texts: How do I ensure my puff pastry top stays puffed and crisp on my chicken mushroom pie?

texts:
I have read many questions and answers on puff pastry but I still need to know what happened to mine:
My pastry did puff up nicely but deflated as soon as I removed it from the oven. Worse, the layers become soggy when cooled.

I bake it at 425 deg F for 25-30 minutes.
The filling I have is moist though not runny.
I make my own short crust pastry as the base lining the tin foil pastry cup.
I line the top with a standard puff pastry bought from the supermarket. I had to roll out that puff pastry a bit as I needed it slightly larger than the size it came as i.e. 4" square. I did try to be careful to not overdo it.
I try to keep the raw pastry as cool as possible before it goes into the oven but it's difficult with our humid weather here.

Do any of these cause my pastry to turn soggy? Is there something that I shouldn't be doing at all?


texts: Can i freeze dough without killing the yeast?

texts: I want to freeze unbaked dinner rolls.  Can I do it after the first rising or the shaping or the second rising or do i have to partially bake them to prevent killing the yeast?


texts: How do I recover from overheating my cast-iron skillet?

texts:
This morning, as with many, I let my skillet dry by leaving it on the burner. Unfortunately, my attention was drawn away and I forgot to take it off the burner! Of course, the moment I noticed, I moved it to another burner to cool, but this light-brown ring appeared.

After it cooled, touched the ring and discovered it was a powder, not merely a discoloration:

I'm not sure what this signifies. How do I recover the skillet?


texts: What are the different applications for differently shaped wooden spoons?

texts:
A while back I got a set of wooden spoons that contained 5 differently shaped wooden spoons. Take a look at the following photo to see the different shapes.

I have mainly been using wooden spoon #1 because that is typically the shape I am most familiar with when I think of a wooden spoon. I have yet to figure out what the other wooden spoons can be used for.

Are there any specific applications that each shape excel at?


texts: After cleaning the stove holes with some liquid detergent, one of them is clogged now. I used a sewing needle, without any effect. Did anybody run into this problem before?


texts: What is the best way to make purple butter icing?

texts: Will mixing red and blue food couloring work or is there a better method?


texts:
Other than color, what is the difference between white pepper and black pepper? I thought it was purely a color thing so that black pepper wouldn't ruin the color of, say, a white sauce. We tried white pepper in a few dishes and in all cases, they were wretched. (FWIW: one recipe was Alfredo sauce.) The only things I can come up with are:

There is a substantial difference between the 2 and we apparently do not like white pepper
There is not a substantial difference but we got a bad batch of white pepper
There may or may not be a difference, but the recipes we tried should not have included this spice

Which is correct?


texts:
I was grilling today and due to lack of equipment, needed to use a silicone turner to remove cooked burgers from the grill, after the gas was off.

Seeing as I may have exceeded the maximum temperature range rating, I checked for obvious damage to the turner (i.e., melting) of which there is none.

Is there any other damage inspection I should give the silicone turner, or is it safe to use? Thank you!


texts: The package says cook from frozen, do not thaw first, but the lasagne is thawed (my daughter brought it up for us) and has been refrigerated for a couple of days.  Is it safe to cook and eat?


texts: How would I go about recreating beef/hamburger taste/umami, strictly vegan?

texts:
I've begun to experiment with creating the perfect vegan hamburger. Hamburgers was something I held very dear before I stopped eating meat and I haven't been able to find something that even comes close to a meat based burger.

Now I've done some experiments with seitan and I feel that I'm getting there with the texture and chewiness, however the taste is still far off and I would like to ask you for your best tips on recreating the beefy taste that hamburgers have.

I've tried the usual, soy, ketchup (or dried tomatoes), garlic, onions, marmite, nutritional yeast and vegan worcestershire sauce. And of course a tad of liquid smoke, but I feel lost and unable to track down what I miss and need to make it just right.


texts: Cooking temperature and time adjustments for cooking several whole fish in a conventional oven?

texts:
I've successfully prepared one whole fish using a roasting pan and conventional oven, and now would like to make four to six of them at once for a gathering. Is there a rule of thumb to adjust my cooking time and temperature when cooking several fish? The first fish was a 1.5 lb sea bass, cooked at 450 degrees for 5-8 minutes per side.

My gut tells me to use two large roasting pans, raise the oven temperature to 500, and just dutifully watch over the fish and flip when they look ready. But I have no idea if this is appropriate, if I should expect to flip in 5-8 or 15-18 minutes, or if cooking up to six whole fish at once is simply unrealistic in a conventional oven.

Thanks in advance!


texts: Why did my mozzarella turn out like ricotta?

texts:
I bought my wife a mozzerella kit for christmas, and we tried to make it last night. We followed the directions pretty closely. I supposed we could have removed a bit more whey at some early steps. It also got up to 112F instead of the called for 105F before letting the curds form. But it never came together or reached the shiny smooth consistency that the directions called for. It would not hold together well enough to pull / stretch. It ended up like ricotta. It was good, but it wasn't what we were aiming for.

When doing my Christmas shopping, I noticed that some of the kits were for making mozzarella or ricotta, so I assume that the two have the same ingredients and a slightly different process. So what's the difference in process for the two? I'm thinking that's where we went wrong.

The result actually looked a lot like what this cheese making site says will result from using UHT milk, but I checked before making the cheese, and it was just pasteurized (and I just double checked, and it still just says pasteurized).


texts: Way to Differentiate between Necessary vs Additional Ingredients in Recipes

texts:
I'm mostly cooking for myself and I'm inexperienced with cooking, so when I go onto any recipe website, I can't tell the difference between the ingredients & steps that are necessary to make a dish, and the ingredients and steps which are additional. For example, in an ideal world, I'd like a recipe to read something like this:

Base Ingredients:
    X g of A
    X g of B
    X ml of C

Ingredients for Improved Taste:
    X g of Some Exotic Herb
    X g of Some Additional Spice
    X ml of Red Wine

Steps:
    Base Dish: (Takes 15 minutes to prepare, 20 to cook)
        Step 1:
            ...
        Step 2:
            ...
        ...
        Step n:
            ...

    Additional: (Takes 35 minutes to prepare, 25 to cook.)
        Before beginning, Prepare the X, Prepare the Y and Prepare the Z.
        On step 2, add X to the dish and add 3 minutes to the cooking time.
        On step 4, add a splash of red wine to the pan and cook for 2 minutes longer.

Or something to that effect. Just something separating the two.

This however is not what I find on recipe websites. So I need some way to differentiate the basic thing from the "chef's touch" you could say. I just need to be able to make things that taste reasonably good, quickly, and not be spending hours.

What ends up happening is since I can't differentiate, I find that my shopping list becomes very long, and cooking takes far too long for someone inexperienced like myself. I want to build up from the basics ideally.


texts:
I am new to making homemade ice cream. I just started to feel confident with plain vanilla, so it was time for the next step - adding fruit.

The custard recipe says it can be turned into fruit ice cream by adding 30g pureed fruit per yolk. I looked into the basket for a fruit likely to make a good puree, and settled for a honey dew melon. I made the custard base (yolks, cream and sugar with a pinch of salt), and, because I wanted more fruit taste, made 50g of melon puree per yolk and thickened it with a bit of guar gum, because I feared crystals from the rather liquid melon. I added the melon to the prepared custard, it wasn't exposed to heat.

After chilling and transferring to the freezing plate, I indulged in licking the thermometer, spoon and bowl used for the making of the ice cream. I was unpleasantly surprised at the lack of melon aroma and strong bitter taste. It was as if I was chewing the seeds of the melon, although there were none in the ice cream, I am sure I'd have seen them if they had fallen into the puree. Combined with the overbearing sweetness of unfrozen ice cream, I thought of throwing the batch out. But I froze it anyway. Frozen, there is much less bitterness (and of course much less sweetness), it tastes as if I am eating a raw gherkin. In fact, if I didn't know that there is melon in there, I probably wouldn't have recognized. It is eatable, but not especially good.

The aroma problem was solved when I ate a piece of the melon: this exemplar must have grown in a dark greenhouse. It was watery, only a hint of sugar content, only a hint of aroma. But it wasn't bitter, just tasteless.

But I am still wondering what went wrong. Does melon react with guar to create a bitter compound? Does melon react with cream to create a bitter compound (I know kiwies do, but melons?) Was there so much heat in the custard base as to cook the melon, and does cooked melon taste bitter? Would a better melon have made a difference, or would it have been bitter, sweet and aromatic at the same time? Is melon generally unsuitable for making ice cream?


texts:
Recently I'm finding that I'm ending up using only part of a bell pepper for a meal, and so wish to store the rest for later.

So how should I best store half-used bell peppers so that they stay as fresh as possible?


texts:
My first time making Ciabatta...

Any ideas why my ciabatta is lacking air bubbles? It tastes nice and light.

It also didn’t rise as much as I’d expected.

I proofed airtight for 90 minutes then open air on a baking sheet for about 35 minutes.

I did notice the initial mix was really wet. Maybe a tad too much water I’m thinking?

Edit:
Recipe - I halved it and followed it exactly.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/easy_ciabatta_98431


texts: Time vs. Temperature - What changes what?

texts:
Really basic question that's bugging me...

Speaking mathematically, 200 degrees of heat for 10 minutes should be the same as 400 degrees of heat for 5 minutes , but that's not the case, right?

So what's the difference if I cook something for 5 minutes at 450 vs. 350, as opposed to something at 350 for 3 minutes or 7 minutes?

Which "dial" (time / temperature) changes the outcome in what way? Why is this?


texts:
If you cake is too domed, you can just cut the top off, right?

Thing is, I tried this, and now my cake is taller on one side than the other. So it's still not flat! ;-)

Does anybody have any good tips for keeping the cut level?

(I already know you need a knife long enough to go right through the cake. I have that. It's just difficult to cut in a straight line by hand.)


texts: Is Hobgoblin a good substitute for Newcastle Brown in a beef stew recipe?

texts: I've bought some beer called Hobgoblin. I was going to buy Newcastle Brown as the ingredients in my recipe say brown ale. However, someone in the supermarket said Hobgoblin was not a brown ale. So what I want to know is, is this Hobgoblin any good in the stew or should I buy another type? If so which?


texts: What is the "grain" in 45 grain brown rice vinegar?

texts: I'm completely lost as to the meaning of "grain" in 45 grain brown rice vinegar.  What does the grain number mean?


texts:
I started experimenting with baking using mixture of wheat and barley. The loaf was very tasty when made this way.

Barley is one of the grains that has gluten. So is there a recipe for bread with only barley?
In my experiment, I added 2/3rd wheat and 1/3rd barley flour. What is the maximum amount I can substitute, if pure barley bread can't be made?

I want the bread to raise nicely and have normal texture.


texts: What varieties of potato would be good for chips / french fries?

texts: What varieties of potato would be good for making chips / french fries that can be cooked in a deep fryer to give a nice golden crunch on the outside, but still be nice and fluffy in the middle?


texts: For patting dry meat, what is a substitute for paper towels?

texts:
Patting dry with paper towels is really wasteful. I would like to pat dry meat with something reusable like a kitchen towel, yet I fear some of the bacteria will remain on it and make it contaminated.

Is there a substitute for paper towels?

Also, do not confuse this question with: Do you use paper or clothe towel

This is about the safety of using a reusable drying material, not it's culinary efficacy.


texts: Can I use brown sugar in No Bake Cookies instead of Granulated Sugar?

texts: Can I use Brown Sugar instead of Granulated Sugar in my No Bake Cookie Recipe?


texts: How do you make a kosher substitute for Beurre manié to serve with meat?

texts: Sometimes the recipe calls for Beurre manié but it includes meat as well. What is a kosher substitute for Beurre manié?


texts:
I am planning to sell popcorn spiced with my own personal recipes, and i am looking to purchase bags for them.

Each bag should contain a single serving of popcorn, but i'm not sure how much that would be.

what is the suggested serving size for an adult?


texts: What is the correct water to pasta ratio?

texts: I have heard one should use a lot of water when cooking pasta; how much water should I use?


texts: Is very slow smoking of meat allowed commercially in the US?

texts:
Many Portuguese sausages, especially in the Trás-os-Montes region, are prepared by smoking for weeks or even months. Examples include chouriço, salpicão, paio, etc. I don't seem to be able to find Portuguese sausages in this heavily smoked style in the United States.

Do USDA regulations allow the production and sale this type of sausage?


texts: I make my sauerkraut in a big crock. I do about 20-30lbs at a time. I usually can it, but this time I just wanted to pack in jars and put in fridge. Unfortunately I didn't have enough brine in the original batch so I had to add more to each jar. Now the good sauerkraut I made is really salty. What can I do?


texts: What type of tea should I use to make Thai Iced Tea?

texts: I love the sweet iced tea you get at Thai restaurants, and want to make my own at home.  I used to buy a concentrated solution online (added water and half and half), but they discontinued it.  I'm not sure what type of tea is used, but it is reddish in color and has hints of coconut taste in it. Cheers!


texts:
I adore Japanese cooking, but when cooking for vegetarians, I don't want to use dashi (bonito) stock. However, if I just omit it, the result doesn't taste authentic.

Anyone have a substitute?


texts: How do I properly cut a bell pepper into strips?

texts:
I often cut bell peppers up for uses in chili, stir-fry, salsas, salads, or any other similar use. What type of knife should I use and how should I cut it? I'm most interested in the techniques associated with efficiency and safety.

Here is an example of what I'm trying to achieve:


texts:
I have a large gathering on St Patrick's day and serve corned beef. In years past I did all the cooking on that day and missed my own party due to all the work. Last year I cooked the beef the night before, let it cool overnight, and sliced it cold. I added water from the pot and reheated it in the oven in aluminum trays, and kept it warm in sterno racks. The taste was great but the color changed from pink to gray.

Any suggestions on how to serve a large group a hot meal and still keep the color of the beef pink would be appreciated. FYI, my typical method is to cook the beef first the night before, then in the same pot with the same water cook the potatoes, carrots, and cabbage on the day of the party.


texts: What is the best way to hold a sphere and for how long?

texts: I have been playing around with the spherification process. My questions are how long can I hold a sphere and what is the best way to do so??


texts: I purchase granola from the store and like to snack on it as an alternative to chips. At the top of the bag, most of the granola are bite-size and easy to pick out. But towards the end of the bag, it is all very small rice-size pieces, and difficult to pick up. Is there a way to take the small pieces and clump them together to make them a bigger size?


texts: What are the best conditions for yeast to develop?

texts: I heard that there are two methods to develop yeast: in cold (which makes the dough taste better) and warm places (makes it develop faster). I also heard that I should use sugar to activate it and some mention salt, though I have no idea for what purpose. How to give yeast the best conditions to develop? Do those depend on whether the yeast is dry?


texts: Resting meat - room temperature and bacteria

texts:
Many cooks/chefs recommend resting meat. There's a saying of "rest for the same length of time it was cooked".
For steaks this is fine, a 6 or so min cooking time means 6 mins at room temp is okay. But what about a full chicken or turkey? Depending on the size, they're cooked for 2-3 hours or more. Surely it's not safe to let those sit at room temperature for 2-3 hours?
It could rest at room temperature, for example, one hour, then the remaining time in the fridge, but this makes the meat cold, and in fact loses the "freshly cooked" essence to a degree.
So if you want to rest a chicken or turkey for the 3 hours of cooking time, must half of that be in the fridge to avoid bacteria growth? Or is there a better way than the fridge which seems to make chicken/turkey a little tougher after it's been cooled?


texts: As the title says; What is the secret of making a really juicy burger?


texts:
It's possible to buy 'part-baked' baguettes in the UK which are intended to be heated in a hot oven, say 220C (430°F), for 10 minutes before serving.

  Does the dough or crust undergo any significant cooking (i.e. a chemical change in composition) in the final step? Or is the only purpose to make the bread palatable?

As a follow up question,

  What differs in the preparation of these baguettes from those intended for immediate consumption?


texts:
Whenever I grill a fish (red snapper), even after grilling for a recommended grill time (about 10 to 15 mins), it comes out no less juicy compared to when it was put to grill. And when put in a plate, its skin is like floating on its flesh due to moisture.

I need a complete dry fish after the grilling is done with crispy skin, How to achieve that?

Note: I dont know how to dry a fish before grilling, I am assuming that all the drying can be done during grill with heating (which currently doesnt happen), any tip that works is welcome.


texts:
I have a recipe for stained glass crepes, now my question is this:what food coloring could be used to simulate stained glass for said crepes?
READY IN: 1hr 10mins
SERVES: 4-7
YIELD: 7 crepes
UNITS: US
INGREDIENTS
Nutrition
1
cup flour
1
cup sugar
1
egg
1
cup milk
1
teaspoon vanilla
12
lolly pops, crushed
DIRECTIONS
Mix the dough according to taste by muffin method. (The muffin method is when you put the wet stuff on top of the dry stuff and mix it together with as little stirring as possible fyi).
Form dough into the shape you want the crepe to be.
Add the crushed lollipops into the spaces between the dough spaces that are open.
Bake for 30 minutes to a hour or until the lollipop pieces are molten.
Wait until they are cool enough to touch and then remove with spatula.
These are the directions for my recipe in question. Can food dye be used to substitute for the crushed lollipops?


texts: I've made a sauce with some white wine (with cream & tarragon) but it's really sharp (prob the wine was a bit old, or I didn't boil it off well enough - is there any way to fix it?  and what's the most likely cause?


texts: How does sous vide cooking time affect moisture (final weight) of meat?

texts:
I know cooking meat at higher temperatures will cause meat to lose moisture as the proteins "constrict". This is well known. Cooking a steak sous vide at 160F will lead to a much drier steak than cooking it at 140F. The 160F steak will therefore be much lighter when removed from the bag.

How does sous vide cooking time affect moisture of meat? Imagine cooking one steak at 140F for 1 hour and another for 5 hours. Will the 5 hour steak be drier and weigh less?


texts: How to stop burning raisins in my fruit scones

texts:
I often like to make scones and mix some raisins into half the batch to make a nice fruity scone.

However often when I lay out my scones and put them in the oven ones at the surface end up being cooked to a hard inedible lump, while the ones inside the scone are nice soft raisins. Short of covering over any raisins that stick out with extra dough, how can I stop these raisins burning?


texts: Can I just skip the hot sauce when making buffalo sauce?

texts:
I've looked for the buffalo wings recipe, trying to find a way to make it from scratch, and came up with recipes revolving around this sort of ingredients:

3 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
salt to taste
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
---
1 1/3 cup Frank's red hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

The recipes vary but about all include Frank's red hot sauce. I can't easily obtain it here so I checked its ingredients:

White vinegar
Cayenne Red Peppers
Garlic Powder
Paprika
Salt,
Canola Oil
Natural Butter Type Flavor
---
Water
Xanthan Gum

Compare to the list above. Butter substituted with butter-flavored canola oil. Xanthan gum. Water.

Essentially, this looks like the buffalo sauce could be made from ~3 cups of Frank's red hot sauce and half a teaspoon of Worcestershire. Or I could just skip the bought hot sauce and double the rest of ingredients, except Worcestershire. Maybe add a bit of xanthan gum to make the sauce stick to the wings better.

Is that it? The recipe first duplicating the sauce, then adding more of the sauce on top of it for no good reason? Or did I miss something?


texts: How do I get crispy but thin bread crust?

texts:
On a handful of occasions I've had bread in a restaurant where the crust is thin but very crispy, almost as if it had a couple layers. It looks crackly and gives easily to pressure. It's not a thick hard-to-chew crust. The inside is wonderful and soft. I'd call it "Italian bread" but I don't think that necessarily describes it.

My crust tends to turn out nicely colored, but 1/8"-thick and sort of soft/damp (like leaving bread out on a humid day) but also not terribly easy to chew.

Does anyone have any tips on how to get a crispy thin crust like this at home?

Bonus: What do you call this kind of crust? (It seems like "crusty" usually means hard thick crust, which is not what I want).


texts:
My mother pickled a bunch of garlic recently and it turned blue soon after. She has had this happen once or twice before where some turned green, but this time all of them turned really blue.

I tried Googling it, but only found mentions of it being a chemical reaction (that much is obvious) and mostly just speculation as to the causes and prevention, but little discussion on the safety of blue/green garlic. There are a couple of of question here about cooked / old garlic and onions turning green, but they have the same information as the other pages.

The few mentions of safety that I can find only go so far as to say that “it’s safe”—we assumed as much when we didn’t die after eating some last time—but they do not give any sort of explanation or proof to that effect. Chemical reactions are by definition change, which means that something that was safe can become not so.

Does anyone know of any information as to the safety of blue/green garlic (particularly pickled) that expounds on “it’s safe”, perhaps with some sort of test or experiment?


texts: Why does my cauliflower puree taste mustardy after two days?

texts:
I recently made cauliflower puree following this recipe.

I put florets of cauliflower in a microwave oven safe pot, together with some butter and some milk, and cooked it till more or less tender. Then I added salt, pepper, a bit of nutmeg and some cheese (I used cheddar and emmental).

At that point in time it was fine, like I had it before.
About two days later, I wanted to eat the leftover puree (which I stored in the refrigerator), but its flavor had changed. There was now a distinct sharp flavor present, which reminded me of horseradish or perhaps mustard.

Does anyone know why and/or how the flavor changed?


texts: Extra Firm Tofu past expiration date: safe, but for how long?

texts:
How long past the expiration date is pre-packaged extra-firm tofu safe, tasty and wholesome.  Generally, expiration dates are for sissies, but something about the tofu made me think twice.

I've seen the fresh tofu expiration question already posted: how long is tofu good for? , but thought there may be a difference with the tofu from the grocery produce section.


texts: I bought some pork belly yesterday and I was just about to cook it when I saw thick hair on it. I tried to cut it with a sharp serrated knife but it didn't budge. I was really put off and put the pork back in the refrigerator. Can someone please save my pork belly and let me know how to get rid of the hair?


texts: Does a head of lettuce really need to be refrigerated?

texts: At the grocery store here in Germany I saw that lettuce isn't refrigerated. So I brought a head home and it's been in my pantry for 3 days and it seems fine... The English speaking internet says that's not ok, I don't know what the German one says.


texts: Oven temps for cooking in enameled dutch oven

texts: What is the temperature needed to bake 1.5 lb boneless pork chops with 2 potatoes and mushrooms in an enameled dutch oven and for how long?


texts: Making pickles or preserves from hedgehog cucumbers (cucumis africanus)

texts:
Tiny hedgehog cucumbers, cucumis africanus, are usually grown as ornamental.  The blurb in the seed catalogue mentions they were historically pickled and preserved, although they are rarely used for such purposes anymore.

I have been looking for any recipes using this cucumber (yes, I picked up the seeds), and have not had any success at all - I would appreciate any help in finding recipes.  I wrote to the seed supplier, and have not heard back from them yet (and I am not hopeful, since they are seed suppliers not african-recipe specialists).  I found no references at all to "hedgehog cucumbers" pickled, preserved, or in recipes in online searches, and exactly one reference to recipes (not actually included, just suggesting similarity to cucumis anguria) under the scientific name, cucumis africanus - which refers to different varieties in the article, and has pictures that look very different so the mention of recipes may be referring to a different variant.  I also looked up "magaka" and "monyaku" (which showed up as possibly local names in the scientific name search), and was unable to find any associated recipes.

I realize recipe requests are off topic, and while I will be overjoyed if someone has one to offer, my question is if someone can point me in the right direction to find them myself, if there are resources to find recipes for this cucumber that someone can recommend, preferably webpages or other resources I can access myself without undue trouble, or if anyone has any tips for how this kind of cucumber (similar to the true-gherkin or cucumis anguria) might have been pickled or preserved, to create my own recipe from.  This should be suitably on topic, if I understand the tags correctly.

I am not expecting culinary greatness out of these recipes, I am guessing that the pickles/preserves fell out of favor because they are sour or bitter, since poor flavor (or possibly poor texture) makes the most sense as to why an edible plant was abandoned - given some of the very strange things people eat.  Mostly I'm interested a) because I'm curious and want to know what they are and how they're used, and b) as a kind of joke for someone I know who is said to be willing to try anything new and different just-because, and will eat even "poisonous" things (safely prepared).


texts:
I made a chicken stock/broth with chicken parts including two chicken legs.  After cooking the broth for three hours, is the meat in the pot considered edible?

Should you save it and use it for something like chicken salad?  Or is it considered lacking in all flavor and nutrients after being cooked for three hours?


texts:
When cooking oil doesn't spread well, how do I fix that without spray or spill? How often do I need to reapply oil? Which oils catch fire?

Is safe to heat any types of dinner plates on the burner?

How do I heat the pan to a certain temperature?


texts:
I recently purchased some elk sausages from a farmers' market but I have no idea what their ingredients are. I understand that game has a lot less fat than other meats, so presumably the cooking (grilling?) time would be a lot less.

Is there any thing else I should be aware of? They cost 4.45 CDN each so I don't want to mess them up.


texts:
I made a cheesecake this past weekend.  The firing schedule was two stages, cook at 350 F for 25 mins; then apply a sour cream top and insert back into oven for 5 mins at 450 F.
When I went to put it back in to brown the sour cream, I noticed there was a fair bit of smoke (although not enough to be alarmed yet).  As I inserted the cheesecake, I noticed what seemed to be a bit of liquid on the oven liner.
As the sour cream toasted, I thought about what could have caused the liquid.  I wondered if maybe something I cooked earlier (like a roast chicken) gave off some spatter.  I became concerned that at 450 F, the smoke would become worse.  Looking in on it, the smoke was indeed worse, and I shut the oven off and gave up on the cheesecake.
I am wondering specifically what caused the liquid.
I have some guesses, but I am hoping someone more experienced than me would be able to say for sure.
First, I will talk about the ingredients of the base cake, and see if that could have caused seepage.
The crust was an Oreo crumb, frozen (not baked), and there were several places where liquid could have gotten through.
The cheesecake itself consisted of:

1.5 lbs cream cheese
2 tsp vanilla
4 egg whites
1 C sugar

I am thinking one point of failure could be the egg whites.  The directions were to beat to soft peaks, then slowly incorporate the sugar and beat to stiff peaks.  When I separated one of the eggs, a very minute dabble of yolk may have gotten through.  I thought I read that if there were any yolks, then it would be nearly impossible to beat to stiff peaks.
After I beat the whites and sugar for what seemed like too long of a time, I settled for what I told myself were stiff peaks.  The recipe called to fold the whites into the beaten cream cheese.  This may have been another failure point: I am unsure I folded long enough.  When I took the cake out to top with sour cream, it showed definite segments of the cheese and egg.
And lastly I am wondering if the oven liner may have caused the liquid.  That is, I think the temperature of 450 F was too high and am wondering if that temp caused the liner to degrade.
Hopefully someone knows what the cause was.  I am looking to make this to an edible product.


texts: How can you measure the caffeine content of a liquid at home?

texts: I saw a question on here about cold brew vs hot brew caffeine content and was wondering what is the easiest (or best) way to measure this at home (if possible)


texts: What alternatives are there to tomato based pizza sauces?

texts: I know someone that can't eat citrus foods or foods with high acidity so when it comes to pizza this means having it with no tomato based sauces. So far this means having ranch or an Alfredo-type sauce, or worse yet no sauce! Aside from these can anyone suggest any other alternatives we can try?


texts: Safe to use some vanilla pods that have been fished out of another recipe?

texts:
I have used some vanilla pods that I bought on a farm in Mauritius to make crème anglaise. Because the pods are a bit special, I have fished them out of the cream and left them to dry. They smell as amazing as before, and they look fine.

Is it likely to be safe to use them in a second recipe? Any suggestions about what to cook?

(Obviously if someone says they're safe and they turn out not to be, it's my fault, not theirs!)


texts: Why is honey heated and filtered for normal markets?

texts:
The honey which we get in the markets is of utterly low price as compared to raw honey. As we all know that this honey is heated at great temperatures and filtered.

My question is then why is honey heated and filtered and then sold in the markets?

The price of heating and filtering should make more expensive than raw honey. Why is it of so low cost as compared to raw honey?

From: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/tests-show-most-store-honey-isnt-honey/#.VvuBK3oaabl

  It’s no secret to anyone in the business that the only reason all the pollen is filtered out is to hide where it initially came from and the fact is that in almost all cases, that is China,” Adee added.

Why would they want to hide where it came from? In India, big companies like Dabur, Patanjali etc. sell such filtered and heated honey. What and why do they want to hide?


texts: How to make garlic oil in a safe way...tomorrow

texts:
I am planning on making some garlic oil for a friend of mine as a birthday present. Her birthday is tomorrow, so this question is a bit urgent.

I've read a few of the posts that indicate that botulism is a real risk when doing this.

Is there a way to make garlic oil without the risks?

A couple thoughts:

make the oil, then remove the garlic
use vinegar to prep the garlic (but how, and with what kind of vinegar? How does this affect the taste?)
heat up the garlic and oil to above 250 degrees, then place in a sanitized vessel.

Any solutions? Having garlic oil on hand is quite useful.


texts: How to cream when there is more sugar than butter in the recipe?

texts:
I am accustomed to creaming sugar and butter, but the recipes I have used until now had more butter than sugar. This time, I tried a cookie recipe which had 180 g sugar and 75 g butter. It was supposed to be creamed at room temperature, without melting the butter. The result was a mass of separated dry crumbles, not the smooth mass I am used to seeing.

Is this normal? Would using a paddle have made a difference? (I used the foam beaters of the handheld mixer, it doesn't have a paddle). Should I have tried to beat for a longer time?

The cookies tasted good in the end, but maybe they could have been better with a better creaming.


texts: I have just used cacao butter 6 yrs out of date to make raw chocolate adding honey and raw cocoa powder. I didn't realise until after I had made the chocolate how out of date it was. Is it OK to eat?  The cacao butter looked fine.  I had it in the fridge all that time in a sealed plastic container.


texts: Yoghurt making : effects of temperature and duration

texts:
As I am fairly new to making yoghurt at home I would like to understand the effects that temperatures and time have on the end product in both the initial heating/cooling step and the fermentation step.

So far I have made half a dozen 1.5 litre batches with three different cultures (currently using ABY-1 from CHR Hansen that I was able to buy from the Westcombe dairy in Somerset). I have a Luvelle machine that can ferment at 36C, 38C and 40C from 1 hour to 24 hours.

I want to understand what changes if I experiment with the following:-

When I heat the milk to 85C and hold the temperature I have made some batches with a 10 minute hold and others with a 20 minute hold period and see/feel/taste no difference - will holding at 30 minutes produce a difference?
I am currently fermenting for 24 hours at 38C and getting a strong tang/sourness to the yoghurt but what would I expect to get if I reduced the fermentation to 12 hours at 38C...or less?
I choose 38C for the fermentation process because it was recommended by the manual that came with the Luvelle machine but what happens if I use 36C or 40C and what length of time would I use?

So generally speaking I want to know more about the initial heating process and what options there are and what the different fermentation temperatures and durations can have on the end results.

Thanks in advance!


texts: Why does adding extra flour help with high altitude baking?

texts: When baking at high altitude it seems that most recipes advise to include a little more flour to the mix. Is it related to boiling point?


texts: Is cornstarch and AP flour really a good substiture for cake flour?

texts:
I was just putting away my cornstarch when I saw this on the label: To make cake flour: For 1 cup cake flour combine 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour with 2 Tbsp. Argo Corn Starch.

Of course I see this two days after paying a ridiculous amount of money for Softasilk.

I usually use AP flour for simple cakes, but I'm making some really fussy desserts for the holidays. Some of those recipes call for cake flour and I've always gone ahead and bought cake flour for that kind of thing. Would I really get as good a result with that substitution?


texts:
Recently moved to the bay area, and it seems that everyone is advertising "Kobe beef burgers" on their menus. As someone who has been in Japan and tasted the real thing, it's quite clear to me that this isn't in any way related to Wagyū  cattle especially considering the low pricing (<15$ per burger).

So, does anyone here know why Americans are calling this meat "Kobe"?


texts:
Subjectively speaking, thin-slicing makes the same ham taste much better, perhaps by increasing its surface-to-volume ratio?

Why do we slice some meats thinly and not others?


texts: Getting the flavor of honey without the sweetness

texts:
Honey has an interesting flavor, but it's very sweet.

Is there any way to get the flavor of honey without it being sweet?


texts:
The chestnuts on an open fire question reminded me: Is there a trick to peeling chestnuts easily? I always end up with bits of hairy skin stuck to the chestnuts (ick), and/or stuck under my fingernails (ouch). We usually roast them in the oven (after slitting them suitably, of course); is there a cooking method that results in easier peeling?

In case it matters, I'd want the chestnuts either for eating out of hand, or for making chestnut puree.


texts: What kind of dough do you use to make typical american donuts?

texts: What kind of dough do you use to make typical american donuts (the ones that Homer Simpson loves). I'm from Italy and I've tried using flour and baking following some tutorials but no way: is not the same.


texts: Do I need to wipe/clean my knife after sharpening/honing?

texts: I'm sharpening honing my cutting knives with a (honing) steel. I'm sure I read/saw somewhere that you should wipe your knives after sharpening honing to remove any shards of metal. Is this correct or necessary? Am I getting confused with something else? It doesn't seem plausible to me that this would create metal shards, but obviously it being a safety issue I wanted to check. Thanks.


texts: Cooking shakshuka without burning the tomatoes

texts:
I've tried cooking a basic shakshuka a few times, and always come up against the same problem of the tomatoes burning to the bottom of the pan before the eggs are fully cooked.

The basic recipe I follow is:

Fry onions until translucent
Add spices and fry for another minute or so
Add chopped tomatoes (from a can, because I'm lazy) and stir everything together
Make small hollows in the mixture and break an egg into each
Stand back and wait for eggs to cook
Scrape burned mixture off the bottom of the pan while serving

I say the problem is the tomatoes burning to the bottom of the pan, but obviously it's actually the whole mixture, I just suspect that the problem is something to do with the tomatoes burning and sticking.

I'm cooking the whole mixture on a gas hob on the lowest heat possible (though there are smaller hobs I can try if that's the issue) using a Tefal non-stick pan (which at least makes cleaning a little easier).

Am I not adding enough oil to start with? Is the temperature too high? Is my choice of pan not suitable? Should I be stirring carefully around the eggs while they're cooking?


texts: How to decide how much to dilute extremely hot chillis

texts:
I have come into the possession of a couple of naga varieties. We don't know which ones exactly, but google search seems to confirm that I do have some very hot varieties on my hands and they may average close to 1 million Scovilles.

I was thinking of making some hot sauce, how do I calculate the right ratio of chilli to filler so that I don't end up with something that will kill me?

As reference, the hottest chilli I regularly use are bird's eyes.

Update:
As a point of reference for others:

I started off with 4 of my nagas (and 1 tiny home grown halepeno) to 7 deseeded tomatoes. I just cut the top and bottom off, then run my knife around the seeds, taking out the 'cross-hairs' structure as well.

I had other ingredients, but tomatoes were the bulk of the sauce. This yielded about 700ml of sauce. At this dilution I could feel the heat, but it was quite mild.

I then cooked it down until most of the liquid was gone. A reduction of about 50% in volume. This left me with a moderate level chilli sauce. It's got heat but I can still taste everything.


texts: Baking Adjustments When Using a Countertop Oven

texts:
I'm planning to bake some scones for a friend, but they only have a simple countertop oven. Although it's rated up to 250W, I would like to know if I should make any adjustments (I'm used to baking with a conventional, fan-assisted oven). Should I:

Change nothing
Keep the temperature unchanged and lengthen the cooking time (originally 15 minutes)
Keep the time the same and increase the temperature (originally 180°C)
Something else?

Sorry if this is obvious, but I just want to be prepared as I've never used this kind of oven before. Thank you in advance!


texts:
I tried to slow cook chicken today using the hob on my gas cooker.  I started on a very very low heat and just left it for an hour and noticed it was doing a good job of absorbing flavours in the liquid which is what I wanted. I then slowly brought it to a simmer, simmered for 10 minutes and then lowered to low poach and left it for 45 minutes. Unfortunately upon taking it out I noticed leg pieces seemed overcooked and where falling apart and juices had come out.

From my understanding slow cooking is cooking at lowest temperatures of poaching up to simmering and doing it for between 4 to 8 hours.  Having tried and thought about it if you cook chicken for 4 hours at low poaching of course it is going to overcook and tear up.  4 hours is too much for chicken let alone 8.  Anyway have I missed something here or how do you slow cook chicken without overcooking it?


texts: Butter separation in english toffee candy

texts:
I've read recently some articles about English toffee candy and the issue of butter separation was mentioned there.

I am looking for further information abut this phenomenon (what causes this separation of butter from the candy during cooking) and how can one prevent the separation
besides using an emulsifier (like lecithin).

Someone has mentioned that salt has a stabilizing effect on the emulsion, is it true?


texts:
The way I make tea at home is per the following:

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk (or sometimes 3/8 cup)
2 teaspoons of tea
3-4 spoons of sugar
Few inches of ginger
Mint (occasionally)

I put all of them in a pot until it brews to the top of the pot. (Small pot, could hold maybe 2-3 cups of water)

Anyway, my question is how can I make this at work where all I have is

Fridge
Microwave
Hot water dispenser
And K-Cup machine

I usually make tea at work per the following but it just doesn't taste that great:

1 bag of tea
3-4 spoons of sugar
Add milk until cup looks like the right color.
8 oz. water

ideally I would like it to taste just like the contents of this packet (without artificial milk) http://shop.khanapakana.com/wagh-bakri-instant-tea-premix-3-in-1-ginger-9-18-oz-260-grams/


texts: Could malt used in bread show up as dark brown "grains" in the finished loaf?

texts:
I get my daily brown bread from a bread outlet down the street. In the last two weeks I found, more than once, torpedo-shaped dark brown objects, approximately the size of a swollen grain of rice in the bread. I was concerned these might be mouse droppings.  When I retuned to the outlet, the shop attendant contacted the baker and they told me that it was from the malt they use to darken the bread. I was really surprised and never expected to hear such a thing.

When I cut the bread open the dark brown grains were as soft as boiled rice, and when I rubbed them between my fingers they looked and felt like paste, and after a day or so left out in the open, they hardened.


texts: How can I harden the centre of a partly cooked christmas cake

texts: My christmas cake has been baked for the correct time as per recipe but the centre has remained soft whilst the outside is hard. Would a period in a microwave finish the centre without ruining the remainder?


texts: Do beef bouillon cubes expire or cause expiration?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Do Bouillon Cubes/Powder go bad?

I tossed into the soup the last 2 bouillon cubes in the jar. Then, as I threw it away, I looked at the jar's expiration date: May 1979. Am I going to die?


texts: Why do commercial chocolate/cocoa products often contain fat-reduced cocoa?

texts:
I've noticed that many 'chocolate' or 'cocoa' products, such as chocolate cake, chocolate milk and cocoa cereal contain fat-reduced cocoa powder rather than normal full-fat cocoa powder.

Often the products also contain added fat, so in these cases presumably fat-reduced cocoa powder isn't used in order to reduce the product's overall fat content.

Is fat reduced cocoa powder cheaper than full-fat cocoa powder? Or perhaps the fat in cocoa powder behaves differently from other fat, necessitating its replacement?


texts: How long should I cook apples in the oven?

texts: How long do I need to cook fresh apples (sliced) in the oven (at 350 degrees) to get a good apple pie consistency?


texts:
For products that start out shelf stable but are labeled "refrigerate after opening," I'm wondering if it's possible to safely return them to their shelf-stable status to save refrigerator space. A few specific products come to mind: olives, maple syrup, salad dressing.

For example, could a vacuum sealer and a sterilized jar work? Or does exposure to germs in the air compromise the food requiring refrigeration?


texts:
I bought a couple of packets of frozen fries and I absolutely can't fry them. My only option is to bake them. I have access to oil if necessary.

How do I bake the fries to make them resemble (as far as possible) the McDonald type fries ?

What I have tried:

Preheating oven to 250C, throwing them in (on a baking tray) till they look golden. Didn't work, they tasted weird and were soggy-ish. Maybe lack of oil? Citation Here
Same as above but with an added step before throwing them in : gently pouring oil over them and mixing them by hand. Result was not very different.


texts: How can food cooked 1-2 hours ago be effectively reheated in a microwave?

texts:
I cater and cook foods for clients. Recently I have a new client and I deliver the food all precooked and ready to eat. They may not eat for another hour or more after I deliver the food.

Example of one meal: Herb-roasted new potatoes, roasted asparagus, and baked/roasted salmon.

What is the best way to reheat or warm up these dishes in a microwave?

(I ask this because they are in their late 80's and early 90's and trying to use the oven hasn't proved successful without either overcooking the food or not getting it hot enought to enjoy.)


texts: I have a family size convection microwave oven instead of a full size oven.  I make fruit cakes and have to change the tin for next year's competition.  I've always used a round tin and now I have to use a square tin.  How do I stop it from burning at the corners before the middle is cooked?  I set it at 130 dgeress Centigrade and bake for 3-4 hours


texts: What do you use to make tzatziki? Onions, garlic, or both?

texts:
I found tzatziki sauce in a supermarket. If I recall correctly, the ingredients listed on the package included onions. I then read on Internet that tzatziki sauce is made with garlic.

What do you use to make tzatziki, onions, garlic, or both?


texts: What is this palm like plant called? (Spoiler: leek)

texts:
For bonus points how do I cook and eat it.
For even more bonus points how long do have till I need to eat it (day, week, month). If someone knows the name I can google the rest.

Update if a google hit lands here under leek: The light green parts in the top core are tastier than the white parts in my opinion. Don't throw them out.


texts: Are any kind of wood-chips good enough for smoking?

texts:
I was watching a Heston Blumenthal Show called "Cooking like Heston" the other day, the episode was on potatoes and he made doughnuts using them. one of the things he did to prepare the potatos for the doughnut mixture was to smoke them using wood-chips.

I have seen wood-chips be used by him, Jamie Oliver and on Iron Chef (Japan) and Master Chef (Australia) a few times and i've been wondering if any kind of wood-chips can be used to do smoking (ie. ones picked up from the gardening section of a hardware store or made by myself from junk off cuts from trees or building material) or if i should be looking out for a particular kind which is meant for cooking.


texts: Can I store dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, etc) together?

texts:
I am planning on making a bunch of gingerbread this year, the recipe I use takes both baking powder and baking soda.  In order to cut down on dishes and time I thought I might mix all of the dry ingredients together in multiple batches and store it in the fridge for a week or two until I have time to actually bake it.

Can anyone tell me if it will cause problems to store baking powder and baking soda (and the rest of the ingredients) mixed together for couple of weeks in the fridge?


texts:
This sponge is meant to be put into refridgerator's vegetables compartment at the bottom and said to keep vegetables fresh:

Sorry, the package is in hebrew, but is this true? How can it keep vegetables fresh?


texts: Whipping-cream will not stay hard or keep its peaks and gets runny

texts:
My mother is confounded by whipping-cream. Some 20 years ago she started making cream-puffs which quickly became her pastry calling card. They always came out great and were always a hit. Some 15 years later, she cannot seem to make whipped-cream anymore.

She still uses the same bowl, same mixer, same whipping-cream (Nutriwhip whipping-cream) and does everything the same way as she used to, but no matter what, the cream stays soft and will not stiffen or form peaks. (The kitchen is not too hot.)

Some explanations that we have considered include:

Changes to the quality/ingredients of the cream (despite the box being the same)
Adding powdered sugar to the liquid cream before whipping (like she always used to do)
Refrigerator not cold enough (but then, freezer not cold enough either?)
Whipping for too long causes heat build-up due to friction, which melts it (doesn’t excessive beating turn it into butter?)

She tried using different bowl, a chilled bowl, a different mixer, (even made me try by hand once!) She has tried a different brands of cream (35% Beatrice and Lactancia whipping-creams), but gets the same results. One time, I tried adding the powdered sugar after whipping the cream, and it was much better than what she normally gets now, but still not as stiff as compared to the past. Using a whisk on the mixer in place of the normal beaters (which was what she always used before, as my and my sister’s tongues can attest to), seems to help, but even that is only temporary.

She has even tried putting the whipped cream in the freezer, and while it does harden, once it has thawed enough to pipe, it gets runny very quickly (in the past, she would be able to pipe the cream onto baked goods, leave them in the fridge for a day, then drive them to somewhere else without the cream’s edges softening).

She is baffled because she had made whipped-cream for various baked-goods countless times, but until a few years ago, she never had any problems, then suddenly, it never works anymore. I found a few related questions here, but they don’t quite apply (they talk about different bowls, different temperatures, etc., but like I said, it used to work).

What could be the problem? How can she get whipped-cream to stay hard like it used to?

Exact brands and variations used:


texts:
I remember watching a chili cookoff and saw a few contestants burying the pot of chili into the ground.  What's the reason for this?  Is there a way to replicate the effect in the kitchen without requiring a 2x2 ft pit in the ground?

EDIT: To answer the comment below, I believe some had charcoal they buried it with, while others just flat out buried it into the ground covered by dirt. Not everyone did this, just some of the contestants.


texts: Is it possible to replace the sugar in Tapioca Meringue pudding with stevia?

texts:
I'd like to know if powdered stevia can be used to make the meringue in the pudding.  I'm trying to get away from sugar, but not sure how to use stevia.  I've seen a recipe for stevia in the pudding, but I like the fluffy form of tapioca made by mixing the pudding with meringue, but I need advice on the meringue part.
Also want to try replacing the milk with coconut milk.  Has anyone tried this?


texts: Is it safe to eat a chicken that leaked a ton of red fluid after roasting?

texts:
I just roasted a small chicken, and after taking it out of the oven after about 1 1/2 hours, a large amount of watery, red fluid leaked from the bird.

Did I somehow mess up cooking the chicken? Is it edible?

The chicken was cooked, alone, in the oven at a temperature of 180 Celsius (356 Fahrenheit). There was nothing else done to the chicken (no brining or anything).


texts:
I am trying to create written instructions for making stir fry for some rather inexperienced cooks to follow. One dilemma that I'm having is describing the amount of sauce to use. How would you quantify the best ratio of sauce to vegetables? For instance, how many cups of sauce to coat 10lbs of vegetables?

If we were going to keep the sauce to reuse at a later date, I would just make a big batch and then having the cooks use their judgement on how much to use. We can't really keep the sauce, however, and I'm not sure I necessarily trust the cooks' judgement either (sadly!)


texts:
I have researched a bit about the topic of "large crystal prevention" when freezing and thawing food. So far I have learned, that in order to prevent the formation of large crystals, which is what damages the texture of food, you need to minimize the time the food spends around 0°C. Which means you need to freeze it to -18°C as fast as possible and when thawing bring it to room temperature as fast as possible. I am talking about a home context here, not commercial.

I have come up with the following routine, which seems to incorporate most home tricks, in order to optimize for few large crystals:

When freezing:

vacuum seal the food in a sous vide bag, as flat as possible
put it in an ice bath
circulate the water in the ice bath with a sous vide stick
After say 20min put it in the freezer

When thawing:

Figure out the max temperature you need the food to be (say the temperature, at which it is going to be served, or if it is going to be cooked, below the target temperature)
Put the vacuum bag in a preheated water bath and circulate the water at this temperature

However, I would like to know, how much of this effort is actually worth it? Is vacuum sealing much better than zip bags? Is ice bath much better than simply putting the food in the freezer at room temperature? Is the additional step of using a circulator (which apparently does reduce the time greatly) really worth it?

Are there any case studies or side by side experiments on this subject? Is it possible to taste the difference?

I know that freeze burn is bad, so I do avoid standard zip bags already in favor of vacuum seal bags, but I am not so sure about the other stuff?

Edit:

It seems the claim, that defreezing quickly is as important as freezing quickly is not universally accepted, I base my belief in this on the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5-akBNZouM

  the longer something takes to freeze and defrost, the bigger the ice
  crystals...

at 0:23


texts: Maintenance and safety of cast iron skillet

texts:
I come from Stack Overflow and this it my first post on this branch of Stack Exchange!

I write here because I received a small skillet as a gift (I assume its material to be cast iron), and I don't know how to handle and maintain it properly because I have never used one. Also, I have a couple concerns regarding it and I hope that I could get proper advice here.

TL;DR (yes, this question in quite long, if you read it all I'd really appreciate)
Is it normal for the skillet to have residue when I pass my finger on it? Is it safe to cook in it? Out of the many advices that I could find on the Internet on how to clean it, which one(s) should I follow?

Detailed version
The skillet serves to keep food hot on the table by lighting a candle underneath it. I first saw it at a Japanese restaurant and I liked it a lot, the one that I have should come from the same place the restaurant bought it from.

Some pictures:

The first picture is of the stand: the candle is put in the hole, and the skillet is put above. The second pictures is of the handles, and the third is obviously of the skillet.

The person who gave it to me washed everything twice thouroughly. I think this might have caused some of the coating to come off from stand & handles, as you can see from the pictures. I wouldn't care for that, I also think that the material used for the stand is not iron as it is very light. I'll just use the stand and never wash it.

I noticed that the skillet itself, though, leaves a bit of residue when i rub my finger on its bottom. It's different from the pieces of coating that come off from the stand, it's a very fine powder.
I've looked online, and it seems that from now on I'd better not wash it with water and clean it in other ways instead. The problem is that I've seen a lot of different advices on the Internet, and I can't figure out how to properly take care of the skillet. So here is my list of questions:

1) Is the residue normal? Can I get rid of it? Is it dangerous for my health to put food in the skillet?

2) Out of the many methods that I found to clean the skillet, which one should I use? I've seen people suggesting that I rub it with salt, then I apply a thin film of vegetable oil. Others say that it can be cleaned by pouring water in it while it is on the stove, and letting it evaporate.

3) While I don't care about the base, I'm not OK that the handles lose coating above my food. Should I avoid using them, or again there is something that I can do to stop it from coming off? If they are made of iron like the skillet, can I assume that a proper handling (e.g. scrubbing with salt, no more water, rubbing with oil) will work?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: When I asked the question I didn't know about cast iron seasoning. Now that I read something it seems reasonable that the skillet came kind of oily and with a bit of smell like fried oil.
To reply to Jolenealaska's comment: I'm pretty sure that the skillet is cast iron and the base is not. I'll check about the handles. Too bad I don't have an oven that can reach the high temperatures required for a self-cleaning cycle (it can go up to 275°C).

However, I found advice from a chef online that a preseasoned skillet (like mine seems to be) can be simply treated the following way: clean with hot water, scrub with salt, season on the stove with vegetable oil three times and then store it after rubbing with vegetable oil. Does this seem reasonable? I would post a link but the video is in Italian.


texts:
Are there any "rules of thumb" when it comes to utilizing both racks in the oven? I'm primarily concerned when it comes to frozen meats in the oven, but I also want to utilize both racks when I bake sweets (pies, cakes, cookies, etc..).

Is this something I need to worry about? For example, does it matter where the racks are placed? I would imagine that foods placed on the lower rack would need to be taken out a bit earlier than the upper rack, because the lower rack is closer to the heating elements.


texts: I've put a package of sliced mushrooms in the freezer for few days. I plan to use in a vegetable stir fry. What is the appropriate way to thaw the mushrooms?


texts: Making Subway-like salads at home w/ zero work

texts:
I often buy salads at Subway because I'm lazy. However, I'm also
cheap, and Subway's markup on salads is quite high.

I want to buy items at a supermarket and simply mix them together to
make a salad without having to do anything else. Which of these can
I get:

Pre-chopped cold cuts (has to go beyond sliced, since full slices
in a salad don't work well), including pepperoni and salami.
Pre-chopped onions and pre-sliced tomatoes (and other similar
chopped veggies).

I know I can get bags of lettuce, pickled jalapenos, shredded cheese,
black olives, and dressing, so if I can get the above, I'm good to go.


texts: Will adding whole wheat flour make cookies as chewy as using high gluten flour?

texts:
I don't have bread flour or gluten and I want to bake choco chip cookies with a chewy texture and hard crust outside as well as inside.

Can I use plain flour and add some whole wheat flour to it to get that chewy texture I am looking for?


texts: Why does steamed potatoes sometimes have a smooth, banana-like texture?

texts: Sometimes when I steam potatoes, they have a lovely dry, fluffy, crystaline texture. Other times, they're the complete opposite, looking dull with a texture like that of banana.


texts: Proper way to add marshmallows to brownies?

texts:
I've had brownies with gooey marshmallow swirled in and find them delicious. However, when I try to duplicate this by adding miniature marshmallows to my brownie mix, I find that they just turn into overcooked sugar clumps which don't have a very good flavor or texture.

What's the proper way to add marshmallow to brownies?


texts: If I made chocolates filled with a shop-bought fruit preserve or jam, how long will it last?

texts: If I made chocolates filled with fruit the product, would the use by date of the original jar of preserve still count or would the homemade chocolates have to be used up in a couple of days?  If the jar's use by date still applied, how can the homemade chocolates' same fruit filling be made to last as long as the chocolate?


texts: White chocolate mud cake with dark chocolate ganache?

texts: I've been trying to find out if white chocolate mud cake would taste nice with a dark chocolate ganache. This is for a cake that I am making for someone (so I can't make a mistake) and need to find out if this is a good flavor combination. I haven't been able to find out any example of such combination on the internet and was wondering why white chocolate mud cake is always paired with a white chocolate ganache and dark chocolate mud cake with a dark chocolate ganache.


texts: What "actually" tastes (and cooks) like chicken?

texts:
I have been allergic to chicken my entire life, and I am looking for a chicken substitute for a variety of recipes.

Of course I've heard the old saying that "everything tastes like chicken", but I would actually like to know if there's some type of food that I have never eaten that actually tastes like chicken.

To date, I have tried some foods that allegedly taste like chicken:

duck
alligator
turkey
pheasant

Would any of these taste similar, or at least substitute for chicken in other recipes?


texts: Can I use tartaric acid in making Snickerdoodles?

texts:
I am following the Cook's Illustrated recipe for Snickerdoodles, which calls for a 2:1 ratio of cream of tartar to baking soda. They state explicitly at the very top of the recipe:

Cream of tartar is essential to the flavor of these cookies and it
works in combination with the baking soda to give these cookies a
lift. Do not substitute baking powder.

Unfortunately, I'm in Sweden and supermarkets do not sell cream of tartar, only tartaric acid (vinsyra).
Previously I've simply substituted baking powder (against their recommendation), but now I am wondering if would be possible to use that tartaric acid to get the "characteristic tangy flavor" that they describe. If so, how?


texts: My cast iron pan has started to give off tiny black flakes after 3 months of use.  Are these dangerous in any way?  Are we ingesting iron?  There are patches on the skillet that are now a little lighter than their surrounding areas.


texts: I made a chicken recipe tonight that was really good, but I want MORE flavor in the chicken. It had a rub on the outside made from Chinese five spice, brown sugar, grated ginger, and minced garlic. The cavity of the chicken was stuffed with slices of orange and chunks of ginger. The recipe then called for a mix of orange juice and soy sauce to be poured over the chicken then cooked (covered) with the lid coming off for the last 15 minutes of cook time for the chicken to brown. My first issue is that when I poured the liquid over the chicken (as directed by the recipe, the rub came off and pooled in the bottom of the dish. My second issue is that the flavors were good, but not IN the meat. Any suggestions of how to get the flavor all through the chicken? I'm wondering if I pulled the skin back a bit and put the rub underneath? Pour the soy/orange mix on the bottom? Baste every so often? Inject some of the liquid? Please help. Thanks!


texts: How do I make my sourdough crust thinner?

texts:
I have been playing around with my sourdough recipes, and I can't figure out how to make my crust thinner.

Only things I do out of the ordinary are when baking I have a pot of hot water in the oven to increase humidity, I spray my dough with warm water in the last hour of rising. I also add citric acid for more tang.

Does anyone have any suggestions?


texts: How does one find recipes given an ingredient rather than the recipe name?


texts: How to store honey so it's fresh and the opening of the container is not always a mess? The plastic container the honey comes in has a small opening for squeezing, but it is always a mess.


texts: My sourdough splits at final proofing (pic included), advice?

texts:
The last couple of times I've made bread the dough starts "splitting" during final proofing.

Does anybody have any idea why? The bread is still great but it doesn't get as much oven spring as I'd like.


texts: Why is it recommended to mix yogurt starter with a small amount of milk before adding to the entire batch?

texts:
When making yogurt with Yogourmet yogurt starters it is recommended to boil the milk, bring it down to 110 degrees F, then take out a cup of milk and mix the starter, then add that mixture back into the main batch of milk and let it culture.

What is the reason for not just adding the starter directly to the batch of milk?


texts: What are alternative gelling agents to gelatine? And what are their properties?

texts:
I recently was making some orange jelly which was going to be dipped in chocolate.  I couldn't use gelatine to set the jelly as it returned to a liquid below the temperature of the melted chocolate.  What other gelling agents could I have used, and what are their properties?

I'd like to expand my knowledge of what does what so I can choose the best agent for setting a jelly in a particular situation.


texts: What is this French cuisine technique called, where "a piece of pheasant meat is cooked between two slices of veal, which are then discarded?"

texts:
A famed physicist Murray Gell-Mann compared a theoretical machinery in high energy physics theory to a technique in French cuisine, which he described thus:

  ... a method sometimes employed in French cuisine: a piece of pheasant meat is cooked between two slices of veal, which are then discarded

This phrase is very often quoted in the high-energy physics literature. You can for example read the Nobel lecture by David Gross (a laureate in 2004) here, in which he quotes this sentence.

I always wondered how this particular piece of French cuisine would taste, but I could never order it in French restaurants so far because I don't even know how this is called!

So please, good people at cooking.stackexchange, inform me how it is called and how it tastes!


texts:
I've been working on a sourdough starter for almost 3 weeks and I can't seem to get any rise out of it.  I feel like I've tried every trick I've read online and nothing has worked.

I started with wheat flour and then switched to white after the first feeding.  After a few days of measuring with cups I've since been measuring by weight.  I had some hooch early on (maybe day 3-5?) but only small amount, if any, since.  I get a varying level of bubbles but no rise.  I've done the float test and failed.  I've tried everything...feeding every 12 hours, feeding every 24 hours, doing one feeding with wheat flour, feeding 1:2:2, feeding 1:1:1, you name it.  I've tried keeping it in a pyrex bowl with a towel on it, pyrex bowl with lid, in a mason jar with saran wrap, mason jar with lid tight, etc.  I tried each of these for a few days before modifying.

The only thing that seems to have gotten any rise was when I put it in the microwave with a cup of hot water - I've done this twice and the 1st time I got some decent rise out of it, the 2nd time nothing really.  I live in Florida and its very hot/humid so temp shouldn't be the issue.

Consistency is normally very thick after I feed but when it comes time to the next feeding its very runny and thin.

Does anyone have any tips on what else I should do?  Am I just trying too many things?  HELP!


texts:
I have between 7pm tonight and 5pm tomorrow to make a pozole. Specifically, it will be a red pozole styled chili, using a rubbed and smoked seitan 'meat' to sub for pork. The dish will be vegan.

What are the distinctions between different approaches I can take, and what will result in a better red pozole?

How should I select corn for the chili?
Do I have time to do an alkaline-soak and stew until popping the corn?
Is it just as well that I use hominy?


texts: making iced tea with lowest caffeine content

texts:
I want to make lemon iced tea with lowest caffeine content possible. I understand I should use white tea leaves instead of green or black. Is this true?

Also, should I steep the leaves in boiling water, then refrigerate or should I steep directly in cold water while in refrigerator?


texts: My gravy turned to jello overnight. How can I make it last for leftovers?

texts:
I slow cooked a pork shoulder with some veggies (carrots, onions, celery). When it was finished, I strained out the solids and proceeded to make gravy with the liquids:

Start separating liquids (I used a fat separator)
Brown some flour
Add some butter and whisk until lumps are gone
Keep whisking and add juices (now separated, less fat) and seasoning
Simmer to desired thickness

The gravy was delicious that night, despite having developed a skin fairly quickly. After refrigerating it overnight, however, it was a gelatinous mess, and wouldn't melt back down.

What happened? How can I make gravy last for leftovers?


texts: How long to sous vide shoulder lamb chop?

texts:
How to Sous Vide Lamb says:

  Blade Chop: Medium-Rare: 131°F for 18 to 24 Hours (55.0ºC)

  Shoulder:   Medium-Rare: 131°F for 1 to 2 Days (55.0ºC)

Sous Vide Lamb Chops with Chimichurri Compound Butter says:

  132°F for 2 hours

I know sous vide is very forgiving with cooking times, but there is a big difference between 2 hours and 24 hours that can't be accounted for by the 1C° temperature difference.

I would expect at least one of these to be a bad idea, but which one?


texts: How does the glue of bamboo cutting boards get in the food and how to prevent this?

texts:
http://food.thefuntimesguide.com/2010/07/bamboo_cutting_board.php

  Some bamboo cutting boards are glued together with adhesives that have formaldehyde in them — which could eventually leak into and contaminate food. When buying a bamboo cutting board, make sure that it has a non-toxic label on it in order to avoid this.

Safety of glues in wooden chopping boards

  Bamboo and other wood boards from China are probably glued using cheap phenol formaldehyde resin, which is highly toxic until cured. Once cured, you would have to ingest are large amount of it to get sick, or breath the smoke from burning it. Incidentally, it DOES cause immediate pain, and may also cause long term cancer. The amount you would ingest from a cutting board would be insignificant, if at all, and the toxins do not bio-accumulate

The bamboo cutting board I have seems to have 3 layers of wood. The thickness is around 1.2 cms.

What is about "curing"? How does that help in reducing the impact of the glue?

I wanted to understand that how does the glue get in the food in this case and what can be done to prevent or minimize this from happening?


texts: What is the difference between pot roasting and braising?

texts:
I'm looking at this guide for cooking cuts of beef:

http://www.newworldfrontiersman.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/1288720744352.jpg

and some are supposed to be braised, while others are supposed to be pot roasted. As far as I can tell, both are seared and then partially covered in simmering water. What is the difference between these cooking methods?


texts: What was wrong with using White Truffle Oil?

texts:
On the show "Chopped", a contestant was running out of time to finish his entrée (using the mystery ingredients: gingersnaps, sweet potatoes, farina and turbot), and his dish did not have a sauce, so without any time to make one, the chef got a bottle of white truffle oil and dribbled a little amount on the plate.

The judges were horrified and screamed out "Noooo!" when he did this.

He got chopped.

What was so wrong with what he did with the white truffle oil?


texts: Can a pasta pot be used for cooking sauces?

texts: I am considering buying a pasta pot, such as the All-Clad 6807 SS Copper Core.  Can I remove the colander and just use the main body to cook tomato sauce?  Or can it only be used for water-based cooking?


texts:
Every time I try to roast a pork leg a lot of water drains from it and it becomes dry.

Last time I did it this way: 24 hours before, I seasoned a 1.5kg (3 pounds) piece with salt, pepper, garlic, orange juice and lime juice. I put it out of the refrigerator 1 hour before roasting, and roasted it (covered), with  low heat (150° C, about 300° F) for about 2 hours in the seasoned juices. When roasted, I let the meat rest for 1 hour. Still, the leg was kinda dry.

What could be wrong? The oven, the meat? Something in my process?


texts: Why do baking recipes often tell you to "make a well" in flour before adding wet ingredients?

texts:
Many instructions for baking bread, cakes and other yummy things specify that you should "make a well" before adding more ingredients. One example is here
What's the reasoning behind this?
I've found some sources say that it helps ingredients mix together, but I don't see how that could be. I also read it helps avoid ingredients sticking to the side of the bowl, which I'd say is unavoidable when you're mixing up a dough regardless of how nicely shaped your well is.
I understand that some baking is more about technique than anything, but is this step really adding any benefit?


texts: What are the differences between various types of paprika, and which have the most flavor?

texts:
I've tried various different brands of paprika but none seem to have any flavor.

Can anyone recommend a kind of paprika that is less bland?  For example, I've seen certain "special" varieties such as Hungarian Paprika... how do these taste compared to the regular kind?


texts: What can I do with a large amount of glacé cherries?

texts:
I accidentally bought 1 kg of glacé cherries instead of the dried cherries which I meant to buy.

Aside from fruitcake, which I hate, is there anything I can do to use these up?


texts: Is it safe to use a disposable microwave-safe lunch box to cook raw rice with hot water directly in a microwave for 15 minutes?

texts:
I have for a long period cooked raw rice directly with hot water in a porcelain bowl for 15 minutes in a microwave, totally open without a lid. The water does boil a little bit but not that severely, maybe because of the rice rich in starch which holds the water calm, so that the water doesn’t leak. It works perfectly despite the side which becomes a little bit dry. I usually resolve it by adding some water at the last 2 minutes, or removing the side.

While water boils only a little bit and doesn’t leak, milk does quite a lot, so water and milk must be different in some way.

I am concerned about whether the material, plastic, is problematic. Although disposable microwave-safe lunch box can bear up to 130℃, and a microwave can heat things maximally up to 100℃, any way, 15 minutes is apparently a quite long duration, so I am not sure if it would be harmful, e.g. releasing some chemicals, especially if it releases "secretly" that I cannot taste or smell it.

added:

After use I will discard it. One box'd be used only once.

I've just come up with "instant soup" found in supermarkets, which should be heated as liquid for quite a few minutes in a microwave, and the plastic is disposable. I am not sure if normal disposable microwave-safe lunch boxes sold in dozens online could be the same type.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  How to Reheat Beef Tenderloin?

At what temperature should I reheat my smoked beef tenderloin and for how long? It was smoked to rare and I do not want to heat past medium rare.


texts: How to Sous Vide Filet Mignon to Medium Rare

texts:
I made my own Sous Vide with a crockpot and an Arduino and would like to cook a Filet Mignon cut to medium rare.

However, a quick google search of '"sous vide" "medium rare" "filet mignon"' shows contradicting results:

This states 130F for steak in general, not Filet Mignon specifically.
This states 130F for Filet Mignon in particular.
This states 133F for Filet Mignon in particular.
This actually gives not only a range, but a range of 130-139! (for Filet Mignon in particular)
This states 130F for Filet Mignon in particular.
This states 131F for Filet Mignon in particular.
This states 134F for Filet Mignon in particular.
This also has the audacity to give a range of 130-139F but hedges it with 131F.

My sous vide can cook at an exact temperature. Which temperature should I cook Filet Mignon to medium rare?


texts: for how long can I store homemade chocolate mousse in the fridge?

texts:
My chocolate mousse recipe includes just raw eggs (2 weeks until best before date), butter, sugar and black chocolate, ingredients are mixed together with the hot, liquid chocolate.
I know about this canonical question/answer pair: How long can I store a food in the pantry, refrigerator, or freezer?, but its answer is unsatisfying in my case, as the eggs are not completely raw, since the yolks are mixed with the hot chocolate and the whites, beaten to Egg Whites are also mixed together with the hot yolk and chocolate. So neither uncooked proteins nor cooked proteins in the canonical answer apply to my question.
I'm worried about the time of its preservation in a refrigerator (5ºC).
How long can I store my chocolate mousse before it becomes critical for consumption? If I see a liquid at the bottom of the container, is this a sign to throw it away?


texts: What do I have to worry about when using a cast iron skillet as opposed to nonstick?

texts:
This was originally part of this question about usage of stainless steel and cast iron skillets, but I was advised to split it into two different questions.

  I've been using nonstick pans exclusively all my life. Most recently, after doing a lot of research, I decided to buy a cast iron skillet (10.25'' Lodge).

I know that I need to season and reseason the cast iron skillet, and avoid soap when cleaning it. Do I have to handle it differently during cooking. Anything else I might not know yet, since I'm used to only using nonstick?


texts: I have found several recipes online for making doogh or ayran (I love this stuff sooo much), and they all seem to involve diluting greek yogurt with either water or soda. I want to make my yogurt drink from scratch, so that means making greek yogurt is my first step. However, greek yogurt is yogurt that has been strained to remove whey, so I thought, if all I care about is the drink, should I skip straining, or will the flavor be better (maybe fresher-tasting) if I strain out the whey then add water?


texts: Sponge cake - Why mix milk and butter instead of folding?

texts: From what I understand, after whisking the eggs and sugar you fold in the flour to prevent flattening the air bubbles in the mixture you just incorporated. So why then do some recipes say you should stir or whisk melted butter and milk mix afterwards to the egg-sugar-flour mix? Does this not destroy the air bubbles?


texts: Can yeast leaven cornmeal? If not, why? The lack of gluten?


texts: Is it necessary to rinse Chinese or other tea before first brew / steep / infusion?

texts:
I've been told that I should be rinsing Chinese tea with the boiled water before the first full infusion intended for drinking.

I make the occasional very-expensive tea from Taiwan and I feel it is a waste to throw away a first pot simply for "rinsing".  However, my mother-in-law insists it is correct to rinse the tea first :-)

Is this practice of rinsing always advisable, or are there specific cases or kinds of tea where rinsing is necessary? What are we trying to rinse away?  Is the practice only for Chinese tea, or for other kinds of tea as well?

Looking for some enlightenment from some tea experts.  Thank you!

Update:

Since I asked the question, my mother-in-law came across a newspaper article, in Chinese, describing pesticides found on some teas from China, and so it is advisable to rinse before consuming.

Here's a scan I made of the article:

Something in English...

Essentially, the article references a 2012 report by Greenpeace.  You can read a press release about the report, and here's a link to the report itself: Pesticides: Hidden Ingredients in Chinese Tea Report (PDF).  Press release summary:

  A Greenpeace investigation has found pesticides banned for use on tea
  in the products marketed by some of China's top tea companies. Some of
  the firms, which include China Tea, Tenfu Tea and China Tea King,
  export tea products to Japan, the US and Europe.

For that reason, I accepted the answer below which suggests rinsing for reduction of pesticides.

Of course, I don't think I'd want to drink a tea with 17 kinds of pesticides present, even if rinsed!  Caveat emptor ... I plan to ask more questions when I buy my tea.


texts: What is the ideal temperature to cool the melted chocolate in a freezer?

texts:
I have temperated chocolate that is now in a liquid state. I have chocolate molds that I use and I fill up these molds with the chocolate. Now I need to set these chocolate-filled molds in a freezer so that the chocolate can solidify and after solidification, I should be able to remove chocolate without much effort by the process of de-molding so that they become consumable solid chocolate bars. So my questions are:

What should be the temperature of the freezer so that the chocolate hardens in the molds?
How long should I leave the molds in the freezer, before I remove them?
After removing the molds from the freezer (with the solid chocolate in them), do I need to set it in another freezer at another temperature so that the chocolate can solidify even more i.e. at a temperature higher than the freezing temperature but lesser than room temperature?
After de-molding the chocolates, when should I wrap them and for how long, before I can consume them?

I am hoping that the temperature and time suggested will help avoid problems such as fat bloom, sugar bloom and melting.

Thank you.


texts: How to stop oatmeal from sticking to the sides of my slow cooker?

texts:
When I cook oatmeal, I usually do steel-cut oats in the slow-cooker overnight.

They are tasty, etc., but invariably there is a layer of oats stuck/burned on to the side walls of the ceramic slow-cooker pot.

Given that each experiment is an overnight job, I am wondering if anybody else has had this problem, and if so, how you solved it?

Would it be worth greasing the sides with butter - or will that impart some taste as it cooks for so long?

Other ideas?


texts: Washing Vegetables With And Storing Lemon Essential Oil?

texts:
According to this article it is better to use lemon essential oil when washing vegetables. It is said to add prepared mixture to spray bottle but nothing about if it is possible to store spray bottle and under which temperature.

This is why i ask this question here. Maybe somebody knows?

Also, is it critical to store mixture in a clean new spray bottle or i can use cleaned spray bottle from windows cleaning detergent?

Thanks.


texts: How can I make my baked tortilla chips crispier?

texts:
We make our own tortilla chips by sectioning up tortillas and baking them in a bit of oil and seasoning at about 375˚ F for 12 minutes. The outsides get nice and crispy but the insides of the thicker chips stay fairly soft.

I'm wondering if it would be wisest to try to increase the temperature and decrease the time or vice versa. I suppose I'm essentially dehydrating the chips so my instinct is to decrease temperature and increase time.

Thoughts?


texts:
I have some quality serrated knives but over time they get dull.

How do I sharpen them?


texts: Am i able use overripe bananas in pancakes?

texts: I'm trying to think of a different way to make pancakes and didn't want to throw away a banana I have, that's almost completely brown, but still has a little yellow. I heard you can use overripe bananas to bake, but wasn't sure if maybe i could cook it in a pancake. I'd really appreciate any advice and thank you.


texts: Why does soda bread preserve less well than sourdough or yeast based bread?

texts: Most soda bread recipes I've come across (for example, this one) say something along the lines of "best eaten the day it's prepared", "will keep for a day" or similar. This is not the case for most sourdough or yeast based breads. So, why does soda bread preserve less well than other bread types?


texts: What is the function of oil in baking/roasting?

texts:
Oil is almost always used when cooking vegetables or meat at high temperatures in the oven, but I'm not sure what it actually does - it obviously provides flavour, but there seem to be other purposes.

Surface water prevents the maillard reaction from occurring because the temperature cannot exceed 100C. I presume that oil does not have this same property? How does oil aid in crisping the surface? Does it do anything else? Does it affect the form or speed of heat transfer?


texts: How do you ensure a tortilla keeps all its contents when making a burrito?

texts: What's the best technique to tuck or close the tortilla when preparing a burrito so that it doesn't come undone when it's time to eat?


texts: Accidently put dried red kidney beans in chili without soaking, What to do?

texts: I'm new to cooking with beans, and I accidentally cooked dried kidney beans with my chili without soaking them first. Do I just let them cook for a long period  of time, or am I in danger of getting poisoned since they were not soaked beforehand?


texts: Storing Self-Made Cookies/Brittles/etc longer: ingredients and techniques

texts:
I like to make a large amount of pan sheet cookies or brownie brittles as something to crumble over my breakfast yogurt. Something in the style of variations on the following recipe: https://www.instagram.com/p/CENLDHlJTp-/?epik=dj0yJnU9aWNEWTNma0ZEdVZsUjN2X2tVd2hSa1BvUVNtZXlBVUkmcD0wJm49V0ZxTlJMakQycmcwWUFWTzBtclZRdyZ0PUFBQUFBR0NYMGZB
I let the brittle bake for fairly long, and let it cool and harden over the entire day so that it has no moisture left. Then I store it in a closed glass container in a shelf at room temperature.
They keep fairly well but after 2-3 weeks, a tiny bit of mold starts to form, faster than I can eat them.
Any ideas on how I could keep it longer? Ideally, they would store for up to 4 weeks.
Any other techniques or additional preservatives I could add?


texts: What are those little holes in some meat?

texts:
For example this ham:

I see them in ham, sometimes chicken, salami, and similar.
They seem to be small sphere shaped half to one millimeter in size.


texts: Why do marshmallows poof up so huge when put in the microwave?

texts:
As anyone who's put marshmallows in the microwave knows, they expand a ton! Sometimes they puff up to literally more than twice their original size (YouTube video for those who haven't seen it).

So, why?
At first I assumed it was because they had a lot of air in them, but that doesn't make sense. There's no way that amount of air can puff up that much from the heat!

What makes marshmallows poof up so much when they are microwaved?


texts: Supply of Boiling water without power outlet

texts:
This weekend coming some friends and I will be running a cake stall at a local vintage fare.
We would also like to sell hot beverages such as tea and coffee.

How can we cheaply and easily heat water up for tea and coffee without access to a power socket?


texts:
I should have asked this years ago. When a recipe calls for "medium heat", I'll burn the dish. I've had this problem on an electric range and a gas top; probably more so on the gas top.

I've tried reducing the heat but something can't be quite right cause the recipe may say to cook for five minutes and it then takes me 10 or longer.

So we can point to the pan or pot I'm using but I've had this issue with non-stick, stainless and copper. It's been on the mark on some occasions but I always feel like "medium-low" on my gas top is "medium" for everyone else.

I do not believe it's cause my gas range is anything too powerful but I don't know. It's not a high end range but middle-of-the-road.

I guess one thing I could check is the number of BTUs generated but I'm out of town and won't be back till Sunday night, in case someone asks, so I'm looking for ideas on what my problem is, if it's a problem at all.


texts: Forgot to add cornstarch to my dough which is already proofing

texts: I am in the middle of making cinnamon rolls and the recipe called for cornstarch in the dough recipe. Well I forgot it and the dough is already proofing. Do I need to make my dough again or can this be salvaged some how?


texts: What do these additions to common spice mixes do with your dish?

texts:
Where I live, supermarkets sell all sorts of "spice mixes" for specific dishes, like "taco mix" or "spaghetti mix". I used to buy these, but then at some point started experimenting myself and stopped buying them.

Occasionally when I'm lazy, I still use these mixes to prepare food. But on reading the packet ingredients, I notice that most of the spice mix seems to be made up of things that I normally never add to my food, but I don't taste much difference for it.

Why are these ingredients added to the mix, and what are the effects on the flavor, taste and/or texture of the dish?

The ingredients include:

A considerable amount of salt (at least 5 or 10 times what I would put in myself)
Dextrose or other forms of sugar
corn- or potatostarch


texts:
It seems that in more advanced cookbooks and when watching professional chefs that shallots are used extensively. They seem to be used in the places where onions are in cookbooks which are aimed at home cooks.

I am familiar with the genetic similarities between onions and shallots. I have not personally cooked with shallots because they cost an order of magnitude more than onions.

If it is not just my misperception that shallots are preferred- what qualities do shallots have that make them more popular than onions?
Should I expect shallots to be much more expensive than onions or am I shopping at the wrong places?
In short- are they worth paying more for?


texts: Why do chefs use salt and pepper bowl after touching raw foods

texts: When I see chefs on tv handling raw chicken or such and then stick their fingers in a salt bowl to seasoning them why is the salt in the bowl not contaminated too. I see this all the time on cooking shows.


texts: Is sambal generally more, or less spicy than the pepper it's made of?

texts:
I recently bought some Sambal Jolokia Badjak, which is made from the Bhut Jolokia and thus quite spicy.

I couldn't find any Scoville rating for it, but the Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Pepper) is rated at somewhere from 855,000 - 1,041,427 SHUs, according to WikiPedia.

So I was wondering, how does the Scoville rating of sambal compare to the peppers it's made of? Is it generally more, or less spicy?


texts: A recipe might call for one large onion or two small eggplants. When cut as directed it seems to yield way more than the recipe intended. I got the two smallest eggplants in the store and after cutting one I had more than enough for the recipe. It almost seems like the people who write the recipes only have access to veggies that are smaller than average. Is there a reason why their large onion is equivalent to my small to medium onion?


texts: Mixing vegetables in a blender (e.g. for soup) - does the percentage of fiber decline?

texts:
Imagine you have some food (e.g. 100g of mushrooms) and you mix them to a soup. To what degree the percentage of (insoluble) fiber is affected? I don't mean the question "raw" vs. "cooked", just the fiber-contents of the 100g mushrooms before and after mixing.

I am not able to find any information about this except for some unclear statements, e.g. here:

  David Katz, director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center at
  Yale University … wrote that while the blending process “certainly
  [has] an effect” on fiber, there has been little research documenting
  precisely how much it breaks down insoluble fiber and reduces the
  benefits of fruit. He added, “Let’s face it: Chewing grinds up fiber
  to some extent, too.” That said, “we have a fairly solid basis for
  saying: Whole food is best,” he wrote.


texts: Is there any good way to check for honey adulteration besides a lab test?

texts:
The top google results for "check fake honey" are all nonsense blogs that say to check based on water content. The problem with this is that real honey can have a higher water content, especially here in asia. So is there a way for me to tell if a non-viscous honey has added HFCS or something similar in it?

I am considering dissolve rate as a possible option because real honey should have more longer carbohydrates...

I found a lab technique using carbon 13 isotopes.http://www.iso-analytical.co.uk/honey.html but i doubt there are DIY kits on the web for this.


texts:
For my birthday, I was given a collection of more or less esoteric knives, such as two mezzalunas (one with one handle, and one with two), a sicle knife and a tourne knife.

My question is this; what is the latter, the tourne knife, used for?


texts: Can infrared light in electric / induction cooktop hurt eye? I use them a lot and was wondering if it could end up hurting my eyes somehow. I read around that infrared light can end up hurting your eyes easily and was wondering / worrying about it.


texts: What's a fast way to make Furikake from Katsobushi used in making dashi

texts:
Making dashi uses about 10g of dried Katsobushi that ends up soaked.
Then soaked Katsobushi is then removed and tastes well. How can the soaked Katsobushi be reused?
The tricky part is that Katsobushi is preserved dried, after the dashi process it is rehydrated and hot. So Katsobushi cannot be stored for long and it is a waste to throw it away.
What are some key ingredients to make furikake and what is the basic process?


texts: Do blueberries affect gelatin's ability to set?

texts: Will blueberries cause gelatin not to set?  I made orange gelatin adding canned peaches and fresh blueberries.   It did not set completely. Is it the blue berries causing the gelatin not to set?


texts: What supermarket fish is good for frying, besides tilapia?

texts: I've been frying tilapia fillets in flour for a while and I like it, easy and tasty, just getting a bit tired of the same fish. Is there any other fish available in most supermarkets that is just as good for frying (I know some fish can't be fried easily)? I'm not looking for any exotic dishes, just some basic fried fish fillets to mix things up a bit.


texts:
I've been making bread with commercial yeast but now I would like to try sourdough. I read about sourdough making and I was wondering if there is a calculator that can tell me feeding times based on temperature. I have a wine refrigerator that is around 10 degrees celcius, so its pretty steady. Can this even be calculated?

Thanks!


texts:
My sister inherited a bunch of tupperware and plastic utensils. One of them, we couldn't understand its purpose.

Click for full size
Ideas so far is to keep pizza-box lid from falling, or to measure equidistance for slices in a cake. What is the name and purpose of this utensil?


texts:
I've just pulled some beetroot out of my garden.

I've never cooked beetroot before so would love a few suggestions.