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How to cook tubular ground beef using only disposable items? How do I cook ground beef (in those 1 pound tubes) using only disposable items? Details: I can cook pizzas in my oven by putting them directly on the rack. I can cook chicken and toast bread by putting down a sheet of aluminum foil, and setting the chicken/toast on top of that. I tried doing the aluminum foil trick w/ beef, but it gave off a lot of fat, which hit the metal at the bottom of my gas oven, filling the house with smoke. I tried making a little "tray" with the aluminum foil, but the beef didn't seem to cook well internally, plus there was a lot of fat left in the "tray" (from the outer layer of beef, which cooked fine). That's bad because the beef was cooking it its own fat, plus getting rid of the fat wasn't that easy (I drained it into a coffee can, but that doesn't get all of it). I've tried using lower-fat beef, but it tastes different, and it just reduces the problem and doesn't cure it. I'm willing to buy ground beef in a different (non-tubular) form, but wasn't sure it would help. Thoughts? EDIT: Thanks to everyone who helped. I think sarge_smith's idea of using aluminum foil (homemade or a pie pan) to raise the beef and let the fat drip into a broiling pan (which I don't have to clean, since the fat is disposable) is what I'll try. Some random notes: I store beef in the freezer, so skewering or crumbling it wouldn't work unless I thawed it first, which would take time. I normally cook 45-50 minutes at 450F. This works fine for beef on flat aluminum foil, but if I make an aluminum tray or pouch, 45-50 minutes doesn't seem to be enough. Having said that, I haven't tried the tray/pouch trick w/ my new oven. The old oven was 30+ years old and eventually broke down, so maybe foil pouch cooking will work w/ the new one. <Q> You can try going with the classic Boy Scout "hobo" stew. <S> Put your beef, some sliced potatoes, carrots, celery into a foil that you then fold up completely to make a "poche" or pocket. <S> In this case the potatoes will absorb some of the grease... <S> you'll still have the flavor. <S> But you are still going to have a lot of fat <S> , such is the nature of 80/20 beef. <S> And, of course you could just broil burgers. <S> You might want to modify your question to state why you want to avoid using any containers. <S> If it is just a cleaning issue, you can line anything with foil and make clean up easy without having to go to so much trouble to come up with something. <A> I think it can be done with some aluminum foil. <S> First, make a tray from aluminum foil <S> Next, twist up 4-5 pieces of aluminum foil into cigar-shaped logs, and place them in the tray (or, just use carrots or celery stalks) <S> Place the meat across the supports to keep it raised up off the tray. <S> This should have it cook more evenly, as it won't be sitting in its own fat. <S> However, it's possible that the fat will flare up, and burn ... you could put some coarse salt in the tray before cooking, but it's likely that you won't be able to put in enough without it touching the meat and over-salting the meat. <S> (this is a trick to use when cooking on a wire rack over a baking tray) <S> I guess you might be able to use two pieces of aluminum foil -- one above the supports with holes punched in it, so <S> the meat doesn't make contact with the salt, but I don't know how well it'll work. <S> Of course, as you mention -- getting the grease-filled tray (even with salt in it) is going to be difficult to remove without spilling ... <S> I'd say to set the whole thing on a sheet pan, but that sounds like it wouldn't meet the requirements. <S> update : <S> Forgot to also mention <S> -- I'd never just cook a log of ground beef; I'd make it into a meatloaf, and it's possible that the breadcrumbs might absorb some of the liquids that are given off, but also changing the shape of it <S> (mine tend to be more oblong than round) might improve the cooking characteristics, but it's likely to be more difficult to get to sit suspended above things once you've mixed other things in (which is why I use a broiler pan) <A> I realized that I was limiting myself too much with my original answer, because I kept thinking of ways to preserve the 'log-ness' of the log of ground beef, but I realized another solution when reading sarge_smith's answer, which I think will solve the problem: wooden skewers, aluminum roasting pan, salt <S> You'll need to find long enough wooden skewers (or a small enough roasting pan), so that the skewers are longer than the shortest width of the roasting pan. <S> You'll have to use a heavier pre-fab pan, and not just alumnium foil, as we're going to be relying on the wall strength of the pan: <S> soak the wooden skewers for about an hour or so. <S> squish the meat around the middle of the skewers, no longer than the width of the pan, leaving the ends clean pour salt into the bottom of the roasting pan. <S> place the skewers across the top of the pan. <S> Roast under the broiler (uk: grill), turning the skewers until everything's browned nicely. <S> ... <S> so basically, we're making kebabs, in the oven. <S> If cooking indoors isn't a strict requirement, you could even do it over a camp fire, but I'd use a larger stick, whittled clean. <S> And you might not need the salt, but <S> it'll help reduce the likelihood of flare-ups. <A> It's worked great for more than a couple of years. <S> But... If you don't have that, there are a few other things you can do. <S> Labor intensive but extremely effective is the raised rack made out of foil. <S> You construct a tray out of tinfoil and add ridges to the bottom every inch to an inch and a half. <S> This will cook your beef and allow grease runoff <S> so you meat doesn't just cook in it's own fat. <S> The only other thing I could think of would be to cover one of your burners completely with tinfoil and use it like a frying pan, but i'm prertty sure that's gonna result in a lot of cleaning time, so it would probably be a negative once you took it all together.
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I would suggest the easiest way to cook ground beef with only disposable items is a grill.
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I'm baking an acorn squash. How long should I bake it for? I'm baking an acorn squash. How long should it bake for and at what temperature? I also noticed on the spaghetti squash question that those are baked sliced face down. Should acorn squash bake face down too? <Q> To roast acorn squash, set your oven to 350 and roast for about 30-35 minutes. <S> I find that the squash cooks to a more even color than when you place it directly against a metal pan which can develop diffrent temps across the surface. <S> You can also baste with some butter as long as it is face up, which is pretty good. <A> Lately I have been microwaving my squash and it has been coming out incredibly well. <S> Cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, put it face down on a bowl or plate with a little water, stab it with a fork a few times and do it for the same amount of time as you would a baked potato (I actually have an auto-sensing baked potato setting, which has worked perfectly). <S> The squash is done when a fork pierces smoothly from the outside, so you might need to add more minutes. <S> Or, when it is nearly done, flip it over, add a pat of butter, maybe some brown sugar, and then finish. <S> But we've just been eating it straight, adding butter at the table and it has been easy and exquisite. <A> I cut the acorn squash In half, Scoop out the seeds and put them in a baking dish or deep casserole. <S> Drop one and a half to 2 tablespoons of brown sugar in the well of the squash, Along with 1 tablespoon of butter. <S> Lay a medium Porkchop on top of the squash covering the brown sugar and butter. <S> Cover the casserole, and bake at 350° for one hour. <A> I cut the squash up into single serving pieces - cut it in half, then take the seeds out and keeping halving all you have until the pieces are the size someone would likely eat. <S> Brush with butter, sprinkle with nutmeg, then microwave for 3 or 4 minutes (poke to see if it's soft.) <S> This has the advantage of not competing for limited oven space. <A> One of the things to keep in mind when microwaving squash or any food for that matter is to make sure that you let it sit for about 5 minutes <S> or so after your done cooking it before eating. <S> Because of the way microwaves work to heat up the food they continue to heat for that period of time. <S> Something consumed may not feel too hot, however if it continues to heat after you ingest it your run the risk of causing burns to your esophagus and or stomach. <S> This does depend on your oven slightly. <S> As for cooking them face down it depends on how you are preparing them. <S> If you have them in pieces for serving ( like watermelon slices ) and they are seasoned with sugar and nutmeg or whatnot <S> I would do them face up to get some caramelizing on the sugar. <S> Another way to do them is season them add a little liquid to the pan and cover them. <S> That works as well. <S> Hope it helps. <A> I cut the acorn squash In half, Scoop out the seeds and put the squash on a baking try cut side up. <S> Drop one and a half to 2 tablespoons of brown sugar in the well of the squash, Along with 1 tablespoon of butter, some times I add dried cranberries and apples with a sprinkle of walnuts inside for a change. <S> Bake for about an hour at 350. <S> Should be able to stick a fork into it easily when done. <S> We are having it this way tonight for supper. <S> Oh it also helps when baking it on a tray to cut a little off the bottom so they don't roll around on the tray while putting them into the oven.
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I think that for oven cooking 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes would work well. I normally roast cut side up, unless I am using some kind of sauce to go with it.
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How can I emulsify cod liver oil, or otherwise mask its taste? Background I have some cod liver oil to take a supplement, but the taste is sufficiently unpleasant that I am not sure how to finish the bottle off. In the past, I have found emulsified cod liver oil fully tolerable, even pleasant, and I would like to know if it would be simple to make a similar product at home from raw cod liver oil. The Twinlab website states that the product is emulsified with natural soy lecithin and apple pectin making the EPA and DHA more readily available to the digestive system for better absorption, assimilation and utilization. And the ingredients are (in order): water cod liver ois glycerin sorbitol soy lecithin cellulose orange flavors tragacanth gum resin apple pectin alpha tocopherol ascorbyl palmitate beta carotene But it is not clear to me which of these ingredients are required, what quantities, or how to blend them. Questions Is there a way that I can emulsify cod liver at home in such a way that will accomplish this? Are there any other suggestions for how to consume cod-liver oil without having either the initial taste or the residual flavor in the mouth and breath? <Q> This should be no problem. <S> It is basically the same process as making a vinaigrette, only using water instead of vinegar, and lecithin instead of mustard. <S> Here's how I would go about it. <S> Let's say you have 1 cup of oil to emulsify. <S> Go buy soy lecithin at a health food store. <S> Take 1/2 cup of water, and dissolve 1 teaspoon of the soy lecithin in it. <S> Use a blender or immersion blender. <S> With the blender running, slowly drizzle in the cod liver oil. <S> It will emulsify - the oil will disperse into ultra-fine droplets in the water, and presumably the taste will be both diluted and somewhat hidden by being locked up in little droplets. <S> If this doesn't work, you just need more lecithin, so dissolve a bit more in another 1/4 cup of water and drizzle the whole thing back in to the blender. <S> Naturally you'll want to take 50% more, since the oil is now only 2/3 of the volume. <S> Those other ingredients are for flavor and anti-oxidation, not needed for the basic thing you are trying to accomplish. <A> Ok I can give you an idea on what to do <S> but it is a long shot. <S> From what i see they use 1 Emulsifier •soy lecithin 3 Thickeners•tragacanth gum resin•apple pectin•cellulose 1 Swetener•sorbitol <S> 1 flavour•orange flavors <S> The rest is Vitamins. <S> You dont need to add them. <S> So you can use sugar instead of sorbitol. <S> Soy lecithin should not be hard to find. <S> You can try that one to. <S> If you want something that is in all kitchens I can sugest egg whites. <S> For thichener if you dont want to find this "exotic stuff <S> Flavour you can really use any flavour <S> you like it does not have to be orange ^^. <S> Now the tricky part is to find the proper proportions between oil/water and emulsifier. <S> This needs experimentation and <S> it is different with each emulsifier. <S> The good part is that you can use any oil like used cooking oils for the experimentation you dont have to use expenssive fish oil. <S> Make the emulsion and leave it for a day. <S> If it has not split after 24h <S> it is a success! <S> Use the fastest rotating mixer you have and leave it running for more than 3 minutes. <S> (must be really really powerfull <S> if you want to stand a chance, you Cannot do it with a joke mixer. <S> If you want to avoid experimentation you can try an emulsion using 67% fish oil, 3 % whey protein isolate 30 % water. <S> It works. <A> Take one tablespoon of cod liver oil. <S> Add 2 tbsp of fresh squeezed orange juice or skim milk. <S> Put in a little jar, like a baby food jar, and shake hard for 15 seconds. <S> Drink down fast. <S> Don't make a large batch at one time.
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I am making a fish oil emulsion using whey protein isolate. " you can try using gelatin you can find in all supermarkets.
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How do you coat almonds in wasabi and keep it spicy and crunchy? (my wasabi paradox) I've been trying to make wasabi and soy sauce almonds, like the ones you find at the store (Blue Diamond) but the only recipe I've found (food.com) is very underwhelming. Despite using varying increasing amounts of wasabi, the spicy factor is non-existant. I suspect the heat from baking causes wasabi flavor to lose it's intensity, so it must be added at the end. But, I haven't been able to find anything to coat the almonds to the outer shell and maintain the roasted/crunchy almond exterior. Since wasabi powder is "matured" [and activated] with water and a short (covered) resting period, refining it into more powdery makes it stick better but still not spicy. How do I get my wasabi almonds to come out spicy ? Note: I have also tried horseradish on almonds (which is just wasabi without food coloring) and baking it off. <Q> Wasabi can also be activated by oil. <S> So. <S> Make yourself a nice intense wasabi oil, add equal part by weight of maltodextrin, stir. <S> Voila, a nice sticky powder perfect for adhering to your almonds. <A> Heating wasabi up drives off all the volatiles (Taste) <S> so therefore the flavour needs to added cold. <S> This is done in the same way that colours and flavours are added to jelly beans, by tumbling and then drying. <S> It is possible (highly probable) that they are using mustard which doesn't degrade as much with heat. <S> They are only calling them wasabi nuts to use the latest food buzzword. <A> Just an opinion from me. <S> I took a look at your recipe. <S> Have you tried to sprinkle extra couple of teaspoons of wasabi powder in between Step 9 & 10? <S> Good Luck <A> I simply toss my almonds (or edamame) in olive oil, dry roast them (single layer) about an hour. <S> Remove from oven, let cool (a little), Spray them with "PAM" (olive oil), place in zip lock bag and toss in wasabi powder. <S> The spray olive oil ensures that most all of wasabi powder adheres to the nuts. <S> Be careful though~~~ the "spicy-ness" will blow your head off!!! <A> perhaps do like chex mix and combine soy sauce with the wasabi and then sprinkle on your almonds and bake. <A> Try using raw almonds soak them in water twelve hrs to remove toxins coat in a salt and wasabi powder mix and place in a dehydrator
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I think if you sprinkle the wasabi powder between the almonds cool down, the powder will stick on the almonds and should give you the kick you are after.
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What is meant by "cook until the oil separates" in Indian curry recipes? A lot of Indian curry recipes have a step where you're told to cook an onion-tomato-spices mixture "until the oil separates". Despite having tried cooking such recipes a number of times already, I still haven't really figured out what is meant by this. I have several questions: How can I tell that the oil is separating? I'm never quite sure whether I'm seeing oil or water coming out of the mixture while it's cooking. How long on average do you need to cook the mixture until the oil separates? What causes the oil to separate? Is it simply that all the water has been cooked out of the mixture? Why do you need to let the oil separate? <Q> You can tell by seeing "bubbles" appearing and the oil by making a thin layer on top of your sauces/curry. <S> It varies, but normally after 10-15 mins the oil separates from your curry. <S> Normally after cooking for 10-15 mins most of the water dries up which causes the curry (mostly made of thick sauces) to separate from the oil. <S> It's always good to let the oil separate from your curry because of two things: <S> Extra water dries up All spices and curry get cooked properly <S> The food tastes much better if spices and the curries are properly cooked. <A> Oil and water have different boiling points. <S> Oil has a higher boiling point as compared to water. <S> Spices and aromatic release their flavors only in oil because the compounds in them that are responsible for aroma/flavor are oil soluble. <S> However, they can burn easily in very hot oil. <S> Most Indian recipes require that they are cooked in a mixture of water and oil (typically onion + tomato or in some regions, coconut or sesame seeds). <S> Water evaporates, raising the temp of the mix slowly and spices, vegetables, meat etc. <S> release their flavors slowly. <S> When the oil separates/is visible, the temp is the highest. <S> Depending on how you want spices to release flavor, you add them before or after oil separates. <S> These practices vary from recipe to recipe and region to region in India as the oils, spices and other ingredients are varied in nature. <S> Hope that was useful. <A> Nadia is right. <S> Use your nose and ears too. <S> After a while the sauce will lose its watery appearance and the rawer flavours in the air emanating from the pan will begin to be repalced with more moorish aromas and a greater sizzling. <S> By these stages you'll see angry looking bubbles of oil around the suace and need to keep stirring. <S> I tend to stir a little longer to prevent sticking while getting my (meat/stock/lentils - whichever- etc) ready to pour in. <S> I find the stage is easy to identify by colour in the case of Tomatoey sauces. <S> these tend to develop a browner appearance by the oil-separating stage. <S> Oniony-garlicky-gingery mush sauces lose their raw aroma and then their wateriness and start to develop the oil bubbles after a while - about 10-15 as Nadia says. <S> Some great meat curries add the meat and dry spices to the still cooking onion and it gets a refry from the maet juices until drying again. <S> When its really sizzling and sticking to the pan in goes the water, stir until boiling, and on goes the lid for slow cooking
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Oil is separated in curries normally after you have cooked spices or sauces for ~10-15 mins.
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how do I make my goat cheese creamy? I tried to make goat cheese following the recipe below, I did not use any buttermilk although a comment indicated that could be done. I kept the milk at the desired temperature for 10-15 minutes with no curdling occuring, took off the stove then added the reccomeneded amount of lemon juice and still no curdling occured. http://guiltykitchen.com/2010/12/06/back-to-basics-culinary-fundamentals-goat-cheese/ My solution was to put the milk back on the heat until it started to curdle, and then take off the heat and add more lemon juice which produced curds, and then I was able to continue following the recipe. The result was a crumbly cheese that wasn't very spreadable. I used milk from a local farm, it did not have any indication of how pasturized it was. What did I do wrong? Should I have left the milk on the heat at a stable temperature until is started to curdle? <Q> I'd say the buttermilk was a necessary ingredient that you shouldn't have left out. <S> Milk usually needs to be inoculated with some kind of culture before your rennet (or lemon juice in this case) will successfully curdle it. <S> Buttermilk is cultured ( <S> which means it has an active colony of beneficial bacteria), and would work well to inoculate your goat milk. <S> Leaving that out made the milk much more difficult to curdle, and left you with a less stable curd. <A> Classic Chevre uses a bacterial culture as well as rennet to coagulate the cheese, but that is not the only way to make a goat's cheese. <S> The recipe you linked to doesn't have a long incubation time, so I doubt there's any intention that the buttermilk is inoculating the cheese <S> and there's no rennet. <S> So I think the "bacteria" idea is a red herring. <S> A very simple goat's cheese can be made with goat's milk and lemon juice. <S> I have had great success with it. <S> It does make a fairly soft cheese, though how soft depends on how long its left to drain. <S> The recipe I use has 1/3 cup (US) lemon juice to 1 quart milk. <S> I'm in the UK <S> so this works out as 2 lemons per litre. <S> The result is quite "lemony" and you might want to use another acid source (white wine vinegar for instance) <S> but if you keep trying you can home in on what you like. <S> Simple acid cheeses like reasonably high temperatures. <S> My recipe uses 180 - 185F (which may be hotter than you have used) before adding the lemon juice. <S> The other thing is, its generally much easier to just let the milk sit after acidification so the curd can develop. <S> 10 minutes is usually enough, but you can always leave it 20 or 30 minutes if the curd is slow to set. <S> The guilty kitchen recipe goes straight to ladling out the curds. <S> That is something you do for a ricotta or high acid cheese (which may sort of be what they are aiming for - I don't cook with buttermilk myself <S> so don't have the experience) <S> but I'd want to let things set a bit first with a simple goat's cheese. <S> So: warm slowly to 180-185F, add lemon, sit, strain through cheesecloth to the texture you like. <S> Crumbly may be an indication that its not setting long enough? <A> I assume by goat cheese you mean chevre. <S> Leave the log at room temperature for a while like you would a stick of butter that needs to be softened.
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To have soft creamy goat cheese for croutons for a salad, let the cheese come to room temp, put in either the Kitchen Aid mixer or a food processor, add a couple of tablespoons of heavy cream, fresh cracked pepper, process and fines herbs which are tarragon, parsley, and chervil.
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Camping stove to supplement an electric hob I've got basic electric hobs in my kitchen which do a fine job - but a lot of cookbooks suggest that certain things would be best done on an open flame/gas hob (i.e. anything involving a wok). My flat isn't piped up for gas and I can't afford the expense of replacing my hob with a better one than it currently has anyway - so I was wondering - would a decent gas camping stove/hob be a suitable and sensible supplement to my electric hobs? If so, what sort of thing should I look out for on buying one? <Q> They can produce fumes or carbon monoxide that would be fine outdoors, but dangerous indoors. <S> Check the warning labels before buying anything to use inside. <S> As for the actual cooking, I don't think that you'll get the results that you expect. <S> My experience includes an MSR Whisperlite International backpacking stove (white gas), and Coleman two-burner stoves in both white gas and propane variants. <S> Anecdotally, the backpacking stove has limited control, while the two-burner stoves don't quite have the oomph of a real gas stove. <S> The Coleman links that I provided indicate that the white gas stove has burners that put out 7,500 and 6,500 BTU, while the propane stove puts out 10,000 btu on both burners. <S> Using the REI-provided time for boiling water, I calculated that the backpacking stove puts out about 4,500 BTU (and other backpacking stoves indicate similar times, regardless of fuel). <S> By comparison, my consumer-grade natural gas-powered kitchen stove has two burners that put out 15,500 BTU, one that puts out 9,500, and one (the simmer burner) that puts out 5,000. <S> Viking offers normal burners up to 18,000 BTU, and a wok burner of 27,000. <S> However, white gas stoves aren't okay indoors. <S> They're fine while they're burning, but lighting them is a bit dramatic, and once you shut them off they'll put out half-burned fumes for several minutes. <S> Similarly, propane camping stoves usually put off too much carbon monoxide to be safe indoors. <A> Although I've seen stoves where you'd hook up what looked to be a propane cylinder, I don't know what hydrocarbon they were using. <S> And as it was a built-in, it would've had the appropriate venting as required by code. <S> If you're using a camping stove, you're going to run the risk of carbon monoxide build-up, particularly if you're using it when it's cold out, and you've got the windows closed. <S> There are butane burners that are supposed to be suitable for indoor use, but I'm personally not sure I'd trust them; they all risk carbon monoxide if there's not enough oxygen for combustion. <S> So, to answer the question -- yes, it'll work, yes, there are even ones intended for this purpose ... <S> but what I'd look for? <S> A carbon monoxide detector to install before you use it. <S> And as mentioned -- BTUs ... and remember, even though they're small, propane stores more energy than natural gas, <S> so you can get some rather large burners. <S> (eg, the ones sold to fry turkeys) <A> Yes, actually portable butane stove do a very good job and can be bought for under 30$ at most sports/camping stores.
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Camping stoves are generally not safe for indoor use.
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How to brew tasty tea with hard water At our new home, we have hard water. I had thought that the teabags I was buying were just weak, but the internet seems to indicate that the hard water will actually change the taste of the tea to a more chalky taste with some residue. Two suggestions I have come across are either brewing with bottled water (I try to reduce the amount of packaging I buy so don't want to do this), or brewing the tea double strength (this makes it a little bitter). What is the best way to get a tasty brew using hard water? <Q> You can also get a water filter that is meant to help with this sort of thing. <S> Here in the UK one of the most common brands is Brita, you simply put a couple of litres in a jug which has a filter in it, after filtration use it to make your tea. <S> I've not used it myself however <S> so can't comment on its effectiveness. <S> You can also get these filters built into your taps. <A> I don't drink tea, but my wife swears by them. <A> Put a pinch (a tiny tiny bit--see how little you can pinch) of baking soda in the cup when you put the bag in. <S> It will make your tea strong, and you won't taste the baking soda. <S> It also works with soft water if you are a cheapskate and want to get more tea out of your bags! :) <A> I took chemistry <S> and I got this: just add a few drops of lemon juice. <S> Your water probably has a high pH, and a few drops of lemon juice will neutralize the bitterness that is characteristic of something basic (something with a high pH). <S> Tea will brew better when the pH is slightly acidic. <S> I could go on, but the chemistry from here can get complicated. <A> If your tea is bitter, you might be steeping it too long. <S> Try a shorter steep time. <S> If you're adding extra tea, it should be plenty strong anyway. <A> I found that the horrible taste with unfiltered water was because of using tea bags. <S> I started using loose tea, and the taste is much better.
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In the UK you can buy loose tea/tea bags specifically for hard water .
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Should I peel and devein whole shrimps? I bought some precooked whole shrimp. Do I need to peel and devein them before eating or is it possible to leave this step out? I intend to saute them in garlic butter. <Q> I disagree with Daniel, you can absolutely eat the "vein" in a shrimp. <S> Whole un-peeled shrimp are called peel-and-eat and that's exactly what you can do. <S> Basically, when you are first cooking the shrimp you get the make the shells on/shells off decision <S> and if you go with shells off, you should de-vein, otherwise you just serve as is. <S> As for preparing already cooked shrimp, you can heat the butter then toss the shrimp in that off the heat. <S> You won't get them hot, but you can knock the chill off while at the same time adding the flavors you want to the party. <S> I agree that already cooked shrimp <S> is inferior to raw, but you can still make it taste amazing. <S> The fact that the intestine contains waste matter is a non-issue to your digestive tract, de-veining is mainly a presentation decision and not a health one. <A> The 'vein' is in fact no such thing; it is the intestine, and is thus filled with waste matter. <S> Yes, you need to peel them. <S> Shrimp shells are indigestible, and serving shrimp (unless meant to be eaten with the fingers) with the shells on is, to my mind, indefensible. <S> There is simply no good way to eat unpeeled shrimp with cutlery. <S> I would personally eat them cold, as I see no point in re-cooking something that has already been cooked. <S> This will make the flesh tougher. <A> You can leave both steps out if you wish, although personally I would always devein my shrimp before using. <S> While consuming the 'vein' is harmless, I don't like the idea of eating it. <S> It is fairly easy to deshell the shrimp before or after cooking, so that is up to preference and cooking application may have a factor. <S> Because the shrimp are going to be cooked in a sauce it will be messier to peel after cooking; but if you don't want to touch raw shrimp/don't care then peel after. <S> As Sarge said, cooking in the shell is more flavorful.
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If your shrimp are going to be fairly dry after cooking (which is not true in this case) then its easy to peel them after the fact. Yes you need to devein them.
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Looking for meal-planning / grocery list software I'm looking for software (either PC-based, or web-based) that can be used for meal planning and generating shopping lists. What I'd like is for it to store recipes that I have, including their ingredients. At the beginning of the week, I would like to select recipes and side dishes for dinners and have it generate a shopping list of things necessary for those recipes. A nice feature would be for it to calculate calories, fat content, etc., for the week. Is there such a thing out there? Thanks. <Q> Disclaimer: I am the owner of the company behind this service as well as the programmer of it. <S> Except for calculating nutritional data, <S> http://bechamel.net does exactly this, if you are a registered user (which is free). <S> Please note that there's not a whole lot of activity on the rest of the site though, and because of that, there's not a lot of development going on (that doesn't mean there are any plans to shut it down <S> , there's not). <S> To use Béchamel for this, go to a recipe, click "I want to eat this soon", drag the recipe to the applicable day, go to the shopping list, and add the recipe. <S> You can adjust servings either per recipe in the list, or globally in your profile. <S> It will even coalesce equivalent ingredients in the shopping list (2 eggs in one recipe and 3 eggs in another will become 5 eggs in the shopping list). <S> Feel free to use it if it fits your needs. <A> Pepperplate http://pepperplate.com has a web site, which is great for collecting recipes and they also have both iPhone and iPad apps. <S> iPhone app is convenient when shopping, iPad app when actually cooking. <S> I was about to implement something like Pepperplate myself, but then found them and been happy so far. <S> There is some annoying bugs in apps, but I hope they get them sorted out. <A> There is an iPhone app in Australia that may be as close as you want. <S> http://www.coles.com.au/Stores-Services/Coles-shopmate.aspx <S> It's not 100% what you are after, but have a look at it as reference. <A> I recommend Paprikia: http://www.paprikaapp.com/ <A> I'm in the process of developing a new web app that'll do just this. <S> I'd love to talk to you about features you'd like. <S> If you're still looking for something feel free to contact me at @adammckerlie on twitter. <A> I built a site that does exactly what you're asking for: http://mealfire.com <S> There's no nutritional data, but everything else you've mentioned is there. <S> Actually, you're paragraph <S> is a pretty good description of the core features of the site! <A> I like http://shopglider.com/ <S> It is web-based, pretty simple <S> : you keep shopping lists and recipes there, can share account between multiple people. <S> Then you decide what to buy next time and plan trip to shops. <S> They also have Windows Phone app that synchronizes with the web site - so one account user can add more stuff while another it shopping :), but no iPhone or Android app (at least yet). <A> Maybe CookDiary is to your taste. <S> ;) <S> It does everything you want with the exception of calories calculation (at the moment). <S> The program is written by me so ask away if you have any problems. <A> By chance I had the same question today and installed Gourmet Recipe Manager. <S> Available for Windows and Linux. <S> Gourmet also makes it easy to create shopping lists from recipes. <S> Gourmet imports recipes from a number of sources, including MealMaster and MasterCook archives and several popular websites. <S> Gourmet can export recipes as text, MealMaster files, HTML web pages, and a custom XML format for exchange with other Gourmet users. <S> Gourmet supports linking images with recipes. <S> Gourmet can also calculate nutritional information for recipes based on the ingredients." <S> http://grecipe-manager.sourceforge.net <A> Give a try to HipRecipes.com : <S> It is a web app, completely free <S> You can search for recipes and add them to your basket <S> And the app assemble a grocery list for you , organised by categories!
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"Gourmet Recipe Manager is an application to store, organize and search recipes.
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How do I season my new pizza stone? I just bought my first pizza stone. The instructions that came with it recommend that I wash it thoroughly with plain water before using it for the first time. Is there anything else I should do to it to season it so it lasts and performs optimally? <Q> I've never done anything in particular. <S> I just don't use soap on it. <A> You season it by cooking pizza on it. <A> Nope, there is nothing you need to do to prepare a pizza stone for use, other than giving it a good cleaning to remove any residue from the factory. <A> Apply a very light coat of neutral vegetable oil with an old towel (I find paper tends to snag on new stones) <S> Bake on med-high (400) as you would a cast iron pan (but not upside down). <S> Once the stone is seasoned, you'll find things don't stick as badly (or at all). <S> After normal use, just wipe the stone with a wet cloth (if soiled) and use a gentle utensil for scraping off anything that might stick (it should pop right off). <S> Both of my stones are a much darker colour after both seasoning and using for a few years. <S> This is normal. <A> After your first pizza-making experience you'll learn they are hard to clean-- cheese likes to glue itself to the sandstone, oil soaks into it, etc. <S> A common piece of advice I found on the internet is to leave the pizza stone in the oven all the time. <S> This has been working for me as it means what ever I can't get off the stone is constantly being re-baked and turned into something other than mold. <A> You can stick a pizza stone in the oven on a self clean mode. <S> The super high heat of the cleaning cycle will burn off 90% of stuck food. <S> Don't put it on a rack though, just put on the bottom. <S> The racks get destroyed in the cleaning cycle. <S> Ceramics do just fine in high heat; that's how they make your plates and cups - by firing them in high heat. <S> Just make sure you don't expose the stone to temperature extremes, let it cool down by itself. <S> And yes, don't use soap on a stone. <S> The porous nature of the stone will suck up the soap and is impossible to get out. <A> You don't have to do anything to season it. <S> If you do need to clean it, it's ok to use PLAIN warm water on it (never soap) and a scrub sponge (again, no soap) after it cools completely, but make sure you let it dry thoroughly before you heat it up again <S> or it may crack. <A> Our electric self cleaning oven did the trick. <S> I was afraid the stone might crack, but it cleaned completely, so the advice above about just leaving it in the oven is probably good also. <S> We use cornmeal on the peel. <S> It doesn't burn like flour. <A> Do not oil a pizza stone. <S> Oil will be absorbed and will likely go rancid. <A> Simply dust it with flour or corn meal before you put it in the oven to get hot and once its up to a nice hot temp of your choice <S> , ( I prefer 450 ) using a pizza peel slide pizza onto your stone and let it do its magic and once its done remove pizza from stone using the same utensil you used to place it on stone in the first place. <S> Once stone has cooled wash it with water and dry it and keep in safe place until next time. <S> BTW this info was directly from pizza stone manufacturer... <S> ENJOY!!!
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Do NOT season your pizza stone, EVER!!! While you don't have to pre-season most stones these days, you can speed up the natural process by: Wipe the new pan with a wet cloth (no soap) Dry in oven (low heat)
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Why is my chuck roast dry? Our chuck roast came out tender but dry. Why? We used the Beef in Barolo recipe from Americas Test Kitchen: - 2 lbs chuck roast seasoned with salt and pepper - Cooked at 300*F for 3 hours in a full bottle of red wine and veggies - Pot was covered in foil and lid on top - Turned the meat every 45 minutes - Instructions were to cook until the meat fell apart easily with a fork What did we do wrong? Thanks! <Q> The temp your meat reached was too high, and it forced the water out of the meat. <S> Further info here along with a handy chart of temps. <S> My suggestion would be to turn that oven down to 200-230 degrees if you've gotta cook for three hours, or start temping it earlier and get it out before it over cooks. <A> Turn the heat down to 225 or 250. <S> At 300 degrees, such a small roast will start to overcook before those tissues get a chance to melt away. <S> At 225 to 250, you're giving your meat a fighting chance to be edible. <S> Even still, 3 hours may be too much time. <S> Check it at 1.5 hours, then every half hour or so afterwards, until you reach your desired effect. <S> Like I said, for pulled beef you're probably taking it up to 190-195. <S> If you want to slice it, take it to maybe 175. <S> But don't let time and temperature be your only guides -- use your eyes, fingers, etc. <S> Test for tenderness with your probe, and make sure it doesn't look like it's drying out. <A> Two pounds is a VERY small roast--I'd recommend at <S> LEAST a 3-pound roast. <S> Brown the meat on top of the stove to sear the outside, which helps keep the juices inside. <S> When braising meat on top of the stove or in the oven, only cover the meat by 1/2 to 1 inch with liquid. <S> After browning the meat, add the liquid and let it come to a boil before putting it in a pre-heated oven. <S> You can do it at 300 degrees but 3 hours would be too long for such a small roast.
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If you want your chuck roast to fall apart similar to pulled pork, you have to take the internal temperature of the meat up to around 190-195, in order to render all the fat and connective tissue.
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How do you keep ebelskivers from sticking? My sister bought me a cast iron ebelskiver pan, and I've not had much luck with each of the batches I've tried. They always burn or stick. I'm hopeful someone might have a tried-and-true technique for making them, and possibly a family recipe :) <Q> There are a number of things that you may or may not be doing that is causing the problem, so any of the following "solutions" may fix it for you. <S> I am basing this on "burn" and "stick". <S> Make sure you've seasoned your cast iron. <S> Oil it, bake it in the oven, let it cool. <S> It will improve over a period of time. <S> Oil the pan every time you use it. <S> If your recipe doesn't have any added oil or butter in it, try adding some oil (Tablespoon or so) to the mix. <S> This would be the difference between pancakes and waffles...it will result in a little crispier exterior and less of a tendency to stick. <S> Turn down the heat. <S> If you are burning your ebelskiver you have the pan too hot. <S> You want the pan to reach and hold 350-375 <S> F. <S> Again, think pancakes. <S> A drop of water on a cast iron griddle should dance for pancakes not spit and immediately evaporate. <S> You want the same setup. <S> Don't use soap and water to clean the pan. <S> I am assuming you know this, but for the sake of completeness I include it. <S> You don't want to remove the seasoning layer on the pan. <S> Oil the pan when you finish, before you put it away. <S> 4 is probably the most important, since burning will mess up the oily patina you are trying to build up on your pan. <S> The others will all help. <S> As I noted in 1, your pan will improve over a period of time as the surface seasoning improves. <A> The heat tends to allow the oil to coat more evenly and you'll need less oil overall to create a completely non-stick surface. <S> Other than that, the more you use that pan, the better it will be as a cooking surface. <S> Don't begrudge it a screw up every now and then, even the things it burns makes it better. <S> Good luck! <A> I love ebelskivers, these are great little treats! <S> The way to prevent them from sticking to the pan is brushing melted butter over it before you put the batter in. <S> And make sure to season the cast iron. <S> IF you are looking for easy step by step directions for making them feel free to check out my blog http://cookingforthosewholive.blogspot.com/ . <S> I just wrote a post about ebelskivers, hopefully all works out!! <A> Regarding recipies, try throwing this one through Google Translate and pick any of the recipies you like: http://www.dk-kogebogen.dk/opskrifter/retter-3.php?id=482 <S> These are Danish recipies, and I believe ebelskivers (æbleskiver) to be a Danish thing. <S> Have fun :)
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Just to add on to the above answer (which is spot on): Add an oil coating after your pan has heated to cooking temperature completely, just before you add batter.
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Tips for cooking something "bacon wrapped"? Whenever I cook something "bacon wrapped" the bacon comes out a little undercooked for my taste. Should I be half-cooking my bacon before I wrap it onto something that I'm going to bake? <Q> Yes you can. <S> The term is called par-cooking . <S> Just fry it briefly in a skillet, drain, and wrap your item. <A> You can par cook the bacon as hobodave said. <S> You can do it but it requires some attention. <S> Another method is to use less or use a very thinly sliced bacon. <S> This is not always readily available. <S> I often use pancetta from the deli, which can easily be sliced thinly and gives the same general flavor, though often not as smoky as some bacons. <S> The intensity of the heat is important, also. <S> If I am bacon wrapping something I usually plan on grilling or broiling it. <S> The bacon crisps and the fat that renders out during cooking has a basting effect on whatever you wrapped. <A> If you are baking, I would use your ovens broil element at the end to crisp up the bacon. <A> I ran into the same issue with underdone fatty areas. <S> I now cut the bacon strip in two and wrap so that the lean is to the outside left and right, and the fatty parts (where the skin used to be long ago) touching in the middle. <S> After baking, I cover the done lean ends with foil and stick under the broiler to crisp the middle, turning once. <S> It's a lot of work, but well worth it!
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I find boiling it for a few minutes works nicely, as frying can make parts of it too crisp to wrap effectively.
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Bread Dough Dried out in Fridge Last night, I mixed and worked some dough and put it in the fridge overnight. I didn't account for enough rise, and it rose out of the bowl and out from under the plastic wrap covering it. The edges of the dough which are exposed to the air are hard. Can I just trim this part off and still have a successful bread experience, or is this dough ruined? <Q> Try working in a little more liquid into your dough until it is a proper tackiness or slight stickiness (the exact texture will depend on your recipe). <S> Just knead some more water in. <S> Let the dough come to room temperature, shape, let rise, and bake. <A> I'm assuming it is say 5% of the dough that is dried out. <A> I would recommend cutting off the really dried out part. <S> To try and rehydrate it would be dificult, and the rest of the dough is the proper proportions...
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I think if you knead the dried out part back into your dough, and spritz in a little more water, then let it come back to room temperature, it will be rehydrate and be fine. If it is 25%, go ahead and cut it off.
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How can I use white pepper without having the odor dominate the food flavour? I received several different pepper (spice) for christmas. One of them is a white pepper. Whenever I use (very) little of this white pepper in my dishes, the odor/flavor is very dominant cutting out all other flavors. How can I use this pepper without losing the other flavors? <Q> It's interesting that this is your experience, since "common knowledge" is <S> the white pepper is milder than black. <S> White pepper is the dried ripe fruit of the pepper Piper Nigrum, and the black is the unripe, cured and dried fruit. <S> Black is usually hotter than white, but generally they are considered to be interchangeable, with the white being used in sauces and in cream dishes for a better look (no black specks). <S> Other than that you can cut back on the amount or grind it now and let it sit around for a while... <S> pepper has its strongest, best flavor when freshly ground; it kills me to suggest that, but I'm trying to answer your question. <S> If it were mine, I would try to figure out a dish that this pepper would truly enhance, as I suggested. <A> Some people are sensitive to white pepper, which might smell as horse urine or swine manure to them. <S> This is because the fermentation process produces of white pepper produces some of the same chemical compounds. <S> The older the pepper gets the more concentrated the odor will be. <S> There is no way around this if you are one of those who does smell this as it is generally conditioned. <S> You can read this article for more information. <S> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16028994/ <A> I promise you I am not being snarky here: if an ingredient is overpowering the dish, use less of the ingredient. <A> I have loved white pepper on Japanese chicken wings & Thai curry for many years. <S> It is a wonderful spice. <S> BUT, I started tasting it in Thai curry from a particular restaurant a few years ago & was disgusted by the manure flavor. <S> I couldn't make out what part of the dish was tainting my beloved Thai green curry, if my tastes were changing or what. <S> Other Thai restaurants still made it great! <S> Then, I cooked some chicken adding some old white pepper & found that same manure flavor there. <S> Horrified, I smelled the white pepper container, & sure enough it smelled like manure too. <S> So, I purchased a new bottle of white pepper, opened it & took a whiff. <S> The new bottle of white pepper smelled fine (like white pepper is supposed to smell & taste). <S> So, if you are noticing a manure smell coming from your white pepper, it is not the way it is supposed to smell or taste & <S> it has gone bad or was poorly processed. <S> I've read that if the water is not fresh that bathes the pepper corns before shucking in the making of white pepper, it will have this flavor (Gross!). <S> It may mix ok with a stronger spiced dish, but can taint a dish that relies on the true essence of white pepper (which is definitely NOT the taste/smell of manure). <S> So don't knock white pepper. <S> Knock the guy using old or bad white pepper. <S> Test whiff before use.
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Since this pepper is so strong for some reason, I would advise that you only use it in dishes that rely on the pepper flavor to the exclusion of others, say steak au poivre, or pepper pot, or salt and pepper scallops.
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Which onions to use and how to cook them for an Indian curry recipe that specifies "fry until deep pink"? One of the curry recipes in the book "50 great curries of India" says "Heat the oil in a cooking pot and fry the onions until deep pink." I think I know what it means when a recipe says "until deep brown" (which is what many Indian curry recipes call for), but "deep pink" is a first. Is the recipe simply using red onions or some other variety of onion than the one I'm used to (the ingredient list just says "2 large onions, finely chopped")? Does that make an important difference? Or is the recipe referring to the same stage of cooking as "deep brown" (though that doesn't look very pinkish to me)? Or would "deep brown" onions turn somewhat pink if you cooked them even longer? ... (For the curious, the recipe is for the "prawns in sweet and hot curry") <Q> I own the same book and was similarly surprised when I read that instruction, but in the section on ingredients, the author does mention a particular variety of onions called pink onions. <S> The mention is on pg. 32, and there is a picture of a pink onion on the upper left of pg. <S> 34. <S> Here's an excerpt from pg. 32: <S> "The longer the onions are fried, the browner they will get and the deeper the color of the curry will be... <S> When the onions are fried until only light pink in color, they will impart a sweetish taste to the curry. <S> Certain varieties of onion, like Spanish onions, are too sweet to be appropriate for curry-making. <S> The most appropriate from the taste point of view are the French and the small pink English." <S> From 50 great curries of india <S> I've never seen pink onions in any of the local markets (in northwestern US), I used white onions and sauteed them just to the point of browning. <S> The recipe turned out fine, but it's a lot of onion. <S> (The recipe calls for 2 large onions, finely chopped. <S> It's a recipe that produces 2 servings.) <S> Personally, I'd go a little lighter on the amount of onion or use yellow onions (despite the author's recommendation against Spanish onions), but that is just personal preference from a Western palate. <S> Note: it looks like the current printing of the book is different from the one I own, so the page numbers I cite may be off, but if you search inside the book (on Amazon) for "pink onion" you can see the page I've cited and the picture of what the author calls a pink onion. <A> Pink onions are produced for India by Indian farmers. <S> They are actually a hybrid cross of a red and a yellow onion. <S> There are no US or European breeding programs for pink onions. <S> Beware, cooking red onions will make them turn grey. <A> From some other recipes, red onions sauteed/sweated but NOT browned that then have lemon added turn a deep pink. <S> It is possible that other onions will do this also... <S> several vegetables go red in acid and blue or blue/green in base. <S> But once you brown onions, they are not going to pink up. <S> It is not an onion stage of caramelization. <A> When I roast certain sweet yellow onions (either from a raw state or pre-sauteed, lightly), they often turn a rather bright pink. <S> I am referring to onions that I use in baking bialys or onion pockets or onion rolls <S> (these are old-time New York style favorites). <S> I have heard that they are "on the way to being caramelized" and not to be concerned; they will taste fine. <S> But when I pull out my baked bialys and see the pink centers, it's not very pleasing esthetically. <S> But they are still delicious. <S> Hope that helps. <A> 'Deep pink' means translucent when referring to an Indian pink onion. <S> The Indian onion os closest to pink shallots. <S> Not as sugary as a Vidalia or Walla Walla & not quite as sweet as a Spanish red. <S> Indian pink onions have a 'zest' unlike any onion I recall from the US.
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I use Spanish yellow onions when cooking Indian food in the US.
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Substitute Cayenne Pepper for Black Pepper My recipe calls for Black Pepper. I have Cayenne Pepper. What ratio should I use to substitute to get approximatively the same "heat"? I realize that the result won't be quite the same. I am fine with that. <Q> You can't really substitute cayenne pepper for black pepper. <S> They're completely different, not even in the same botanical order. <S> Cayenne pepper is a powdered chile. <S> Black pepper is tiny drupe. <S> The heat in cayenne pepper comes from capsaisin, and the pepperyness in black pepper from piperine. <S> Closer substitutes would be white peppercorns (in moderation!), green peppercorns, red peppercorns or grains of paradise. <S> Of course, you still could use cayenne, but the taste would be as different as if you were to substitute it with allspice, or cumin, or some other spice. <S> If you were to substitute it with cayenne, there's not really any ratio that is applicable, you would have to add it to taste. <A> I like spicy food and go through a lot of cayenne (and other) chile pepper preparations, and they can vary a lot in terms of strength even within the same variety. <S> So, I'd start on the light end and add more to taste if it's not spicy enough for you. <S> My wholly unscientific opinion is that when a recipe calls for black pepper in any significant quantity it's for the flavor as much or more than the spicy heat. <S> If you have any ground cardamom on hand you might could toss a pinch of that in as well to replace some of the resinous flavor that black pepper has and cayenne lacks. <S> Props to Magnus for his excellent and botanically accurate answer. <A> They're not the same. <S> The amount of "heat" experienced is also different based on a number of factors. <S> E.g. When did you add the pepper? <S> How much fat is there in the dish to carry more of the heat (think chili oil). <S> Whats the serving temperature <S> Are there any milk prouducts in the dish( tempers the heat) <S> You really have to taste and adjust.
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Regarding the amount of "heat" in the recipe, I'd agree with @justkt that you'd want to go with 1/8 to 1/4 (at most) of the specified amount of black pepper if substituting cayenne.
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Does milk (fat) change in Winter? I've noticed that, all of a sudden, my chocolate chip cookies are spreading more than usual. I was wondering if the (organic) butter that I'm using could be affected by the season. <Q> Over the winter, the cows are fed hay or corn, while over the summer, they're pastured, so get fresh grass. <S> In the Netherlands, there are designations such as ' graskaas ' (literally, 'grass chesse'), which is made from the milk when the cows are first released to pasture in the spring. <S> I know there is a designation for winter vs. summer cheese as well, <S> but it's not coming back to me. <A> This may actually have to do more with the temperature and climate in your home than with the ingredients in your cookies. <S> If you're making cookie dough while your heater is on in the kitchen along with a preheating oven it may just be warmer in there than it would be in the summer with the AC running, or other active steps being taken to keep the house cooler. <S> Also, if you live in a climate that is more humid in winter (or if your heating system includes a humidifier) it may make your dough more moist and make it behave a bit differently. <S> If you find your cookies are spreading more than you like, put the dough in the fridge for 10-20 min before baking so the dough firms up. <S> The outside of the cookie will cook and stabilize before the cookie spreads too much, giving you a taller, thicker cookie. <A> If all your cookies spread, I would say adding an egg white should help, but I wonder if you are plopping your dough onto a warm surface. <S> That will cause them to spread more as well. <S> You might try backing off your heat just the slightest bit. <S> Have you changed cookie sheets recently? <S> Dark metal vs new aluminum or stone, perhaps airbake sheets? <S> All of these things can cause you to need to tweek or vary your temp. <S> and cooking time. <S> The more butter you use in the recipe the crispier and flatter your cookies will be.
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I don't know about weather, but non-factory produced milk changes with the season because of the feed, which will affect your butter .
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Cooking chicken in a risotto without it drying out I was following a recipe for a chicken risotto, which said to brown the chicken (breast meat, cut into small pieces, maybe 3/4 of an inch or so) in the pan after browning the onions, and then add the rice and stock to the same pan afterwards (so the chicken was in the pan the entire cooking period of the rice). However, when the dish was complete, many of the chicken pieces had unfortunately dried out. What can I do to prevent this next time? <Q> Brown the chicken in the pan where you will cook the risotto. <S> This will give your risotto some nice flavor if you make sure to scoop up the browned bits during cooking. <S> Then remove it. <S> Let it rest on a plate, tented with foil, throughout the whole time you are making the risotto. <S> Towards the last few minutes, put the chicken and any accumulated drippings from the plate back in. <S> This will warm the chicken and add the flavor from the drippings. <S> I use this technique whenever I am doing any sort of single skillet dish with meat, starch, and veggies. <A> Cook the chicken separately, and add it to the risotto towards the end. <A> just an opinion.. Wouldn't cooking the chicken together with the risotto add extra favour to the risotto? <S> Also, which part of chicken did you use? <S> Have you tried to use chicken thigh which is harder to get dried out? <A> Brown the chicken in the risotto pan on both sides. <S> Put in an ovenproof dish/casserole and add chicken stock approximately 1/2" (1cm) up the side of the dish. <S> Roast for around 20-25 minutes @ <S> 395F (200C). <S> When done, pour the remaining stock into the risotto stock for extra chickeny flavour. <S> Slice/chop the chicken and add to the risotto just before serving (though this depends on how long you've left the chicken sitting). <S> Roasting the chicken beforehand removes any worries about the chicken not being cooked, providing <S> of course you cook it through (and believe me, undercooked chicken is not good ). <S> Adding the stock to the dish helps keep the meat moist and imbues it with extra flavour (breast meat especially is often quite bland). <A> Restaurants often cook this way. <S> Cook ingredients separately, to carefully control each cooking time/ process. <S> If you want to meld flavones use chicken stock for the risotto, or a vegetable stock for deglazing chicken. <S> Add it all together at the end.
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Whenever I make risotto, I usually cook everything but the rice and some aromatic vegetables separately and add it towards the end of cooking.
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How can I keep a cheesecake from cracking? I've been making cheesecakes for a while and they always end up cracking on the top. I was told to try putting a pan of water in the oven with it to keep the humidity up, which might help a little, but then it tends to crack when it's cooling. Am I overcooking? Or baking at the wrong temperature? Whipped cream can only cover up so much. <Q> To make a good baked cheesecake, I was taught the following, and it has ALWAYS worked: <S> Start with room temperature ingredients. <S> This is a significant cause of cracking, as the incorporated air tends to souffle. <S> When baking, always bake in a bain-marie (put your cake into a water bath for insulation). <S> Bake half an hour at 300° F / 150 <S> ° C. <S> Then, turn off the oven, open the oven door, and rest for 30 minutes. <S> Then, close the oven and bake 30 to 40 minutes more at 300° F / 150° C. <S> My first pastry chef taught me this, and it always works. <S> Also, over-baking will definitely lead to cracking (due to the loss of moisture), and, as stated, over-mixing will as well. <A> Similarly to what was said by @mrwienerdog, temperature and cooling are the key providing your mix is robust. <S> then switch off and leave the cheesecake to cool inside the oven, slowly as the oven cools itself with the door shut Using this method <S> I've never had any cracks, the cheesecake stays very moist due to a quick "sear" at the start, then slow cooking and a slow cool-down to avoid cracks. <A> Another method to avoid cracking is the following: <S> A couple of minutes after you take the cheesecake out of the oven, run a thin-bladed paring knife all round between the outside edge of the cheesecake and the inside edge of the springform pan, always with light pressure against the inside of the pan (i.e., away from the cake) so as not to damage the cake. <S> This reduces tension forces inside the cake as the cake tries to pull away from the pan wall as it cools, thereby reducing the risk of cracking. <S> I bake cheesecake using the same first two steps as @Orbling, but I've always used the knife method, as I hadn't thought of slow cooling in the oven as another way to prevent cracking. <A> I have been making cheesecakes with cracks for years and I have finally found the answer thanks to a lot of people and a lot of reading. <S> I bought a Lueke silicone spring-form pan and a 10" and 12" fat daddy pie pan. <S> I sprayed the spring-form pan with Pam, put in the 10" pie pan, then into the 12" pan and added hot water to 12" pan and cooked according. <S> I ran a sharp knife around the edge of the spring-form pan and let cool with the rack pulled out and oven off. <S> Sounds like a lot of work <S> but I did not have even a hairline crack <S> and it is the most beautiful cheesecake ever <S> and I know it will be delicious. <S> Thanks to all who helped.
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Whenever I bake a cheesecake I tend to do the following: start with a short period, 10 minutes say, in a hot oven 220C (425F) then take the temperature right down quickly (leaving the door ajar to aid cooling) to a slow/very slow ~130C (260-270F) for about 40 minutes, or until it feels springy. DO NOT over-mix.
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How do you drain Velveeta Rotini & Cheese with Broccoli, without losing the rehydrated Broccoli? Rotini & Cheese is a variation on Kraft's shells and cheese. It's actually kind of like an upgrade because you get small pieces of dehydrated broccoli in addition to the mac and cheese. Halfway through the cooking process you add the broccoli to the simmering pasta so that it can rehydrate. The only problem is that whenever I strain the pasta from the water I lose half of the rehydrated broccoli. Does anyone know a way to keep from losing the broccoli without wasting a ton of time? <Q> Since you're only putting pasta, water, and broccoli through it, uou can rinse and re-use <S> the cheesecloth so it's cost effective. <S> I buy my cheesecloth in bulk at fabric stores, as it's significantly cheaper there than any food-related store I've ever been to. <A> How are you straining it? <S> Depending on the size of the florets, if they are very tiny pieces, perhaps a regular strainer might, but I doubt it. <S> If you are trying the crack the lid method I could see more issues. <S> A strainer should be fine. <A> I'd rehydrate the broccoli bits separately. <S> Put the pieces and a bit of water (you'll have to figure out how much) into a microwave-safe bowl and cover with plastic wrap. <S> Give it 3 minutes on high power, and your bits should be nicely rehydrated by the steaming. <S> Then just stir that into your pasta after you've already drained it. <S> If you're committed to making boxed mac and cheese, I'd recommend just getting the plain kind and a bag of frozen broccoli. <S> The broccoli will be bigger, nicer pieces, and you can just thaw it quickly and add it to your finished mac and cheese to warm through.
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One option is to line your strainer with cheesecloth , which will keep just about anything from getting through. A fine mesh strainer certainly won't let rehydrated broccoli through.
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What can I do with extra sourdough starter? I recently made a sourdough starter from wild yeast, but the process I followed for making it resulted in a lot of starter. Instead of throwing it away I'd like to use it, and then once it gets down small enough I won't have to worry about having so much to use. What can I do with my excess whole wheat sourdough starter?(I've already made 4 loaves of bread, and they were yummy) <Q> make waffles! <S> that's what we do with ours, besides bread. <S> sourdough waffles with syrup have this great sweet/sour balance going on that is really wonderful. <A> Besides the obvious of actually using it to make bread products, you can store some for a rainy day (ie, something goes wrong with your starter), or to give away: <S> smear it thinly on a sheet of parchment, wax paper, or aluminum foil. <S> (you may need to add liquid and let it hydrate if yours is too stiff to spread) <S> let dry crumble up store in an airtight container in a cool, dark place (or freezer) <S> Then, when you want to use it again: mix 1 tsp of flakes with 1 Tbsp water let sit for a few minutes 'til they've softened up. <S> stir in 1 Tbsp of flour let sit at room temp for 24hrs <S> (maybe stir it a couple of times during) <S> add another Tbsp each of flour and water. <S> .. then go back to your normal feeding schedule <A> Just google sourdough pancake recipes and <S> you'll find a ton. <S> Some use as much as two cups of starter, so it'll go fast. <S> I've also used sourdough starter in biscuits, banana bread. <S> This little pamphlet has bunch of interesting recipes. <A> There's not that much that you can do with a sourdough starter. <S> Of course, you can feed it and keep it as a kind of esoteric pet that you sometimes take parts of and make bread from. <S> You can also use up the rest for more bread. <S> There is one more thing that I am reminded of though. <S> In one of my cookbooks (Det naturliga köket by Mathias Dahlgren, the recipe is from one of his Michelin star restaurants serving mostly swedish-inspired food), there is a recipe for deep fried rye sourdough starter. <S> Now, it's not just the starter, and it is for a rye starter, but if you're feeling adventurous it might be possible to substitute it with your whole wheat starter. <S> It's 1 liter of water, 600 grams of coarse rye flour, and 90 grams of rye sourdough. <S> Mix the ingredients, and leave in room temperature for 6 hours. <S> Put it in a pastry bag, and pipe medium strands into a 185°C deep fryer. <S> Remove when golden brown and crispy. <S> Toss with salt. <S> I do however doubt that you will find many other uses for a sourdough starter, other than to make bread. <A> Just use more starter that usual in your loaf. <S> It may rise slightly faster but otherwise it'll be no different to normal baking. <A> SD pancakes/waffles are an acquired taste. <S> I personally find the traditional Yukon style pancakes/waffles to be disgusting. <S> A 1/4 c of starter and some soda as the bubbly component tastes nice though. <S> Very sweet. <S> Like this recipe: .5 c. starter1 c. <S> flour2 <S> T oil.5-.75 c milk.5 <S> t salt.5 <S> t soda1 egg2 T sugar <S> Mix <S> it all up and then put the soda in last. <S> starter + soda can do a lot of things actually. <S> Muffins... <S> In Joy of Cooking there's a really interesting recipe for SD chocolate cake. <S> It's actually VERY good. <S> Same thing... <S> SD+soda Have fun with it.
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Making sourdough pancakes (which can be almost all starter with a little extra flour and fat/egg added) is a good idea if you really like sourdough flavor.
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What's the purpose of sugar in a pickling solution? This might seem like a dumb question, but I am going to make a pickled pepper relish of sorts that is really just chopped carrot, onion, and habanero pepper cooked briefly in a pickling solution and jarred. In reviewing several recipes for pickled peppers, all use vinegar and salt, and some but not all use sugar. I'd rather just count on the natural sweetness of the habaneros and carrots for flavor. My specific question is: does the sugar do anything to the texture of the vegetables or affect the preservative qualities of the brine in pickling recipes, or is it just for flavor? UPDATE: I just cracked open the first jar of the pickled peppers, and I have to say that I don't think the sugar would have added anything to the flavor of them. The carrots and habaneros are both naturally pretty sweet (if you can taste it past the habanero's capsaicin bonfire). The onions also mellowed with just the vinegar brine. I've made pickled onions and jalepenos (which are less naturally sweet), and even there I've had to be careful to avoid making the pickling solution cloying. All in all, in this case I'm glad I didn't use it. Thanks everyone for the info! <Q> The sugar is mostly just for flavor. <S> I use sugar when making pickled beets and eggs, but don't use it in my dill pickles or pickled peppers and onions. <S> It just depends on if you are trying for a sour, sweet and sour, or sweet pickle (note that there is no vinegar in many fruit pickles). <S> Before you decide to run off and leave out the vinegar, however, I would note that for pickling safety purposes there has to be enough acid to keep botulism causing bacteria from forming and peppers are a low acid vegetable. <S> If you wanted to eliminate the vinegar, you'd have to move to pressure canning. <A> Sugar does also act as a preserver, but if you don't want the added sweetness (though I would think you would want it, for balance against the salt and vinegar) <S> the salt and vinegar should be sufficient preservatives on their own. <A> That way you have more of natural preservatives and not as heavy impact on the flavor - you might use just vinegar, just salt, or just sugar in amounts that add up to the combined 3 for the same preservative effect, but obviously the impact on flavor would be quite unpleasant, the result too sour, too salty or just stupidly sweet. <S> By dividing the task between the three you have a way more 'neutral' tasting pickling solution (when comparing to single-ingredient ones) while keeping the preservative potency. <S> Recipes that involve paste consistency products (like Sambal Oelek) will also add olive/oil, which is a fourth natural preservative. <S> If you pickle big slices or other large pieces, olive would just separate and float to the surface, so three-ingredient pickling solution it is. <S> Two-ingredient will just have the preservatives dominate the flavor of the peppers. <A> Sugar is also a powerful flavour enhancer. <S> Added in small quantities to, say, a tomato sauce, doesn't add noticeable sweetness, but intensifies the original flavour of the tomatoes. <S> I'd assume it would work for peppers as well. <A> As mentioned above, sugar has its own preservation qualities. <S> But don't dismiss the effect of sugar on our buds. <S> Sugar balances out the acidity from the vinegar. <S> It's part of the reason why carbonic acid is added to colas. <S> Flavones are complex things. <S> A little bit of sweetness with acidity works wonders. <S> Different acids and different types of sugars adds huge layers of complexity.
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Sugar is a natural preservative, and makes the flavor milder (not less hot if these are hot peppers, but reduces sourness of vinegar and saltiness of salt.)
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Is there a measurable difference between fresh and dried minced garlic? For example, I just tried a recipe for Rosemary Potatoes last night that called for a tablespoon of minced garlic. I believe the recipe may have referred to it being freshly minced, but I have some dried minced garlic on hand (in a little shaker, like from the isle at Walmart, etc) and used that instead. The next day, my kitchen still smells of garlic, and the potatoes taste like it. If I don't have 'fresh' on hand, is there an approximate ratio I should have used? <Q> A standard ratio of dried seasoning to fresh is 1 part dried to 3 parts fresh. <S> For garlic specifically the ratios are slightly different: <S> 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic 1/4 teaspoon dried garlic1 clove garlic 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder <A> There are considerations of texture and how long it takes to fully release the flavors as well. <S> The guidelines given are good, but you also need to experiment and see where you can use dried when needed. <S> They will also be 'brighter' and in many applications the difference is very noticeable. <S> If you used the full Tablespoon, yeah, you probably over-did it, but a lingering aroma of garlic is not necessarily a bad thing, nor is having the leftovers taste like garlic, they should! <A> Fresh garlic and dried garlic aren't the same thing (culinarily). <S> The 3 to 1 ratio often works with dried strong smelling herbs - like thyme and rosemary. <S> Dried garlic is certainly convenient, but has a one dimensional quality to it. <S> Fresh garlic is... Reactive. <S> It changes by the way you cook it: <S> roast, fry, steam, sauté, boil in milk, boil in water <S> It changes with time: <S> used a la minute, an hour from now, in the fridge after a week, covered in oil after a month. <S> A lot of this has to do with oxidation, the interaction with cut garlic and oxygen. <S> Dried garlic has none of these nuances, they've all been stripped from the production process. <S> But it certainly is convenient.
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Fresh garlic, like other fresh ingredients, will release its flavor more quickly than the dried counterparts. It changes by the way you prepare it: minced tastes/smells different from sliced or mashed in a mortar & pestle
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Hygiene-wise, need to clean grill/broiling tray after each use? Hygenically speaking, is it necessary to clean an outdoor barbequegrill and/or an oven broiling tray after each use? Thoughts: Many people don't clean their barbeque grills all summer long, inpart because it "seasons the grill". Hygiene-wise, this seems safe (to me), since the grill temperaturewhen cooking meat is more than enough to kill any germs on the grillsurface. Would the same argument apply to broiling trays in the oven? I realize that broiling trays would get nasty if I never washed them, but how about once a week or so? Safe? <Q> For the grate in an outdoor grill, I think you can feel safe not cleaning it, but only under the following condition: Before each use, you heat the grill to a temperature in excess of 250 degrees (F) for at least 15 minutes. <S> Gotta heat it up to make sure you kill everything that might have got onto it since you last used it. <S> Since you really ought to heat the grate up pretty seriously before trying to cook on it anyway, this is almost a no-effort thing. <S> In terms of extending the life of your grate, it's good to give it a good burn-off AFTER cooking if you're not going to clean it outright. <S> Burning off will make sure there aren't any wet or corrosive things still left on the grate. <S> As to the broiler pan, I would never let that one go unwashed. <S> Unlike a grill grate, you don't preheat it, so you don't have a chance to kill the beasties that might have grown up in whatever you left on it from last time. <S> If you cooked a steak yesterday and didn't wash the pan, the grease and juices have had 24 hours to attract and breed bacteria and whatever by the time you use it today. <S> Then you pull it out, plop another steak right on your bacteria colony, and broil. <S> What's exposed to the heat directly may get hot enough to kill germs, but what's directly under your steak almost definitely will NOT. <S> Will you get sick if you don't clean your stuff? <S> Maybe not--it's your life. <S> But please, please, please, don't be so casual about cleaning if you're cooking for ANYBODY else. <S> And really, cleaning a broiler pan isn't that hard. <S> You can man up and just do it. <A> One thing nobody seems to have mentioned is that it's not necessarily the bacteria themselves that are harmful. <S> Yes, any stray bacteria will almost certainly be killed each time you cook, but bacteria produce protein toxins as they grow, and these toxins are extremely dangerous, even lethal at relatively low doses. <S> In fact, the only reason bacterial poisoning (i.e. salmonella or e.coli) is a concern in the first place <S> is because the bacteria can produce those same toxins while in your stomach and digestive tract. <S> But at least when you've ingested the bacteria themselves, your immune system has a chance to react and try to get rid of it before the level of toxicity reaches lethal levels; if you ingest the toxins themselves, your body may not have the same opportunity. <S> Protein and LPS toxins, unlike the bacteria themselves, cannot be killed with direct heat because there is simply nothing to kill. <S> They can be destroyed, certainly, but it takes a lot more heat to do so than it takes to cook the food <S> - you'd basically have to incinerate it. <S> The good thing is that generally these toxins are water-soluble and are easily removed with sufficient soap and hot water. <S> Running something through a dishwasher cycle is basically guaranteed to kill the bacteria and wash off any toxins. <S> But if you leave a pan or grill sitting around with a bacterial colony growing on it for a week, then the bacteria are no longer your primary concern; the toxins they've left behind are. <S> Plop a piece of meat on top of it and <S> those water-soluble toxins will get baked on or absorbed just like salt. <S> Cooking the meat will have done absolutely nothing to get rid of them. <S> Do yourself a favour and wash your grills and cookware, so you can avoid serious health complications or costly lawsuits. <S> You can burn off grills as bikeboy mentions, but don't just leave them sitting around potentially contaminated. <A> You're right that direct-heat grilling and broiling are high-heat cooking methods. <S> If you're cooking a steak, for example, by the time you get the grill up to temp and cook the meat to a safe internal temperature any charred bits of whatever was left over from the last grilling session should be burned well beyond the point of being biologically inert. <S> One could maybe make the case that broiling might be slightly less safe since the food is between the heat source and the pan, but I'm thinking you're still pretty safe. <S> But, you're probably going to contaminate the food flavor-wise by cooking it on the dregs of the last thing you cooked. <S> The flavor of something that has been burned to charcoal is bitter and unpleasant. <S> If your food picks that up it definitely won't improve the flavor of the meal. <S> I don't clean my grill after each use. <S> Instead after I've gotten it up to temperature, I run a grill brush over the hot grate. <S> Anything left over from the last grill session falls off easily at that point, and it takes maybe 15 seconds. <S> Regarding the broiler pan, I'd personally clean that after every use, but I don't store mine in the oven anyway <S> (had one too many experiences of accidentally pre-heating an oven with a broiler pan in it to not take care of it immediately). <S> It should be as simple as dumping any accumulated grease in the trash and giving it a quick soak with some Dawn and hot water.
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Purely from a standpoint of food safety, I'd say it's not necessary to clean a grill grate or broiler pan after each use.
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What materials would work for a waffle iron? I'm somewhat curious if I could make myself something like this (though without the retro enclosure, at least initally): While cast iron would probably be the best material, I'm not sure if I can easily obtain a billet of the proper size (likely would machine the iron), so I'm curious what other materials would be best. Is steel ever used? I'm imagining it would rust easily, but what if it was properly seasoned? Can you season aluminum at all, or is it moderately non-stick by itself? All the aluminum cookware I've seen is (cheap, and) Teflon-coated. Waffle batter to my knowledge is fairly high in fat relative to others (pancake, crepe) so it "fries" more than "bakes", but it's not exactly loaded with it to the point of no-concern. <Q> Aluminum is easy to CNC mill and it can be make non-stick <S> It needs to be finished to a semi-gloss, and have a slightly undulating (smooth wave pattern) <S> surface to allow for release <S> It should be hard-anodized to reduce surface pores and future oxidation. <S> Do not scrub hard-anodized surfaces, just soak Cast aluminum will most likely have too many surface pores to me useful <A> Believe you would be best staying with cast iron, there are machinable cast irons available, found this article, which, while looked at from a production standpoint, gives out standard sizes and verifies machineability: http://www.productionmachining.com/articles/a-look-at-today39s-cast-iron <S> In your question there is nothing said about the heat source you intend to use. <S> Believe your implied intentions are to use electric elements. <S> There isn't any reason not to use mild steel, although as a more finely refined product, it is probably more likely to corrode and pit. <S> Aluminum would not be my first or second choice for a number of reasons: <S> The coefficient of expansion is more than double for aluminum (6e-6/13e-6 inches/degree F), leading to the belief that warping would be more likely in the lighter aluminum. <S> The specific heat ratio of iron to aluminum is .11/.21 <S> (Btu/lb F)(kcal/kg C) <S> , water being 1.0. <S> This measure indicates the amount heat it takes to raise the temperature, iron being almost half for aluminum. <S> Iron doesn't fair well against aluminum in conduction where the ratio is 8/25, meaning aluminum transfers heat 3 times faster than iron. <S> I just don't like aluminum, maybe this goes back to the days when we used to make hydrogen balloons by dropping pellets of aluminum foil into a coke bottle with lye and water in it an putting a balloon over the bottle to fill it with gas. <S> There are lots of examples of strong detergents really messing up aluminum cookware. <S> I ruined a motorcycle blackout light I found in a dump one time by immersing it in an industrial lye solution. <S> Another reason I don't like aluminum can be found at this link: http://alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=99 <S> Inconclusive doesn't mean safe. <S> I don't own or use any aluminum products which pertain to cooking or consuming food. <S> Hope this helps. <A> The problem I see with cast iron is that you'd almost have to get it cast in the proper shape. <S> Haven't done any metalwork with cast iron, so I'm talking off the top of my head. <S> Of course, cast iron would need seasoning as well as it rusts fairly quickly. <S> Steel shouldn't pose any problem, if it's properly seasoned. <S> I don't know about aluminium, for some reason this is a metal I don't want anywhere near my food ever since I tried to whip cream in an aluminium bowl... <S> It has the advantage of transmitting heat better than steel, but I'd make sure to have it coated with something.
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There are other non ferrous metallic materials such as copper, ceramic is probably not such a good idea, gold might work for the person who had everything, silver would probably tarnish and need to be polished now and then. Cast iron is very brittle and would be very difficult to shape after casting without breaking, I assume.
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What organic grains can I substitute for self-rising (Gold Medal) flour? My nine (7) year old step-daughter is expecting to help me make Chicken and Dumpling today. I have the recipe for the stew, my question lies in the dumplings: I am aware that I can replace 1 1/2 cups of self-rising flour by adding 1 1/2 tsp baking power and 1/2 tsp of salt to 1 cup of regular white flour - but I want to avoid the white flour altogether. What (organic) grains can I substitute for bleached white flour? <Q> You might try whole wheat pastry flour, too. <S> It's usually used in things like pie crusts, and probably would be the closest in texture to white flour. <S> Any grain other than wheat will not have the same amount of gluten and thus may have a vastly different texture. <A> I'm pretty sure that King Arthur makes an organic unbleached white flour. <S> It's not like whole wheat, but it's arguably better for you than the other if you are concerned about things being organic. <S> King Arthur flours are available pretty widely in supermarkets these days. <A> There are also organic "white" whole wheat flours, though like any other whole-grain flour the end result won't be as light or airy. <A> I remember a chapter in Super Natural Cooking that details the different types of flours and what to consider when substituting. <S> I'm pretty sure she gives equivalents <S> so you can choose what levels of gluten/fiber/etc you want, and when the tastes will fit in best. <S> I'd answer this for you myself, but I've loaned out the book. <S> :) <S> When (if?) <S> it comes back, I'll edit that in. <A> Self-rising flour can be created by combining 1½ teaspoons of baking powder with a ½ teaspoon of salt and 1 cup of all-purpose flour. <S> This substitute equals one cup of self-rising flour. <S> When substituting whole-wheat flour for all-purpose flour, 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of whole-wheat flour is equivalent to 1 cup of all-purpose flour.
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Unbleached, organic white flour is a good choice.
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Why throw salt over a barbecue before cooking? At a recent barbecue in Chile, I watched the chef throw large handfuls of salt over the charcoal a few minutes before placing on the meat. What would be the reason for this? <Q> <A> Possibly they were using it to slow the coals a bit. <S> Salt doesn't really burn (though if you can get it to melt you can get a nice orange flame from the sodium burning off), and if you put enough of it on the fire at once it could smother it. <S> It's also possible that they believed, as @Jasie mentioned, that the salt would somehow get from the coals to the meat and season it. <S> This would not happen. <S> Mostly because the salt doesn't burn or atomize, so it won't rise up to hit the meat. <S> Perhaps if it had LOTS of flavorful impurities in it, they might smoke or atomize and hit the meat--but they wouldn't add a salt taste. <S> They'd taste like whatever they taste like. <S> So in the interest of assuming the cooks weren't just being superstitious, I'd go with the flame control idea: It's something that could be used to damp the fire down that would not turn to steam (ruining the dry heat you're after with charcoal), and is a safe, known compound so you wouldn't be risking getting something harmful on the meat. <A> I have been taught by folks using cast iron Dutch Ovens outdoors, that not only does salt spread heavily over coals reduce flair ups, it helps keep the heat in, while reducing how quickly the briquets burn. <S> My own experience with fruit pies or fillings,is that it keeps the spill-over from burning and smoking for prolonged periods. <S> Sure works in my oven for making spills easy to clean up and eliminating fire. <A> I don't think this provides a full answer to your question, but the following snippet I came across might at least provide some clue: <S> Solid salt crystals melt at 800°C and evaporate at around 1.500°C, temperatures reached in wood fires and glowing coals, which can vaporize salt and deposit a thin film on foods above them. <S> (Source: On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee, p. 643) <S> But this appears in a brief section on "The Physical Properties of Salt" and there's no further explanation as to the implication on cooking in practice, that is, whether the glowing coals in an average barbecue get hot enough to vaporize salt and whether the film that's deposited on the foods is enough to make a noticeable difference in the taste of the food. <A> Though it's been years since the original question, I just recently found another possible answer: Apparently when cooking with Japanese Binchotan charcoal, chefs will throw rock salt at the coals to knock off the white ash around them, exposing more of the red hot surface. <S> Of course, binchotan is really a whole different category of charcoal from what most people use--it gets to something <S> like 1500 degrees <S> F.--so <S> it may be that the salt would have a different purpose than on "normal" charcoal. <A> In the case of burning frankincense you would put salt on the charcoal so you don't get the smoke and unpleasant smell and only smell the herb or root your burning. <S> It also controls the speed at which frankincense burns. <S> I would think that may be a valid reason at a barbecue.
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Salt is a good means to control/suppress flames and flareups without having a cooling effect on the coals.
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Is all sausage considered a "Processed Meat"? Over the years, I've read a lot of health information that says processed meats are some of the worst foods for you from a fat, sodium, and nitrate intake perspective. Then I read that Sausage is a processed meat, which, makes sense. Is all Sausage considered a "Processed Meat", and is therefore relatively high in fat, sodium, and nitrates? <Q> Generally it's things that have been prepared such that there's some sort of added preservative -- salt, sulfates, sulfides, nitrates, etc. <S> So this would include all hams except 'fresh ham', almost all deli meats, all sausages, bacon, jerky, corned beef, etc. <S> So yes, sausage is considered a processed meat. <S> If you want to get all technical about what 'processed' means it could also include any other form of curing (eg, smoking), and most any form of processing (grinding, slicing, etc), although this second group typically isn't refered to as 'processed meat' (unless it's then glued back together, like chicken nuggets, but those tend to have additives in them already) As for the health aspects ... like most anything, it's fine in moderation, although there are some people who react badly to sulfates and sulfides. <S> Some sausages have more additives in them than others, and there are plenty of sausages out there that might be considered 'healthy' if it's in place of other higher salt/fat foods (eg, some brands of chicken & apple sausage). <A> Generally such health fears will be to do with the amount of additives in "processed meat". <S> The use of Mechanically Reclaimed Meat (MRM) is also rather frowned upon. <S> At the height of the media coverage of such issues in the UK, Turkey Twizzlers were singled out for particular hatred, the ingredients list almost speaks for itself. <S> (Via: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/mar/23/broadcasting1 ) <S> Ingredients: Turkey ( 34% ), Water, Pork fat , Rusk, Coating (sugar, rusk, tomato powder, wheat starch, dextrose, salt, wheat flour, potassium chloride, hydrogenated vegetable oil, citric acid, spices, onion powder, malt extract, smoke flavourings, garlic powder, colour [E160c], mustard flour, permitted sweetener [E951], herb, spice extracts, herb extracts), Vegetable oil, Turkey skin , Salt, Wheat flour, Dextrose, <S> Stabiliser <S> (E450), Mustard, Yeast extract, Antioxidants (E304, E307, E330, E300), Herb extract, Spice extract, <S> Colour <S> (E162). <S> Note the percentage Turkey in that list, and that is MRM. <S> Turkey skin is added separately in to the mix as well you will notice, as well as pork fat. <S> Sausages can fall in to this trap, many cheap sausages are around 30-40% meat and contain a great deal of additives. <S> There are however many good quality sausages that contain few, if any, additives. <S> Some people advocate that sausages should be close to 100% meat, personally I think they are better with a good bit of rusk and other ingredients. <S> It is the word <S> processed that is key to the argument. <S> But the health issues are for when "processed" means a lot of unhealthy additions, poor quality meat, a great deal of fat, salt, etc. <A> good quality sausages don't contain sodium nitrite. <S> you can tell, because it looks like ground up meat in a sausage stuffing. <S> the "processed" meats you're referring to have a different texture & color - think hot dog or deli-meat (pink). <S> mechanically process is very different from chemically processed. <S> nutritionally, you want to steer clear of the chemically processed (preservatives & sodium nitrite). <A> I get my sausages from a great butcher, and I'm certain that all the "processing" done to them is benign. <S> "Processing" in this case entails mincing, mixing with breadcrumbs, spices etc. <S> and putting in the skins. <S> They will be high in fat -- because it's pork and it won't be from the leanest part of the pig, and because the fat makes for moist delicious sausages. <S> Of course you can make sausages with as many filthy additives as you like, and if you go far enough downmarket that's what you'll get. <S> But the same could be said for, say, lasagne. <S> A homemade lasagna is quite different from the cheapest lasagna ready-meal in the freezer section of your supermarket. <A> Generally they put those chemicals in the meat to enhance the flavour (salt / sodium) and so it stays on the self longer - nitrates (prevent bacteria from growing) <S> Long as you look at the packaging and look for high levels of meat 70 - 80% they will need put less salt in for flavour. <S> but they will always need put the preservatives or it wont keep for very long and producers lose money.. and <S> you get annoyed if it doesn't keep in the fridge. <S> My tip is for a decent sausage is to visit the local butcher.. he'll tell you what's in it or more importantly <S> what's not in it. <S> Plus you'll get a better service and the meat is better quality and there sausages are always always much nicer.
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Sausages are necessarily "processed" meat, in that the meat is not in its original form.
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How to make my pasta less brown? I really like making pasta, but I've found that most of my recipes have these sorts of ingredients: Pale yellow pasta Brown mushrooms Brown tempeh or tofu (or ground beef if you prefer) Spices that make things even more brown (generally allspice, garlic, oregano, and thyme) What I noticed is that it always ends up all brown. It tastes great, but I'd like to make things more exciting looking. Obviously I could add tomato sauce, but I'm not always in the mood for that. The other ideas I have a spinach or basil. I'll probably start adding some spinach, but basil is pretty expensive here. Is there anything else I can add to my pasta to add different colors? Cheap is definitely a plus in this case, but any ideas would be interesting (there's always special occasions). <Q> For cooking in with the pasta, consider red or yellow bell peppers, carrots, cauliflower or other vegetables that hold their color well when heated. <S> Also, you can help this problem a lot with good, flavorful, beautiful garnishes. <S> Even a simple shower of minced parsley goes a long way. <S> Lemon or orange zest is nice too. <S> Check out this peppery red-wine capellini from my blog, you'll see how the quick, fresh garnish of cherry tomatoes and parsley turns a brown pasta bright (and maybe learn a new way to cook pasta too). <A> I think Michael already covered a lot of good ideas if you're sticking with wheat/egg pasta. <S> If you want to change the color of the pasta itself - to give yourself a new canvas to paint on - you could: <S> Try squid ink pasta. <S> Though, I'm not sure the best ways to find it. <S> Try thin rice noodles or glass noodles that I assume you can get at big grocery stores or Asian grocery stores. <A> I'd go with a sweet paprika if you're not a fan of heat, but I typically use hot, as not everyone I cook for likes heat, so it's something I can add on at the end. <S> If you don't mind bursts of heat, a sprinkle of crushed red pepper could add some interest. <S> For a completely non-brown sauce, you can make pesto with other nuts or herbs. <S> Look online for either a flat-leaf parsley pesto or spinich pesto recipe, and consider walnuts or pistachios rather than pine nuts. <S> Also, vegetables don't have to hold up then <S> cooked, if you add them at the end -- halve some cherry or grape tomatoes, or as cheap's an issue, diced roma or other tomato. <S> ... <A> I recently found a great way to deal with this. <S> For each pound of pasta, I add a full bowl of frozen vegetables (brocolli, peas, asparagus, etc.). <S> That way I get something delicious and filled with bright green color. <S> It looks and tastes much better.
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Besides vegetables, which have already been mentioned (I'm partial to brocolli myself, and peas in primavera, or even some julienned raw bell pepper at the end for extra crunch, not all spices are brown -- A dusting of paprika when serving could add some extra color. And, if you have the time and patience (lot of time, if you don't have a pasta roller or extruder), you can also make your own pasta in different colors .
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Tips for getting a meat loaf to come out just right? I'm very new to cooking and honestly don't enjoy it all that much, but I am trying to expand my skills beyond very simple foods like tuna helper and chicken, so I thought I would try making a meat loaf as the next step. However, since I've never made one before, I'm not really sure what I should be looking for in a recipe, or if there's anything I need to know about the preparation that might not be mentioned in a recipe. I'm wondering about things like: Does it matter what type of meat I use? How do I control how heavy/dense it is? How can I make sure that it doesn't fall apart? What oven setting should I use so that it cooks all the way through but doesn't burn the outside? Any other useful tips would also be helpful. <Q> You'll likely do better first trying a recipe, and see how it comes out <S> and we can tell you how to adjust it for your preferences, but a few things to consider when making meatloaf: <S> (unless of course you like that sort of thing). <S> Some people prefer on fattier grinds of meat for a 'juicier' meatloaf ... <S> I personally go with 85/15 or fattier. <S> Mixing types of fat with different melting characteristics will also change the texture; for this reason, some recipes call for adding pork sausage, or a blend of ground pork, beef and veal. <S> Vessel is important -- some people will cook their meatloaf in a loaf pan; personally, I like a little crust on mine, but because of the grease that comes off during baking, I use a broiler pan. <S> Shape will affect the crust and cooking time -- a larger cross-section will need a longer cooking time, but the top may crust up too much; you can either tent with foil while cooking, coat with a glaze, top with bacon strips, etc. <S> Mixing the meat while chilled will keep the meatloaf less dense, but allowing it to warm up before cooking will allow it to cook more evenly. <S> (so the outside isn't overcooked while the middle's still cold; especially important if you're not going with a glaze or similar) <S> Almost any vegetables can be added as a filler, if you pre-cook them to soften and remove most of their moisture so they're not overly wet. <S> Onions, bell pepper, carrots, cellery, dark greens (spinach, chard, etc), summer squash (eg. <S> zucchini, yellow squash) <S> all work well. <S> To speed up cooking time, or if you're living alone and know you won't eat the whole thing, consider making smaller loaves. <S> You can even make it in a burger patty size & shape for individual servings. <A> One thing I've found that helps keep it together is something called Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP). <S> It's a vegetarian protein substitute that comes in a dry crumble (among other forms) that works great to absorb the fats in whatever meat you use. <S> I found about 250mL of TVP to 1L of ground meat works well. <A> I've never been unlucky enough to make a dry loaf, but I suggest finding a well-regarded recipe and following that. <S> Beyond that: don't squish. <S> I cook in a 12-inch cast-iron pan, with a hand-shaped loaf in the middle. <S> This gives room for the grease to spread away from the meat without losing it altogether. <S> The cast-iron is easy to clean. <S> Others prefer loaf pans. <S> I suspect that my use of the cast-iron over a loaf pan does the most towards preventing a hard and dry loaf. <S> Finally, the recipe I have based my loaf on calls for half the dry ingredients and 1/3rd of the egg that I use. <S> In my case, this has not resulted in mushiness. <S> Of course, this doesn't really make the loaf very healthy!
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Don't squish the meat or work it too much while you're mixing it; you'll end up with a rather dense meatloaf.
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Substitute for lemon grass in curry dish I have a meal planned in a few days and it calls for lemon grass. Problem is I've been to the store a couple of times and they don't have it. (the store is a block away and I don't feel like driving all the way to the next one to look) The dish is curry spiced noodles, basically a stir-fry. Any suggestions? <Q> Well I would suggest if you really can not get it, then leave it out altogether. <S> It provides accents of flavour rather than a primary usually in most curry recipes, so it can be omitted. <S> If you want to substitute it, then you can use lemon or lime zest, possibly with some mint leaves to freshen it a little. <S> But the end result will not be the same, just enhanced in a similar fashion to that which lemongrass achieves. <A> Western grocery stores generally don't carry lemon grass, you'll need to go to an Asian market. <S> Many of them will also sell dried (powdered) lemon grass, which is definitively the best substitute you can find for fresh lemon grass. <S> Honestly, there's really very little else you can substitute. <S> Lemon grass has this hint of citrus flavour but also, as the name implies, a sort of grassy , herb-like flavour. <S> If I were really desperate, I would substitute lemon zest (fresh only ), at 1/2 tsp for each lemon grass stalk called for by the recipe, and several pages online seem to suggest adding in some arugula (to give it that grassy quality). <S> But be warned, it is not going to be the same, it's going to be a great deal more bitter, so consider either reducing the quantity or adding more sweet/savoury spices or ingredients to the curry to compensate (cinnamon, perhaps). <A> I always think lemongrass tastes more like lime than lemon. <S> I'd use the grated zest of a lime, perhaps mixed with some of lemon. <A> Lemongrass freezes well. <S> If you cannot find it in the fresh section, try the frozen section of the market. <S> Personally, and unfortunately, I haven't been able to find it even it at my own local Asian market. <A> I'm certainly not an expert but as was mentioned briefly before, lemon balm might be a better substitute than lemon or lime zest. <S> It has a subtle lemon-y flavor and also the 'grass-y' note (if fresh). <S> I've used that before when I was out of lemongrass <S> and it was better than leaving it out. <S> I just had to play with the amount, however, adding tiny bits at a time and tasting.
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Recipes in some of my cookbooks call for lemon zest as an alternative.
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What is the best approach to cut carrot into thin strips? So I went to Subway™ and saw that their carrots are cut into thin strips. I can never do this with any knives. So what is the best way to cut carrots into thin strips (like french fries)? <Q> The style of cut is called julienne. <S> True, a mandoline can make a julienne cut, as well as thin slices. <S> However, you can also use a knife to achieve a julienne cut. <S> First, cut the carrot into manageable lengths--2 or 3 inches. <S> Cut a piece into 1/8 inch slices lengthwise. <S> Stack several slices on top of one another and cut lengthwise through all layers to make "matchsticks" or julienne-cut carrots. <S> It works best to have a large slice on the bottom of your stack, not a small one or the round side of the carrot. <S> A large slice on the bottom is more stable, so you're not as likely to julienne your fingers. <S> Yes, cutting carrots this way is a lot of trouble, but this is the way to do it with a knife. <S> There are also other ways to get a similar result without a mandoline. <S> You can also use a salad shooter or other slicer/shredder--there's even an attachment for the ubiquitous Kitchen Aid mixer. <S> Even a plain old box grater can be used to grate carrots. <S> Grated carrots may not be as neat and tidy as the ones done commercially, but they're still a good addition to a salad. <S> Oh, if all else fails, you can usually buy the shredded carrots in the produce section, near the bagged salads. <A> If you're talking about fast food, you can rest assured that their carrots arrive that way from the distributor, who is probably using industrial machinery to do the cutting. <S> If you want to achieve this at home with minimal effort then your best bet is a piece of equipment called a mandoline . <S> Normally it has a top piece that you use to pierce the vegetable or fruit (AKA a guard), and you just slide it along the surface as it gets sliced by the slightly-raised blade, which you can usually adjust to get your desired thickness. <S> It looks like this: <S> Most of them have julienne blades but make sure you check before purchasing one. <S> Safety note: <S> As contributor Chef has pointed out , you can give yourself an extremely nasty cut on one of these if you get careless (and who among us doesn't have those days occasionally?), so do yourself a favour and buy a pair of safety gloves if you don't already have them. <S> Gloves are not expensive - the most expensive pair on Amazon costs under $25 - so just go and get yourself a pair, even if you have a really high-end mandoline. <S> It's better to have a good pair and never use them than it is to slice half a finger off because you couldn't spare the time or expense to get some. <S> Trust me, I'm speaking from experience here. <A> There is a relatively cheap kitchen utensil for julienne cuts. <S> It's basically a vegetable peeler with teeth. <S> I use it to julienne carrots and other vegetables a lot when I'm making all sorts of dishes. <S> It takes a bit of getting used to, but is a good compromise for the amateur. <A> Subway uses specialized electric appliances to do such cuts. <S> The closest thing at home is the food processor, but that doesn't cut that thin. <S> In resraurants, we get things thin by using a mandoline, as others have pointed out. <S> What they haven't pointed out is how dangerous thy are. <S> Thy are probably the single largest contributor to cuts- nasty ones too. <S> It is VERY easy to slip, or have the product slip ( soft/old carrot?) and cut your fingertip. <S> Cooks really should use a guard- they never do. <S> I wouldn't recommend using a mandolin for most home cooks- <S> you will cut yourself eventually- and badly. <S> If you DO use one, make sure you use a decent guard. <S> The plastic piece of junk that comes with the benriner mandolin isn't very good. <S> Another alternative use a peeler, not as nice, but it can work. <A> It'll look a bit different, but it makes even, thin strips.
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When in a hurry and not feeling up to julianning carrots, I often have success using a vegetable peeler to peel off thin strips of carrot. If you have a food processor, try the large grating disk.
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Cooking fruit with or without sugar solution Why does fruit retain its shape when heated in sugared water but break down when heated with just plain water? <Q> It is a case of osmotic pressure. <S> If you heat it in plain water, the sugars inside the cell want to cross the cell membrane and try to equalize their concentration inside and out. <S> With sugar in the water, the osmotic pressure is already equal so they don't need to leave the fruit. <A> Michael's answer is somewhat correct, but incomplete. <S> Here's a relevant passage from a major food science book: <S> Sugar addition : Sugar may be utilized in cooking. <S> It offers flavor and some preservation. <S> When large amounts of sugar <S> (amounts greater than that found naturally in fruits) are added to the cooking water at the beginning of cooking, the tenderization is diminished and the shape will be maintained . <S> This is because the water moves out, and the higher concentration of sugar outside of the piece of fruit moves in by diffusion. <S> As well, the sugar interferes with plant pectin solubility. <S> It also dehydrates cellulose and hemicellulose resulting in shrunken, tough walls. <S> In other words, it isn't only the osmotic pressure keeping the juices inside, but the excess sugar being driven into the fruit. <S> But perhaps even more notable is the effect on pectin and the hemicelluloses. <S> Pectin degradation is one of the most important things responsible for softening of fruit when it becomes overripe, for example. <S> When cooked, pectin will also begin to break down and eventually dissolve. <S> Sugar solutions slow this process, thereby keeping the fruit more firm. <S> Other elements of the cell walls are similarly strengthened in the presence of sugar. <S> When fruit is heated in a plain water solution, the opposite happens: pectins become quickly soluble and cellulose is softened. <S> Water also moves into the fruit via osmosis, and sugar diffuses out -- thus actually making the fruit more "plump" (e.g., think of what happens when raisins are soaked). <S> Note that timing is critical for adding sugar. <S> Osmosis can be reversed (as with dried fruit like raisins), but the breakdown of pectin cannot. <S> Thus, when cooking fruit meant to be turned into sauce, it is often common to cook down in water first (to dissolve the pectin and soften the cell walls), then add sugar after the fruit has already softened, which will drive sugar back into the remaining pulp and produce a thick, tasty sauce. <A> I actually don't know the answer to this question, but I have a guess based on what I know about candying. <S> In contrast, when you cook fruit in just plain water, you are breaking down the fruit. <S> So in one process you are preserving the fruit's internal structure and in the other you are destroying it. <S> I'm guessing that this process of preserving or destroying the internal structure is what accounts for the lose or preservation of shape. <S> There could, however, be some other process that I'm not aware of.
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When you soak fruit in sugar, you are replacing the water in the fruit, which helps to preserve the fruit.
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Cheapest place to get bulk chocolate? Where do I buy good quality (for truffles) chocolate in bulk quantities (> 3 lbs)? The prices I'm seeing for Valrhona, etc on Amazon reach nearly $15/lb and that is ridiculous. Any preferred vendors? Thanks! <Q> In the world of high-end chocolate, Valrhona isn't even the most expensive - in fact, it's practically entry level. <S> Amedei Signature retails at a whopping $40/lb in "bulk" (1 kg) quantities. <S> I don't think I've ever seen Valhrona in bulk quantities and/or at a significantly discounted price. <S> On the other hand, there are similar-quality brands that are way more affordably-priced. <S> On chocosphere <S> you can buy 22 lbs of Callebaut callets for just over $6 per pound. <S> You can even buy Guittard there for what appears to be $6.60/lb. <S> But you'll notice that they even though they also carry Valrhona, they don't have it in bulk. <S> I also see Candy Warehouse selling the Guittard wafers for, apparently, $3.10/lb if you buy the 25 lb bag. <S> Chocolate Man sells the Felchlin Maracaibo chocolate (not Grand Cru) for a measly $7.80/lb. <S> They've got a variety of other well-known brands as well, although their selection is limited, they don't have a lot of the crazy high-end stuff. <S> Chocovic chocolate also sells at around the $10 range at most stores. <S> If you can find it, they distribute 10 kg and 25 kg bags (that's 22 lbs and 55 lbs ). <S> I'm not sure where, <S> but if you go to their official site they explicitly mention that they make that size. <S> You should consider that the exorbitant prices may not be a result of where you're buying from, <S> but of what you're buying. <S> Valrhona is just expensive. <S> You may say that is because it's better than all the others, and you may be right (although some would disagree - it's more than a little subjective) - <S> but that is the price you pay for "premium" products. <S> They can get away with charging $13-$15/lb, so they do. <S> Do yourself a favour - try some of the lesser-known brands. <S> A lot of them really do make fantastic chocolate, they're just not as famous as Valrhona. <A> Chocosphere has been my source for around a year or so: http://www.chocosphere.com/ <S> They are based on Oregon (unfortunately for me), but they sell all of the most common brands of chocolate. <S> Most of their chocolates are sold in 1 kg, 3 kg, or 5kg quantities. <S> As a bonus, they are really good at shipping. <S> I've had them ship chocolate literally across the country in warm weather and it showed up unmelted. <S> EDIT: As others have noted, Valrhona is NEVER cheap. <S> Ever. <S> And Valrhona isn't the only one. <S> I've been wanting to try some Michel Cluizel stuff, but its $40/kg!!! <S> I use cheaper chocolate, such as Callebaut, when I'm working on recipes. <S> When I'm making anything that's going to be boxed up, I may order different chocolate. <S> A current (and rather unknown) favorite, is Chocolate Santander, a Columbian single-origin chocolate that beat out all the Valrhona varieties I had on hand (2 or 3), Callebaut, and about 5 other chocolates I had around in a taste test. <A> I purchase from two sources that are cheaper than the ones mentioned already: Bakers Cash and Carry sells a full line of Guittard at rock-bottomprices. <S> I just discovered that there are two companies online withthat name. <S> The one that I use, and really love the pricing at, is here . <S> and L'Epicerie has the best prices on Valrhona <A> Try Guittard products. <S> I think they stand up well against Valrhona. <S> I use Scharffen Berger cocoa <S> and I buy it in bulk. <S> I've been shopping around on the web and can sometimes beat their prices by enough dollars that I try new places. <S> For truffles, I use the Guittard 63 (it might be 62 percent) <S> dark chocolate 10 pound bar. <S> Worked wonderfully and overall <S> cost for the chocolate on a per pound basis was very good. <S> I'd have loved to try the Divine Chocolates site listed in this other answer but "contact us for price" is a nonstarter. <S> I want to be able to compare prices online without waiting on office hours or having to speak to someone. <A> I order from worldwidechcocolate.com. <S> They have a LOT of different brands, and I have tried most of them. <S> I am a Valhrona person, but I have found Callebaut and Guittard to be quite comparable.
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Or you can get one of Felchlin's Grand Cru chocolates for about $10 per pound. I have used Chocosphere in the past - good customer service, but their prices are not as competitive as they used to be.
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Saucepan in the oven? I am cooking some meat for tonight, and my girlfriend put the saucepan into the oven. It seems to be working fine, but I wonder what the advantages and disadvantages of this method is compared to just using the stove? <Q> Generally oven cooking gives a more even, surrounding heat rather than the direct and concentrated heat from below that a hob supplies. <A> On the stovetop the heat applied to the bottom of pan is really extremely high and depending on what you make, can easily lead to scorching. <S> In the oven, the heat never exceeds the temperature setting of the oven. <A> Another consideration is space and timing. <S> As long as your cookware can handle it, there is no problem. <S> In restaurants, pans are in and out of the oven and on the stovetop, depending on stages and pacing, and an important consideration comes up: hot handles. <S> So, use it if you want, and be careful of the handles or missing an important step in the process.
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If there are many things happening at once, putting a pan in the oven can be convenient, but it is also out of sight, so if there are stages that need to be monitored, it calls for extra vigilance.
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What is the proper way to dispose of a kitchen knife? How do you throw away a kitchen knife (or for that matter, any knife)? It seems extremely dangerous to just throw it in the dumpster, even if it's wrapped up real well. <Q> I agree on the Goodwill thing, but it pains me to think of putting tape on a knife blade -- someone's going to have to clean it off, and that risks someone getting injured. <S> Instead, find a piece of cardboard that's longer than the blade of the knife, and more than twice the depth of the blade with an inch (~3 cm) or more to spare. <S> Fold the cardboard in half, so it's now roughly larger than the size of the blade, and then place the blade so the back of the knife is against the fold <S> (you can do it the other way, but you'll risk dulling the knife ... cutting paper isn't good for knives), then tape it down. <S> You want to make sure <S> it's well compressed, so the knife is being held in by friction. <S> You could always sandwich something rubbery in there with it to help with the friction. <S> (this is how I used to transport my knives when moving between apartments) ... <S> Just find a piece that's longer and wider than the blade, set it on the edge of your counter, put a hand on top to hold it steady, and then slowly push the blade in. <A> First of all, consider donating it to Goodwill or another charitable organization. <S> Even if it is barely usable by your standards, it might help someone else out. <S> Whether giving your knife away or throwing it out, I think it is sufficient to put some duct tape over the edge and then wrap it in a couple layers of bubble wrap. <A> Check with your local recycling companies. <S> We have a metal recycling facility that will accept kitchen items such as small appliances, utensils and dishes made of aluminum, tin, stainless steel, etc. <S> It may be worthwhile to simply add the knife to their scrapheap where things will be melted down and recycled. <S> Far better than disposal, in my opinion. <S> (But consider the goodwill option as well.) <A> Just wrap in some newspaper and the tape the package up. <S> This is how my knives always come back from a professional sharpen. <S> It surprised me a little the first time I saw it, but it will render the knife harmless. <A> If you are dumping a whole set in a block, just glue them into the block and throw away. <A> Fold some foam rubber around the blade, then wrap it all up with duct tape. <S> The foam rubber should hold against the blade and be resistant to being cut. <A> Since you're throwing the knife out, take a hammer to the edge. <S> You don't need to hit hard -- the edge is obviously pretty thin, so it won't take much to roll the edge. <S> Just place the back edge of the blade against something hard and heavy -- anvil, concrete block, etc. <S> -- and tap firmly all along the sharp edge until sufficiently dull. <A> You're over thinking this. <S> Just toss it in the bin. <S> There are plenty of other dangerous sharp things in bins already. <S> Eg, broken glass, tin cans/lids, etc. <S> Anyone going through bins (eg Freegans , garbage disposal workers, super spy's jumping out of buildings) knows to take precautions (or will learn quickly). <S> Odds are that no one will go through your bin on that particular day anyway. <S> You can decrease that further by putting in in the bin the night before collection day . <S> If you must do something active, it's not worth the effort/waste to find something to wrap it, just stab it through anything plastic or cardboard <S> you are throwing out <S> (so I am seconding the news paper suggestion).Eg <S> Milk Carton, empty plastic meat tray. <S> It doesn't need to be perfect, you are just trying to add another chance on top of what is already fairly safe (just throwing it in the bin). <A> While performing on stage I adopted the "lob a full 360" approach but my juggling partner usually returned them. <S> Now I would take it to my dump, tip, recycling centre, and present it to a member of staff. <S> This has three advantages:- 1/ <S> No wrapping or unpleasant bending. <S> 2/ <S> It's a day out. <S> 3/ <S> It becomes an S.E.P. [Someone Else's Problem] <S> My brother, a chef, would have lodged it in a Kitchen Porter, thereby also creating an S.E.P.
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Another alternative, if you're really disposing of it, and don't mind dulling the blade, is to poke it into a piece of corrougated cardboard.
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Reheating rice for 25 guests I am having a party. I have no rice cooker. I plan on cooking the rice the day before. Is it possible to reheat it and have it taste good? How to? <Q> When making rice for a large group, you should take a hint from the restaurants and do it in the oven in a large roaster or baking pan. <S> Put the rice in a pan, add boiling water and salt, and then cover with foil. <S> Or you can make it like a very large pilaf which will make it more special. <S> But oven in large pan is the way to go and make it fresh. <S> I don't have amounts because you will know how much you need to make. <S> Common knowledge is 2 times as much water as the rice, and common knowledge is, generally, too much water, particularly in large batches. <S> Again, a restaurant recipe will do you well. <A> You have to be very careful when preparing rice for consumption later. <S> Cooked rice can contain a toxic spore which causes severe food poisoning. <S> You should cool the rice as rapidly as possible to prevent too much of the toxin being produced by the spore. <A> ok, so this may not be a correct answer for a cooking site, but... maybe you could buy enough cooked rice on the day of your event from a local chinese restaurant? <S> : ) one less thing for you to worry about on the day of your big party (and nobody needs to know)! <A> Rice will dehydrate when it's left over night. <S> So it will be very dry when you try and reheat it. <S> Cook it ahead of time, but keep it as close to ahead of time as possible. <S> The less time it sits around, the better. <S> When it's time to serve, place a little water in with the rice, cover it (slightly vented), and then microwave till warm. <S> The steam from the water will help rehydrate. <S> I don't think the result is quite as good as fresh rice, but it's much easier. <A> I have two options here.. <S> one was not easy and the other one was rather creative (but traditional) Fried Rice. <S> Just heat up a wok and add a bit of oil will do the job. <S> It may take you a few rounds, but it's better than reheating rice in microwave. <S> It may look kinda fancy if you serve people with rice dumplings. <S> The advantage of rice dumpling is you can keep them in hot water before you serve <S> and you don't need rice cooker as the whole cooking process is in a pot. <S> I cannot find you the exact recipe, but this blog article seems pretty good. <S> http://eatfirstthinklater.blogspot.com/2006/05/making-chinese-rice-dumpling-bak-chang.html <S> Just ignore all the ingredient and put in rice only. <S> I got some links here: <S> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zongzi <A> I do this for parties all the time. <S> I put several large spoonfuls in a plastic ziplock bag. <S> Seal the bag, stick it in the microwave for 3min intervals till it is hot enough. <S> flipping the contents around in between heating.
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A quick way of reheating a large amount of rice from the fridge (I guess you pre-cook all the rice prior) is to make fried rice. Make Rice dumplings - you may have heard of Chinese rice dumpling which is usually made of glutinous rice, but you can use short grain rice instead which is sticky enough.
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What are the differences between candy thermometers and meat thermometers? I know that meat thermometers generally won't handle as high a temperature range as candy, but I'm only planning to make caramels and fudge (so soft ball and firm ball) and that's within the range of the meat thermometer that I already own. Also, meat thermometers are often labelled "medium well" etc., rather than "soft ball". Since I have access to the temps required, that's not an issue. I'm definitely a noob to candy, so is there some magical reason I can't use a meat thermometer for my candy? Is it a huge no-no? Does it contain leprechauns that will destroy my caramels? <Q> I think Doug and yossarian both touched on the main points, but to summarize, there are four reasons why you might not want to use a meat thermometer for candy: <S> Range <S> A meat thermometer might go from 140 F to 220 F or something like that, which is plenty for meat. <S> Candy often requires a range from about 75 degrees (chocolate) up to 400+ degrees (hard candy). <S> The range on most thermometers is simply not sufficient for most candies. <S> Accuracy <S> When you temper chocolate, 88 F degrees is an ideal working temperature (for dark chocolate). <S> Some people would consider 91 so high <S> you might want to think about starting over. <S> When you make caramels, the difference between 235 F and 240 F can be the difference between wonderfully chewy caramels and a sugar-flavored rock. <S> If you can't read one degree increments at a glance, you need a real candy thermometer. <S> Speed Meat thermometers often take 30 seconds to a minute to get an accurate result. <S> When you are making candies, you have to be able to tell what the temperature is right now . <S> Contamination <S> I don't want the thermometer that goes in semi-raw meat anywhere near my chocolate. <A> However, some meat thermometers are slow and basic and not particularly accurate with no means of adjusting. <S> With meat, once you are in a range of temperatures, you will have edible food, although it might not be exactly what you are looking for. <S> With candy, a difference of a few degrees means a different kind of candy... <S> again, still edible, but much more different than say between medium-rare and medium on your roast. <S> The goal with any thermometer is to have it be accurate within the range that you need to measure. <S> Just because the range you want is on that thermometer doesn't mean that it is accurate in that range. <S> If you trust it, fine. <S> Worst case, you lose a batch of sugar water. <A> I have a digital meat thermometer which reads just about instantly, is accurate, and goes up to about 500F degrees. <S> I can absolutely not see why I shouldn't be able to use it. <S> And I have no qualms in using a thermometer that has been in contact with meat. <S> If you don't clean the tip after that, you have no place in a kitchen anyway. <A> If the temperatures you are looking for are within the stated range of the meat thermometer you will be fine. <S> The difference between the two is just as you guessed, they are focused on different temperature ranges. <S> A candy thermometer will need to be able to accurately measure melted sugar, which is way hotter than a medium rare steak. <S> Putting a meat thermometer in to 350F sugar may break the thermometer. <S> But putting it in to 160F fudge would be just fine. <S> And it's actually the pixies that will destroy your candy! <S> Everyone knows there's no such thing as leprechauns. <A> Candy thermometer <S> As sugar is heated it goes through stages and a candy thermometer can help you identify which stage of the process is happening, based upon the temperature. <S> It is well known that when you are making candy, you must stay within a certain temperature range. <S> A candy thermometer helps you do just that, especially if this is your first time making some. <S> The typical temperature range is from 220 degree F to 360 degree F. A quality candy thermometer comes with different ranges for specific stages of the candy making like soft crack and hard crack stage or the soft ball and hard ball stages. <S> This is a scientifically based calculation and meaning you must pay attention when preparing candy because you can easily over- or under-heat the candy. <S> This will destroy the whole recipe and wash your effort and expenses down the drain. <S> A meat thermometer is a thermometer used to measure the internal temperature of meat, especially roasts and steaks, and other cooked foods. <S> The degree of "doneness" of meat or bread correlates closely with the internal temperature, so that a thermometer reading indicates when it is cooked as desired. <S> When cooking, food should always be cooked so that the interior reaches a temperature sufficient, that in the case of meat is enough to kill pathogens that may cause foodborne illness or, in the case of bread, that is done baking the thermometer helps to ensure this.
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If your meat thermometer is accurate and responsive you will be fine using it. Candy thermometers are, as you may have guessed, mostly used to measure temperature of a sugar solution whilst cooking.
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how to fix pudding that got extra sweet? i have made the chocolate pudding and accidentally added loads of sugar..now it is too sweet n too sticky..what can i do with it except throwing it out? <Q> Do you have the ingredients necessary to make more? <S> You could make a second batch, without adding sugar, and combine them. <A> I once ran into the same problem. <S> Boy were they a hit. <S> I just put the pudding in several ice cube trays and a few wax coated paper cups. <S> Pop them into the freezer. <S> Insert plastic spoons or popsicle sticks when it gets frozen enough to hold the spoon or stick. . <S> Serve with a smile, you are about to achieve 'Hero' status. <A> If it's stiff, it could be used to top or fill a sponge cake. <S> Icing is sweet by design. <S> If it isn't stiff adding more icing sugar should stiffen it enough to set.
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I ended up making frozen pudding pops out of them.
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How long will a sourdough starter last between feedings? I'm using a sourdough starter from the recipe in Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day and I have gone through several of the rebuilding cycles with it. It's been working fairly well for me and I have been refreshing it every week. It is stored in an airtight container in the fridge. How long can the starter be left in the fridge without being refreshed before it's un-salvageable and would need to be thrown out? <Q> The following is paraphrased from Andrew Whitley's excellent book Bread Matters <S> Wheat leaven <S> If you intend to use within 2 days, store the it at ambient temperature For 2-14 days, store it in the fridge. <S> Optionally refresh it before use. <S> For longer, refresh then freeze. <S> Refresh again after thawing. <S> Rye sourdough 0-3 days -- ambient temperature 3-30 days -- fridge, no need to refresh Longer -- refresh then freeze. <S> Refresh again after thawing. <S> Whitley describes "constructive neglect". <S> He keeps a rye sourdough in his fridge <S> that's several months old, so that he can demonstrate to students how easily he can take 50g of it and produce a lovely sourdough from it within 16 hours. <S> It's a great book. <A> Don't use such an old one for bread though. <S> Do a thorough wash of it first. <S> Otherwise it'll taste like poop in a gym sock. <A> It should last for a couple of weeks without feeding. <S> You should feed it at least twice before using it again though. <S> Probably the safest thing to do is take a little of the starter and use it as an experiment; keep one bit for a week without feeding and see if it works, and another bit for two, etc. <A> In the fall, I made about five loaves of sour dough bread with a starter a friend gave me. <S> Over the holidays, the starter was in the fridge for about five weeks without my using it. <S> Then, after feeding it twice, it seemed to be back to normal and I made a standard sour dough white bread. <S> It rose beautifully and looked great. <S> However, it did not taste great. <S> It was not bad, but nothing special. <S> I'll make another loaf soon and see what happens. <S> AL <A> According to thejoykitchen.com , it can go at least a month. <S> I have had excess starter that I made in the refrigerator now for 4 weeks, took some of it out, stirred in the 'hootch' on top, lightly fed it some very thick 'dinner'...(nearly as thick flour to water ratio as I could mix together and still have it look like an extremely way too thick pancake batter), and put it back into the fridge. <S> It bubbled slightly, but not enough to overflow the container. <S> I have also read that even at some months, it is still totally salvageable, though I have yet to try it. <S> I will be testing my starters saved in different containers in the fridge to verify what to do when. <S> You can also dry your starter, and I have ordered parchment paper to do this on. <S> Hope that helps.
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I've had mine sit for six months or more without feeding and still have life in it.
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Why did my mozzarella turn out like ricotta? I bought my wife a mozzerella kit for christmas, and we tried to make it last night. We followed the directions pretty closely. I supposed we could have removed a bit more whey at some early steps. It also got up to 112F instead of the called for 105F before letting the curds form. But it never came together or reached the shiny smooth consistency that the directions called for. It would not hold together well enough to pull / stretch. It ended up like ricotta. It was good, but it wasn't what we were aiming for. When doing my Christmas shopping, I noticed that some of the kits were for making mozzarella or ricotta, so I assume that the two have the same ingredients and a slightly different process. So what's the difference in process for the two? I'm thinking that's where we went wrong. The result actually looked a lot like what this cheese making site says will result from using UHT milk , but I checked before making the cheese, and it was just pasteurized (and I just double checked, and it still just says pasteurized). <Q> I have the same problem and went through 3 different brands of milk, thinking they were UHT. <S> However, after some experimentation I determined what I was doing wrong. <S> In my case, after cutting the curd, and while the water was heating back up to 105, we were stirring too much. <S> The key is very slow gentle movement. <S> Just enough to slightly move the curds, and not disturb them. <S> "Stirring" will cause you to end up with a nice tasting ricotta, but not mozzarella. <A> According to playing with fire and water , the key is raw milk - not pasteurized at all. <S> The author says that she tried several times to make mozzarella and it always turned out like ricotta, until she switched to raw milk. <S> It's also very important to let the curds acidify, which essentially means letting it sit around for a while. <S> If you don't do that, the curds won't spin, and if they don't spin and stretch, then you can't make a firm cheese, it'll just stay like jelly. <S> The curds are acidified when they spin (stretch without breaking). <A> this is similar to my question: <S> how do I make my goat cheese creamy? <S> I would suspect that bringing the temperature higher than directed would cause your problems. <S> In my case I ended up raising the temperature because my cheese wouldn't separate, which resulted in a crumbly hard cheese, instead of something creamy. <A> I had the same problem and bought a pH meter at which point I discovered my milk didn't have enough acid <S> so I added 2 t citric acid and problem solved. <S> The milk should get thick like cream prior to putting in rennet. <S> pH should be around 5.2. <A> As a bit of a science geek, I think the PH meter is a great way to go. <S> All research I've done confirms that you can make mozzarella with all milk types except UHT. <S> I tried to make mozzarella for the first time the other night and it came out like creamy ricotta. <S> However, there is no way to rule out PH without knowing for sure. <S> So to not have the headaches and be able to consistently make the Caprese Salad <S> I like so much <S> , it's well worth it. <S> Thanks everyone for your help, I'm going to try again soon. :) <A> Mozzarella cannot be repeatedly made from a recipe since milk differs in pH and protein content from cow to cow. <S> I have been making mozzarella successfully for more than 10 years. <S> I have run hundreds of experiments and can tell you that. <S> Buy a pH meter, that will make your life less stressful and your mozzarella will be consistent. <A> It's not the pasturization that is the problem, it is the homogination which breaks up the casen molecules in the milk. <S> These molecules are required for the curding proccess and when they are damaged, the milk will not curd. <S> I know some add calcium chloride to the milk which apparently helps the curding proccess, but I have never tried this. <S> If the curd is right, it is firm enough to stir with no problems at all. <S> Furthermore, you have to stir occasionally to keep the curds from sticking together. <S> Another thing I would like to say is that there are two different ways to make mozzarella, which is using citric acid or using cultures. <S> I have done both <S> and I can say that using cultures is more fun and has a much better flavor. <S> I have used different cultures over the years and have found that Kefir cultures has the best flavor. <S> I recently created a instructable on making mozzarella cheese, Click Here to view. <S> If anyone tries my method of making mozzarella cheese has further problems, please E-mail me or post on my blog what kind of problem occurred, and I'll point you in the right direction. <A> I kept experiencing the Ricotta thing and decided to change the milk I used. <S> Living in a city, far away from any dairies, I went online looking for powdered-raw-milk. <S> Needless to say, there is none. <S> I did find some powdered goat's milk online. <S> I went to the company's website and used their store locator and found a place close that sold the powdered goat's milk. <S> After striking out with cow milk, I thought goat's milk may give me better results. <S> When I arrived, I found the powdered milk and I also discovered that the store sold raw milk, from both cows and goats. <S> I would suggest doing an online search for producers of: powdered goat's milk, almond flour, kambucha, etc. <S> and use the "Store Locator" or "Where to Buy" features. <S> Chances are, these products are sold in places that also offer raw milk. <S> Of course, after using the raw milk, the ricotta texture went away. <S> I now have real mozzarella cheese.
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I normally use raw milk to make mozzarella, but I have also used pasturized non-homogenized milk with no problem. I saw that someone posted not to stir the curds too much or you will end up with rocotta, this simply is not the case. I believe it to be my stirring technique and temp.
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Should a [Ceramic] mug be left covered or uncovered during the tea bag steeping process? I make tea by submerging a tea-bag in a ceramic mug, covering the mug for about 5 minutes, and then removing the tea bag. My question is: Is it advantageous to cover the mug during the steeping process, or should I leave the mug uncovered while it is steeping? <Q> This seems like a case where a very simple A/B comparison will give you the answer for your own personal preference. <S> Just use two identical mugs and do everything else the same except cover one and not the other. <S> If you really want to make it official, put a mark on the bottom of one mug and then have someone else randomize them while you look away. <S> (p.s. <S> not sure why this question is getting negative votes, it seems fine to me). <A> If you believe that a more consistent temperature produces a better cuppa, then covering would help (though how much is debatable). <S> I'll leave it to someone else to provide arguments about the ideal steeping time and temperature. <S> Someone might also make a case that covering the mug keeps aromas trapped in too, but I doubt that does anything to improve the tea flavor, and your concentrated aromas are going to escape as soon as you take the cover off anyway. <S> So I'd say the insulation/heat conservation argument is where it's at. <A> Given that tea is 'properly' made in teapots, which always have lids that are put in place after the addition of water, I'd say you are wise to cover your mug. <S> Insulation is probably the only advantage though, as bikeboy says. <A> I think this is purely one for personal preference. <S> Try it and see. <S> If you have access to ISO (or I guess BSI or Indian national standards) there is an ISO standard for brewing tea for taste tests, which is moderately interesting. <A> I had a very fussy colleague train me in making him tea in a mug. <S> It takes nowhere near 5 minutes. <S> Put the teabag in the mug while the kettle is boiling <S> Use the hottest water you can; it should go into the mug immediately after boiling Fill the mug almost to the brim; when you remove the teabag it will make room for milk <S> It doesn't take long to get the best of the flavour out. <S> 20 seconds or so; long enough to get the milk from the fridge and find a teaspoon. <S> Fish the bag out with a teaspoon <S> ; maybe give it a squeeze against the inside wall of the mug add sugar (if wanted) <S> then milk (if wanted) <S> With this method, the tea is still piping hot when it's ready. <S> If you prefer tea that's been steeped for ages, of course I won't stop you :). <S> Please don't do it if you're making tea for me though! <S> You would steep for longer in a teapot, but that's because one normal teabag is enough for at least two mugs of tea -- unless you've bought special one-cup teabags, such as you get in hotel rooms. <S> This applies to ordinary tea and Earl Grey -- things could be different for fruit teas and green tea.
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Covering the mug may help insulate the tea/water, keeping it hotter.
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How to make hot dog buns or sandwich rolls with a soft crust? Whenever I make sandwich rolls, the crust ends up too thick and too crispy. I've tried a few things, such as a moister dough, but I can't seem to get a combination of a hearty bread and a soft crust. Questions: I'm baking at 425, is this too hot/cold? Will it help to add more/less fat to the dough? Will it help to add more/less water to the dough? Do I need to do a slower rise? How do you control the crustiness of a bread, anyway? <Q> Normally, a bun for a hotdog or hamburger is going to be made of a softer, sweeter dough. <S> It will have higher egg, milk, fat, and sugar content. <S> It is a slightly softer (more water) dough than a white bread dough (and a lot softer than a crusty, lean loaf like french). <S> You will definitely want to bake it at a lower temperature, 425 is far too high. <S> I would not usually bake too many breads higher than 400. <S> A softer, sweeter dough such as this should be baked no higher than 375. <S> If you are looking for a good pointer towards the type of dough to use, I use the same dough for hotdog and hamburger buns as I use to make cinnamon buns/sweet rolls. <A> Hearty and hot dog buns aren't two ideas you see put together very often. <S> If you are making a richer/sweeter dough already then yes, lower temperature will help. <S> Beyond that, there are a couple of other things you could try. <S> You could try making a wash of egg white and a little water and brushing that on the bread before baking. <S> This is traditional for similar doughs like challah and it allows the crust to remain soft and promotes even browning. <S> If you're not already, you could also try using a special pan. <S> There are Pullman / pan de mie pans that cover the bread on all sides when baking, which limits the extent to which the crust can form considerably. <S> (so you get the nice hot dog bun shape) and you can simulate the pan de mie effect by placing a greased cookie sheet (greased side down toward the buns) over the bun pan when baking. <S> This should definitely help avoid an overdone or overdeveloped crust. <S> (King Arthur Flour sells one of these kinds of pans online.) <S> Hamburger buns / sandwich rolls would be a little trickier as the specialty pans for those are probably too shallow to use the cookie sheet on top trick. <S> Instead, you could try baking the rolls on a special pan or half sheet pan with some aluminum foil tented, shiny side out toward the heat, and crimped around the lip of the pan. <A> I just did a basic bun recipe, which is a sweeter dough. <S> I set the oven to 375 F and the crust ended up quite crispy... <S> but I failed on prepping the dough. <S> Before the second rise I should have used the egg-white wash. <S> Instead I used the wash just prior to baking. <S> Umm.... <S> that didn't work too well. <S> The next batch ended up perfect, I washed before the second rising....then baked. <S> Came out perfectly soft at 375F. Hope that helps someone. <A> Why not try putting an additional pan in the oven with hot water in it. <S> The stream from the water should help to keep the outside moist. <S> Also, I would recommend brushing them with butter or some wet flavoring when they come out of the oven to help keep them moist from the pan to the table. <S> I do think your temperature is too high, though I can't say how much lower it should be. <S> A response to the idea of more water: <S> (I'm an experienced home bread baker.) <S> As odd as it seems, the pan of hot water will INCREASE the crispiness of the bread. <S> The reason is that the additional moisture keeps the outer shell of the dough (as it cooks) in a pliable, gelatin state much longer than without the steam and that prevents the crust from turning crisply too early. <S> So then, the crust gets thicker and later will dry out more. <S> My reference material for soft crust bread calls for using milk instead of water and using a substantial amount of liquid oil, such as canola oil. <S> Then cook at 375 -- 400 degrees F. (200 degrees C.) for only 25 minutes. <A> If you want to keep the crust of hotdog or hamburger buns "soft," after the last rising - and before the baking - brush the top with melted butter. Just make sure the butter isn't too hot or you'll deflate the dough. <S> Bake them at 350 deg. <S> for approximately 20 minutes and give them another brushing of butter on all surfaces. <S> Also, don't forget to use milk instead of water and honey instead of sugar. <S> The buns should come out - and remain soft.
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If you're doing something like using some amount of whole grain flour in the buns then you're going to get a chewier crumb and crust just because of the recipe you're using. I looked at a couple of recipes and 400°F seems to be the temperature that most recommend. You can get special hot dog pans that are shaped on the bottom
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How do Thai People Make Peanut Sauce? I'm interested in making my own Thai Peanut sauce. However, every recipe I see online says to use peanut butter. I like Thai Peanut sauce I have in restaurants, but I HATE peanut butter. So when I see a recipe that uses peanut butter (which also has tons of extra crap in it that is less than good for you), I think that the final result can't be good. How does one make a peanut sauce without peanut butter? Grind peanuts yourself? <Q> Peanut butter is just ground roasted peanuts essentially. <S> The american style peanut butter tends to be sweetened, as well as having extra oil and salt. <S> But they are only slight flavour/texture enhancers (not that I think sugar enhances it, UK peanut butter is unsweetened usually). <S> and if you want it authentic probably some nam pla (fish sauce), or blachan (shrimp paste), all of the above to taste. <S> Thin with water and reduce to the consistency you desire. <A> Peanut sauce is one of my very most favorite condiments, I practically consider it a major food group, and I moved from the US to live in another country where peanut butter is not available. <S> Roasted & shelled peanuts are however bountiful and cheap, luckily, so I just learned to make my own peanut sauce. <S> Here's how I make a simple and fast peanut sauce that is really tasty, perfect for satay, pouring on pasta, etc. <S> , doesn't require exotic ingredients, and you don't need a huge, expensive food processor, even a small sized one will work: <S> Process about 125 grams (few handfuls) of roasted/shelled peanuts in the processor until they're "dust" or as chunky as you like, remove from processor and set aside. <S> (Order here is important, because trying to add the liquid later using a wimpy/small processor results in the ingredients never mixing well and is an exercise in frustration). <S> Peel a few cloves of garlic, process them until finely chopped, leave them in processor. <S> Add two teaspoons apple cider vinegar, two teaspoons sugar, two teaspoons soy sauce, and a few tablespoons of water. <S> (Alter proportions to taste, I prefer a sweeter sauce). <S> blend <S> alternate adding in peanut dust and more water until all the peanuts are added and the consistency is what you like. <S> Pour on pasta or whatever you like and enjoy! <A> This answer is a bit redundant given some of the comments on the accepted answer, but still: Get a brand of peanut butter that's just peanuts. <S> The one I get most of the time is Adam's, but <S> Kraft has one, <S> I've seen Maranatha products, but didn't know they made peanut butter until now. <S> It shouldn't be hard to find something that will work for you. <A> I boil my shelled peanuts with cloves of garlic and then blend them in the blender. <S> Makes for the beginnings of a nice sauce! <S> Then add whatever other incredients you want! <S> Good luck!
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Satay sauces are essentially just peanut butter sauces, roast some peanuts, grind them, then add to some lightly fried shallots and garlic, with chilli, soy sauce, lemon juice, salt, sugar
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Does chili paste require refrigeration? A recipe I am planning to make calls for chili paste, which I have never used before. I found some in the grocery store (it is Sambal Oelek ground fresh chili paste ), which seems to be more liquidy than, say, tomato paste. I only need 1/2 a teaspoon, however, so I will have plenty left over. Does chili paste require refrigeration after it is opened? It does not say anything about it that I can see on the jar. Also, how long will it last after being opened (regardless of whether or not it needs to be in the fridge)? <Q> <A> Sambal Oelek doesn't generally require refrigeration. <S> I've had a jar in my condiments cupboard for quite some time without any issue, and at work they have a jar next to the wok food station to add a bit of heat to the meal. <S> I don't have a jar to hand right now, but if you look at the ingredients, are there any acids? <S> I recall a slight liquid (it's a wet paste) and a slight vinegar taste, so it's possible <S> it's already got some preservative qualities without refrigeration. <S> It wouldn't hurt to keep it in the fridge though, it could add to the life expectancy of it, if you have space... in the UK we don't have big fridges, so having jars of long-life products isn't a great use of space. <A> Sambal Olek contains sodium bisulfite and potassium sorbate... <S> so it doesn't need to be refrigerated. <S> However, it will last longer in the fridge. <S> Generally speaking, condiments should not be held longer than 90 days. <S> Bon apetit.
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I don't know if it technically requires refrigeration, but I've always kept mine in the refrigerator and had it survive for at least 6 months with no noticeable degradation.
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What's the best time and temperature for tenderness when baking red potatoes? Lately I've gotten into baking Red Potatoes with butter and spices and I've found I enjoy them when they are nice and tender. What's the best temperature for baking red potatoes for tenderness? How long should they be baked for? <Q> It depends greatly on how hungry I am. :-) <S> 350F for about an 60-90 minutes, depending on how many are in there. <S> 425F for about 40-60 if I'm hungry and impatient. <S> Microwave on high for a few minutes (few holes poked in it with a fork) if I'm really hungry and really impatient. <S> They're done when a fork goes in easily. <A> For pretty much any potatoes, of what I'd call baking size (about the size of a fist), an hour at 180C is good, and another 20 minutes doesn't hurt. <S> A metal skewer through the middle ensures that the middle is done, and you also know it's cooked when the skewer slips out easily. <S> For a lovely jacket, wet the skin and grind some sea salt onto it before putting it in the oven. <S> Some people like to wrap them in foil. <S> This makes for a less floury flesh texture, and a less crispy skin, neither of which are my preference. <A> I like to roast them in a roasting pan with a lid with olive oil over the top and salt and pepper. <S> I add several cloves of garlic tossed in for an infused roasted garlic taste. <S> I also do exactly the same thing but quarter or half them, put them into a pot with a tight fitting lid and add aprox. <S> a half inch of chicken broth or water. <S> Put the lid on, bring the taters to a boil, then turn it down with the lid on and simmer until fork tender in about 20 minutes. <S> Drain and serve. <S> I like to use a collapsible steamer in the bottom of the pan to keep the potatoes from getting mushy or water logged. <S> They just seem to steam better. <S> Don't let the pan boil dry. <S> HINT FOR PEELING GARLIC <S> : Take the head of garlic or the cloves and with a knife cut across the top or bottom of the head or individual clove, just enough to make an opening in the skin. <S> You can also smash it under a chefs knife to break the skin. <S> Place the whole thing or the clove into the microwave and microwave just a few seconds UNTIL <S> you hear it pop. <S> when you remove the garlic it will be hot <S> so be careful, it will also just slip right out of the papery skin.
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I bake it at 375 for about an hour or until tender.
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Smoked ham roast: what do I do with it? My girlfriend's parents recently gave us a bunch of pork from my girlfriend's grandpa's farm. The bacon and sausage we know what to do with but there's also a hunk of meat labeled "smoked ham roast" that we're not quite sure about. We've made a beef roast before so we were thinking maybe we could just throw the smoked ham roast in the crock pot with some carrots, potatoes and onions, but for some reason I'm not terribly enthusiastic about that idea. Any suggestions? <Q> If it's been fully cured (smoked, then hung for a few months), it likely just needs to be warmed through for serving (or even just sliced). <S> If it's soft, you might need to cook it, and then you could roast it in the oven ... <S> a crock pot might be okay; it's hard to say without having seen it. <S> But if it's quite firm, I'd likely just slice pieces off like you <S> might other dry cured hams like Prosciutto , speck , jamón or country ham . <S> If it's heavily salted, I'd be more likely to use it as a flavoring than a meat -- cut off bits, and add to vegetable dishes when cooking. <S> It goes great with dark greens or in bean dishes. <S> (I just had an excellent bean & ham soup last night at a meeting that a few of us treat as a pot-luck) <A> I googled "roast ham" and there were plenty of recipes. <A> This way of cooking ham usually gets nibbled right out of the fridge until it's gone at our house. <S> Put your ham in a roasting pan or a dutch oven that you have sprayed with cooking spray or rubbed with some oil or shortening. <S> Put a small jar or 1 cup of orange marmalade over the top of the ham and sprinkle with pepper. <S> Cover and Bake at 325 degrees <S> (this is considered a 'slow oven' and similar to using a crockpot on high) <S> -until <S> the glaze is thin and saucy, basting about every 30 minutes with a spoon until cooked or throughly heated through. <S> (I don't know if your ham is cured). <S> Bake 15 more minutes uncovered to thicken sauce a bit, and let sit 15 minutes before carving into thin or thick slices. <S> Serve with the sauce poured over the top ham slices. <S> Serve it with a fresh salad and sweet potato. <S> I like to make baked sweet potato cottage fries or jojos by slicing the washed potato into 4-6 wedges, spray with cooking spray or drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. <S> Bake at 375-400 until soft and golden brown. <S> Leftover ham from this recipe is wonderful sliced and fried with hashbrowns. <S> You can also add the ham to baked beans or with much of the glaze removed (just wipe it off) to potato soup, minced in a cheese and ham omelet, scrambled in eggs, pasta salad ingredient when diced or cut into thin strands, added to split pea soup, or of course SANDWICHES. <A> You can also boil a ham for a couple of hours then it only needs to roast for 20/30 minutes to brown off. <S> If you boil in this manner the water you boil in should become a good pork stock - excellent for pea & ham soup.
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Typically you would roast a ham with a glaze, then eat it in thin slices -- either hot with vegetables, or cold in sandwiches/salads.
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Can I still eat this fish? I just found a couple of salmon fillets in my freezer that seem to have been there for about two years. Are they still edible, or should I bin them? <Q> I agree with yossarian, if I question it, I chuck it. <S> Although in this case, the salmon probably will not harm you, it might just taste bad. <S> Loss of moisture (freezer burn), taking on of flavours, etc. <S> I wouldn't eat it because it wouldn't taste great. <S> My father-in-law would eat it, because you don't throw out food (his rule). <S> Bottom line, if it has been in the freezer for those two years straight, it won't give you food poisoning or harm you. <S> It's just a matter of palate. <S> But rest assured, it won't taste great. <A> My grandfather was a commercial fisherman on the NW Pacific coast. <S> He used to salmon charter fish. <S> When he had fish that was "aged" in the freezer he used to make sure he thawed it COVERED in milk. <S> If it was overly fishy, the milk caused the fish to sweeten. <S> You can smell the fish when it is completely thawed and check <S> it's consistency. <S> If it smells fine, and has good consistency for salmon just prepare it with a nice lemon sauce. <S> You can always cook it and then mash it as a pate with herbs and onion for wonderful cracker snacks. <A> I guess I would take a different approach. <S> I would first thaw the salmon and see if it looked and smelled OK, and if it did I would find a way to use it. <S> True, it probably won't taste as good as it would have the day it went into the freezer, but would probably be palatable in some way. <S> Maybe used in salmon cakes? <S> or a salmon chowder. <S> I have found and used walleye fillets in my freezer that were several years old (I used to bad at labeling) that tasted just fine. <S> I figure an animal died to provide me this meat, so I should do everything I can to make sure that it is used. <A> I fish in Alaska and have eaten 2 year frozen Salmon <S> that was <S> so freezer burned that I had to cut half of it away, but after 45 minutes on my Treager wood pellet grill it was delicious. <A> Frozen Fish Can Be Stored Indefinitely <S> According to the USDA, frozen foods will keep indefinitely if stored in an airtight package at a constant temperature at or below zero degrees Fahrenheit. <S> Freezing fish does not decrease its nutritional value.
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Freezer burn may dry the fish out in spots, but it is still safe to eat.
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Homemade pizza left out overnight We made homemade pizza last night. We made extra, uncooked, pies, and accidentally left them out overnight. As soon as I noticed, I put them into the freezer just in case they were still good. What do you think? Will they kill us? TIA! EDIT: There are yogurt cheese, peppers, and onions as toppings. <Q> I'd say it depends. <S> If you are dead-set on observing all food safety rules, the pizzas are probably unsafe to eat. <S> But in the real world, it is possible to bend some of those rules and get by unscathed. <S> But you have to be smart about it--not all rules safely bend as far as others. <S> What was on the pizzas? <S> Shrimp? <S> Chicken? <S> Raw sausage? <S> Those things have a pretty short safety window. <S> Cured meats like pepperoni are safer longer (that's why they're cured in the first place). <S> How hot was your kitchen? <S> How long did they sit out? <S> And then of course it comes down also to how long and how hot you're cooking things. <S> You might well be able to kill off germs in things that aren't outright spoiled. <S> Pizza isn't that long-cooking, so there's risk there. <S> Ultimately, you have to be the arbiter of safety. <S> Check the USDA website about food safety and follow every rule if you want to feel certain. <A> (anon) <S> 12+ hours is an eternity for microbial life—who need only food, water, and amicable temperatures to multiply quickly. <S> Most guidelines suggest throwing cooked food that's been held at room temperature after 2 hours (1 hour if the ambient temperature is over 90F). <S> Note that the risk is in both the pathogens shipped with the food, and the ones introduced by anyone handling it during and after cooking it <S> (cross contamination is the greater risk here). <S> The risk after 24 hours is significant, and could result in severe infection. <S> Do not eat this food. <S> So the times that you do get sick, you run the risk of getting very sick. <S> No fun at all! <S> Further reading: <S> US food safety guidelines <S> Canadian safety guidelines Wikipedia on Food Safety <A> If there is no raw meat on them, I'd imagine they'd still be safe (the crust will have over-proofed, though). <S> I would not eat them if there is any raw/uncured meat on it. <S> I can't think of any other ingredient that would spoil dangerously overnight. <A> Also, all of these rules are designed to absolutely avoid hazards, and much of it has to do with how hearty your immune systems are. <S> In a deli or restaurant it is not unusual for these type of ingredients to sit out for many hours, and not5 cause problems, particularly after being cooked. <S> With no raw meats, I would say that you are safe unless members of your family are prone to food-borne illness, probably would be susceptible if your family is very cautious about germs and 'over-sanitizes.' <S> If not, you should be OK. <A> This may depend a lot on where you live, and the atmosphere of your kitchen. <S> In general, I would agree with other commenters that the risk is probably minimal. <S> However, there was a flat I lived in once where in warm humid weather, most cooked food would go visibly mouldy within 24 hours if left out (so was probably not good to eat after about 6–8 hours). <S> So, if you have some past experience of how quickly food goes mouldy in your kitchen, that could also be worth taking into account.
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You will not always get sick after eating pizza left out for 12+ hours, but when the food happens to be cross-contaminated that amount of time is enough to brew a large colony of nasties, enough time that heat will not necessarily kill the entire colony. When in doubt, throw it out.
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How can I make granola that clumps? I am trying to make granola that holds together in small clumps. I have had limited success. Any hints or suggestions? I have used rolled oats, but had better luck with instant or cut oats along with some whole wheat flour mixed through it. I use butter, half honey and half brown sugar, some flax seed and bits of pecans. I bake the mix in an over-sized metal roasting pan as I make a very large batch at once (turkey sized roaster) in a slow 300* oven stirring every 30 minutes until golden brown and moister has left the batch. Dried fruit is added after baking. <Q> Contrary to what some people seem to be saying, fat will reduce the clumping effect, same way it does in almost every other baking recipe. <S> The clumping behaviour comes mainly from sugar (syrup) and protein content. <S> So I'd recommend any or all of the following for you: <S> More gluten means more clumping and a generally chewier texture. <S> Increase the quantity of sugar or honey. <S> A denser syrup is going to be "stickier" and therefore clump more. <S> Note that this can interfere with gluten development so you might want to do this in addition to increasing the starch. <S> Substitute the oil/fat with applesauce. <S> This is a common substitution in low-fat baking , although its applications are limited. <S> It's perfect in your case though, because it not only lowers the fat content, it also adds natural sugar and pectin, the latter of which is a gelling agent (albeit a weak one). <S> Add an egg white. <S> That's very good at binding ingredients and is common in granola recipes. <S> As a last resort, use an actual gelling agent such as pectin crystals, gelatin, or agar. <S> You shouldn't have to do this, but if you have a recipe you really adore except for its texture, then that's the best way to change the texture without altering the flavour at all. <A> Or, stir it as you do now, but when it finishes, press it into a thin layer on a baking pan and allow it to cool. <S> Once it is cool, then break it into clumps. <S> You can also try adding an egg white: <S> http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/how-to/how-to-make-clumpy-chunky-granola-111316 <S> All in all, you probably just need more binder. <S> So, you're looking at egg white <S> and/or sugar (more honey, syrups). <A> funny this question should come up today. <S> i've had a similar conundrum in my house, and i recently ran across this recipe, which we tried today with great results. <S> it uses a fruit puree as part of the binder, instead of oil, so it a bit sweet, not oily, and still crunchy: http://gourmandeinthekitchen.com/?p=953 <A> My base recipe comes from the ABC's Cook and the Chef <S> http://www.abc.net.au/tv/cookandchef/txt/s2225651.htm <S> I've read the other recipes posted. <S> I don't know much about granola <S> but I notice that I am baking at 80C (176F) for a coupe of hours while the other recipes say 300F for 20-30mins. <S> My granola clumps...
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If your recipe contains any oil or other fat, reduce or eliminate it; the primary purpose of that ingredient is to reduce the natural clumping. In other baking recipes, gluten does a lot of the "clumping"; oats are naturally gluten-free, but the instant oats you buy are probably processed in the same plants as other wheat products and are therefore contaminated with gluten, which may explain why they clump more in your granola. Increase the quantity of flour or starch. You might consider just barely stirring the granola while it bakes and then breaking it into clumps when it's done.
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How to prevent cucumbers from tasting bitter? I am a cooking dummy and I hate bitter cucumbers. :) Help! <Q> The biggest thing you can do is peel it. <S> It's also usually more bitter at the stem end, so you might want to start from the other end, and possibly ultimately discard an inch from the stem end if it really is too bitter for you. <S> Unless you're unusually sensitive to the bitterness, that ought to cover it. <S> Bitterness is also fairly variable from cucumber to cucumber, so it's possible that you could shop for less bitter ones - maybe a different variety - or buy them only during more favorable seasons. <A> I buy at the farmer's market from a gentleman that I know grows his well <S> and they are always sweet- peel or no peel. <S> He told me that bitterness in cucumbers is primarily a factor of how they were grown. <S> Cucumbers with a consistent watering schedule will be sweeter than those that are grown with less attention. <S> The amount of sunlight and heat makes a difference too. <A> Cucumbers contain a bitter compound called cucurbitacin that can be found in the skin and just underneath. <S> There is a trick you can do to reduce the bitterness without having to peel the cucumber. <S> Cut 1/2cm off the stem end and rub it in a circular pattern against the cut flesh in a circle. <S> This will yield a slimy white substance - this is the stuff that makes the cucumber bitter, and by drawing it out, there will be less in the cucumber :) <S> No need to peel! <A> I find that more than anything, getting a sweet cucumber comes down to selecting it correctly. <S> I have purchased hundreds of cucumbers (and I prefer to eat them with the skin on). <S> What I've noticed is that cucumbers whose skins are both shiny and smooth (and not waxy), and the cucumber itself is firm when you squeeze it are almost always going to be sweeter than a cucumber whose skin is even slightly wrinkled, is rough to the touch, has a more matte appearance, <S> and/or the cucumber is a bit soft. <S> And when I say smooth, I'm not referring to the bumps that you often find on cucumbers (that kind of remind me of a humpback whale ;) Bumps or no bumps <S> , what I mean is how the skin itself feels to the touch. <S> The smoother it is, the better the taste. <S> These factors might be an indication of how the cucumber was raised, which as others have suggested, could be the reason behind whether the cucumber will be bitter or sweet. <A> I have never encountered a bitter cucumber. <S> Or maybe I just like the bitterness they have -- I bemoan the selective breeding of brussels sprouts to remove bitterness, after all. <S> Something that works for courgettes, though, is to slice them, salt them, and allow them to stand for 20 mins or so. <S> The salt will draw out the bitter juice. <S> Rinse away the salty water before cooking. <S> This is probably no use if you want to eat the cucumber raw, as it will ruin any crispness the cucumber has. <A> Try growing “Lemon Cucumbers”. <S> they grow to about softball size, are very sweet and never bitter. <S> They pickle great and always are crunchy and sweet. <S> The only drawback is that they do not last but 2 days in the fridge before they start drying out. <S> The skin is more edible than regular cucumbers. <S> My kids pick them and eat them, after washing, right from the vine. <S> Theya re a great novelty when given away to frinds and family. <S> The vines continue to provide cucumbers later into the year than regular cucs. <S> You can order them online. <A> I found that some of my cucumbers this year were bitter and did some reading up on why: heat and eratic watering . . . <S> But I discovered a way to salvage the bitter cukes: <S> . . <S> Thought someone else might want to give it a try! <S> It works for me . . . <A> Chilling them in the fridge seems to help.
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If a cucumber's bitter, it's much more in the peel than in the flesh. I peel them and then soak them in cold salt water for a half hour - the salt seems to take out the bitterness and still leaves them crunchy for salads or sandwiches .
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Cheeses similar to queso fresco Queso fresco is one of my most frequently purchased cheeses; among other things I like it crumbled over salads. I do like a lot of common salad cheeses - crumbly goat cheeses, blue cheeses, and feta - but I often want something more mild. Unfortunately, queso fresco is not quite so common in stores away from Texas. Are there any common similar cheeses that are more widely available? The best my searches have come up with is "mild feta", but I'm hoping for something a bit better, since in my experience it can be a bit hard to identify mild enough feta in the store, and it's also more commonly sold already crumbled and more expensive. <Q> I use paneer and queso fresco interchangeably. <S> They are produced using pretty much the same technique. <S> It is also really easy to make it yourself. <S> How do you make paneer? <A> Dry ricotta or even dry cottage cheese are similar. <S> If you have access to an Indian grocery, paneer is a somewhat comparable choice. <A> Foodsubs.com has a nice list of types of cheese , including possible substitues. <S> For queso fresco it suggests : <S> Substitutes: <S> Mix equal parts cottage cheese and feta cheese OR farmer <S> cheese OR cotija cheese OR feta cheese (similar texture but saltier) <S> OR queso anejo <S> OR <S> mild goat cheese <S> OR paneer OR ricotta cheese OR jack cheese <A> It depends on what you mean by 'mild' ... <S> Unfortunately, in my area, it's sold even fewer places than queso fresco, but if you're in an area with a large Italian population, it might not be. <S> You might also strain and press your standard ricotta to make it a little firmer.
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Ricotta salata, a firmer version of ricotta, isn't too sharp, but it's quite salty.
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Chicken in Tin Foil in the Oven: Any tips or advices on spices or wrapping? [I'm an amateur that experiments.] I recently realized I like chicken wrapped in tin foil after using salt, pepper and oregano on it, in 250C for up to 2 hours. Also, I used sliced lemon on parts of it [during cooking]. However, I wonder if any other spices would be suitable and if any other wrapping would be better. I heard the roumor that tin foil is unhealthy compared to cooking paper but I don't know if it's correct. <Q> If you're worried about the aluminum foil, you can always just use a covered casserole dish ... <S> it might not hold <S> all of the steam in, though. <S> (there are methods, like mixing a pough of flour and water, then using that to seal the lid on the pot). <S> Also, if you're worried, I'd just consider not using acids, like lemon; aluminum pots and pans react to acids, and I'd only assume aluminum foil would to. <S> But 'better' is subjective -- easier to clean up (aluminum foil wins, I think), cheap (maybe the casserole dish, as it's reusable), more impressive (probably the parchment paper). <S> As for spicing ... search for 'chicken en <S> papillote' on any internet serch engine <S> and you'll find lots of recipes. <A> Are you talking about wrapping chicken parts (as opposed to a whole bird) and cooking at 250c for 2 hours? <S> I ask because that's a really high temperature to cook chicken parts for so long. <S> They must be practically stewed and falling in shreds when you get done if that's what you're doing. <S> Nothing wrong with that--it can be really nice-- <S> but if you aren't able to trap all the moisture in with the chicken you're going to get super-dry leathery chicken. <S> If that's your cooking method and you're not after dry, nasty chicken, you're best off sticking with foil. <S> The pouch will be as close to airtight as you can get, and it's entirely moisture-proof. <S> 250c is nearing the burning point of most parchment--maybe even exceeding it--especially for 2 hours' cooking time. <S> You can still use it, but it will become dark brown and very brittle. <S> It will likely not be good for holding moisture in, and you risk it falling to pieces in your food when you try to take it off. <A> A key ingredient to my oven-roasted chicken is tarragon . <S> Goes well with some oregano and thyme. <S> A little more foreign in my area, but an equally good option is paprika, cooked alongside onions. <S> Not sure what you meant about foil being unhealthy. <S> Maybe because it keeps all of the fats in? <S> In the flavor sense, this is very good because the result is juicy and tender. <S> Other cooking methods such as a rotisserie claim to let fats drain off, and some claim this makes it healthier. <A> I second the Tarragon notion and add celery salt to the list of yummy things to use. <S> If you have a grill you can also do something similar for BBQ, and do this with vegetables as well.
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You could also switch to parchment paper, which is the original for cooking 'en papillote' (in paper).
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Why do different pasta shapes taste different? I've noticed that even when I buy two different pasta shapes of the same brand (and so presumably the exact same recipe), they still taste subtly different, to the point that I consistently prefer the tastes of certain shapes of pasta. Is there any basis for this, or am I experiencing some form of synesthesia? <Q> (I can only assume that more's going to stay in a spiral or a tube than will on something that can rub up against other pasta) <S> But I'm going to assume that you're not eating the pasta plain ... and the different shapes will hold sauce differently, and that can be quite significant. <S> The other thing that Tom Gullen mentioned is variation in cooking -- <S> I personally avoid capellini (aka angel hair), because I've had it overcooked so many times ... <S> overcooked pasta is disgusting, in my opinion. <A> It will be slight variations in the recepies, slight variations in how you cookied it <S> or it will be your mind playing tricks. <S> Shape will not affect the taste of pasta. <S> One shape however may be thicker than others, and if not cooked taking that into account, you may have a different taste, but cooked to the same level, no difference. <A> Taste is a factor of not only teste buds on tongue and roof of mouth but also of sight, smell, and Texture or feel which is influened directly by shape.
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Different forms of pasta are going to have different surface-to-mass ratios, which will affect how the pasta cooks; the cross-section may affect how much starch gets rubbed off as the pasta boils.
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How to beat one or two egg yolks? Many sauces and pastries call for beaten yolks. You need to beat yolks well, till they are thick again and are lemon-colored, so using mixer is a must. But if you need only one or two egg yolks, regular mixers are too big for the task. What I'm currently using is a battery-driven micro mixer, and it is not powerful enough and eats up batteries fast.Can anybody suggest a good solution to the problem? <Q> Using a mixer is not "a must". <S> You should be able to whisk 1-2 egg yolks together quite easily which a whisk and some elbow grease. <S> How do you think we beat egg yolks for the centuries prior to electricity? <A> I don't even bother with a whisk for something that small. <S> (the only wisk I have is medium sized balloon whisk, I don't have any small ones). <S> I find a fork and a small bowl work well for up to about 3-4 eggs. <S> I tip the bowl towards hand with the fork so I can get a better angle on it, and it keeps the eggs from spreading out too much across the bowl. <A> They're cheap and easy to use. <S> I have one I got from my Mom <S> many years ago, and it works great. <S> If you get one, don't let batter or egg or whatever dry on it--wash (or at least rinse) as soon as you're done using it. <S> They're hard to get dried-on stuff off of because the spaces are small. <A> I'd use my immersion blender , which gets plugged in. <A> have you tried tilting your blender? <S> i had the same problem for awhile and tilting the blender so the blades could reach the eggs did the trick. <S> just be sure to have a firm, two hand hold; one on the base of the blender and one on the glass. <S> then just tilt the top towards you. <A> This is what I use currently - a drill on a high speed using the micro mixer attachement. <S> I think Dremel Stylus on low would work as well, but I don't have that one. <S> When I make waffles for 4 people, I use 4 yolks and my immersion blender gets the traction needed, but for two yolks I need a narrow glass and this. <A> One option I've found works well is, I had picked up a immersion little milk frother gadget, and it works like a tiny immersion blender. <S> Honestly, I find beating eggs can be done just fine by hand, with a fork and a bowl or with a whisk (sometimes just "churning" between the hands if the whisk is too large or the quantity or bowl too small), but the little frother works when I've lumps to be worked out of something, or actual blending would be nice but the quantity is small - and since I've got it, I can use it for things like beating eggs if I'm in a hurry or feeling lazy.
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I think a great option for beating small amounts, if you don't just use a whisk, is a hand-cranked egg beater.
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Tips on tossing a frying pan I see it done by TV chefs, or just people who are more experienced at me with cooking; as they're cooking they rarely use a spatula to turn or mix the contents of their frying pan, but rather toss the contents of the pan instead. Are there any techniques to tossing food in a frying pan well? I'm talking about food in general – be that vegetables, bits of meat, rice (not necessarily something obvious like pancakes). I guess the main outcomes you want from tossing a frying pan include: Turning the food and doing so that it is cooked on both sides. If there is a lot of contents in the pan, moving it about so different parts of it are in contact with the surface of the pan. Moving different parts of the food from hotter bits to cooler bits within the pan so they are all fairly evenly cooked. Is there a technique to it, or am I over-analysing the process? <Q> Perhaps a bit of over-analysis going on yes. <S> Generally I'd toss the pan if I was frying a lot of small items such as croutons, or toasting nuts, in order to turn a lot of them over at once. <S> To toss the pan, first tilt it up so that some of the contents slide to the opposite end and rest against the lip of the pan. <S> Then tilt it back level while simultaneously drawing your arm back. <S> The food should flick up and land back in the middle of the pan (approximately). <S> Practice with a cold pan and a couple of dry ingredients like nuts or pulses. <S> Bear in mind that tossing the pan generally means the pan loses heat, as you are raising it off the heat source, so if you're cooking something like steak or chicken breast that needs quick cooking, you're probably better off simply stirring it or using tongs. <A> I don't know how to explain this well in words, but there's at least two different methods for flipping stuff in a pan, because you have either curved or straight sides on the pan. <S> I personally find it easier to do in a curved sided pan: <S> I extend my arm forward <S> , then quickly flip the back of the pan up while pulling back at the same time. <S> The curved side basically acts as a ramp to propel the food up and over. <S> For a saute pan (straight sides), follow the technique that ElendilTheTall explained, where you tip it first. <S> A few things to remember when trying to flip your food : if the food's stuck to the bottom, it's not going to flip. <S> Give the pan a quick shake first, to see if you need to stir to loosen any stuck bits. <S> And for the practicing -- besides just practicing with dry things first ... I'd suggest you start with just a little bit, get used to it, then add more ... and add more of something else, as with more than one color in the pan, you can see how well you're distributing things when you flip. <S> (eg, lentils, other beans, rice, dry pasta, etc.) <S> (ie, don't start with your cast iron). <S> If you have a grill, or a table outside to practice on, the cleanup's even easier. <S> (although, use a cold grill, just for practice). <S> You can also practice with just water, if you're outside, without as much worry. <S> As for when to do it -- lots of small things; stirring risks keeping the bottom bits on the bottom, and the top things up top, so things cook unevenly. <S> Even if you use a spatula to flip, like you might for a larger item, the middle stuff stays in the middle. <S> The other advantage is that it only takes one hand -- I generally keep my right hand clean when cooking, and stirring sometimes takes two hands -- one to keep the pan still, while the other one stirs. <S> It's also quicker to get a more thorough mix than stirring. <A> I have found that pan size, shape, and amount of food in the pan makes a big difference in how you can toss and roll the pan. <S> I find myself most comfortable tossing omelette pans (I use the Calphalon line - like this one ). <S> The shape of the edge of the pan makes it very easy for me to toss anything from large to small, thick to thin. <S> I still find it rewarding when I can make a thin omelette, tossing it once perfectly with no help of a spatula or utensil. <A> Practice with a couple handfuls of dry beans or rice in a curve-sided pan. <S> If you're going to be doing it a lot, i.e. at a job, learn to press your elbow against your side and use your body as a cushion against the back and forth jerking instead of your extended arm or you may end up with repetitive motion injuries in your shoulder/back. <S> Source: personal experience in food service industry
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Start with a mid-sized pan, as larger pans are actually more forgiving when catching, but too large makes it heavy and difficult to get a good flip.
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How can I make my seitan a bit firmer? I tried my hand at making homemade seitan the other night, and it was pretty good - my only complaint was that it wasn't as firm as I would have liked it to be. These are the steps I followed (based on "Basic Seitan Recipie" instructions on the back of a vital wheat gluten box) Mixed vital wheat gluten with water, kneaded for 5 minutes until it was elastic. Formed into 2.5" log, let sit for 5 minutes. Cut log into 0.5" pieces. Heated vegetable broth over medium flame, added seitan pieces. Brought broth to a boil. Reduced flame, let seitan simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. So what could I do to improve this, and get firmer seitan pieces as a result? Less water in initial dough? Cut smaller pieces before boiling/simmering? Longer simmering time? Different type of vegetable broth? <Q> I tried making seitan by boiling it once and didn't like the texture. <S> (I recently got some cloth bags <S> I'm going to try doing it in). <S> I found my recipe here , and I generally follow a similar process for any seitan. <A> i've only made seitan myself a couple times, and it's been awhile, but isn't there a point where you drain it and/or squeeze out some moisture? <S> if so, maybe an extended sit in some sort of press would help. <S> the times i've made it, i put it in a smoker afterwards, so it was firm because of the low-heat semi-cooking, i guess. <A> I use microwave foil, roll it up, tie one end up with cooking cord and holding it on the open end <S> I press down the dough like you would do in a sausage. <S> Once pressed tie the upper end too. <S> I use to add an extra layer of foil so that no (or very little) water gets in. <S> Now you can cook it <S> either 1 h in water only in a normal pot or 30 minutes in the pressure cooker. <S> The resulting hunch of seitan will be much more consistent than made in broth. <S> Mileage may vary, of course ;)
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The way I do it now is wrapping it in tin foil then steaming it
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What does the Cinnamon in my coffee turn into? I few years ago I put Cinnamon in my coffee. After a few hours (I'm a slow coffee drinker) I started to take my last sip and a big clump of mucus hit my tongue and I almost puked. After recovering, and almost getting into fist fights with several co-workers (They loved pulling pranks) a few of them said cinnamon always does that. I'm still not so sure? What is up with Cinnamon and coffee and are there any other spices that does that? Or should I have continue to punch my co-workers? <Q> Cinnamon is made from the ground bark of a variety of trees in the Cinnamomum genus. <S> All of these barks contain starches, soluble fibers, and insoluble fibers to some degree. <S> Lower grade cinnamons such as Cinnamomum cassia contain higher amounts of lignins, bassorins, pectins, and mucilages; accounting for almost 80% of the mass of the powdered cinnamon. <S> These compounds form gummy, mucus-like masses when hydrated or dissolved in water. <S> The mucilages in cinnamon can be dissolved in cold water, but it takes heat and time to fully hydrate the bassorins and other compounds which creates a gummy mass. <S> Higher quality cinnamon from different species may contain less mucilages or other compounds, but all powdered cinnamon will form a mass to some extent. <S> Herbs and spices such as cardamom, chicory, nutmeg and many others contain many similar compounds in various proportions that could also form gummy masses, but it would take research and/or experimentation to figure out the amounts needed. <A> I know people who like cinnamon in their coffee, but the trick is to put the cinnamon in with the grounds before you brew it. <S> I am not sure if there are other spices that do that. <S> However, if you are looking to get back at your co-workers, just get some fine garlic powder, and sprinkle it on the base of their windshield. <S> The air intake will suck it in, and blow it throughout their car, and the inside of their car will be smelling like garlic for a long time. <S> The finer the powder, the better. <A> Try using cinnamon sticks in place of powders. <S> I have better results, also you can refill your cup of coffee and reuse the cinnamon sticks from your last cup. <A> Cinnamaldehyde, the compound that gives cinnamon its flavor, is known to cause inflammation in mucous membranes (http://cameochemicals.noaa.gov/chemical/20036). <S> It's also mildly water soluble. <S> So, when you made your coffee it was probably diluted enough that it didn't cause a problem. <S> As it sat out, it probably fell out of the solution and settled in the bottom of your cup in a more concentrated form.
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Cinnamon flavors can be added to coffee without ending up with sludge in your cup by adding the cinnamon to the brewing chamber or by adding cinnamon extract or cinnamon essential oil to the brewed coffee.
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How good a substitute is callaloo for spinach? I have seen some good recipes using spinach and have heard over and over that callaloo (amaranth) can be used in place of it. There is confusion about callaloo the plant and callaloo the dish I am refering to the plant amaranth. I have never tasted spinach and I can not get it to buy where I am from, callaloo is easy to come by, I am hoping that someone here who have tasted both can tell me if this is true that callaloo can be used as a substitute for spinach. If i can get an answer here it would be a bit better than experimenting. I have seen some substitutes for spinach on the Internet but unfortunately all fall in the hard to get category for me. <Q> I've only had red amaranth, so apologies if that is distinct from the type you have access to. <S> As I recall, spinach is a bit sweeter and the leaves are a bit softer <S> so they break down more readily. <S> Also I believe the stem on spinach is less fibrous. <S> That said, they are both leafy greens and I've yet to find a recipe so touchy that one leafy green can't be substituted for another. <A> I've had callaloo quiche which tasted quite good. <S> I'd imagine you might need to deal with the seasoning and cooking a little bit differently. <S> Spinach wilts very quickly when you cook it, but callaloo is normally sauteed, so <S> there are definitely some differences. <S> As others have said, the leaves are not as soft as spinach. <S> You'll have to do a little experimentation. <S> Side note: Are you Caribbean? <S> I've never heard of Callaloo from a non Jamaican. <A> I am a Jamaican living abroad, and it is not easy to get the Callaloo, <S> so yes I use Spinach as a substitute. <S> The difference is, you really have to cook the Callaloo, were as you can eat the spinach raw, but both can be cooked in the same recipes.
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I've had callaloo substituted in recipes, for instance spinach quiche is normal but
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Why does frozen bread sort of taste different? If I buy a packet of bread: And put it in the freezer, in it's packet, when I take it out to defrost it tastes different, sometimes drier as well. Why is this? I would of thought moisture would be locked into the packet. <Q> Over the short term moisture is "locked into the packet". <S> If you then defrost the bread slowly in the same packaging this moisture is reabsorbed. <S> If you only defrost a few slices at a time this moisture is lost when you take those slices out of the bag. <S> These ice particles can also end up in your freezer rather in the bag. <S> To keep the moisture level closer to the original: freeze bread in portions you are likely to defrost them in and make sure any bags or wrap you use is suitable for the freezer. <S> If you freeze whole loaves double bagging them or wrapping in some way helps. <S> These steps will also stop other flavours from your freezer being absorbed which should help. <A> Also, it could be because you are actually RE-freezing it. <S> Many breads come into the stores frozen. <S> The way to tell is in the dating. <S> If the date is printed directly on the packaging or clasp, then the vendor stocked the bread, and it's most likely it was never frozen after baking. <S> If there is a use by sticker placed on the packaging, then it came into the store frozen, and was dated when the store placed it on the floor. <A> In general freezing any food will cause some degree of structural damage as the water contained in internal structures forms crystals and expands breaking those structures*. <S> Some times the structure was holding the water in place, like the cells in a strawberry and after thawing the water simply leaks out of the holes. <S> I don't know enough about the how water is typically held in packaged breads to say specifically <S> but if the freezing process breaks enough water out of the rest of the bread, than during thawing it is more likely to leave the bread than when the bread was fresh. <S> *Packaged frozen foods often get around this by freezing food rapidly preventing large crystals from forming.
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As bread freezes moisture from the bread often condenses and freezes on the inside of the packaging.
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How the heck did people in the olden' days learn to beat eggs and other laborious tasks? Did they have whipped cream in the olden days before electricity? I think that they might have. I'm sure I've seen a portrait of Henry VIII munching some of that creamy goodness before. But what on earth caused someone to whisk cream for hours to see what would happen? Is there any scientific basis to it? For example, "Well I know if I whisk this cream, theoretically it should thicken up." Or was it just some super bored peasant folk who discovered it? Perhaps an argument between a peasant wife and a peasant worker, "I am going to take this fork to this cream and stir it for ages to make an annoying noise!" Another example is beating eggs - why bother when intuition would probably tell us we are wasting our time? <Q> Someone notices that cream gets a bit thicker when it's been stirred a while <S> , they put two and two together and beat it. <S> Then someone has the bright idea to use a whisk to get more air into it and make it even thicker, etc etc. <S> Though actually I imagine that whipped cream was actually discovered during the process of making butter (keep whipping cream and butter is what you get). <A> Perhaps the original "experiment" was an accident. <S> Someone carried some cream in a cart a long distance over a bumpy road, and what arrived was butter and buttermilk. <A> ElendilTheTall addressed some of the technical questions of "Why would some one think to do that?" <S> So after that why take the time to do the exparament? <S> I would suggest taking a different frame of reference. <S> Imagine your the cook to a lord and you have kitchen servants (typically the children of other house hold servants) under you. <S> There is no real cost to you to have a servant beat eggs or cream for hours on end on the off chance it might turn out well. <S> And if it doesn't your lord never needs to know. <S> On the other hand if your lord gets bored with your cooking you can find your self out of a job, without a home, money, or marketable skills. <S> So an abundance of near free labor and a real reason to try new things is usually a good recipe for innovation. <A> i wondered this myself recently, except for cheese. <S> i've been learning to make my own, and the conditions seem so specific for even the most basic cheese to happen that i marveled that humans ever discovered how to make it in the first place. <S> my answer is: we are a hungry and curious species. : )
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Accident and/or trial and error, with a bit of 'evolution'.
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What can I do with shredded wheat shreds? At the bottom of the box of shredded wheat squares, there's quite a bit of 'loose' shredded wheat; it used to be in cereal form and is now just loose. What interesting recipes or dish modifications can you suggest? One idea was a sort of crisp/struedel topping, (mix with butter and bake on top of a fruit dessert) <Q> There's a middle-eastern dish called Kataife that uses loose shredded wheat rehydrated with sugar, walnuts, cinnamon and a few other things. <S> My grandma makes it and it is fantastic. <A> I have to say I haven't done this since i was about 10 <S> but when I was a child I used to make chocolate nests out of them. <A> You could also use them in place of bread crumbs when, for example, coating chicken breasts . <S> You could also use them in muffins . <S> There's a whole list of shredded wheat recipes here and here . <A> One option would be to use as an ingredient in bread. <S> Nova Scotia Brown Bread utilizes molasses, shortening, and in some recipes that I've seen, shredded wheat. <S> For example, you could use the equivalent of two pieces in this recipe . <A> Another way to recycle it is to make a snack dessert with walnuts, loose cinnamon shredded wheat, cocoa, and peanut butter. <S> Mix it all up and add powder sugar at the end <S> (Shake it in a bag is easiest. <S> Just like you would make puppy chow- a common sweet snack.) <A> I use the unsweetened crumbs in my meatloaf. <A> With a little planning you can add it to most brownie mixes with great results. <S> You might have to add an extra egg and some milk to the mixture and bake it a little longer, but that's a heck of a lot easier than trying to make something from scratch. <S> I made some brownies with about two or three cups of crumbs, took them to work the next day and everybody loved them. <S> Not only did the shredded wheat crumbs increase the volume of the mix, it also gave it a little more texture, sort of like a coconut mixture. <A> I like to use it as crust on some desserts like pudding or cheesecake.
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If you have the cinnamon shredded wheat left over, you could use it on french toast right after you dip the bread in the egg/milk mixture, and before you put it in the pan.
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How long can you keep chocolate, and what is the best way to store it? For instance, I have some bars of Valrhona I use for chocolate tarts and pastries, but I haven't been doing the dessert thing in a while. How long does chocolate last before losing flavor (or does it)? And once it gets that white stuff on the outside, is it done? What's the best way to store it for as long as possible? Thank you. <Q> Regardless of type, all chocolate should be stored in a cool and low humidity (dry) place away from direct sunlight. <S> It would be best to seal it in an air-tight container, because, as ElendiTheTall said, the cocoa butter in it will absorb flavors. <S> Dark chocolate will last for years. <S> Milk and white chocolate will last for a much shorter time (a few months), because of their milk content. <S> Improperly stored chocolate will develop bloom, which shows as a white or grey streaking or spotting on the surface. <S> The spotting or streaking is cocoa butter fat separating and is a sign that the chocolate's temper has been lost. <S> This kind of chocolate is still suitable for any application where the chocolate will be fully melted (most baking). <S> It can even be used as the base (non-seed) chocolate for tempering with the seeding method, but it should not be used for other candy making. <A> Cool and dry are key. <S> Tightly wrapped, it can be frozen, but this seems unnecessary. <S> 4 months, 6 months is no problem. <S> Years might start to be excessive, but in the end the chocolate will still be usable. <A> When thawing frozen chocolate, keep it wrapped tightly to avoid condensation from forming on it. <S> Also, it helps to move it from freezer to refrigerator for 24 hours and then to your cupboard keeping it fully covered until it is room temperature. <A> The true shelf life on chocolate depends a lot on how it is stored and what type of chocolate we are talking about. <S> For instance, if a chocolate bar is stored in the pantry it will last for 2-4 months - but if stored in the refrigerator it lasts for 4-6 months BEYOND its printed date. <S> The best way to store it is in a cool dry place like the refrigerator. <S> Because chocolate has a low melting point it should not be left in warm places or in the sun for too long. <S> You can freeze it, this lasts the longest! <S> Source: http://www.eatbydate.com/other/sweets/chocolate-shelf-life-expiration-date/ <A> The best way to store it is in a cool, dark place with low humidity. <S> You should not store it in the fridge. <S> Chocolate absorbs other flavours like a sponge <S> so keep it away from anything with a strong odour. <S> The white 'bloom' on chocolate is the cocoa butter seeping out of the surface. <S> It is harmless and will disappear when you melt the chocolate.
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Stored correctly, chocolate can last for a very long time, due to its extremely low moisture content.
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culinary difference between dill and fennel Many salmon recipes use Dill ( Anethum graveolens ) as the usual ingredient as condimentary herb. In my place, I have fennel ( Foeniculum vulgare ) available outdoors, so I opt to use it instead. And I like it. Why is it never mentioned as a substitute? what is your opinion? <Q> I assume you're speaking of using fennel fronds , specifically. <S> The fronds look a bit like dill, and are often used as a garnish, but certainly taste different than dill. <S> I think the main reason is that most people usually only get fennel fronds when they also buy a fennel bulb, so it's usually inconvenient to only use the fronds for a garnish when you're not using the bulb. <S> Also, some people (my wife) just don't like the taste of anise/fennel at all. <S> If you have it growing in your backyard, and you like the taste, there's no reason you can't use it. <A> It's not mentioned as a substitute for dill because it tastes nothing like dill. <S> I agree that it might be tasty in some applications where dill is used (particularly salmon as @zanlok said), but I think the flavor profiles are so different that you'd want to be really careful in making the substitution in other recipes. <A> Completely different. <S> Get fennel seeds and roast them lightly in a pan to release the aroma and discover its nuances. <S> Dill and Salmon go together like love and marriage. <A> Well done on using fennel for salmon, keep on trying other recipes. <S> I grew up in Czechoslovakia, and we used a lot of dill in sauces, pickled gherkins, cucumber salad etc. <S> I never knew what fennel was then. <S> Yesterday my neighbour Nicky gave me a lot fennel tops to use. <S> So I tried them with salmon steaks and pesto sauce, in the absence of dill. <S> My husband and I loved it, the taste is similar to dill, especially when it is cooked. <S> The only small problem was that it was a little tough, even though I chopped it up fine. <S> Today I used the raw tops chopped up finely in a tomato salad, again lovely. <S> In the absence of dill, I would use fennel tops for marinades, salads, salmon etc. <S> Of course I like the licorice taste, unlike many other people who hate it. <S> Zenka-Marie
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You'll find that chefs don't generally choose substitute herbs based on how much they look like the original but on comparable flavor, so though fennel fronds look like dill, that's about the end of their comparability.
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What are good instructional cooking TV shows? In the spirit of Aaronut's comment on my answer to TV Programs like Good Eats , what are good shows for people to really learn about cooking (the science behind cooking; the history and cultural significance between dishes), rather than just watching a chef prepare their favorite recipes? (web videos and animations count, too) This is community wiki, so please edit the main answer instead of posting a new one. Please also make sure to include a description of the show and, if possible, a link. <Q> Good Eats <S> (Food Network) <S> : Explains some of the science behind why techniques work, and occassional information about the history of the ingredients or dishes. <S> Mexico - One Plate at a Time <S> (PBS) <S> : Describes the differences in the regional differences of mexican cooking, and often compares historical versions of dishes to the modern versions. <S> (web animation): <S> Flash animation cooking show that allows you to click at various points to get more information about ingredients & techniques. <S> In Search of Perfection (BBC 2): Heston Blumenthal brings his molecular gastronomy techniques to some of Britains favourite dishes such as roast chicken, fish and chips, spaghetti Bolognese etc. <S> The show was followed up by a second series, "Further Adventures <S> In Search of Perfection". <S> At the time of writing, episodes from both series can be found on YouTube. <A> There is a reasonably long-running programme produced by the Open University (in the UK) called " Ever Wondered About Food? " <S> The programmes usually take the form of a cooking show, with a particular theme in each programme, so far, so normal. <S> But they concentrate more on the scientific reasons behind the cooking methods and processes. <S> It is very clear and at times very interesting, very well worth a watch. <S> Apparently it is available on DVD (the most recent series is Series V [also available from the OU direct ). <A> Primal Grill with Steven Raichlen. <S> You can find some great outdoor cooking ideas on his show.
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America's Test Kitchen (PBS) and Cook's Country (PBS): Explain the techniques that they've used to improve dishes, and have occassional segments explain the science behind cooking processes. Deep Fried, Live!
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How necessary is it to marinade meat before making jerkies? So I just got myself a dehydrator, for the purpose of making jerkies. I was thinking of just seasoning the meat lightly instead of marinating them, which takes considerably more time, needs more sauce and a bit more effort. Would it make a lot of difference? I suppose I could always experiment, but from the "making sure I won't get sick from parasites" point of view, will a super dry jerky be safe if it's not been marinated? Also, would it depend on the meat? <Q> It is possible to make jerky safely without it, though you need to be careful. <S> You should use lean meat; fat is the most likely component in the meat to go bad. <S> It's also important to regulate the temperature closely and make sure hold the meat at temperature for long enough. <S> You can get some really really nasty bacteria if you don't cure meat correctly, so it's worth taking some time on it. <S> Check out this guide on safely making jerky in a home dehydrator for more info. <A> Two methods of protecting you from bacteria chemically, is with vinegar and sugar (brown). <S> These are not sure fire remedies. <S> Five minutes of boiling prior to drying is a mechanical method as is ten minutes of oven heating to 175 degrees after drying. <S> Salt cure curing is a safe bet too and if you want less salt after curing add potato slices to the mixture over night and remove in the morning. <S> A lot of the salt will be gone. <A> Yes. <S> If you don't, you've made biltong instead.
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Marinating your meat makes it safer primarily by introducing it to salt, which kills bacteria.
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What is 'Bread Improver'? I purchased a bread maker years ago and am happy with the bread I make with it. I was at a cooking supply store and saw Bread Improver for sale in a jar, apparently for bread makers. What is it? Does anyone else use it, and what does it do? <Q> The idea is to give bread a similar texture and taste to sourdough-based loaves, without having to go through the laborious feeding process usually involved with that method. <S> For more information, look at this Wikipedia article. <A> I'm surprised to see these marketed at the home baker ... <S> one of the reasons to be making your own bread is to avoid all the unnecessary junk commercial bread contains! <S> Admittedly, some of them might be relatively natural things, but it's still definitely unnecessary. <S> There's a good description of improvers in this article on gluten development . <S> The main point is that they generally facilitate gluten development, resulting in dough with a stronger texture with less effort. <A> I think the bread improver are not required when we make bread in small quantity and provided we get the same quality of flour every time <S> but when we make bread in large quantity in machines then these bread improver help in achieving consistent quality. <S> it gives the dough the strength to withstand the machine power and reduces the time consumed in production of the bread
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Bread Improver is a mix of various acids and enzymes that serve to strengthen the gluten in the flour and feed the yeast, both of which yield a better loaf.
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Recovering from Over Salted Sauerkraut I recently finished my first batch of sauerkraut and tasted it only to find that it's way too salty. In referencing the original recipe, I realized that I used the amount of salt recommended for 5lbs of cabbage but I only had 2.5lbs. What, if anything, can I do to salvage the sauerkraut? Because of the way it's made, I wasn't sure that just adding the missing cabbage is a viable solution and part of me wonders if the salt is just part of the food now. <Q> Rinsing the sauerkraut absolutely does work - we do it all the time, both with store-bought and homemade sauerkraut. <S> Every batch of sauerkraut is different, so rinsing & tasting is the only way to ensure that your dishes turn out appropriately salted. <S> Yes, some of the salt has entered the cabbage itself, but most of it will be in the brine/on the surface. <S> If rinsing in a colander isn't enough (and if you used twice the recommended amount of salt it's likely not to be), then you can drain the liquid as best you can, then add clean water to cover, and let it soak. <S> Rinse and repeat until the salt level tastes more acceptable. <A> Adding the missing cabbage is a viable solution. <S> You could also just remove some of the brine and replace it with water, until it's salty to your taste. <S> Finally, you could just rinse some of the brine off of it before eating it. <A> Unfortunatly, the amount of salt you used will not allow the fermentation process to occur. <S> It will preserve the cabbage and is perfectly safe to eat, but it will not be fermented, therefor not saurkraut. <S> I would advise just tossing it and making some more. <S> After it has fermented it will be tasty, and if you want you can rinse some salt off then <S> but it will affect the taste somewhat but still be tasty. <S> J W <A> Fortunately the too salty part was mostly on top, but the kraut by itself was still too salty. <S> I drained the liquid from each jar onto a glass measuring cup (or bowl) and rinsed the kraut in a colander with cold water, squeezing the kraut throughout the process. <S> Once done, I put the kraut back into the jars and added back the fermentation water (has salt) and the result was good kraut. <S> Just don't add salt if you are cooking sausages or ribs with your kraut and it too will taste good. <S> Next time, I will just add more water when the liquid level drops down and no additional salt. <A> Since I didn't want to wash off the good bugs along with the salt, I solved the too salty by adding some of my kraut to another recipe from which I had omitted the salt. <S> In this case, I added two teaspoons of kraut to a bowl of made from scratch coleslaw. <S> It was delicious. <S> I think you could also add it to unsalted potato salad, but I haven't tried that one yet.
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I too made sauerkraut that was too salty, by adding more water and salt when the level of liquid dropped. Adding more cabbage and letting it ferment some more is also an option, although the twice-fermented parts can end up rather mushy.
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Using carob as a substitute for cocoa I've found a source of powdered carob. I've read that it is a substitute for cocoa, and I was wondering how this works out practically. Is it a one-to-one substitution, or should I only use it in conjunction with cocoa? <Q> While you can certainly substitute powdered carob for cocoa, the flavors are distinct enough that you will likely need to adjust your ratios and sugars to make carob blend into a recipe better. <S> Use less sugar than you would for powdered chocolate. <S> I found this description http://www.natural-health-restored.com/what-is-carob.html of Carob, and this comparison <S> http://www.natural-health-restored.com/carob-vs-chocolate.html of carob vs. chocolate. <S> A note about the source http://www.natural-health-restored.com <S> , I have never used this site personally, and can't vouch for its accuracy. <S> It also seems to be centered around Vegan eating, so read into the site's commentary what you will. <S> Additionally, with powdered chocolate, you can never get quite the same reconstituted flavor with other fats/oils as you can with dark solid chocolate (the fats/oils are different from the solid chocolate's original fats). <S> I suspect the same to be true for Carob, however I have no proof. <S> So (without exact ratios): use less sugar than for a chocolate recipe <S> be aware of the flavor difference (don't think that it's spoiled just because it doesn't taste like chocolate) <S> oil or butter ratios may need adjustment <S> Personally, I used carob at a 1:1 ratio and found my carob muffins to be drier (more oil?), stronger in flavor (less carob powder?), and a touch on the sweet side (less sugar?). <S> My suggestion would be to find a recipe made for carob instead of just substituting in one for the other. <S> Good luck! <A> I do it all the time for my husband and son, both of whom are allergic to chocolate. <S> That being said, carob doesn't melt the way chocolate does, so trying to make ganache just doesn't work (been there... makes a MESS!) <A> I have made ganache with carob chips with great success after a few trial and error and the flavor is wonderful. <S> What you need is to heat your heavy cream first and then gradually add the carob chips slowly until you get the thickness you want. <S> Hint: you will not need as much carob chips as you would chocolate. <S> You use less. <S> Hope this helps! <S> ;) <A> I learned that I can substitute carob powder for cocoa powder within limits. <S> Example: If a cake recipe calls for 4 squares of chocolate and I use 1 cup of carob powder, it's too sweet even though I use 1/2 cup of Agave as a substitute for cup of sugar. <S> I find: 1/2 cup cocoa or 2 squares of cocoa will equl 1/2 cup carob powder. <A> I have been making carob milk for myself in lieu of chocolate milk. <S> I personally find a 1 for 1 ratio of sugar and half to 2/3rds powdered carob as you would use cocoa powder. <S> Carob is a nice flavour-- when it is not too concentrated. <S> I will be curious to try and see if this holds true when cooking. <S> It does not taste like chocolate, but it does have something of the richness and earthiness of chocolate. <S> I suspect it will pair better with nuts and cream than fruit or at least it will require less experimentation to get recipes with nuts and cream right.
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You can substitute carob powder one-for-one in recipes that call for cocoa powder.
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How can you pipe hot melted candy into free-form shapes? I recently made free-form candy swirls out of chocolate-like coloured candy. When I got to the point of putting it into my disposable plastic piping bag, I had to wrap it in a tea-towel in order to work with it because it was so hot. The candy didn't melt through the plastic, and I could do some basic swirls with my jerry-rigged bag. However, it was too hot to handle (literally) and the slippery tea-towel-on-plastic made doing anything intricate prohibitively difficult. I know most people use candy molds, however I don't care to spend the money on something I use once or twice a year. Are there any tools I could get that could also be used in other applications? (for example, my piping bags and tips can be used to decorate cakes, cupcakes, etc. which I do frequently enough to justify buying a small assortment of metal tips) Are there any techniques for working with melted candy , other than "try not to get burned"? <Q> You might try welding gloves or fireplace gloves. <S> (fireplace gloves tend to be longer, and might go up to your elbow). <S> They're typically made of suede, with an insulated lining. <S> I use them instead of pot holders, but they also come in handy when I'm doing large amounts of grilling (once a year, for our departmental picnic, cooking for a couple hundred people). <S> The fireplace gloves also come in handy when camping, as you can reach in to move logs if you're quick about it. <S> The only issue is that too long of exposure to hot, dry heat will cause them to harden up and lose their insulating properties. <S> I have to get a new pair <S> every few years or so because of the way I use them. <S> I also have some really heavy duty rubber gloves that I got more as a joke -- I'm not sure if they're for haz-mat purposes, or what, but they come in handy for when I have to deal with hot but wet things. <S> I've also used them when dealing with cleaning out the fridge at work that had gotten pretty scary <S> (it was near a conference room, and people using the conference room would leave stuff in there and forget about it). <S> I've seen similar gloves, maybe not quite as thick, though, at a restaurant supply store near heavy rubber aprons for the people doing the washing up. <S> And, if those still don't fit your preferences, you can find silicone potholders ... <S> they've got good grip, and you should be able to roll it into a cone around your piping bag. <A> <A> I imagine you could dip a metal or wooden stick into the hot mixture and create shapes as it drips or flows off the utensil while moving the hand (since you are attempting freeform shapes). <S> With a bit of experimentation it may produce some interesting results! :) <S> However I have not personally worked with melted candy, and am looking forward to hearing how you achieve the results you desire. <A> If you are using candy melt wafers, I've had good results from simply allowing the melted wafers to cool a few minutes after pouring them into a bag to pipe. <S> Just pinch the tip of the bag or somehow fold it over so your wafers don't leak everywhere and lay it in a small bowl until it's cool enough to hold or hold in a towel but still fluid.
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If the wafers solidify before you're ready, or are gunked in the tip of the bag, you can gently remelt the wafers in warm water. You can try using heat resistant gloves meant for grilling.
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Buttermilk pancake mix is green? I like making buttermilk pancakes but usually the batter is too much for one day, after I put the mix in the refrigerator, the mix was a greenish color the next day. Does anyone know if this means it went bad or is this just a characteristic of buttermilk? <Q> Mold doesn't grow that fast in a refrigerator overnight. <S> I'd bet some ingredient reacted with your baking powder or baking soda. <S> I've seen something similar before in three separate circumstances: instant oatmeal that turned blue when mixed with iodine-treated water (day after day on a camping trip); garlic mixed with yogurt turns blue when heated; blueberry pancake batter turned green overnight. <A> This is normal. <S> The batter is not bad and is a chemical reaction. <S> Just stir it up. <S> I have been eating pancakes for years and always refrigerate the extra batter. <S> Its good for a couple of days. <A> Was it just a layer of green on top or was the mixture itself a green colour? <S> The former would suggest it went mouldy; the latter that some chemical reaction occurred to alter the colour. <S> You can also give it a good sniff... if the smell is at all unpleasant or noticeably different, this can be a sign that something went off. <S> Even if it didn't go "bad", I'd probably still toss it and just make half the amount next time, for a few reasons: <S> If the batter is green, your pancakes will likely come out an unappetizing colour too. <S> I never enjoy eating something that I'm wondering if it might make me sick. <S> It's just not worth it. <S> The pancakes will almost certainlynot rise well after the batter hassat overnight <S> (anything with bakingpowder should be cooked as quicklyas possible after mixing the bakingpowder with the wet ingredients). <A> this happens every time I make buttermilk pancakes, the next day the batter looks grayish!! <S> I mix it up well and cook with it <S> and it's fine! <S> I had some tonight for my dinner!! <S> I always use Martha Stewart's recipe. <A> It's funny, because my pancakes never rise well on day one of the batter mix. <S> Then after standing overnight.. I notice this chemical reaction... <S> I used to think it was mold... but others are right. <S> That is too fast to become mold. <S> But, the pancakes always rise better... <S> higher... <S> the next day or two from the same or mixed additional batter. <S> So my original question was what kind of mold is it that makes the pancakes rise so well and become so tasty? <S> I assume this is just a time thing for the mix to get into gear. <S> I don't know why it is, but saving some of the old mix for future mixes also seems to work for making them rise better and be lighter and tastier.
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The change in colour might also indicate a change in the flavour.
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Preventing white sugar from clumping in the canister We store sugar in a ceramic canister, and we get some clumping. Restaurants in humid areas that will often add grains of a rice to a salt shaker to stop clumping. (The rice acts as a desiccant and absorbs moisture, keeping it away from the salt; I believe the salt also acts as a preservative for the rice.) Is there an equivalent common household item that will keep moisture away from the sugar, or is getting a better canister really the only way? <Q> You can still add rice, just wrap it in some cheesecloth first, so it doesn't get mixed with your sugar. <A> They are blue when they are fresh, and turn pink as they absorb moisture. <S> Once pink they can be dried out by gently heating in the oven for a few minutes (10-15 mins at 200F or so). <S> Place in the bottom of the sugar jar and check on them every few weeks or months, depending on the ambient humidity in your region. <A> I use a specialty ceramic stone to keep my brown sugar from clumping. <S> I found this product page <S> http://www.cooksquarters.com/19386341.htm <S> that has a pretty thorough description of a "Sugar Saver" that can be soaked to keep sugar moist, or dried in an oven to keep spices dry. <S> Depending on what your sugar needs, you can probably use something like this. <A> I use a piece of bread in the canister. <S> It works in the same manner as rice does. <A> Gilladian is very correct about using silica dessicant packages except for these issues... <S> The Silica that turns pink when it has absorbed moisture is known as "indcating silica gel" and has a chemical in it that is NOT FOOD SAFE! <S> (you can find out about it on line). <S> The silica packets found in prescription drugs often contain other ingredients like carbon (which absorbs odors), and some others I won't go into. <S> The silica packets found in prescription drugs have been mostly 'used up' by keeping the drugs fresh so the drug companies can get a longer shelf life. <S> It is the perfect size and shape to fit in any size spice jar or whatever, is 100% natural, and perfectly food safe...and wors <S> REALLY GOOD!Check out www.dryspice.com <S> and you will see what I mean. <S> Readers beware: The user who posted this has an undisclosed affiliation with the above product. <S> Food-grade silica gel is readily available on the market and readers are encouraged to do their own research. <A> Saltine cracker,eh?Isn't that what grandma used? <S> Just change it out occasionally.
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That said, I found a wonderful product called Dry Spice that is especially made to put in with sugar, spices, almost everything. Another solution is to save the little silica dessicant packages that come in many prescription drug packages.
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How long should I cook pork for (at 100° C)? I have a pork shoulder cooking in the oven right now at 100° C (212° F). I was planning on roasting it for 7 hours, will this be long enough to cook it safely? I saw the FDA chart about minimum internal temperatures - but am not sure how to translate that to oven temperature/time. <Q> 100°C seems a little low. <S> I've done a bone-in pork shoulder at 120 for 8 hours before now <S> , I think the norm is 2 hours a pound (450 g) at that temperature. <S> To be safe you should really use a meat thermometer, trichinosis is not something you want to have. <A> 100°C for 7 hours sounds just about perfect. <S> The meat will be meltingly tender by then. <S> In fact I think you could go even lower on the temperature if you like, say 80 <S> °C or 90°C. <S> Of course, if you want to be absolutely sure, check with the thermometer, but unless you know that your oven is unreliable or you happen to be in possession of the largest pig shoulder in the world <S> I am 100% sure it will be more than done in 7 hours on 100 <S> °C. <S> Good luck! <A> HOWEVER... if that is your target, you will be left with a tough hunk of meat with lots of fat and connective tissue, and I'm almost certain you will not be happy with the result. <S> To achieve tenderness, you need to go pretty far past the safety recommendation. <S> For slicing, you'll most likely need to hit around 77°C (170°F) internal, give or take a couple of degrees. <S> For pulling, your internal will probably have to get upwards of 90.5°C internal (195°F), or even higher -- again give or take a couple of degrees. <S> To get there, I don't know if 100°C is going to cut it, especially in 7 hours. <S> I did some pulled pork yesterday out of a Boston butt (part of a whole shoulder), and it cooked 8-9 hours at 122 <S> °C (250°F). <S> Also, use the thermometer as a general guideline for when to start checking for doneness, not as an absolute measure. <S> Once you come within a few degrees of your target, use your eyes as well as the feel of the meat to determine whether you're ready or not. <S> Check out some barbecue forums for better, more detailed advice. <S> Even if you're roasting your meat in the oven, the same concepts still apply (sans the smoking aspect). <S> I recommend: <S> The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board BBQ Brethren <A> First, the cooking time will depend on the size of the piece. <S> For about 6lbs I would say you are looking at 10-12 hours at 200F <S> (2h per pound is a good rough starting point). <S> With but and other tough cuts your objective is not minimum internal temperature. <S> You want to go higher, because connective tissue begins to fall apart at about 190F, so that is the internal temperature you are looking for. <A> At 200-225 degrees F, I plan for about one hour per pound on my Big Green Egg. <S> Using an electronic probe thermometer is ESSENTIAL. <S> It takes out all the guess work. <S> 200 F degrees internal temp is perfect for pulled pork. <A> I cooked a large shoulder of pork on the bone in an Aga. <S> it was aimed at feeding 8 people but there was a large amount of meat left over. <S> It had one hour at 228 centigrade to get it hot and the 24 hours at 110 centigrade. <S> It was magnificently cooked. <S> To our surprise the centre was at 100 centigrade at the end. <S> A problem to watch out for was the large mass of oil which overflowed the roasting tray during the night. <S> Next time we will drain off the oil a couple of times during the cooking process.
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Strictly from a food safety perspective, 7 hours at 100°C will very probably get you to where you want to be. If I were to offer some advice, I'd say crank up your cooking temperature by about 25-30%.
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Will using a knife sharpener reduce the lifetime of my knife? In the long run, is it better to regularly use a knife honer instead of a knife sharpener once in a while to keep the edge sharp? <Q> You should use both. <S> Knives have a very thin ragged edge (the burr) that is too small to see, which gets pushed over from use, and which makes the knife seem dull. <S> A honing steel straightens this burr out. <S> I use a honing steel before I cook every day. <S> Over time, the burr wears down, or can no longer be straightened. <S> At this point, you will need to use the sharpener, which actually removes metal from the blade. <S> One metaphor would be that if your knife was carpet, honing is like vacuuming, and sharpening is like steam cleaning. <A> I worked with a 60+ year old chef who had been using the same knife since he started his apprenticeship at age 15 (no exaggeration). <S> Over the decades he had worn away at least 1cm of blade width by sharpening and honing <S> but it was still completely functional. <A> Absolutely. <S> A honer, or even better a sharpening steel removes a minuscule amount of material. <S> Or knife will last a lifetime. <S> The honer only realigns the blade, it doesn't remove material and reestablish a true bevel. <S> Eventually, you'll use the honer and it won't do anything, <S> thats when you use the sharpener. <S> Realize though, that the electric sharpeners often have a rough sharpening disk, and that will remove a lot of material. <S> You want to use that sparingly. <S> Other than that, you can sharpen every few weeks and your knives should last years and years. <A> Since most blades become gradually thicker towards the spine, the width at the end of the primary bevel increases with each use - leading to a knife that is still sharp but does not cut harder foodstuffs fluidly any more. <S> This can be repaired, but is nontrivial work (on whetstones, assume you will spend 1 to 2 hours. <S> And you need to know what you are doing.). <S> lose blade height. <S> There are many anecdotes around about some chef's filet knives having started out as chef knives. <S> There is another problem with some ill advised sharpening devices: anything that uses powered sharpening wheels without a coolant (water) can easily overheat and permanently damage the metal. <A> I'm 72 been doing it a while. <S> Buff shooting Skinning. <S> Deer. <S> Roos Cattle etc down to bunnies. <S> My main knives are Wustof Which I bought b4 coming to this country <S> 40 yrs ago last month. <S> Three are still ok. <S> My favourite one. <S> a 15cm Utility <S> I've stoned\honed it down to the main body thickness of the blade. <S> STill does the drop Tomato trick easily. <S> But. <S> Time to retire. <S> I replaced with a nice little Damascus Japanese one. <S> Standard handle. <S> What the heck. <S> At my age.. Spoil myself... <S> So Moral of story. <S> YES. <S> You will wear out even good\best quality. <S> Eventually. <S> But most won't live long enuff to see it. <S> Mine took not much less than 50 yrs to do so. <S> and the primary ones still good for another ten at least. <S> Keep stropping. <S> That's the secret of the extra edge. <S> Strop, strop, the knife.10 times a side Alternate for five minutes.on GOOD leather belt.. <S> NOT oiled. <S> Have fun
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The heart of the matter is that you can end up "thick behind the edge" if you overuse a sharpening device that imposes a fixed angle (that means anything guided).
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What's an easy to use juicer that juices oranges as well as other fruit? I would like to buy a juicer for making fruit juice, including orange juice. But the juicers that I've seen fall into one of two categories: Work for all fruits, but you have to peel oranges. Work only for oranges without peeling (just juice half an orange at a time). Ideally the juicer should be electric rather than manual (easier) (new requirement) Is there any combined juicer for these two functions? Ideal other features are easy to wash (dishwasher), gets a good amount of juice out of each fruit and long product lifetime. (Backup info on question: Can I ask a recommendation question? ) Update: thank you for the answers so far. Based on that, I've added the electric requirement. <Q> I like the OXO good grips citrus juicer. <S> It has a reamer for fruit the size of orange which flips over for smaller fruit such as lemons. <S> I think it beats a wooden hand reamer because it holds the juice and filters out seeds. <S> No peeling is necessary. <S> It's manual, but I think that is easy. <A> The problem you are presenting is that "all fruit" that can be juiced covers a lot of ground. <S> Nearly all fruit has some parts that need to be discarded, but it varies by fruit. <S> As you noted, for oranges (and grapefruit, and lemons, and tangerines) it is the peel. <S> For apples and pears, it is the peel and the core. <S> For apricots and peaches, the pit. <S> And there are some basic differences in juices. <S> Do you want pulp, or do you not want pulp? <S> Assuming that the "all fruit" is more important than the "not peeling" <S> I have had a Vitamix for years and years (good durability) <S> and you can clean them by half filling the container with water and a bit of soap and just run it (easy to clean). <S> You need to do the basic peeling of citrus, although it is fine to leave some of the pith, and you only remove the seeds/core of the apple or the pit of the peach. <S> The skin just becomes part of the juice. <S> The juice is closer to a nectar in thickness and is thick, rich and delicious. <S> But it is pulpy. <S> I consider that a good thing, but you may not. <S> The juice extractor requires the same first steps as the Vitamix (although some will allow you to leave the apple core and seeds) but uses a grinder and then centrifuge method to force the juice through a sieve and into the waiting receptacle. <S> You get a pretty clear juice, but are left with a heck of a clean-up, and a bunch of pulp to compost or feed to your chickens. <A> Basically, you have two types of fruit for juicing: <S> Those with a rind (lemon, orange, grapefruit) and those without (strawberries, grapes, apples, etc). <S> Non-rind fruits: <S> Wash and use a vitamix (blender). <S> Turn it into juice and pulp. <S> If you don't want the pulp, pass it through a sieve or chinois. <S> For citrus, the best juicer I've used are the manual press type juicers. <S> They are easy to clean, easy to use and don't produce any bitter taste. <S> They can be a little large though. <S> The electric juicers are popular, but you can't easily wash all of it, they are easy to burn out (any water in the motor will destroy them), they're expensive, and most importantly, the harder you press, the more bitter taste of extract (from the pith). <S> In a pinch, use a fork.
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I'm going to recommend either a Vitamix (or other hard-core blender style) if you are OK with pulp, and the spin extraction style if you do not want pulp.
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Cooking up onions, without oil For a while now I have been trying to reduce my intake of fried food, or food otherwise cooked with oil. However I still make a lot of things with onions, and I end up sautéeing them with vegetable oil. If I use a non-stick pan, can I sautée onions without oil? What are some techniques to cook onions without oil? <Q> Aaronut's answer to a related question outlined the differences between non-oil methods of cooking onions (such as steaming or sweating). <S> The taste will be different because different chemical reactions are occurring. <S> If you want to sauté onions without a lot of oil, try oil sprayers (Pam, or hand-pump sprayers loaded with your favourite oil). <S> This will minimise the amount of oil you use. <S> Using less oil means you have to move them around more often to prevent burning. <S> (If you fry onions by themselves, they will probably just dehydrate and burn.) <A> There are plenty of ways to cook onions without oil. <S> It sounds like you're trying to mimic the effects of a sauté without actually using any oil though. <A> I would not recommend attempting to cook onions on the stove top without oil. <S> Another answer suggests that it's a bit like grilling; in theory, it is, but a traditional outdoor grill has a minimal contact surface. <S> That minimizes sticking and makes it fairly difficult to burn food by contact alone. <S> Using a dry fry pan for onions is more akin to searing , except that you generally only sear meat or fish. <S> If you try with an onion, you are likely going to burn it before you ever get to the sweated/caramelized consistency you want. <S> You really have two options here. <S> The first, and the one I highly recommend, is dry roasting in the oven. <S> Cooking an onion involves the Maillard reaction and the dry, radiant heat of an oven is great for promoting it. <S> Simply toss the onion on a baking sheet and roast it inside the skin for about 20 minutes at 450° F / 230° C. <S> It will peel easily and you'll have a nice, soft, roasted onion. <S> Don't overdo it or it will burn - <S> the skin will help prevent this but keep an eye on it! <S> Your other option is to simmer or steam it, which will soften them substantially and cook <S> some of the volatiles out (make it less pungent) but won't brown them because the Maillard reaction requires high temperatures and the boiling point of water is too low. <S> Simmering should be obvious, just toss it in some water or stock. <S> For steaming, either use a steamer basket or just put a small amount of liquid in a pan, heat it up to a simmer, place the onion in and cover it until cooked to your desired consistency. <S> Those are pretty much your only fat-free options. <S> If you want to use a frying pan and expect to get them browned, then you'd better use at least a little bit of oil. <S> If you're concerned about trans, saturated or polyunsaturated fats, use olive oil. <S> If you're on an ultra-low-fat diet, use a blast of cooking spray. <S> If you're avoiding "fried" foods out of an assumption that even a tiny amount of oil is unhealthy, I suggest consulting a dietician (if you haven't already) to validate that assumption first. <A> Use a very small amount of stock to soften the onions (although as per Aaronut's linked answer above, you'll get a different taste). <S> Alternatively, if the rest of your recipe includes any meat, fry the onions when you brown the meat to take advantage of the oils which are already going to be present in your dish. <A> As an alternative to onions, try roasting some garlic cloves (or a whole bulb!) <S> in it's skin and 20mins <S> or so and use the resulting pulp in place of onion. <S> It will lose a lot of harsh garlic flavour but still give plenty of onion quality (same/similar plant family?). <S> It might be worth drizzling a bit of oil when baking garlic to protect the skin, but <S> I doubt too much would be absorbed. <A> A good quality nonstick saucier pan is a good choice to brown onions without oil. <S> Start with a very fresh onion that has lots of it's own juice. <S> Older dryer onions are not a good choice for this method. <S> Preheat the pan on medium. <S> Let the onions sit untouched for a couple minutes on medium heat so that they may sear. <S> Stir and let them sit again for a couple minutes. <S> Repeat until onions are relatively dry and onion fond starts to build up on the pan. <S> Deglaze with just a teaspoon of water to lift the fond off the pan just before it burns. <S> At this point you cannot let the onions sit for long and you will have to stir often. <S> Continue browning and deglazing until the onion reaches the desired consistency. <S> If you want the onions dryer, you can reduce the heat to low and cover with a paper towel in between the pan and the cover to absorb the steam. <S> The pan should be small enough so that you cannot see the bottom of the pan. <S> Otherwise the onions may burn rather than brown. <S> I use a 2-1/2 qt Analon anodized copper saucier pan for one medium onion. <S> http://shop.anolon.com/Cookware/Anolon-Nouvelle-Copper-2.5-Quart-Covered-Saucier-GWP-Gray-82686.html?utm_source=SSIDE&utm_medium=NaturalSS&utm_campaign=SSIDE <S> But I must say that just a spray of olive oil will make the onions darker with richer flavor and it will enable you to use stainless steel for better control. <A> For browned onions, I'd suggest cooking in a pan or a griddle with just the bare minimum of oil -- enough to stop it sticking. <S> To cook onions without browning, blitzing them in the microwave works well.
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Cooking onions in a non stick pan without oil would probably be more akin to grilling.
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Should Chorizo Be Peeled Before Cooking? For years I've been chopping up Chorizo and cooking it, with no other preparation. I've recently been told that I've been doing it wrong and should peel the Chorizo first. It's pain to peel, and I've not noticed any difference. What is the skin of a Chorizo sausage made of, and should it be removed before cooking or not? <Q> It depends on what chorizo you're using. <S> If you're using soft (i.e. uncooked) chorizo <S> then no, you don't need to remove the skin, because it should cook with the sausage. <S> This may well vary by brand, incidentally. <A> Certainly, no chorizo skin is going to poison you. <S> On that basis, if you're happy with your results, then carry on. <S> I have used chorizo where the papery skin peels off quite easily -- but I have never seen a need to remove it. <A> The cured chorizo available at my local grocery store actually has a plastic skin so obviously that must be removed in order to make it edible. <S> It also has metal clips holding the ends closed, so it's pretty clear that you're not supposed to eat it. <S> So, if you do choose to eat the skin, make sure it's not plastic. <S> Again, it should be pretty obvious. <A> When talking about chorizo, it's worth specifying Spanish (papery skin, fairly dense, often cured) or Mexican (often plastic skin, loose, usually uncured). <S> Same name for two very different products. <S> Mexican should be peeled, Spanish usually shouldn't. <A> Slice off a chunk you need, shallow cut length ways, run under tap and ensure all skin is damp, peels away easily. <A> I purchased los angelitos chorizos in NJ the casing is hard has metal on ends. <S> it says remove casing before cooking. <S> It makes sense-the casing is plastic and I am more concerned with bacteria. <A> I have always peeled my chorizo before using because I thought they were wrapped in some kind of paper as opposed to being skinned. <S> My brother doesn't peel his and he's still alive <S> so I guess it's a preference thing. <S> As for the difficulty in peeling them I have found that the more I pay for my chorizo, the easier they are to peel!!!! <S> I don't know why this is <S> but it seems to be the case, although the more expensive ones don't taste much different to the cheaper ones, they just peel easier. <S> The cheaper ones usually end up with a bit of a sorry looking chorizo and the more expensive ones seem to peel really easily. <S> I score the chorizo along its length and then peel. <A> I find the answer depends on what you are doing. <S> If the recipe is one where you add whole chorizos to a bean stew say, for slow boiling with the beans, then you will need to keep the skin on. <S> This will tend to hold it together and limit oozing to either end of the sausage. <S> the lovely paprika flavours will seep out into the stew, but the sausage will be intact for cutting up when serving. <S> If you are frying slices, eg before adding some mixed up eggs, like for a chorizo omelette, then remove the skin. <S> I find this best done with a small sharp knife peeling from the ends of the sausage (the chain links naturally give you an opening when you cut through them. <S> Put on your glasses and try and peel like an onion, ie upwards and roundwards. <S> The skin should come off reasonably easily. <S> On cooked chorizo slices, prepacked, eg for tapas, appetisers, try a slice. <S> If its rind is annoying, your decision will be to peel them. <S> Finally, I had some thin chorizo for grilling recently. <S> It said so on its packet. <S> I used it for frying into chorizo omelettes, and results wre that it was frazzled and hard. <S> So it may be a lesson to check what it says on the pack, just in case it has a type of use. <A> Personally, I keep it on; it tends to lose its form if you remove it, and it's just a matter of personal taste. <A> It's not only extremely difficult to remove the soft casing, but it mushes up the chorizo. <S> If it's going to be ground up, as in an egg dish, then squeeze it out. <S> But the dish I make with it (my kids' #1 favorite meal!) is pasta with chorizo "balls" (more like mini sausage patties, than meatballs). <S> It's ruined if it gets mashed up... <S> btw, they've NEVER noticed the casing or had an issue with its taste. <S> If it's not harmful, I'm sticking with my method! <A> I just bought some Abuelita "Ready to Eat" chorizo, and for this brand the recommendation seems to be the opposite of what is written above. <S> i.e. in the store the raw said on the package to remove the casing, and the ready to eat was silent, but "ready to eat" seems to be self-explanatory.
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If you are using the cured, ready to eat chorizo you should take the skin off as it will be tough. It really depends on what you're cooking with it.
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Can I substitute Glucose Syrup for Sugar in cake recipes? I need to bake a cake without fructose, so all forms of granulated sugar and most syrups (including honey, agave & maple syrup) are out. I've heard of granulated dextrose but can't find it. I'd like to use Glucose Syrup instead of sugar but need to know how to alter the recipe to compensate for using a syrup instead of granulated sugar. <Q> Dextrose in powder form is very easy to get a hold of! <S> As mentioned before, it is a very common ingredient in brewing, and is readily available from homebrew stores. <S> While not as cheap as traditional table sugar, it isn't expensive either. <S> Search online to see if there are any homebrew stores local to you. <S> Here's one place to get it. <S> And another place <S> And why not one more for good measure <A> Is there a Fructose Malabsorption support group near you, or that you could email? <S> They may have some good resources on this which you could use to start your experiments. <S> Good luck! <A> look in the home-brewing supplies of your local supermarket or department store. <S> I don't home-brew myself, but I'm told that one of the steps involved requires dextrose. <S> Fructose doesn't work right, for some reason. <A> "Corn syrup" (not HFCS) is supposed to be a primarily glucose syrup, though some formulations contain dextrose. <S> It should not have any fructose in it, though I don't know if any of the brands guarantee that. <S> Karo syrup contained HFCS up until a year ago or so, but it's since been removed. <S> Your best bet would be to contact the manufacturer(s) and ask. <A> You would A) need to use more syrup than the recipe calls for sugar as it's not as sweet and B) reduce the amount of liquid from other sources (milk, oil etc). <S> It will probably vary from recipe to recipe - a bit of experimentation is needed I would think.
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You can get pure powdered glucose aka dextrose:
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Do I need to cook the meat filling before stuffing ravioli? I been making ravioli this past week (3 types, butternut squash, various fungi, and spinach for those interested). Now I'm onto the meat. Its a pork, beef, and veal mixture. My question is, do I need to cook the mixture before stuffing into the ravioli? If I do cook it, I'm worried the fat in the meat will make it so that everything won't stick together and therefore be harder to stuff. On the other hand If I don't cook the meat, I'm worried the raviolis will have to cook too long for the filling to be cooked and the pasta will be way overcooked. Which is the proper way? <Q> Yes, cook the meat before stuffing into the ravioli. <S> If you are worried about your mixture being too fatty (which I didn't experience with a non-traditional beef and bacon ravioli), make sure to drain the meat well after cooking, perhaps patting it with clean paper towels to remove excess grease. <A> Yes cook it before hand - and then I believe you're going to want to cook those ravioli until they float (showing that they are done) <S> If you don't cook the filling, by the time that it's good to go the pasta will be way over-cooked and not that tasty. <A> This is an old thread, but I am researching ravioli, and came across it... <S> My mother was Russian, and I grew up eating the Russian version of ravioli, Pielmeini (peel-uh-main-ee) and the hamburger was NEVER cooked. <S> It was hamburger, often hand ground chuck at home with a crank meat grinder. <S> The meat was mixed with raw diced onion, with some garlic, salt and pepper and a bit of added water. <S> The pielmeini were stuffed, sealed, the edges pinched, and the ends joined to make a little half moon pillow. <S> These were dropped into gently boiling water, and cooked for about 2 minutes each. <S> Yes, only two minutes. <S> They were buttered in a bowl, and then served with a small bowl of vinegar and mustard mixed (I add a bit of mayo to mine to cut the 'bite' of the vinegar mustard mixture). <S> We NEVER boiled them for 5 minutes, and the amount of beef was about a teaspoon and a half, tops. <S> They were never raw, the added bit of water provided a small bit of broth to them, and over the past 60 years, I've eaten many pounds of them. <S> The insides were NOT raw, were not gooey, were delicious. <S> If your water is 212 degrees, gently boiling, the float test works beautifully. <S> It has done so for generations, without cooking the meat. <S> The only reason I am researching ravioli is I will be adding spinach and ricotta to my filling this time, and thought I may need to cook the meat PURELY because it will be mixed with cheese. <S> Otherwise, I never have, and never will cook my meat. <S> You lose too many juices. <A> My dad immigrated to America from Italy, along with the rest of his famiglia in the 1920s. <S> Ravioli meat mixture was never cooked beforehand. <S> Mixture was raw, lean ground beef, egg, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, chopped drained spinach, crushed dried fennel, dried oregano, salt, pepper, garlic fresh or powder <S> The egg binds the mixture. <S> The level teaspoon mixture per ravioli hold together beautifully and completely cooks the meat into a small firm ball and .... <S> no grease. <S> A beautiful bite. <S> The salted boiling water cooks the meat and time of boiling depends more on thickness of pasta in our experience. <S> As with cavatelli and gnocchi, floating to top is not best test for doneness. <S> We always sample one at the 3-4 minute level, then decide. <S> Trish Pizzuti-Bockus Nov 2019 <A> If you are speaking about the Italian (our lovely one) recipe, yes, you have to cook it as long as possible and adding salt just at the end, this is the secret to avoid it'll loose a lot of water. <S> In fact we use a stew finely chopped by a mixer to fill the ravioli. <S> I usually fried with carrots, celery, garlic and onion (finely chopped) <S> , then brown the meat on both sides to close the pores and then add a glass of good red wine <S> and I cover with the lid. <S> it is important to lower the heat at the lowest possible and keep the pot covered. <S> For a piece of at least 400gr of meat you have to cook it for at least 4 hours, adding a bit of wine in the case the meat will be dried (if you cover well <S> and you have a low heat, it won't happen). <S> To understand if the heat <S> it's OK <S> you will hear the the meat frying slowly but there will be not steam escaping the pot (or at least just a bit). <S> You can add other spices if you like, but none containing salt, salted ones have to be added just at the end, when meat is already cooked (even better while you are mixing the meat with eggs) <A> Italian perspective: <S> And this is particularly important if you are going to use pork in your filling. <S> If you are worried about the filling being too loose, you can add a binder: you can try egg or ricotta cheese. <S> At least this is what I would do. <S> Also, depending on how much fat is there in your meat mix, you may want to drain it a bit after cooking. <S> But I would try to avoid that as much as possible, since a lot of the flavorants are fat soluble, and you are going to loooooose them down the drain. <S> So sad.
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yes, because the short time the ravioli stay in the boiling water is not enough to cook the meat.
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How do I defrost frozen flour tortillas? There is a wide variety of suggestions about how to thaw frozen flour tortillas. What works best? <Q> I buy tortillas in bulk (36 to 48) at a time. <S> I freeze them because even our family of 6 won't go through them fast enough if left in the refrigerator! <S> I stack them with individual freezer wax paper between the tortillas (get them at warehouse stores such as costco) and then place in a plastic freezer bag or in a plastic storage container. <S> I THAW them in the microwave 6 at a time <S> , papers removed, then wrapped in a SLIGHTLY damp kitchen towel. <S> 30 seconds on high does it for the stack. <A> If you are freezing the tortillas yourself and don't mind putting in a little extra work in the beginning to get more convenience later, I would separate the tortillas with waxed paper (actually I use the paper sheets that are waxed on one side, intended for bakeries). <S> What this buys you is the ability to pull out one or two tortillas as you need them. <S> They will defrost just fine in the pan that you are going to warm/brown them in anyway. <S> If you customarily run through a dozen tortillas, then you probably don't want to bother. <S> But if that is the case then you probably aren't freezing your tortillas in the first place. <A> Just wrap them in a towel to hold in steam and go for a couple minutes until they are soft. <S> Or if you aren't too worried about plastic toxicity, you can put a few holes in the bag they came in and do it right in that. <A> If you've got the time, just put them (back) in the fridge for a couple of days. <S> I always keep some frozen (mostly because I have more room in the freezers than in the fridge). <A> I put them directly on the stove burner and flip with tongs. <S> Works great, they taste better this way.
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The microwave is good for this sort of thing.
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My hand mixer came with dough hooks, can I knead dough with it? I bought a fairly inexpensive (<$50) hand mixer a while back, and when I was organizing the kitchen I came across a set of dough hook attachments for it. I thought dough was too heavy for a hand mixer's tiny motor to knead, but if that's the case, why did it come with dough hooks? Can I use my hand mixer to knead dough? <Q> If you do most of the kneading while the dough is very wet (like Jeff Varasano recommends for his pizza dough here http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm ), you should be able to do most of it with even a comparatively weak hand mixer and not have too much trouble holding it steady enough (see link - gluten IS working even though the dough is still only slightly more dry than a batter). <S> That said, if you try to work with a drier dough, even if your motor can handle it (which it likely can't), it will probably be more difficult to hold the mixer than to just knead the dough by hand. <A> I ruined a handmixer that way. <S> I was kneading breaddough with it and indeed the engine couldn't cope and overheated/stressed out. <S> I had to buy a new one. <S> So be carefull. <S> And indeed, it wasn't easy at all to hold the mixer or the bowl with the dough.. <A> As previous answers suggest: These hooks tend to come with most hand mixers, if they can be used, used with what kind of dough, and with what amount of dough is very model dependent. <S> From my own experience with a standard Siemens device (mymix 300W, specified as 0.5kg total weight in mixing bowl): <S> recipes up to 500-600g flour will in practice work well <S> (less for very heavy doughs). <S> Making too wet doughs is not a good idea with that type of dough hook - since they have little working surface but high speed they will lose all "traction" on the dough if it is drippingly wet. <S> The advantage compared to hand kneading is that it is far easier to thoroughly incorporate an ingredient late in the kneading, and that you don't get the "kneading dough is nice <S> , you get such clean hands from it" effect. <S> Also, with some doughs these devices work very quick - minutes to a reasonably smooth dough. <S> Disadvantage is the more restricted hydration range, and more disruptive action (these hooks can saw a ball of dough in half if applied from the right angle). <S> Physical strength is needed to control mixer and bowl, so there is no clear advantage there compared to hand kneading. <A> I just made texas roadhouse rolls (4 cups of flour and about 3 cups of other ingredients) with a ge 300 watt hand mixer and dough attachments. <S> The mixer handled it perfectly fine... <S> I on the other hand found it difficult to hang on to the bowl and mixer <S> but it is definitely doable. <A> I guess it largely depends on the brand and usage and a little luck, I would certainly be a bit more careful next time after reading some of the comments here though as I like that hand mixer and don't want to kill it. <S> It's not bottom or top of range, but it has digitally controlled speed <S> not mechanical switches, which is what failed in my previous mixer.
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I just used the dough hooks with my hand mixer, I found it surprisingly easy to hold (the counter rotation of the hooks meant the forces mostly cancel out) and my mixer didn't seem to have any trouble going at any speed through my reasonably dense dough.
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What should I look out for when cooking with truffles? My birthday is coming up, and we saw some black truffles at Whole Foods, so we thought it was time to try cooking with this rather expensive ingredient. I've never cooked with truffles before, and it's $30 worth for a dinner. That's probably the single most expensive ingredient I've ever used in a recipe. So it's making me more than a little nervous. How should I treat truffles while cooking with them? Are there any pitfalls to avoid? <Q> Ok, first of all make sure you are getting French or Italian truffles, not Chinese or Oregon. <S> Some people like the latter <S> but they are quite a bit different. <S> Black truffles do well cooked, while white truffles are usually only used shaved raw over a dish. <S> When I use them, I like to use them in a situation where I will really be able to taste them. <S> A few classic ideas are an omelette, risotto, or pasta with a cream sauce. <S> Those all carry the flavor and aroma of truffles very well. <S> Chop some of it very fine and put it in the dish and then slice the rest paper thin (with a mandoline if possible) over the finished food right before serving. <A> Truffles are a very delicate ingredient that can lend a rich, nuanced flavor. <S> I have always used them with other delicate flavors to bring out the complexity. <S> I only use preparations that have 1-3 strong 'front' flavors if a delicate ingredient is included. <S> Also, since they are ephemeral, it is vital to finely slice (shave) or mince them. <S> Large pieces will be tasty, but you get less 'bang' for your truffle buck this way. <A> In general, truffles don't do well with prolonged cooking. <S> You lose the delicate fragrance associated with it. <S> White truffle is never cooked. <S> Just garnish at the end - table side. <S> Its fragrance is very delicate. <S> Usually you add it at the end , or shave it on top. <S> You need to use a mandolin or truffle slicer, thick slices aren't as good as thin pieces. <S> In restaurants, we often preserve the truffle, or use scrap to make truffle butter. <S> Then we use these by products as part of the cooking ingredients -e.g. <S> as a truffle stock for risotto base, and the butter to finish the dish. <S> Shaved truffle rounds out the dish. <S> Thats how you get complexity and depth.
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I have used truffles to good effect in omelettes, cream sauces, and shaved on top of certain roasted meats or fish.
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How do you make tomato paste? I have a garden every year and would prefer to use my own tomatoes for all my cooking. I can them and make sauces, but haven't found a good recipe that describes the technique for tomato paste. I need it to be thick like you buy at the store - I use this for sauce dishes, etc that I don't like to be too runny. How would a home cook go about making tomato paste? <Q> Tomato paste is just tomatoes with the water removed, essentially. <S> I'd slice the tomatoes in half and roast them (cut side up) at 350 degrees F for an hour (this will concentrate the flavour nicely and you can add s&p/olive oil/herbs/garlic if you want). <S> Then mash them through a sieve or food mill to get a smooth consistency. <S> Then put that tomato puree in a pot and just boil them down until it's as thick as you want. <S> As it gets thicker, you'll need to stir it regularly to prevent it sticking to the bottom of the pot and burning. <A> I worked in a restaurant that made its own tomato paste at the end of every summer. <S> Each week we would purchase 14 cases of vine rippened tomatoes picked in the morning from the farmer at the farmers market. <S> Each day we would process two cases through the William Sonoma Tomato Press , add a couple table spoons olive oil and slowly simmer until the water has evaporated and the tomatoes are now a paste. <S> We would just freeze the result and have homemade tomato paste through the winter. <A> I haven't tried this, so look at it as a thought experiment. <S> re-spread it every 5 minutes to start, then do it more frequently as things start to thicken up. <S> I'm totally guessing on the times, though. <S> The idea is to get as much moisture gone as possible without risking browning the tomato paste too much. <S> The sheet pan gives you lots of surface area <S> so you clear off a lot of water quickly, and makes it easy to handle. <S> Low oven temps reduce the risk of burning. <A> As Italian I prepare my Tomatoes sauce every year, here are the steps. <S> Choose good pear like tomatoes <S> , in Italy we have the San Marzano's tomatoes that have just a little bit of water (are the best IMHO). <S> You cut them <S> and then you mesh them with vegetable mill or a mixer. <S> Be aware, here you have the greatest secret ever . <S> Take an old, clean cotton made cushion cover (or just a cotton bag), fill it with your sauce and hang it on a broom handle between two chairs (keep a container under the bag to avoid to loose water) <S> Keep it some hours till the sauce will loose all the water (you can help pushing with your hands). <S> Cook the sauce with just basil (no salt, never!) <S> Then you can sterilize the jar, but this may be another question ;-)
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I'd take a tomato puree and cook it down to thicken somewhat, then spread it in a shallow sheet pan and cook it slowly in the oven at maybe 250-275F. I'd sort of stir/turn/
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hard crack candy coming out too sticky I've made a few batches of hard crack candy, but so far every batch i've made has come out stickier than I'd like. by too sticky, i mean that the candies will stick to the parchment paper i store them in so hard that the two become inseparable. this happens even in the freezer. So far I've tried letting the temperature go up a little higher on the candy thermometer (310-320) adding powdered sugar after the candies have cooled down as experiments but to no avail.what can people recommend? is there an additive i could add to the mix? <Q> Get another thermometer and check that your thermometer is calibrated correctly. <S> Many of the candy thermometers from China are ± 20 C <A> I have the answer to this and as someone above said, it is to do with humidity. <S> I make toffee apples to sell and have found out by trial and error that 1. <S> you have to make sure they are definitely heated to 150c so that the mixture goes immediately solid when dropped in cold water and 2. <S> Wrap them in cellophane the minute they are cool enough, so probably within 5 minutes of cooking. <S> They get sticky quickly if left in contact with the air. <S> If you wrap them they will remain hard like glass and not tacky. <A> Duplicating RBerteig's comment as an answer for posterity: <S> Humidity is the enemy of hard candy. <S> It will turn it into hard, sticky, goo. <A> Instead of powdered sugar, try dusting the candies with a tiny bit of cornstarch. <S> This has the advantage of not turning sticky itself. <A> Your recipe may be the problem. <S> The all sugar with water and cream of tartar tends to have the problem you have stated. <S> I prefer the 2C sugar, 2/3C corn syrup, <S> 3/4C water, flavor/color to desire <S> Never freeze or refrigerate hard candy, if a fan such as your stove fan is going turn it off or move the cooling candy out of the way. <S> Be sure to melt not just dissolve the sugar slowly in the first stage of cooking when you are stirring, and do NOT stir once you enter the boil stage. <S> Flavor and color I add after I have removed from heat and boiling has started, stior very smoothly outward spiral then inward a few times. <S> While powdered sugar will help I find it isn't necessary with the corn syrup version, though humidity and temperature likely play a role in this. <S> It will probably still stick to parchment paper <S> but I have had no sticking to other pieces when just thrown into a plastic bowl. <A> Old thread, I know, <S> but for anyone else looking for answers - make sure your thermometer is not touching the bottom of the pot. <S> This can throw off even a well-calibrated candy thermometer. <A> Mine melted in the fridge. <S> I used the same version with the cream of tartar. <S> My thermometer registered 300 before I dipped them. <S> I think my problem was the same. <S> I placed them on waxed paper and they stuck tight. <S> I put them in a container then put them in the fridge and they melted. <S> I had leftover candy <S> so I greased a silicon candy mold sprayed with cooking oil. <S> When they were cool I put them in individual plastic bags and stored them right next to the apples and those from the candy mold are in perfect shape still as hard a a rock. <S> How is this possible? <S> Apples melted, candy molds didn't melt a bit. <A> I ran into this problem too: I didn't cook all the water out of my sugar corn syrup mix. <S> I let it sit and simmer for a few hours before it would finally set. <S> That was very time consuming but came out great.
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Cream of tartar softens the candy, corn syrup will prevent it going "sticky" at room temperature so easily. I'd try sealing a few pieces in an air-tight container along with some dry rice (or better, silica gel packets) and see if that works better.
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Does cooking wine go bad like regular wine? I bought some cooking wine last week and made a delicious meal with it. I only used half a bottle, so the other half is still in my pantry. I know that regular wine goes bad after about a day where as regular alcohol (rum, scotch, etc) doesn't really go bad at all. I looked on the bottle to see if it says "keep refrigerated", "expires after opening", etc... and there's nothing of the sort. Will that wine go bad, and if so, how fast? Thanks in advance! <Q> Generally... not as quickly. <S> (Going bad is more a decrease in quality. <S> It will still be edible, but unpleasant. <S> It won't make you sick, except by the bad taste!) <S> See this from a Wikipedia Article : "Cooking wine typically available in North America is treated with salt as a preservative and food coloring." <S> So, it's safer than normal wine, but I'd try and use it soon. <S> The sooner, the better. <A> I've successfully frozen leftover wine and then later used it in stews. <S> I've never tried it with "cooking wine" though, because, I prefer to only cook with wine that I'd actually drink. <A> I would question the assertion that "normal" wine goes off after "about a day". <S> About the only thing that can go wrong with it is for it to oxidize, and let's face it, the amount of oxygen that's going to get through the small opening of the bottle neck, is pretty tiny. <S> Here's an idea: experiment. <S> Get a mid-range, drinkable red wine. <S> Pour yourself a small glass and drink it. <S> Leave the bottle open at room temperature. <S> The next day, pour yourself another small glass from the same bottle and taste it. <S> I promise it won't make you ill. <S> Is it as good as the first day? <S> Revolting? <S> From experience, I believe you'll find the wine still enjoyable after a week -- <S> even if it's not in the peak condition it was in when you opened it. <S> It will last even better if you cork it. <S> (For white wine, of course, you'd keep it in the fridge, because you want it cold when you drink it. <S> You could keep red in the fridge, but then you'd want to bring it back to room temperature for drinking) <S> Perhaps you're thinking that your palate isn't sophisticated enough to notice the spoiling. <S> I say, if you can't sense it, you shouldn't worry about it. <S> (I also say, if you can sense it, and it's not a super high-end wine, you're being too fussy :) ) <S> For cooking, chefs tend to recommend that you shouldn't cook with a wine you wouldn't drink. <S> I go along with that, although there may be economic reasons, depending on how much wine costs where you live. <A> Cooking wines have extra preservatives added so they will stay good for longer, though you should probably put it into the refrigerator. <S> Related / duplicate question: <S> How long can I store cooking wine? <A> I know it's not what you asked, but another way to get around this problem is to cook with drinking wine, and then drink the leftover with the meal. <S> Since some of the wine is already in the meal it will go together perfectly. <A> Wine's "badness" is somewhat subjective. <S> I didn't drink it, but rather than wasting it, I cooked with it since it was somewhere between wine and vinegar and adding acidity is a very common way to improve a dish.
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The salt content of the wine is much higher than drinking wine, which will preserve it longer . It will still "go bad" eventually. I once bought a cheap bottle of wine at Trader Joe's and was surprised to find that it tasted sour when I opened it.
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Making madeleines without the special pan? I don't have the special pan or any cupcake or muffin tins. Can I just plop spoonfuls on a cookie sheet? Does anyone know whether I have to alter the recipe? If so, how? <Q> I have never made madeleines myself, but looking at the recipe and reading Elendil's concerns about the batter running, I would think you could fashion an impromptu "madeleine pan" out of aluminum foil. <S> It won't be the easiest thing in the world, and you're not going to get the perfect shell look, but I think you'll be able to get the right general shape and depth with a little craftwork. <S> Not exactly the same final product, but <S> if you're dying to use the batter I think it would still taste great. <S> As Elendil suggested, the people who said they were able to make them on a cookie sheet found that they were very flat and crispy (though still tasty). <A> You really need something that will contain the batter, as in the initial stages of baking the fat will melt and the whole lot will run into one big cake. <S> Muffin/cake tins are relatively cheap and easy to come by. <A> i am in the same situation as you, and i've read that while you can use muffin tins (or mini ones?) <S> for madeleines, using actual madeleine molds are really the best because their shape ensures that the finished product will have the right "crispness" to the edges that everyone adores. <S> but i'm sure that they would taste the same <S> however you make them -- it's just the texture will be a bit different.
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These look like something I would love to make, so I did a little research and a few people said they poured the batter into a sheet pan (in a very thin layer) and then cut them into squares after.
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How to complement a dish? I really love cooking the "main feature" of a meal... I love doing the meat - steak, chicken breasts, you name it, I love it. But when it comes to making the rest of the meal, I always draw a blank. I end up resorting to the same old thing that I know everyone loves (steamed asparagus, seasoned potatoes). I'm trying to figure out how to be more creative with the complementary pieces of the meal. What are some good things to keep in mind when preparing a side dish, and what are some good resources that will help me in my creativity? <Q> I would suggest Culinary Artistry as one such book. <S> It's not about specific recipes (you can find those elsewhere or make them up), but rather it addresses the kind of skill you're looking to learn. <S> One technique is to consider the origin of the main dish and choose side dishes from the same region. <S> Seasonality or market-based shopping is another approach to expanding your repertoire. <A> Make meat "not the main feature". <S> Having it as the main feature is a piece of history when meat was the most expensive part of the meal, and it also seems to have become an unhealthy piece of history. <S> Meat is significantly cheaper nowadays, so you can spend more on other things and make them the main part of the meal, not just side dishes. <S> It is a mental paradigm shift. <S> Start looking for new and unusual ingredients from small or local farmers, not just the staples from the main grocery stores, there is an entire new world to discover. <S> Try growing or wild harvesting your own ingredients. <S> Then the fun begins, finding recipes or techniques to use these new supplies and make that masterpiece. <S> The meal becomes much more interesting when there is more of "you" in it. <A> I'm a big believer in contrasts in meal planning. <S> For example, one thing I like to consider is the basic flavor profile of the main dish and the side dishes. <S> For example, if you've got a particularly rich tasting main course, you could complement it with a slightly bitter side dish such as Brussels sprouts or broccoli raab. <S> A sweeter vegetable would be a nice contrast to a more sour main dish. <S> Textural differences are also valuable. <S> A stew or soup (which is generally all mushy stuff) works great with a crunchy side dish such as a nice crusty bread. <S> Think also about how the plate will work. <S> If you've got a main dish with a gravy, you don't want anything on that plate that will not work with the gravy. <S> Thus if you also want salad, give a side plate or serve it as a separate course. <S> The visuals of the plate are also a consideration. <S> If you've got chicken in a cream sauce, mashed potatoes, and cauliflower, they're all close enough in color to make for an unappetizing meal. <S> Color differences make things more appetizing -- that's why bright green parsley and bright yellow lemons are often used as garnishes. <S> That's also why some dishes are visually appealing right away. <S> (Arroz con Pollo generally has yellow rice, red pimientos, and green peas. <S> Stir frys often try to include something red or yellow to contrast with the green of many of the veggies.) <S> Having said all this, what I'd recommend is taking the side dishes you like and start sorting them into categories. <S> For example, starches can be divided into mushy, chewy and full of texture, and crispy. <S> (Potatoes can be mushy or crispy depending on the preparation.) <S> Then as you're planning your main course, think about how to contrast it in a pleasant way. <A> There are tons of grains, which are great for sides. <S> (Bulgur, Rice, Barley, Millet, etc.) <S> Your additions to these grains could be simple, or complicated, according to your taste and time. <S> Of course, these aren't the only things you can use to start a good side-dish. <S> You could use pastas such as couscous or orzo. <S> You could use polenta, as well. <S> If you don't want to add a vegetable to the sides mentioned above, consider adding a vegetable somewhere in the meal. <S> You could do this with a salad or a simple steamed vegetable with butter. <A> Cooked rice, pastas, cous-cous, salads... <S> a lot of variety to choose from. <S> Even simple bread will do it.
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You could certainly get a cookbook of side dishes and learn some new favourites, but what might be more useful is a book that teaches you about flavour combinations and menu planning.
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How to prevent sticking and get a nice searing on scallops When I am searing scallops, they often stick in the pan and most of the time, they are very hard to turn. I use only a little oil 1-2 tablespoons. Am I not using enough? <Q> Without knowing your exact method it's hard to say what's going wrong, but 1-2 tbsp of oil should be enough for a normal amount of scallops. <S> To learn about properly heating your pan, I recommend this link: http://www.houseboateats.com/2009/12/on-properly-heating-your-pan.html <A> Most likely, your pan is not hot enough before you put the scallops in. <S> The pan should be hot enough for a drop of water to bounce around on the pan instead of just evaporating. <S> There have been other similar questions: <S> How do I prevent food from sticking to a standard (non-coated) pan? <A> My first advice is to use a bit more oil, maybe. <S> I recently did scallops with a recipe from Thomas Keller, and his recipe calls for quite a bit of oil--probably 3 tbs or more (don't remember precisely, but it was way more than I would have put on my own). <S> This was also my most successful pan-seared scallop batch to date, so I think he's onto something. <S> And to my surprise, they were not at all greasy when served. <S> You will need your oil to be quite hot too, as you want to be able to caramelize the scallops on the outside fairly quickly without overcooking the inside. <S> Another thing is to leave the scallops alone after you first place them, and turn them only once. <S> When the proteins are properly caramelized, the scallops will release from the pan much more easily. <S> Just place them, leave them alone until that side is nicely browned, turn them over, brown and serve. <A> Like the other comments mentioned you need to make sure that the oil is very hot before you add the scallops. <S> Also, for a very nice color take a small amount of butter, about half a teaspoon, and add it to the oil. <S> This is might go against your intuition, however, it is the technique used by most high end French restaurants to sear Scollaps, Veal, Ris de Veau, and other light colored meats. <A> Dont use s <S> nonstick pan- <S> a pan that is hot enough to get a good sear is also hot enough to burn the nonstick coating- <S> which is very bad for you (the fumes also kills birds). <S> Nonstick pans also tend to be aluminum and thin, they don't hold enough heat- <S> the pan cools down <S> and you don't get a good sear. <S> Use <S> cast iron or carbon steel pans if you can, they're the best for searing. <S> Get it very hot - water should sizzle vigorously when it hits the pan. <S> A 1-2 mm layer will get in between the cracks of the scallop and allow for better heat transfer. <S> Use a oil with a high smoke point, not olive oil. <S> Grape seed oil works great and is neutral. <S> Corn oil is cheaper, so is canola. <S> Make sure theyre dry when they go in. <S> Pat them on paper towels, then season. <S> Don't use frozen scallops, buy dry scallops. <S> frozen scallops give up juice when they hit the hot pan. <S> Plus they are usually soaked in a solution to make them heavier. <S> You can tell if they were frozen because they're be sitting in a pool of milky liquid and will likely be white/milk colored. <S> Dry scallops are pink, light orange or cream colored. <S> If you use butter, add it when you flip. <S> Otherwise the water cools the pan too early. <S> You can baste the scallop with a spoon, but keep the butter frothing by turning up the heat. <S> Don't mess with it, sear it. <S> Let it sit. <S> Flip once. <S> Keep them apart otherwise they steam. <A> Its normal for scallops to stick to a non-stick surface sautee pan. <S> Let them sit until they come loose from the pan. <S> It may take a few minutes but when they do thei will be browned perfectly. <S> Turn and cook another 2 min. <S> on the other side and spoon melted butter over them during this time. <S> YUMMM!
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Most likely, you're not heating your pan enough before placing the scallops in. Use more oil than you think you need.
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What can I do with leftover wine? We don't really drink wine in our house, so we only ever buy a bottle for cooking. Typically whatever meal we have made requires ~1/2 bottle. How can I incorporate the rest of this wine into some other simple meals without resorting to any particularly fancy recipes? <Q> The quickest way to get rid of leftover wine is to think of it as flavoured water. <S> In many if not most recipes that call for water - especially stovetop recipes like sauces and stews - you can simply substitute wine for the water or stock that the recipe normally calls for. <S> We actually had a similar question recently: <S> In what kind of recipes can I substitute stock for water? <S> and I'd recommend you take a look at that, as many of the points there apply equally well to wine. <S> Probably the best summation was in bikeboy389's answer : <S> I'd consider stock to be just another flavorful liquid (thanks Alton Brown), to be usable in exchange for others like wine, etc. <S> You need to be conscious of the gelatin aspect and mindful that some substitutions will be more successful than others, flavor-wise, but it's always worth considering if stock might be a good substitute for any other flavorful liquid. <S> Just swap the terms "stock" and "wine" and you're good to go. <S> Even though wine doesn't contain any gelatin, you actually do need to be mindful of the gelatin aspect when substituting wine for stock, because you might have the opposite problem if the liquid is supposed to thicken. <S> So try to only use it in recipes that will be consumed in the near future. <S> Other than that, just experiment; whenever you're making a savoury recipe that calls for water or stock, try using some wine instead. <S> You'd be surprised at how much character it can add to otherwise simple dishes. <S> Some examples of places where you can replace some other liquid with wine: Rice or risotto Soups and sauces Deglazing a pan (for a pan sauce) <S> Salad dressings (this is an especially good use for sour/fermented wine) <S> Marinades Poaching liquids (for eggs, chicken, etc.) <S> There really are no rules, and any time you find yourself tossing plain water into a pot or bowl, you should keep in mind that you are potentially missing an opportunity to add flavour (which a good wine will add plenty of). <A> Basically, if you a have a pan with any fond on its bottom, like a pan where you have sautèed meat or even onions, you can just add the wine (don't turn off the heat yet, just lower it), scrub vigorously the bottom of the pan until all the fond has dissolved in the wine, then let it reduce a bit <S> (this will also let some of the alcohol evaporate), turn off the heat, add some butter, whisk until the sauce thickens, serve. <S> Pan sauces really help potentially dry meat, like chicken breast. <S> Speed is of the essence, it takes more time to write it down than to do it... <S> And Orbling's suggestion about the risotto is golden. <S> It really helps. <A> Well if it is white wine <S> , then a risotto is probably a good choice, always benefits from a good glass or two of white to get started. <S> For red, I find it makes a wonderful base, as a reduction, of any sauce with sausages, just google "red wine sausages" for a multitude of recipes. <A> Freeze the wine using an ice cube tray. <S> Transfer to a bag when frozen. <S> Then use them the next time you have a recipe that requires wine. <A> Leftover white wine is good in French toast. <S> And really any kind of wine makes a great addition to soup. <S> I would recommend a white wine in cream base or chicken broth soup and a red wine in any sort of beef soup. <S> If it's a sweet wine, you can make a reduction sauce which is phenomenal on just about anything (I use it as a drizzle for stuffed figs, but it's really versatile <S> -- it gives you a lot of room to get creative.) <A> Wine turns to vinegar. <S> You can use it for that purpose. <A> I have often reduced leftover white and red wines over low heat until it becomes syrup quality, and then drizzled it on a dessert dish before plating cake, etc. <S> If you allow it to become thick enough, it will develop into the most gorgeous "threads" and adds a beautiful touch to an otherwise plain plate. <S> In addition, I use leftover red wine to make a sauce for pork tenderloin. <S> In a pot, combine chopped shallots, sprigs of fresh rosemary, the wine and balsamic vinegar to equal the amount of wine. <S> Slowly reduce this mixture until it becomes a sauce. <S> Remove the rosemary stems and pass the sauce through a sieve. <S> Serve with roasted pork tenderloin. <S> Yummy stuff! <A> White wine goes excellent with mussels and you don't need a lot, approx. <S> 4 cm in a cooking pot will do. <S> Or indeed risotto (but I prefer vermouth) or sauces. <A> Various Italian tomato-based sauces call for a splash of wine. <S> This would seem like a pretty good way to get rid of it, since the quality/condition of the wine probably won't get noticed too much. <A> I don't drink wine either. <S> I'm still 'tweaking' an answer to the question regarding red wine, but I am solidly married to the idea of dry vermouth (Gallo) in pretty much anything that needs white wine. <S> It lasts in my cupboard longer than most spices. <S> [It's 'fortified' giving it a long shelf life] <S> Furthermore, it tastes good in recipes. <S> America's Test Kitchen agrees.
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Wine is excellent for deglazing a pan and making a pan sauce . Similarly to stock, I also wouldn't recommend using wine in anything that you plan to refrigerate or freeze for a long period, for a different reason obviously - because it can go sour over time.
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How to blanch and peel nuts? I recently blanched and peeled the "skin" off 500g of shelled pistachios and 500g of almonds. For the pistachios I poured boiling water over them, waited a minute, strained, and then rubbed the nuts in small batches in a clean cloth to pull the skin off. For the almonds, I tried the same strategy as the pistachios. But this was not so good. The skin starts to dry too quickly. So I poured more lukewarm water over them. Then I dried them in an oven preheated to 150C for about 10 minutes. They are still a but soft, so I may have to do this again later. My question is, is there a better way? That took a really long time. <Q> You're missing an important step here: You need to use cold water immediately after the boiling water in order to halt the cooking process. <S> Boil them for about 1 minute, then drain. <S> (You can pour boiling water over them, as in the case of almonds - <S> it doesn't really matter how you do this.) <S> Submerge or rinse in cold water, to prevent any further cooking and softening <S> ; Peel them. <S> For the case of almonds, you should not rub them in order to peel. <S> Just pinch the end - they should pop right out of their peels. <S> If you find it taking any more effort than this, stop, don't waste any more time on peeling, and just blanch them again. <S> If you've blanched them long enough, peeling will be very easy. <A> Blanching the shelled pistachio nuts for one minute and then plunging them into ice water made them soft. <S> There was no crunch left in them like there was with the unblanched pistacios. <S> Therefore, I searched the Internet for additional advice and found a video of de-skinning pistachios by using a food processor with the softer, more flexible blade attachment (rather than the ridgid, metal “chopping” blade.) <S> That method worked well. <S> I had already taken the shells off by hand, then the plastic blade of the processor did a fairly good job of removing the skins. <S> No use of water meant the nuts were still crunchy. <S> Process for only seconds at a time <S> or you run the risk if chopping the nuts in with the skins! <A>
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For easy peeling of the almond's skin, it's better to soak it in cold water overnight.
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What is the glaze on a bakery-style fruit tart? I am looking to re-create a bakery-style fruit tartlette. I was wondering what the glaze on top of the fruit tarts you find in US bakeries is and how you can create it at home. I have heard that it's just heated apple jelly, but I imagine that might change the flavor of the whole tart. It seems like it's largely a preservative since I don't see any glaze in home recipes, but I like texture it adds. <Q> The glaze on most fruit tarts is just melted jelly. <S> Given the small quantity involved, you probably wouldn't particularly notice the apple flavour. <S> However, there's no reason you couldn't use another type of jelly if you preferred. <S> If you take a look at many fruit juice blends, you'll note that the base is usually apple, even when that's not the advertised fruit flavour, so it's obviously not an overpowering flavour when mixed with other fruits. <S> This Tips for Pies and Tarts page has a couple suggestions at the end for glazes for fruit pies and tarts. <A> It's similarly elusive flavor-wise to apple jelly, and doesn't stand out as a flavor on its own. <S> My guess is that in a more industrial setting apple is more likely, though, as it's generally cheaper and more readily available in large quantities. <A> It's actually called 'mirror glaze' or 'miroir glaze' (I think that's French). <S> It's quite hard to find and when you do it's usually sold in bulk (e.g. 6kg) as it's only really used by professional pastry chefs. <S> I am currently making lemon curd tarts and want to get that beautiful glossy finish <S> so I plan on experimenting with something like this (note that it's an experiment!) <S> : <S> Ingredients- gold gelatine leaves- <S> lemon juice- sugar- water Bloom the gelatine leaves in some cold water. <S> In a saucepan, add quantities of lemon juice, sugar and water to your taste and bring to the boil or until sugar dissolves. <S> Once the above has cooled slightly, add the bloomed gelatine leaves and stir until dissolved. <S> Set aside until mixture begins to thicken, then pour/spoon over filled tarts. <S> Note that with with gelatine leaves, the proportion is 2g gelatine leaves to every 100mL liquid. <A> I've seen this in the grocery store: <S> It seems like it would work for what you want. <S> More details at http://www.oetker.us/en/product/baking-aids/glazes-and-sauces/clear-glaze <S> suggest it's basically starch, and you could use cornstarch and sugar in water, or cornstarch in reduced fruit juice, for the same effect.
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I've seen a lot of tart recipes that call for melted apricot jam/jelly as the glaze.
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Instant coffee with only milk? I like milk. So I thought of doing milk with instant coffee. I mean, I have coffee here but it says I should use water. I always use it with water and put a little bit milk. Can I also use only milk without any water? <Q> Milk is mostly water. <S> Instant coffee will dissolve just fine in milk or even cream. <S> Of course, flavour-wise <S> it's going to be more like a weak latte than coffee. <S> That's essentially what a latte is - coffee and milk. <A> The principle is the same as adding instant chocolate milk powder to milk. <S> The end result is also similar: <S> what you end up with is not so much coffee as it is brown-beige, caffeinated milk (so, something like a latte). <A> My grandmother's generation (in South Wales) would always make instant coffee using only hot milk. <S> I would ask for it made with water, but she wouldn't dream of doing that for a guest, for fear of appearing mean. <S> As far as I'm concerned, there are no issues. <S> With a suitable mug, you can heat the milk in situ in the microwave. <A> I put milk in a saucepan for 4-5 minutes on medium heat. <S> When I come back, the milk usually has a "skin" on it. <S> Remove that with a spoon, and then pour the milk into the cup. <S> I add a healthy spoonful of instant granules and some sugar, and it's as good as any coffeehouse leche...and way cheaper. <A> Just in case your coffee doesn't dissolve in milk. <S> You always mix your coffee with little bit of water before pouring in milk <A> There are places in NE USA and Canada where you can go in and ask for "coffeemilk" - it is usually made with real coffee. <S> Go to India and a lot of places will serve you "char" which is tea boiled up with milk. <S> Whatever floats your boat ... <A> having instant coffee, or camp (chicory) coffee made with hot milk is the only way to serve it! <S> Loads of regional variations on what it's called, I just know it as a coffee made with milk! <S> It won't split the milk, and if you have 1 spoon of coffee when made with water, add at least half a spoon again when making it with milk to give a rich, smooth flavour. <A> I add the instant coffee BEFORE heating the milk in the microwave for 2 1/2 minutes. <S> The coffee disolves better in the milk that way. <S> Also, I used rice milk or not regular milk, so it can be compared to skim milk in terms of consistency. <S> For even more added flavor I will add either cocoa powder or chocolate syrup. <A> I usually just take a bottle (I have an eco-friendly aluminum bottle) and fill it with milk. <S> Then I add some instant coffee, a tiny bit of sugar(helps the grinds dissolve), and some cinnamon or cocoa powder (to flavor). <S> After that I just shake the bottle until it is mixed up very well. <S> The ratio to how much of each ingredient depends on taste. <S> And heating is really optional depending on how well you shake it. <S> During the summer I usually don't heat my coffee because... <S> well it's hot during the summer. <S> Anyway, if you try it and like it then the answer is most likely yes. <A> I also add the instant coffee before heating the milk. <S> It does make the instant coffee dissolve better. <S> Oddly enough, I also heat the milk for 2:30-2:45 like Melissa. <S> To top it off, I then add a creamer like International Delight into the brew and then mix it all together. <S> It is absolutely divine. <S> It is too bitter for me. <A> The only thing you might want to consider if you are thinking of adding it to hot milk is a chance of splitting the milk. <S> I would suggest you mix it with a tablespoon of hot water before adding the milk. <S> Less change of splitting. <A> It's all about your palate and the flavors that you enjoy, like wine. <S> Try making it side by side with water, then milk. <A> I grew up in Ireland & we drank this as kids. <S> It was made with Sanka . <S> This was easy to make, just pour milk into a sauce pan and then watch it to make sure it did not boil over. <S> Then we would throw instant coffee and sugar into the pot, stir it up, pour it into mugs and drink it. <S> Then we would make another batch 'lol' because even to a child's pallet it's 'friggen' great
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Making it with milk seems to take away the bitterness and only leave the coffee flavor and whatever creamer I have added. I personally don't like the taste of coffee that has been brewed in water.
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What is the purpose of tempering chocolate? What is the purpose of tempering chocolate? If I'm dipping something in chocolate, can I get by with just melting the chocolate? <Q> Chocolate is an odd substance when it comes to melting and hardening. <S> When chocolate hardens, its melting point will end up being just a few degrees higher than the hardening temperature. <S> When chocolate crystallizes at high temperatures, it forms a strong, dense crystalline structure that, texture-wise, is quite brittle. <S> Most bought chocolate (baker's chocolate and chips) is already tempered, but when you melt it, you break down that crystalline structure, and if you harden it at room temperature then it ends up forming very weak crystals that will melt in your hand. <S> If you use a special coating chocolate (couverture or the lower-quality compound chocolate) then you don't need to worry so much about tempering (although it's still a good idea), but if you use ordinary chocolate and don't temper it then your coating will end up being messy and wet and rub off on your hands while you eat it. <S> It might even melt while stored. <S> Tempering is the key to making a room-temperature-stable chocolate coating. <S> If you don't do this, you'll need to keep your pastries refrigerated until they're ready to consume. <A> Tempering, in scientific terms, is a process of encouraging the cocoa butter to form a stable From V crystal structure. <S> When you temper chocolate, you are first melting the chocolate to a temperature that will break all of the crystals, leaving you a more or less uncrystalized soup of melted chocolate. <S> From this clean starting point, you somehow encourage the chocolate to form only the right kind of crystals (Form V). <S> This can be done either by adding pre-tempered chocolate as the melted chocolate cools or by agitating the melted chocolate on a marble slab. <S> The former method is obviously much easier. <S> All real chocolate (including bars, most chips, and courverture) is sold in tempered form and must be in temper to use. <S> The best way to use this chocolate is by melting it fully and adding unmelted tempered chocolate, but, if the chocolate you are starting with is tempered, you can also melt it very slowly until it is just barely melted it should remain in temper. <S> As far as the practical differences, tempered chocolate: <S> Glossy finish <S> Hard snap Higher melting temperature <S> Will not have fat bloom (white splotching after hours to days) <S> Sets in 5 minutes or less <A> I wondered this myself over the holidays when I wanted to dip some cookies in chocolate. <S> I couldn't be bothered with buying a thermometer and figuring out how to do the tempering, so I just melted the chocolate (some nice quality chocolate bars, so not special chocolate meant for dipping) gently in a double boiler (ok, metal bowl on top of a pot of water), dipped, then set things on parchment paper. <S> It took a few hours to set and it probably would melt if you sat with it in your hand, but it worked well enough for me. <S> I stored the cookies at room temperature and they didn't seem noticeable melty when we ate them. <A> The beauty of chocolate is that it firm, crisp and solid at room temperature however when at body temperature like in our mouths it melts. <S> Also, the texture of the chocolate is finer as cooled untempered chocolate has a grainy texture on the tongue. <S> Years ago I watched <S> Pierre Herme who was at that time executive pastry chef of Fauchon in Paris put a plastic bowl of chocolate in the microwave until half was melted and then use a handheld electric blender to mix the melted and unmelted chocolate together to create a perfect tempered chocolate for dipping. <S> Perhaps, the easiest way to temper chocolate is to grate half the chocolate with a vegetable grater and melt the other half in a plastic bowl in the microwave until it is all just above body temperature. <S> Then with a spoon stir in the grated chocolate. <S> This is called the 'seeding' method. <S> If the chocolate begins to get too cool just place it in the microwave for 2 or 3 seconds without melting it again. <A> Put your Hershey bar in your car's glove box. <S> Wait for a hot day. <S> Remove it. <S> Fix the situation by putting it in your fridge. <S> Now taste it. <S> That is what chocolate that is way out of temper tastes like. <S> It is still chocolate, but something is clearly, terribly, wrong.
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The simplest explanation of the effects of tempering chocolate is that the melting temperature increases when the chocolate crystallizes so it melts in your mouth and not your hands.
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What's the best pasta, and cooking approach, for making pasta salad? I love the pasta salad you can buy in shops and would love to be able to make something comparable. The part that I love the most is the dense, thick pasta that comes in these salads. When I try to reproduce this at home by making standard pasta shapes and leaving them to cool, I end up with thin rubbery pieces that are dull and disappointing. So, how can I make great pasta for pasta salads? In particular, what pasta should I buy and how should I cook it? <Q> I just cook them in a good amount of water (with salt/oil), nothing fancy really. <S> But don't cook them too long or they will be too soft and not tasty. <S> I don't know about the packages in your country, but here, the time is always too short <S> (you hardly can call it al dente), so if you cook it the time written plus one additional minute, you have the perfect time for pasta salad pasta :) <S> But it is of course a question of taste, so <S> I would recommend to vary cooking times and see what you like best. <A> Penne or fusilli work well in pasta salads. <S> The key to cooking pasta well is: Use as big a pan as possible, with plenty of water, to dilute the starch that comes out of the pasta. <S> Add plenty of salt - a good couple of tablespoons of sea salt, more for a big pan. <S> Get the water to a proper rolling boil, add the pasta, stir, put the lid on the pan to get it up to the boil again quickly. <S> There is no need to add oil if you do this. <S> Cook the pasta as per packet instructions, but check it a couple of minutes before it should be ready. <S> You want it to have a bit of bite, not be totally soft. <S> Get your dressing onto the pasta ASAP to prevent it from drying out, and drizzle with good olive oil to help it last longer. <A> check website of jamie oliver: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/a-basic-recipe-for-fresh-egg-pasta Work every time for me. <S> Goos luck. <S> Bart
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I mostly use spirelli in pasta salads, but other thicker pasta works as well.
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How long should Lamb leg steaks be cooked for? Is there a rule of thumb for the weight or cut? I'd prefer to err on the side of well-done, as I want to serve it to my toddler. <Q> Treat it like beef steak. <S> Super-hot pan, slap it on, keep pressing it with your finger, when it feels very firm, it's well done; about 5-6 minutes a side in general <S> but it will depend on thickness; the finger test never lies. <S> Let it rest for a few minutes after cooking. <A> If you're going to go for <S> well done, you might want to consider a braise. <S> Sear the steaks on both sides, the add some liquid (red wine, chicken stock) and veggies (onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms, garlic), lower the heat and cover. <S> It's not necessarily the best way to do a steak, but since you are already going to well done, which tends to make a steak tough <S> , this will give you well done, but tender. <S> The above is not exactly a recipe, but a technique, you can find any number of braises that will work for you. <A> It really depends on the thickness, temperature of cooking and whether the meat has warmed to room temperature first. <S> Can you give any more details? <S> I agree for lamb leg <S> you might want to braise for tenderness; however flavor is a different matter. <S> A technique which has the bonus of tenderizing while letting you do a lot of the prep ahead of time may be useful. <S> Seal the meat portions, together with any herbs or marinade, in a ziploc bag with as much air squeezed out as possible. <S> Fill a cooler/icechest with hot tap water, plus a small pot of boiling water. <S> You will get something around 140-160 <S> degrees F (obviously the more boiling water <S> the hotter it will be). <S> Immerse the ziplocs and close up the cooler for 12-24 hours. <S> Depending on how cold your meat is and size/type of the cooler, you will only lose a degree or two per hour. <S> Afterward take it out of the bags, throw it in a very hot pan for a few minutes on each side. <S> The short cooking will mean you dont dry out the meat; the long bath means it can be tenderized. <S> But don't assume it has to be well done! <S> Tastes vary - my five yr old daughter has always loved rare and still tries to sneak bits of raw meat; my older son likes it <S> so well done <S> it's practically dried out.
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Cook until it is falling apart tender.
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How to find a competent knife sharpener I have a santoku that I will be wanting to get professionally sharpened in the next few months. This is the first knife I've owned that was reasonably expensive so I want to make sure I take care of it. Are most professional knife sharpening places familiar with the differences in Japanese knife edges vs a more traditional (for the U.S.) German knife? For example, the angle is different and one side is flat on my santoku compared to, say, a French chef's knife. Aside from just asking them if they know what they are doing, are there any specifics I should look for or questions to ask in finding someone who can do this properly? Also, is there any kind of reasonable price range I should expect or does that vary too much to say? <Q> Allow me to help you fast forward through my years of pain trying to get my knives sharpened. <S> I looked all over to find a local sharpening service. <S> I called fancy restaurants, chain restaurants, and restaurant supply stores. <S> I found one who said they performed the service and promptly had three knives really scratched up. <S> I tried doing the sharpening myself. <S> This isn't a bad idea, but most home sharpening systems won't let you put a true new edge on your knife. <S> The best luck I had was with a Spyderco Sharpmaker. <S> This will do a good job, but I found it to be a pain, and it never really got me the results I was looking for. <S> Then I discovered sharpening by mail. <S> Its awesome. <S> Ship your knives off, get them back in a state where you should keep bandaids handy. <S> Here is an article from the Wall Street Journal comparing several services. <S> I used the Knife Guy and couldn't have been happier. <S> Unfortunately, it looks like he's no longer accepting new customers since the article came out, but the other services they compared seem to have done well. <S> One other Note. <S> I read in an interview with Alton Brown that he only sends his knives off to be professionally sharpened once a year or so. <S> If you use a honing steel properly that's all you should need. <S> I've certainly found that to be the case with me. <A> I'd recommend checking with a reputable cookware/cutlery store in your area for a recommendation--ideally a local one, as they're more likely to have recommendations than a big national chain (though places like Sur La Table may still have some). <A> I take mine to the local sewing store. <S> They have someone come in once a month to sharpen sissors. <S> I talked to the guy he also does knifes. <S> I took him one of my old cheap chefs knifes first and was pleased with the result so now he gets my good ones too. <A> It will really be down to each individial company. <S> Be specific about the type of knife when you enquire and when you drop it off for sharpening, get a receipt/job sheet detailing that, and specify the one-sided sharpen: 'Japanese knife, sharpen one side only'. <S> That way you have some comeback if they f%^& it up. <A> You need to find a bladesmith. <S> They often sharpen more things than just kitchen equipment, such as carpentry tools. <S> Sometimes they work out of non-chained hardware stores. <S> Look for business with names like "Sharpening" in them, eg: <S> Superior Saw Sharpening. <A> Oh boy. <S> Be careful. <S> Knife sharpening isn't a easy as people think. <S> There is a ton of information out there, all of it giving different advice, different techiniques, diffent tools. <S> I've been a professional chef for 9 years and devoted countless hours to trying to master the art of sharpening.... <S> The reality is- for the average person, you have to be careful. <S> As the questioner noted- <S> there are big differences between how you sharpen knives. <S> Western styled knives (sabatier, henkel, wustof...) have a different angle(bevel) than japanese styled blades. <S> Traditional japanese blades have a much lower angle (15 degrees?). <S> And western styled Japanese blades are in between (mac, global) <S> It gets complicated very quickly once you start getting into the nicer blades. <S> If you use the wrong sharpening technique or tool, you mess up the bevel and have to really work to get the right edge back. <A> You will also want to consider what experience they have with different grinds of knives - Hollow vs. regular, for example, and their familiarity with edges. <S> At the very least, sharpeners should be able to distinguish hollow from v-grind and convex edge. <S> You may want to ask if they're familiar with single- and compound- or double-bevel sharpening. <S> Ask what kind of waterstones and grits they have. <S> Can you watch them sharpen your knives? <S> This is a dead giveaway. <S> I have been lucky to find more than a few great knife sharpeners in the city, and they are uniformly happy to let you see them sharpen your knife/knives, and talk about what they're doing and why. <S> The greater the grit of stone they possess, the sharper they are able to get knives. <S> They can require anything from 15-19º for the edge; changing the angle changes the characteristics of the knife. <S> The angle of the edge affects how cleanly the knife slices through material, its edge retention,and a bunch of other characteristics. <S> Depending on the quality of the metal in your knife, you may not need or be able to achieve lower angles or finer-grit sandstones.
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Generally, Japanese knives benefit from being sharpened over a waterstone, a formation of natural stone or a pressed stone slurry that, when wet, will form a slurry that gently and consistently abrades your knife edge to sharpen it very fine. You might also check with restaurants in your area--some of them might have a service they use.
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Do you have to refrigerate Pickles? So last weekend the wife and I got a huge jar of pickles at Costco. The thing is bigger than a gallon of milk (the wife really loves her pickles). There really isn't any room for it in the fridge, but no where on the jar does it say 'refrigerate after opening', but I've always kept them in the fridge (and so does everyone else I know). I know that pickles use to be kept out of refrigeration in barrels and I realize that the salt in the brine should keep anything bad from happening, but does anyone actually keep their pickles at room temp? Are there downsides to this? Thanks <Q> Traditional fermented pickles were kept in barrels, but they're not the kind that you buy in a big jar at Costco. <S> Those pickles have been briefly cooked in a brine, and should be refrigerated after you open the jar. <S> The salt and vinegar should keep them safe for a while, but they will likely go bad at room temperature before you finish eating the whole jar. <S> As an anecdotal note, an office I used to work in kept one of these large jars of pickles around. <S> After being open for a few years, they were clearly spoiled, and nobody would touch them. <A> The non refrigerated <S> life of things like pickles can be greatly enhanced by careful access to the barrel. <S> In a closed room with still air, open the barrel. <S> Using a very clean ladle, decant enough to fill your normal sized jar, and then close the barrel firmly and store in cool dark place. <S> As long as the main storage barrel is only open a few times in clean conditions, it should not get contaminated, and should therefore last a significant time. <S> Total time will also be affected by how well the contents were preserved in the first place! <A> I have eaten pickles kept at room temperature for many months with no sign of spoilage. <S> Here is a bit more explanation :) <S> Anything can spoil eventually, refrigerated or not. <S> Keeping something under a lid and refrigerated restricts the number of airborne colonizers that might get access to it, and the cold temperature means that even if they get there, they will grow much slower than at room temperature. <S> For something to spoil, it needs to be colonized by bacteria or fungus spores, and it needs to contain some nourishment to support their growth, not too much chemicals that prevent their growth, and not too much competing life forms already present. <S> So, things with a high concentration of salt or sugar tend to be unhospitable to bacteria and fungi growth, because they are hygroscopic (they draw the water out of cells). <S> Extreme high or low pH (eg acidic) also retards growth. <S> Think of things like ketchup, mustard, <S> jelly with labels that say "refrigerate after opening" but most people ignore them. <S> Alcohol is unfriendly if the concentration is too high, and of course natural fermented foods are already occupied by human-friendly bacteria. <S> Pickles are sealed in a jar, with periodic access by hands or utensil. <S> They are also protected by a hygroscopic acidic brine. <S> The invention of pickling was done as a preservation method when refrigeration was not available (although modern methods are different as another post pointed out). <S> I think you can leave them out with no worries unless you see obvious mold growth. <A> Traditional sour/salty pickles certainly don't need refrigeration. <S> Commercial pickles might be another thing entirely, however, if their brine is weaker. <S> If the brine is too weak, expect mold to develop on the surface. <S> Even then, I doubt that they would become unsafe before the brine grew mold. <S> I'd say if your pickles didn't come from the refrigerator section and don't instruct you to refrigerate after opening, you'd be OK. <S> I'm less certain about the shelf life of unrefrigerated sweet pickles, but I would guess the same concerns would apply. <S> If you leave them out, make sure there's sufficient brine to completely cover the pickles--the expose pickles would go bad faster. <A> In this wild world of litigation, it surprises me that there is anything left that DOESN"T state, "refrigerate after opening....." <S> With that said, I'd feel safe to assume that refrigeration really isn't required, granted one follows some general rules-of-thumb; try to store it away from light and heat. <S> I prefer cold pickles but sometimes I just don't have the room <S> so I'll transfer a few to a more manageable (and chill-worthy) container for future enjoyment. <S> Yum........ <A> My wife and I are having a mexican stand off over this issue: refrigerate or not regridgerate; I like them room temperature and shee <S> likes them cold. <S> I think they are okay because they are fermented. <S> Vinegar and salt are preservatives. <S> That being said, I think staying out for a week <S> or so pickles are safe to eat. <S> To go longer <S> I don't know because they never last that long in our house. <A> I say refrigerate them. <S> Throughout my life, I've notice that eating opened unrefrigerated pickles give me terrible diahrreah (sorry for the TMI). <S> Not once has it ever happened with a refrigerated one. <A> I just bought a huge jar of Vlasic brand kosher dill pickles at Costco myself, 1 gallon jar. <S> it says refrigerate after opening on the lid on this one..
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I do know that unrefrigerated pickles aren't as crunchy as the same ones that have been kept cold, so that could be a consideration too.
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What do I need to know when moving from an electric hob to a gas hob Soon I will be moving into a flat with a gas hob, and I've only ever had experience with electric hobs before. What do I need to be aware of in terms of the differences between them? I've heard that gas hobs tend to heat up more quickly - is that the case? If so, will I need to adjust cooking times? <Q> The main difference is speed that it changes temperature. <S> So when you turn the hob on it is at the heat <S> you turned it to almost immediately, if you turn it down <S> it is cooler <S> that second. <S> This won't take long to get used to <S> but if you have recipes which say something along the lines of "Bring to the boil before reducing to a simmer" you can now do exactly that as opposed to the best approximation electric gives. <S> Another important thing to note is that you want the flames under the pot, not going around the edges: so you need to use the right size pan; usually you want to put it on the largest ring which means the flames are under. <S> If flames do go around the edges you'll find pan handles won't last long <S> and you might have more trouble getting the temperature you want. <S> You will also find that you have more flexibility with choosing new pans as the thermal contact isn't just at a flat surface: woks, or pans with ribbed or curved surfaces will work better. <S> Pans you might not have liked much before could become new favourites! <S> You'll love it <S> , I don't think i could ever go back to electric. <A> Overall, most of the enthusiastic cooks I know prefer gas because of the better (ie. instant) temperature control. <S> However, one downside of gas ranges is that they often have trouble with providing very low heat because if you turn it too low, the flame will go out. <S> Some gas stove tops will have a special "simmer" burner that is smaller and that you can turn down quite low. <S> We use ours when cooking rice ... <S> we'll start it on the regular burner to bring it up to the boil, then move it to the small "simmer" burner for cooking. <S> When we tried leaving it on the regular burner, even turned to the lowest level, it would still bubble over. <S> Of course, due to the instant response time (ie. <S> there's a flame or not), it's no problem to move pots around like this, unlike on an electric range, which you'd need to "pre-heat". <S> You also have to be more aware of fire hazards since you have an open flame. <S> So be more careful in terms of cleaning up grease and when using alcohol in cooking (don't pour from the bottle is the usual advice because you may catch the contents of the bottle <S> alight if you're unlucky). <A> As someone who did this several years ago, I can tell you that there are two main differences. <S> Most electric plates have much higher thermal mass, which means they change their heat level quite slowly. <S> In practice, this means that on gas your pan is going to be ready to use noticeably quicker <S> and when you turn it down, you only have the mass of the pan holding heat. <S> The very cheap electric range where I'm currently renting have no thermostats on the plates <S> and I was constantly burning things until I realized they got hotter than the gas hobs at my previous place. <S> Or even the glass ceramic plates at my parent's place.
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Electric plates at full can be hotter than gas hobs at maximum.
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