify on "pull" and "outward": Pull means to pull the knife directly towards you, as if it were a rope in a tug-of-war game. <S> Outward means dragging left-to-right or right-to-left, as if drawing a line. <S> A pull-outward motion would be pulling the knife towards you while dragging it across the stone. <S> This should create a diagonal motion that is heavily accentuated towards having more pulling movement than outward movement. <S> As noted in the comments, I am an advocate of pulling the sharp edge of the blade with the blunt edge leading, rather than the blade leading. <S> To visualize, imagine a knife in your right hand on a stone. <S> The sharp edge is nearest your left hand, and you move it across the stone towards your right. <A> My sharpening research suggests that you want to use a motion that simulates a slicing motion like you were trying to slice off a thin peice of the stone. <S> Depending on which side of the blade you are sharpening, it could be a push or pull direction. <S> I generally try to do it left and right. <A> Nothing clear here it seems to me. <S> I have the same question. <S> For the most part. <S> And in the end you use both. <S> Doesn't matter because you are just removing metal. <S> it is done equally well with a pushing or a pulling motion. <S> Then when you get to near the finish you'll get a fine 'thread' of metal along the edge that needs to be detached. <S> Going the 'other' way to that which you've been using will generally detach it more easily or quicker. <S> I think. <S> Very subjective. <S> Just my impression. <S> Apart from the above I theorise that pulling back moves the metal over an abrasive slurry which cuts better than dry stone. <S> Pushing into the metal clears away the wet slurry to greater or lesser extent and would tend therefore to have the metal moving over dry or drier stone. <S> Hence I prefer to think that pulling back does a better job <S> but I can't come up with any proof of this.
|
Definition: 'push' means the edge moves such that it would cut into the stone if it were angled more. 'pull' means the edge moves such that it can never cut into the stone and the ground off residues are left behind on the stone. My experience is that it doesn't matter.
|
Where can I find food-grade beeswax to make Canelé? I am looking for food-grade beeswax to make Canelé. On Amazon, all I can seem to find is "cosmetic grade" which is not necessarily meant for food usage. <Q> @Adisak I was able to find one source , although there may be many more. <S> I also found food grade paraffin wax, but it seems that it has a much lower melting point. <S> After a little reading it seems that making canelés can be a quite tricky and meticulous process, so you probably want to stick with the beeswax. <S> They do sound delicious! <A> Try finding a small regional beekeeper, or a beekeeper selling over the Internet. <S> Especially one of those who produce high-quality organic honey. <S> He will probably have a range of other bee products. <S> Even if he doesn't list or display wax for sale, he might have some, just ask. <S> I've mostly seen this type of beekeeper present at farmer's markets and similar places, but they are probably not so hard to find on the Internet. <A> I agree with rumtscho that a beekeeper would be the best place to go. <S> They frequently have either small blocks or pellets that are sold by weight.
|
In the event that you don't know any beekeepers, try the bulk section at a health food store or coop.
|
How long can a pitcher of tap water be left out, and still be drinkable? My parents say that flies can lay eggs in the water (we do have flies occassionally buzzing around in our apartment). Is this true? If so, what is the longest time that a pitcher of tap water could be left sitting on a table untouched, and still be drinkable? <Q> If you have a clean glass pitcher, the length of time we're talking is months , as mentioned by Tom's answer . <S> I think you have a few questions that I can clear up: <S> The bubbles that form over time are dissolved gases . <S> From the faucet (or pitcher), the act of pouring will force some air into the water. <S> Over time, it will warm up and you'll see bubbles form along the glass. <S> This is absolutely harmless. <S> Flies laying eggs? <S> Well, I wouldn't leave a glass pitcher out and uncovered, but I highly doubt this. <S> Flies want to lay eggs in places where the hatching egg can live. <S> For example, trash, spoiled fruit, the gunk in your drain, etc. . <S> Chemical reactions with dissolved ions? <S> Since most water in the US is fluoridated, there will be some very slow etching of the glass by fluoride ions. <S> The amount of this will be very, very small, since it's a slow process. <S> I think you'll easily be safe over the timescale of days to a week or two. <S> So what happens to water left at room temperature over a few days? <S> Mainly the dissolved gasses come out. <S> I find this water to taste "flat" even if I cool it again. <S> But there's not much that will happen to the water. <S> More than a few days <S> and I'd suggest making sure the water is capped or closed to avoid dust or other things falling into the water. <S> Maybe find a closable glass container? <A> This excerpt speaks in part to your question. <S> your H2O can certainly become unsafe to drink, says Zane Satterfield, an engineer scientist with the National Environmental Services Center at West Virginia University. <S> “Most experts will tell you tap water has a shelf-life of six months,” Satterfield says. <S> “After that point, the chlorine dissipates to the point that bacteria and algae start to grow.” <S> That growth will speed up if you store your water in a warm or sunny spot—or in a glass container that hasn’t been thoroughly washed or sealed, he adds. <S> Consumable water by definition is chock full of compounds and molecules other than H20 which, obviously, have the power to sour water over time. <S> This is perhaps just as well, as water at its purest grade is actually toxic. <S> Known as clean water, and more particularly as ultra-pure water (UPW), it is manufactured for use industrially and, if drunk, draws minerals out of the human body like a magnet. <S> See The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman for more details on the subject. <S> Its relevance? <S> If used for cooking or preparing food it would also draw out its minerals (up to some limit). <S> By and large however a question of this sort comes in as little more than esoteric, perhaps even pointless. <S> Long before the water could develop anything in the way of health risks, (which itself is outside the scope of these discussions), the water would become simply unpalatable. <S> Even many hours unattended can lead to this, in which case one would simply replace it with a fresh round. <A> Flies can certainly lay eggs in water left to sit around. <S> But they are unlikely to be a concern, as the flies which are human parasites don't tend to be the water-egg-laying kind. <S> If there are larvae in there, you'll just digest them, no harm done. <S> The problem can come from two directions: amoebae and bacteria. <S> Amoebae can cause a kind of dysentery . <S> And among the bacteria, Legionella can survive in water, and causes illness, including pneumonia. <A> Please note that in many countries only cold tapped water is guaranteed to be drinkable. <S> The hot one is supposed to be at 75°C but may never reach this temperature or be kept at it way too long. <S> Either way, when it gets mixed with the cold one, the temperature of the mixture is often very suitable for germs. <S> So, in my experience, the cold water can be kept for couple weeks, especially if in glass container and in the fridge. <S> However, I try to avoid drinking water that was warm for more than a day. <S> I also find water in PET bottles to get a nasty by-taste after a week or so.
|
When it comes to storing water for long periods, the answer is “Yes,” I don't know how long tap water needs before it becomes dangerous, normally you shouldn't keep it out more than a few days.
|
Why is my stevia-sweetened fresh whipped cream bitter? I just used my iSi whipped cream maker for the first time. I cleaned it thoroughly. Then, I used a half pint of unpasteurized heavy cream (just bought yesterday with expiration 6 days away), and a few squirts of liquid Stevia. It came out super bitter. There doesn't seem to be a ton online about what the cause might be, and the answers I did find were confident but varied. I've read everything from using bad cream to not enough sweetener or flavoring. Any thoughts on what the cause might be?Thank you! <Q> I've been using stevia for years to control my carb intake and I had to learn by experimenting with it. <S> If you use too much, it will taste bitter. <S> Just add a little at a time, and taste as you go. <A> So for whatever chemical bonding is taking place, at least for whatever brand of stevia you used, one of two things (maybe both) is occuring as an unintended consequence. <S> Either it's separating out one or more bitter components which when differently bonded were not bitter, or it's forming some new compound which itself is inherently bitter even if the original components (individually) were not. <S> If I can read between the lines here and assume you're not just asking a rhetorical question, I would try one or another variants on stevia to see if the results improve. <A> In some uses, stevia seems to have a chemically after-taste. <S> Sometimes I like it in my coffee and at other times I can't stand it. <A> Because artificial sweeteners don't taste exactly the same as sugar. <S> There are however so many of them that I'm sure you can find one that tastes fine.
|
The cause of unexpected bitterness is more likely the additives than the stevia outright, as always one is purchasing something more than pure extract of stevia.
|
What is the inside texture of a Japanese croquette? I made croquettes the other day using http://www.japanesecooking101.com/potato-korokke-recipe/ recipebut it was really dry inside. I'm not sure where I made the mistake. Is it expected to be dry or if it is supposed to be moist, How do I make it moist? <Q> There are two common categories of Japanese korokke, one made with potato or another starchy vegetable (kabocha, a Japanese squash, is also common), and the other made with a roux, typically with corn and/or crab, called a cream korokke. <S> In a vegetable-based one, which may have additions like ground beef, sesame seeds, certain pickled vegetables, or other seasonings, the basic texture is the same as any other vegetable puree or mash. <S> The cream korokke should have a texture of a thick bechamel, but when hot, will be "almost" melted, and should come across as creamy. <S> For the vegetable ones, the texture is trickier to master than it may appear. <S> Mashed potatoes are deceptively simple; mash at too high a temperature, and you may end up with a gluelike texture that isn't pleasant. <S> Mash at too low a temperature, and you'll end up with hard, dry chunks instead. <S> There's a magic temperature range, which if I remember right is around 160F, at which mashing produces a very nice texture. <S> I may add salt and pepper while mashing, but usually not other ingredients. <S> I prefer to use a potato ricer for this now, though I have done ok with a fork in the past. <S> Once mashed, I'll integrate the other fillings. <S> If the texture of the potato mash seems too dry when you've prepared it, you may consider adding an egg yolk to the puree, which I've done on occasion. <S> Too much may make the dough hard to form into balls, so be conservative about it. <S> Although it doesn't appear to be the specific case you're concerned with, for the cream korokke, the ideal balance of the thickness of the bechamel is probably subject to some debate, but basically you want to balance the illusion of liquid creaminess with the ability to work the chilled bechamel into a shape that's sturdy enough to bread and not prone to exploding in the fryer. <S> For reference, there are also variations with boiled eggs in the middle, and there are some made from okara (soy mash leftover from tofu making) but that's another story. <A> If they are too dry, you probably overcooked them, which would just boil all the moisture away. <A> We just put loads of ketchup or tonkatsu sauce (Japanese sauce... <S> a bit like Worcestershire sauce) on them. <S> So the basic korokke isn't fantastically moist - it depends on the cook;) <S> My favourite, and <S> my recommendation is the cream croquette (kuriimu korokke), which has a creamy bechamel sauce and crab or corn filling inside the crunchy crust. <S> It's trickier to make as you have to chill the sauce, and some recipes call for double crumbing it. <A> The best Japanese croquettes are creamy on the inside.
|
Croquettes should essentially have the texture of mashed potato inside. My mother's were sometimes dry, sometimes what you'd expect mashed potatoes and mince to be like; it was often a way of using up leftover meat and veggies in our house.
|
Cookies are too sweet I made chocolate chip cookies and added too much brown sugar. The cookies are too sweet. I've used real butter and real chocolate chips. Does anyone have any ideas? <Q> You might be able to overcome the sweetness by adding a tart glaze to the cookies (lemon or lime), but I don't know how well that'll go with the chocolate chips. <S> Another option would be to crush them up to make a yogurt parfait (made with plain, unsweetned yogurt). <S> You might also consider some of the options mentioned in What can I use hard, crunchy, leftover cookie-mistakes for? <A> I'd try "deepening" the chocolate flavour, thus reducing the percieved total sweetness: <S> Make a simple ganache with 2 parts very dark chocolate and 1 part cream and use it to sandwich two cookies together. <S> If you really want to go from mistake to fabulous, you could add some additional flavoring to the ganache, either something alcohol-based (Cointreau, rum, whiskey) or add spices (chili is somewhat en vouge with dark choc, cinnammon or "gingerbread" for a seasonal twist, tonka bean, ...) <A>
|
Try "frosting" the cookies with plain (unsweetened) peanut butter -- it will offset the sweetness and be delicious!
|
Would it be a bad idea to electroplate a knife? I'm curious, I haven't seen any electroplated kitchen knives before so I'm not sure if they exist. And if not, why? <Q> Pictured below is the Ginsu Shoku Series Anodized Cutlery. <S> But this sort of thing is largely gimmicky, the kind of thing you see on knives at roving Gun & Knife Shows. <S> If there were legitimate and truly competitive reasons, not cosmetic ones, to employ anodization we can pretty well bet this is something all major cutlery concerns would have already adopted as among viable options. <S> There is however a new technology known as Low Temperature Plasma Nitriding which appears to have promise. <S> It's covered here and with good pictures here . <A> Knives that are used heavily will sooner or later need abrasive work done to more than just the edge - the edge bevel will become larger, ending in thicker and thicker steel, each time an edge-only sharpening is done. <S> So some grinding that takes material off far up the blade face is necessary either at each sharpening or as an occasional one-off repair. <S> This would leave part of the blade face still coated, another uncoated, and likely look like a hot mess. <S> Protection to stainless steel, as mentioned above, is usually not necessary. <S> Electroplating something corrosion-prone can turn problematic quickly, as any puncture to the plating will allow corrosion underneath the plating to grow and sooner or later flake off the plating layer. <S> Also, what do you want to plate on? <S> Gold is expensive in a layer thick enough to be sturdy, nickel a contact allergen to some, copper or silver tarnish and might even cause food safety problems, steels cannot just be plated on and keep their properties... <S> Also, you can't electroplate arbitrary metals on arbitrary metals, since there are diffusion effects etc. <S> Often, intermediate layers are needed, complicating things... <A> I make knives using high carbon steel that is prone to rusting, <S> so electroplating is a handy tool for adding some corrosion resistance to the steel. <S> And since I'm using cheap nickel anodes, i can do it at home. <S> The first time i tried it <S> I spent ten minutes setting up a 0$ experiment in a solo cup, and the results were surprisingly beautiful. <S> And if you reverse the poles you can just as easily etch. <S> Here's something to keep in mind though; If you are going to plate a kitchen knife, say with gold or silver, just purely for aesthetics, there is a good chance that those precious metals would be more prone to tarnish cutting acidic foods than a stainless steel. <S> So be prepared and keep them clean.
|
Most kitchen knives will be made of some grade of Stainless steel, so electroplating would be mostly redundant except for the aesthetic value.
|
How to prevent dry chicken in soup? I made chicken and vegetable soup the other day using standard ingredients (small cubes of chicken breasts, onions, carrots, celery, leeks, garlic, and stock). I sauteed the veggies in butter and olive oil for a few minutes, then added the chicken until it was no longer pink. I then added the chicken stock, brought it to a rolling boil, and turned it down to simmer for about an hour. The result was really tasty soup with really dry chicken pieces. It was even drier when reheated the next day. Is there a way to avoid this? I'm making another pot tonight using boneless skinless chicken thighs and want to make sure I don't make the same mistake (whatever that may be)! <Q> Don't cook the chicken pieces for so long. <S> Add them ten or twenty minutes before serving. <S> For that matter, I wouldn't simmer the aromatics for that long either. <S> Do the long simmer and cooking to make the chicken stock, then strain the now-tasteless and mushy expended bits from the flavorful stock. <S> Heat the stock and add the sweated veggies, diced chicken, and any pasta/rice/dumplings desired but only cook briefly before serving. <A> MgGee in his Keys To Good Cooking , recommends a couple of things that go straight to the problem you describe. <S> First, he recommends working with lower temperatures (his bolds, his italics). <S> Searing meat does not seal in its juices, and moist cooking methods do not make meats moist. <S> Juiciness depends almost entirely on how hot you cook the center of the meat. <S> If it gets much hotter than 150 <S> °F/65°C, it will be dry. <S> Secondly, he recommends brining as a means of ensuring lean poultry retains moisture. <S> Brining is the immersion of meat in a weak solution of salt and water, with or without other flavorings, for hours to days before cooking. <S> Injecting brine into the meat interior speeds the process. <S> The salt penetrates the meat, seasons it, and improves its ability to retain moisture and tenderness. <S> Brines of a certain strength, 5 to 10 percent salt by weight, also cause the meat proteins to absorb extra water from the brine, making the meat seem exceptionally juicy when cooked. <S> Very lean poultry and pork can benefit from this extra moisture, especially when they’re overcooked. <A> If you insist on putting your Chicken in there at the start of cooking you make be better off with boneless thighs as they contain slightly more fat and sinew (good for keeping meat moist). <S> Personally though I'd recommend buying a whole chicken. <S> Shop's around me charge around the same for a whole Chicken as they do for 2 breasts. <S> Buying a whole chicken means you'll have two (if not more) options to consider. <S> Make a roast dinner with it, then use the left over's for your soup over the next days. <S> Just pick the carcass clean of all <S> it's good meat, and use the bones and 'nastier' bits for your stock. <S> Then just stir the already cooked meat into your soup right at the end. <S> Use the carcass for your stock, thighs for the soup, wings for the freezer <S> (Kept till BBQ season marinaded in nice sticky BBQ sauce.. <S> I digress) and the breasts for a different meal or for your soup near the end if you want lots of meat. <A> I have always put my aromatics and a organic free range skin-on hen in an oven safe stock pot, covered with cold (!) water, heated it on medium until it is just ready to boil, then popped it in a 300degree oven for 4-5 hours. <S> I then strain all the veg and chicken (with the broth going into a new soup pot). <S> Once the strained chicken is cool, I take off the Cooked chicken meat, discard the aromatics, add The shredded chicken meat to the stock, season (e.g. more salt or pepper) and then refrigerate overnight. <S> In the morning, some (crazy) people strain the fat off the top <S> but you’ll be missing out on the best flavour, imho. <S> I dice up fresh carrot, celery, shallots and 2 packages of chicken breasts. <S> I bring the soup to a gentle boil and I add the new diced chicken and veg not long before serving so the chicken just cooks through and the veg are al dente. <S> Good luck!
|
Don't BOIL , only ever a slow gentle simmer - Not just Chicken all Meat.
|
Leaving the lid open in a soup I've heard from some that soups should be left with the lid slightly ajar when still left on the stove (heat off) because the soup can spoil when the lid is left completely closed, so you need to 'air' it out by leaving it slightly ajar. Is this a myth? If not, what is the purpose of this? I personally don't believe it and cannot find any reasons for that being the case, which is why I am asking everybody here, as there may be a culinary reason that I am not aware of. <Q> This is a myth. <S> Soup will NOT spoil faster if the lid is left on normally after cooking. <S> In fact, leaving the lid ajar may make it easier for contamination to enter the pot and lead to faster spoilage. <S> I assume there may be two reasons behind this myth: (1) <S> Before the days of modern refrigerators, many people would leave food to cool on the counter or stovetop before refrigerating it in an icebox. <S> Leaving the lid ajar would allow faster cooling through evaporation, thereby allowing the food to spend less time in the warm "danger zone" where bacteria grow most rapidly. <S> (Note that this is NOT a safe practice. <S> Small quantities of food should be refrigerated as soon as possible, and larger quantities may be cooled in an ice bath if necessary before refrigerating.) <S> (2) Lids of pots tend to cool faster than the rest of the pot, and they thus accumulate condensation which will drip back down into the food. <S> The liquid may be at a cooler temperature and may introduce contaminants. <S> In any case, even if both of these are somewhat true, they are likely trumped by contamination which may be introduced by exposing the food to air: <S> hence, it's a myth. <S> Also, do keep in mind that cooked soup <S> is NOT sterile -- many harmful bacteria have spore forms that can even survive boiling and will begin to grow in leftover soup once it gets below 130-140F. Again, the safest course to prevent spoilage for leftover soup is to refrigerate as soon as possible (or at least as soon as its temperature gets below 140F). <S> If quantities are especially large, use an icebath or cold water bath to get the temperature down faster. <A> If by leave lid ajar you are talking about after cooking and into the 'cooling stage' I pretty certain the advice to leave the lid ajar is to help with the cooling process. <S> The longer food is kept between 5 and 63 degrees bacteria is growing. <S> With the lid on heat struggles to escape as easily meaning it will stage in that 'danger' zone for longer. <S> You could leave the lid off completely <S> but then you are increasing the risk of debris falling in. <S> Obviously you can't stick it straight in the fridge as the temperature of the soup will raise the temperature of your fridge putting all food stuffs inside at risk of being in the danger zone. <S> -(See comment below) <A> Lid open, lid closed, lid ajar... <S> this all controls heat and evaporation. <S> Evaporation = concentration of flavors. <S> So it depends on what you are trying to accomplish. <S> One caution, if you season your soup (with salt for example), then cook with the lid off <S> , you will lose water to evaporation and concentrate the seasoning (or saltiness, if salted to taste before cooking). <S> So, for me, stock is what is cooked for a long time (unless using a pressure cooker) with the lid off (no seasoning). <S> Soup is a much shorter process, either simmered with the lid slightly ajar...or covered. <S> Once the heat is off, cooking is finished, either serve or cool and store.
|
Leaving the lid ajar at a slight angle will both decrease the amount of condensation which occurs and will cause more of it to run directly back into the soup, rather than cooling and remaining for a long time on the interior surface of the lid.
|
What is the white dust on red grapes? I bought some red grapes, and they have a thin layer of white dust on them. What is this? It has no flavor and seems to be harmless, but sources differ on what exactly it is, so if anyone has an authoritative source, I'd be interested to find out. <Q> As described here , (the wiki for Fermentation in winemaking), it contains trace amounts of natural yeast, though thought to be the result of ambient yeast rather than the result of growth process proper. <S> Here we find a more thorough answer, <S> It’s mostly harmless wax, says Kay Bogart, a winemaker who works in outreach for the University of California at Davis’s viticulture program. <S> The grape plant produces it to protect the berries from moisture loss. <S> It’s also often just plain old dust, adds Jim LaMar, a professor of wine sensory evaluation at California State University, Fresno. <S> Until recently, winemakers believed the white stuff was yeasts, responsible for wine fermentation. <S> Now they believe such yeasts are airborne. <S> In any case, that white stuff isn’t pesticide residue. <S> Which is not to say that there isn’t pesticide residue on the grape, so wash it anyway before you pop it into your mouth. <S> In the book <S> Caravaggio: <S> A Life Sacred and Profane by Andrew Graham-Dixon <S> , we find of Roman mythology the following statement regarding Bacchus, the ancient god of wine and intoxication, <S> The bloom on the grapes, which dusts them with a layer of whiteness and dulls the reflected light caught in their opalescent skins, is echoed by the dry and whitish lips of the god himself. <A> I lived in Cyprus for many years and the white dust on the grapes bought there was the residue from all the insecticides that are sprayed or puffed onto the grapes to prevent disease and insect attack. <S> The locals when asked would say its poison!!! <S> No one would eat any fruit without thoroughly washing it. <A> My plum tree had its first harvest this year. <S> They all have a powdery coating. <S> I have not sprayed them with anything <S> and i dont live anywhere that they could get covered in dust. <S> It wipes of easily if you do it before cleaning. <S> After i put some in a bowl of cold water it was hard to remove it, so best to wipe them before rinsing. <A> I have experienced two kinds of white coatings on grapes - one is called "bloom" and although it appears to wipe or wash off, it often reappears immediately. <S> This is a natural part of the grape. <S> The powdery substance that really wipes or washes off completely, must be pesticide or fungicide. <S> Wash thoroughly! <A> I buy red organic grapes and the white coating is on them, too, so it must be something natural, however, I've not seen it on regular grapes. <A> I've been told that the white powdery coating on purple grapes is naturally occurring acidophilus. <S> You can also see this same thing on other deeply colored fruits and vegetables, such as plums, blueberries, and purple cabbage. <S> It is actually on all produce and other living things - green grapes, green cabbage, cauliflower, etc, but you can't see it as well on light colored plants. <S> It exists on healthy human skin, too. <S> I think it is a good thing to have this because it is a beneficial bacteria.
|
This coating , which wipes right off and is indeed harmless, is called the "bloom" of the grape or sometime the "blush".
|
Why did my soy (Silk) milk suddenly become as viscous as rubber cement? I used about half of a quart of Silk Milk and returned it to my refrigerator. Two days later the remaining liquid had been replaced with a colloidal mass with a gooey consistency not unlike rubber cement. Why? I see no signs that anything froze in the refrigerator which was in continual use. <Q> That seems to be what happened. <S> While spoilage in cow's milk is usually souring, and the smell is unmistakable at fifty paces, soy milk spoils by turning gooey. <S> I'm not sure about the details, but it's something in how the proteins react to oxygen. <S> In soy milk, if I'm not mistaken, they turn into longer, stickier chains. <S> As for why it spoiled, it was probably just open for too long. <S> Even in the fridge, soy milk has a life of about 4-6 days once opened. <A> Spoken to generally here , (the wiki on Tofu), and stated more specifically here <S> Tofu is manufactured by coagulating proteins in soymilk with magnesium sulfate. <S> As bonding occurs between the positively charged magnesium ions and negatively charged anionic groups of the protein molecules, the proteins coagulate. <S> Since magnesium sulfate, also known as Epsom salt , is a common household item, anyone with a cursory knowledge on the matter can turn soy milk into the base for tofu with little effort. <S> Perhaps a prankish roommate? <A> Do you have soy yogurt in the same fridge? <S> Soymilk based yogurt with live cultures, if somehow able to cross contaminate your milk, could cause fermentation to occur. <S> I've never used soy milk, but I know the same process for making regular yogurt is the same as the process for making soy yogurt, just with a different set of cultures. <S> Short answer - it sounds like some buggies may have gotten into it. <S> Give it a taste and see if it's pleasant or not.
|
Soy milk can spoil, just like ordinary cow's milk. The seal may have been damaged somehow even before you actually opened it, allowing air into the carton to cause the spoilage.
|
Sautéing vegetables in heated oil When sautéing vegetables in oil - for example carrots, should I wait for the oil to heat up and then add the vegetables or should I put the vegetables in cool oil and then heat everything up? What differences will these two approaches yield? <Q> In addition to the fact that some oils get quite a bit hotter than other, (so that hot with one oil isn't the same as hot with another), there is an in-between here that some cooks rank as a default option whenever inexperience prevails, namely warm oil. <S> Regardless of which oil one is using, this can be achieved by applying an initial lower temperature to the sauté pan and then cranking up the heat once the vegetable(s) are in the pan and can be visually assessed for how they're performing. <S> Hot oil with vegetables high in water content risks splattering or worse (fire) <S> when suddenly introduced. <S> It is also easy to burn more delicate ingredients such as garlic (burn, in this case, meaning no more than browning). <S> Meanwhile, ingredients porous in nature (such as mushrooms) added to cool oil are certain to absorb (and retain) <S> more of it than you would perhaps hope for. <S> Stated here , (The Reluctant Gourmet), <S> There really is no ideal temperature. <S> It really depends on what you are sautéing and what you plan to do with the ingredients when you are done. <S> Since it's not therefore difficult to see that a rule of thumb toward how hot cannot be established, (though no saucier recommends cool, nor the wiki on Sautéing ), decisions must be based on knowledge which is specific to the ingredient(s). <S> If uncertain, go with in-between. <A> Cooking with oil is a step by step process since you have to take care of few things so that the balance in food is retained. <S> Being an Indian, where we use different kinds of oil in our daily foods, let me tell you few things which you need to remember while handling oils: <S> Firstly, put the pan on fire and let it dry completely in case it was just washed so that the water droplets go off completely otherwise the oil will spill out and create a mess. <S> In general, heating the pan first is always a good thing to do for various reasons. <S> Then pour in the oil and let it get warm. <S> This enables the oil to become 'thin' and the oil becomes easy to digest. <S> Also warm oil is good for the vegetables going in it because they get the correct temperature and helps them cook faster. <S> Now all you need to do is add your vegetables preferably with a little bit of tempering which enhances the taste and flavor. <S> You could then stir fry, saute or do whatever you want to do with the oil!! <S> All the best!! <A> You might check out this thread which spends some time addressing the oil-then-heat vs. heat-then-oil dilemma: <S> Do you heat the pan first, then add oil? <S> Or put the oil in and heat up with the pan? <S> Heating the vegetables along with the oil can give you oily vegetables (the sear will prevent that). <S> For what it's worth, <S> the word sauté comes from the French verb "sauter" which means "to jump" <S> - it describes the way vegetables jump when introduced to the hot oil of the pan.
|
Also, for the sautéing of vegetables, the oil should be hot before you add the vegetables to sear them and to induce the Maillard browning reaction.
|
how can I get guar gum to smoothly blend in juice? I watched a demo clip of a guy who simply tossed a tbsp of guar gum powder into a cup of cold water and 5 minutes later, it looked and acted like a glass of slightly opaque jello. Yet, when I've tried to replicate this with white grape juice, both hot and cold, it keeps turning out lumpy and 'snotty', with tapioca-like beads of undissolved gum suspended in it. Any ideas on how to avoid this? I'd rather use juice since we're touting "100% fruit popsicles", so I'm hoping somebody's got a better plan than 'buy a mixing bat'. Maybe, slaking it gradually, like mixing plaster? Grazie ... <Q> The lumps of gum in products are known as "fish-eyes". <S> Unless you get pre-hydrated gum, the best way to avoid them is to mix it in a blender (and a pretty powerful one at that). <S> Another option that may not be practical in your case is to disperse the powdered gum in another powder, like sugar, and then mix the blend in. <S> Here are a couple of sets of instructions on mixing gums. <A> Basically your issue will be clumping. <S> Guar gum powder and most other fine powders are so fine (micro fine ) <S> they insist on clumping together. <S> The way round this is either, as previously mentioned, blend it which will likely cause a massive amount of air bubbles OR the preferred method (for chef's ) is by using equal amounts of maltodextrin, which is basically processed starch somewhere between it's original state and glucose. <S> As a result it has a purposely 'nothing' taste, neither sweet or savoury. <S> This combined with any micro fine powder prevents clumping (just check the pack of your preferred gravy thickener). <S> As a trained pastry chef this is a product I've used for years. <S> Source: <S> the kind lady at MSK held a introduction course to their products. <S> OR <S> Just Mix the powder with a bit of icing sugar and hope for the best. <S> There's no real reason this shouldn't work <S> but I've never tried it. <S> It also will sweeten your sauce/juice a bit. <S> Edit <S> Sorry <S> I missed the part about 100% fruit juice. <S> I'm sure there is work arounds <S> I.e use a fruit derived sugar? <S> Edit2 <S> Can you say 100% fruit juice and still be adding guar gum? <A> I agree with Sourd'oh, your best option is to use a blender. <S> A mixer will do too. <S> A high RPM number is good, but not essential. <S> What works well is to blow the powder gently onto the surface of the juice. <S> I do this with a handheld mixer: I hold a teaspoon with the colloid builder (guar gum or other clumpy substance) above the surface, and either tip the spoon very slightly or let the mixer exhaust catch just a few grains of it. <S> It lands on the surface in a single layer, not in a clump. <S> The mixer beaters take it and swirl it, and it gets well dispersed. <S> Repeat until there is no powder left. <S> I'm afraid this might be quite time consuming if you are talking about industrial quantities, but your other option is dilution as described by Doug, and this breaks your "100% juice" requirement. <S> Maybe you can legally get away by diluting by using some powder derived from the fruit, but anything which consumers will not consider "cheating" will change the texture for the worse.
|
Sometimes pre-hydrated gum will mix in more smoothly and with fewer lumps, but you'd still need to blend it.
|
How large does an oven need to be to fit a 18 lbs turkey? Can anyone tell me the interior oven dimensions needed to comfortably fit an 18 lbs turkey? I've searched around on the internet, but seeing as Thanksgiving is an American holiday, where most people have large, built-in ovens, I haven't had much luck pinning down an answer. I don't know much of anything about cooking or turkeys or ovens, and I am living in China where ovens are rare and the sand-alone ones you can purchase tend to be small (more of a large toaster oven than what we're used to in the states). <Q> The oven in a standard 20" kitchen stove will accommodate a bird even as large as 20 lbs (9 kg). <S> The very detailed chart here <S> , the pertinent details of which are replicated in the chart below, establish the standard dimensions of such an oven as 18 X 16 X 14.5 inches (46 x 41 x 37 cm). <S> In their downloadable Thanksgiving pdf, for a turkey as large as 20 lbs (9 kg) <S> Williams-Sonoma recommends a 16 X 13 X 3 inch (40 x 33 x 7.5 cm) roasting pan. <S> A pan of this sort is available with a rack which rises just above the bottom of the pan, as here and pictured below. <S> This kind of pan keeps height requirements down to roughly the height of the bird plus 3" (7.5 cm) above the bird, plus the standard 2.5" (6.5 cm) below the bottom rack. <S> With 14.5" (37 cm) worth of oven height to work with and about a half inch space between the bird and the pan, that still leaves room for a bird 8" (20 cm) tall. <S> (We won't expect the bird to be half as tall as the pan is long.) <S> Meanwhile, an 18" (46 cm) oven depth accommodates a 16" (41 cm) long pan, and a 16" (41 cm) <S> oven width a 13" (33 cm) pan width. <S> Also, as seen here and below, the pan's handles fold down. <S> Now, none of this is to say that there's anything the slightest bit convenient about roasting so large a bird in so small a space. <S> But it can be done. <S> It should just be done with every whit of safety in mind. <A> MetroKitchens suggests that for a 17-20 lb bird, you need a roasting pan that is 16 x 13 x 3 inches (about 41 x 33 x 8cm). <S> The oven will need to be taller than the pan, because a turkey sticks out above a roasting pan, but you can reduce that considerably by spatchcocking the bird. <S> I'm bad at estimating visually, but I think it'd be around 6-10 inches (15-25cm) <S> tall when spatchcocked. <S> You also will want some headroom to avoid having the heating element too close to the bird if you have a heating element on top, or else to avoid having the bird brush up against the oven if your heating element is located elsewhere. <S> So this large-capacity toaster oven might barely work, as it is 10.35 H x 18.19 <S> W x 15.39 D, <S> but I wouldn't go much smaller. <A> General Electric ( http://products.geappliances.com/appliance/gea-support-search-content?contentId=18680 ) says: <S> • <S> A 30" Freestanding Range will hold a turkey about 24-26 lbs. <S> • <S> Note: The turkeys we test are normally in the 20-25lb range, and in those cases we use the lower oven of the double oven. <S> We do not have any information on turkey sizes for the upper oven, nor do we recommend cooking whole turkeys/chickens/hams in the upper oven. <S> • <S> A 30" wall oven (convection or conventional) will hold up to a 35 lb. <S> turkey. <S> Note: For 30" Single/Double Wall Ovens, it is recommended to go by turkey size rather than weight. <S> Check oven interior dimensions by model. <S> • <S> 27 <S> " and 24" built-in ovens will hold a turkey approximately 22-23 lbs. <S> A larger bird may be accommodated depending on the shape of the bird.
|
A 30" Freestanding Double Oven Range (lower oven) will hold a turkey about 20 lbs.
|
Does frozen broccoli need to be cooked to be eaten safely? I bought a different brand of frozen broccoli and the package says, "For food safety, cook to an internal temperature of 165 degrees". The previous brand didn't have any such warning. My questions: How big a risk am I taking by just blending frozen broccoli into my smoothies without cooking at all? How likely is it that I get sick and what might be the symptoms? Besides having been reviewed by different lawyers, might there be a good reason why one package has a warning and the other doesn't? A Google search gave me a theory about why there might be a difference between the two brands. A recent study indicated that blanching to 187F destroys a particular anti-cancer enzyme in broccoli and recommended that frozen broccoli manufacturers change their ways and blanch to only 169F before freezing. Since blanching is typically a pretty quick process, maybe 169F for a short period of time is not enough to kill some relevant strain of bacteria, but 165F for a longer period of time is enough. Maybe the brand without the warning is blanching to 187F and the brand with the warning is only blanching to 169F. Does that seem possible? <Q> I cannot comment directly on the broccoli, but I want to point out that this part How big a risk am I taking by just blending frozen broccoli into my smoothies without cooking at all? <S> How likely is it that I get sick and what might be the symptoms? <S> is impossible to answer. <S> This is not how food safety works. <S> Creating a prediction for such a risk is as complicated as creating a weather prediction. <S> Only the people who'd have the resources to do such a prediction for any given piece of food (for example the FDA) don't have enough data to make the prediction. <S> They'd need to know the history of the pack of broccoli to calculate the risk. <S> Instead of calculating the risk for every type of food under every condition, they calculate a range of conditions which can be considered "safe" and promise you that nothing will happen when you eat the food. <S> All other ranges are called "unsafe", but a better word would be "undefined". <S> The risk for them could be anywhere from 0% to 100%, and nobody can give you a better answer. <S> Of course, there are still rare cases where safe food, including produce, does cause problems <S> - we are talking low risk here, not zero risk - and there could be a lawyer who decided to wash their hands of the matter. <S> Or they could indeed know that their food has a higher risk factor than typical broccoli, maybe they use maize-fed cow dung for fertilizer on the broccoli (which is a source of E. coli), and decided to write it there. <S> Whichever it is, nobody can tell you but the producer. <S> If you decide to eat it, you are on your own in that pesky "unsafe" zone where the risk can have any value. <S> As long as we don't know which microorganism they suspect in their broccoli, we cannot say what amount of longer cooking at somewhat lower temperature is an adequate substitution for reaching the temperature they recommend. <S> So that part is also unanswerable. <A> I think almost everything that has been cooked previously carries the warning of reheat to 73-76c or 167f. <S> Not just broccoli, it is just the accepted reheat temperature. <S> However if your not heating it at all and it'll stay below 7c you should be perfectly safe :-) <S> Who probes vegetables anyway? <A> Cooked food becomes potentially hazardous when it cools and also when it is re-heated from cold. <S> Why one brand would have a food safety warning and another would not, I cannot say. <S> Sometimes manufacturers treat food in other ways (like irradiation) to control possible contamination issues. <S> The temperature at which the broccoli would have been factory-blanched would not change any hazards tied to contamination during critical temperature transitioning. <S> And while nobody is probing individual florets of broccoli for temperature monitoring, the threshold of 165° F is the temperature established as the critical threshold for reheating previously cooked food from a food safety standpoint. <S> Though the risk from using frozen broccoli in smoothies is probably much lower than using (say) frozen chicken or meatballs, there still is the potential for contamination. <S> With the warning on the bag, the manufacturer provides a warning to alert the consumer and protects themselves from liability. <S> See also this thread from earlier this month: <S> Why do frozen foods that are fully cooked still need to be heated to the same temperature raw items require?
|
There is no general food safety guideline that produce has to be cooked through, and normally, eating raw broccoli would be considered safe.
|
What wines pair well with spicy, citrus chicken? I will be preparing a stir-fry entree, served with rice, consisting of: Chicken, seared after applying the spice rub, then sauteed with citrus (lemon and lime). Red and yellow bell peppers, carrots, and (possibly) baby corn A sweet, thin chili sauce, applied sparingly; the stir fry will not be swimming in it Spices (dry), used as a rub for the chicken and (lightly) applied to the vegetables during frying: salt, garlic (only a little), ginger, several different kinds of pepper (mostly hot) This will be a substantially hot dish, enough so that the average restaurant patron would complain and send it back. The citrus also comes through quite strongly in the chicken. The dish works quite well, with the main tastes being hot and acid, accompanied by an undercurrent of sweetness. I'm entertaining and a wine is required, but, as I don't often drink it with this style of cuisine or flavor profile, I don't know what would make a good accompaniment. I'm leaning towards something mildly sweet, dry and crisp, but I'm unsure how it would get along with the citrus. <Q> In my experience, dry wines risk being completely killed by hot food. <S> Germany is the role model here, especially the wines around Spätlese and Auslese levels, with Alsace a close second. <S> (They're also great QPR, but that's a secondary concern.) <S> The sweetness will ease the heat of the food and lets you actually taste the wine, and good semi-sweet wines (especially Rieslings) will have very good acidity so the citrus won't be a problem. <A> The white wines I would pair with this sort of dish would have sweetness and acidity, plus a bit of a mineral edge, so Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Viognier, or maybe an un-oaked Chardonnay. <S> There are some red wines that would work as well <S> but you'd want light without too many tannins, for instance a beaujolais, pinot noir, cincaut, or lambrusco. <S> Some primitivos (Zinfandels) may work, they can vary widely in character though. <S> Rose could also work, it all depends on where you are any what's available. <S> In some places roses are cheap get me drunk plonk so be careful. <S> You could also go for something bubbly like a cava or a prosecco, they are usually inexpensive compared to champagne and just as good. <A> I'd opt crisp rose personally to accent the fruity citrus flavors of your sauce without being completely over powered which. <S> I feel a white would be killed by all the spice yet a red would be too dry to compliment such a dish. <S> A Zinfandel is probably the best bet. <S> Quite a summery, but your dish sounds that way inclined anyway :) <S> Something like this: http://barefootwine.co.uk/our-wines/white-zinfandel <S> Though personally I'd just go for a larger by choice :-)
|
The classical pairing would be an aromatic white, like Gewürztraminer or Riesling, with substantial sweetness.
|
Best thickness for shaped pizza dough for good sliding from the peel/tray into the oven I made pizza yesterday and encountered an issue. My dough was not very sticky, it was sliding well when adding flour to the surface. However, after I added toppings (tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil, olive oil) it seems like the weight made the dough stick a little bit or at least it did not slide well. I had issues to slide it into the oven and had to end up putting the first tray where I put together the pizza into the oven, losing the heat of my pizza stone. I assume this issue is caused by the thickness of my shaped dough, which was maybe too thin and did not have enough "body" to slide out properly from the tray (peel). What is the ideal thickness for a Neapolitan pizza when you shape it? I mean the inner areas of the pizza, not the external crust. <Q> Sliding well has nothing to do with weight or thickness, although too thin makes the dough prone to tearing. <S> A generous spread of ground semolina under the pizza dough after shaping will keep it from sticking to your counter while you top it, and in your oven when you bake it. <S> The grainy semolina will act as a barrier, keeping the bottom of your dough off flat surfaces, think of it as natural ball bearings. <S> You can use corn meal as well <S> but I don't like the taste or texture as much. <S> As for the ideal thickness of an authentic Neapolitan pizza I've never measured it, but let's just say you can't get the dough any thinner in the center without it tearing. <S> I make mine thin in the middle and just a bit thicker on the outside. <A> I agree with GdD that sliding well can be accomplished with even a very thin crust loaded with toppings, as long as you have something it can slide on. <S> Semolina does seem ideally suited to this. <S> Stretching very thin <S> can , however, make the dough more likely to stick just because as you stretch, you often expose more of the interior moisture of the dough to the bottom surface, meaning it's more likely to get sticky. <S> (This is particularly true of high hydration dough, but it's a factor even in drier doughs.) <S> To counteract the problems of sticky dough, I'd advocate shaking the peel periodically while adding toppings . <S> If you keep the dough moving, you'll need a smaller amount of semolina/cornmeal/flour since any place where this barrier of dry stuff is thin will get moved around by the shaking. <S> When I deal with wet doughs, I'll shake the peel at least once after every topping addition and often more frequently. <S> (The only downside to this is that your dough will "spring back" a bit when you shake, so you'll need to stretch a bit more than you expect at first.) <S> If you see an area of the dough that isn't moving, it also allows you to correct it early, before it "gets more stuck" and probably while you have fewer toppings and weight, making it easier to get under the dough and free it. <S> In any case, regarding Neapolitan style pizza, the center of the dough is often stretched so thin that it is quite translucent. <S> As long as you have adequate semolina/cornmeal/flour to "lubricate" the peel, there's no reason to stop stretching unless you prefer a thicker crust or are afraid of tearing. <A> Your question regarding pizza thickness, as you are making Neapolitan pizza the answer is: <S> When stretched, the center of the dough must be no more than .4 centimeters (±10%) in thickness. <S> From: The Serious Eats Guide <S> To Pizza <S> In Naples <S> But this has nothing to do with sliding it into the oven or baking steel. <S> While you add the toppings on your pizza dough, it absorbs the flour you added on the surface. <S> here are some tips: Use semolina as it won't be absorbed so easily <S> Add the toppings as faster as you can Shake the peel when adding the toppings <S> , check this answer for handling sticky dough
|
Also, when sliding off a very thin dough with lots of toppings, you risk tearing and/or bunching up the dough if you don't unload at an even pace.
|
What material/metal is typically used under the layer of coating in 'ceramic' frying pans? I am looking at different ceramic frying pans, e.g. this lagostina one, but from reading the product description it is really hard to figure out what metal is the main body of the pan made of. For health reasons, I'm hoping to find one that uses steel rather than aluminum, but the manufacturers seem reluctant to explain it. Is there a general recommendation for how to find a ceramic pan that uses safe metals? <Q> There is no material which is "typically" used. <S> The ceramic coating works on different bases, and I have seen both aluminum pans and steel pans with it. <S> There are probably other types too. <S> If the manufacturer won't tell you what a given pan is made of, there is no way for anybody else to tell. <A> Enameled cast iron comes to mind. <S> Why, though, are you worried about the metal under the 'ceramic'? <S> The enameled cooking surface should be nonporous, so the underlying metal won't ever contact the food unless the surface is damaged, in which case you would probably want to discard the cookware regardless or the underlying metal. <S> I'd be more worried about the material used in the enamel than the metal underneath when considering the safety/health risks of enameled cookware. <A> Use a magnet to check if it is iron or steel.
|
If the manufacturer uses the metal in the description or marketing material, that's the best way to tell.
|
Why is my pecan pie always runny? My pecan pie used to be firm years ago. Now going by the same recipe it's always runny. This time I added an extra egg, stirred it less and with a wood spoon so as not to get air and foam in the mix. The full recipe: stir 4 beaten eggs into 1 cup karo, add 2T flour, 1/2c white sugar, 1/2c dark brown sugar, stir, add a pinch of salt, 1t vanilla, 1 1/2c pecans, 2T butter, mix gently. Pour in a 9" unbaked pie shell and baked at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. The only think I have changed from the way I used to make it getting a firm filling is using dark brown sugar instead of all white sugar. I have never cooked the filling before pouring into the pie shell. I have tried adding more flour and it didn't help. How do I fix this? <Q> I'm looking at the recipe from Karo . <S> That recipe gives a final temperature too, 200F (93C). <S> Could it be that your pie is undercooked? <A> Has your altitude or oven changed? <S> I agree with Jolenealaska that you probably need a longer bake time. <S> I always needed 55-60 minutes for my pecan pies to set <S> and I cook them several times a year. <S> (As noted by Wayfaring Stranger, sometimes you need to cover the crust edges with foil to avoid getting them too dark). <S> I don't think the type of sugar will have much effect - I've used all white sugar, all brown sugar (dark, light, medium), a mix of white and brown sugar, as well as light corn syrup, dark corn syrup, Roger's cane syrup, generic brand, karo syrup brand, etc. <S> It's possible that some generic brands have a higher water content; in that case, it would take a little longer to cook before it will set up. <S> In the end, the secret that I was taught to ensure <S> the filling sets up is to insert a butter knife into the filling. <S> If the knife comes out covered with a lumpy or a colored gel, the filling isn't ready. <S> As soon as the knife comes out "clear" (i.e., with a very thin layer of clear gel on it) the filling will thicken once it cools. <S> For reference, my recipe is almost identical to yours; I use only 3 eggs and no flour in the filling. <S> I mix the filling quite thoroughly <S> (I don't think I've every gotten it foamy, but I do try to get the melted butter evenly mixed into the egg/sugar mixture before pouring it over the pecans). <A> I'm having the same problem, all my pies came out perfect up until last week. <S> I think the problem for me is I used generic corn syrup instead of the karo brand. <S> I used the generic corn syrup with the Karo recipe because I thought the off brand was such a good value. <S> I guess every brand has different measurements, and concoctions? <S> I'm going to retry making the pie using the brand name corn syrup instead of the generic and see what kind of results I end up with!
|
The only thing that stands out as potentially being your problem is that the Karo recipe calls for a longer bake time.
|
How do I heat up rice and pasta at work? I want to heat up rice or pasta at work so I can have a hot meal with rice and chicken or pasta and chicken. There is a microwave there - can I use that? <Q> To reheat left over rice, microwave is the best!Put <S> a clean damp (wet but not runny) cloth or paper towel on top of your rice in a microwave safe dish and heat it for 2 minutes. <S> Don't put a lid on top of the dish. <S> Left over pasta is always gross, no matter how you reheat it. <S> So stick with microwave. <S> If you pasta is not super saucy, same method (with a damp paper towel) would apply to pasta, otherwise, just heat with a lid on. <A> That's what a microwave is for! <S> Then just heat it up at lunchtime. <S> Like this: Safe to wash rice the night before and leave overnight before cooking? <S> . <S> You can do the same thing with your chicken, just cook it in advance. <S> If you have a fridge at work, great. <S> If not, by bringing the cooked chicken to work frozen, your food safety risk would be almost nil. <S> You could be even safer by packing it with ice packs. <S> The whole thing would take maybe 1.5 minutes in the microwave. <S> EDIT: <S> So all you're doing at work is reheating, you've cooked everything in advance at home. <S> For pasta, it's best to mix the pasta with sauce before chilling. <S> It can be frozen in individual servings as well, but that isn't as ideal as it is with rice. <A> There are a few things that you can do to improve how well pasta reheats, but it requires a little more work up-front. <S> First off, the sauce (containing moisture or fat) will change how well the pasta reheats. <S> One solution to this is to keep the two seperate. <S> Pull the pasta when it's still al dente or a little bit before, rinse it to stop the cooking, mix in a little bit of oil to keep it from clumping together too much, then portion it out before chilling it. <S> When you want to eat it, heat the sauce to hotter than you'd want for eating it, then mix the sauce and the pasta together, cover, and allow the temperature to equalize for a minute or two. <S> As for the chicken, it likely depends on how large of pieces it's cut into. <S> I'd likely warm it through on low power, then heat the sauce and mix them all together. <S> Of course, this isn't 100% universal: <S> This won't work with a cream sauce. <S> You'll want to only barely heat the sauce through . <S> For the times when there isn't much sauce to give the necessary thermal mass, such as with pesto, you're better off mixing it together before portioning it out, then microwaving it as a lower power to warm through. <S> You'll want to mix it once or twice during heating for best results. <S> If you increase the flavor (some extra crushed garlic, herbs and possibly hot paprika or crushed red pepper), you don't need to heat up the pasta as much. <S> You'll want to warm it through <S> so it's pliable again if it's strands (spaghetti, linguini, fettucini, etc), but you don't need to get it much above room temperature. <S> Also, if you're specifically looking for something warm and comforting that contains pasta and chicken ... consider soup. <S> Simply treat it like my recommendations, but you have enough thermal mass from the broth that you don't need to take it significantly above eating temperature.
|
The easiest way to do your rice is to cook big batches of it at a time at home and then freeze it in Ziplocs in individual servings.
|
Why is my bread so dense and moist? I have been trying to make bread using a bread mix and my mixer. I read that the amount of water you should add can vary on the humidity at the time. The mix instructions say that I should add 300ml of water to the mix but I find that by the time I have added 250ml it is already quite wet, so I never add the full 300ml. There are no instructions on how long to knead the bread if using a mixer but a recipe for bread in my mixer book suggests around 5 minutes. I have done this but I think that maybe it needs longer. My question is: Could my bread be too dense and moist due to: Too much water?Not enough kneading?Not leaving it to prove for long enough? What is a "warm place"? How warm is warm, without killing off the yeast? As you can see, I'm quite a beginner with baking! <Q> I was watching a Lorraine Pascale (British baker / chef) episode on TV before. <S> She had a saying which was "when it comes to dough, the wetter the better". <S> Don't get tempted to add more flour if your dough feels wet. <S> She also used a mixer with a dough hook AND allowed the machine to knead it for 5 minutes. <S> After kneading, gently shape the dough into a rough ball shape and with a floured finger press into the dough. <S> If it's ready, the depression in the dough should spring back so you can't see where you pressed in. <A> I make bread a couple of times a week and usually have light fluffy results. <S> On occasion though, I end up with dense and fairly wet loaf. <S> This usually happens if I have been lax and not made it in a while and haven't bought new flour/yeast. <S> It's important to keep (dried active/instant) yeast in particular in a sealed container and observe best before dates, else it will not work as well as it should. <S> It's difficult to describe the consistency of a well kneaded dough - there's really no substitute for finding someone to walk you through it <S> so you can literally get a feel for the texture of dough that is ready. <S> If you have any friends or family that bake their own bread to results that you are aiming for, especially if they use the same mix as you, ask them if they can show you how they do it and get your hands stuck in. <S> For a warm place in winter I usually set my bread for proving in a bowl by a radiator in my living room. <A> If the bread is not wet enough, the yeast don't activate. <S> Follow the advice that Jonny gives above. <S> If the bread still isn't rising properly, it is either too dry or <S> the yeast might just be too old. <S> Check the expiration date of your boxed bread mix, and follow the directions closely. <S> Don't start experimenting UNTIL <S> you have had success <S> otherwise your own adjustments might be causing the problems you are having.
|
Make sure your bread mix is fresh and well before the best before on the packet.
|
What are the options for sweetening? This question relates to a tomato based sauce, but I imagine it applies to all dishes. I recently made meatballs in a tomato sauce; typically, I find that any tomato sauce is too bitter. I found a recipe that suggested boiling a halved onion and butter in the sauce for almost an hour, and that worked really well. I've also tried adding sugar, which obviously works. My question is: what are the other options that can be employed to make a dish sweeter? <Q> Some quick things which you may or may not find in your nearby stores which can act as sweetners: <S> Honey Jaggery Corn Syrup <S> Some citrus fruits like oranges Berries Winter Squash like Acorn, Butternut <A> IMO, tomatoes should not be "bitter" <S> it should become sweeter as it cooks down; usually we add some sugar to remove some of the acidity, but not the bitterness. <S> Use fresh, ripe and in season tomatoes; leave them out of the fridge. <S> I suggest slowly softening onions (up to before they turn brown) in oil (instead of boiling it); that should bring up some natural sweetness from the onions. <S> Using dry herbs can render sauces/dishes bitter; use fresh if possible. <S> Added citrus will add some sweetness (oranges), but using the zest might also add some bitterness. <A> I would like to emphasize the sentiment given in the answer above that tomatoes shouldn't be bitter. <S> If you are using canned tomatoes, consider moving to a different brand to give you a fresher and brighter tomato taste. <S> Having said that, I would also offer you another alternative called a gastrique to use as a way of finishing-off your tomato sauce. <S> There are a ton of variations on the theme of the gastrique, but they all involve heating some sugar in about half its weight in water slowly over medium heat to caramelize the sugar slightly before adding something acidic like vinegar or citrus to the mix. <S> For a gastrique that is more strongly acidic, sometimes the sugar is caramelized directly in vinegar to reduce the vinegar. <S> The vinegar and sugar gastrique is a common addition to tomato sauces. <S> And while vinegar and sugar might seem to make strange bedfellows, their impact on the taste of tomato can be astounding. <S> Many times, just tossing a little sugar or other sweetener into the sauce can result in a sauce where you can taste both components but not necessarily an improved composite. <S> Used conservatively, a gastrique tends to amplify what is already pleasant in the tomato sauce without announcing itself as a separate entity in the mix.
|
Add a little bit of tomato paste; this will add some sweetness (and more depth to the sauce).
|
Using gas cooker now having problem cooking food I have a new world gas cooker bur I am finding following recipes cooking guidelines results in undercooked bases of i.e. scones, fruit pies, or Xmas fruit loaf. When baking blind, the top of food looks cooked but the bottom is soggy and uncooked. I tried changing position of shelves and cooking longer on lower heat, but my normally good baking is no longer. <Q> On many gas ovens, the calibration of oven temperature is fairly slack - the manual for mine says it can be off be 30 degrees either up or down. <S> Invest in an oven thermometer, preheat your oven until it shows the desired temperature, and see if this gives you better results. <A> I have a new world gas cooker and have found the same problem. <S> I did what James McLeod recommended and bought an oven thermometer and did find the results quite surprising. <S> If I set the gas mark 4 from the off, it took half an hour or more to heat up - and higher temperatures even longer. <S> I now set it to gas mark 9 until it has reached the desired temperature and then turn it to the required setting and it retains its temperature as it should. <S> Obviously all models are going to act differently <S> but I've moved the thermometer around the oven <S> and it seems to heat quite evenly too. <A> Don't quite see why someone has down voted you? <S> Anyway... <S> Strange that your tops are cooking while your bottoms are raw? <S> Is it top heated? <S> I've had a similar issue but the other way round trying to cook scones, <S> Yorkshire puddings and shortbread in a gas oven. <S> The bottoms would burn while the tops were raw. <S> My idea was the bottom tray would stop the direct heat hitting the bottom of my cooking trays. <S> Resulting in a more controlled heat all over my produce instead of it being directed right at the bottom. <S> In your case it might be worth putting a tray on the shelf above your food. <S> Also it is worth noting where the thermostat is in your oven. <S> If I remember correctly the thermostat in the oven I was using was in the top where all the heat was coming from the bottom. <S> This meant if I had placed my trays near the edge the heat wasn't getting close to the thermostat meaning the oven would keep blasting heat out obviously over doing the bottoms. <S> If you are inhibiting heat getting to your thermostat in any way this could also be causing you issues. <S> Good luck.
|
I found the best fix for me was to put an empty tray on the bottom shelf and then cook directly above the tray on the upper shelf.
|
Is roasting a whole duck something a beginner should avioid? I have experience in my own kitchen and I can follow a recipe. I was planning on serving roasted long island duck for a Christmas party for about 8-10 people. <Q> What I learnt from my neighbor: The most critical part also the most enjoyable part for the diners is to make the skin crispy. <S> For this many factors should be taken into consideration (e.g. the type of oven you use, room temperature where the oven is, etc). <S> But the trick for the skin to be crispy is how much the skin can become detached from the meat while it is cooked, thus a layer of heat remains between the skin and the meat. <S> This is what I learnt: From the inside of the duck, carefully poke holes with a toothpick through the meat but not breaking the skin. <S> Second, use a pan where there are holes on the bottom and place another pan directly underneath it to collect the fat / oil while the duck is being cooked. <S> At the very end, take the duck out of the oven and quickly turn up the oven to even higher temperature. <S> Once the oven has reached the higher temperature, pour evenly the collected fat / oil on top of the duck and put it right back to the oven and let it cook shortly. <S> The result is the skin will be very crispy and with you taking out the duck at the last step while the oven's temperature is turned up higher, the duck will not be over-cooked. <A> See my relevant answer to a related question . <S> In short, I would recommend avoiding roasting a duck whole—regardless of your skill level, and especially if you are a beginner . <S> The only two advantages you get from roasting the bird whole are the theatrics of tableside presentation and also ease of preparation ( i.e. , you don't have to worry about butchering the bird). <S> As others have mentioned, it is exceedingly hard to ensure that the skin is perfectly crispy and all of the various muscles are cooked to their ideal temperatures when roasting the bird whole. <A> When done right, duck is one of the most wonderful foods. <S> When done wrong, it is horrible. <S> I consider duck a challenging meat because it is best served rare. <S> However, you really should have the skin crispy. <S> That takes some very precise timing to have the muscle rare but successfully crisp the skin.
|
I consider myself a beginner, and I would not be comfortable trying to cook a duck. If you aren't going to be carving the bird tableside, then then there really isn't any gustatory advantage to roasting the bird whole.
|
Fabric to be used for cheesecloth I want to make my own cheesecloth as to aid the make of Paneer. Is there any type of fabric I should avoid or any other pitfalls to avoid? Can I use just general cotton and will this be effective in letting the whey drip out of the curds? <Q> Many treatments are not especially problematic (for example starch), but there are others - there is a method for making shirt fabric wrinkle-free which uses formaldehyde. <S> The second best option is to buy uncolored organic fabric, it's seldom treated. <S> If you can get neither, a tea towel is also a good option. <S> It's supposed to be used in food settings, cheap, and does not have to have any special features as cloth, so it's unlikely that it's treated. <S> Its dye is probably also quite leak-prone, as tea towels should be able to be washed at very high temperature. <S> But still, if you can find white (or even better, unbleached) towels, they'll be best, because textile dyes can be toxic themselves. <S> If you really have to get it in a fabric store, go for pure cotton. <S> (Flax should work, but it's unnecessarily expensive). <S> You need it in plain weave, no twill, satin or anything else. <S> And somewhat loose weave is indeed best, as Joe already mentioned. <S> It should be fairly thin, too. " <S> Standard" muslin will probably work more or less, but not as good as regular cheesecloth, as it's a bit too tightly woven. <S> Another option is to find out if somebody can sell you gauze meant for dressing wounds. <S> It is loose enough, and untreated. <S> It will allow you to make somewhat soft paneer. <S> If you want to press yours very firm, gauze will probably tear. <S> It is also probably not so easy to find, as nowadays there are other products used for wound dressing. <A> I use cloth diapers. <S> The old-fasioned kind, without print (and never used for the original purpose, of course). <S> They are pure cotton, can be boiled and are just the right balance between density and looseness. <S> Pretty cheap, too. <S> I prefer their square shape over rectangular tea towels when it comes to tying the corners to filter/press something. <S> Basically cheesecloth by another name. <S> Edit: Here is a link where these cloth diapers are used for paneer ( recipe in german ). <A> Use a handkerchief! <S> :) <S> This works well! <A> Re-inventing the wheel is not always wise. <S> Unless you place no value whatsoever on your time, you can't beat the cost of cheesecloth. <S> You can get it at Walmart for less than a dollar a yard. <S> If you're hellbent on making your own, you will need to craft a loom. <S> Use firring strips to make a frame in the desired size. <S> Place headless nails at evenly spaced intervals. <S> Craft a fine toothed comb from wood. <S> Off the top of my head, I think you'll pay more for the thread than you would for already woven cheesecloth <S> but, if this is what you want to do, go for it!
|
Get 100% cotton thread and get weaving (you'll be able to find all the info you need on warping your loom by googling). The problem with buying tailoring fabric for food use is that sometimes such fabric is treated. It is the best to buy real cheesecloth, created for this purpose.
|
How much of "wasabi" is actually wasabi in the United States? After looking at wasabi's Wikipedia page I was shocked to find out that real wasabi loses the majority of its flavor in 15 minutes if left uncovered and that in the United States "wasabi" is actually horseradish, mustard, starch, and green food coloring. This made me wonder about much of the wasabi-flavored foods I have had such as wasabi peas, and the ingredients list of Trader Joe's Wasabi Peas confirms that their "wasabi" is nothing more than mustard. However, another brand of wasabi peas simply lists "wasabi" in their ingredients list which makes me wonder if it is legal in the US to label horseradish, mustard, and other things that clearly are not wasabi as wasabi. It also makes me wonder if I have ever had real wasabi in my lifetime living in the United States. Does anyone have any insight into how much of the wasabi-flavored foods in the United States are authentic and how to know what is the real thing? I am also very interested in knowing more about the regulations that pertain to foods being labelled as "wasabi" when there is no actual wasabi in them. <Q> The vast majority of wasabi in the US is mostly horseradish. <S> Some brands like this one , contain no wasabi at all. <S> That one is the #1 seller on Amazon. <S> Other brands, including this one , contain a small amount of wasabi, presumably just so they can put wasabi on the list of ingredients. <S> Incidentally, that brand is made in Japan. <S> Real wasabi can be found without too much trouble. <S> This brand is in the powdered form, you can also get it in a tube. <S> I understand that real wasabi loses its heat very quickly after being grated, which may explain why I actually prefer the fake stuff. <S> I've tried real wasabi in a tube, and I found it disappointingly mild. <S> If I ever see a fresh wasabi stem I will buy it just to satisfy my curiosity. <S> (Originally I called it "wasabi root", the wiki article linked to in the OP tells me it's actually a stem. <S> Hmmm, learn something new every day.) <S> Even in Japan, real wasabi is the exception, not the rule. <S> You bring up an interesting point about the legality of labeling a product "wasabi" when it doesn't contain any real wasabi. <S> Our labeling laws usually wouldn't allow that. <S> My guess is that it's a loophole just for wasabi, maybe written especially for Japanese exporters. <S> HA! <S> There is even an on-line petition to ban the practice of labeling horseradish "wasabi". <A> We were quite relieved that the wasabi we could buy in the U.K. (but Made In Japan) looks and tastes just like the tube we had previously bought in Japan. <S> It is just labelled "wasabi" and, as already stated, only contains a little "real" wasabi. <S> I think what may be going on is that in Japanese you have 本わさび (hon-wasabi, which is the Japanese wasabi plant) and 西洋わさび (seiyou-wasabi, literally Western wasabi, which is the Japanese name for horse radish). <S> So, from that point of view, horse radish is a type of wasabi, and Japanese wasabi is a type of wasabi. <A> Wasabi is a rather pricey produce even in Japan, and most food is served with substitutes. <S> It doesn't grow in the US or in Europe. <S> So the rule of thumb is that if it anything cheap/affordable, it is not wasabi.
|
I have read that most of the wasabi in Japanese sushi bars is the same stuff we get here.
|
Are there cheeses with less saturated fat? I like cheese, but I'd like to find ones with better fat ratios. Do all cheeses have high amounts of saturated fat? More importantly, are there any natural cheeses that have a high mono- and polyunsaturated fat to saturated fat ratio? I know for instance that nuts can vary in this regard. Some nuts can be high in saturated fat while others aren't. I'm looking for something similar with cheeses. Finally, if such cheeses exist, are any of them suitable for pizza? <Q> No, there aren't such cheeses. <S> All cheeses are made from the same basic product - milk - and there are no changes to the fat happening in the cheesemaking process. <S> Whatever ratio of saturated to unsaturated fats goes in, the same ratio goes out. <S> There are cheeses made from milk of different animals, and they do have a different ratio of saturated to unsaturated fat: <S> cow: <S> 55% saturated sheep: 65% saturated goat: 65% saturated As you see, the difference is very small. <S> Besides, the majority of cheeses you get in the West are made with cow's milk, which has the lowest saturation of the three. <S> If this is too much for your dietary goals, then you don't have alternatives with less saturated fat. <A> As previously answered, yes cheese is made of milk, and milk's fat can't really be broken out into saturated and non saturated. <S> The ratio is fixed, but you can lower the total volume of it in a cheese. <S> (or eat less cheese for the same effect) <S> However, vegans have been innovating the the non-milk cheese category for some time. <S> Cashew cheese is a pretty good replicant of soft spreading cheese, or can be pressed into firm blocks to go on crackers and such. <S> There are commercially available non-dairy cheeses too. <S> Daiya is a vegan cheese that even gets melty. <S> It has a 1:3 ratio of saturated to non-saturated fats. <S> They have a mozzarella flavor, and I think this would be your best bet for pizza. <A> Generally harder cheeses have less water, more protein, and lower fat than soft cheeses. <S> (Compare parmesan to brie) <S> This is influenced with the starting milk. <S> Fatter milk = fatter cheese. <S> Fat is what nature puts in food to make it taste good. <S> There are low fat cheeses. <S> There are low fat cheese flavoured products. <S> They do not do well cooking, and are acceptable in sandwiches only of you also find acceptable Kraft Singles. <S> I may get shot down by not answering the question. <S> You are asking (IMHO) the wrong question. <S> You aren't really interested in low fat cheese, you are interested in becoming healthy. <S> If this is true, then you may want to ask a somewhat different question on a health/nutrition/fitness board, such as, <S> "What is the current consensus on the health aspects of saturated fats?" <S> There is a lot of comment going on about this. <S> Eggs are no longer evil. <S> Butter is better than margarine. <S> Meanwhile, enjoy your cheese.
|
Not all cheeses run the same fat content.
|
Why can I resuse green tea leaves several times, but not black? Simple question really - why is it I can reuse green tea leaves 2-3 times with minor degradation in the quality of tea, but I can't do the same thing with black tea? Is it because the black tea has oxidized? I've noticed that you can also reuse Chinese red tea leaves as well (fermented green tea) without a problem. <Q> I've never had an issue reusing anything that's real tea (black, oolong, green). <S> Perhaps there is another factor here? <S> Generally speaking <S> it's an issue of grade rather than the type of tea. <S> The finer the tea, the more likely you are to extract everything in the first run. <S> Take apart a cheap tea bag, and you'll notice that the leaves are powder or almost powder. <S> A full leaf (you can buy any black tea from a reputable shop in a higher grade) will extract more slowly and give you a better flavour and probably yield to better second or third runs. <A> My grandmother always drank black tea from store-brand or Lipton tea bags, and she always reused them and didn't say anything about the taste. <S> My current favorite black tea is pu-erh tea from Prince of Peace brand tea bags. <S> I use two tea bags in an extra large tea mug, steep exactly 3 minutes, and use the tea bags three times. <S> I tried using four or more times but sometimes cup #4 is a bit weaker. <S> I honestly don't see much difference between batches. <S> I have read that the caffeine content goes down in the cups after the first. <S> In fact, in the book "Lose weight with green tea" by Patricia Rouner, it is suggested that steeping a fresh tea bag in hot water for about 50 seconds, then discarding the water removes most caffeine but keeps most of the antioxidants so you can decaf your own tea at home. <S> I store my used tea bags on a plastic soap dish that has a grid to help the soap dry. <S> This lets the tea bag dry out some between uses. <S> I might add, however, that if you are drinking tea for the medicinal benefits, you might try using fresh tea bags each time to ensure the maximum antioxidants, and see if that helps your health problem more than drinking tea from reused tea bags. <A> Long steeping makes for bitter tea. <S> I suspect that you will find that the second batch of tea either has no flavour, or is more bitter. <S> Note that tea making is very depending not only on steeping time, but on temperature. <S> There is good reason to pre-heat china teapots before making the tea -- especially if you live in a country like England where room temperatures in winter are measured in the 50's (F).
|
If you're black tea is coming out of a tea bag, or a lower "grade" then the green tea leaves you're using that might be a reason that it isn't coming out desirably.
|
Is there a super close substitute for graham crackers? I'm from Canada (where there are multitudes of graham crackers!), but I'm currently living in Australia. They do not have anything like graham crackers here, and I could really use them for a couple recipes I'm developing. Does anyone have a close substitute for graham crackers? I'm looking at making my own, but that seems like a tedious task just to crumble them up again. <Q> First off, try digestive biscuits. <S> They're really very similar cookies/crackers/biscuits, and it's a common enough substitution that it's even mentioned on Wikipedia . <S> Cook's Thesaurus implies that they're called wheatmeal biscuits in Australia. <S> sourd'oh's suggestion of particularly crunchy gingersnaps might work too, but you'll also want to make sure they're not too spicy! <S> (Unfortunately, I don't know about specific varieties since I'm not Australian.) <A> I am an Aussie. <S> We use Marie biscuits. <A> I was in Australia last winter & discovered they don't sell any kind of graham wafer. <S> I substituted the digestive cookies/biscuits and found they are not as sweet. <S> Although the crust tasted good, the next time I made the 'graham wafer' crust, I added a teaspoon of sugar to the digestive biscuit crumbs ... <S> now it tasted closer to the graham wafer crust <S> I was used to. <A> Depending on where you live, some grocer shops have an international food section. <S> But for a crunchy sweet pie crust, I don't think you can go past a butternut snap biscuit , sold just about anywhere in Australia. <S> I have also used Milk Arrowroot or Morning Coffee. <S> I like these too, but they aren't as sweet. <A> Go to the Filipino groceries. <S> They stock Graham biscuits. <A> I use Grahams Crackers in my Key Lime pies. <S> The Key Limes are specific to Florida <S> and I bring it back with me as a juice concentrate from Publix Supermarket. <S> I also bring back Grahams Crackers. <S> But when I run short there is ONLY ONE substitute in Australia. <S> It's ARNOTT'S GRANITA. <S> You can get it at any Australian supermarket. <S> Have done a blind taste test with my friends and family to see if they can taste the difference between Granita and Grahams. <S> They can't. <S> I give them three pieces of granita and two pieces of Graham selected randomly while they are blindfolded. <S> NO ONE can pick the difference correctly. <A> I live in Australia and use Granita biscuits, mixed with 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 1/4 Cup of almond meal for my substitute to Graham crackers. <S> All crushed together of course :) <A> I would assume that digesive or the suggested alternative Graham crackers would be the same as Arnott's wheatgerm biscuits or why not just use Arnott's morning coffee or milk arrowroot. <S> I'm going to try the wheatgerm and see how that works. <S> Most biscuit bases could use any of these three suggestions in my opinion. <A> Best substitute is digestive biscuits (sweeter and crunchier than wholemeal) look for Mcvities brand <S> they are Scottish but available in Australia in Coles suoernarkets and other places. <S> I use them all the time. <S> They are great. <A> I would suggest you to use Rich Tea biscuits if you find them. <S> They are plain and they go perfect with any kind of cake <A>
|
I use digestive biscuits and add cinnamon to get them closer to the taste of Graham Crackers. I've just bought some at Manila Mart in Ryde (Sydney) and have also seen them at Ashfield Mall in Sydney where the fruit and veg shop is run by Filipinos.
|
What kind of pan is this? (photo) How would you use it? This is antique or at least vintage (family heirloom). It looks like it might be some sort of double-boiler? The bottom part is ~ 9.5" diameter and ~ 2" deep and appears to be ceramic-coated metal. The insignia on the bottom looks like a lion leaning on a coffee-pot with a "B" in it, and lettering under the stamp is illegible, except for the number 134. On the metal rim it says 'Patented May 23, 1899'. The top part is possibly aluminum, is less than 1" deep, and it is textured as shown, with no markings on the bottom. Handles on both are wood. Even when holding both in hand, these are not heavy. All ideas are welcome, as I am baffled. Update 12/12: The enameled pan has been identified as a chafing dish, but the textured pan is still a mystery, so if there are any ideas on what it is or how it might be used, please feel free to share! (click for full size) <Q> It looks possible that the two pieces don't actually go together. <S> The patent referred to is number 625702 , for an enameled chafing dish with a domed lid. <S> (It's kind of hard to tell, but I think the innovation being claimed is the lip/indentation which allows the handle to be attached without damaging the enamel.) <S> The patent does mention the inventor's desire to apply the patent to other dishes, not just ones of the chafing variety, but the enameled piece you have greatly resembles the enameled portion of the dish in the patent drawing. <A> The metal pan is a toaster, an accessory for the Manning-Bowman white enamel chafing dish.see 1907 brochure from company link: https://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/sliker/msuspcsbs_manb_manningbow2/msuspcsbs_manb_manningbow2.pdf <A> <A> All you do is put water in the bottom, boil, butter the top pan, add the pancake or waffle mix, stir around, put back on top and cook. <S> Maybe you could put a homemade cake or shortcake mix and put the lid on and cook. <S> There are cakes that one can cook on the stove, so why not on a "double boiler" with a fancy waffle design. <S> I would try it out if I had it
|
Looks like a roasting pan...perhaps for chestnuts I talked to my Mom and we both agreed that it may be a old fashioned waffle or fancy pancake pan.
|
Blue/green mold on sourdough starter I have been following instructions from KAF to start my own sourdough . On day 3, some small patches of blue/green mold appeared on the surface. The starter was fairly since the last feeding, increasing in volume about 30% or so. I carefully scooped off the moldy bits and went ahead with the next feeding. So my question: is it safe to continue with this batch? In addition to the mold, it definitely smelled a bit tangy/funky. However, I've never worked with starter before, so I'm not sure what it's supposed to smell like at this point. <Q> A well-developed sourdough should be able to generate a micro climate within his jar that supresses other growth like mold. <S> This holds especially true for "old", well-established strains. <S> We (1) use a sourdough strain that's been cultivated for at least 20 years. <S> (After that, history becomes a bit murky...) <S> Young sourdough is the most susceptible to contamination and needs some time to develop a good souring/ leavening ratio. <S> During the first weeks or even months, the baking properties of a sourdough might change quite a bit. <S> So while a sourdough ist "working" after a few days, older lines are preferrable - the various yeasts will adapt to your conditions and develop a stable "society" (for lack of a better word). <S> As far as your mold problem is concerned, I'd just start over. <S> You will have lost just a few days and your next batch will probably be fine. <S> It's possible that in your moldy batch some "weaker" strains of yeasts grew that couldn't handle other micro-organisms. <S> This happens sometimes. <S> For old strains, I'd be tempted to try a "rescue mission" as described in the other post, but as the outcome is unclear, I wouldn't bother with a new batch. <S> Just follow the instructions carefully, work with clean utensils and perhaps check your water <S> -if it's heavily chlorinated you might be better off with bottled, at least in the beginning. <S> (1) "We" are a group of bakers that regularly bake and sell artisanal bread for charity. <A> My sourdough starter has grown mold on top or on the sides of the jar. <S> What should I do? <S> Once your sourdough (or the jar) has developed mold, you have a couple of options. <S> You can either try to save the starter or discard the starter and start over. <S> If you decide to save the starter, please use caution and good judgment as mold may just be infecting the surface of the starter or it may have penetrated the starter. <S> To try and save the starter, remove the molded portion. <S> With a different (clean) utensil, remove a portion of the sourdough that wasn't near the molded portion. <S> You only need about a tablespoon of starter. <S> Put the small amount of clean starter in a new container <S> (be sure there's no soap or food residue), add equal parts flour and water by weight, or one part starter, one part water, and a little less than <S> two parts flour if using measuring cups, mix, cover with a towel or loose lid and allow to proof. <S> Once proofed (bubbly, rising) or within 12 hours, feed the starter again using the same ratios. <S> Continue feeding the starter over several days watching carefully for any signs of mold. <S> If no mold appears and if the starter looks, smells, and tastes okay, proceed to using it for baking or place it in the refrigerator. <S> Source: <S> http://www.culturesforhealth.com/sourdough-troubleshooting-faq <S> A lot of great information on that page regarding sourdough if you have time to read through it. <A> It really takes very little time and cost to begin over, and I have seen so many suggestions that if your starter turns any color other than black, to toss it and begin again. <S> Meaning blue, red, pink... <S> According to the school of baking: http://www.schoolofbaking.com/sourdough.html Never allow any form of metal such as a spoon or lid to come into direct contact with the stored, un-used sourdough starter as it will cause a chemical reaction that will contaminate and blacken the implement and eventually in time will kill (loose all activity) <S> the starter and a blackish blue or pink liquid will surface, and the starter at this point, can’t be revived. <S> I did use a metal spoon once, when in a big hurry, and not sure if it was the problem or a part of the problem, but my 'young' starter nearly died- <S> (quit) - right after that.
|
While mold is fairly uncommon when working with a sourdough starter, it does occasionally happen and is generally caused by either contamination (soap or food residue are the most common) or weakened yeast (skipped feedings, improper ratios, etc.).
|
Why would you place potatoes on salt when baking in the oven? Several of my recipe books call for baking potatoes on a layer of (rock) salt , e.g. I'm currently following one for gnocchi that has this very instruction. Searching yields many recipes , but I can't really find the " why " of it, nor what it technically accomplishes. Our own cooking.se site yields no relevant results either. I can't quite imagine either what it would accomplish, except for perhaps salt the potatoes a bit; but that seems rather inefficient (why not add some salt later to the gnocchi dough?). Or perhaps it's meant to draw all fluids? Why would you bake potatoes on a layer of (rock) salt? What does that do to the potatoes? <Q> This is what America's Test Kitchen (sorry, paywalled) has to say about it: <S> Sometimes baked potatoes can use a flavor boost. <S> And instead of light and fluffy, most often they are dense and crumbly. <S> We found that baking the potatoes on a bed of salt remedied these problems. <S> Moisture that escaped the potatoes during baking was trapped in the enclosed pan, absorbed by the salt, and eventually reabsorbed by the potatoes, making their skins tender and their flesh light and fluffy. <S> All we needed to do was fine-tune the variables. <S> Using a hot oven and uncovering the potatoes toward the end of cooking ensured dry, crisp skin. <S> A 13 by 9-inch baking dish provided plenty of space so that we didn’t have to crowd the potatoes, and 2 1/2 cups of salt allowed us to thoroughly cover the bottom of the pan. <S> I have found that salt roasting potatoes makes the skin crispy, without it getting hard. <S> Like the above says, the potato itself seems fluffier. <S> The way the salt seasons <S> the potato is particularly nice as well. <S> Incidentally, you can reuse the salt over and over again, so it's not as wasteful as it might seem when you first consider the method. <S> You'll want to keep separate salt for things like this, though, since it picks up potato flakes and discolors a bit. <S> EDIT <S> The ATK method calls for covering the 9X13 baking dish (for 4 potatoes and 2 1/2 cups of salt) tightly with aluminum foil and roasting at 450F (232C) for 1 1/4 hours. <S> Remove foil, brush potatoes with oil, raise oven temp to 500F (260C) and continue roasting for 10-20 minutes, until potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife and the skins are glossy. <A> There are many roasting recipes that use a bed or even a dome of salt. <S> This has three effects that I am aware <S> of- <S> 1- <S> It salts the food obviously. <S> This isn't necessarily a reason all by itself. <S> As you noticed salt is just as easily added later. <S> 2- <S> It keeps the food off the pan. <S> In the case of fish this can make for easier service. <S> 3- <S> It stores and releases the heat of the oven producing slower and more even heating. <S> This is the primary reason recipes call for roasting on salt. <S> Unless your oven is guilty of gross thermal irregularities, I am skeptical that baking potatoes on salt will make much of a difference at all. <S> It might might make for an interesting presentation at the table. <A> So here's something I learned in high school that could be of some value. <S> If you have two densities of something separated by something that allows water to flow through, like the skin on your potato, it will try to reach an equilibrium. <S> So in this case you have two different areas with different salt densities. <S> In the potato there is likely little sodium, so water will flow into the potato (with the salt) to try to reach equilibrium. <S> Google semi permeable membranes if you want a more in depth explanation.
|
The salt becomes part of the cooking medium.
|
How can I safely re-heat a chicken pie without burning the crust? Last night I made a chicken pie with ham, cheese and other awesomeness inside. However, I'm worried about re-heating it safely for consumption. I estimate there are two servings (so today's and tomorrow's worth) left. Last time I tried to re-heat a pie in the oven, even with foil over it, the crust burned and the insides of the pie were still only lukewarm after 10 minutes plus. My questions: Is it safe to re-heat the pie considering it contains already cooked and cooled chicken? The pie was placed into the fridge about 10-15 minutes after cooking. Can I do this twice for tonight and tomorrow? How do I avoid burning the crust whilst ensuring the middle of the pie is properly heated? <Q> Foil is the way to go, combined with not too fierce a heat. <S> You want to cook at about 160 <S> °C (320°F) until the centre of the pie is piping hot. <S> To lower the chances of burning, portion the pie prior to reheating. <S> That way the centre will get hot more quickly. <S> Reheating more than once is generally not a good idea for safety reasons. <S> You can however portion one night's pie and keep the other in the fridge. <A> Last time I tried to re-heat a pie in the oven, even with foil over it, the crust burned and the insides of the pie were still only lukewarm after 10 minutes plus. <S> It sounds like your heat might've been too high, or you put it on grill instead of regular oven elements? <S> Anyway, what I would do is microwave it for part of the reheating time. <S> It helps to retain moisture, so things won't dry out as much. <S> It can make the crust soggy/soft, depends on what's in the crust, but after warming it up to get the insides pretty warm, then finish it in the oven to dry up the crust again. <S> If you time the proportion of microwave to oven well, you'll be able to get toasty insides (but not dry) and a good crust (and not burnt!) <A> Just cut of your portion, plop in in a skillet, and heat up that way. <S> I might even put it in a cool or warming pan, no need to wait for it to be already hot since it just needs warming, not cooking, and pie crusts generally have enough fats to be fairly non-stick. <S> The bonuses - the skillet will warm from the bottom up. <S> It's nice for keeping the bottom crust from getting soggy while reheating (or drying it out a bit if it was already soggy), and making sure the middle is warm, while the top stays nice and un-scorched. <S> It's also faster, as direct exposure to heat will warm the food faster than the oven, and it will also dry out the pie less. <S> We sort of got the idea from someone singing the praises of reheating pizza on stove top, but since then there have been pies successfully heated with this method, both sweet and savory (it is especially nice if the bottom crust can use a bit more crisping up). <S> Wetter pies are a bit messier, but it still works. <A> if you glass oven dish or bake pan,Take out one serving and heat to 30sec-45 sec . <S> Popped into oven or toaster oven. <S> If you put in oven you need to watch like 5-10 minutes or more. <A> Heat your oven to 200 degrees then put your pie on a tray to put in the oven for about 30 to 40 min. <S> Check middle of pie to see if hot if not cover edges of pie with foil and leave in for another 10 min. <S> Continue checking every 10 min. <S> until hot.
|
One alternate option is to heat it up again on stove-top.
|
Milk for Coffee - Shake and Hit Every time I get my cappuccino in the morning, the guy that makes it takes the cup of milk, shakes it, then hits on the table a few times, then does the same thing for a couple of times, only after that pours into the cup. Why does he do that? Why shake, then hit a few times, then shake again? <Q> I'm a bit of a coffee nut, having bought my own espresso machine & grinder and have been pulling my own shots and learning how to create different coffee drinks for some years now. <S> I am by no means an expert, however: What you're seeing when the barista is swirling/tapping the milk jug is called "polishing". <S> It's the step after they've steamed it and does two things 1) <S> The swirling "polishes" the milk/foam to give it a nice "shine" (best described as looking like paint). <S> 2) <S> The tapping removes any larger bubbles - your aim for steamed milk for coffee drinks is generally to get a "micro foam" which as it sounds, has micro bubbles. <S> Bit of extra info: To control how much foam you get is right at the start, <S> when you initially start the steaming - you have the steam wand just under the surface of the milk <S> so it introduces as much air as you need. <S> Similar idea to whipping cream really. <S> After introducing the air, you submerge the steam wand and use the steam to "spin" the milk - this mixes the foam with the milk to increase <S> it's volume (and also starts the "polishing" process). <S> To control where the foam goes, you adjust how quickly you pour. <S> Just dumping it all in the cup will churn the milk and foam together. <S> Hope this helps :) <A> You are talking about the barista handling the milk after steaming it, right? <S> My guess (from what I've seen in the milk jug @home): <S> shake (rather: swirl, otherwise he'd just spill the milk) to loosen stuck-on foam on the top walls of the jug. <S> hit to separate foam and milk <S> (-> makes it easier for him to judge the milk-foam-ratio later) <S> swirl again to loosen the foam from the jug again. <S> Then pour... <A> This is an old method for making cappuccino or latte without using a machine or frothing tool. <S> To get bubbles in the milk, you have to shake, and tap(hit).This method is now used for special drinks which can be either alcoholic or non-alcoholic
|
Pouring with a spout in a more controlled fashion will pour the milk in first, then the foam after (same idea as helium balloons rising, the foam is lighter than the milk)
|
Ingredient selection for Canadian Poutine dish Poutine is a simple dish from Québec, Canada. It is traditionally made with French fries, topped with fresh mild white cheddar curds (quite unlike American white cheddar which is quite sharp) and with a tangy and salty brown gravy poured on top of it all. It looks something like this: It's easy to make when you like up in Québec, as the gravy can be purchased in any grocery store. But I live in the USA now, and there is no such thing as poutine gravy here. For the cheese I use Monterey Jack cheese, which is close enough. I've tried to whip up my own gravy multiple times, but it's never been quite right. Here is how I usually go about it: Start with chicken stock. Thicken with flour or starch. Add some pepper, salt (if needed, usually it's pretty salty already). Add something for tang, like a bit of barbecue sauce or ketchup. Maybe throw in a few spices, like garlic or onion powder. I was just wondering if anyone has ideas to make this more palatable, e.g., other ingredients, or any cooking suggestion. <Q> Hello @Phrancis and welcome to Seasoned Advice! <S> Poutine gravy is a beef gravy made with beef or veal stock. <S> Here is a link to a recipe . <S> There are many other recipes online, as well. <S> By the way, you were on the right track, just not quite there yet! :) <A> Ricardo has a very good, authentic tasting and even smelling recipe for poutine gravy: Ingredients 2 tablespoons (30 ml) cornstarch <S> 2 tablespoons (30 ml) water 6 tablespoons (90 ml) unsalted butter 1/4 cup (60 ml) unbleached all-purpose flour 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 2 cans <S> 10 oz (284 ml) <S> beef broth, undiluted 1 can 10 ounces (284 ml) <S> chicken broth, undiluted Pepper Preparation <S> In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in the water. <S> Set aside. <S> In a saucepan, melt the butter. <S> Add the flour and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring until the mixture turns golden brown. <S> Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. <S> Add the broth and bring to a boil, stirring with a whisk. <S> Stir in the cornstarch and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens. <S> Season with pepper. <S> As an aside, I can't imagine Monterey Jack being good enough. <S> Scour your specialty stores and find those curds! <S> Sprouts carries them in Southern California for example. <A> I had poutine once in Canada when I was driving through. <S> I had dinner in a diner and poutine was the advertised special. <S> The waitress looked at me like I was from Mars when I asked what poutine was. <S> So I only have that one experience to draw from, but the gravy tasted to me exactly like this stuff: <S> You can buy exactly that in any grocery store in envelopes, or at Sam's Club in canisters like that. <S> Costco probably has a version too, if not exactly that brand. <S> Incidentally, a lot of grocery stores carry cheese curds with the "gourmet" cheese.
|
You can buy the prepared sauce online here or a gravy mix on Amazon .
|
Roasted chicken ends up only salty outside I tried to make roasted whole-chicken yesterday, by patting dry inside out with paper towel and salting it inside out followed by roasting for 1 hour at 465 F. It was nice overall except that it's tasteless in the meat and rather just salty on the skin and bone. What have I done wrong? Is it because I didn't truss the chicken? *The chicken was 4 pounds. <Q> Not trussing is not your problem. <S> I don't always truss a bird and often spatchcock (butterfly) them. <S> I don't find that it makes a difference in the seasoning either way. <S> What I suggest is to season inside and out, but with about twice as much seasoning on the inside. <S> Then season under the skin. <S> Let the chicken set for about 30 to 40 minutes before cooking. <S> You may consider adding a small amount of stock to your pan. <S> (I usually put about 1/4 inch.) <S> Lastly, you may want to consider lowering the temperature and cooking it a little longer. <A> You placed salt on the surface of the chicken just before cooking, and then noted that it was salty on the surface but not deep inside. <S> That's to be expected. <S> If you left the salt on for a long time, it would start to eventually react and interact with the tissues deeper in the chicken, but that would be more like a dry cure, which draws moisture from the meat (think like a European ham or a USA "country" ham). <S> But the dry cure takes a long time to dry out meat, so possibly just leaving it on longer will at least have some movement of the salt into the tissues via osmosis. <S> Still, I think a more reliable method is delivering the salt along with water, because the water also gets delivered into the tissues. <S> That's why brining <S> is the method to use if you want to infuse some of that salt and more moisture into a chicken, but it requires time to do its work. <S> How does brining work? <S> Brining promotes a change in the structure of the proteins in the muscle. <S> The salt causes the protein strands to become denatured, or unwound. <S> This is the same process that occurs when proteings are exposed to heat, acid, or alcohol. <S> When the protein strands unwind, they get tangled up with one another, forming a matrix that traps water. <S> In most cases, we add sugar to the brine. <S> Sugar has little if any effect on the texture of the meant, but it does add flavor and promotes better browning of the skin <S> Cooks' Illustrated: <S> The Science of Brining For a whole chicken, they recommend a brine of 2 quarts of cold water with 1/2 cup of table salt for 1/2 hour to 1 hour. <S> I've seen other articles they've published where they'd also have about 1/2 cup of sugar, as well. <S> Yet others have a longer brining time, but a less intense solution. <S> This one, at least, is a faster one, as far as the time you need to brine, vs the one I usually use. <S> Cooks' Illustrated: Brining Meat <A> Make a salty stuffing and stuff it inside the skin between the breast and skin. <S> The salt won't get into the flesh on top because the skin protects it and sticking it inside won't do anything because salt doesn't rise, the steam does but leaves the salt in the bottom doing nothing but seasoning the very bottom which you don't eat. <S> Stick a lemon in that whole instead. <A> Two things seem to be the most likely culprits: <S> You overcooked the meat (especially the breast) <S> A better approach might be to apply the salt a day before roasting, effectively dry brining the chicken. <S> A challenge of roasting chicken is that the breast is easy to overcook (dries out beyond 150 F), while the thigh needs a higher temperature (170 F or more). <S> Also, if your oven is correctly calibrated, 1 hour at 465 F is probably way too long for a 4 pound chicken. <S> I imagine your smoke alarm probably went off and <S> you had very dry, stringy breast meat. <A> Just wipe chicken with dry ckean cloth from inside, than oil it from inside with vegetable oil and than put salt on your hand and spread all over inner part of your chicken. <S> You need just littlebit of oil, enough to stick salt to chicken. <S> Sorry for bad language not my native language.
|
I usually start any whole bird breast side down, flipping half way through cooking. You didn't use enough salt, and applied it only superficially.
|
Less sticky rice and lentils I have a recipe that calls for rice and green lentils to be cooked at the same time in a rice cooker. I do this and everything cooks nicely, then I add the rest of the ingredients and things taste good. The problem is that the rice and lentils end up very 'sticky' and the recipe I'm replicating has them being very separate and nice. Once or twice, as if my magic, they have come out great, but I have NO idea what is being changed when I do that. How do I make 'unsticky' rice and lentils in a rice cooker? Will more water help? Less Water? salt? sugar? oil? <Q> There is a couple of possible reasons I can think of. <S> Over stirring the mixture could be breaking the rice down releasing more of the starches which will be making the sauce thicker and sticking the rice into clumps. <S> Over cooked rice again making the rice overly sticky. <S> Like you've mentioned, lack of liquid. <S> If the sauce is getting far too thick <S> the starches will be more concentrated again sticking the grains together. <S> If the sauce is thick then certainly adding more water should help loosen it up a bit. <S> Soaking the rice in cold water for half an hour before and then rinsing a few times will help get rid of some excess starch. <S> Also a possible factor is your choice of rice type. <S> Some are more "sticky" than others. <S> Without tasting it myself it's hard to give a 100% reason <S> but hopefully you will get a better result by paying attention to all the above. <S> If after all the above methods one last ditched effort might be as follow. <S> 12 years ago when I was just starting out in my first kitchen <S> I remember my head chef telling me "when you pour you're rice into boiling water, you must make sure they all fall freely and hit the water individually". <S> Now I've remembered this ever since and thought about it every time I've cooked rice since, I've never done it though and can see <S> NO reason why it would work or make any difference. <S> It's also worth noting I've never used a rice cooker in my life, not even sure what they are or do... <A> I have tried this myself. <S> Although it depends on the type of rice that one gets (for example: the Japanese rice is the stickiest among them, because it is meant to be sticky, in order to make sushi rolls), but the following method has worked for me. <S> When you are cooking your rice in a pot, this would be easier, although it works with rice cooker too. <S> But it is easier with a pot whose lid is usually clear while the lid of the rice cooker is almost never transparent. <S> Cooking the rice in a pot on a stove: <S> Once you see the water comes to a boil with rice in it, let it stay boil for about 10 seconds. <S> Then quickly add cold water to it (enough to out out the boil). <S> And when it comes to a boil again, repeat the process. <S> Repeat the process until you think the rice is fully cooked (or the way you want it), and quickly dump the hot water out and add cold water to it again and quickly drain it. <S> The result is: the rice is cooked but they don't stick to each other. <S> If you are making soup with the rice, add the cooked rice last after you shut off the flame for the soup. <S> This has worked well for me. <A> Rice has a layer of loose starch on the outside which will make things sticky, rinsing will wash this starch off. <S> Lentils will also be less sticky when washed beforehand <S> Add a small amount of oil or butter to the dry rice and lentils, then add your water. <S> 1 tsp per cup (about 240ml) usually works for me, any more and it can get too oily
|
There are 2 things you can do to make things less sticky: Rinse your rice and lentils at least twice (or under a tap for 30 seconds).
|
How to avoid getting arm hair in food? Sorry if this question is slightly gross. I happen to have a significant amount of hair on my arms and the back of my hands. When preparing food using my hands (e.g. kneading dough), sometimes hair gets in the food. How can I avoid this? What would a serious / professional cook do? Would they wear gloves and long sleeves? Would they shave their arms? Are there other approaches? <Q> I have a similarly hairy hand/arm issue. <S> I scrub my hands and arms quite roughly with soap, hot water and scouring pad prior to any prep. <S> In an effort to remove any lose hairs before giving them a chance to get in any food. <S> Suffice to say I've never noticed any hair in any of my food. <S> Gloves may help stop any hand hair's getting in there <S> but I can't see how a long sleeved top would, all you'll end up with is dirty cuff's. <S> If it really does get bad just clingfilm your arms ;-) <A> To add in to @Doug's answer, Chef garbs may also help, with the long, loose sleeves. <S> The fabric is usually a bit rough which may help catch some of the hairs. <A> Hairs seem to shed rather slowly, if all the loose-ish hairs are knocked off prior to cooking I would expect it to be unlikely for there to be more loose enough to fall (without intervention) within the hour or two cooking a dish usually takes. <S> Alternatively, you might have some luck rubbing oil or cream on your hands and arms a bit before cooking. <S> It would encourage loose hairs to be shaken off before cooking begins, much like brushing, and it may also let your skin stay a bit moister, the better to catch stray hairs or perhaps prevent them from coming loose as quickly.
|
A simpler solution than Doug's scrubbing, but you might have luck just brushing or rubbing at your hands and arms prior to cooking, so that any loose hairs can be shaken off before you begin cooking.
|
Mold on Vinegar Batch? About 2-3 months ago I decided to start my own batch of vinegar. I started with some Braggs apple cider vinegar which contains the mother, and I added some old wine and some fruit juice to the mix. I kept it in a dark and warm place, as per instructions online. A few layers of cheesecloth were placed on top to allow it to air, without letting anything else get into it. When I recently opened it, I found a layer of what appears to be a yellow-orange mold on top. There are also some small worms or maggots living on the top, but that doesn't seem as problematic to me. As you can (sort of) see in this picture above, there is definitely a mother at the bottom. The mother has grown since I last saw it. I am not sure what to think about that top layer though. Is the vinegar batch completely spoiled? Picture #2 (a closer look at the top) <Q> Great question. <S> First off, the mold. <S> This is nothing to worry about, you should be skimming it off but as far as Vinegar creation it's normal and to be expected. <S> These "worms" have a name :-) <S> Turbatrix Aceti (a.k.a Vinegar Worm <S> ) you can read more about them here - <S> > <S> wiki/ <S> Turbatrix_aceti <S> Why is that mold there? <S> Well if you think about the fermentation process. <S> It's just thousands of bacteria 'eating' your 'mother' now they have to produce something as a byproduct which is the mold you see on the top. <S> Get rid of it and leave it to carry on. <S> Eventually the mother will sink toward the bottom and continue its work. <S> However if you see mold forming on top, by all means skim <S> that off. <S> Mother isn’t moldy; it’s <S> scummy. <S> Source: <S> http://www.rural-revolution.com/2013/07/making-fruit-scrap-vinegar.html <S> <- Well worth a read since you're making vinegar :-) <S> Mold = <S> Bad <S> (Clean it off)Froth = <S> Good <S> (Leave it alone til' it turns to mold. <S> Question: <S> Is the vinegar batch completely spoiled? <S> Answer: <S> No. <A> I have salvaged both vinegar and kombucha from mild mold by removing what I could, increasing stirring to twice daily and watching it more carefully and removing the very first signs of opaque, white , blue green or furry. <S> I also spray the top with straight vinegar. <S> Once the mixture gets acidic enough the mold won't grow. <A> I have made several batches of vinegar and have also noticed mold - usually light colored - most dramatically on the raspberry vinegar that I made. <S> If i just leave the mold alone it appears to be consumed or disappears after a little bit. <S> It may just have been the scum that precedes the mother <S> but it always disappears.
|
If it's kombucha you need more starter from your last batch to get the ph down enuf to prevent mold. If you see a scum forming on top, don’t disturb it; this is the mother.
|
Easier way to shell out sunflower seeds I like the taste of sunflower seeds, however I really dislike the process of shelling them. The bags say "Eat. Spit. Be happy." But I have found that shelling it in one's mouth is not only messy, it also tends to splinter the shell and hurt gums. I have tried shelling them out by hand, but that is exceedingly time-consuming. I know they can be purchased shell-less but I was wondering if there is some trick, as I like some of the seasoned kinds, just not a fan of the process. Any trick to unshell multiple sunflower seeds efficiently? <Q> Here's a quick and easy way where you only your teeth and your nails. <S> The tip of the sunflower seed shell has a little bit an edge, so I bite that off <S> and then I crack open the cut that I made with my teeth with my nails. <A> I have to soon partake in what is known as a "sweatshop" activity in my U.S. History class in a week. <S> I went home and timed myself for 30 minutes to see how many i can do in that amount of time. <S> I found if you pick out two of the most hardest shells you can place them between your thumb and middle finger and use them to pinch the other seeds. <S> By doing this you make a crack or slit in the seed <S> and once you have done a pile of cracked seeds you can then take them and open them easier and quicker. <A> This method uses a resealable plastic sandwich bag, 1/2 c. sunflower seeds, water and a rolling pin. <S> Seal bag and roll over seeds to crack the hulls. <S> If you have patience you can remove the hulls by hand, or put the seeds and hulls into a bowl of water. <S> Skim hulls using a slotted spoon. <S> http://www.ehow.com/how_6148353_easy-way-shell-sunflower-seeds.html <A> <A> Place the seed between your two front teeth. <S> Bite down to crack. <S> Then, with you two fingers, push down to crack the shell again. <S> Finally, ''lick'' the seed out with your tongue
|
You make a slit in the shell with your teeth then take it out of your mouth and then put your fingernails in the slit and open it then take the seed and eat it
|
How do you stop banana flower soup from tasting astringent? I have made banana flower soup 3 times now. The first time it had a nice, unique warming/comforting flavour. The second time it was inedible. The third time it was almost inedible. The recipes I have found call for the banana flower to be soaked in water with a slice of lemon for 1 hour. Worried that it didn't work last time, I just quartered the lemon and soaked it with the whole thing (squeezed), but still it had that crappy taste (like banana peels). I noticed this time that it also said use a non-reactive pan, so I did that. I am wondering if any one can shed some light on what counteracts this taste? I know it can taste nice, and the banana flower is to substantial to waste! Thanks. <Q> If the banana flower was astringent it is because of the flower, not the cooking method. <S> When the flowers are large and young they taste a lot better. <S> If you wait until the bananas are formed and the stem to the flower is long then it will be astringent. <S> The best time to pick the flower is when the stem is 10cm or less from the banana bunch. <S> If the flower is old it will not be as good. <S> Sugar bananas often have the best flowers. <S> You can eat the pink section but it is not as pleasant as the white section. <S> If you eat the small individual flowers you need to take out the sepal in the centre which is incredibly time consuming. <S> Putting the banana flower in lime water is simply to stop it from going brown before you cook it. <S> It does not significantly change the flavour. <S> There are many ways to cook banana flower. <S> Discard the red outer section and the individual flowers hidden within this. <S> I like to quarter the centre <S> and then I place in boiling water and simmer for 15 minutes with some salt. <S> For me it is delicious just like this with some lime, but from here you can put it in a cooked curry, salad, etc. <A> Remove the red part of the flower until you see the whiter part and the soft part. <S> Chop this and soak it in a bowl of water with salt for 30 minutes, then rinse it. <S> Wash it again and rub it with salt, then soak it for the last time with the same procedure for 30 mins. <S> Finally, rinse with cold water. <A> We Thamilians from south India soak the banana flowers , not the petals in butter milk and then use it in curries .This <S> is our tradional way of preparing. <S> The tender ones tastes amazing when eaten raw unsoaked <A> The problem is with your flowers. <S> I have non GM bananas in my backyard and they do not taste astringent even if eaten raw. <S> Maybe you have allowed them to overripen or your particular strain was not selected for it's flowers. <S> Considering the possibility that you do not have any other option but to work with that particular strain alone, I will advise you to try altering the pH with acidic and alkaline broths. <S> Soaking them in neutral tasting fresh soymilk with salt could help.
|
The variety of banana will also influence the taste of the flower. Also, you should definitely try stir frying it before using it because that's a commen method to make astringent foods more palatable. Here is my preferred method: Peel the flower until you come to the white centre.
|
Is this extremely soft "French raclette" cheese actually meant for raclette? I bought some cheese labeled "French raclette" that's quite soft even when refrigerated. (In the store it seemed almost gooey, losing it shape, and in my home fridge it's still soft but a bit springy - maybe like a very very soft havarti, maybe way on the soft side of semi-soft.) It seems like you'd just make a giant mess by melting it, and it looks impossible to slice cleanly, so it seems like it'd be impossible to use as raclette cheese in typical ways (slicing and melting over things, or melting a layer and scraping). Is this cheese really intended to be used as raclette cheese, or is the label a misnomer, or is there perhaps something besides melting meant by raclette here? (In case it's relevant, I have the tabletop variety of raclette grill , where you put the cheese, or things with cheese on top in trays underneath, not the original kind where you melt half a wheel of cheese and scrape it.) <Q> Turns out it's not mislabeled: it's actually "spécial raclette livradoux". <S> Embarrassingly enough, I just noticed that there's a fragment of the whole-wheel label wrapped up with it, with a "vradoi" that let me find it, and it's consistent with this picture: <S> Different pages describe it as semi-soft or semi-firm, which still seems a bit of an exaggeration to me. <S> It's possible to make irregular slices, but definitely nothing super-clean, and <S> I'm afraid if you tried to melt a layer you'd melt a lot more than that. <S> But cutting off a hunk/slice and melting in the tray does work just fine despite my initial impressions; while it's pretty soft before heating, it doesn't melt that much more liquid than a firmer cheese. <S> And the flavor is definitely similar to other raclette cheeses I've had! <S> So it seems quite plausible that it's intended for this version of raclette, but not the older traditional version. <S> (Of course, I was wrong about "completely impossible to slice" <S> so I could be wrong about that as well.) <A> I don't know whether it's meant to be melted <S> but it's not how raclette cheese in France or Switzerland is usually like. <S> Livradois is not a region I would spontaneously associate with raclette either. <S> Having grown up in the Alps, I would personally consider raw milk raclette cheese from Savoie or Valais as the most authentic and those cheeses definitely hold their shape, even at room temperature. <S> That said, raclette is not a protected name in either Switzerland or France <S> so it's produced all over the place <S> and it's increasingly common to find flavored variants (with black pepper, mustard seeds, etc.) <S> I also know people who like to melt blue cheese or reblochon (a soft cheese from the Savoie area) under a table-top raclette <S> grill <S> so why not some other soft cheese? <S> Finally, note that what passes as the ‘traditional’ way to prepare raclette is neither a table-top grill nor melting the cheese in a pot and dipping bread in it, fondue -like, but actually exposing the whole piece of cheese to some heat source and scrapping the melted bits as you go, as shown on the Wikipedia article on the dish . <A> I think it is mislabeled, at least as far as making raclette "the usual way" is concerned. <S> I feel sure it could still be used as such, maybe spoon it into the tray and heat it up very quickly. <S> Though probably much more difficult to get a nice "gratin" unless you can turn the heat up really high, or perhaps use an oven instead, on broil. <S> What you got sounds more like the kind of soft cheese you would put on a cracker or piece of baguette bread or some such. <S> Odd labeling, if you ask me. <S> It appears that most often the cheese is heated separately from the rest, and then topped on deli and potatoes (and other desired things) rather than being heated with the things. <S> See this video , in French but images are obvious enough.
|
I looked up a few videos (in French, native language) and they all use a more firm cheese, so it sounds like it's just mis-marketing to me to label that cheese "raclette cheese".
|
Is there any cut of beef that's close to Kobe beef? I have had the real thing in Japan and it was fantastic and very expensive. I don't usually eat steak at all. The Kobe beef steak was the first I ate in my entire life. It was very tender and tasty, cooked medium rare. I had it because there was nothing else on the menu I would consider eating. I live in Canada. I want to know if there is a cut of beef that's available in Canada that's close to Kobe beef quality. <Q> The problem with you stating Kobe beef is its not a cut of meat. <S> Kobe beef comes from certain cattle raised in Japan. <S> Depending on preference I'd suggest sirloin for a good all rounder, rib eye if you don't mind the extra fat (my favourite cut) or fillet steak if you want the most tender steak you can get. <S> The problem with fillet in my opinion is the lack of fat which ultimately results in lack of flavour plus the price is stupidly high (in England at least) <A> Do you know what cut of Kobe beef you had in Japan? <S> Assuming budget is not an issue, your best bet will be to find the same cut in a Kobe Style or Wagyu beef. <S> This is available in Canada. <S> Get the same cut as whatever you had in Wagyu beef. <S> If you have no idea <S> what cut it was, I'd probably start with a ribeye. <S> It's one of the better, more popular cuts (also pricier). <S> For example, Costco has Kobe Ribeye steaks generally. <S> Note, they will be ridiculously expensive. <S> Stepping away from Kobe/Wagyu cows, look for a Prime grade Rib eye from a reputable butcher. <S> What you're looking for is marbling as close to the following as possible: <S> Note, you likely won't get that marbling from anything other than a Kobe/Wagyu cow. <S> That said, you can definitely find some good quality beef around Canada. <S> I'd look for a good butcher (not in a grocery store) and start there. <A> Hello @Huangism and welcome to Seasoned Advice. <S> You may consider domestic wagyu. <S> To get the best, it will still be pricey, but not nearly as much as Kobe. <S> Please see this excerpt from Lobel's of New York . <S> You Get What You Pay For <S> All Wagyu beef is not created equal. <S> In Japan, Kobe beef sells at more than $300 per pound. <S> But now Wagyu is starting to be seen in grocery stores and casual-dining restaurants for $30 per pound. <S> This mass-marketed variety of Wagyu will have a marbling score at the low end of the 12-point scale. <S> American Wagyu Beef from Lobel's of New York will score 9 points or higher. <S> More expensive than our USDA Prime, our American Wagyu costs a bit more than $100 per pound (depending on the cut). <S> In terms of quality, taste, and texture, Wagyu and Kobe beef are indistinguishable. <S> If what you're looking for is best quality Wagyu, you should expect to pay $100 or more per pound. <S> The linked page has a lot more information and more links to additional info. <S> Although this place is in the US, I linked it because of the information available. <S> Performing anther search, I found that wagyu beef is now available in Canada at Loblaws inToronto and also at Costco (various provinces). <A> I lived in Tokyo as a US military dependent from 1956-60 and 1963-65. <S> Our military newspaper, The "Stars and Stripes" and the Japanese newspaper, "Mainichi News" (printed in English) ran articles referring to Kobe Beef. <S> The articles stated the cows received little exercise, were given a daily bottle of beer, and were messaged daily in order to ensure a high fat content well distributed throughout the meat. <S> Even back then, the meat was very expensive, but highly prized by beef eating persons. <S> This does not answer your question as to availability, but does explain the midcentury publicized reasons why Kobe Beef was/is so expensive.
|
In Canada your best bet will be to find the best quality beef you can.
|
Can meat freeze from the inside out? We received a turkey recently which was meant to be 'fresh'. When it arrived it was frozen on the inside. We are told that the fridge was probably set a bit low so the turkey froze on the inside. I'm not rocket surgeon, but I would have thought that meat would always freeze from the outside in, and then thaw from the outside in. Meaning in this case that the only way for the turkey's inside to be frozen would be for the whole turkey to have frozen and then partially thawed. My question: is it possible for meat to freeze on the inside first or is by butcher pulling a fast one? <Q> That's not how it happens. <S> Turkey can be labeled "fresh" as in -never frozen- <S> even if the turkey is held at temperatures below freezing. <S> By law, 26F (-3.33C) is the cutoff in the US. <S> If the turkey spends weeks at 27F, it can still be labeled fresh even though it would be considered frozen to any of us mere mortals. <S> So, if a turkey has spent 2 weeks at 27F, and you buy it and put it in your fridge, it's going to be frozen on the inside for a day or so, despite being labeled "fresh". <S> Here's more, pointed out by Phillip in his comment. <S> From the Good Eats transcript: <A> Welcome to Seasoned Advice. <S> The real truth is that most "fresh" turkeys are not fresh at all. <S> Especially in the case of branded birds that are shipped en masse. <S> The turkeys are most often shipped to markets frozen and they are thawed when placed for sale. <S> (I have been inside of back room freezers and have seen them stocked there.) <S> I have actually seen them placed frozen and allowed to thaw in the bunker. <S> This makes me see red when the label clearly states that it is a "fresh" turkey. <S> So, essentially you are paying much more per pound because it is thawed or partially thawed when you buy it. <S> In the case you describe, it sounds like the turkey was only partially thawed. <S> And you are correct, meat freezes and thaws from the outside in . <S> EDIT <S> I wanted to note that @Jolenealaska has given very accurate information in her answer. <S> However, in grocery markets the refrigerated stock areas do not see temps that low and the freezer temps are much lower, often below 0°. <S> Even if you have a local butcher shop and a butcher that you trust, and all guidelines were followed, if the inside is frozen the outside had to be frozen at some point . <A> I don't know anything about the laws regarding what can be labeled as "fresh", but to answer your actual question, no, meat (or anything else) won't freeze from the inside, out. <S> I suppose one could put some sort of hot or cold probe that was above/below freezing into the center of the meat. <S> Then it would happen in the reverse direction. <A> First principals of thermodynamics, heat will flow from a high-temperature region into a low temperature region. <S> Given that meat is essentially a solid, the only heat transfer will be via conduction, i.e., you must cool (or heat) from the outside in. <S> You could inject liquid nitrogen, etc. <S> as has been suggested, but another solution is to alter the freezing temperature from the outside by soaking the meat in a salt bath selectively lowering the freezing point of the outer layer of the meat. <S> Then store the meat is a freezer slightly below the freezing temperature of normal meat, but above the temperature of the salted outer layer. <S> The meat will then freeze from the inside. <S> Clearly you could oversalt the meat, and in fact this would be required to get a significant difference in freezing temperature between the inner and outer layers. <S> Commercial turkeys are commonly injected with chemicals that could result in very small differences in freezing temperatures, but it is a real stretch to believe that any commercial turkey would actually freeze from the inside first based on chemical differences. <A> Depending on what you mean by "the inside", no, it's not possible for something to freeze from the inside out. <S> The physics of the situation come from the second law of thermodynamics heat cannot spontaneously move from a cold place to a hot place. <S> So, when you put an object in the freezer, the surface starts to give up its heat to the surroundings, then the interior starts to give up its heat to the surface and so on. <S> The net effect is that the interior is always at least as hot than the exterior while the meat is in the freezer. <S> When you take it out of the freezer, the opposite happens: the outside warms up first because the environment gives heat to the outside, which passes it on to the inside and so on. <S> So the only way that your turkey could be frozen on the inside but not on the outside is if it was frozen the whole way through and partially defrosted. <S> The only remaining question is what exactly you mean by "the inside". <S> If you mean that, for example, the centre of the breast was frozen then the whole thing was definitely frozen at some point. <S> If, on the other hand, you mean that the part of the breast closest to the bone was frozen, then it could be that bone conducts heat better than flesh, in which case the flesh next to the bones would freeze first because of the cold air in the cavity. <A> Isn't simply possible that the meat inside the turkey has less fat resulting in a higher freezing temperature point than the meat outside? <S> Whatever the reason is would seem reasonable to think that a hot blooded animal typically exposed to cold temperature would evolve in such a way.
|
The meat would freeze or thaw from the outside, in.
|
Buttermilk substitute for making creme fraiche? I want to make creme fraiche. I have 2 cups of heavy cream, but I can't find any buttermilk in my Country. I've read that it can be substituted with lemon juice, or vinegar mixed with milk. The problem is that for creme fraiche you need the bacteria from the buttermilk right? So how can I substitute my buttermilk for this recipe? <Q> This recipe! <S> found here , calls for buttermilk or sour cream. <S> Perhaps you can find sour cream. <S> Crème fraîche 1 cup heavy or whipping cream, room temperature 1 tablespoon buttermilk or 1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature <S> In a jar with a lid, place whipping cream and buttermilk (or sour cream); cover securely and shake 15 seconds. <S> Set aside at room temperature for 24 hours or until very thick. <S> Stir once or twice during that time. <S> NOTE: <S> Cream will thicken faster if the room is warm. <S> Stir thickened creme fraiche well. <S> Refrigerate at least 6 hours before serving. <S> Cover tightly and store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. <A> Well if you are not getting buttermilk, why not try making it yourself!! <S> The method is really very simple and just needs two things - Full Cream Milk and a Blender/Mixer. <S> All you have to do is keep a pot full of cold drinking water besides you. <S> Then pour the milk in the blender jar and blend it until the fat separates from the milk and starts to form lumps. <S> Once these lumps are formed, you can filter the mixture to get the buttermilk. <S> Also the lumps of fat is the butter so you can squeeze the lump together and float it in the cold water pot for sometime so that it keeps set like that. <S> Only thing to take care is that milk should be cold preferrably out of the fridge so that the fats don't melt. <S> I hope you ll be able to get some fresh buttermilk this way!! <S> Edit <S> This is a very local method of separating buttermilk in my country. <S> If it doesn't suit your purpose you might want to look at the following page: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-a-quick-easy-buttermilk-substitute-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-185757 <A> I added two tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to a cup of cream and let it sit for eight hours and produced a lovely creme fraiche. <S> Also, I did the the same procedure with lemon juice and it turned out similarly. <S> One never can produce what is consumed overseas so by using your local ingredients, a product will be produced specific to you. <S> Try fruited vinegars like pear or berry for a unique dessert dip. <A> On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen has the following recipe: A home version of crème fraîche can be made by adding some cultured buttermilk or sour cream, which contain cream-culture bacteria, to heavy cream (1 tablespoon per cup / 15ml per 250ml), and letting it stand at a cool room temperature for 12 to 18 hours or until thick. <S> Therefore for the magic to happen the bacteria must be present. <S> And absolutely not UHT.
|
Check ingredients of your cream base: it should list cultured cream or, sometimes, cultures themselves.
|
How do I make my sourdough bread dough stretchy and not have it tear? I've been trying to make chewy sourdough bread and it's not going as planned. I read somewhere that if you mix and knead the bread a lot and avoid adding a lot of sugar and use a lot of water that should aid gluten development to make the dough chewy. Also I read that the dough should be stretchy and if you pull two pieces apart it's supposed to be transparent. Well, I don't have anything anywhere near that. My starter was super fluffy. I took 2 cups of starter, added about 1 cup of water with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tea spoon of brown sugar already dissolved. Then I kept adding flour and mixing in one direction until it didn't mix with a spoon anymore. Then I kneaded it for about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. I tried to avoid adding too much flour to keep the water percentage up, but that's hard to do when you are kneading on a wooden board and the dough keeps sticking. I finally got it to where there was an even layer of dough stuck to the pen so the piece I was kneading didn't stick to it too much anymore, but the dough still refuses to be stretchy. I pull on a piece and it tears with a ragged edge. That's after 1/2-3/4 hour of non-stop kneading. Finally I gave up because it wasn't getting better. I let it rise for 1 1/2 hours between a heating pad and covered with electric blanket on top. Then I kneaded it again. At first it was slightly more stretchy, but the more I kneaded it the less stretchy it got. I didn't add a lot of flour at this stage either so it kept sticking to the board. Now it's back to the original non-stretchy, tearing consistency. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? Edit: I should mention that I'm using King Arthur bread flour, so the protein content is most likely not a problem. <Q> I blame the acid. <S> Sourdough starters can get very acidic and this breaks up the gluten and makes for very short dough, and dense bread. <S> I've had a lot of success using less starter and let it rise in the fridge. <S> You'll get all the flavor without letting to much acid break things up. <S> In general, your expectations of sourdough should not be the same as for other artisan bread. <S> Sourdough bread does not have as open a texture. <S> The more sour it gets the stickier and the smaller the crumb. <S> When all else fails you can still form a boule. <S> It will look funny as it will flatten as it proofs but will still taste great. <A> Your recipe is to blame. <S> Your dough is stiff and tears because it isn't wet enough. <S> Most sourdough recipes yield dough around 80% hydration (the weight of water/the weight of flour). <S> The recipe you've cited relies on the starter providing all the hydration for the dough. <S> Doing the math, following the feeding instructions, you would have a starter that is 55% hydration. <S> Adding all the flour called for in the dough recipe, you would end up with a dough that is about 45% hydration... stiffer than bagels (50-55%). <S> While it is possible to make dough that doesn't have any added water, it is not common, especially with such a stiff starter. <S> Also, the volume of flour would be much smaller than the volume of starter. <S> Try using a tried and true recipe that doesn't rely on the starter to provide all of the hydration. <S> Don't worry so much about gluten production and how sugar or fat will affect it. <S> Small amounts of these enrichments, like those in the recipe you linked to, will soften the interior of the bread and help the crust brown nicely. <S> Just look at brioche if you want an example of how far you can push enrichment and still get a well structured bread. <A> I agree with the "isn't wet enough" answer by Didgeridrew, but I don't think the problem is the recipe. <S> You say I kneaded it for about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. <S> I tried to avoid adding too much flour to keep the water percentage up, but that's hard to do when you are kneading on a wooden board and the dough keeps sticking. <S> That's your problem right there: you kept adding flour. <S> If you are doing it for 45 minutes, you added a lot of it. <S> I know that it's very unusual to start kneading wet doughs, but this is indeed how it's supposed to go. <S> It will stick. <S> Let it stick. <S> A really wet dough will smear all over your hands and the board; this doesn't matter. <S> Just keep kneading. <S> Don't add any flour at all. <S> When the gluten is ready, it will pull everything back together by itself. <S> Once you get accustomed to it, you'll be able to handle really wet dough - I've done 90%, I didn't have a board there, but had to pour it from one hand into the other, it flowed like lava for the first 15 minutes. <S> And another thing: decide what hydration percentage you want and stick to it. <S> Measure by weight. <S> The "flour varies by absorbency" part is indeed true, but you have to be experienced in dough handling to know when your dough needs more water and when less. <S> If you aren't, stay with the exact hydration amount. <S> And don't make changes to a recipe; if one doesn't work, find a better one. <S> Changing is much harder. <S> And a final thing: don't get too hung up on the windowpane test (stretching without tearing). <S> Once you have kneaded a few doughs by hand to the proper stage, you will notice what consistency you need. <S> The windowpane is not completely reliable.
|
While different types of flour do absorb different quantities of water, I think most of the issues you're experiencing are due to the ambiguousness of the recipe and instructions you're using.
|
When is a food considered a delicacy? I had an interesting discussion today during lunch on when a food can actually be 'declared' a delicacy. Is there someone saying "this is hereby to be put on the delicacy-list", or is this something that goes by word of mouth?Also, who determines that an item should be classified as this? <Q> I found your question very interesting as, even though we know there are delicacies, I never thought about how something came to be considered a delicacy. <S> The following excerpt from an article in psmag.com sheds a little light on the subject. <S> The article in its entirety is very interesting and demonstrates how the same thing may or may not be a delicacy today and the opposite tomorrow. <S> Cultural influences lead to the difference in the habitual consumption of certain foods and in traditions of preparation, and in certain cases can lead to restrictions such as exclusion of meat and milk from the diet. <S> Cultural influences are however amenable to change: when moving to a new country individuals often adopt particular food habits of the local culture. <S> Social influences on food intake refer to the impact that one or more persons have on the eating behavior of others, either direct (buying food) or indirect (learn from peer’s behavior), either conscious (transfer of beliefs) or subconscious. <S> Even when eating alone, food choice is influenced by social factors because attitudes and habits develop through the interaction with others. <S> However, quantifying the social influences on food intake is difficult because the influences that people have on the eating behavior of others are not limited to one type and people are not necessarily aware of the social influences that are exerted on their eating behavior. <A> who determines that an item should be classified as this <S> You do. <S> There is no official list of delicacies. <S> No authority on deciding what food is tasty. <S> If, to you, lavender chocolate is a delicacy, then you can say so. <S> Others will say that it isn't, that it tastes like soap and, and they can't bring themselves to eat it. <S> Saying "I like bacon" is just a personal statement about your preferences. <S> Saying "Bacon is a delicacy" is a personal statement which carries a bit more information, namely that you find bacon tasty, but also consider it a luxury food item, as opposed to an everyday food (although this second semantic distinction is somewhat lost nowadays). <S> As tastes tend to be shared within a culture, you will probably find that the people around you tend to agree somewhat on what is a delicacy, although it's not a complete overlap. <S> This can appear as if there a universal agreement on what is a delicacy. <S> And I don't doubt that somebody, somewhere has compiled something they call a list of delicacies, the same way that a movie fan will compile a list of "really funny comedies". <S> Both have equally little validity - what is funny to that person will not always be funny to you, even though there will be a correlation if you grew up in the same culture. <A> However modern refrigeration and transportation has made food from all over the world much more available then it once was. <S> So delicacies have become much more personal then cultural as one persons stable diet of chocolate will be another persons delicacy. <S> Cultural delicacies are often in abundance around important cultural events like Christmas. <S> I remember the first time I had turkey and cranberry sauce when it was not Christmas. <S> It was incredible and to me because for me that was a delicacy only available at Christmas. <S> And then of course one cultures delicacies like triple smoked crispy fried bacon is another cultures garbage. <S> So delicacies are influenced by personal taste and experience to cultural ritual.
|
Delicacy's are traditionally based on food availability and cultural and personal taste which is also related to geography and culture.
|
How do I take the heat out of my chili? I made chili and it's too hot! If I cook it longer will the heat calm down? <Q> No cooking it longer will make it worse. <S> In my experience chili stays the same or gets hotter with age. <S> s you used and then mix the two batches together but failing making a new batch serve it with a dairy product like melted cheese or plain yoghurt. <S> The proteins from the milk attach to the chili heat and coat them <S> so your mouth is protected from the heat. <S> But be warned it only cuts the heat in your mouth and <S> what goes in must come out if you know what I mean. <A> Acids tend to reduce the heat of chilli, so you could try adding some vinegar or lime juice. <S> If that makes the dish too acidic, add some sugar to balance it out. <S> Dairy also reduces the heat so you could serve with sour cream and/or cheese, or even stir some butter into the chilli, which would also give it a slightly richer taste. <A> I added an undiluted can of tomato soup but the real saviour was butter which immediately calmed the whole dutch oven batch to a really great tasting chili. <S> I probably stirred in a good 2 tblsp. <S> Finally, if serving in bowls, as I didn't have sour cream, I did a little spiral of ranch dressing on top. <S> GREAT ! <A> I made a whole large pot of chili with 2 pounds of meat, and cooked it too long. <S> It got too spicy, from cooking too long, and went searching. <S> One site said add butter. <S> I added a whole stick of regular salted butter, large pot. <S> It totally worked!
|
If your Chili is too hot the best thing to do is make another batch without the chili or Tabasco or the heat ingredient/ Also sweet and vinegar based accompaniments will also reduce the heat a little but the best are milk products or you can drink milk while eating it to cut the heat in your mouth.
|
Why should or shouldn't I peel button mushrooms? I've peeled my button mushrooms since cooking with a friend once, who did it, but I've never understood why, if at all, it's advisable. Searching shows a fairly wide range of opinions but I see no reason attached to either side. Is it purely aesthetic? <Q> from the surface without the trouble of brushing or washing. <S> It's arguably quicker to peel mushrooms than to brush them (though not in my experience) and many people don't like washing them because they absorb a little bit of the water, which is counter-productive when e.g. sauteing. <S> However, peeling them means you are wasting some of your ingredients, and even a very dirty button mushroom is trivial to clean by washing or brushing. <S> I rarely find it necessary to clean supermarket mushrooms at all as they tend to be very clean on the shelf. <S> If they're dusty, a gentle pat with a clean, damp sponge does the trick. <S> I would advise against peeling unless you're going for a specific visual presentation that requires it. <S> See also: How to clean mushrooms? <A> I don't peel mine, or didn't until I found a "working woman" cookbook which used the stems & peels to make mushroom stock for soup the day after making grilled mushrooms. <S> Aside from doing that, I've never done it. <S> You need to be doing a lot of mushrooms to make this cost effective and I don't think mushrooms freeze well, so that's out. <S> It's my understanding that peeling mushrooms is like washing meat, advice previously given as a default and no longer viewd that way. <S> Washing meat is considered dangerous now. <S> I think that the mushroom thing is optional at this point <S> , mostly I do NOT, unless I plan to make soup the next day! <A> I only peel my wild mushrooms if they say to peel them in the field guide, otherwise I leave them as is. <A> My mother is from England, growing up they used to forage for mushrooms. <S> She was told to always peel them. <S> I found on line the probable reason; there is a folklore that if you could peel the cap - it wasn't poisonous. <S> BUT that is a myth! <S> She still wants me to peel mushrooms, but since any mushrooms I use come from the supermarket :) , I decline, and she oftens picks them out of salads. <S> If the mushrooms are cooked I can usually sneak them by her. <S> She is now 97 <A> I`m sure it might be a good idea if eating raw mushrooms. <S> But I`m also sure that if cooking, all the germs and bad stuff will be killed and your mushrooms will be perfect and safe to eat. <A> I peel mine, because they’re grown in manure! <S> As a health professional, I have an aversion to eating fecal matter, not to mention anything else that might be living in the manure, such as the nematodes mentioned below.
|
The only motivation I'm aware of for peeling button mushrooms other than wanting a very clean, white appearance is to remove dirt, dust, grit, compost, etc.
|
Why does my pizza dough stick to my peel? I've been experimenting with Neapolitan pizza dough( recipe ) and what I would call a normal wooden peel( here ). I have run into trouble transferring the pizza from the peel to my baking steel in the oven on about 10% of my pizzas. Usually what happens is I'm fine transferring the first 1-2 pizzas, but by the 3rd or 4th in a row(within 20mins or so) the pizza sticks to the peel and causes a huge mess in the oven and me to throw out the dough. The way I am making dough is about as wet as I can make it, I add about 20-30g to the existing recipe noted above to make it extra wet. I flour the peel, dough, my hands, and working surface quite liberally with a dredge . I stretch the dough about as far as possible for 200g pizza, until it almost tears. I did find a tip on YouTube where they recommended lifting up the edge of the dough after it is prepared on the peel, and blowing under the pizza dough to "lift" it up before trying to launch it off of the peel. I do this each time and still run into my issue. Note - I do own an aluminum peel as well, but the first and only time I tried that to transfer the dough into the oven I failed so I'm too afraid to try it again without further advice on the matter( this peel ) Here is what my dough usually looks like with the peel I normally use floured and ready to be launched into the oven: Here was a successful peel to steel transfer to give you an idea of my oven and setup: <Q> You might have better luck with cornmeal or semolina flour on the peel, those have a "ball bearing" quality to them, even in addition to some regular flour on the dough. <S> Be sure your pizza is sliding easily before you move to the oven. <S> Practice the motion a bit with just some plain dough some day. <S> There is a bit it a trick to it, a left to right motion to get it nice and loose, and quick front to back motion to get it into the oven. <S> Here's a YouTube video , he gets into the peel at 4:30. <S> If you want to spend the money, this is a foolproof option: EXO Peel , they demonstrated it on America's Test Kitchen. <S> It was really nifty. <A> The semolina flour has a higher temp rating and is more compatible to the pizza dough that results in a gentle sweet taste. <S> Clean the pan in the oven after each pizza with the hand mitt to take away the cooked flour otherwise this browning flavor gets transferred to the bottom of the crust. <S> White or wheat flours will burn easily and leave a chalky taste. <S> Cornmeal can be used but it is very crunchy and nothing like what is used in the restaurants. <S> Shorten the time between placing the ingredients on the dough disk and entry into the oven. <S> Slide often with the flour below. <S> If it sticks anywhere, add the flour at the edges and lift slightly up to get it around the disk. <S> Then perform the slide technique to get it all together. <S> If it rests for more than 2 min. <S> slide it back an forth to keep it loose. <A> Here's what works for me. <S> 50% wheat flour 50% <S> either cornmeal, semolina, or rice flour <S> This mix causes the bottom of the dough to absorb some of the wheat flour to prevent the bottom from being 'wet' and as @jolenealaska says, the other component acts like 'ball bearings' to keep the dough moving. <S> I usually keep this mix in a shaker for general purpose bread non-stick flour stuff. <S> Use that mixture to A) <S> dust the peel, and B)rub some on the dough and then flip it over onto the peel. <S> If you just dust the peel, it will often absorb the flour too quickly and stick. <S> After dusting the peel and rubbing some onto the dough, timing is the most critical factor. <S> You have to be fast.
|
If the dough is sitting on the peel more than just 30-60 seconds, I usually have stick-age.
|
Smoke alarms go off now that we have a gas stove didn't when we had electric Our smoke alarms are constantly going off while cooking now that we have had to replace our stove. My wife didn't really like the electric so when it was necessary to replace it, we went with gas. Ever since, nearly every time we cook, especially if we fry bacon, or something like that, the smoke alarms go off. We had to disconnect the one in the hallway near the kitchen, and we have to make sure our master bedroom door is closed. But, it still trips the alarms all the way across the living room in the main hallway. Since they are all interconnected, they all go off at the same time. Since our home was about 10 years old, I replaced all of them last year, but, they still go off just the same. The stove is clean and now the smoke alarms are clean. I know we are not generating smoke every time we cook. That might happen on a rare occasion, but, this is becoming annoying! Any suggestions? <Q> There are a variety of types of smoke detectors. <S> Those that are most prone to being set off in the way you describe are the ionization type. <S> These detectors are, however, cheaper to buy and operate as well as more sensitive to fast burning fires that produce little visible smoke. <S> In areas such as the kitchen or directly outside of a bathroom with a shower it is advisable to use a photoelectric smoke detector in order to avoid false alarms. <S> These detectors are triggered when visible smoke interrupts a light beam, so they are better at detecting smoking, smoldering fires. <S> Other tips: Always use the exhaust fan <S> : Cooking is one of the biggest sources of indoor air pollution, so use your vent hood. <S> Make sure the detector you are tripping isn't a dual smoke/carbon monoxide (CO) detector. <S> Improper combustion from a gas range or oven can create carbon monoxide, an odorless, colorless, poisonous gas. <S> If it is a dual detector and you decide to replace it, make sure to install a dedicated CO detector in the kitchen area. <S> If it goes off you will need to have your range and oven serviced or replaced. <S> http://depletedcranium.com/the-war-against-ionization-smoke-detectors/ <A> I don't know why gas ranges sometimes cause that problem, but you're not the first I've heard <S> say it. <S> What I can offer is a solution. <S> Buy a shower cap, one of the cheap types that are sometimes offered in hotel rooms. <S> Slip one of those on the closest smoke detector. <S> Since your detectors are interconnected, removing the battery every time you cook is probably a PIA, if even possible, the shower cap only takes a second. <S> I do that when I sear steaks. <S> I used to remove the batteries, but the shower cap is quicker, easier, and works just as well. <S> Call the people who installed the range, they might have a more permanent solution. <S> Plus, I'd be concerned that you might have some kind of a small leak, it's worth checking out. <A> I think you are getting more false alarms is due to the pressure and heat let off by the gas range. <S> The gas is under pressure and the actual flame is combusting causing air currents. <S> One can feel the current even a foot above the flame, which you will not feel on the electric stove. <S> The electric stove only produces dry heat with no use of pressure from the gas. <S> It is this pressure, and of course hot air rises, along with fat/oil vapors. <S> Also if you have a recirculating exhaust, this can also lead to more false alarms, if the filters are not changed/cleaned regularly. <A> Frying throws droplets of fat into the air. <S> While these droplets are unlikely to set off the smoke alarm themsleves, if they encouter the flame (or even the hot air just above the flame) they will partially burn, leading to smoke. <S> Spitting fat hitting an electric hotplate would have the same effect but is much less likely. <S> If the flame is well contained under the pan <S> you're much less likely to burn off any fat <S> (also it's more efficient and safer in terms of igniting more fat). <S> Depending on the shape of your pan/previous electric hob, there could also be dirt/labels on the bottom of the pan which burn more on the gas. <S> But this is likely to only happen once or twice.
|
As you burn gas on your range or in the oven, it produces carbon dioxide and water vapor, both of which can trigger the sensor on an ionization-type smoke detector. A spatter guard might also help (like a lid made of metal mesh).
|
What is a good technique for making candy floss (cotton candy)? I have a candy floss machine, but I'm struggling to get the floss all together. It just flies around and makes a mess of the bowl. It looks like this: What is a good technique for making a stick of candy floss? <Q> It's been decades since I've done it, and it was with a full size professional machine (from a party rental store). <S> Pull up while scraping the stick along the side of the machine. <S> There was spinning involved, too. <S> I want to say that you spun the stick after you had the candy clear of the machine, not while it was in the machine, but my memory of that part is a bit hazy. <S> Never put your hand into the machine. <S> I don't know if it was the hot sugar getting flung off, or some sort of a straw nozzle flailing about, but whatever it is, it hurts. <S> (that much I remember). <S> It's possible that the procedure is different for smaller, personal machines. <S> For one, they don't tend to have as much space to accumulate the floss to make a full cone in one pass. <A> I found this video on YouTube that happens to be exactly your product. <S> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIMQ5moX37A . <S> It just shows her using the machine, there is no explanation, but you might find it helpful. <S> One thing I see right off the bat is that your little machine takes a lot longer than professional ones I've seen, but it seems to do the trick. <A> I run the cotton candy machines for our Shriner Circus. <S> What we do is wait for the floss to start forming on the sides, take a paper cone or stick and touch it to the floss. <S> Then we start rotating it around the bowl opposite the direction it is being spun. <S> You can also spin the stick or cone which may work better for you. <S> Ours produces a lot of floss and it works better to circle the bowl. <A> That model is considered a toy basically asking how to make a wedding cake in your EZ bake. <S> First let machine warm up for at least 3-5 minutes. <S> Second turn machine off and add sugar. <S> Preferably gold medals Floss sugar as it works the easiest. <S> Turn machine back on. <S> Now the toy aspect of the machine starts. <S> The spinner is small and the Floss holes are very few the bowl is also plastic. <S> It will come out very wispy and stick to the sides like glue. <S> Best you can hope for is a 1/4 to 1/2 size cone in around 2 minutes. <S> By spinning and small circles.
|
From what I remember: Wait for it to accumulate on the sides Reach in with a stick or a paper cone, down to the bottom of the spun sugar
|
How does one break long bones for broth? When attempting to cook bone broths, what is the correct technique of breaking up long bones which do not fit inside the crock pot? I can think of hammering or sawing off hand, but both seem to be rather messy techniques. Is there any good method to break off large bones (relatively) safely? <Q> A normal hammer (one that is used for nails) will not suffice for breaking relatively strong bones, such as the leg bones. <S> Personal experience: I bought a pork knuckle, and attempted to break the bone with a hammer (600g head), and it resisted 5 minutes of straight hammering, despite the fact that the surface was significantly dented, and many bone fragments were scattered about the room. <S> A few online searches suggested that a sledgehammer would be required to break bones for broth. <S> In short, get the butcher to do it for you. <S> You probably don't have the necessary equipment needed to smash bones. <A> Use a old wooden chopping board, so as to absorb the impacts, and take the odd miss-hit <A> A hacksaw (used for cutting metal) is a relatively inexpensive hand tool. <S> Keep a blade set aside for food use only, or buy a new one if you don't use it frequently for that purpose. <S> That's good for more even, straight bones. <S> I'm not sure how that would work on a knuckle bone like others are talking about. <S> A farmer at the outdoor market had a beef femur that he sold me for $3 <S> (whether he should bring it and try to sell <S> it was obviously the cause of some family disagreement/discussion, as his pre-teen son freaked out when he heard that his dad actually sold the darn thing). <S> I used the hacksaw to get it into the stockpot. <S> When I was done making stock from it, I hung the two halves from the tree in our front yard as part of Halloween decorations. <A> just adding another method for options ... <S> For really big bones like cow, deer, elk, etc. <S> leg bones, femur, scapula, etc. <S> Set a bone on or wrapped in an old, clean towel on a concrete sidewalk or driveway Holding a 6# sledge hammer by the handle with the head hanging straight down about 2 feet above the bone, hit the bone <S> So, starting out with very little added force and increasing until the bone breaks gives me a rough idea of how much force will be needed for the next bone <S> it doesn't require much accuracy, but gives a lot more control over the amount of force applied to avoid big bone splinters flying about no part of my body is in danger of getting hit <S> yes, it could unseat the hammer head from the handle, but that's very fixable with all that said, I'd prefer to use a hacksaw, but I don't need it often enough to justify buying and storing one exclusively for safe food use <A> We wanted to break lamb shank bones in half to make stock. <S> We have a garage full of equipment, but some was contaminated with metal/oil etc. <S> and not food safe, and others were hard to clean and so we didn't want to contaminate them with food particles. <S> We settled on a ratchet limb cutter. <S> We cleaned the two small blades with alcohol (before and after use) and were able to cut the shank bones. <S> Just barely though, so this wouldn't work on larger bones.
|
A chefs hammer or small tacking hammer will do the job fine Uncooked bones break quite cleanly, and should not splinter when given a decent hammer blow (as if hammering in a nail)
|
How should glasses/cups be oriented in storage? I believe that it's better to store glasses/cups right-side-up in the cupboard, but at work everyone stores them upside-down. Which is safer/more sanitary? <Q> In bars and restaurants, you often see plastic mesh like this: <S> That webbing lines trays, shelves and the area beside the sink for drying dishes. <S> The mesh keeps the dishes or glasses, which may still be damp, from actually touching the surface they're sitting on. <S> In the case of glasses, it also keeps the glasses from forming a seal to the surface beneath. <S> That mesh often gets cleaned, as does the surface under them. <S> In that case, it makes sense to store glasses up-side-down. <S> Do you have mesh lining your cabinet? <S> Are the cabinet shelves wiped down regularly? <S> If not, it is far more sanitary to store your glasses right-side-up, and to be sure that they are dry before they are put away. <A> Where did this urban myth start? <S> Storing a cup upside down has few real advantages. <S> The usual story is that it prevents cockroaches from crawling all over the cups. <S> If this is the problem, then why don't people store their plates and bowls upside down, which roaches etc would definitely crawl over. <S> I might be wrong, but, my experience is that roaches that fall into a cup, stay there. <S> Evidenced by the poor woman who discovered an upturned roach in the bottom of her parfait glass under the trifle, at a wedding reception where I was working. <S> The trifle was brilliant up to that point. <S> I'll never forget the muffled squealing! <S> Sorry. <S> I do store glasses or mugs upside down, sometimes, if the base is small and the rim large, to avoid them toppling over. <S> Storing cups, glasses, mugs upside down: Pros <S> May save some airborne dust, but, in a cupboard and used regularly, dust rarely has time to accumulate. <S> I swill out my cups with left over boiling water (in the case of tea) anyway. <S> Would stop roaches etc from entering the cup but, negated by the fact that the rim is definitely exposed to a dirty surface. <S> Prevents cups toppling if base is significantly smaller than the rim. <S> Incidentally, if none of this matters to you, cups/mugs stored alternatively, in both orientations, may allow for more efficient storage. <S> This allows people the option of both preferences. <S> Cons Rim of cup exposed to dirty, unhygienic dirt and cockroach surface, rarely cleaned. <S> Traps remnant moisture possibly allowing the dirty cupboard surface particles to stick to the rim of the cup much like the salt on a margarita glass. <A> Bars and restaurants store glasses upside down to keep them clean from splashes of drink/food while in racks in the busy production areas. <S> There is little chance of trapped moisture causing mould etc. <S> as most glasses are used every day. <S> It is more awkward to turn glasses over as they are served, but saves having to cover them all the time <S> This is generally not a problem in a domestic environment, and glasses should be stored in normal position to ensure they do not retain any trapped moisture and therefore grow mould etc. <A> Some people don't want to put the part of the glass your mouth touches on the possibly dirty cupboard bottom. <S> Let's assume that the insides of your cupboards are clean enough (you have no mice, rodents etc) <S> that this is not an issue. <S> Further, let's assume that you have cupboard doors and the aforementioned lack of vermin, <S> so worrying about dust and pests getting into an upturned glass is not an issue. <S> What does that leave you, if cleanliness is not a problem? <S> I stack many (but not all) of my cups and glasses. <S> Grabbing the top one from an upside-down stack is easy - you have the whole cup surface to grab. <S> Grabbing the top one from a right-side up stack is hard - you have to grab just the little bit that sticks out the top. <S> Therefore all stackable cups go in upside down. <S> For the sake of consistency, so do the others. <A> If you ever spent time in a hospital setting, you would have been instructed to place cups/glassware right-side up in cupboards to prevent contamination from germs. <S> It makes sense. <S> You put your lips against the rim, but never ever lick the bottom of a cup or glass. <A> rim side down. <S> i was raised in a household where my parents were depression era kids. <S> they got in the habit of putting glassware rim side down to avoid the glasses filling with dust from the dustbowl clouds that blew through on a regular basis. <S> it just stuck over the generations and became how you do things in our house. <A> I get the stated question is more sanitary Consider what is easier. <S> A lot of people do what is easy. <S> They come out of the dishwasher up side down. <S> I worked a dishwasher in a restaurant and I could pull 4 out of the rack at a time and put them on the shelf. <S> If I had to grab them one at a time and flip them it would take 4 times as long. <S> If you are stacking them and bringing them out in a stack the stack is more stable. <S> Can pull them off the stack more easily up side down. <A> Logically, I would choose to store them upside-down, both to 1) Maintain a cleaner/more sterile glass interior, and 2) having slightly hard water, to avoid a cloudy spot drying in the bottom of the glass (if they are stored before being fully dry). <S> That being said, I still tend to store them right side-up for aesthetic reasons.
|
If the glasses are at all damp, it may make sense to store them up-side-down. If they bind and have to wiggle it is easier up side down.
|
How does the carrot in deep fryer trick work? So I just heard about putting a carrot in the deep fryer so as to pick up the burnt junk and keep the oil clean for longer. I tried it. It works! Now I'm wondering how it works, and what other veggies or whatnot can be substituted in place of the carrot? <Q> As to the science behind why this works, I can only guess. <S> Other suggestions were a slice of bread or lemon peel . <S> Weird — but interesting. <S> The Young Woman's Journal, Volume 12 (1901) <S> Mrs. De Graf's Cook Book (1922) Olive Oil: From Tree to Table (2007) <S> When you have finished frying, clarify the oil by frying a piece of bread, a strip of lemon peel, or a slice of potato in it. <A> I am wondering if the mechanic behind this is the same as that used to clarify wine in the winemaking process. <S> Some wines have a predilection to get cloudy with colloidal material, or just tiny particulates held in suspension. <S> If a wine does not clarify on its own through gravity/sedimentatin, you can add ingredients to it that will by one mechanic or another join with the particals, and allow them to fall out of solution. <S> Some of these reactions are ionic, some are absorbative, some just are gunky and sticky to the particles. <S> Examples area clay from wyoming <S> , I can't remember the exact name.egg yolkissinglass (it comes from fish guts) <S> I wonder if the potato and carrot have something that binds to the particles in the oil in a similar fashion. <A> I'm not sure where you got the idea, but it most likely does not work at all - the carrot does not clean the oil, the sugars in it are just getting caramelized by the heat, so the carrot gets darker and darker because it gets burned. <S> I suspect it can even be the reason why the oil was getting darker towards the end. <S> If this trick worked, everyone would be using it for decades by now (especially fast food chains). <S> There are other techniques which seem to work, such as the gelatin technique .
|
However, as to other things you can try for this trick, I managed to find some references from old cookbooks about using slices of potato for clarifying their deep-fryer oil.
|
Are there any situations where untempered chocolate is better than tempered? Every chocolate-based recipe I've seen either requires tempered chocolate or can use either tempered or untempered chocolate. Are there any recipes or techniques that specifically require untempered chocolate? EDIT: I think the question might be a little unclear. To clarify, I have a block of tempered chocolate; I use this to make cordials (must be tempered) and ganache (doesn't matter). Are there any uses for it where I'd have to untemper the chocolate first? <Q> Tempering is a process used to give solid chocolate a uniform appearance and texture, as well as to insure that those qualities are shelf-stable. <S> Most commercially available chocolate is already tempered to some degree so that it has a pleasing appearance and texture for customers to enjoy right out of the box/bag. <S> Tempering is required when the final product will be made of solid chocolate or the chocolate is a component in an unadulterated state, especially in candies that will sit at room temperature. <S> These would include molded and enrobed chocolates such as chocolate bars, bonbons, leafs, and nests. <S> Recipes that add chocolate to other ingredients such as dairy, flour, and sugar can be made with either tempered or untempered chocolate because the structure of the chocolate fat crystals is no longer the dominant source of structure and texture. <S> Examples of this include cookies, brownies, ganache, ice cream, and cakes. <S> There is no normal application where untempered chocolate is required and tempered chocolate could not be used. <S> The only application I have been able to think of where untempered chocolate would be desired/required is something made for the express purpose of training <S> and/or testing chocolatiers or chocolate tasting professionals. <A> A characteristic of untempered chocolate is that it melts more easily. <S> That's generally considered bad-- <S> if you pick it up in your hand, your hand gets sticky and the surface of the chocolate gets marred. <S> But it also means that you get stronger flavor more quickly when you put it in your mouth. <S> For example, for chocolate covered strawberries, tempered chocolate results in a crunchy shell, and upon biting in the immediate effect is a crunch and hard unmelted chocolate chunks with a burst of strawberry flavor from the wet strawberry flesh. <S> As the chocolate warms in your mouth, the chocolate melts and that flavor comes in, and the chocolate lingers if you let it melt slowly. <S> On the hand, if you chew quickly and the berry is cold, you can grind up the chocolate without melting it much and even swallow it before it has melted and released its flavor. <S> With untempered chocolate, there's less of a crunch when you bite in. <S> The chocolate and strawberry tastes hit immediately and pretty much simultaneously. <S> The chocolate melts away more quickly, making the flavor linger a little less. <S> I prefer that effect taste-wise. <S> On the other hand, the strawberries are messier to handle, as the chocolate melts in your hand, and perhaps on your chin. <S> And the snob appeal is less because you don't get to show off your skill and tempering and some people might assume the lack of tempering was due to lack of skill rather than taste. <S> If you have never tried it, take a chocolate bar you like and break it in half. <S> Melt and re-cool one half. <S> Then try eating a piece from the original tempered half and a piece of the untempered half. <S> You will experience more immediate flavor from the untempered piece, but it will melt and dissipate sooner, so you get to prolong the enjoyment longer with the tempered piece. <S> A confident confectioner should understand the difference between those experiences and choose appropriately for the experience intended, rather than always using tempered chocolate based on the snobbery factor. <A> I heard of chocolate bars which are eaten in hotter regions (by soldiers?). <S> The chocolate is brittle, dry and doesn't melt in the mouth. <S> To prevent the eater trying to let the piece of chocolate melt in the mouth the chocolate should be mixed with ingredients that should be chewed anyway - like nuts. <S> I assume that this kind of chocolate is not tempered. <S> I can't find a link to this claim anymore. <S> The only thing I can remember is that this information was provided by Ritter Sport , a German brand of chocolate . <S> Close enough? <S> United States military chocolate . <S> Its ingredients were chocolate, sugar, oat flour, cacao fat, skim milk powder, and artificial flavoring. <S> Chocolate manufacturing equipment was built to move the flowing mixture of liquid chocolate and oat flour into preset molds. <S> However, the temperature-resistant formula of chocolate became a gooey paste that would not flow at any temperature. <S> Chief chemist Hinkle was forced to develop entirely new production methods to produce the bars. <S> Each four-ounce portion had to be kneaded, weighed, and pressed into a mold by hand. <S> The end result was an extremely hard block of dark brown chocolate that would crumble with some effort and was heat-resistant to 120 °F (49 °C). <A> No, there aren't. <S> Nobody likes untempered chocolate. <S> Try taking a bar of pure chocolate. <S> It's tempered. <S> Now heat it up to 50-60 Celsius. <S> Let it cool down gently. <S> What you have now is distempered chocolate. <S> There is no accounting for taste, of course, but whenever that happens, people tend to cry out "Help! <S> My chocolate is ruined!". <S> I have never met somebody who likes chocolate this way. <S> So I doubt that anybody has bothered to make a recipe for it. <S> I can't promise you that nobody has ever made a recipe for it. <S> But the probability is about the same as somebody having created a recipe for an unpeeled banana, and much for the same reasons. <A> I found a use! <S> If you melt out all of the seeds and then don't agitate the chocolate at all while it's cooling, you end up with a ganache-like paste that works pretty well for making vegan, allergen-free truffles and spreads. <S> Edit: And another! <S> When setting chocolate bark I tried using untempered chocolate that would solidify into streaky, layered flakes. <S> The texture ended up working really well with the nuts and dried fruit.
|
If you are designing a confection where that is the intent, untempered chocolate is preferable. I don't think you can get a more definite answer, as it's generally impossible to prove the nonexistence of something.
|
why does my non dairy creamer not dissolve in coffee? I use Nestle's Everyday Whitener to make coffee. But with some brands of coffee (eg: Davidoff) the creamer doesn't seem to dissolve. It instead remains suspended as granules in the coffee.But with other Nescafe brands of coffee the dissolution occurs easily.What's the difference and how do I fix it? <Q> It depends on the contents of the coffee and the creamer and how they react to each other. <S> For example some creamers are just corn syrup solids mixed with emulsifiers, and they usually mix less effectively if the coffee isn't hot enough. <S> Or, as you mentioned, if the problem is with the brand of the coffee, then it's possible that the coffee that's giving you trouble contains more oil than the other. <S> If you've soaked oily dishes in detergent, sometimes if there's enough oil, once the water cools down, there will be bits of solid oil floating on the surface. <S> It's basically the same with your coffee. <S> The warmer the temperature and the less oil, makes a better mix. <S> That said, I prefer using milk if you can. <S> If you're lactose intolerant or allergic to milk fats, I'd suggest substitutes like soy, rice, or almond milks. <S> The closest I've found is half almond, half coconut milk. <S> Or better still, just drink it black. <A> I have noticed that my non-dairy creamer dissolves just fine, unless... I dissolve the saccharin-based sweetener first. <S> If I put the saccharin-based sweetener in first, the non-dairy creamer makes lots of clumps and doesn't dissolve properly. <A> Use half and half. <S> More on the actual question though q: it may help to dissolve in just a bit of water first <S> so it's easier to really mash it in and get it all wet. <S> Just a theory though! <A> I know what you mean with the non dissolving creamer. <S> Normally though, I find it happens when the water isnt hot enough. <S> Maybe just check that it is and see if that helps <A> Your whitener may have the same problem as when I use soy milk in my coffee. <S> I have found that the curdling is also influenced by the temperature difference between the milk and the coffee. <S> For this reason I suggest: Buying coffee that you know is not too acidic for your whitener or at least heating the whitener before mixing it with the coffee.
|
With certain brands of coffee the milk curdles due to the acidity of the coffee.
|
Cooking a large pork roast in a slow cooker I need to cook a 9 pound pork roast in a crock pot/slow cooker. How long do I need to cook it? I have a recipe for a 3-4 pound roast; is there any way to adjust it for a larger roast? <Q> If you cut the nine pound roast into three equal three-pound sections, each should heat to recipe specs. <A> TL;DR: <S> Never use cooking time as a measure for meat doneness. <S> Why? <S> Well it's pretty simple. <S> According to the CDC : What is trichinellosis? <S> Trichinellosis, also called trichinosis, is caused by eating raw or undercooked meat of animals infected with the larvae of a species of worm called Trichinella. <S> Infection occurs commonly in certain wild carnivorous (meat-eating) animals such as bear or cougar, or omnivorous (meat and plant-eating) animals such as domestic pigs or wild boar. <S> There is no accurate way to know the doneness of your large roast judging by the time. <S> With scary infections like Trichinellosis <S> you don't want to risk it for your family. <S> Instead: Invest in a meat thermometer! <S> You can get a digital thermometer at most grocery and general stores, and online. <S> They are inexpensive, many read temperature practically instantly, and some types you can even leave the thermoter in the meat while it cooks. <S> Those normally have a digital display that is connected to the thermostat probe with a heat-safe wire. <S> Again, according to the CDC page above: For Whole Cuts of Meat (excluding poultry and wild game) Cook to at least 145° F (63° C) as measured with a food thermometer placed in the thickest part of the meat, then allow the meat to rest for three minutes before carving or consuming. <A>
|
I agree with using a thermometer, but a 9 lb, Boston Butt bone in, is about 8 to hours, make sure it is completely thawed and trim as much fat as you can before cooking
|
A question about browning meat for spaghetti bolognese I've been told in one form or another: "no colour, no flavour", so when cooking Spaghetti Bolognese I always brown the meat (after chucking in the onions, carrots, celery etc.). The browning does impart flavour but it also alters the texture of the minced meat - it becomes grainier, drier, etc. It's not that i'm overcooking it, I believe this to be a natural byproduct of the browning – the browning can only occur once the moisture has been cooked off, after which point the meat forms a crust and becomes harder. Is it possible to retain the flavour benefits of browning alongside the qualities of the mince being tender and moist? <Q> Kenji at Serous Eats pondered exactly this question at length. <S> (emphasis mine) <S> And now we get to the most crucial phase of the process: the long cook. <S> If you take a quick look back at that passage from Cook's Illustrated, they do make one good point: browning meat toughens it far more than simply simmering it. <S> But we also know that browning adds flavor, right? <S> In fact, some very well-respected ragù recipes call for browning the ground meats until very brown, like the version that Mario Batali makes on The Chew. <S> In that version, he cooks the meat until what he calls "beyond brown". <S> I've made that recipe (or variations close to it) <S> a number of times and have even eaten what can be presumed to be the same sauce at two of his restaurants. <S> It's absolutely packed with flavor, but I simply can't get over the dried nubs of meat you end up with when you brown ground meat past the last inch of its life. <S> Surely there has to be a way to get great browned flavor without having to reduce the tender meat to dry rubble? <S> In point of fact, the whole reason I was extra excited for Bolognese season to start this year was because of this slow-cooked tomato sauce technique I developed a few months back. <S> The concept is simple: rather than simmering a pot of tomato sauce in a pot on the stovetop, just transfer the whole thing to the oven. <S> Not only does the oven deliver more even heat and better reduction with less mess, but it also creates delicious caramelized bits of tomato on the top surface of the sauce and around the edges of the pot which you can stir back into the finished sauce for richer, deeper, more complex flavor. <S> He's got another secret for his amazing Bolognese: Fish Sauce. <S> (no joke) <S> Umami bomb <S> Doesn't that look good? <S> He gets down and dirty with all of the explanation of his technique in the article linked to in the beginning of this answer. <S> The recipe (it's a beaut) is here EDIT HA! <S> I made it (with half the liver), and it turned out great! <A> When I make Bolognese I take the mince carefully from the packet in its cuboid shape and place it straight onto a smoking cast iron and then flip it after a few short minutes, like a rare steak. <S> The ratio of caramelised to pink meat it the same as in a good steak. <S> When it comes to the liquid cooking stage, the cuboid can be broken up to give a good mix between Maillard-y goodness and succulent, untainted meat. <S> For me, separating the strands of mince first just causes the strands to boil in their own juices (and, let's face it, the injected water which pours out). <S> Because they are so thin, they cook straight through before any colour is achieved. <S> Edit: <S> I see a some posts suggesting to brown the meat with vegetables in the same pan. <S> I think this is undesirable as A high heat is required for meat browning which can burn vegetables (especially garlic) <S> Vegetables introduce more water and so inhibit the reaction between the pan surface, meat and oil which creates the caramelised flavours we desire <A> When I brown mince I start with the mince alone, get it nice and brown till all the fat is released. <S> Then I pour off the majority of the fat, I can only afford the cheap stuff <S> so there is a lot possibly a cup full. <S> Then I throw my onions and garlic in till tender, then add the rest. <S> By the sounds of it, what you are doing is essentially boiling your mince first is all the water coming from your veg and meat. <S> Till breaks down the mince to a horrible grainy texture, then you are Browning the grains. <S> Also when adding the tomatoes you need to pretend you are making a soup, low and slow. <S> Boiling too rapidly will again effect the texture of your mince. <S> Don't add salt until near the end. <S> Adding it at the start draws more moisture from the meat before the Browning can start. <S> Adding it before you've reduced the tomatoes can risk an overly salty sauce at the end, due to higher concentration. <S> I think if you keep those 3 points in your mind next time, you won't find it so dry and grainy. <A> Classically speaking the meat should be browned in batches so it doesn't stew. <S> You don't want all those juices to run out of the meat. <S> That is how you end up with dry meat in the end product. <A> The simplest way is to use higher heat. <S> Put the meat alone on high heat, and stir it now and then until ready. <S> If you want to cook the vegetables for a very long time, it might make sense to wait until the last 15 minutes or so before adding the meat. <S> If you are not cooking the sauce in the same pan as the one in which you browned the meat, it makes sense to deglaze and add the liquid to the sauce. <S> Also, I wouldn't throw out the fat, that's where the taste is. <S> But most people's preferences differ on that point. <A> I let that simmer until there the entire meat is brown (as kids we used to eat some of that right away).. <S> Then I add carrot stripes and cinnamon sticks.. <S> Adding sieved tomatoes, I let the bolognese simmer for about 1 and a half to 2 hours.. <S> The longer the better, just like making soup..
|
I always brown the minced meat first, with chopped onions, olive oil, oregano, basil, chopped parsley and grounded pepper..
|
Why don't they sell frozen tomatoes like other frozen vegetables and fruits? Why aren't frozen tomatoes available like frozen broccoli, peas, peaches, or strawberries? Why are tomatoes only canned or fresh? Example: http://www.peapod.com/search_results.jhtml?searchText=frozen+tomatoes <Q> Freeze one, thaw it and see. <S> The liquid separates out and leaves a pulpy structure behind. <S> Tomato sauce (no chunks) thaws much better and separated liquid can be stirred back in well enough. <S> Canned works as we all know so no one is bothering trying to grow a freezer-friendly tomato, yet. <A> They are :) <S> (site in French). <S> However, if you look at the reviews, the average customer isn't too pleased with the product, essentially for the reasons mentioned by @PatSommer (watery, poor texture, etc.). <S> Don't forget that canning transforms tomatoes in a way which makes them particularly useful for sauces and the like, which is another reason why it is such a popular method of conservation. <A> There is no advantage to freezing over canning, and from many perspective there are disadvantages (discolouration, mushiness, overall general cellular destruction) <S> The embodied energy required to can is also much less than to keep them frozen, so this combined with disadvantages of freezing tomatoes, manufacturers choose to use canning <S> Yes, you can freeze dry tomatoes into a powder, it's not that great <S> compared to freeze dried fruit powders though Dried tomatoes (think sun dried tomatoes) are excellent, but are generally not a useful substitute for fresh tomatoes <A> Beside the reasons in the other answers, tomatoes really don't like low temperatures. <S> They change their aroma and texture already at fridge temperature. <S> They will go through the same temperature region when freezing and thawing, so they will get that bad taste of a cooled tomato. <S> They won't have the texture of a fridge tomato though, because the freezer will do a larger change - instead of getting unpleasantly hard, they'll get limp and their juices will separate. <S> To sum it up, canned tomatoes don't taste like fresh tomatoes, but at least they taste like cooked tomatoes. <S> They are just not that good to eat. <A> Frozen tomatoes will lose all their structure, so are only of use for cooking. <S> Canned tomatoes works very well for cooking and are cheap. <S> The taste is also improved by the canning process, but not by freezing. <S> So I can’t see how anyone can charge enough for frozen tomatoes to as to make a profit. <S> But I have frozen my own tomatoes. <S> To do so, blanch them in boiling water, or cook them down into a source before freezing.
|
Frozen then thawed tomatoes don't taste neither like fresh, nor like cooked.
|
Should good prosciutto be refrigerated? I recently bought a whole bunch of really good, freshly-cut prosciutto in Italy, and I plan to eat it in about a week or two. However, I'm reluctant to stick it in the fridge until that time. In my experience, when I put deli meats or cheese in the fridge, they start to lose their flavor and texture pretty quickly, even if carefully wrapped in butcher paper. Also, in the past, I've carried around a vacuuum-sealed packet of freshly cut jamon iberico for about two weeks without refrigeration, and it did not suffer at all for it. (My current prosciutto bundle is vacuum-sealed as well.) This makes sense to me because it's a cured meat after all, but maybe it was a fluke and I'm totally off. Is it OK to play it safe and avoid the refrigerator? Or should I stick it in the fridge ASAP? (It's already been out for a few days.) It's my utmost priority that the prosciutto feel and taste as close to fresh as possible! If I take it out and it's stiff and flavorless, I'm going to cry . In addition to the prosciutto, I also have some mortadella. My understanding is that it's not "cured" like prosciutto is. Should it be treated differently? <Q> Mortadella does need to be refrigerated. <S> As for the proscuitto ... if it's real cured ham (and not the fake 'cured' stuff you get in the US) and was trimmed with a clean knife and wasn't otherwise contaminated when being cut, and it's not the middle of the summer where you are, it's likely fine being stored in a cool area of your kitchen. <S> Mind you, <S> the US FDA would't agree, and you would get cited for health code violations if you were a restaurant. <S> You may also want to be more cautious if you're going to be serving the meat to people with compromised or otherwise weak immune systems (eg, small children or the infirm). <A> Just want to report that I've since opened all my meats and put them in the refrigerator. <S> They are stored as follows: stuck to butcher paper and plastic as packaged by the deli, then placed inside their original plastic sleeves, then all together wrapped loosely in butcher paper, and then finally placed inside a large zip-lock bag and compressed to let as much of the air out as possible. <S> It's been about four days, and I am happy to report that once brought to room temperature, the quality and texture still appear to be as good as fresh. <A> My usual hiking partners and I have used prosciutto on several camping trips lasting between 5 and 14 days all mid summer. <S> They taste great and have never given any of us any stomach issues. <S> Salted pork has been around for a lot longer than refrigeration has. <S> However as with anything read with caution and take advise at your own risk.
|
We have never had a problem with cured meats not being refrigerated.
|
Why are my sous vide salmon fillets coming out raw in the center? My wife and I have tried a couple times to sous vide salmon fillets and they seem to keep coming out undercooked or raw in the center and I'm really not sure why. I took pretty good notes on what we did tonight and I'm hoping someone can find the flaw in my strategy. We purchased 1 lbs. of salmon fillet from Trader Joe's. At home, we pulled it out of the refrigerator and cut the skin off of the salmon and cut it into two separate fillets. I have a FoodSaver vacuum-sealer that I used to vacuum seal the two salmon fillets into a single bag. The salmon fillets were vacuum-sealed in the same bag, but were not touching on another (they were about 3 inches apart). I have an Anova Culinary sous vide that I used to get a water bath up to 126 degrees farenheit in a large All-Clad stainless steel pot. Image of the sous vide setup below: Once the sous vide was up to temperature at 126 degrees Farenheit, I dropped the vacuum-sealed-bag with the two salmon fillets into the pot and started a timer. To be on the safe side, I left the salmon in the pot with the temperature at 126 Farenheit for one hour. When I took the salmon out of the pot and opened the vacuum-sealed bag, it seemed like it was colder than I would expect. Upon cutting into the salmon, I noticed that it was still raw in the center. After I noticed the salmon was raw, I put a thermometer in the pot and verified that the temperature was 126 degrees Farenheit, so I think the sous vide is working properly. From what I've read online, cooking for 1 hour at 126F should be more than enough. Likewise I read that vacuum-sealing fish tends to end up with overcooked fish rather than undercooked so I didn't think that was the issue. Where did I go wrong here? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you! <Q> Your set-up is fine. <S> You'll probably eventually want to trade in the stock-pot for something like this: <S> But there is no reason that the set-up you have shouldn't make great salmon. <S> I have exactly that set-up (including the stock-pot for now, but the square polypolycarbonate container is on order). <S> 125F <S> for one hour is pretty close to bare minimum time and temperature for salmon fillet. <S> I like it that way, but it appears that you have a different expectation than I do. <S> I base that guideline on the recipe from Modernist Cooking <S> Made <S> Easy: <S> Sous Vide: The Authoritative Guide to Low Temperature Precision Cooking and having just enjoyed salmon done at 122F for 1 hour. <S> First, double check your water temperature just to be sure. <S> If you have a sous-vide circulator and a vacuum sealer, I don't want to hear that you don't have a digital, instant read thermometer. <S> Double check that your Anova circulator is producing the temperature for which it is set. <S> If the temperature is how you've set it, that means that you don't like your salmon that rare. <S> Simple as that. <S> 140F <S> for 1.5 hours is pretty much the upper limit for a typical salmon filet to not be overcooked. <S> That would be overcooked for me, but I have a preference for rare. <S> Assuming that your circulator isn't defective, you will almost certainly like salmon somewhere on that spectrum. <S> Exactly where you like it best, only you can say. <A> Pretty sure you didn't cook it long enough. <S> The thickness of a salmon fillet, at a guess (I don't have one on me to measure) is about 40mm. <S> Going by http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Fish_and_Shellfish <S> to reduce Listeria down to safe levels alone, I think you should have cooked it for much longer ... <A> I cooked one salmon and one halibut filet (1/2 - 3/4" thick, 8 oz each) in this exact same setup -- Anova + stockpot -- last week, at 130 degrees and 30 minutes. <S> It was perfectly cooked. <A> You said you purchased the fillets at Trader Joe's. <S> TJs sells the fillets frozen. <S> My guess is that the salmon wasn't fully defrosted before you put it in the water bath. <S> Given that the salmon started out partly frozen, it would take longer to cook. <A> Recently America's Test Kitchen conducted a survey of salmon consumers in which they found that the prefered cooking temperature of wild salmon was 120 degrees F and of farmed salmon was 125 degrees <S> F. <S> I <S> sous vide <S> my farmed salmon at the ATK recommended temp for 40 minutes after which I allow it to rest for ten or 15 minutes. <S> The results are remarkable: the fish is not overcooked and flakes rather easily, some would describe it as "unctuous" (sic). <S> I do use Ziplock bags, either opened or sealed; it made no difference as to the results(In either case, water displaces the air in the bags.). <S> The problem with the other cuts are two fold: 1) <S> the ratio of skin to flesh can be rather low(Why pay for waste?) <S> ; 2) the difference thickness in a single fillet can results in an unevenly cooked piece of salmon. <S> Generally, the belly section alone should be cooked at the recommended temperature but for 30 minutes and then allowed to rest. <S> Yes, I am recommending that you trim your salmon to produce a relatively uniform fillet. <S> This does reduce the chance of uneven results.
|
If purchasing salmon fillets, avoid the tail and the head section but do go for the middle where the belly is minimal and/or well trimmed.
|
What exactly does carbonated water do? I just saw a deal on Sodastream system on bfads, and as someone who was never especially enamored with the idea of carbonated drinks, it dawned on me - I have no idea what the actual point of carbonating drinks is, from culinary viewpoint. Is it just so the bubbles tickle the mouth? Or does it change the taste or the culinary experience in more ways? <Q> Carbonation produces the textural effects associated with effervescence, first of all, and a lot of people find that texture enjoyable. <S> Texture is a huge part of the culinary experience and affects how flavorful compounds contact your tongue, thus affecting its perceived flavor. <S> Carbonation also raises the acidity of a beverage slightly, due to the presence of dissolved carbonic acid in the solution. <S> As @Joe mentions in comments, this can promote the release of gasses with additional dissolved flavorful compounds. <S> All of this can have a suppressing or enhancing effect on other flavors (a topic which is absurdly complicated and still being explored by food scientists much smarter than I). <S> Basically, the point of carbonating is similar to the point of pureeing something, or the point of dehydrating it. <S> It's a fun and easy way to change how you experience the food--or beverage in this case. <A> I find sparkling water more refreshing than still water. <S> I also find it to be a better palate cleanser. <S> There are no side effects. <S> Carbonation simply changes the experience, for me, making it more pleasant. <S> Further, an article was published last year, in the journal Food and Function, with the title "Sensory attributes of soft drinks and their influence on consumers' preferences". <S> So the point of carbonation is typically because consumers enjoy carbonated beverages. <S> Are you a beer drinker? <S> Do you prefer flat beer or carbonated? <S> Wine drinker? <S> Wouldn't you say sparkling wines and still wines are experienced differently? <A> See the top answer here . <S> I think it covers this pretty well: "CO2 tastes good! <S> Carbonated water is actually a weak carbonic acid solution, this is what you taste"
|
There is also research that suggests carbonation changes the way the mouth perceives sweetness.
|
Is it feasible to cook a gourmet tasting menu in a home kitchen? This is not a question about cooking per se, but about professional cooks outside their day jobs. I have seen a few movies where chefs have a restaurant-grade kitchen and kitchenware at home, all ready to use on a regular basis. For example, in Chef , the titular character quits his job at a fancy LA restaurant after an argument with the owner, then goes home and proceeds to cook the same gourmet tasting menu he was planning to cook at the restaurant. Is this a realistic depiction? Could he likely cook that menu at home, or would he likely need things present only in a professional kitchen? I understand that chefs might want to invest on high-grade hardware for their own homes, but I wonder to what extent they actually need to have everything they would need in their work kitchen. <Q> I agree it's quite believable. <S> Most restaurant equipment is more about cooking in bulk than being particularly specialized things you can't get at home. <S> So it's extra durable/stays sharp longer or is just big (like a fridge). <S> It really doesn't take much money to make good food though. <S> A lot of the gadgets and gizmos that you see on TV can be replaced with 1 good knife kept sharp...and a lot of chefs prefer a knife for the control. <S> For example I have a mandolin. <S> It cuts my vegetables very rapidly and saves me a bunch of time when I make vegetable stew, which I make a lot-- <S> but it doesn't cut my vegetables evenly, which in a gourmet restaurant could be a problem for presentation. <S> (Actually I'm going to get rid of my mandolin soon, too. <S> I've gotten faster with a knife by now from practice.) <S> Another thing to think about-- being a chef is a hard job. <S> If you're a gourmet chef you're probably passionate about cooking, so it makes sense to spend money on that hobby for at home as well. <A> I saw this in action at my brother in law's wedding. <S> His uncle, who is a chef on a ship, prepared the wedding meal in the inlaws' home kitchen. <S> He was actually used preparing food for a ship's company in a much smaller kitchen. <S> The only thing he did that was "different" equipment wise was he spent some time sharpening the knives before he started. <S> It was fascinating to watch him work. <S> If you look at the MasterChef kitchen, everything in their kitchen is available to the home cook (except maybe the liquid nitrogen, but really, how many professional chefs use liquid nitrogen on a regular basis?). <S> The pans are mostly the heavier grade stainless, with the occasional teflon coated skillet used. <S> With that said, I would really like a professional style flat top and gas burners. <S> My home range doesn't quite have the "oompf" to keep the pan hot when I'm trying to sear more than about one serving of meat at a time. <A> Most restaurant equipment meets particular safety requirements or durability requirements. <S> While there are some fancy pieces of large equipment that do specialized things (deep fryers, combi ovens), the vast majority of restaurant food can be reproduced at home with typical home kitchen tools.
|
While made for entertainment, the scene you described is believable.
|
What is the purpose of the light coating of flour in a three-step bound breading? I've always understood "bound breading" to refer to a three-step process, performed with chicken or other meats that have been portioned and patted dry: Dredge through (seasoned) flour and shake off the excess; Coat with beaten egg, slightly thinned (with water, milk, etc.); Coat with an even layer of desired breading (crumbs, more seasoned flour, etc). Recently, I came across this web page which describes bound breading as a two-step process, excluding the first step of dredging in flour. It occurred to me that, although I've always done bound breading this way, it seems like the thin layer of flour between the meat and the egg mixture would actually work against the breading sticking firmly to the meat. And yet, this is the way a bound breading is done in all the recipes and cookbooks I've encountered previously. What is the purpose of that first light coating of flour, structurally speaking? Obviously if you use seasoned flour, you're adding seasoning; but does it really make the breading stick any better through the cooking process? <Q> Think traction. <S> It gives the egg something to hold on to, which then holds on to the breadcrumbs. <S> You're right, the vast majority of recipes that call for this kind of breading call for a three step process. <S> That's because it works better. <S> I've done it with and without the initial flour dredge. <S> With is better. <S> Considerably. <A> The last Cooks Illustrated -- America's Test Kitchen -- says the breading sticks better without the initial flour dredge. <S> They fried chicken and exhaustively tested everything and concluded that the egg wash and the bread crumbs works best. <S> OTOH, i did a recipe that mixed a little flour in with the egg wash -- thinner than a crepe batter -- and thence to the bread crumbs. <S> that works well, too. <A> I have used the two ways and all worked well,thus thinking the purpose of using flour is to coat the marination to avoid it washed away when passing the meat through egg wash.
|
The flour as the first dredging step does help the rest of the breading stick.
|
How to substitute in baking so the result is both egg- and gluten-free? What is a good substitute for egg and wheat flour in baking? I have a friend who is allergic to eggs and I would like to be able to bake for her. I have another friend who is gluten free. Can these allergies have combined substitutes? <Q> AFAIK, (which isn't much) there is no one good substitute for eggs in baking. <S> This is because the egg can be there for one or more of several reasons. <S> This includes as a flavorant, emulsifier, moisturizer and leavener. <S> So, I'll address each of these separately. <S> Flavor - I have yet to find an ingredient or ester I can easily produce to replicate the very eggy taste of eggs. <S> You're best bet is likely a commercial substitute (which also may solve the other issues below). <S> Emulsification - (Soy) Lecithin. <S> Period. <S> Probably about a tablespoon per egg yolk replaced. <S> If this leaves your recipe too dry... <S> Moisturizer - Applesauce. <S> Period. <S> The high pectin is an emulsifier as well, and it will moisturize without imparting strong flavor. <S> Alternatively, add more liquid (which see below for gluten notes). <S> Leavening - Baking powder may do the job here. <S> You may also want to use buttermilk alongside it. <S> If that doesn't work, Xanthan Gum may be worth trying alongside the BP or buttermilk. <S> Use VERY LITTLE XG, it will thicken it up nicely. <S> However... Gluten. <S> Its what makes bread so bready. <S> As long as what you're making isn't bread (if you need to sub egg out for a whole egg in bread, I got nothin') you can substitute out any flour that's not wheat, rye, or barley based. <S> If you're friend has Celiac Disease, simply not using those flours or any byproducts in a from-scratch recipe should be fine. <S> If your friend has IBS and it's a FODMAP issue, there's quite a few more landmines to avoid, and I recommend asking a nutritionist for specific advice/check a recipe. <S> If it's an allergy to wheat, ask for a list of known allergens from your friend. <S> Best thing to do is have your friend forward the specific diagnosis that their doctor/nutritionist gave them; I'm sure they wouldn't mind so that you can safely cook for them. <S> It's not quite as easy as just using a different flour though. <S> You'll probably want to use less flour overall, and a mix of different flours to go toward a specific taste and feel. <S> TLDR; Substitutions are hard. <S> Use rice flour and applesauce, I guess. <S> Experiment! <S> You can report back with your findings... <A> It depends on what you're trying to bake. <S> For cookies and brownies, I've had good luck using ground flax seed plus water . <S> This won't work for items where you need to whip egg whites separately. <S> See my answer in What are good references for Gluten free baking? . <S> If you're going to be doing this a lot, it may be more cost effective to mix your own, but for the one-off use, go with the mixes. <S> Note that if you don't use the whole mix, you want to bag it or put it inside some other container, then store it away from your flour. <S> Also, find out if the person has Celiacs, or is gluten sensitive ... <S> if they have Celiacs, just cooking in a kitchen that had flour in it and wasn't fully sanitized might set them off. <S> (eg, do you have an open container or hanging rack with utensils in it? <S> They might have traces of flour on them. <S> As might things in drawers or cabinets, if you went to grab measuring spoons or a pan when you had flour on you) <A> Easiest thing to do: Google "Egg Free Gluten Free" and pick something. <S> There's a lot. <S> When substituting eggs for moisture another good substitute is mashed banana. <S> It works similarly to the applesauce. <S> Rice flour is my favorite glutren-free flour replacement because it's easy to get and cheap from any Asian market/Asian aisle at any big boxed store. <S> Just be careful of this, I have read some people with celiac have trouble with this rice flour as it has a tinnyyy bit of wheat in it and upsets their stomach. <S> But anyone who has just chosen to be gluten free will most likely not mind that the rice flour may have been processed in the same building as wheat. <S> Oats are my second go to gluten-free thing for baking, but again like the rice flour most of it is cross contaminated with wheat. <S> But you can get gluten free oats fairly cheap, too. <S> I know Bob's Red Mill has some for sure but it will usually say on the box. <S> You can stick oats in a blender/food processor to make them fine before baking. <S> Somehow I've attracted a lot of people with allergies in my life! <S> Sometimes it's easier to just cook different things for everyone. <A> For recipes where you don't want to use apples or bananas, I suggest plain yogurt. <S> After baking it is essentially tasteless in cookies or brownies. <S> It will add a slight taste to bread, making it taste a bit like sourdough. <S> Best of all, yogurt serves most of the purposes that eggs do: it adds moisture, acts as a binder, and makes the dough/batter less acidic. <S> In any recipe, use about 1/3 regular (not fat-free) plain yogurt for each egg. <S> Most yogurt is gluten-free, but some (especially Greek yogurt) is not. <S> Check the labels or search the name of the brand online.
|
As for the gluten, there are plenty of 'gluten free flour replacements' available commercially, but some are better than others for specific items (breads vs. cookies, etc.).
|
How do I get more flavor in the interior of a brisket? My brisket doesn't have a lot of flavor on the inside. The outside is full of flavor but when getting to the inside it doesn't have much flavor to wow my guests. How do I get more flavor to the interior? I'm cooking it in the oven, by the way. BBQ is not my thing. <Q> The simplest way would be to make the interior smaller, which could be accomplished in several ways, such as slicing the brisket ahead of time or cutting it in half vertically. <S> This would give you a larger surface area to season, decreasing the amount of unflavored meat and shortening cooking time. <A> I'll then add a good bit of soy sauce to the bag, compress out the air, and let it sit for somewhere between an hour and a day (depending on how far in advance I have to prep it). <S> Something similar should work for you, although you're likely going for a low and slow cook, while I stick mine under the broiler for a few minutes. <S> Your other option is just to serve it with a good sauce ... or catch the drippings so that you can slice the meat and let it soak in the juices before you serve your guests. <A> You can also try making it the day ahead. <S> My usual brisket recipe braises in a beer, onion, and chili sauce; <S> but I make it the day before, and slice it thin; and keep the sauce and sliced brisket separately in the fridge. <S> Then, the next day, I layer the slices in a baking dish, skim the fat off the sauce, pour it over and reheat. <S> Because the slices reheat in the sauce, it has plenty of flavour.
|
I don't typically cook brisket, but when I cook other large slabs of meat for london broil, I'll tenderize it by stabbing it repeatedly with a fork (evenly over the whole surface, flip, then do it again on the other side), drop it into a zip-top bag, then coat it liberally with worcestershire sauce.
|
Can I replace flour in a soup recipe with a 1 to 1 gluten free flour? I have celiac disease and must eat a gluten free diet. I saw a recipe for creamy chicken and mushroom soup, and it looked delicious! However, it called for 1/4 cup all-purpose flour. Would it be better to use a 1 for 1 gluten free all purpose flour or use corn starch instead? If I used corn starch instead, I'm assuming I wouldn't use 1/4 cup....but how much SHOULD I use? <Q> My step daughter also has celiacs/coeliacs disease. <S> We often use all-purpose gluten free flour for soups, cheese sauce and roux etc. <S> I can honestly say there is no noticeable difference. <S> The only thing I would recommend is if the recipe asks you to make a roux don't try and cook out the flour as it will turn lumpy. <S> Instead just melt the butter, add the flour <S> mix it in then go straight in with the milk/cream (all of it <S> , don't do a little at a time, <S> as again it'll go lumpy) <S> I'd stick to the same ratio (1:1) <S> this time and then alter to your liking for next time. <S> but if you want a thick soup and this is the only thickener you may end up with gloop instead. <S> If you do use corn flour <S> it's best to stir it in at the end <S> , mix it with cold water then just add a table spoon of the mixture at a time until it's the right consistency. <A> There seems to be no clear definition for what "gluten free all purpose flour" is. <S> If you look at two popular brand you will find that one of them is using rice flour, the other a legume flour as their main ingredient. <S> These two ingredients behave very very differently - rice flour is a starchy affair that is good at making things crisp, legume flours are extremely protein heavy flours which often have strong enough binding properties to make them good egg substitutes. <S> The rest of the mixtures... kind of look like a "broadband thickening" approach, like when you know you want something thickened but not which thickeners will work so you throw a tablespoon of every thickener within a five mile radius in the mixing bowl... <S> Such mixtures will not all behave the same when used out of their intended application, so unless we are talking a specific brand and product, results are not reliably predictable. <A> My go-to after cornstarch is potato starch, in the same measures as the recipe would use for cornstarch. <S> Dissolve it first with twice the starch's volume of cold water. <S> If you don't mind the soup not being clear, oat flour is also a wonderful thickener, and it adds a hint of almost nutty flavor. <S> Use in the same proportion as you would regular flours. <A> You can also use xanthan gum in soups as a thickener (but not 1:1 in substitution of flour). <S> We use that in our keto diet. <S> Bob's Mill simple desciption Wikipedia <S> Personally I would not use a whole 1/4 cup of flour to thicken a soup. <S> I would use heavy cream and/or blend a portion of the soup.
|
You could by all means use just corn flour
|
Graphing oven temperature over time Someone asked about measuring oven temperature . That's great for seeing how well an oven does as far as getting to a certain temperature. However, just because an oven can be guaranteed to achieve a certain maximum temperature, doesn't mean it stays at that temperature. Is there a probe that can handle oven temperatures (lets assume 600 degrees, ignore broiler temperatures) that can send temperature data to a computer while in the oven? I basically want to graph temperature over time. Also, are there know acceptable fluctuations of temperature? <Q> There are three easy ways to get the data to a PC that come to mind: <S> Logging the data using a temperature datalogger with a thermocouple interface so it can later be downloaded to a PC. <S> That might be good if getting your laptop / PC near the oven is a hassle. <S> A dedicated USB to thermocouple interface. <S> Using a multimeter with a USB interface and a thermocouple interface. <S> That might have a bit of a learning curve to setup but might be useful if you see yourself ever using the other functions of a multimeter. <S> Thermocouples come in several types (type J, K, T etc) but the main thing to check is that the datalogger you select is compatible with the thermocouple, that they have similar connector types <S> so it's easy to setup and the thermocouple covers an appropriate temperature range. <S> There are quite a few places to buy that sort of gear but it should give you a few search terms to use. <S> For example on Amazon a pair of products I found searching on "USB thermocouple" and "thermocouple sensor" that might be suitable are: USB Thermocouple Measurement Device for Windows <S> ® Linux®, and Mac® 3 Meters 9.8ft K Type Thermocouple Sensor Probe -30 to 400C <S> Another thing to be aware of is that some thermocouple sensors (mostly described as probes) are only designed to be inserted into hot substances, the cables attaching them aren't rated for the same high temperature <S> but you can check with the supplier if unsure and it's not mentioned in the specifications. <S> Also I'm not sure of the food safety of thermocouples <S> so I wouldn't use them for measuring the internal temperature of meat without checking into that side of things, but it sounds like that won't be an issue for you. <A> There is a HeterMeter project on github that will do exactly what you want. <S> It contains a webserver that allows you to access it from computers and mobile devices via a web browser anywhere on your local wifi (or even the Internet if you configure your home router to allow it). <S> It can be built to use either a thermocouple or thermistor as the pit probe. <S> The thermocouple components are SMD and can be challenging for a novice to solder. <S> I believe the developer does sell kits with the SMD components pre-soldered, for a fee. <S> I am not the developer. <S> But, I did build one and am quite happy with mine. <S> It was designed for the purpose controlling a charcoal smoker. <S> It allows for 3 food temperature probes + 1 pit probe. <S> The pit probe can be a thermocouple, if you build it that way. <S> The project is all open source. <S> The most significant costs would be a Raspberry Pi (about $35) and the probes (about $15+). <S> By the time you get all of your components, pay shipping and all, you might expect to have $150 or so in the project. <S> Here's a screenshot of one of my cooks using the HeaterMeter. <S> If home built projects are not your thing and you can live without the graphing, consider buying a Maverick temperature probe and just watch it. <A> I had an oven guy here not too long ago to test this exact thing with my oven. <S> Perhaps this being Silicon Valley, he was was an extremely knowledgeable and highly technical fellow. <S> I don't know the exact meter he was using, but I believe he used a thermocouple probe that had a special attachment to wrap around the rack at the dead center of the oven. <S> He simply sat there and watched the temperature fluctuations for a period of time, I believe maybe 15-20 minutes, and was then able to see the variance in my oven temp was ± 25 deg F. <S> That is to say, if it was set for 350 F, it would get as hot as 375 F and as cool as 325 F. <S> I don't know that you need something as involved as a computer logging system for this, but maybe it would be a fun project. <S> To answer the second question, yes, all ovens will have some acceptable range of temperature fluctuation. <S> You can picture it like a sine wave. <S> From what my repairman told me, the better ovens won't fluctuate as much.
|
Not sure about the acceptable fluctuations but probably the most common sort of sensor for those high termperatures is a thermocouple .
|
What can be substituted for green onions when making crab cakes? I would like to make crab cakes that call for green onions but I am out. What can I substitute for two finely chopped green onions? Would minced onion work? <Q> Leeks and chives have the advantage that they also have a similar color to green onions. <S> The sharpness of all of these substitutes (onions included) can be tamed by cooking, but this would affect both texture and color as well. <S> In crab cakes, the color probably matters less than the flavor, but you could mix cooked shallots or onions with raw leeks or chives to get both color and flavor. <A> Onion would work, but it has a much sharper flavour, so you should use maybe just a quarter as much of it, depending on how much you like the taste of onion. <S> The flavour will be slightly different than if you used green onions, but it should still be delicious. <A> You could try red onions. <S> They might have a little more flavor, but should be mild enough to taste good.
|
In general, shallots, leeks, or chives would be milder than regular onions and probably a closer approximation to green onions, though all are usually harder to find than green onions.
|
What is the difference between genoise sponge and victoria sponge? Just wanted to find out the differences between Genoise sponge and Victoria sponge. In particular, I was interested to find out which one turns out softer. Here are the 2 recipes for comparison. Genoise sponge - http://eugeniekitchen.com/chocolate-swiss-roll/ Victoria sponge - http://utry.it/2013/11/decorated-coffee-swiss-roll-with-step.html The Victoria sponge recipe has you mix the egg white (albumen) mixture separately from the yolk mixture and then fold them, while the Genoise sponge has you beat the eggs whole. I was under the impression that the Victoria sponge method would turn out a much softer sponge because of how much air is worked into the whites. Is that true? <Q> If I recall correctly the differences are slight, but significant. <S> Both have a subtle, delicate flavour with an exceptionally light texture. <S> The Victorian can be baked thin and carefully rolled with cream for Swiss rolls. <S> The main difference is the Victorian slices disorderly and 'crumby' while the Génoise retains its form neatly. <S> Both are accompanied well by, and are traditionally served with hot beverages namely tea and coffee. <S> The Italian creation is undecidedly the more complex one to prepare. <S> You're right about separating the egg whites and beating them separately aerating the mixture further, but I'm not certain if it would make a noticeable difference in case of sponge cakes <S> but I'd love it if someone could comment on this. <A> You posted this a year ago, but I think the other difference is that the genoise is heated while beating the eggs, while the other spongecake is not. <A> Both the Genoise and the Victoria can be made by various tweaks to their individual methods but the real difference is very simple. <S> Genoise sponges are made without fat. <S> Consequently, the Genoise has a much shorter shelf life due to the lack of fat.
|
The Victorian is usually regarded as the healthier, lighter of the two, but I believe this is mostly due to the Génoise usually being rendered as a layer cake with a lavish buttercream filling, though if I remember right it can also be used as a base for madeleines and ladyfingers.
|
Is there a safety issue with freezing raw chicken with raw stuffing? I was planning on making stuffed chicken capons and freezing them raw. This is with fresh raw chicken and raw stuffing (no eggs), and then freezing the chicken stuffed with stuffing and defrosting and cooking at a later point. I was told that it's a safety issue and I should instead half-cook the capons and then freeze. I don't see the logic in this and haven't been able to locate any proper source. Is there any reason why this would be unsafe? <Q> Your method of stuffing and freezing raw should be safe . <S> Just prep your chicken and get it into the freezer within the recommended window of two hours that it can safely be in the "danger zone" of 40-140 F. <S> As it pertains to bacteria, you can think of freezing as stopping time . <S> You are essentially putting all those pesky microbes on pause, so they can't multiply and have a big ol' botulism party on your chicken. <S> So if your food is clean and safe when it goes into the freezer, it should be clean and safe when it comes out . <S> I can't see any point to par-cooking your chicken, and as James points out, it seems to complicate the process unnecessarily. <S> Also check out the USDA guide on Freezing and Food Safety . <A> I don't think the problem is the freezing per-se, it's the likelihood of ending up with things not fully cooked, or of them being in the danger zone (between 40 and 140 degrees Farenheit) for too long. <S> If the total cumulative time in the danger zone for any part of the bird or stuffing is within 60 minutes (some people say 120 minutes, but that may include time while it's cooking), you should be fine. <S> When you want to cook them, you'll have to defrost them thoroughly in the refrigerator (probably for at least a day or two) and make sure when you cook them that the coldest part (usually the centermost part, but not always) is up to the recommended 165 degrees Fahrenheit. <S> If you were to try to cook them directly from frozen <S> it's likely that the outside would be burned while the inside would still be cold, or you would have to cook them at such a low temperature that they would spend too long in the danger zone. <S> If you were to thaw them on the counter, they would certainly be in the danger zone too long (every minute at room temperature is a minute in the danger zone). <S> I think half-cooking them would only increase the likelihood of safety issues due to multiple warming <S> /cooling cycles. <S> Of course, as with most food safety issues, there's a good chance you will be fine anyway, but no reputable professional would risk going outside the FDA guidelines without a good reason and probably a warning to the consumer as well. <S> The FDA provides online Food Safety Information describing the risks. <S> You can also call them with questions. <A> Fresh poultry is generally kept at "safe" chilled (below 40f), but not frozen temps for extended periods. <S> Keep the chickens or Capone <S> refrigerated until your ready to stuff the get them back in the fridge or freezer as soon as possible. <S> You may even want to chill the stuffing before use. <S> The safety issues with stuffed poultry generally come when thawed and then cooked-reheated. <S> The meat and stuffing may thaw at different rates. <S> If they are not completely thawed in the fridge, you run into the issue of either the bird must be left at room temp too long or a very long defrost time. <S> If the chicken or capon is cooked frozen or still partially frozen. <S> You'll get uneven cooking. <S> By the time the stuffing hits 165 f the bird will be dry.
|
Assuming you are following safe food handling and freezing methods, you will be fine.
|
When to add vegetables to stew? I am participating in a stew cook-off competition with twelve restaurants involved. Rather than adding the raw, cut and prepared, root-style vegetables (red potatoes, celery, and carrots) near the end of cooking to cook and finish, I am thinking of cooking them separately in salted water, draining and adding to the stew along with frozen peas as it is finished (meat tender). I am thinking the vegetables will retain more of their inherent individual tastes and flavors, rather than absorbing the flavors of the stew and get lost into a homogenous mix. Any advice is appreciated, thnk you. <Q> I have played around with this quite a bit myself. <S> For me, boiling and then adding does not work. <S> As suggested in derobert's remark, many of the veg traditionally added to a stew are there not just as filling but to give off their flavor to the stewing liquid. <S> Leaving them out during the stew is detrimental to your flavor. <S> I have gotten my best results by adding the stock vegetables (carrots, unions, celery, garlic) as early as I normally would and then adding some vegetables late in the process to provide a differing texture to the whole. <S> After some experimentation I have found that quickly stirfrying some green veg gives a very nice effect, as it adds some color and a very different texture to your end result. <S> My personal favorite for this is quartered sprouts, quickly fried at high heat and then dunked in icewater. <S> Purely from a texture point of view you vcan also get nice results with diced root vegetables such as cabbage turnip and turnip-rooted celery treated in a similar way. <A> I would be reluctant to cook the vegtables separately. <S> The problem is that not only do many of the vegetables give flavor to the liquid to the stew, but more bland items absorb the liquid, keeping them from being so bland. <S> In the case of starchy vegetables, they also contribute to the body of the stew. <S> It's also difficult to give exact times for cooking the vegetables, as there are a number of factors: type of vegetable size and cut of the vegetable acidity of the cooking liquid temperature of the cooking liquid personal preference <S> Now, all of that being said ... <S> I make a stew in which most of the items are cooked separately. <S> If I roast meat and vegetables (potatoes, carrots, onions, peppers, etc.), and have a fair amount left over, I'll cut up the meat, start it cooking in a pot with some extra liquid (the meat juices, maybe some stock, a can of tomatoes, etc.), then add the roasted vegetables and a grated potato (to replace the starch needed to thicken it), and if I have them, some green beans or peas. <S> Let it all warm through and the grated potato disappear, and you can then either serve or let sit in the fridge for a day or two so the flavors meld. <S> Based on that, I'd be much more likely to use roasted vegetables before boiled ones. <S> You concentrate the flavors, rather than washing them away. <S> If you use a roasting pan that you can deglaze, you could even rescue anything that leaked out and get it back into your stew. <S> If you roasted each vegetable seperately, you could get the control that you're asking for to ensure that everything's cooked as you want it. <S> (but I'd still give them a little bit of time to mingle) <A> I roast the root vegetables, then add for the last 30 minutes. <S> I find boiled vegetables uninteresting. <S> Trying to time it just right to the meat's doneness is almost impossible. <S> You never know how long the vegetables will take in the stew. <A> I would recommend splitting the vegetables: some from the start for taste and some later for show. <S> The first ones are discarded when sieving/reducing the sauce. <S> The others can be coloured by roasting or glazing in water/butter. <S> You can also shape them the way you want and preserve that shape. <S> This will achieve your twin objective of taste and looks.
|
Roasted vegetables bring flavor and great texture.
|
Should lemongrass be edible or just a flavoring? In my limited experience with lemongrass (which I buy fresh-ish in plastic bags from the fridge of my local asian supermarket - not frozen or dried or anything), it's hard and impossible to chew, no matter how long you cook it for. I usually smash it, split it down the middle and add it to soups or other dishes with a lot of liquid, then take it out at the end like a bay-leaf. However, I've recently seen recipes in which finely chopped lemongrass is put straight in a stir-fry or a sauce, which just seems like a good way to end up picking bits out of your mouth to me. Is there a problem with the lemongrass I'm buying? Is it that only the green is hard and inedible? Or am I cooking it wrong? <Q> Specifically, you should cut it into thin disks against the grain first, so that you're cutting the fibers into short enough lengths not to bother you. <S> Depending on how tough your lemongrass is, you may have to remove some outer layers to do this. <S> At that point, it may already be possible to chew, but further chopping should make sure of it. <S> If the pieces are small enough, there isn't really anything to chew, and it's not too likely to stick in your mouth given that it's mixed in with plenty of other stuff in the dish. <S> That said, there's some variation in the toughness, and it does take a reasonably sharp knife to do this if the lemongrass is on the tough side, to the point that it might not be possible. <S> So if you have issues chopping it finely (or too little of the stalk is tender enough to do so), falling back to your usual approach of infusing it into things is the way to go. <A> You're not missing anything, lemongrass is very fibrous and often it is a good idea to remove it like a bay leaf. <S> If it's quite fresh it can be left in if you peel away the outside layers, you use only the most tender portion (about a half-inch from the root to about 2 inches from the root), and you mince very finely. <S> If you do all that, you can stir-fry or otherwise cook lemongrass, and keep it in the dish without causing your guests to spit it out. <S> There is no harm though in removing it. <A> In Thai cooking, lemongrass is used in spicy soups like tom yam and tom kha (coconut soup with galangal). <S> Here it’s not finely cut, and is just pushed aside when eaten, along with other spices like the galangal. <S> Thais also make a lemongrass salad called yam takhrai , where finely sliced lemongrass is eaten raw. <S> Below is a link where you can see this being made – the cook slices the lemongrass at around 1:00. <S> She remarks that it needs to be tender. <S> Indeed, although I enjoy this dish, occasionally the lemongrass can be tough and difficult to chew. <S> It may well be that the lemongrass you’re getting just isn’t suited for this kind of thing. <S> Yam takhrai <A> I make Tom Kha often. <S> I find it best to remove one or two outer layers of the lemongrass, smash it adding it to the soup, then removing it before serving. <S> The galangal root is really tough and hard to shave or cut into small pieces. <S> I use ground galangal from Penzey's Spices and find it easy and delicious. <A> In this case you're most definitely supposed to eat the lemongrass! <A> Think of it like a heart of Palm. <S> You would never eat the fibrous outer layers but the very heart is tender and soft.
|
In addition to the other answers: most Thai curry pastes include lemongrass as an ingredient, where it is typically mashed to a fine paste using a mortar and pestle (I tend to remove the outer layer first, as it may be too dry / hard to mash easily). If you actually chop it finely, you should be okay.
|
Skimming foam from stock without removing floating spices When I make chicken stock from scratch, I like to include whole spices like mustard seed, coriander, star anise and black pepper. I put these in right at the start when the water is still cool, so they can slowly add flavor as the stock simmers for hours. I only run into a problem when skimming foam. Many of the whole spices float to the top and I find it very tedious to skim the foam without taking out spices as well. I use a metal spoon or ladle for skimming. How can I skim the foam without catching the floating spices as well? Is there a technique or tool specially suited to this task? <Q> I do this whenever I think the spices will get in the way during my process or when I want to remove them before serving, such as in case of a bouquet garni, cloves or juniper berries. <S> Should you be reluctant to use metal in your recipe <S> you can of course use loose leaf tea bags. <S> Either way you can just lift the spices out whenever you want to skim the top of your broth. <A> Its called a Sachet and are often used so that they can remove all the spices when the soup hits the right amount of flavor. <S> http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/recipestepbystep/ss/StockSachet.htm <A> In my chicken stock-making experience, skimming the foam really only needs to be done near the beginning of the process. <S> By the time the stock comes to a simmer, I've already skimmed off most of the scum and within 10-15 minutes of the beginning of the simmer, there is very little scum still rising to the surface. <S> So I'd suggest just waiting until there is no more foam to skim, then adding your spices. <S> To put it another way, you said: I put these in right at the start when the water is still cool, so they can slowly add flavor as the stock simmers for hours. <S> That isn't really necessary. <S> If you're simmering it for 5-6 hours, the spices' presence or absence in the first 20-30 minutes isn't going to make a difference, especially since the water is cold at the beginning. <S> Warmer temperatures are better for extracting flavors than cold temperatures. <A> You can use a strainer (mesh style, like this:) <S> Skim the foam, strain it, then add the spices back to the stock. <A> Saute your veggies with the spices before adding to the soup and they will not float on the top.
|
I tend to just stick the spices in a tea egg
|
Using low oven temperature to accelerate proofing During wintertime it is often cold enough in my apartment that proofing takes much longer than in summer. I'd like to use my oven to create a warmer environment, in which the dough would rise faster. I can go 30-50 degrees celsius, the question is what temperature is safe and at what temperature will I actually start baking the dough. Is 50 degrees celsius still ok or not? <Q> Let me suggest a totally different approach: Why not work with the cool conditions instead of against? <S> You could let the dough proof for a long time, e.g. overnight in the fridge. <S> This allows for a lot less yeast and hence a less yeasty taste, which is usually desired. <S> Also, more complex flavors develop during long proofing times. <S> (There is a reason french baguette may wait for two days before baking.) <S> For a start, aim for about 5% yeast 1 and use cool instead of lukewarm liquid. <S> You might have to adjust your attitude, because this requires some planning ahead, but gives you more degrees of freedom on the other hand: Fresh bread / cake in the morning without having to get up before dawn and more tolerance with regard to proofing / timing <S> - the dough can handle an extra hour or two in the fridge easily. <S> (Especially nice if you have a baby or a crazy schedule...) <S> You could also dump the dough in cold water and proof it there. <S> As crazy as it sounds, it works. <S> See more here . <S> If you'd rather stick with warm conditions, I'd aim for 30° <S> C for optimum (=quickest) activity. <S> Yeast starts to die at about 45°C, completely dead at 55°C. <S> Also, warmer dough tends to proof unevenly and have a "flat" taste (can't find a better word). <S> 1 fresh yeast, percentage based on flour weight. <S> Adjust dry yeast accordingly: fresh to dry conversion rate is 1:3, so use 2% dry yeast. <A> 50C (122F) would be a very high proofing temperature. <S> I would recommend setting your oven to the lowest temperature, and then once it feels perceptibly warm, turn it off and use it to proof. <S> If you're doing a long proof, you can turn it back on for a minute or two every so often, but I wouldn't ever let it actually get up to temperature. <A> In the winter, I usually get fine results proofing in a bowl with a second bowl inverted on top of it, and then putting the whole thing in the oven, turned off, and just the light on. <S> The light bulb usually produces enough heat to keep the inside of my oven at about 90˚F (32˚C?), and that gives me a good rise. <A> Rise from chilled @ 32C and keep rising until around 80-85% of desired height has been achieved. <S> Return back to the chiller, it will continue to rise for a short time, keep in the chiller until dough is firm again and stable enough to take the weight of toppings. <A> A commonly quoted temperature to never exceed with warm ingredients or proofing environments is 43°C. <S> If using an oven, cover your dough container, check oven with a thermometer beforehand, and be aware of radiated heat effects from the elements themselves. <A> I use the pull-out warming tray on my oven set on its lowest temperature. <S> I've never actually checked the temperature, but its rather cool. <S> I can easily touch the bottom of the drawer without any discomfort. <A> I've done this a few times, kinda - we have a baking stone, and I'll preheat that, make sure it's cool enough to touch, and set the dough on the warmed stone. <S> It works pretty well to give a warm environment, the warmth lasts because the closed oven contains heat, and there's little to no risk of overheating the yeast. <S> I have both gone with regular preheating for ~5min, and the lowest-temperature-preheating for a bit longer, the former is quicker to heat but more likely to overshoot (or needing time to even the heat out), the latter slower and more controlled. <S> In our oven, that turns on the light, the machinery is humming, and the oven gets kinda warm - not hot, but just warm, preparing to heat but not doing so. <S> I've used this to dehydrate things before, because I can leave it going for quite some time without needing to re-check or re-warm. <S> It wouldn't work for me with bread dough, since with aforementioned baking stone it would take longer to warm up than it would for the dough to actually rise (since especially the bottom of the dough, against the stone, will rise very differently from the top) . <S> But if you don't have a baking stone it may work very well for you.
|
Another potential alternative, depending on your oven, might be to turn the oven on (bake setting, usually) but keep the temperature set to zero. The thermal death point of yeast is 55C, and you'll definitely hit a point of diminishing returns if you get too hot (most likely, you will have really rapid proofing on the outside of the loaf and an underproofed "core").
|
Can I leave uncooked rice sitting in water for an hour or longer before cooking? I'm prepping for a dinner party. And I put uncooked long grain brown rice + oil + water in a pot, as usual. But I'm not cooking it right this minute. The rice is sitting in the pot with the water. Can I leave it as is for an hour or two before cooking? Or will that sog the grains and affect the result? <Q> That's fine. <S> A lot of people actually do that on purpose, it's referred to as "soaking". <S> It will shave a bit off the cooking time and won't negatively affect the rice at all. <S> Give it a stir before you start cooking. <S> You can drain and rinse it too if you want, that will give you very separate, distinct grains. <S> Use about 1/4 less water for cooking if you do it that way, because the rice will have soaked up some water. <A> Absolutely. <S> The brown rice, & the old rice "aged" as it is also called, cook better after they have been soaked for some time ranging between 30-60 minutes. <S> The parboiled rice is a little different, as it MUST BE soaked for AT LEAST 1 HOUR before it can be cooked. <S> And it can take a soaking of up to several hours without ruining the results. <S> Parboiled rice is the rice of choice for several rice dishes, especially ones in which the rice needs to be light, fluffy, each grain remaining whole and separate. <S> And it is ideally suited to those of us who are cooking challenged (you understand what I am saying). <S> But they will not have the same fragrance that a Basmati, a Jasmine, or even regular raw rice will have. <A> As Jolenealaska said, lots of cooks do it on purpose. <S> Then pour off the soaking water and cover the rice again with 1 inch of water. <S> Uncovered, bring the rice to a boil and cook until only large bubbles appear. <S> At that point, turn the fire down to the lowest setting, cover and cook until the rice is done. <S> There is no reason to stir. <S> You can use this method to cook any amount of rice in any size pot. <S> You don't even have to measure it. <A> Leaving uncooked Rice while sitting on water,Yes they are really True! <S> that's fine! <S> Because I have been experiencing this moment <S> it was in rice cooker <S> were I'm using. <S> Its accidentally i forgot to on it. <S> The rice was soaked with in Five hours, but its super okay, you need to do <S> is add at least half cup of water <S> then stir it then cooked. <S> Honestly there's something different taste when you compare between unsoaked rice and soaked rice.
|
I learned the Chinese method of cooking foolproof rice by soaking it for an hour or longer in an inch of water.
|
Why is my bread dough sticky? I'm been making this Japanese bread "Melon pan" many times and it had been success.Then my brother told me to add more sugar to make it more sweet. Try adding little at first, the bread still taste the same. So decided to put a lot more sugar. I started to knead my dough and it very sticky, already added flour (even too much) but still sticky. Continued to knead it for 15-20. Still Sticky :( But somehow I baked it and my brother tried it and said the amount of sugar put in was good. But the bread lost its crispiness so It was a fail. What can I do to solve this problem? Thank you This is the original recipe that worked before I added a lot of sugar. Bread Dough -140g Bread Flour (4.94 oz)25g Sugar (0.882 oz)1/3 tsp Salt5g Non-Fat Dry Milk Powder (0.176 oz)3g Instant Yeast (0.106 oz) - a little less than 1 tsp 1 tbsp Beaten Egg70ml Warm Water (2.37 fl oz)15g Butter (0.529 oz)Bread Flour for dusting Cookie Dough -25g Unsalted Butter (0.882 oz)35g Sugar (1.23 oz)25g Beaten Egg (0.882 oz)80g Cake/Pastry Flour (2.82 oz)1/4 tsp Baking PowderBread Flour for dusting <Q> I've never tried making a bread dough with that much sugar in it. <S> You're up to ~80 <S> g sugar, compared to 140g flour (a "baker's ratio" of 57%). <S> It's possible that much sugar interferes with gluten development. <S> Since you're already adding butter later (at around 4:07 in the video), the first thing I'd try is to mix the extra sugar and butter together, and add them both there. <S> That's probably being done after some of the kneading because butter interferes with gluten development. <S> So if the sugar does too, that may help. <S> Also, sugar definitely makes yeast more active <S> (they're eating the sugar). <S> So you probably need to let it rise for less time. <S> Go by how much it's expanded (risen), not by the time. <S> Second thing I'd try would be a tad bit more flour. <S> Knead in a little more and see if the stickyness returns to manageable levels. <S> Third thing would be to use some artificial sweetener. <S> Those are substantially sweeter (per gram) than sugar, but of course have aftertastes... <S> The combination of some artificial sweetener and still plenty of sugar will mostly mask the aftertaste. <S> Fourth, similarly, different natural sugars have a different sweetness level (per gram). <S> Fructose, for example, tastes sweeter than sucrose (table sugar). <S> A mix supposedly tastes sweeter still. <S> Finally... consider just serving it with syrup! <S> Or icing or frosting it after baking. <A> You cannot keep the texture if you are using that much sugar. <S> Two tablespoons of sugar per cup of flour is the maximum that you can add without major gluten damage. <S> (quotation from Cookwise by S. Corriher). <S> She goes on to explain that certain kinds of bread are made with more sweetness (including the Portuguese sweet bread rfusca mentioned), but they use a combination of many different sugars and malts. <S> It is possible that your bread may become edible texture wise if you cut the amount of total sugar by half and then experiment for a few dozens of batches with different classes of sugar to get a workable texture. <S> But I doubt that it will be worth it. <S> When you bake, don't think of sugar as a sweetener. <S> Baking recipes are always calculated such that the sugar amount is right for the correct texture, not for sweetness. <S> If you want sweet bread, use an existing recipe for a brioche style bread, which is somewhat sweetened. <S> Or if you want it extra sweet, use a recipe for very sweet bread, but be prepared for it to handle a bit weirdly during kneading and to end up with a cakelike texture. <S> But if your brother wants to eat something very sweet, don't bake a bread, bake a cake. <A> I had exactly this problem. <S> Cut down the sugar in your dough and sprinkle the rest of the sugar into the dough after the rise and before shaping. <S> Works fine.
|
[...] Too much sugar is also damaging to the yeast.
|
Nonalcoholic Substitute for Marsala Wine For personal reasons I won't purchase alcohol or have it in my home, but I'm a bit of a foodie and love Chicken and Steak Marsala. I've found decent nonalcoholic substitutes for dry and sweet white wines and burgundy (Meiers Sparkling Juice), which covers most of the recipes I've wanted to make, but I've never found a good substitute for Marsala. Are there any non-alcoholic versions that would pass in a recipe, or a decent mix of other juices or ingredients that would pass, even if I have to process it somehow? <Q> I have cooked quite a few times for Islamic guests and finding non alcoholic substitutes for wine is never easy. <S> In general you find a lot of solutions floating around on the Internet based on grape juices, but I have never been quite satisfied with the results that brings me. <S> Especially the brands of non alcoholic wine that are produced by chemically extracting the alcohol from the finished product come quite close to behaving like regular wine in sauce recipes. <S> Since you are from the US you might want to check out these guys: Ariel Specifically for Marsala <S> I have found some recipes calling for the following substitutes: ¼ cup white grape juice 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar 1-tablespoon nonalcoholic vanilla extract <S> As said, I would replace the grape juice in this recipe with non alcoholic wine for the optimal result. <A> It's very difficult to replace Marsala - it has plenty of flavors. <S> There is a fair chance that you like a specific flavor within the Marsala, which is the important distinction you desire. <S> The flavors of Marsala are often describes as walnut, curry plant (Helichrysum italicum - not to be confused with curry leaves), chocolate, leather, honey and dates, together with a distinct acidity and saltiness. <S> So, if you want to recreate the flavor, you have to experiment with these flavors, instead of "doing something with grapes". <S> The most difficult part of course is leather. <S> I would try long-brewed green tea, which will end up with a lot of tannin - <S> this is the bitterness and astringency you need. <S> Together with dark chocolate, honey, salt and wine vinegar for the acidity, you could, in theory, create something similar. <A> You may be able to mix a sugar syrup with balsamic vinegar to get a similar effect. <S> You can take white sugar and mix it with as little boiling water as possible to make it all dissolve, and then add a bit of Balsamic. <S> I'm not sure of exact quantities, but you can add a bit, taste, and then correct as needed. <S> It isn't a perfect substitute, but should work well for a cooked dish. <A> I tasted the marsala I just put in my stew, and to me it tasted like watered-down prune juice. <S> If I was going to substitute it, I'd use 1/4 cup prune juice and 3/4 cup water. <S> It'd be a site cheaper, too. <S> I just paid $12 for something that tastes like watery prune juice.
|
My best results have been achieved through using non alcoholic wine instead of grape juice. If you want to cheat, you can just get Marsala flavoring, f.e.: http://www.bickfordflavors.com/products/marsala-flavor
|
Substituting Chicken Broth in Split Pea Soup I want to make some split pea soup and have everything but am wondering if I can substitute the water with chicken broth and not ruin the taste of the soup. I will also be adding a meaty smoked ham bone with NO glaze on it. Thanks in advance...Electric Mike <Q> See no reason why not, all you will do is add more flavour. <S> Which is never a bad thing if you ask me. <S> Adding the ham bone will not have any adverse effects either. <S> The recipe you are following will not have used chicken stock/broth to either make it vegetarian or for simplicity. <S> Personally any time I make soup or broth at home <S> I will use chicken stock as a base even if its just an oxo cube. <S> At work ill use vegetable stock to keep those non-meat-eaters happy. <A> From personal experience I understand that it makes no difference to the soup. <S> The use of waterwill make the flavor DIFFERENT, not "bad" or unappetising, just different. <S> Honestly, lentils, pulses, split peas & beans & legumes are the main source of protein for majority of the people in my country of origin. <S> Partly because they are vegetarians by choice or following their faith, partly because many choose to eat what is suitable climactcally, & also, some just cannot afford the meat. <S> In my family, one of my children simply refuses to eat any meat or eggs. <S> So we make the lentils/split pea soup or any other soup with just plain water. <S> All the veggies & spices added to it & the sauteing of the ingresients imparts the flavor. <S> They are perfectly palatable & nutritious too. <S> You are planning to add the ham bone. <S> That too will be imparting the flavor. <A> It really depends on what you mean by "ruin the taste of the soup". <S> Peas are, to my mind, a fairly delicate flavor and while using chicken stock instead of water would make the soup more flavorful, it would also make it less of a "pea soup" and more like "chicken soup with peas". <S> Pea soup with a ham hock is a pretty classic combination, you might want to try the soup with water and the ham bone first and see how you feel about it. <A> of course it's really important that your broth as an ingredient is really good tasting to begin with - same thing if your using waterI like to use filtered water - like with a Brita filter for my cooking <S> and I certainly do this when making a bone brothChicken bones however tend to render a less remarkable flavored broth than pork, ham or beef bones - which is understandable since chicken bones are for the most part not a big or denseI read many recipes for split pea soup on the internet which use chicken broth - no doubt because if you go to your average store/market <S> your broth choices will be chicken, vegetable or beefWhich means if you want anything else you'll have to make it yourself and that may be a blessing because I have found a much better brew making bone broths myself anyhow - especially a ham bone brothAND <S> the split pea soup especially tastes way far better with a really good ham bone broth than any other split pea soup - I know so well from experience how the broth is that key to the very best tasting soupSo <S> I recommend you make some really good ham bone broth if you are really looking for the best tasting split pea soup <A> Careful what type of broth you use. <S> I bought a different broth than what I would normally use and it ended up sort seizing the beans <S> and they would not soften. <S> I'm guessing the broth was too acidic.
|
Well - if your recipe calls for water and you are substituting chicken broth then of course it will work and add more flavorI have found the taste of the broth of the soup either as an ingredient or the result starting with water after everything has simmered together IS the important part of the soup's tasteSo
|
How to reduce the heat on a gas burner I have a new gas cooktop and the lowest setting on the smallest burner still produces afast rolling boil rather that a very low simmer. How can I reduce the heat? <Q> 1. <S> Simmer/Burner Plate <S> You can use a simmer plate or something to diffuse the heat. <S> For example: http://www.thekitchn.com/good-tool-burner-plate-for-low-107122 Google: <S> Heat Diffuser <S> From the first link, a suggestion is to use a cast iron skillet as a heat diffuser. <S> That should work in a pinch. <S> 2. <S> Adjust the Flame <S> I'm not a technician, so please do this at your own risk, read the manual, etc.... <A> Since this is a new gas range, I'd suggest that you have the supplier confirm that the correct size orifices are installed. <S> Generally speaking, most gas ranges come with two or more sets of orifices: Propane and Natural gas. <S> Not only do those have different BTU ratings per unit of gas, they also normally run different pressures. <S> In North America, natural gas is usually at 7" water column pressure, Propane runs at 11" water column pressure. <S> Propane also contains more energy than Natural gas, which exacerbates the problem if you are running from Propane with Natural Gas orifices installed. <A> This is a common problem for single cooks who cook in small portions. <S> A burner produces a constant energy output, which will bring different amounts of food to different end temperatures. <S> You can consider cooking a larger batch of food at once. <S> This will give you a simmer and lots of tasty leftovers. <S> Many liquid foods such as soups also freeze well. <S> Of course this is not the right solution for every case, but it's worth taking into account. <A> I'm surprised nobody has suggested turning up the heat until the burner is almost off. <S> Just between being off and being at full is the smallest flame possible. <A> If you can't adjust or diffuse the heat enough, consider a separate electric cooktop. <S> Single place electric burners are very common, inexpensive, and you may be able to adjust the heat output better. <S> Look into induction cooktops when you do, you might be surprised at the control you have over your cooking with one of these. <A> I wanted to comment on another answer, but I don't have enough reputation. <S> On my stove, I am able to achieve a lower output towards the "off" position, than in the lowest output position. <S> The risk is that the flame may go out, especially if it is windy. <S> This could essentially fill the room with unburned gas and be an explosion risk. <S> But that is why most stoves have a thermocouple. <S> If your stove has a thermocouple, it should be safe to use this method, since it would turn off the gas supply if there isn't any flame.
|
Alternatively, some stoves allow you to adjust the flame level .
|
What's the point of roasting a whole chicken? Recently I tried to butterfly a chicken before roasting it (in the oven) and I totally liked it. It cooks faster, browns more evenly and is easier to carve. It's slightly more difficult to move the chicken from the pan and I can't put aromatics (like lemon) inside it. These are the only disadvantages I can imagine and they don't look as very important. So my question is: why mess with a whole chicken if you can butterfly it? What advantages (and disadvantages of butterflying) am I missing? And second question, related to the first: why even stop at butterflying if I can separate a chicken into parts before roasting? No need to carve at all and it solves the problem when breasts cooks faster than other parts (I can remove them earlier). What are the cons here? <Q> The reasons people still roast whole birds are: Roasting a whole chicken is easier than butterflying it. <S> While it's not tough to butterfly a chicken many people don't know how, or don't want the cleanup <S> It's less prep time to roast a whole chicken. <S> If you are busy you can have it from the fridge to the oven in less than a minute, while butterflying or jointing it isn't super-quick Aesthetics: some people like the look of a whole chicken on the table <A> If your goal is to cook your chicken relatively quickly, the only reason to keep it whole is for presentation/appearance and to avoid cutting it up. <S> (For example, I know some people who simply hate handling raw meat, and I imagine for them that the task of butterflying is not only laborious but distressing.) <S> From my perspective, you can save so much roasting time by investing a couple minutes in cutting it up -- and it really only takes a couple minutes once you know <S> how -- <S> and get better evenness <S> and get better crispness. <S> Why not butterfly or cut directly into quarters or pieces? <S> However, sometimes the goal is not saving the greatest amount of time. <S> The question mentions aromatics and elements placed inside the cavity: those will have greater impact when roasting for a longer time at lower heat. <S> But the even greater advantages for the whole bird come when you lower the temp even more and take a "low and slow" approach, as some people do. <S> While the USDA doesn't approve this, many people roast their chickens (and other birds) at 250F or 225F or even 200F, for anywhere from a few hours to 8 hours or more. <S> With extended roasting time, the meat and connective tissue softens, the fat renders beautifully, and you get an extremely tender and succulent texture, while any aromatics have time to be absorbed more fully. <S> If you cut up your chicken into parts or butterflied it before such a long roast, it could dry out, and you wouldn't have the moderating influence of the large structure to keep the interior relatively balanced. <S> It's like the difference between cooking a steak and large roast of beef. <S> Use the same logic for large hunks of poultry: If cooking fast and quick, cut up is better. <S> If cooking low and slow, there are flavor, texture, and moisture benefits to keeping it whole. <A> Additionally to the other answers, you cannot rotisserie a flat bird, which to me, is a great way to cook chicken. <A> One word. <S> Stuffing . <S> You can make stuffing balls, or cook it in a ramekin - <S> but it picks up the meat juice from the bird, and can also flavor the meat from the inside. <A> Obviously it depends on the exact recipe you are using the meat in, but if you plan to serve the meat as-is, accompanied by side dishes and a sauce, you will definitely get a better flavour by roasting the bird whole and then carving off the meat. <S> If you use the meat as filling for a pasta sauce or curry, don't bother and just use carved up fillets. <S> As for the cooking time argument: I find that things taste better when cooked for a longer time, slowly. <S> Your meat becomes more infused with your spicing and due to thickness retains its moisture better. <S> The problem with the breasts cooking before the legs on a roast chicken has been solved a long time ago and does not require a lot of extra effort. <S> I'm sure the process is described somewhere on this site, but have not yet looked for it.
|
Cooking meats whole and on the bone gives a deeper flavour and thus I would rather cook poultry whole, including chicken.
|
Adding sugar and honey to sourdough culture I am interested in this site's members' opinions on how adding two spoons of sugar and two spoons of honey would affect a sourdough culture. I am wondering if adding sugar and honey to the starter culture will have any desirable effects on the resulting sourdough. I'm experimenting and curious if this addition would lead to any new types of flavour? <Q> Adding sugar or honey to a sourdough culture will increase the activity of the yeast for a little while, but it is unlikely to create "new types of flavour". <S> Honey and Sucrose (Table sugar) are both just simpler sources of glucose and fructose that the sourdough microbes usually get from breaking down the starches in flour. <S> The effect of sugar or honey on the lactobacilli isn't predictable without knowing which specie are active in your specific starter. <S> Some prefer maltose almost exclusively and would slow down if fed sucrose or honey, while others prefer fructose and would become especially active if fed honey; possibly leading to more sourness in the final product. <S> The purpose of a starter is to leaven bread composed of mostly flour and water. <S> As such, it has always been my opinion that you should only feed your starter flour and water. <S> Adding other things only serves to contaminate the culture or "teach" it to need additional food sources. <S> If you just really want to experiment feed you mother culture normally a few times, let it become active then set aside half of it for experimentation and half for safe keeping. <S> See Also: <S> Sourdough starter developing alcohol <A> Just to add a comment to Didgeridrew's great summary, the real danger of adding anything other than flour and water to starters is contamination. <S> A sourdough culture consists of a symbiotic community of yeasts (which make the bread rise) and lactic acid-producing bacteria (which make it sour). <S> Like almost any natural fermentation process, sourdough depends on a selective environment with conditions that will tend to allow certain microorganisms to flourish, while not allowing other ones to grow. <S> Messing with this balance is asking for trouble. <S> I have heard of people trying to add everything from sugar/honey to milk to fruit juices to various foods or spices to their sourdough cultures. <S> While it's possible it might work long-term, the more likely scenario is either (1) <S> the thing you add has undesirable bacteria/mold/ <S> whatever already in it and will eventually spoil your culture and/or (2) <S> the added nutrients from these new additions destroy the balance between the "good" bacteria and yeast and allow other bad things to start growing. <S> If you want to influence the final bread dough and incorporate some other ingredient into your starter early, I would suggest a multi-stage process of building up your dough. <S> Many people just mix their starter directly into the final dough, but you can also begin with a much smaller amount of starter and gradually add flour and water to build up to the final amount of starter you need for the recipe. <S> Along the way, you can introduce other components into the starter (which now more accurately would be called a "pre-ferment"). <S> If you do this in stages, you might be able to add these ingredients hours or even days before the final dough mix, which will allow plenty of time for those ingredients to influence the final bread. <S> Meanwhile, you save the rest of your (uncorrupted) starter for future batches. <A> I would add that if you are starting your starter (as opposed to feeding it) <S> then honey (though not sugar) could be a good idea in the first day or two <S> as it honey often has yeast/bacteria that can help establish your colony (raw honey would be best for this). <S> Similarly, fresh pineapple juice and probiotic yogurt attempt to do similar things by "seeding" the initial population (and additionally starting with something sour to keep the non-sour-loving beasties away). <S> This would indirectly eventually affect the taste of your starter because the yeast/bacteria that get established depend on what was there to begin with, but how exactly the taste will change is rather unpredictable.
|
Unlike flour, honey and sugar do not provide much (if any) protein which the sourdough microbes need in order to grow and reproduce.
|
How to make cheesecake less tangy I love cheesecake, however I despise the acidic, tangy taste associate with cream cheese and yogurt. I recently purchased some that didn't have that taste at all, just smooth an delicious. I'd like to know how to make cheesecake without the tang it generally has. <Q> In my experience, if I use a cheese like Philadelphia, it will have a more cheesy tang, whereas using Mascarpone has a smoother creamier taste. <S> I've actually just made a very creamy tasting cheesecake today using Mascarpone and extra thick double (heavy) cream. <S> For my palette, it is too creamy and doesn't taste enough like cheesecake, but it may suit you. <A> In its most basic form the answer is- <S> Less cheese or more sugar... <S> I'm not sure if you are talking about baked or geletin style cheesecake. <S> In a baked cheesecake its the eggs that makes it set. <S> In a geletin cheesecake its the geletin making it set. <S> Either way substituting part of the sour/ acidic ingredients for cream will have no/little effect on the integrity of the final product, except maybe the texture will be smoother. <S> In fact there is nothing to say you can't take all the cheese out of the recipe and replace it with cream other than the fact it will no longer be a cheesecake and more of a panacota (geletin) or creme-brulee (baked)... <A> Some recipes for cheesecake have sour cream in them, some don't. <S> This Martha Stewart recipe <S> doesn't, I've made it, and it's awesome.
|
I also find that using higher fat creams will give a more creamy taste, as opposed to a lighter cream and particularly sour cream, which will add to the tang.
|
Why does caffeine taste bitter when added to tea? Black tea contains about 40 mg of caffeine. When adding 80 mg of caffeine powder, the tea tastes bitter. Why doesn't caffeine that is already in the tea or in an energy drink taste bitter and how should caffeine be added to drinkable fluids so it has no taste? Adding more sugar is not a very healthy solution either... <Q> Caffeine is bitter, tea isn't too bitter because as you mentioned it's only got 40mg of caffeine. <S> If you then triple the amount in there it's going to taste that way. <S> Try adding 3 tea bags to your cup <S> and I'm certain it'll taste just as bitter. <S> Energy drinks have copious amounts of sweeteners added hence why they don't taste like caffeine. <S> If you are hell bent on more caffeine without the associated bitterness but not adding sugar maybe a sweetener like stevia would be the way forward... <A> "The addition of “phantom aromas,” such as vanilla, berry, citrus, bacon or even cheese, can distract the brain from acknowledging a bitter to taste. <S> ""Other <S> additives can mask or “mitigate a bitter taste.” <S> Lactisole, for example, made from carboxylic acid salt derived from Columbian coffee, can negate sweet taste. <S> An allosteric modulator can change a food or ingredient’s protein structure reducing the salty, sweet or bitter signal to the brain. <S> "src - http://www.novotaste.com/content/bitter-blockers <S> Substitute some of the supplemental caffeine with theanine, and add only Xylitol (possibly steviol but to me the taste is disgusting). <S> Don't forget some glucose-based sugars for consistency (it considerably affects aftertaste). <S> Lemon juice helps the bitterness too if that is an option for you. <A> Tea also contains tannins, which is the main cause of the bitterness - not the caffeine. <S> You're adding something bitter to something that's already bitter, obviously increasing the bitterness, so <S> I'm not sure what the point of the question is. <S> The question should have been, "how do I mask the bitter taste of added caffeine in my tea". <S> Milk, sugar, acid (such as lemon juice), and salt are all suitable for masking bitter flavors. <A> EDIT : <S> The tea tastes good because the bitterness in it is balanced by other flavors—and that balanced bitterness is part of what makes it taste good. <S> As for the second question, you can't. <S> Caffeine has a flavor, and it will add that flavor to whatever you add the caffeine. <S> For a similar example, I can taste the difference between Mountain Dew and Caffeine Free Mountain Dew. <S> I prefer the caffeinated version (slightly), because the bitterness of the caffeine balances the sugar better. <S> The caffeine free version is a touch too syrupy, leaning very slightly towards root beer. <S> But there's a ton of caffeine in Mountain Dew, which is why I can taste it over the sugar at all, and even then it's not strong. <S> Contrariwise, I don't like Mountain Dew Throwback at all (the kind made with sugar instead of HFCS). <S> It's not sweet enough, and too much acid and bitter shine through. <S> Chocolate is another obvious example, not as much from the caffeine as the cacao. <S> I like semi-sweet chocolate because the flavor profile is more well-balanced than with milk chocolate (the sweetness doesn't totally mask the bitter flavor), and tasters almost universally prefer cookies made with semi-sweet chocolate when the cookies are already loaded with sugar. <S> Supertasters seem to like chocolate that's much more bitter than an typical taster <S> can stomach, but I don't know why.
|
The tea without the added caffeine does have bitter flavor to it, but you don't notice it because "noticing bitter" means there's "too much bitter" in the flavor profile. Add a pinch of potassium-balanced salt.
|
How can one use Thai basil stems and flowers? What parts, besides the leaves of Thai Basil, are usable? I am making Thai Basil Chicken (Gai Pad Krapow) using the leaves but can I use the stems and flowers as well? <Q> First off, I'm afraid you have been using the wrong type of basil for your dish! <S> In Thai cooking, three different types are commonly used: "Thai basil" (or "horapha", โหระพา), which tastes a bit like anise / liquorice; it's slightly purple (as shown in the picture in Jolenealaska's answer). <S> "Holy basil" (or "kaphrao", กะเพรา), which tastes more like pepper/cloves; it can also be a bit purple, and (unlike Thai basil), it is a bit hairy, and the leaves have jagged edges. <S> "Lemon basil" (or "maenglak", แมงลัก), which (as the name suggests) tastes a bit like lemon. <S> Notice that "krapow" is just a slightly different spelled transliteration for holy basil ("kaphrao"). <S> Preparing this well-known dish with Thai basil instead of holy basil will certainly make for a very good tasting dish <S> (I've made it myself a few times when I couldn't get holy basil, and in fact I actually prefer it, since I'm quite a sucker for that anise/liquorice taste), but should really be called "Gai Pad Horapha" instead. <S> I typically discard the stems, but on occasion I have chopped them up and mixed them with some honey and ginger (and some mint, whenever I had it), to be used as a dipping sauce for spring rolls. <A> The flowers and stems are absolutely edible. <S> The stems are like cilantro stems in that they have a lot of flavor of the herb but are not as prized for their texture as the leaves. <S> I puree cilantro stems until they are just flavorful, green liquid. <S> That liquid is great in sauces, salsas, soups and dressings. <S> I see no reason why Thai basil would be any different. <S> As a matter of fact, I wish I had some Thai basil right now <S> , I have a couple of Asian pears and some fresh homemade Japanese style mayonnaise. <S> The stem puree would make an awesome dressing for slaw. <S> Also like cilantro, you don't have to puree the stems, you can just chop them up and use them as you do the leaves <S> , it's just a matter of personal preference. <S> The flowers of Thai basil are a bit more controversial. <S> The flowers certainly are very pretty: <S> Some people think they are very tasty, others not so much. <S> So on that one, I just recommend that you taste them. <S> If you like them, you can use just like any other edible flower or with the leaves in any application in which you would use the herb. <A> the whole basil plant is edible. <S> Roots too, though I wouldn't want to eat them. <S> The stems can be a bit woody, especially if you let it grow tall.
|
As for your question, I typically use the flowers (of either type of basil) to garnish a dish - if I haven't eaten them already while peeling the leaves off the stems.
|
Can I substitute canola or safflower oil for vegetable oil when making granola? I am making granola and just realized I do not have vegetable oil. Can either canola oil or safflower oil be substituted without compromising the flavor? <Q> canola oil and vegetable oil are the usually the same thing. <S> Veg oil is simply a less specific oil that could be made from different or combined vegetable sources, but not those which contain nut oils. <S> sunflower (not safflower) <S> oil is likely your best bet for the least flavor contribution to your granola. <A> "vegetable oil" is a catchall term for "we put in the bottle a blend of whatever neutral, somewhat heat stable edible oils <S> we had a surplus of". <S> This can be corn, canola, soy, (probably not peanut because of allergy risks), (probably not light olive oil), refined safflower, sunflower and other. <S> At least corn, soy, REFINED canola/rapeseed, REFINED safflower, sunflower will be safe substitutes. <S> Be careful with "cold pressed"/"unrefined" versions, these are meant for a different purpose and do not meet the heat stability expectations a recipe specifying "vegetable oil" could have. <A> It is made from canola plants, but works just the same. <S> It is healthier, has a similar burn point, and has no odor so it is a good choice.
|
I regularly substitute Canola oil for vegetable oil in recipes and do not notice the difference.
|
Using homemade pasta instead of dried in a bake I'd like to use fresh homemade pasta tonight in place of bagged egg noodles. My question is, should I prep the noodles in boiling water in anyway, or should I skip that step and add the freshly made noodles where the recipe calls for it? here is the recipe: 1 lb ground beef1 tsp minced garlic1/2 tsp salt1/4 tsp black pepper1/2 tsp Italian seasoning8 oz tomato sauce1 cup cottage cheese1 cup sour cream8 oz egg noodles Brown and drain ground beef. Add beef back to the pan over low heat and stir in minced garlic, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and tomato sauce. Simmer for 5 minute and remove from heat. Meanwhile, boil egg noodles for 2 minutes less than the lowest time on the package directions. (They WILL continue cooking in the oven. No one likes an overcooked noodle!) Drain noodles and combine them with the cottage cheese and sour cream. Spray a 9x9 baking dish with cooking spray and put the noodle mixture in the bottom. Top with reserved meat sauce. Cover with cheese and bake for 20 minutes or until bubble and cheese is melted. You can broil the top for a minute or 2 if you want the cheese to brown. Remove from oven and serve! <Q> I've made lasagna several times with homemade egg pasta. <S> The noodles can be quite fragile and moving them around once they are cooked can easily tear them or stretch them out to breaking thinness. <A> Personally I'd suggest blanching your pasta. <S> By blanching: I mean get a big pan of heavily salted water on a rolling boil. <S> Drop your pasta into the water, give it a stir. <S> After 1 min or when the water has come back to boil drain the pasta off. <S> At this point your pasta will still be el' dante but not raw which is what I suspect the directions are suggesting when they say "2 min less than instructed" then just use it at the mixing with sour cream step. <S> If you were to just use the pasta freshly made it will likely not have the texture desired. <S> Boiling it will help moisten it up and start to cook the flour. <A> As fresh pasta typically only requires a minute or two to cook, I'd be inclined to do one of the following: <S> Only shock the pasta in water. <S> (dip in, immediately remove and mix in with the sauce) <S> Cook the pasta in the sauce on the stovetop to soften it (maybe 30sec to a minute?) <S> , then place it into the casserole dish, then stir in the dairy products. <S> If you're dealing with smallish tubes (ziti, penne), I'd be more likely to go with #1, or thin the sauce slightly so that you can make sure that it will seep inside. <S> For all other cases, I'd go with #2. <S> You may still want to thin the sauce slightly for #2. <S> Maybe 1/4c to 1/2c of water before you bring it up to a simmer. <S> You can also reserve some of the tomato/meat sauce before thinning it & adding the pasta if you want to make sure <S> that's top most on the casserole.
|
The pasta cooks in the steam generated by the ingredients you're baking and there is no need to blanch, parcook or do anything to the homemade pasta before using it in your recipe.
|
Fermenting Sauerkraut - Should I Stir? I haven't done this for a very long time. I am following Alton Brown's recipe , which conveniently fits perfectly into a little hack-job of containers I already had. (Related: Why isn't glass ideal for the fermentation of sauerkraut? ) @Athanasius' answer to that question led me to what I'm doing with this batch. At this point I feel pretty comfortable with it: The two containers are identical, and I have a few inches of water in the top container so that it weighs down the cabbage in the lower container. It seems to be working pretty sweet. I'm three days in and it's starting to smell like something is happening. There is a funk in the air. So far so good. Now I am dying to stir it...to do something ! Everything I have read (including Athanasius' answer) suggests that in a less awesome container I might have to stir, but now I don't necessarily have to do anything but scoop off scum which has yet to appear. That's killing me. Is there a reason not to stir? Will stirring offer any benefit? <Q> Well, having grown up near "the" Sauerkraut region in Germany - I'd say don't. <S> Honstly, I hadn't ever thought about why until today (can't have been only lazyness that my ancestors left the kraut in peace until done.), but: Why making really sure to create a water-seal when you are breaking it with stirring? <S> The kraut is supposed to ferment under the absence from air! <S> You are supposed to check on the kraut regularly and even fill up with saltwater, if if the water level is too low. <S> If even the smallest bit of cabbage sticks out from the brine, you risk mold. <S> Besides, I'd be afraid to drag something nasty into the half-done kraut ( <S> and I'm <S> so not implying that your utensils aren't clean!). <S> I'm adding a detail from a classic fermenting pot: note the groove at the top which is supposed to be filled with water. <S> The lid sits in this, ensuring the seal. <S> The two stones are supposed to weigh the kraut down (what you do with the second plastic box). <A> Exposing the sauerkraut to air is undesirable: we want an oxygen-free environment for the bacteria to do their work, and air exposure also brings increased (though small) likelihood of surface contamination (by mold for example). <S> I don't have a reference <S> but I'm pretty sure that historically opening a crock to stir was not a thing. <S> And regarding your statement @jbarker2160 <S> that sauerkraut is also the favored environment of some really nasty bacteria <S> I'd certainly like more information about that claim if you have some. <S> If anything I would think the opposite to be true. <S> A high-salt and increasingly high-acidity environment is not friendly to most bacteria, which is why sauerkraut is hard to screw up. <S> Considering that throughout history people generally would not have sterilized their equipment (or even had the means to do so) <S> you would not have expected fermented foods to have caught on at all if it posed a significant health risk. <A> Correct me if I'm wrong, but to my eye it looks like there is a tiny gap between the two containers so the surface of the fermenting liquid is slightly exposed to air. <S> Is that correct? <S> If so, you have an "open crock" apparatus where the surface is exposed to air. <S> While "open crock" is a very traditional method (and Alton Brown seems unconcerned), as I mentioned in my answer to the question you linked, many people tend toward airlocks today to avoid some of the surface "scum," which could include mold or occasionally something less nice. <S> There are some who advocate mild agitation of the water surface in an open crock at least for the first few days (until the liquid turns quite acidic), which might prevent some molds from settling, for instance. <S> But if you do have any contaminants in that surface layer, agitation also risks pushing them further down into the cabbage. <S> For that reason, I'd recommend against stirring , if by "stirring" you mean dipping something down far in and agitating the cabbage itself. <S> The only thing that can come from that is contamination. <S> You won't speed up the fermentation significantly. <S> And there's no positive benefit to it. <S> So, don't stir the cabbage. <S> If you want to agitate the exposed water surface slightly (which in your containers could just be lifting the top one up a bit and putting it back down), maybe <S> it might prevent some "scum" from settling on the surface. <S> But I don't know that I've seen anything conclusively showing that this would be better than simply skimming off any scum that might show up after you see it. <A> Stirring won't necessarily cause any safety problems or anything like that, but you'll change the flavor of the finished product(although the detectability of the change is debatable) due to the bacteria switching to making acetic acid(vinegar) instead of lactic acid in the presence of oxygen. <S> Also, make sure that the brine level is above the cabbage when you are done. <A> Since stirring can only harm not help, leave it be! <S> Also, I agree that fermentation is the preferred method of preservation (other than freezing) to avoid spoilage by molds, bad bacterial, etc. <S> Botulism is so rare with lacto fermented veg as to be virtually undocumented. <S> Basically if it doesn't have visible blue, black or green slime on it, and it smells good to you, it won't harm you.
|
An occasional stir won't make a noticeable impact on the final product(probably), but make sure that you stir with a sterilized instrument since the type of environment that's most conducive to sauerkraut production is also the favored environment of some really nasty bacteria.
|
What is the type of cheese in "chips and cheese" UK fast-food? (with photos) I went to England a few years ago for a couple months. I took pictures of a fast-food dish, "chips and cheese" that is uncommon where I live. More than that, the taste of the cheese intrigued me. The pictures were took in Stafford in case regional culture matters for the answer. I've tried to replicate the taste once in a while, but I don't know what cheese is being used. Internet research points towards cheddar as the most likely match , however every time I gave it a try the taste did not seem to be it. Therefore I've tried to sprinkle various other types of cheese to no avail. Based on the cultural details above and the provided picture, what would be the type of cheese? If it is cheddar, is there a "specific type" of cheddar I would have to look for that would taste similarly when used in cooked dishes? <Q> The cheese you saw was, if it was real cheese at all, probably cheddar or just plain white cheese. <S> Whatever they put on was not high-quality stuff - takeaways are not known for lavishing money on ingredients. <S> Whether you will be able to get anything similar depends on where you are. <S> American and British cheddars have different flavors, so if I was in the US <S> I'd try Monterey Jack, or maybe Provelone. <A> <A> The majority of fast food take-away restaurants buy their grated cheese in bulk from suppliers. <S> The majority of the cheese is a 70%/30% mix of mozzarella and cheddar. <S> I know because I've worked in the industry for a long time. <A> I first started eating chips and cheese 32 years ago. <S> I frequented a pub for lunch and always ordered scampi and fries with a side salad. <S> The cheese was more often a mild cheddar, although sometimes a Red Leicester was used. <S> To me, it did not matter what cheese was used as I wanted cheese. <S> These days it is mostly mozzarella in takeaways, however, to me <S> it's not my preferred choice as it's too mild and bland. <S> I much prefer to taste the actual cheese.
|
Its more than likely what they call 'Pizza Cheese' which is a mix of mozzarella and mild chedder.
|
How do I preserve a tomato's freshness after it is cut? I've seen and read online, and experienced firsthand, that refrigerating a tomato is an awful idea. Not only does it lose freshness, it does little to prevent wilting and leads to flavorless tomato. But, eventually a tomato needs to be cut if it's going to be used in slices (for say, a sandwich), and I hate to throw it out when there's still a full half of the fruit left. How can I preserve the tomato after it has been cut, without putting it in a refrigerator and spoiling the freshness? <Q> I peel and seed the leftovers, freeze them, and use them the next time I make tomato sauce or marinara. <A> Doing a bit of Googling, it seems that there are a couple of different methods <S> but I think the one that will please you best is to: put a piece of plastic wrap on the cut side only place it cut side down on a plate or plastic container <S> leave it on the counter <S> Some recommend putting it in the fridge regardless, as the cut side is prone to bacterial infection. <S> I would probably recommend using it within 24 hours, though. <S> Maybe add it to a salad at dinner? <S> Personally, I just eat the rest of the tomato along with the rest of my lunch sandwich. <S> Source: Fine Cooking Among others. <S> There was a good deal of consensus on this issue. <A> I think everyone has run across the dilemma of what to do with the leftover piece and, while it doesn't happen often, it does happen. <S> (For me, it usually happens when I make a sandwich for lunch and only use a slice or two.) <S> Being frustrated so many times at having saved the tomato in the fridge and then throwing it away when I took it out, on a whim I tried the vacuum sealer and saved it in the refrigerator. <S> After two days when I took the tomato out to use, it was virtually unchanged, almost like I had just cut it. <S> I haven't tried any long term storage, just 2 - 3 days max. <S> Best solution I've found so far. <A> My Dad has a tomato storage container. <S> It reminds me of chicken shaped roll baskets, or toaster covers that look like a forest cottage. <S> It's a red plastic tomato that you twist apart <S> and you put the cut tomato inside and place it in the fridge. <S> Tomatoes placed in it actually stay fresh longer.
|
I think your best option may be to vacuum seal the leftover tomato and refrigerate it.
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.