texts:
Maybe this is not he correct site but how do you tell people to leave my cooking alone.

Unless it is a big complex meal there is rarely a need for more than one chef.  Others can assist with cutting and cleaning but one person can handle 4 burners. In another kitchen as a guest I always ask what I can cut or prep but I stay off the stove.

I am a better cook than my mom. I worked as a short order cook for 7 years. For example over the holidays she will ask me to cook breakfast and I will start sausage on low while I prep other stuff like cut hash browns. Mom will come in the kitchen and turn up the burner (often when I am not looking and I get blamed for burnt sausage but pink in the middle). It is her physical kitchen but she asked me to cook.

Or BBQ for guests and they will open the grill and turn the meat (I bought).  Or I am smoking and they will check on the meat which loses 15 minutes of heat and then ask when will it be done.

How to politely but firmly tell people to leave my kitchen alone?


texts: at what temperature should apple-choco pie be prepared?

texts:
I have done this in the past but didn't really get the pie to turn out like I expect. I am wondering if I am not cooking it at the correct temperature since all the other aspects of the apple-choco pie recipe have been followed.

Here is the recipe:
ingredients

  For the chocolate pastry:
  3/4 cup plain wheat flour (maida)
  3 tbsp cocoa powder
  5 tbsp powdered sugar
  4 tbsp butter/ghee

  For the filling:
  2 apples chopped in small pieces
  2 tbsp brown sugar
  2 tbsp chopped nuts (walnut, cashew)

  Make the pastry:
  mix all the ingredients in a bowl and add the butter into the flour, till it resembles bread crumbs. Add 1 tablespoon of cold water to gently knead it into a firm dough. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Roll out 2/3 of the dough into a circle. Prick with fork at regular intervals and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Bake it in a pre-heated oven at 300°F for 15 minutes.

  Make the filling:
  mix the apple(chopped), sugar, walnuts & keep aside.

  Place the filling on the half baked chocolate pastry and sprinkle the sugar mixture on top. Cover with the remaining rolled out chocolate pastry and seal the edges.  Prick the top of the pie with a fork at regular intervals. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 300°F until
  golden brown.

But it still didn't have the taste I wanted. In fact, it wasn't baked properly. What mistakes were there that resulted in the base of the pie being sticky?

What other fruit can I use instead of apples, other than dry fruits? Which tastes better than apples?


texts: I have seen coffee prepared as in Qatar: It was mixed with cardamon, and had a light brown colour. The taste was excellent. I was told that the coffee beans were roasted only very little. Which kind of coffee beans are typically used for this coffee in Qatar, and can one get them in Europe.


texts:
trying to get the hang of making good artisan bread, and my last loaf tasted great. But it stayed flatter than previous efforts, and was very tough.

I am doing my best to understand the science as clearly as possible, so I want to know what part of my process I should look at tweaking to get the results I want?


texts: How do you finely dice an onion without crying?

texts:
This question addresses onion crying

But no one seems to say what should you do when you finely chop an onion. See, not cutting the onion core, using the Gordon Ramsay technique and generally pivoting away from the onion helped so far. But now I have upped my dicing skills. I can chop finer, but alas I am a victim of my own success where the smell of the fine onion is almost like the obscenity of grated onion (horrible).

Sharp knife, not cutting to the core, pivoting away etc all stop working when you are good enough to fine dice an onion. Short of goggles, what do you do?


texts: Why do hamburger patties have ridges on one side?

texts:
Why do hamburgers have one streaked/furrowed and one smooth side? Which side should be cooked first in a pan?

I'm talking about their shape, not their color or anything similar. If you look at a raw patty from its side it looks like the drawing below.

---------------------------
|  _   _   _   _   _   _  |
|_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_|

You can see the ridges I'm talking about on this photo.


texts: I have a recipe for a dutch apple pancake (basically sauté apples, make batter and place in pan, add apples, bake) that I wanted to try with peaches. However, my sister thinks it'll turn out too wet/soggy with the peaches. My thought is to use less ripe peaches or sauté them for less time. Will that work? How can I replace the apples with peaches?


texts: How do I stop homemade Ravioli from going soggy? (storage issue)

texts:
Last week I made some Pumpkin Ravioli.  The filling was a bit moist, but nothing excessive.

The problem is, that obviously, I don't want to be stuffing ravioli immediately before they go into the pot.  I would prefer to do it earlier in the day.

I made mine about 4 hours before cooking, and when I went to cook them, the lower sheet of pasta had gone soggy, and was sticking to the waxed paper.  This was due to fluid transfer from the stuffing to the pasta.

How should I store the ravioli for up to several hours without this happening?


texts: Dough whisk as a substitute to a mixer or wooden spoon

texts:
I made a short bread recently(it was my first try at baking) and the recipe said that I should use a wooden spoon.

My question is this: could I have used a dough whisk instead of a wooden spoon?

And of course any comments on experience using a dough whisk would be appreciated.


texts:
I have a bread machine and make bread using margarine (I need to avoid all dairy). The problem is the margarine doesn't always mix properly and sometimes ends up on the outside of the dough, leaving shiny dark crunchy spots. The recipe I am following is

1 1/2 cup water
3 tbs margarine
1/2 tbs salt
1/2 tbs + 1 tsp sugar
4 1/8 cups A/P flour (Canadian A/P flour)
1 tsp bread machine yeast

Can I substitute some kind of oil instead of margarine? I suspect this will mix better but I'm not sure about how the chemistry works.


texts: Does ornamental cabbage make decent sauerkraut?

texts: I've heard that ornamental cabbage/kale can be bitter. I'm interested in using it for food, but I would want to make sauerkraut with it (lacto-fermented ornamental cabbage). Is the bitterness going to be as much of a problem here as it would be with cooked cabbage dishes? I'm thinking maybe the sourness from the lactic acid would overpower the bitterness, or maybe the fermenting would change the bitter flavor to something else—or even complement it.


texts:
I had several candies in individual plastic bags. I assembled paper bags to group together various candies to give to my classmates. I did this on a carpeted floor, with the plastic bags of candy over copy paper (occasionally touching carpet) and the paper bags that they would go into sitting directly on the carpet. I have a cat; cats step in their own litterboxes. The cat has not been in the house for a week. The candy itself, of course, has never touched anything but the hands of the woman who put them in the plastic bags.

Is there a risk if I give my classmates the candies?


texts:
I've recently found a recipe that I really enjoy, but it calls for a sunny side up egg. Every time I try to fry an egg in this way it ends up sticking to the pan, the yolk breaks, and it ends up as an eggy mess.

I've tried multiple pans including my cast-iron pan, a teflon, pan, and others but they seem to always stick. What am I doing wrong?


texts:
I grew up putting this stuff on my popcorn and absolutely love it.  I recently found out that you can also put it on salads that have a vinaigrette dressing and it's also delicious.  Are there other common applications that I am not aware of?

FYI - Brewers/nutritional yeast != baking yeast


texts: When cooking on a charcoal grill, does it matter how far the grate is positioned above the charcoal?  If so, how high should it be?


texts: Can you season over some thin flash rust and get a usable pan as a result? What are the downsides of doing so?

texts:
I've had a carbon steel pan with some thin flash rust spots. I've tried to remove them by scrubbing, but after applying a new layer of seasoning it turned out I hadn't removed all of it.
While I find a lot of posts online about how to remove rust from pans and how to prevent rust in pans, I can't find a clear answer to the question whether a thin layer of rust under layers of seasoning is actually harmful. The way I see it, once there's enough seasoning on top of the rust there won't be any oxygen for the rust to expand and the surface that touches your food is free of rust.
What are the downsides when you have some flash rust in a carbon steel pan and continue seasoning over it until the pan stops giving off rust when rubbed with an oily paper towel?
Some of the problems I can imagine happening (but I'm not sure if they will happen):

The seasoning won't hold onto the pan as well as it would without the flash rust.

The new layers of seasoning won't 'grab onto' the rusty parts meaning that you will never arrive at a point where the existing rust is trapped inside layers of seasoning. In other words, when rubbing it with an oily paper towel the pan will always continue giving off some rust.


texts: How to make big, fluffy "Mexican-style" flour tortillas (without using any special machinery)?

texts:
Flour tortillas are so bloody expensive (and rare!) outside of the U.S. so I'd like to make my own. A friend taught me how to make some ages ago, but I stopped because they were always weird and I could never get them to taste, feel or smell like the ones I got in the store (never-mind from Mexican restaurants in California!), not to mention they were always little tiny baby tortillas only intended for children with very small fingers.

The recipe was basically this (disclaimer: haven't tried in about a year):

Add flour, oil, salt and warm water into a bowl and make a dough.
Knead until you can't anymore.
Break off small pieces and squish/roll out into thin tortillas.
Throw into a frying pan with some butter.
Occasionally flip and wait until dark spots appear on both sides.

It worked out but the results weren't spectacular, often too crispy, too thin, etc. maybe I just need to practice at it more?

How do you make big, fluffy "Mexican-style" flour tortillas (without using any special machinery) ?


texts: How do I render large quantities of fat?

texts:
Suppose I have many pounds of fat to render. (Sometimes people have 100 pounds!) How can I do this efficiently?

Should I use a pot on the stove, a slow cooker, or the oven? How many pounds should I render in each batch? Do I need to add water?


texts: Should flour be thrown out past its expiry date?

texts: As the title says, is it safe to consume flour once its past its expiry date or should it be thrown away?


texts: Which foods and ingredients are the main sources of fibre in traditional Lao cuisine?

texts:
I'm taking an interest lately in Lao cuisine (I'm in the country). But I haven't noticed where they get their fibre from.

Which traditional dishes or ingredients should I investigate?


texts: I have a recipe that calls for "6 large baking potatoes." So the question becomes, what is considered the average size of a large baking potato?  I've looked online, but sadly do not have time to continue my search and the results appear to be all over the place.


texts: What changes should I make to accomodate vegan naked fatties?

texts:
I would like to make naked fatties on the barbeque this weekend, but want to accomodate some vegan friends (and my on/off lacto-ovo wife). I can easily swap regular pork breakfast sausage for Gimme Lean, some other brand, or homemade. Ideally, I would like to have a hearty protein/nutritional medium at the end that is full of smoky flavor and could be used in other dishes too (i.e. chili, soup, casseroles).

I have lingering questions though:

Which brand (if I go with store bought, as I don't really see trying homemade breakfast sausage out for the first time as part of a meal for others) works the best? Not necessarily the 'meatiest'; which holds its texture and flavor through the cooking process without either breaking down? (Particularly with respect to long cooking, i.e. through smoking)
Would this work better with a quinoa chub instead of the vegan breakfast sausage? Or would the chub end up inedible? (Don't answer that if you think quinoa is already inedible.)
The recipe calls for using 1 lb sausage chubs (whole) with "indirect heat at 250 degrees until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees, which will take about an hour"; how should I adjust cooking temps/times to account for it not being actual meat? (since veggie burgers, links, etc "cook" much faster than their meat counterparts.)
How can I ensure the range of effect in terms of the cooking process (smoking) imparting flavor is best preserved?


texts: Help! My friend brought me 3 Italian black truffles in brine (according to the label), packed by the producer in a glass jar. When I received them they weren't actually in liquid. I didn't realize they were supposed to be refrigerated. I left them in the cupboard for a few days and now I have discovered a gray, fuzzy mold growing on them with a bit of slime on the bottom of the jar. This is very sad. Can I rinse them off and still eat them? It would be such a shame to throw them away. Also, as a side question, I've never used truffles before-are they supposed to be hard? Or is this another sign that they're old and moldy and should be tossed in the compost? Thanks for your input.


texts:
I can't decide between the conflicting research! Who's correct?
Stop Microwaving Your Sponges, Immediately.
“When people at home try to clean their sponges, they make it worse,” Egert said — similar to how people can encourage antibiotic resistant bacteria if they don’t follow the doctor’s orders.", from a Seattle Times article
Our research suggests that long term cleaning might select for potentially pathogenic and/or smelly bacteria. We think this is because some bacteria can adapt to the cleaning process, survive the microwave or dishwasher, and can easily grow to higher numbers again. from a blog
The microwave was one of the next most effective, zapping 99.9% of germs.
"Basically, what we find is that we could knock out most bacteria in two minutes," says researcher Gabriel Bitton, professor of environmental engineering at the University of Florida, in a news release. "People often put their sponges and scrubbers in the dishwasher, but if they really want to decontaminate them and not just clean them, they should use the microwave." from WebMD


texts: Why does cooked chicken taste different after a few days in the fridge?

texts: I have observed that cooked (fried) chicken tastes a little bit different when left in the fridge for 2-3 days. I don't observe this with pork or beef. Is there a way to get around this or is this really normal for chicken meat?


texts: I like Mexican Spiced Mocha and want to make it at home. But every recipe that I go through has chili powder as an ingredient. I am quite apprehensive abt. it. Can I make this particular coffee leaving chili pwdr and substituting something else in its place?


texts: My son made a beef stew last night and brought it over to me today.  The meat he used did not become tender. I am 79 years of age and the meat is just not easy for me to eat. I want to try putting it in my pressure cooker to make it more tender for me to eat. Will that work? Or is there another good way to make it more tender?


texts: I have a Wedding Cake and Groom Cake to decorate for the middle of August.  The Bride's cake is a 5 tier and the groom cake is Chocolate.  The Wedding will be outside under a Barn Shed with no electricity for cool air.  What frosting is the best to hold up in the humidity?  The bride doesn't want any fondant.  And need some ideas as to keep the cakes cool when I don't have enough refrigerator space to hold all these layers up to transporting to the wedding.


texts: Are sharkfin melon shoots really edible?

texts: I read that the shoots of sharkfin melons (Cucurbita ficifolia) are edible. Isn't that kind of unique for a cucurbit? Is it true that they're edible? Are the mature leaves/vines poisonous?


texts: How to do icing swirl effect (a bit like marbling)?

texts:
The cake above is from this website and I was wondering how the swirl effect is done on top of the cake? At first, I thought it may be done using a similar method to latte art, but am really unsure. Is it just a cocktail stick pulled through the icing in a curve? The bit that confused me most was how there was milk chocolate in the white chocolate half and white chocolate in the milk chocolate half for the same swirl.
The cake in the image below (which is from the same website) seems to have used a similar technique:


texts: Rib Roast Rare standing up or lying down?

texts: I have a 4 inch thick one which I'd like rare. Will it make a difference if I cook it standing up or flat in the pan? And at what temperature? I have an electric oven.


texts: Why is there a difference between softened and melted butter when baking?

texts:
I once tried to make some cookies and assumed that melted butter would be the same as softened butter.  It didn't work out...

Why does it make a difference if you use softened or melted butter?  Seems like it all ends up the same if you beat it into a recipe...


texts: How to choose an upright, self-defrosting freezer?

texts:
All,

we're in the market for a freezer.  It will be in our (converted) garage, and due to our space constraints we want a self-defrosting upright freezer.

I found some useful-ish articles such as:
- http://housewares.about.com/od/refrigeratorsfreezers/a/chestvsupfreezr.htm
- http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/freezers/buying-guide.htm

Intended use is to store leftovers (mostly from stewy dishes), broth, ice-cream and cuts of meat (we might want to buy a 1/4 or 1/2 steer or hog, butchered and packaged).  Currently we do not use our sub-fridge freezer for much in terms of veggies or fruits.  We might want to get and ice-cream maker and store the bowl too.  An automated ice cube maker would be nice, but not a must have.

Convenience, ease of mind, and build quality are key.  Price & cost of use are important but secondary.

I am interested in opinions from current freezer owners on key features & characteristics.  What are the details that you have found useful, what are those you found were gimmicky?  How to assess build quality?  Should we look for a longer warranty than 1 yr?

Many thanks,

JDelage


texts: How to get the texture of commercial ketchup?

texts:
This has some relation to my previous question. Though I have managed to successfully blend xanthan gum with my home-made tomato mixture, I am unable to achieve a texture close to Hienz, or Hunt's ketchup, or any commercial sauce for that matter.

My xanthan gum-added ketchup does not have the same buttery, smooth texture of Hienz. No matter what I do, the resulting sauce is too mucus-like.

My question is, besides xanthan gum, do ketchup manufacturers add anything else to achieve the buttery, smooth texture?

Below is my ketchup recipe:

Boil 1kg of canned San Marzano tomatoes for 5 mins, until soft.
Press the mixture through a sieve to get a clear juice and filter out any pulp or skin. Ketch
I would then simmer this juice with 200ml of vinegar on a pot for 3- 4 hours until it reduces from 900ml to 300ml. Note that at this point, the sauce is still watery.
I added xanthan gum at this step, 1/8 of a teaspoon at a time. The resulting mixture after adding around 3/8 teaspoons was that the ketchup was still thin, but already mucus-like in mouth feel. Adding more xanthan gum at this point thickened the sauce considerably, but also made it more disgusting in mouth feel.


texts:
Since I was a child, I never really liked mushrooms. To be honest, I was extremely picky, but now, I eat anything. Well... Almost anything. I can't stand mushrooms. Except, I can't understand why, and I want to learn to love mushrooms since they're really useful as a vegetarian.

For example, yesterday, I made some pretty simple miso soup and added some, supposedly delicious shiitake mushrooms to it. I salted them and fried them at medium-high heat for a few minutes until they had a nice color and texture. Did doing that affected the taste in a bad way?

I also remember making mushrooms risotto some time ago and getting the same disgusting taste.

Am I missing something obvious here? Is this not how you're supposed to cook mushrooms?


texts: Why should I bake baking soda for making ramen noodles?

texts:
I see this recipe for ramen noodles ("alkaline noodles") that says to use bicarb / baking soda that is baked in a very slow oven for an hour (250F / 120C) before incorporating into the noodle dough. Is it necessary to bake the bicarb? What does baking do?

The New York Times has an article about baked baking soda, which says that baking transforms the sodium bicarbonate into sodium carbonate (NaHCO3 into Na2CO3?) but this seems strange; does this really work or is it safe? Am I creating hydrogen gas or presumably harmless water vapor and carbon dioxide?

If it is worth doing for some reason, then there are the ancillary questions. How do I know when it's "done" baking? Both seem to be nondescript white powders. Will a different compound result, after dissolving both in water? Are there any safety concerns with sodium carbonate?


texts:
I'm new/ignorant to using avocados and never really enjoyed them until 3 months ago when I bought some on a whim. The avocados actually tasted great. They were creamy and had the consistency of butter. The seed was a bit of a pain to clean, as the skin around the seed would stick to the avocado, so I had to pick it out. Also the avocado skin would tear easily if I were to eat it with a spoon.

For the past week, the avocados I've been buying taste awful. It feels like I'm eating Aloe Vera or some other type of plant. The avocado is easy to clean (the seed pops out easily) but they taste watery, grassy and bland. It reminded me of why I didn't like avocados. Also they're not mushy/creamy like the previous ones I was buying. In fact, they're hard, even if they seem soft on the outside.

My question is, are these just bad/unripe avocados or are they a totally different type? If so, which are the nice type?


texts: What are some alternatives to xanthan gum for stabilizing mayonnaise?

texts: Xanthan gum helps keep mayo emulsified through the jar being pasteurized, shipped, stored on the shelf for months, and kept in the refrigerator after opening. The diet of my customers does not allow for highly processed additives or anything made from grains or legumes. What alternatives are there to Xanthan gum, and in which amounts should I use? How do the alternatives compare? What is the best way to learn more about this topic? Additives that fit the diet include agar, acacia gum, and chicory root inulin.


texts: Is it ok to store open cans in the fridge?

texts:
I'd been taught growing up that you should never store canned food in the fridge in the open can. Is there any scientific basis to this, or is it just an old wives tale?

What types of foods should not be stored in their can once open? Would olives, for example, be harmed from this sort of storage? Or only more acidic foods like tomato paste or pineapple be affected?


texts: How to Judge the Appropriate Feeding Schedule for Immature Sourdough Starter

texts:
I am a week into the development of sourdough starter.  I initiated the starter on spring water and a flour mixture that is 1/2 whole grain rye (Hodgson Mill) and 1/2 whole grain wheat (King Arthur).  I am maintaining the standard 100% hydration in a kitchen that stays around 70° F - I have been maintaining it by discarding half the starter each morning and replenishing that part with fresh rye/wheat flour and spring water.

After the initial craze of bacterial activity where the starter more than doubled overnight, it is now bubbling reasonably well and increasing in volume by about 20% in a 24 hour period.  With bubbles and a great smell, I assume things are going well.  I'm not in a hurry - I know these things take time.

After reading through numerous books by all the bread authorities, I still have a few questions that I wanted to parse out to the contributors on this site for advice.

(1)  For an immature starter like mine, is there an advantage to feeding twice a day as opposed to once a day?  My understanding is that a mature starter will rise and fall - the fall being precipitated by the exhaustion of food for the yeast.  If my starter hasn't developed sufficient yeast to consume the available food within 24 hours, is there a compelling reason to re-feed it after only 12 hours?  Basically, will the yeast multiply to form a mature starter more quickly by receiving fresh food more frequently (at the cost of discarding half of the starter).

(2)  From my reading, I gather that the "float test" for starter is the most reliable way to judge when it is mature enough to support yeasting a loaf.  When the starter gets to this point (again assuming a constant 100% hydration), will it also reliably double in size at some point between feedings?  Should I wait for doubling behavior before float testing or might I eventually pass the float test without getting anywhere close to doubling?

(3)  I am following the discard-and-replenish-half approach to starter development.  Some sources recommend a more aggressive discard policy.  Intuitively, I would think that replacing a larger percentage of starter would require a longer time for the yeast to multiply into the new medium - I assume that means the period of refreshment would be longer (and probably that it would ultimately serve to amplify the lactobacillus activity in the starter).  My question here:  are there any yeast-development-related arguments to support discarding and replenishing more aggressively in an immature or mature starter?

(4)  Overall, my plan has been to continue feeding my starter daily while monitoring appearance and smell.  I was only planning to move to a 12-hour feeding schedule if my starter rose AND fell within 12 hours (yes/no?).  I'd love to hear from people like me - people who don't work in a bakery or live next to a bakery - about how long it took them to develop a reliable mature starter - I'm figuring on a month but would love it if things worked out sooner than that.


texts:
This is a silly question, but my wife will turn on the oven to preheat while she prepares stuff, but sometimes it takes her 15 minutes to 45 minutes before she puts things into the oven.

Generally, how long does one need to preheat the oven before it's to the desired temp?  I know that this can easily be solved with a thermometer, but we don't have one.


texts:
Sweet whey powder (henceforth "SWP") is a byproduct of making cheese and is a commodity.

The protein content of SWP is 13.1% protein by weight.  The rest of it is largely sugar (74.5%). See its nutrition fact sheet here.

One can buy SWP at $50 for 55 pounds from a bulk foods co-op, like Azure Standard, and thus the price per pound of protein would be:

 $50           1 unit SWP            $6.94
------ * --------------------  = -------------
55 lbs    0.131 units protein    1 lbs protein

Conversely, for whey concentrate:

$96.48     30.4g WC         $12.22
------ * ------------ = -------------
10 lbs   24 g protein   1 lbs protein

I did the analysis for simple whole milk, but I've forgotten the price per gallon.  The number my wife gave me last night yielded a higher price per pound of protein than using the SWP:

   $???           gallon      453.5g      $????
----------- * ------------  * ------- = -------------
Gallon Milk   128 g protein    1 lbs     1 lbs protein

All that said, the price per pound of protein of SWP is about half that of whey concentrate.

Previously I have fermented out the lactose with kefir grains, but it was disgusting.  If I must have a lactic acid in the output, I'd like the concentration to be yogurt-level or less.

Is there an easy, at-home method to separate the protein from sweet whey powder?


texts: What is the purpose of tempering chocolate?  If I'm dipping something in chocolate, can I get by with just melting the chocolate?


texts: Why does my dough always need more water than the recipe calls for?

texts:
It seems that every dough recipe that I try ends up needing more liquid than the recipe calls for. This applies to pasta dough as well as bread dough. I don't think I've made but one recipe where the ingredients worked out.

Typically, I'm using a recipe from something like a youtube video, so I know what the dough should look like. Theirs might be soft and pliable, where mine "tears" when I try to knead it and won't come together.

I occasionally have to add flour, but mostly I end up adding water which makes a slimy mess on my hand till it absorbs into the dough. I'd like to get the amount correct from the get go. I know that the amount of required liquid can vary with certain factors, like cooking times varying at different elevations, but it shouldn't be a problem where I live. I'm just tired of trying a recipe and following the directions to the letter, only to find out my dough needs more water.

Am I going to have to deal with this every time I make a dough recipe and write down my adjustments for the next time? Is there enough liquid there and I just need to let it absorb into the flour? What do you think is going on? I do realize that recipes usually need a little tweaking, but I don't run into this consistent problem with any other recipe I make.

EDIT: I live in the South East, USA. One recipe example is the one off of youtube.com from 'America's Test Kitchen' that if for pasta. I can't remember the recipe exactly, I don't even think it calls for water, just eggs and flour, but the issue with too little liquid happens every time I make it. If I can find a bread recipe that calls for water, I've used, I'll post it as well.

Edit: (5/12/2015) I tried to make a recipe I had for Ryan's Rolls. It wanted 1 cup of water and 1/4 cup of honey for the liquid and wanted me to add 3 cups of flour and use the paddle attachment till it came together in a sticky mass, then add an additional 1 cup of flour. I did as instructed, and while it was a sticky mass, I'm not sure it came together in the way they were thinking. I went to add the additional flour and knew it wouldn't take it all, so I added half a cup. It was so dry I took a 1/2 cup of water and added it a little at a time. The dough finally started to do right, but was very tough. I ended up having to stop the kitchen aid a few times and kneed by had to help pull it together. It was easier to work after resting a couple of hours, but my rolls still ended up with weird layers where I was kneading and it wasn't coming together, because it was overly dry and/or tough, and that was leaving out flour and adding almost 1/3rd again the liquid. I also pulled out my scale for this and measured everything by weight to get it exactly right. It's a good example of what I was talking about.


texts: Are there any techniques to "cheat" at cooking a risotto?

texts: Cooking a risotto takes a fair amount of attention and work, adding stock a ladle at a time with almost constant stirring. The chemical process behind this makes sense to me. Are there any ways to short cut this process though? I'd like to be able to make a risotto with a little less attention. I'm wondering if some hybrid technique of early attention and later just adding liquid and letting it boil (or maybe the reverse) might provide a similar result with less work.


texts: Substituting with Bacon and Bacon Fat in a Recipe

texts:
I've been thinking about throwing cooked bacon into various recipes like candy and bread. Are there any general guidelines for adjusting the recipes for handling this addition? For example, should I lessen the amount of fat or salt to adjust for the same coming from the bacon?

On the same note, what fats can I substitute bacon fat for? I know it is a liquid when heated up but solid in the fridge. Does it work in place of butter, oil, etc?


texts:
I'm planning to purchase an Electric steam cooker, however, I'm concerned that the plastic surface which comes in contact with the food will eventually leach into the food.

Is it just better to use steel & bamboo ones? or should I buy electric & consider naturally lining it with lettuce or maybe lining it with parchment paper?

What do you guys do?


texts: Should I fry the chicken first or should I pressure cook it first?

texts:
I fried the chicken breast in the oil till its surface was brown and then I pressure cooked it.
The result was hard chicken. I found it quite difficult to chew.

What should I do next time to make it utterly soft?


texts:
I am planning to buy a KitchenAid mixer for my wife as a birthday present. However, there are multiple models and I am not sure which one to pick. My wife will be using the mixer for making cookies, cake, pizza dough, and possibly bread.

One of the main differences between the models is the wattage, with some models having 325 watts while others having 575 watts. How important is the increase in wattage for my wife's uses?

Another difference that I found is that some model has a burnished metal dough hook while the other model has a nylon covered dough hook. Would this be a big advantage/disadvantage for either models?

Thanks.


texts:
The short story - cant get the temp in the oven right. It gets too brown, if I lower the temperature it is not cooked and the internal structure is not as good as it should be.
The long story - so far I tried the following.

Preheat   Baking     Time     Internal structure         "Brownishness"
------     220 *      7min          10                       10
then       180 *      10min         10                       10
225*       180 *      20min         10                       10
230 |*|    180 |*|    15min         4                        10
250 | |    180 | |    18min         8                        8

Legend:
* - convection
|*| - top/bottom plus rear fan
| | - top/bottom

So, whatever I try I get them too dark or not cooked/ugly internal structure
What I'm missing here?


texts:
Sometimes when I make black bean soup it forms a skin. Why is this?

Ingredients are: beans, olive oil, salt pepper, garlic, cayenne pepper, and cumin.


texts: Pumpkin mousse looks grainy and slightly watery

texts:
I attempted to make my first mousse last night, and followed this recipe for Pumpkin Mousse: http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/2077-pumpkin-mousse

The only changes I made to the recipe was cutting the sugar by about 1/4, and using 1% milk instead of whole milk.

Below is an image of the final result after chilling in the fridge for a few hours.  Unfortunately, as is immediately apparent, it is not particularly "mousse-looking", and is instead rather grainy, a little lumpy, and seemingly too "runny".

I am looking to potentially salvage the large amount of "mousse-goop" I've made, and I'm wondering if I should try to:

Blend it more, or...
Add something to potentially improve its consistency.  Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!


texts: Can a cream cheese cake be left out and for how long?

texts: I have an awesome cream cheese and blueberry pound cake recipe that I love to bake. Can it be left on the counter and for how long?


texts: Chocolate covered cookies stuck to cooling rack

texts: I have some glazed chocolate cookies that I accidentally put on a cooling rack to let the chocolate glaze cool off, but now the chocolate glaze is completely stuck to the cooling rack. Any ideas on how to get the cookies off the rack without destroying them?


texts: is there a blender/food processor combo still made?

texts:
A long long time ago I had one--I think it was a sunbeam. one base unit worked for both the blender and the food processor. I could really use that now, but haven't had any luck finding one.
it doesn't have to be a sunbeam, just one which uses one base for two functions.
help?


texts: Can I substitute Carrot Juice for Tomato Soup, in 'Tomato Soup cake'? Do I need to adjust the recipe in other ways?


texts: Is it possible to turn Rice Krispies back into rice?

texts:
Specifically, would it be possible to turn Rice Krispies into rice suitable for serving with chicken teriyaki?

One of the main characters of the webcomic Leftover Soup is an expert cook. To establish the character's skills, the author has him prepare a restaurant-quality meal from the contents of an extremely understocked kitchen, with only one hand. One of the feats involved in preparing this meal is reconstituting Rice Krispies into rice, to go with chicken teriyaki.

I have no idea how realistic this scene is. Is this actually something you can do with Rice Krispies? If this is possible, how would you do it, and would the results be any good? The author's notes say it'll be explained in the strip how this works, but by the time I stopped reading, it hadn't been explained yet.


texts: I want to make Italian Three color Christmas Cookies (like these: http://www.food.com/recipe/italian-tri-color-cookies-rainbow-cookies-147882 ). This kind of cookie is traditionally are covered in melted chocolate, but my husband and son are both allergic to chocolate. The last time I tried to melt carob chips, I discovered that carob doesn't melt (it was awful...). So... how can I make a carob coating for these cookies?


texts: How long can I store open wine for cooking?

texts: I bought a bottle of wine larger than required for my recipe. How and how long can I keep the remainder, so I can use it in cooking again? (In other words, it needn't be drinkable.)


texts: Am I on wrong track or is my Apple Cider gonna waste?

texts:
I am new to this forum. I am questions regarding ACV. But for this I am writing the complete scenario for understanding.
Last year, I made ACV (watching some tutorials from YouTube) and ingredients I used were:

Water
Sugar
Apples as whole
During the making of it, I had the smell of something acidic going around in the kitchen and i guess it was fine but even after fermenting and preserving it for a long time, I couldn't see the Mother in it (the cloudy film in it).

Question 1: Did I do something wrong in it? Although I took care of everything even I tasted a bit sour and acidic too. I still have it preserved in a bottle.
Moving ahead, about 2 and a half week back from today, I started to make another batch of ACV and ingredients I used this time were:

Water
Sugar
Apples as whole
Yeast (a lil bit, not much)
Previous batch ACV (just a glass of it in a jar)

Problem is that I am actually worried about is, when I stirred it after one week of starting, I could see some bubbles in it, but after 2nd week when I looked at it to stir, I couldn't see any bubbles in it and majority of the apples were sunken to the bottom, I tried smelling it closely. Okay, it smells a bit of acidic of maybe alcoholic but it's aroma isn't spreading like the previous one in the kitchen.
Question 2: I am worried if this batch is waste, is the yeast in it is dead, if there is less sugar in it, is there something else or if it's going fine? (No, there is no mold or something in it, that's atleast a good sign)
Question 3: I am not clear till day that how long do we have to ferment apples then enclose the liquid to form the Mother?
Please guide me, because I really am worried about it.
Update: I read somewhere that it happens when sugar is in excess. I just added some yeast to it and i can see that bubbling going like right now that made clear that i think i got messed up with yeast since start because i think i made a mistake by adding a lil bit hot water not lukewarm water. Will check it regularly, hopefully I have to keep a strict check on sugar and yeast so that the process could proceed smoothly.


texts: Does one have to occasionally put up with this kind of nasty surprise after switching to organic beans?

texts:
First I diversified my source of protein by eating beans. Then I was glad to find that it's a lot easier to find organic beans than organic beef. Even better, I could stock on a variety of beans and reduce my visit to the health food store to once every six months.

Now the bad news. Before cooking beans, I submerge them in water overnight. I'm now finding that one kind of beans is infected with insects. These living insects float to the surface. This happened despite that I stored the beans in an airtight container. Given the airtight storage, I'm guessing that I purchased the beans already contaminated, possibly with eggs.

Is this one of the distasteful surprises that one must put up with once in a while if one chooses organic beans? I'm guessing that the very reason we humans are interested in organic food—the absence of pesticides—is also the reason why insects will get attracted to them. Although they may be present just as much in other non-organic food, except that they would have perished.

In the old days it was apparently not uncommon to buy apples from the store and once in a while find a worm. These days even organic apples never show these undesirable proteins, possibly as a result of food irradiation.

Especially if you are vegetarian, I'd like to hear from you whether it's possible to look around for better stores, or whether this is part of the deal.


texts:
If I were to make an Italian homemade pie that can work for almost all occasions (i.e. for kids because of no coffee/alcohol etc.) I'd think of a jam crostata. It's a buttery dough (pasta frolla) that is thinly rolled, filled with jam or custards and topped either with stripes/other patterns of the same dough or fruit or just nothing.

There are many recipes for pasta frolla, depending on how crumbly/compact/airy it has to be. The following video is just an example, but it's about a general principle in there that I'd like to ask about.

This Italian pastry chef, quite a reference in the field I'd say, says that the ratio of the filling should be 20% of the weight of the dough, which just feels too little. https://youtu.be/p8hurVQxGhE?t=518. (in italian, sorry)

Last time I baked something similar, my jam was about 80% of the weight. Although it was quite of a thin layer, I found it quite balanced. A 20% layer would have been almost inexistent and the final product would have been a butter cookie with a hint of jam flavor.

Nevertheless, the baking was good and also the bottom layer got browned.

The pictures from the website of Massari's shop suggest clearly a higher ratio: https://www.iginiomassari.it/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Crostata-confettura-d-albicocca.jpg

I'm sure that the average Italian housewife doesn't think too much about how much filling there should be, but is there an "official" value?
I could google myself but I don't really trust the average Italian cooking blog; nowadays there are just too many and everybody can write all the nonsense they want in there. I'm questioning just because I heard this from Massari's own voice.


texts:
I eat every morning fresh fruit, so every morning I peel and cut it.
What can I do to prepare a big bowl and the fruit will stay fresh for a few days and which fruits are best to keep.


texts: How can I break an emulsion making carotene butter?

texts:
I am making carotene butter by mixing clarified butter and carrot juice.

The idea is that I now need to separate the carotene infused butter from the juice. The only problem being that they are very well emulsified together.

I tried blending it more until the heat and friction would break it, but that has not happened, even after more than 5 minutes of blending on high (my blender's limit.
I tried heating the liquid to a boil but this did nothing either.
Lastly, I tried decanting it, but it barely separates even after a long time.

How can I break the emulsion?


texts: What do 5 star restaurants do differently when cooking steak?

texts: Recently I had an $80 steak, and it was the best thing I have ever eaten. I do not normally eat this sort of pricey food and so I was shocked at just how good it tasted. My question then, what exactly do chefs at these top restaurants do with their steaks to make it so tasty. Are the raw ingredients better? Is it preparation or cooking mechanism? Some strange technique? I just don't see how the raw steaks I buy and cook myself could ever be made to taste so good. It didn't even taste like the same meat. And it wasn't topped our coated in much, just peppercorn. I didn't even need steak sauce it was so tender.


texts: How do I make the ingredients in a burrito evenly distributed?

texts:
I've been to countless "Southwest" Mexican restaurants, but for all of them except Chipotle, they just can't seem to get the ingredients in a burrito evenly.

For example, one burrito I had had all the lettuce up on the top, the rice was in the middle portion, and the meat I had was stuffed at the very bottom the burrito.

If possible, is there any way to ensure an even mixture of ingredients in a burrito? Is there a certain place to put these ingredients?

I'm asking this because it's one thing to have a poorly wrapped burrito, and it's another thing to bite into a huge chunk of pure guacomole.


texts: Roasting large quantities of garlic: whole unpeeled heads or peeled cloves?

texts:
I'm going to be making a soup dish that calls for 50 cloves of roasted garlic.  I have always roasted garlic by cutting off the top of a head, drizzling it with oil, and wrapping with foil.  Then when they're done I just squeeze out the paste from each clove.  But some comments on the recipe say it's easier to roast them already peeled in a covered dish so you don't have to squeeze 50 cloves and deal with all the stickiness and peels.

Since I already know how to easily peel whole cloves very quickly, it doesn't make much difference in the amount of work for me to do it either way.  In fact, it's probably quicker to peel them.

My question is, does it affect taste or any other quality to roast them as an entire unpeeled head rather than as peeled individual cloves?  And if not, should roasting time be adjusted?


texts: If a recipe calls for tamarind pulp/paste/concentrate, can I substitute powder? If so, how much tamarind powder should I use?


texts: I made gravy for supper today and I have more than we can eat. So I was wondering if it was possible to freeze gravy after it has cooled down in the fridge. If it is possible than what would be the best method to approach it?


texts: How to salvage a totally nuked cast iron dutch oven?

texts:
Please note: I don't believe this question is a dupe. There is this question, which has some excellent answers, but they are suggestions that don't apply to my situation because I have ruined my cast iron oven differently than the user who asked that question.

So last month I got a massive 16" cast iron dutch oven from Cabelas. I seasoned it by cooking it in a campfire for a few hours (w/ lid on), letting it cool, and then rubbing a little bit of olive oil into it. Last week I took it for a test drive and cooked some peach cobbler on it (again over campfire), and it was perfect. I cleaned it by boiling water in it for an hour, scraping off the crust with a wooden spoon, and then reapplying the olive oil to it.

Last night I decided to cook a pork shoulder roast inside of it. The instructions said to let it cook at 325°F for 3 hours. Since I'm still so new to campfire dutch oven cooking, I got a roaring fire going, and unloaded like 30 charcoal brickets into it and let them heat up. Definitely was blazing too hot, but I didn't know any better. (Subsequently since last night I discovered that there are actually formulas that correlate specific numbers of brickets and their locations with specific temperatures. In hindsight I think my oven was soewhere around 450°F.)

I put the oven on the fire (with the pork inside of it, and about 1/4" of apple cider vinegar resting underneath it). 90 minutes later I went to check on it and the pork was totally charred black and overcooked. So it was pizza for dinner! But, to my horror, the apple cider vinegar-herb-seasoning liquid had now turned into black carbonic rock in the bottom of the oven:

Under the lid was a buildup of a super thick tarry sludge that has the consistency of superglue.

I tried washing both the oven and lid with salt water (course grained). Very little came off. I tried boiling the oven over the same campfire for a few hours, and again, practically nothing came off. I went to the Google gods, and the best idea I was able to find was to soak both the lid and the oven in a 50/50 mixture of water + vinegar overnight. So I did that.

The oven remains unchanged, even after soaking in a vinegar solution for nearly 10 hours:

As for the lid, all of the surficial tar/sludge came off, but it is still super sticky to the touch, unlike it was before. And now there is almost a 'metal vapor' that its giving off.

What the heck happened here? Did I just cook at too high a temperature? Are you not supposed to cook apple cider vinegar in a dutch oven over the campfire? Much, much more importantly, how can I fix this and restore the oven to its full glory again?


texts: How many pounds of fresh beef does it take to make a pound of beef jerky?

texts: Beef obviously loses water when you dehydrate it to make beef jerky.  What's the ratio here?  Does it take two pounds of fresh beef to make a pound of beef jerky?


texts: How do you apply colored sugar just to the raised image on a cookie

texts:
I bake a LOT of cookies, but tend to gravitate toward the soft and chewy type - normally a drop cookie but I have also done rolled and pressed cookies. Recently my daughter asked me to make a cookie she saw on TV. The cookie she described had a raised design and had colored sugar only on the raised design.

I am guessing those cookies are some type of shortbread cookie (a cookie with little or no leavening so the imprint stays sharp) either baked in a mold or stamped before baking. However, I cannot find any information on how to decorating just the raised image or the just the imprint. Every web site I have looked at basically covers the entire cookie with colored sugar or uses some variety of royal icing.

How do you decorate just the embossed part of the imprint with colored sugar? Are cookies like this made with stamps, molds, or stencils? Any help would be much appreciated.


texts: Do tinned anchovies need to be sold cold for food safety or quality reasons?

texts:
Anchovies, tinned or in glass, is sometimes kept and sold cold. I don't see that happen with other foods. Is there a food safety reason for this? If so, does it mean that they also need to be kept refrigerated after purchase even if unopened?

The only reason I can think of is Botulism, because they can't be pressure heated because they would break? Is that so?


texts:
Bought some frozen brocolli fritters from a restaurant. But as it was closing time and the cooks had left, I couldn't get any proper instructions on how to reheat them.

I have a very basic baking oven with a dial for temperature and timer. Have the following doubts:

Should I thaw the fritters first before putting them in the oven? (If yes, for how long?) Or can I straight away put them into the oven and start reheating them?
Should the oven be pre-heated?
At what temperature should I reheat them?
For how long should I bake them?


texts:
I cook quite regularly at home, but I have trouble tasting food while cooking. All I want to know is if I should adjust salt, pepper or sourness. On the rare occasions that I taste, I invariable mess up the ingredient that I tasted. For example, I might place a little quantity (enough to lick) on my palm, wait/ blow for it to cool down, taste and adjust for salt. Later when eating the meal, I discover that I have added too much salt.

Any tips?

If it matters - this is South Indian style vegetarian cooking - lentils, vegetables.


texts: When (and how) do I add a pre-packaged japanese curry to a slow-cooker?

texts:
Opinions across the internet vary on the most effective time (and method) of adding the curry roux to the slow-cooker.

Is the most optimal means to melt the roux with a little hot water in a seperate saucepan and add it on top of the other ingredients, or is it better to simply break the block up and add it at the end?


texts: What adhesive should I use to repair a glass and silicone cake mould

texts:
I have a silicon and glass cake mould with the round base made of glass with some silicone feet and a detachable rim made of silicone. One of the feet came lose and dropped off.

What glue I can use to re-attach it?


texts: Do tea-like drinks typically require the plant material be dried or processed?

texts:
Many of the plants in my garden have leaves or flowers that are, in various places, described as being good for making a herbal tea. A couple of examples are lemon balm leaves (Melissa officinalis) and strawberry guava leaves (Psidium littorale). I also have a number of different varieties of mint.

When you buy herbal teas, the leaves or flowers (or bark) that the tea is made from are obviously dried. Is the drying process an essential aspect of the tea preparation, or is that simply for storage and preservation? If you have access to the raw ingredient, do you need to dry or process it in some way first or can the tea be made satisfactorily without any drying or processing?


texts: I bought some red grapes, and they have a thin layer of white dust on them. What is this? It has no flavor and seems to be harmless, but sources differ on what exactly it is, so if anyone has an authoritative source, I'd be interested to find out.


texts: Serious buildup outside of cast iron skillet

texts: I recently was given an old family cast iron skillet and noticed that the outside of it had serious buildup. Basically I can take my fingernail and lift several, thick, black pieces off. The inside of the pan is fine. I was wondering where this comes from and if this affects cooking on the pan. Also what would be the best way to remove the buildup? Thanks


texts: Is aluminum pressure cooker reactive? Will it give "off" flavors?

texts:
I have an aluminum (not stainless steel) 5 qt pressure cooker that I bought fairly cheaply at a kitchen ware outlet store. It seems the traditional pressure cooker application for canning doesn't matter much what the material is: as long as it doesn't explode under pressure. I'm interested in using mine to cook stocks, beans, etc. The instructions I received with mine indicate several models of several materials and sizes.

Does the aluminum composition risk giving off, tinny flavors when cooking stocks and stews? Is there any other reason to believe I may have purchased the wrong "kind" of pressure cooker?


texts: Is there a safety issue with freezing raw chicken with raw stuffing?

texts: I was planning on making stuffed chicken capons and freezing them raw. This is with fresh raw chicken and raw stuffing (no eggs), and then freezing the chicken stuffed with stuffing and defrosting and cooking at a later point. I was told that it's a safety issue and I should instead half-cook the capons and then freeze. I don't see the logic in this and haven't been able to locate any proper source. Is there any reason why this would be unsafe?


texts: Selecting nuts for successful home oven-roasting

texts:
I have gotten into the habit of buying raw or blanched or otherwise unroasted nuts from the local co-op in bulk and then oven-roasting or skillet-toasting on the fly for recipes. For most types of nuts it is either cost-saving or provides a tastier ingredient.

In the course of doing this I have picked up a nasty habit of digging into my baking stash and oven-roasting nuts for ~ten minutes at about 400'F (typically in a dash of extra oil, salt, red pepper, paprika, garlic, etc) for a quick snack. So far walnuts and pecans have yielded tremendous results.

Today I tried some raw almonds (whole, roasted) and was less than impressed. Typically, and especially with walnuts, they produce more oil and develop a lighter texture and the flavor becomes more pronounced. The almond meats remained pretty much the same in texture and flavor profile, and only picked up the oil that I had tossed them in.

I assume the lower change was due in no small part to the fact that they were previously roasted, however other nuts that had been previously roasted still had a flavor and texture change.

Yet I am left wondering  if there is perhaps a lower rate of return in making the effort to roast certain types of nuts. Is this the case?

For instance, will oilier nuts (i.e. brazils) produce better results when (re-)roasted?

Also, is it possible that I may have selected poorly in terms of the nuts chosen.

For instance, would slivered have worked out better?

Is it possible that pan-toasting versus oven-roasting would yield better results in certain scenarios?
Is there a better temperature to be roasting at? I have tried 375'F-425'F and, with a watchful eye, had good results regardless of the spot in that range.


texts: Is there a good test for whether a flat-top stove is working correctly?

texts:
I live in a rented apartment, and I'm having an issue with the stove.

The stove is one of those electric flat top stoves.

What seems to be happening is that at least one of the elements, when switched on, switches between being fully on, or being completely off. Even when on minimum temperature, it the element will turn on to what looks like 100% power, and then switch off to cool down.

This has caused at least a couple of dishes to be burned.

My questions are:

Is this how flat top stoves are meant to work, or is this a fault?
How can I conclusively test that the stove element is working/not working correctly, so I can tell the landlord to fix it, (and which elements to fix).


texts: What is the best type of plastic to store alcohol?

texts:
What kinds of food-grade plastic is best for storing alcohol for cooking use? Does the type of plastic differ based on the percentage of alcohol?

My question actually comes from wanting to brew alcohol in an area that has no access to glass for storage purposes (rural Tanzania), but does have access to food grade plastics.


texts:
I am making cream of pumpkin soup.
I need to go do the weeks shopping and also get the cream I forgot. (Cream is added in the last step of my recipie)

The recipie I am using calls for it to be cooked for about 20 minutes,
but shopping will take about an hour.

For many soups simmering them for 1 hours vs 20 minutes, is an enhancement that lets the flavor come out.

Is pumpkin soup one of them?


texts:
dads, chefs, cooks, and other kitchen tool-familiar folks,

We used to have this exact fork like spatula but it recently broke. We are looking to buy a replacement but we don't know what it's called so it is difficult to look up to even know where to buy it.

It's like a cross between a fork and a flat head spatula, slightly arched, and tapered at the tip. Non-stick pan safe.

Thank you


texts:
I am working on puffed rice cakes, but I can not find how they are flavoured.

Is the oil sprayed on it and seasoning sprinkled after? Or is an oil-seasoning slurry sprayed, or is it something else alltogether?

But if oil is used, it must be in a very low quantity as it comes under health food category. Kindly help me with this.


texts: Food that does not spoil, lightweight, energetic and balanced

texts:
As I am preparing to get into sailing, the problem of having food with me that does not spoil, is lightweight, sufficiently energetic and well balanced becomes relevant for me. Personal satisfaction is of course also important. Water is available, but occasionally something without water may be called for.

If you had to arrange food with these characteristics in mind, what would you pick ?


texts: Scaling problems with a cake - mousse layer increases more than other layers

texts:
We've come up with a recipe for a cake that has four different layers (a dough base plus fillings) and is then covered in chocolate mousse. We tested that recipe as a small sample and concluded that the ideal proportion was to have 70 grams of base layers for 80 grams of chocolate mousse, creating a tight cylindric 150 gram cake. So far, so good.

We then proceeded to make a bigger version, with a wider mold, which would weight 1.88 kilograms, so we scaled our recipe and found out that 875 grams of base layers for 1kg of chocolate mousse. But the problem is, the mousse layer becomes so large that it collapses.

Fixing this is fairly obvious: use less mousse. Maybe, since the mousse is less dense than all the other layers, increasing its total weight has a much bigger impact in terms of volume. But how can we define our recipe in terms of volume rather than weight, then?

I feel like we're missing something very obvious here, but if the proportions of the recipe are the same as the small, initial version, why do we get such different results? How can we scale the recipe in order to achieve a consistent amount of mousse, regardless of the size we attempt to make (i.e. what kind of math is required to make a 1kg, 2kg and 3kg cake from one single recipe / set of proportions, considering the form factor stays the same -- still round, same height, just different diameter -- if it's even possible to do so)?


texts: Folding dry ingredients into the cake batter: at once or in 2/3 portions, does it make a difference?

texts:
The following is my go-to sponge cake recipe:

6 eggs
2 and a half cups flour
1 cup oil
1 and a half cups sugar
1 cup milk
2 and a half tsp baking powder
cardamom and saffron

First I separate eggs, then I cream egg yolks and sugar. I add oil and mix well, then I stir in lukewarm milk. at this time, egg whites are beaten until stiff-peak forms. Then it's folded into the yolk mixture. dry ingredients (sifted) folded at the end. Goes into the oven (pre-heated/180) until the edges are golden.

The issue is, at the stage where I add dry ingredients, sometimes I add it in three portions and I sift it over the batter. But some other times I do it at once. I get different textures, soft and fluffy or quite sense. Is adding flour at once causing an undesired texture?


texts:
I was exploring a variety of online sources and I stumbled into the emulsifier Glycerol Monostearate (GMS). According to Wikipedia it is commonly used in ice cream to make its texture creamier.  I also noticed that it's commonly used with Carboxylmethyl Cellulose (CMC).

I have a Kitchen Aid ice cream maker accessory and one of common problems I have is that I feel like the overrun is very high and the ice cream is crunchy.  I wanted to try to address these issues with these additives.  Unfortunately, they're not mentioned in the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream book. ;)  Information on the internet is relatively sparse as well.

Does anyone know the appropriate proportions for these ingredients in a French-style ice cream (with eggs)?


texts: How much meat do I need to serve 26 adults?

texts:
Hello everyone i am cooking for 26 adults and 4 children
menu is :

rare roast beef served on crusty bread with horseradish
main:
slow roasted pork belly with cider and cream gravy
roasted lamb
served with Mediterranean veg and Yorkshire puddings

I really need help with how much raw meat to buy please thank you I am in south africa
Kind regards Lea


texts: How can you tell when flour has gone off?

texts: I was just reading another topic about grinding flour where someone suggested that their flour supply would go off within two weeks if not kept in the freezer. I buy my flour in 20lb bags that last me several months. Is this wrong? How do I know when it's bad?


texts: Is this siphon based recipe for mousse au chocolat trying to whip the cream?

texts:
The following recipe came with my new N2O siphon:

dissolve 75g of chocolate in 275g of cream
cool to 5 degree Celsius
strain through sieve into siphon to make sure no undissolved pieces of chocolate get into siphon
pressurize siphon
shake 8-10 times

When I eat the mousse au chocolat immediately after letting it out of the siphon, it doesn't quite have the texture I expect from mousse au chocolat (my reference is a traditional recipe with eggs, whipped cream and chocolate), but it's still fluffy and nice. When I let it rest in in the fridge however, which usually gives mousse au chocolat a firmer texture without being less fluffy, it kind of deflates and reverts to it's pre-siphon state of liquid chocolate-cream mix. It actually keeps it's fluffiness worse than a vegan variant I also did with 250g of coconut milk and 100g of chocolate (which has enough fat that it becomes solid in the fridge and keeps it's fluffiness).
Is that supposed to happen like that? Isn't a whipped cream siphon supposed to, you know, whip the cream?


texts:
I tempered 70% bitter chocolate (Lubeca brand) following the instructions on the Anova site using sous vide: first to 115 degrees, then 81 and lastly 90 degrees (all Fahrenheit). The resulting chocolate was nicely tempered after cooling in the fridge but it would not hold its shape at room temperature.

How can I correct this?


texts: How to stop meatballs falling apart when frying

texts:
I tried cooking meatballs as a change to what I usually cook but I found that they didn't stay together when being fried.

I made the meatballs with about 500g of mince, a chopped onion, some herbs and a beaten egg. I then mixed everything up in a mixing bowl and then fried.

After I realised that they weren't saying together when being fried I tried adding another egg, but it still didn't help.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I did wrong, or what I could try next time?


texts: Why do some recipes require or insist on the use of a wok over the use of a skillet / pan?

texts:
I have an electric stove. Many of the recipes from my Asian cuisine book call for a Wok to be used rather than a typical flat based pan. Why is there so much stress on the type of pan when the purpose is to heat the ingredients? What different effect to the food is brought by the fact that the Wok has less surface area contact with the stove surface and that it has a cone like shape? I could understand the reason if it is because someone works with a fire / gas stove.

I can imagine a type of layering of ingredients where the amount of ingredients differs in quantity eg. meat and carrots at the bottom and cabbage on top and that these must cook at different temperatures. Are there recipes such as this? or are there different reasons for this?

Since I am a bit confused I offer anyone to edit this question to be more concise to inspire answers describing why a wok may be better for certain recipes


texts: Does resting the dough for a long time reduce the need to knead the bread?

texts: In this article by Chef Michael Smith, he mentions a recipe where leaving the dough to rest for 18 hours removes the need to knead the bread. Is this a viable alternative? I've tried the recipe and found that the bread was more dense than a properly kneaded dough.


texts: What is the correct mixing method for this kind of batter?

texts:
I made a pie according to the following instructions. While it did turn out good, I'm not sure if the mixing method is sound.

It called for beating two eggs with sugar until white and fluffy. Then, I would carefuly fold in flour. After that, they wanted me to beat in liquid ingredients - milk and a bit of vegatable oil.

My question is does it make sense to incorporate more liquid ingredients after the flour is in? While folding in flour, you take extra care not to disturb the air capsules created in the first stage, why would you subject your batter to more rough handling after all that?

If changes are neede, what would be the correct procedure? What is the name for this type of batter?


texts: How will this cookie crust consistency change if overworked?

texts:
My daughter is making pumpkin pie bars and the cookie crust instructions say the ingredients (listed below) need to be pulsed in the food processor until the mixture resembles coarse sand. She has ... excessively pulsed it, so it resembles a paste or thick batter. (Whoops.)

How will this overworking affect the texture of the crust? A crumbly shortbread is the goal, but I'm wary of what this paste will turn into!

  For the Crust:

  1 cup cold butter, cut into tiny pieces
  6 tbsp brown sugar
  3 cups flour
  1 egg
  1 tsp cold water


texts: Can I make meringues with commercial egg whites?

texts: I want to make a bunch of meringue cookies, but I don't want to waste a bunch of eggs. If I buy something like Egg Beaters Whites, would that work?


texts: What is this silvery spot at the bottom of my wok after first use?

texts: I just used my wok for the first time to make some chicken fried rice, usual ingredients. What is this silvery spot? I cleaned before using and everything, but this spot, whatever it is, won’t come out. Have I ruined my wok?


texts: If salt dehydrates the meat, then why would brining make it more juicy as a whole?

texts:
As the title says, why does brining work?

If salting, by osmosis, pulls the water out of the meat, then why is meat considered more juicy after it's cooked?


texts: Can I use unpasteurized store bought miso to make more miso?

texts: I have some leftover chickpeas and red beans that I was thinking of making into a miso paste, but I don't have any koji and don't want to go searching multiple stores in the middle of a pandemic. Can I use store bought miso as the starter for making more miso? It says unpasteurized so I imagine that it is just dormant and can become active again. Has anyone done this before?


texts:
What is the history of the standard sheet (bun) pan? Who came out with the sizing? Why that size? When did it occur?

There are full size(26x18 Inch), half(18x13) and quarter(13x9).
 image from


texts: Bell Pepper Mousse - won't charge or discharge

texts: I made an ISI Whip recipe for Bell Pepper Mousse, chilled the mixture in the container for 2 hours, then charged the mixture twice, heard gas release, shook it vigorously 20 times and it would not discharge. On opening the canister, the mousse was not aerated at all. What happened?


texts: Is there a way to prep mutton in order to ease its strong flavor?

texts: Mutton has a slightly "gamey" flavor, is there a way to prep it before cooking which reduces this "gamey" flavour?


texts:
I have been experimenting with making my own condiments over the paste few weeks and there is one thing I cannot get correct.

The tomato paste has a thicker grainy texture that is really not desirable in a condiment so I was wondering if there is a good way thin out that texture for a more saucy feel.  I am also trying to maintain a strict Paleo diet so using corn syrup or other things like it are not ideal.

thanks


texts:
I am a PhD student and I intend to cook in my dorm room. There is a wooden enclosure, I am not sure if it is meant for cooking but I intend to cook there.

Please take a look at the space. Although the clutter is annoying, but I intend to attract your attention to the closed like wooden space. I plan to make rice, sauted vegetables, grilled chicken on a regular basis and boiling water for eggs, coffee and the like. I don't intend to make any gravy/sauce based dishes. I am worried that cooking for the next 3-4 years there could damage the wood.

If I were to cover the wood with aluminum foil, would it take care of the issue and is it safe to do that?

Edit: I plan to use an electric induction stove.


texts:
I have been asked to make a main for a potluck this Halloween and I thought I would be "clever" and bake a lamb stew in a pumpkin. I plan to hollow out the pumpkin and add meat, veg, spices, etc. and then replace the top and poke a small hole in it to let air escape.

The main problem is that my oven isn't working properly and don't want to risk it failing halfway through.  Would it be possible to wrap the stuffed pumpkin in tinfoil, and put it over a gas burner on low?  I have plenty of time and could let it slow cook for hours, but I have my doubts on if the technique would work.


texts: How can I prevent scum forming in the water when I poach eggs?

texts:
When I poach eggs, an off-white foam/scum forms on the surface of the water and sometimes attaches itself to the egg. Does anybody know what causes it, and how I can avoid it?

EDIT: I use malt vinegar rather than white vinegar, which I think discolours the foam/scum and makes it look more unpleasant, so I think I'll change to white vinegar.


texts: How much brown sugar should I substitute for white sugar?

texts: I'm making a cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries and want to substitute brown sugar for the 1 cup of white sugar without making the sauce sweeter.  What quantity of brown sugar do you suggest?


texts:
Been trying this method recently and generally happy with the results. That being said, I can't help but feel I'm still making a few mistakes:

Steak lets out quite a lot of juice when slicing it, even after it's been rested for 7-10 minutes. How do steakhouses serve a steak on a plate that almost doesn't let out a drop when cutting it?
Cast iron, smoking hot - is there such a thing as too hot? I use avocado oil with a high smoking point but the oil always seems to burn rather quickly, even in just a few minutes of searing. It turns into this ugly brown color and doesn't let off a great smell either.
Steak is unevenly cooked (i.e. top vs. bottom). Should I be flipping it while in the oven?


texts:
Whenever I boil rice to cook biryani, I end up over-cooking it and rice break into pieces after the steaming stage 1. So I want to know how long to boil rice for biryani?

1 Biryani is a rice dish, very popular in indian subcontinent and surrounding regions, made with Indian spices, rice, meat (chicken, goat, beef, prawn, or fish), vegetables or eggs. For biryani, meat and rice are cooked separately before being layered and steamed together to finish off cooking.


texts: Why are my cookies spreading too much? More flour?

texts:
My chocolate chip cookie recipe spreads too much, even after I refrigerate the dough overnight. I have looked into the different answers on this site, but nothing seems to be working consistently. I'm wondering if the amount of four I'm using is too little? Should I add some baking powder? I know softened butter helps, but I like the taste of melted better...and I do chill the dough.

Here are the ingredients I use:

280g all-purpose flour
.5 tsp salt
.5 tsp baking soda
1.5 sticks butter (melted)
1 C brown sugar
.5 C granulated
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 egg, 1 yolk
1.5 C chocolate chips

Any tips are appreciated.


texts: How can I prepare Jack fruit to simulate the texture of pork?

texts:
The best fake meat I've ever had was in Srilanka. 10 years ago I traveled to the Kandy mountains in Srilanka, where I had the most extraordinary non-meat stew. Jack fruit, potatoes, long onions, a strange circular bitter eggplant veggie thing, and other stuff I can't remember. This was stewed with cow bones on a open fire for several hours in a cauldron sealed with banana leaves and topped with a rock. Ok, the flavor did come from cow, but the texture of the meat was truly meat! If I didn't know that it was jack fruit I was eating, I woulda sworn it was pork!

Does anyone know how to make this?


texts:
I am making a chocolate cake for my son's birthday.  Used a boxed cake mix (with a few substitutions) for the cake itself.  Going to use chocolate frosting.  Had the idea to put a light coat of strawberry jelly on the top and let is soak in before frosting.

Has anyone done that before?  Will it work or just make the cake soggy?


texts: "preseasoned" cast iron pot colors my broth

texts:
I recently bought a certain "light cast iron" that looks like a wok. Cooking on induction, it seemed to give my pork broth a black tinge. Broth was fine, but there was certainly something from the pan.

The wok is supposedly preseasoned, so I don't know why this happens. Any workarounds? Should I rub the inside of the wok with cooking oil and bake it in the oven upside down for 30 minutes?


texts: If I have much lower than normal humidity, how should I change the amount of flour that dough needs?

texts:
I made some rolls that came out dense, rather than light and fluffy, and with much thicker crusts than I would have preferred.  After the second of 3 rises, the dough was much less sticky that I expected it to be.  I didn't need to add the reserved 1 cup of flour; that extra flour that you might or might not need.

It was a very dry day for my area of the country; it didn't get above frozen outside, and we had lots of static electricity in the house.  Was the humidity a likely cause for the dry rolls and poor result?  If this happens again, how should I adjust my baking procedures?


texts:
I am having a dinner / make-fancy-cocktails party, and trying to work out the menu.  Since it's a cocktail party, having some sort of alcohol in the dessert seems appropriate.

The difficulty is, for the designated driver, we need to have a non-alcoholic version.  So a recipe where you only add the alcohol at the last step would be ideal.  Unfortunately, my attempts to find such a thing is only turning up recipes where it can be omitted entirely, as opposed to not added to certain serves.

Does anyone have any suggestions?


texts: How can I pick the correct avocados for guacamole?

texts: I tried to make guacamole the other day and it completely failed because some of the avocados that I bought were not ripe. How can I know which avocados to pick in order to make good guacamole?


texts: What makes coffee grinds sink in a french press?

texts:
We use a press pot to make coffee at home, and usually after a 3 minute steep, the grounds are  floating at the top, but with this one bag of beans we got, they're all sunk to the bottom.

The coffee basically tastes normal. Maybe a little thin, but that could easily be the roast.

Why would most coffee grounds float, but these sink? Is there something wrong with these beans?

We use a burr grinder and hadn't changed the grind setting. Same water, etc. Only change is the beans. "Medium-Dark" roasted Ethiopian Yirgacheffe from a local roaster, roasted about 2 weeks before brewing...


texts: Safe to use pressure cooker for beer stew?

texts:
I was thinking of using a pressure cooker to prepare the Flemish rabbit. This requires stewing the rabbit legs in beer.

Is it safe?


texts: What temperature should "simmer" be for candying fruit?

texts:
I want to make Candied fruit more efficiently, and all the recipes I have found say basically "bring simple syrup to a boil, then lower to simmer with the fruit/peel in until translucent"

So my question is:

What temperature should the syrup be during the infusion phase?

I would like to use my SV machine and a zipock to take the guessing and hands on part out of this recipe, but don't know what to set this temperature to.

I found this: To what temperature should you take candied citrus peels?, but it doesn't give the actual answer :(

And I have seen this, (www.chefsteps.com/activities/half-candied-blood-orange) but it has a chamber sealing step I can't do - so don't know how that affects the temp and time hold, if at all.

Thanks in advance for your advice!


texts: How do I clean a pot after boiling eggs?

texts: After boiling 8 batches of eggs, how can I clean the build up of calcium off the bottom of the pot?


texts: Will a hot cornstarch slurry added to a cold mixture still have a thickening effect?

texts:
I'm trying to thicken a heat-sensitive mixture. I would like to use cornstarch as a thickener, but from my understanding, cornstarch must be heated to near-boiling (95 deg C) to gel in a mixture. I would like to avoid heating the whole mixture to boiling. If I make a cornstarch slurry, heat it to boiling, and then add it to a cold or room-temperature mixture, will it still have a thickening effect?

I would prefer to avoid other thickening alternatives like xanthan gum or arrowroot.


texts: How can I make fizz free and alcohol free mojito?

texts:
I want to make alcohol free and fizz free mojito. Is this possible? I don't mind carbonated water; but my family does not drink alcohol for religious reasons. We also avoid and have avoided fizzy sugar drinks for years due to harms. My family are just fizz paranoid so we are looking for some alternatives.

Can we make a mojito or something similar? My local takeway gets handfuls of strawberries and blends them up and then with carbonated water and fresh mint leaves serves them up and calls it a strawberry mojito.


texts: Difference between freezer bag and storage bag

texts: We accidentally used Ziploc "storage bags" instead of "freezer bags" to package some meat for the freezer. We noticed this after the fact and it got me thinking: what is the difference? Marketing aside, they both appear to be resealable zipper-like air-tight and water-tight plastic bags.


texts: In brewing coffee, do I need to use filtered water and what kind of filter should I use?

texts:
In brewing coffee, is it important to use filtered water?  If so, why?

Is there a particular type of filter that is most effective for water to be used in brewing coffee?


texts: Why do light and dark roux have different effects when thickening sauces?

texts:
When you are using a roux, the darker it is, the less it acts as a thickening agent in a sauce and, vice versa, if the roux is quite light, it has more of a thickening effect.

Why is this?


texts: Problem cooking chicken wings with a bbq marinade

texts:
I've cooked chicken wings in a bbq marinade before and the results were disastrous, I put them in a pre-heated oven that was heated to 200 degrees celsius however as the marinade contains sugar the outside got burnt before the inside was cooked. So I've a few questions:

Would it be better to cook the wings without the marinade and then heat up the marinade and allow the wings to steep in that after they've cooked?
I also want the sauce to adhere to the wings nicely, not drip off, how do I do this?
I want wings with tender meat yet a nicely crisped exterior, what temperature and duration would I need to cook to achieve such a result?
Would cooking the wings covered in foil dome/tent and then removing the foil and cooking for the rest of the duration on high heat allow me to achieve this?
Would it be better if I cooked them on a wire rack/frame, rather than laying them down flat on an oven dish? (as that would allow the heat to get under the wings)
How important is the use of oil? Should I brush the wings with oil?

Thanks


texts:
I eat a lot of salads for lunch. It's not hard for them to taste bland because I don't use creamy dressings and try to use healthy greens.

Here is an example of a typical salad I make: Spring mix, tuna (sometimes mixed with a dash of mayo), cucumbers, dressed with a mix of olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Sometimes I will add avocado to this.

It works, I feel good after eating this, but i'd like to make this a bit tastier.


texts: Freeze cookies before or after baking them?

texts:
I need to make many batches of cookies for a party next Saturday, and I would like to start baking them now. To make sure they're still tasting fresh six days later, I want to take advantage of my freezer.

I can find advice all over the internet on how to freeze dough for baking later, and how to freeze cookies after baking, but not much on which is better! Should I bake first then freeze, or freeze now and bake the day before?

(The specific recipes are snickerdoodles, peanut butter, and chocolate chip; if you need more details to judge freezer-appropriateness, please let me know.)


texts:
This recipe for vegan parmesan apparently has no added liquid apart from melted coconut oil.
Does the agar actually melt and bind in this case?
From https://greenevi.com/vegan-parmesan-sliceable-grateable/
3/4 cup of cashews
3/4 cup of pine nuts
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
4 tbsp refined coconut oil
1 tsp agar agar powder
salt
INSTRUCTIONS
Place cashews and pine nuts in a food processor, and grind until you get a fine crumble.
Heat up coconut oil in a small pot over medium heat. Once it melted, add agar agar and cook for about 5 minutes, whisking constantly.
Add agar agar and coconut oil mixture, nutritional yeast, and a generous amount of salt to ground nuts, and pulse until incorporated.
Place cheese into a mold of your choice (I like to make one out of parchment paper, to resemble a parmesan shape), and press down lightly, if needed. Place in the fridge for at least 4 hours to let it set.
Cheese will keep for 7-10 days in the fridge. Enjoy!


texts: How to neutralize the flavor of vanilla?

texts: Out of curiosity, is there any flavour that neutralizes or balances out with vanilla?


texts: What is the correct temperature when extracting saffron flavour?

texts:
I have several recipes that call for saffron. Obviously, they all say to put the saffron in some water to extract the flavour so it spreads more evenly in the dish. However, there is no mention of the temperature of the water.

Should this be boiling water? Cold water? hot, or warm water?
I know that hotter water will cause the extraction to be faster, but will there be any damage to the saffron and its flavour?


texts: Tricks to preserve chips (french fries)?

texts:
Since I can remember I've always been crazy about chips (french fries for the Americans). As a result I always make too much when I make them for me. The problem I have and have always had is that they never seem to keep very well. The minute they cool off they become floury and stale. I find that this even happens with oven chips.

When I was a kid my mother used to reheat chips for me in the morning, melting some butter over it, which help rehydrate them somewhat and give them a bit of flavour, but this never really worked all too well.

What I'd like to know is if any of you know of some tricks to help preserve the chips? And also for interest's sake why this happens? This never seems to happen with baked potato or mash. They do lose some of their flavour sometimes, but not in the same way chips do.


texts: I looked up cut of beef on Wikipedia. There are no Russian names for cuts. I'm wondering what they're all called in Russian.


texts: How do you shell groundnuts (peanuts) without breaking their kernels?

texts:
I usually break groundnuts by putting them between my teeth. This often results in shattering the groundnut kernel.

The problem with smashed kernels is removing the papery cover as well as the outer cover which gets smashed and mixed with the kernel pieces. It is difficult to separate them then.

For making peanut butter, how should the groundnuts be shelled?


texts:
Some fresh herbs seem to retain their flavor better than others when dried; for example, dried parsley has very little flavor, but dried tarragon tastes reasonably close to fresh tarragon.

Which other herbs can be dried successfully without losing too much flavor?


texts: How Much Milk Should I add if I Already Have Butter and Sugar in my Recipe?

texts:
I am trying to create a sourdough sandwich bread loaf recipe using baker's percentages and I want to replace some of the water for milk. However, I have no idea if it will be too soft or not at the percentage listed below. Is that percentage just right or would I need to decrease or increase it a bit? and I would love any feedback when using milk. I am not using high-heat milk powder, though. Instead, I am scalding the milk before putting it in my recipe. I am also using King Arthur's All-Purpose flour. Here are the following percentages:

Water: 31%
Whole Milk: 25%
Butter: 12%
Brown Sugar: 2%
Starter: 10% (100% hydration)
Salt: 1.7%

If I missed anything that anyone needed in order to help further I apologize. Thank you for your help in advanced!


texts: I left an Indian cuisine frozen entrée out and I left for two weeks. Will I come home to maggots? I heard Frozen foods can't produce maggots. Please help!


texts: Why does my dough never "fall" after its first rise?

texts:
My bread recipe (from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day) calls for waiting for the dough to double, then "fall."  It never falls, though I cover the dough as instructed (not airtight) either with a towel or plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray.  I have tried spraying the bowl with cooking spray, and have tried without.  Neither results in a "fall."

I've tried using a wide stainless steel bowl as well as one of those food-grade rectangular plastic storage containers a la Alton Brown.

Is the "fall" important?  If so, what can I do besides slam the bowl to coax the dough to fall as instructed?


texts: What will happen if I leave out hardboiled eggs in water for four weeks?

texts:
Stupid me forgot to take out two, unpeeled hard boiled eggs still in the water before leaving on a 4-week long vacation.

If I just leave them be, will they stink up my apartment with that terrible rotten egg smell they use in fart packs?

Condo management is going to be entering my (rented) unit to test the fire alarm in about a week - would it have stunk up my apartment then?

The only person with the keys is the landlord (who lives far away) and the management. It'd be embarrassing to ask either to dispose of my eggs.


texts: i have had a sealed container of white sugar for about 5 years now, we have been using it slowly, but is it safe/healthy to continue using it because of its age? or should i replace it?


texts: How can I incorporate brown lettuce into something appetizing?

texts: I have four bags of lettuce that have gone brown. A nice fresh salad is obviously out of the question. Is there anything I can do with it?


texts: I had my first loose leaf tea today. Black tea, with pieces of dried fruit in it. As I was throwing the used leaves away, I noticed what seemed to be a dead worm. Is this at all common and safe, or should I get rid of the tea?


texts: Why did my meringue deflate and go soft?

texts:
I used 8 egg whites with sugar and beat it. It was so stiff that I could actually maybe cut it with a knife and make a sculpture out of it.

I preheated the oven to 150 degrees and baked it at 140. The meringue deflated and was soft and quite a disaster.

Can anyone please tell me where I went wrong? What made it soggy and deflated? It did not even start to crack. There was not a single crack in the base.


texts: Suggestions for a substitute for almond paste in a cookie recipe?

texts:
I’m trying to find a substitute for almond paste in a cookie recipe. Does anyone have any suggestion for what I could use?

This is a cookie recipe that calls for 8 ounces of almond paste. The recipe divides the batter into 3 equal parts and you add different food coloring to each. after baking in a 13/9 you layer the cookies putting raspberry and apricot jam between the layers, and then top with Chocolate. I like the almond flavoring, so I suppose my question is how do I make my own almond paste? Thanks for any help.


texts: How do I get the best possible texture when making vegetable cream soups?

texts:
Many recipes call for straining the almost finished soup to get rid of any extra chunky bits and get the best mouthfeel. But I am really confused, because with any reasonably fine sieve I filter out almost all of the vegetable matter and end up with a very thin soup.

Not mentioning it's hard to actually finish the filtering process, because the sieve gets all cluttered. The same goes for certain sauces such as Bechamel. Not sure how I can strain the sauce, because it's so thick and doesn't go through the sieve very easily.

What's the best way to achieve really smooth soups and sauces? What kind of sieve should be used?


texts: How are the bones taken out of chicken wings to get boneless wings? Is the meat in boneless wings even from chicken wings or a different part of the  chicken?


texts:
I've read the following dish description in a wedding buffet menu:

  Truffle essence potato soup with parmigiano pearl

I can't seem to find any relevant results using Google Search.


texts:
I wanted to make sweet potato fries but it was very disappointing and not crunchy at all.
I put the first batch in a medium-heat oil and left them for a while, they got out all soggy. I turned up the heat for the second batch, it got a bit better but still way below my crunch expectations. I even tried to put the first batch back in the hot oil, remembering that good Belgian potato fries should go in the oil twice, but I just managed to burn them.
Do you know what I did wrong? Is it because of an excess of humidity? They were pretty dry already when I put them in the oil.
I've read that they should be coated in flour before, does that work? I don't see how it would stick well to the sweet potatoes, aren't them too dry for that?


texts:
I live in the Mid-Atlantic area and have terrible luck buying raw hazelnuts/filberts in the store. They are often bitter and/or old-tasting, very expensive, and you'd never want to eat them raw.

Last fall, my dad shared some hazelnuts a West Virginia woman gave him straight from her trees as a thank you. It was like eating a completely different nut: chewy, sweet, no aftertaste. These weren't the wild variety, sometimes called "beaked"; they looked exactly like what I buy in the store, just a little smaller. I've read that commercial "raw" hazelnuts may have to be pasteurized before sale. Could this be affecting the flavor of the store-bought nuts? Anyone got a better source than roaming the West Virginia hills (as lovely as that sounds)? My chocolate hazelnut biscotti and I thank you :)

CLARIFICATION (based on the kind and thorough replies to date): The store-bought hazelnuts are often bitter even after I remove the skins, and I'd like to avoid roasting and/or peeling. (I want to make some raw hazelnut flour for a pastry crust, for example.) I will look for the DuChilly variety, however, and welcome thoughts on other varietals. Thank you!


texts:
Is there any company that produces milk with the sugar removed or replaced? If not, is there any way to do this on your own?

I love skim milk and mostly buy Fair Life Skim Milk, which is filtered to improve nutritional value, but it still has way too much sugar.


texts: How can I prevent mold from growing on the surface of my sauerkraut brine?

texts:
Related My sauerkraut has mold covering the surface, is it ok? -- but this asks if it's ok, I am thinking it's not OK and want to prevent it from growing at all.

Usual setup:

3 heads of cabbage, shredded and mashed
5 gallon bucket, food safe, with lid, kept in basement
dinner plate on top of kraut, quart of water on top of plate
2% salt-water solution to cover kraut, with 2 inches of extra water
all floating cabbage scooped up

I still get a lot of mold on the surface and it just grosses me out. Talking about 5-10 quarter-sized patches of mold. I've seen suggestions like putting a cabbage leaf on the surface, which still results in mold, it's just on the cabbage leaf.

Do I need to scoop all the kraut into jars at the 3-4 week mark? I was under the impression that you just leave the kraut in the bucket and transfer a jar's worth out when you need more in the fridge.

Is there a tried and true method for stopping any mold from growing?


texts: How long will vacuum sealed grilled lemons keep in the refrigerator?

texts: I have cut in half and grilled lemons, then marinated with sugar, herbs and a little oil... All of which have been vacuum sealed in my fridge for about two months.


texts: I'm making fresh pasta and I'd like to put garlic in it. The problem is that garlic needs to be sauteed to taste good right? Since it doesn't take long to cook fresh pasta, will it work to just saute the pasta instead of boiling it?


texts: Shelf-stable "frosting" for a savory "gingerbread" house?

texts:
My mom read a Rachel Ray magazine, and is planning a craft project with my nephews where they make a log cabin out of pretzel rods.  The problem is that it likely won't be eaten on the same day.

The magazine called for using spray cheese, which I would assume would have lots of preservatives, and she was thinking of using whipped cream cheese (until I raise the issue of storage).

Everything that I can think of to use (icing, caramel, melted chocolate) is relatively sweet.  Is there something that we could use that would be sticky, non-sweet and be safe after being stored at room temperature for a couple of days?  Given how it's being used, it won't be tightly wrapped.


texts:
In the past I have bought this Chinese sweet which name I cannot recall.

It is shaped in little cubes of some sort of trasparent dark jelly (not sure if it is actually gelatine, but it has a gelatinous consistency) containing peanuts and covered with slightly roasted white sesame seeds.

Does anyone know their name and can possibly tell me how to make them?


texts: How can I make a mayo/ketchup-based sauce come out with a consistent color?

texts:
I'm trying to make a zesty sauce from a mayo base/ketchup base mixture.  Sometimes color turns out dark orange, sometimes off white, even though I'm using the same recipe.  I'm thinking that how I make the mayo base could be altering the color of the final product.  I'm looking to get a pale orange final color.

I've been making the mayo base using hand wisk, canola oil, white vinegar, lemon juice and egg yolks and like I've said, use the same process each time but can't explain the color difference.  Any suggestions on what I can do to get a more consistent final product color?


texts: What exactly does cooking meat do as far as sanitation goes?

texts:
I know there are government recommendations for foods to reach certain internal temperatures so that they are "safe to eat". But if the meat has spoiled already, or has been dropped on the floor or something and contaminated with other things, cooking it will not make it safe.

Or will it? How much sanitation does cooking do? What does cooking not do? Or which kinds of food safety issues does cooking eliminate/not eliminate?


texts:
I'm cooking a Chinese soup base kit that I found in my local Asian supermarket (an amazing place!) But I'm not familiar with the ingredients. As some of them look strange and 'woody' I wanted to check if I'm supposed to fish them out like a bay leaf (or rather, strain the soup) or leave them in and eat them? I've checked Google but I'm not sure.

Chinese yam <- pretty sure I can eat this

Fox nuts <- these too

Lotus seed

Changium

Red Medeberry

Longan Pulp

Astragali

Regardless, it smells amazing and has chicken in it too :)

Edit: Now that it's been cooking for a couple of hours and things have opened up/softened I'm pretty sure it's all edible. Even the twiggy looking things are now soft and easy to bite into