texts:
I would like to know what are the causes for a chiffon cake to have a caved in centre.

After baking, the cake turns out with a nice dome. The cake is overturned immediately to cool. But after about 15 minutes of cooling, the centre of the cake which was previously a dome became caved in (not too deeply caved in, maybe just about 2cm from the level of the cake height.)

So the result after the cake is cooled, the top of the cake (which was previously the bottom) is light and fluffy and the bottom of the cake (which was previously the top) is dense.

The sides and bottom of the cake are evenly browned. The sides do not shrink as much as the centre.

The cake is baked at 160C-Fan for 45min for a 5-egg recipe. I use cake flour and a very small amount of baking powder.


texts: What's the best way for inexperienced cook to finely cut cabbage?

texts:
I really like home-made pickled/fermented cabbage (russian style; which is bigger slice size than typical Sauerkraut; I would say 1mm thick). But I'm not a great cutter - I am very slow and find it quite difficult to do good even fine cut of a whole head of cabbage.

What is the best (two criteria for "best": fastest and/or lowest-learning-curve) way to finely cut cabbage in those amounts (1-2 medium sized heads) for someone without devoting 10,000 hours of training to get the professional chef techniques?

I'm OK with using tools (mandoline? grater?) as long as a reasonable quality tool that's recommended can be had for $20-$30 range - e.g. "Buy $200 cuisinart with special blade" isn't quite in scope here.


texts:
My girlfriend is vegetarian and we have been trying to make marshmallows at home but so far after over four tries with agar agar we have yet to be very successful. We have made one batch that were tasty - but too dense to really be marshmallows (but sweet and we coated them with roasted coconut so they were quite edible) but our other tries have resulted in gooey, sticky not very tasty concoctions.

So what are the secrets to making vegetarian marshmallows at home?


texts: Is it ok to ignore the skin on top of my stock?

texts:
When I make a stock, I generally skim the foam for the first few hours, and usually it stops showing up.  But as I've increased my cooking time, I've started to see a clear skin forming on top of the stock. Usually around 14-24 hours in. Unlike the foam it's pretty difficult to skim out as it wants to stick to the meat, vegetables and herbs floating at the surface.

I tasted some of it and it didn't have a terrible flavor. Mostly just tasted like the fat floating on the stock.  What is this stuff, and is it ok to ignore?


texts: How long can I keep sauteed onions in the fridge?

texts: I'm a working mom, so I'm always trying to find ways to cut down on cooking time. My newest trick is to saute a huge batch of onions and keep it in a container in the fridge, so that I can skip the onion-frying step of recipes. How long can I store sauteed onions in the fridge? I want to freeze any onions that I won't be able to use within a safe period of time, so I'm wondering how long that is.


texts: Vacuum sealed frozen salmon burgers - seal broken due to thawing?

texts: I was wondering if thawing something that is vacuum sealed can result in the seal being broken (or if it's the air expansion due to warming). I left salmon burgers on counter to thaw for half an hour so I could separate the two patties and when I came back to the kitchen (actually 40 minutes) the plastic was all loose around the burgers. I put them back in the freezer for now. I think it looked vacuum sealed when I took them out of the freezer. I wonder if I should throw them out. Thanks!


texts: Pork rillettes - drain fat before shredding or not

texts:
I'm about to start making some rillettes with some pork belly and Lard left over from making scratchings the other day. I've looked at a few recipes but it's not clear if I should drain off the fat from the cooking before shredding the pork or not. I assume this would be the way to go so you can better control the amount of fat in the finished product.

Anyone know or have tried these themselves?


texts: I'm making oven baked caponata and the recipe calls for a half glass of vinegar.  No clue how many ounces to a "glass."


texts: I am using agave instead of sugar, do I add more flour to keep things right in cookie dough?

texts: I want to use Agave liquid sweetener instead of dry sugar.  How much extra flour would I need to use to offset the extra liquid?


texts: I accidentally put aluminum foil in my microwave, how can I clean the scorch marks?

texts:
I have a microwave/grill combo and I accidentally had aluminum foil inside when starting the microwave function. By the time I realized it was already sparking and left brown scorch marks on the inside.

The inside walls of my microwave look to be stainless steel or some type of metal. I tried scrubbing these with some soap but it didn't do much. Is there any remedy to this situation?


texts:
I bought some whole mackerel at the supermarket yesterday and I found when I opened the package that the fish had had their belly cut open but they had not been cleaned. Obviously it is really bad to do that because bacteria and parasites that exist in the intestines of the fish can contaminate any surface that is exposed to that mess. In fact two small worms had actually crawled out and were on the outside of the fish.

Why would the supermarket do that?


texts: Defrosting at room temperature only one hour and then thaw in the refrigerator safe or not?

texts: I know that it is unsafe to defrost frozen items at room temperature longer than 2 hours, but is it okay to leave frozen meat at room temperature for 1-2 hours and then move to fridge to continue thawing safely? Trust leaving frozen meat at room temperature for less than 2 hours won't make the bacteria to grow yet and believe it is still out of Temperature Danger Zone.


texts: How can I estimate the time required to bring a piece of meat to a certain temperature?

texts:
I would like to cook a couple steaks using the "reverse sear" technique (e.g. this Youtube video).

The general instructions are:

Preheat the oven to 275F.
Put steaks in oven and bake until they reach an internal temperature of 125F (for rare).
Remove the meat from the oven and let it rest for approximately 15 minutes.
Sear for about one minute per side and serve.

In the video, they use a probe thermometer but without one of these available, how can I estimate the time required for step 2 based on the weight and/or thickness of the meat? Obviously each cut of steak has a different amount of fat, etc but are there any general guidelines? It would be nice to keep the number of thermometer-meat-stabbings to a minimum.


texts:
When cooking certain items in the oven, I line the baking pan or sheet with aluminum foil. Without fail, when cleaning up, I find oil or juices from the food between the foil and the pan.

I always use one piece of foil, meaning that I have not joined two pieces together, thus there is no seam. I use a large enough piece to extend past the edges of the pan. I use heavy duty foil with no apparent holes or other visible imperfections.

When researching, I have learned that there are porous aluminum foils produced specifically for other applications, and this is by design. But from everything I've read, foil sold for food use is not supposed to be porous.

So, how does this happen?


texts: Why are fermented dairy products pasteurised?

texts: Could it be for longer shelf life?How much longer does pasteurised dairy products last compared to non pasteurised one?It doesn't make much sense to me to destroy useful bacterias.I understand that pasteurisation destroys harmful bacterias, but probiotic (unpasteurised) products do exist (how do bottles of probiotic beverages not explode?).


texts: After reading this article, I want to try to re-season a skillet with flaxseed oil; I'm fairly certain I did a terrible job when I seasoned the skillet several years ago. Is it possible to do this with steel wool or vinegar? (I don't have a self-cleaning oven, so that method is out.)


texts: Can I replace Lard with Ghee in tortillas?

texts: I am trying to make home made tortillas and I was wondering if I can substitute Lard with Ghee as I am not too keen about the taste of lard. My understanding is that ghee, like lard doesn't have lot of moisture and hence it can be used. But I hope I can get a better answer from more experienced cooks.


texts: I'd like to make a quiche this weekend (for the first time!), but I really want to reduce some of the fat and cholesterol due to health issues. Can I use an egg substitute (one of those that comes in a carton) instead of whole eggs in a quiche?


texts: What does it mean for something to be broiled?

texts: More specifically, what is the difference between broiling and boiling?


texts: browning meat in Dutch oven--why doesn't it work for me?

texts:
A stew recipe I was using said to brown the meat in the Dutch oven first. I tried to--added oil and let it get hot on the stove top with lid off. However, the meat did not appear to brown as much as, I think, broil. I am unsure if I waited long enough to get the Dutch oven hot all the way--but the oil seemed to get hot in it. I was wanting to let the meat stay longer in the Dutch oven but it began to stick to the bottom without looking browned. I made sure not to crowd the bottom of the oven and the oven itself is a 4.3 quart cast iron enameled one.
Is there a particular approach to browning meat in a Dutch oven vs a pan?


texts: What's the difference between a burrito and a tortilla?

texts: I was in a Mexican restaurant with some co-workers recently and noticed that many of them ordered a "burrito." What's the difference between this and a tortilla? I thought that's what they were called.


texts: Should parboiled rice be washed/rinsed before cooking?

texts: Should parboiled rice be washed or rinsed before cooking? If yes, on average how many times it should be washed. Should it be rinsed in water for more than 10 minutes?


texts: Why does my calzone crust lose its crunchiness within minutes of being removed from the oven?

texts:
I have tried making meat stuffed Calzones from pizza dough. It came out really crispy, but after 10 minutes or so the bread was kind of rubbery. It was weird because I made pizza the other day using the same recipe and it came out fantastic.

The dough was made from a simple mixture of 500g white flour, 400ml water, 21 gram fresh yeast cube and a tbsp of salt. I kneaded it until it was elastic and let it rise for two hours before taking it out of a warm oven and into the cold room, where it sat for three hours or so before getting into the oven.

Do you think pizza dough itself isn't fit for calzones, or was it the recipe?


texts: What is the proper/most common way to serve curry?

texts:
I went to a Thai restaurant this afternoon and ordered Massaman curry, which I've never had before. When I make curry at home, I usually mix it with chicken and pour it over rice and eat. But this curry was served in a bowl with a serving of rice beside it. So, doing what I normally do with curry, I flattened out the rice, poured the curry over the rice and ate it.

I realized afterwards that perhaps I was supposed to put the rice in the bowl and eat it like that, but I hadn't heard of doing that before. Is it normal to serve/eat curry that way? Does it depend on the type of curry being served?


texts: What are the slimy bubbles in soaked kombu?

texts:
I have made dashi a couple of times now, starting soaking kombu in water.  And always I found these little bubbles on the leaves, containing white slime:

I have never worried about them much and simply cut them away when eating the kombu later, but what are those bubbles?  My hypotheses are: 1. just random bags of alginate slime, or 2. natural growth due to parasites or other incorporated matter.


texts: Are there benefits to using a lemon squeezer?

texts:
There are lots of products on the market to ease lemon squeezing. I've never used any of them.

Are there any benefits to using one? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the different types?


texts: What is "Zest" - In particular: lime/lemon zest?

texts: I saw a recipe that asked for Lime Zest and was wondering what it was?


texts: Why is ground beef red on the bottom also?

texts: Recently, I have been buying ground beef in one pound packages that is red throughout. Last evening I bought a 6 pound bulk package (because of the significant savings) from the same store. The meat was red on all surfaces including underneath, but grayish brown throughout the middle. Is the Styrofoam piece on the bottom of the packaging air permeable also?


texts: Is this kebab roll ingredient referring to the seed, outer star or both?

texts: I am referring to star anise.  This is an ingredient list for store bought kebab rolls(I think they’re also referred to as sheek kebabs).  I’m under the impression that the seed and outer star if star anise have different flavour profiles.  When it mentions star anise I’m this list, would it be referring to the ground seed, ground outer star or both?


texts: water in egg shell when cracking open to cook

texts: I purchased some eggs recently and when i went to crack them open to cook there was what seemed to be water in the egg shell. Is this normal because all of the other eggs i have prepared before the inside was not runny like water.


texts: Making cream cheese from raw, non-homogenized milk, what to do with the cream?

texts:
Of all the recipes I've seen for cream cheese from raw milk, I haven't seen any mention of whether to skim some of the cream, shake it in or something else.

My initial guess is to leave the cream and let the milk continue to separate further, but that is just my educated guess so hoping for an actual answer.


texts: Using Sourdough Breads to reduce Fructans

texts:
Short version: How can you minimise the fructan content of a spelt sourdough loaf? Is using a freshly rebuilt starter (low acidity, low sourness) ok? Is 9-10 hours of proofing enough, or should I retard the proof?

Long version:

Hi guys, my sister is on a low FODMAP diet, which includes reducing the intake of fructose and fructans. Wheat is quite high in fructans, so it's on the banned list in the FODMAP diet. Spelt, however is much lower in fructans and can be tolerated by more people. My sister can't tolerate "regular" spelt bread, but is fine with high % (33%+) sourdoughs which have fermented for a long time.

I'm just starting out making sourdough breads, but I've gotten to the point where I'm concerned about the impact that my handling of the starter has on the taste of the bread. "Fresher" starters which have been recently rebuilt from about a tablespoon of starter + wheat & water have a great, fruity, mellow taste. Is this fresher starter still effective at breaking down the fructans in the dough, or should I opt for an older, more acidic starter.

Also, does the proofing temperature (room temperature vs fridge temperature) and therefore the length of the proofs impact the levels of frutans in the final loaf, or am I OK as long as the loaf doesn't resist a poke too much at the end of the proofing?

Thanks for your help,
Jeremy.


texts: why have the roast chicken pieces turned brown when put in a pot of boiling vegetables

texts: Making soup from leftover roast chicken from the carcass. Has been refrigerated for two days after cooking. Boiled some veggies - potatoes, onions, carrots, leeks, swede, and then put in chicken that was pulled from carcass. The chicken has turned a red-brown colour in the pot. Is it still edible?


texts:
Me and my wife are starting a business from our home kitchen. Our main dish is roasted chicken thighs with potatoes, and luckly the orders has been growing every week. The problem is, the thighs took more than 1 hour to cook in the oven, this is our main bottleneck.

Is it OK to cook it in a preassure cooker and just finish in the oven with the potatoes?


texts: Why should we not store onions and potatoes together?

texts: I have heard that onions and potatoes shouldn't be stored together. Why will this make the potatoes spoil faster?


texts: I'm looking at a bread recipe that doesn't have any diastatic malt powder in it, but does have a small amount of regular malt syrup. I'm going to add some diastatic malt powder to the recipe, so I was wondering if that should replace the malt syrup or should I just leave it in and have both?


texts: I'm steaming my seitan (after I wrap it in foil), but it's hard to get it in perfectly round sausage shape. On the other hand, the seitan sausages I buy in stores are always perfectly round like a cylinder.. How do Seitan manufacturers get their seitan in this cylindrical perfect shape?


texts: There are different type of vegetarians, such as Lacto ovo vegetarian, Lacto vegatarian, and Vegan. Some cultures eat insects, which may violate the naming of these rules. I'm curious if there is a name for vegetarians that eat insects too.


texts: Preparing cut vegetables for the next day?

texts:
To speed up lunch cooking, I'm considering pre-cutting some veggies the day before.

I often do quick meals with zucchini and eggplant and both do seem to be not too well suited for cutting and then storing them in the fridge for like 18 hours. (If I cut them the evening before.)

Are there any tricks for "pre-preparing" these?


texts: Food mills versus food strainer/sauce makers

texts:
I'm looking for a new food mill, likely for everything from berry jam to apple butter to tomato sauce. There seem to be two primary choices.

There are traditional food mills, with the rotating bent plate forcing the food through discs:

and there are food strainers/sauce makers, with a spiral conveyor forcing the food through a frustum-shaped screen:

Why might I choose one type over the other?


texts: I live in Phoenix AZ. Which will be more expensive in the long run, an Induction or propane gas cooktop?


texts: How dangerous is it to refreeze meat that has been thawed?

texts: I've often been told by people that I shouldn't refreeze meat (particularly hamburger meat) once it has been thawed.  However, this seems a little silly to me.  I can't imagine how meat that hasn't been bought fresh and local could find its way to my kitchen with out thawing and being refrozen a couple of times.  How much damage can one more thawing and refreezing really do?  Can it really be that dangerous disease wise? Or is this just one of those urban myths?


texts: How warm must dough be in order to rise?

texts:
While making some focaccia this afternoon, my wife said, "sure the house is 'warm'; it'll be fine." One hour later, no rising. It may be worth noting that our house is 66F. So we stuck it in a warm oven and it rose just fine. It turned out fine, I'm just glad we weren't trying to get it done for a meal.

So the question is, how warm does dough need to be to rise properly?


texts:
I need to make cubes of sugar that are 1 inch cubes and cool them down enough to hold their shape and support weight as quickly as possible.  What techniques can I use to cool the cubes, and how long will they take to cool down?

EDIT:

These are being made in an aluminum mold that I did not build.  They are made from plain white sugar and about 6 dozen will be made.  There are enough molds to make them all at once.  They are being used to prop raise a large thin cake off of a table.


texts: What causes a bread dough to become dense?

texts: I have a stand mixer, but it’s in a box in the garage; I haven’t rescued it since we moved. I consequently use the “mix” cycle on my bread machine to mix and knead the dough. The mix cycle runs 15 minutes. I usually use a whole cycle to mix the dough, let it autolyse for about 15 minutes, then run the “mix” cycle again (and incorporate the fat during the cycle). My doughs seem to come out very dense after baking. Am I kneading the dough too much? Or do I need to adjust my formulas?


texts: Sources or name of study concentrated on basic ingridient combinations for basic recepies

texts:
I am new to cooking and I was always wondering if there is a study for the amount of time to cook different type of styles:

What are the most basic ingredients to make a batter for deep frying?
What are common cooking times for different type of meats and fish (just fliets, nothing too complicated)?
What are the basic ingridients and time for curry?
What are the most basic ingridients for pasta sauce?

A lot of this knowledge seems to come from recipes, but I was wondering if there is a name for this (food chemistry? food science?) or a source where I can find "all" (or most common) the methods to treat basic (primary) materials (meat, dairy, vegtables, fruits etc.)

I know there exist recipe books but I am looking for the very basics where no "flavour" or "taste" is involved. i.e. where the primary knowledge I need to know about cooking different types of food.


texts: Can you mix Red Onion chutney into bread?

texts:
I was thinking about making some bread today, and I have some leftover red onion chutney.

I was wondering if it would be nice to mix the chutney into the bread dough, and then bake it. If so, would I add the chutney before letting the dough rise or after?

Thanks


texts:
We have a self-cleaning oven (GE). We put in some stewing beef in a roaster into the oven at 300F for 45 minutes. After about 20 minutes there was smoke coming from the rear vent. When I noticed it I opened the oven door to see what was going on and had an extreme flash come from the oven, which burned my eyebrows and the hair on top of my forehead.

There were no spills in the oven (e.g. grease) of any kind. The side of the range was hot as if the self clean feature was on.

The first sign of something wrong was a week ago we were baking a frozen pizza. After about 20 minutes @400F (called for 23 minutes), smoke was coming from the vent and I just turned it off and left it as I didnt want to fill the house with smoke.  When I took out the pizza, the bottom was like thick rubber soles of boots and the top was scorched. Not a normal baking cycle.

Three weeks before this we baked a normal pizza. No spills on the bottom of the oven as the pizza was on a cookie sheet.

Can anyone tell what happened in the oven?


texts: Frying mustard oils in indian tempering (tadka)

texts: Many Indian recipes call for a quick frying of mustard seeds until they start popping. If the oil is really hot the mustard seeds pop right away - But as I'm always afraid letting my oil get to the smoke point, I sometimes add the mustard seeds when the oil is not hot enough, but then they change color but don't pop, even after 1 minute. Should I be waiting for them to pop at the risk of them burning?


texts: Washing vegetables that I accidentally threw moldy tomato sauce on safe?

texts:
So I was frying some mushrooms and was gonna put tomato sauce/passata on it but I didn't realize it was moldy until I squeezed it out of the box and onto the mushrooms. I immediately put everything in a strainer and washed the mushrooms with hot water and then continued to cook them and put fresh sauce on them but I'm not sure it's safe to eat?
Thanks a lot


texts: What does it mean when powdered ingredients get thin strings?

texts:
I have found some strange strings in powdered ingredients in my kitchen. First time I noticed it in my instant coffee jar and I thought it maybe some kind of worm so I discarded the jar.

Today I was very surprised to find the same type of thin string in my very small paprika jar (powdered paprika).

What can cause this? Am I right to assume its worms? What else could it be? How do I deal with a situation like that?

Image of what I mean:


texts: What is the maximal shelf life of UHT milk?

texts:
Wikipedia says that the shelf life of UHT milk is "typically" between 6 and 9 months.

Does it mean that UHT milk always falls in this range? Is there UHT milk which has a longer or shorter shelf life? (I am not talking about ESL milk here, just UHT). What determines which milk has 6 months, which has 9 months, and which has more (if more is possible)? Is there a variation in the process used?


texts: How to make specific taste more obvious in slow cooker

texts:
Let's say I'm making some fairly generic dish in a slow cooker. Throwing in beef, zucchini, onions, leek, and other stuff. I brown the beef and onions, but otherwise don't really do other preparations. It tastes good, but it's a generic slow cooker beef with veg.

How do I go from there to making a "beef and zucchini" (for example) dish specifically? Apart from adding more of those ingredients and less of others, how can I make those tastes more prominent at the end? In this case it's mostly "how do I make zucchini more obvious" since beef takes care of itself...


texts: When making soda bread, 45 min on baking sheet or 15 min on cast iron skillet?

texts:
I am looking at these two recipes for making Irish soda bread:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/213830/brennans-irish-soda-bread
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/51447/irish-soda-bread-in-a-skillet/

They look almost identical to each other, same ingredients (minus sugar) and same oven temperature.  But one says to bake for 45 minutes and the other one says to bake for 15 min.  That seems like a huge difference, doesn't it?

45 min recipe says to use the baking sheet and 15 min recipe says to use cast iron skillet.  Does the skillet really affect baking time that much?


texts: I've seen all the videos of deep fried turkey fireballs. but I've also heard deep fried turkey is really great. How do I safely deep fry a turkey? What causes the explosions?


texts: How should I store chilli for freezing and later defrosting?

texts: I usually make too much chilli so I want to freeze it and defrost it later to eat.  Right now I am just using unbranded plastic containers to hold the chilli when it's frozen.  I'm assuming it's unsafe to microwave these as they might melt, so I'll take out the frozen chilli and microwave it in a bowl.  However is there a better way than this?  What containers are best for freezing food in, and can any just be put in the microwave safely when it's time to defrost?


texts: When basil gets brown spots, is it still usable?

texts: When I store basil in the fridge, sometimes it gets brown spots. Is it still usable? Is that valid also for Thai basil? Throwing it all away after 2-3 days seems such a waste. Also, how can I prevent this from happening?


texts: Freezing a Peanut Butter Chip Pound Cake

texts: I need to make several pound cakes for Thanksgiving. I make a variety but the are mostly pound cakes. They will be made with fresh eggs. Is it OK to freeze these cakes and how does it affect the taste? How long in advance can I make and freeze?


texts: Cooking white (cannellini) beans: What went wrong?

texts:
I cooked some white beans but they came out kind of crunchy and it seems like every bean had a shell that was loosely attached that made the texture unpleasant.

Here's what I did: Rinsed and drained the beans, then soaked over night for 9 hours. Rinsed and drained again. Filled a pot with water, added basil and onions and brought to a boil. Scooped away any foam and floating bits, such as loose shells. Simmered for 2 hours and stirred occasionally.

The end result was edible, but all the beans had shells that I had to spit out. It was like eating the shell of a shrimp, albeit not as tough.

What did I do wrong? How else am I supposed to cook white beans so that this doesn't happen?

Update: No salt was added at any point, only what was stated above. Also, I let it cool for about 20-30 minutes before I ate them.


texts: How long can I keep beef warm in a roaster oven?

texts: Can I keep about 10 lbs of already grilled hamburgers warm in a roaster oven overnight.  They will be submerged in beef broth......


texts: What is a good way to cooldown my food and drink without a fridge?

texts:
So I'm out camping, and I don't have a fridge, what are good ways to cool-down my food or drinks?
I've tried mixing salt and water to create a endothermic reaction, but it didn't work too well. What are your tricks?


texts: How to organize a walk-in fridge for a mid-size kitchen?

texts: I have worked in two kitchens which served about 50-75 clients a day. Each had a walk-in fridge that was about 8 feet square with metal racks, and neither had thought much about the organization of the space. For instance, they both tried FIFO, but always had difficulties keeping it straight between the cooks. Are there any ingenious organizational strategies you've encountered for fridges of this size?


texts: How to stop steel cut oats from burning?

texts:
I started making steel cut oats. 2 out of the 3 times I made it, I ended up with a layer of burnt oats lining the bottom of the pan.

When preparing, I bring the milk to a boil and then add the oats. I then let it simmer for about 25 minutes until the consistency is right.

They turn out well, but the layer of burnt oats is a pain to clean. What am I doing wrong?


texts: My baking papers seem to absorb water a lot. Whenever I bake cookies with a bit wet batter such as lady fingers or cat's tongue, my cookies end up with a not flat but wavy bottom. Is that because of the type of baking papers I used or I did something wrong?


texts: I've made roux some time ago. Forgot to put the date on the container. How long will it keep in the fridge? I'll be making a sauce in a day or two...


texts:
So I usually buy irradiated beef.  From what I understand, the beef is packaged, sealed, and the absolutely blasted with radiation.  I'm a nuclear engineer for a living, so I know that most things tend to die when exposed to the levels of dose that this beef is subject to.  Normally food spoils by having bacteria and mold and such munch away on it, but here, all of that should be dead.

If its perfectly sealed away, and there's nothing living inside the package, how can it spoil?


texts: Is it safe to use staples or paper clips to seal parchment paper when cooking fish en papillote?

texts:
When cooking fish en papillote my pouches sometimes leak liquid in the oven. The internet tells me that I could use staples or paper clips for a better seal, but I could not find any information regarding whether this is safe or not.

Are there any health risks to using staples or paper clips to seal parchment paper when cooking fish (or anything else) en papillote at about 450F?


texts: I want to try this pizza recipe and it calls for putters beets to be added to the dough to make it red. Currently, I have so many tomatoes. Would replacing the beets with tomatoes affect the crust at all? The recipe is here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/tasty.co/recipe/rainbow-sheet-pan-pizza


texts: Is there any way to predict/calculate the pH level of a recipe when the level of individual ingredients is known?

texts:
Is there some sort of math formula that can be used or is it
more complex than that?

Is it as simple as just adjusting for the different amounts of
ingredients and calculating the average pH? So a recipe with
100g of ingredient X with a pH of 3 and 200g of ingredient Y
with a pH of 6 would be (3 + 6 + 6) / 3 = 5? Or am I completely
off?


texts: Is it ok to use milk that incubated for 12 hours but did not set for yogurt in baked goods?

texts: I had a fail when making yogurt in an instant pot. Milk did not "take" as yogurt after a 12 hour incubation.  It smelled fine.  I was hoping because I refrigerated right away I could use to make bread or some other baked good that cook/bake at a high temp 350 or higher in an oven for a long period of time.


texts: Does liquid temperature matter when making bread in a bread maker?

texts: Let me start by saying this is my first attempt at using a bread maker. I just wanted to know if the temperature of the liquid used in the bread recipe matters? Cold vs room temp or warm?


texts: What would happen if I made angel food cake with whipped cream instead of whipped egg whites?

texts: I know that whipped cream also has air incorporated into it, so it can actually be used as a leavening agent. But compared to whipped egg whites, is the leavening power more or less (or maybe even the same)? And with something like an angel food cake, would the whipped cream work as a substitute?  Thanks!


texts: Weird Smoke Coming from Stock Pot on Stove

texts: I have recently purchased a stockpot and I have been using it for making pasta on an electric stove. The first two times I used it, everything was fine, but tonight I put it on the stove to make pasta on a high heat, and there was a weird smelling smoke coming from the bottom of the pot. Can anyone advise me on why this pot was smoking and how I can solve this problem?


texts: Is there a water kettle or dispenser that can keep the water lukewarm?

texts:
I'm looking for a kettle or a dispenser that can keep or warm up the water around 100 F. The hope is to drink the warm water directly. All the devices I've found so far are made for boiling the water for making Tea, etc. I could get a dispenser, mix hot and cold water. However, I'd need to be careful every single time to mix them in the right proportion; just hoping to avoid any risk.

Update

I was hoping to find a make-human-lazy sort of tool for this but didn't succeed. Thanks for all the answers. I'm going to use the good old stove for warming up and a vacuum flask to store them. I might consider something like this in the future - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N4WYPDX?ref_=pe_623860_70668690 .


texts: How to separate fats from liquid and where do unsaturated fats go?

texts:
If you have some liquid from roasting, stew or soup etc and you want to separate the fat, I believe the normal methods is to get a spoon and remove it from the top or let it come to room temperature, solidify and then remove it.

If it solidifies and you remove it, isn't it only the saturated fat you are removing while the unsaturated fats stay behind?  How do you remove unsaturated fats also?


texts: Is it safe to cook or braise with beer in cast iron?

texts:
Is it safe to cook with beer in cast iron, for longer cooking such as braising or stews (eg, cook over 30 minutes, probably for 2 hours or more)? I saw on this question, Is it safe to cook wine or vinegar in cast iron?, where they pointed out wine or vinegar should not go into cast iron for long cooking periods, because the acidity would alter the flavor, or worse could leech an unsafe amount of iron into the food.

On further searching, the above question noted wine was around 3.4 pH, and I found on other sites the pH of beer is around 3 -4 pH. So, would beer thus be included in liquids to avoid in cast iron?

This is for regular cast iron, not enameled, and with amateur seasoning (by which I mean, I used some lard once at 500 deg for one hour, and later some coconut oil, and deep frying, so probably not a great protective seasoning.)


texts: I have a recipe for sourdough starter, that says I should use rye flour. But which is that? I have grinded my own flour from whole rye berries. There is a lot of bigger parts from the outer layer of the grain in the starter. Will it work? Should I sift the flour before using it?


texts: I would like muffins, banana bread, and the like for breakfast. Could I prepare a quickbread ahead of time such that my husband would just have to pop it in the oven when he gets up?


texts: How to prevent runny nose when eating spicy foods?

texts: This question is slightly less about cooking and more about delivery. Myself and some of my guests love spicy food, but get terribly runny noses when eating it. What are some tips to help prevent the runny-ness of the nose, or otherwise reduce the disgust of needing to blow the nose when eating spicy food?


texts: Does burnt mark on cast iron crepe machine mean it’s ruined?

texts: I have a Krampouz crepe machine made of cast iron. Someone rested what looks like a hot mug of tea on top of it, and now it has a dark brown burn patch. Does this mean it will no longer work, or is there a way I can remove this?


texts:
A grater is a very useful instrument in the kitchen and it's fun to use. You can use it for a lot of food: cheese, citrus fruit peel, nutmeg, all kinds of vegetables, etc.

But cleaning a grater is a pain.

Anyone here knows an easy and effective way to clean a grater?


texts: How to make lemon powder using lemon juice like milk powder?

texts: Recently I had a good lemon harvest , and I'm experimenting with it . I like to know if I can make lemon powder , so I can use them later . I tried heating , but it all went black and became unusable , is there a way to remove all the water in lime juice without harming the taste ?


texts: How do commercial sauce companies remove seeds from tomatoes?

texts:
When I remove seeds from tomatoes it is a tedious process. I scoop out the pulp which is in different compartments inside the tomato and push it through a strainer. It takes a long time.

How do food companies automate this process? Is it something I can do?

Update

I tried a food mill, but this just liquifies the tomatoes and excludes the pulp as well as the seeds. For example, see the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWnhKJBV0UU showing a food mill being used. You can see that the guy just gets tomato juice out of it. All the pulp is left mixed with the seeds and skins. I want to just remove the seeds without losing any pulp or destroying its microstructure.

I am considering getting a tomato press. This device uses much more pressure than a food mill. The secret to using the press is that you pass the discard through twice. So, on the first pass you get tomato juice out of it, and on the second pass you get a puree. It seems to do a pretty good job of separating the skins and seeds. The downside is that the puree does have the pulp but has lost some of its structure.

Ideally, I would like to preserve more of the structure.

I have seen one chef who quarters the tomatoes and then slices the whole seed cavity out, which seems like a pretty good and thorough way to do it, but is manually intensive. The squeeze-out-the-seeds strategy is not useful for my case because I need to remove all the seeds and squeezing is a partial solution at best. Also, squeezing or quartering a bushel of tomatoes will take hours.


texts: I've heard mention of cold-pressed honey - what does that actually mean? Would it make the honey any different? Honey isn't pressed like olive oil.


texts: Does "American" Food exist around the world?

texts:
In America, foods generally considered to be of foreign origin are referred to by the country or region which they are originally from.

For example, "That Italian restaurant just opened, let's try it.", there are many Italian restaurants in America which serve food generally considered to be Italian.

For countries other than the United States, is this still the case?
This example demonstrates the question, Would this ever be used in a country other than America? "Let's go to that American restaurant for dinner tonight".


texts:
So I've made stock a couple of times in the last couple of months - one batch of chicken stock and one of beef neckbone stock - and I've come across a problem I've never seen before.

After cooling, the majority of the fat in both batches sunk to the bottom of the containers they were in. It's definitely at least mostly fat, since there was almost no fat layer to speak of on top (as there should be.)

The thought crossed my mind that it could be the storage containers, since I used regular mouth Mason jars for the beef stock, but I store my chicken stock in a big pitcher since I use it so often, and the same thing happened there.

Two different sized pots, as well: the chicken was the same 20-qt aluminum pot I always use, and the beef in a heavier stainless pot that's only 8-qt or so. Therefore, I wouldn't imagine it was the pot.

The only thing different was the butcher for the beef: our butcher where I live now is MUCH higher quality than what I used to have access to.

As a side note, while thickened, the fat did not solidify as per usual, which suggests it wasn't saturated fat (right?), but with beef...?

Does anyone have any idea what may have caused this weirdness, and how can I prevent it?


texts: My milk chocolate is grainy - how to fix it?

texts:
Below is the milk chocolate recipe I used. It's good enough, but grainy, not as smooth as I'd like. Any thoughts on how to make it smoother? Most recipes I find online have milk chocolate as an ingredient, and don't have milk chocolate as the final product.

Ingredients

50 g coconut oil

30 g cocoa powder

50 g powdered sugar

30 g dried milk powder (whole milk, Nido brand)

⅛  teaspoon salt

Directions

Melt coconut oil in double boiler

Add cocoa powder, powdered sugar

Mix

Add dried milk powder and salt

Mix

Pour into mold


texts: How can I prevent simple syrup from crystallizing?

texts: When I store it in the refrigerator, my simple syrup always seems to crystallize.  How can I prevent this?  How long should I expect simple syrup to keep?


texts: Does the drying out of vegetables affect the taste after cooking?

texts: If I cut the onions and vegetables in the morning, they dry up till evening. Is there a taste change when you eat cooked vegetables, which dried out over 8 hours (before cooking)?


texts: Should I clean all of my cooking utensils after being exposed to mothballs (naphthalene) for over a week?

texts: While I was away on vacation my roommate put mothballs in the kitchen cabinets where the pots and pans and cutlery are stored. I have removed them and thrown them out ( not sure if I was overreacting or not). Should I wash the utensils that were in the cabinets or should it be fine?


texts: making a sourdough starter in desert like conditions

texts:
It's finally summer and the daily temperature here is between 75-85 - which I figure is finally good for making my first starter. My concern, though, is that the overnight temperature drops to the 50s. Can I still make a starter on my counter?

My kitchen tends to stay pretty cool until later in the afternoon/evening, if that is useful to know.


texts:
I am planning a fondue party.  I personally despise swiss cheese.  I am defining swiss cheese here as any cheese that has that similar flavor, like swiss, ementhalar, jarlsberg etc.  as they all have a similar flavor profile.

To edit my original question, which I had not asked as directly as possible; I need a cheese that performs the way swiss would in fondue.  The main quality is its ability to melt smoothly.  Again avoiding that similar flavor profile of what americans call swiss cheese.

The two cheeses I already am familiar with which will perform similarly are Fontina and cheddar.  Any other suggestions?


texts:
I want to buy ceramic pan. The shop keeper told me that ceramic pans are more durable. But they need oil.

Here, I found a different info. They claimed PTFE is more durable. It says that none of them need oil and oil damages both of them. When I look for ceramic pans on shops none of them mention about none-sickness.

I do not overheat pan. So I do not care about how much they resist heat. I have several questions:

1- Are ceramic pans none-stick as much as PTFE? Do they need oil?

2- Are ceramic pans less/more durable than PTFE?

3- Are ceramic pans metal utensil safe? Do they scratch as easy as PTFE? Does stiff side of sponge damage them?

4- What happens if ceramic scratch? Should I trough it away?

5- Do ceramic keeps its none-stickness for one year?

6- To wash ceramic pan, should I use white vinegar or soda?

7- Is none-safety of PTFE about before scratching or after scratching?


texts: Is soy yogurt considered a fermented food?

texts: I've heard that fermented soy products are healthier than non-fermented soy. Would soy yogurt be considered fermented or just "cultured" - or is it the same thing?


texts: What dishes don't stain with heavy spices?

texts:
In most Indian cooking, there is a relatively high chance of staining the dinnerware (plates, serving bowls) due to the high turmeric content. Dinnerware made of metal don't stain, but the heavy spices do most other materials in after a few uses.

What kind of dinnerware could I go for which are unbreakable but look better than metal?


texts: Is there any reason not to try adding dried fruit to a sourdough starter? The reason I'm imagining is that different sorts of yeast live on dried fruit vs on grains. This could turn out to be delicious or terrible. As well I've never seen sugar added to a starter so I'm curious what the dried fruit sugars would do. Is there any info on this?


texts: How to grow baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) at home without creating a sourdough starter?

texts:
I've got some commercial yeast (fresh and compressed, the one in cubes) at home, which, as I've understood, is mainly made of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. My question is, is it possible to feed it and let it grow at home.

I don't want to make sourdough, though. I suspect that if I let it feed on flour, I'll contaminate it with lactobacilli. Can I feed it with some sugar (sucrose, for example)? Or should I just give up?


texts: What type of bread buns do premium burger restaurants use?

texts:
If you have a hamburger at a fancy deli they'll often have a very fancy bun. However, I have never seen these buns for sale at bakeries or grocery stores.

What kind of different buns exist for "high end" (15$) hamburgers? I'd like to get a list of as many of them as possible and then I'll narrow my search to the ones I can reasonably make or buy.


texts: How (much) can I minimise the cooking time of red split lentils?

texts:
As I can't go camping or bike touring at the moment, I'm taking the chance to experiment with some home-made dehydrated meals - doing everything at home but as if I was on the road.  One idea is based on red lentils, with a separate sachet of dehydrated vegetables/vegetable powders/herbs/spices to rehydrate into a sauce, the whole thing served with couscous or pasta.

Stated cooking times for split red lentils range from 10 to 30 minutes; my DIY lightweight alcohol stove runs for about 10-20 minutes on a fill and I'd ideally like to boil water for the accompaniment as well on a single fill (both to minimise the amount of fuel I have to carry and to avoid the risks associated with refilling a hot stove or delay waiting for it to cool).

So how quick-cooking can I make my red lentils?  My first thought is to soak them for a few hours, which I tried today (4 hours soaking) with reasonable success. This simulates knowing by mid-afternoon that I need to cook a dinner.  I may experiment with a shorter soak, as it would be good to be able to cook at shorter notice.  But is it possible/worthwhile to cook them and then dry them again (properly dehydrated so they'd keep)?  Is there some other idea I'm missing?


texts:
I made chocolate using cacao butter, cacao powder, sugar (icing and granulated), and dried milk powder.

In addition to being too sweet (panicked and added too much icing and granulated sugar), and too grainy (I removed the cacao butter from heat and added the other ingredients), it taseted really oily.

Why was the chocolate oily?

I made the following errors:
1. Not properly measuring everything (I couldn't find a suitable recipe)
2. Removing the cacao butter from heat and then adding the other ingredients
3. Not whisking the chocolate mixture
4. Not pre mixing the dry ingredients
5. Not sticking to icing sugar


texts:
Ok, here's the situation. I put a pan of water and sugar on a medium high flame and went away. Some time later I found a smoldering black mass overflowing the pan. It took some time to clean up (anybody know how to remove burnt caramel from stainless steel?).

I threw the burnt caramel away, but later started wondering. There is a sweet called 'carbon' and I have no idea how it's made, but it looks the same as what was in the pan... So there's the question. How is 'carbon' made?

Edit The question was whether the burnt sugar is edible. The answer of course is: no.


texts: Why would I use Arrowroot instead of Cornstarch?

texts: I've heard that arrowroot can be used just like cornstarch as a thickening agent.  If I have both ingredients on hand, under what circumstances would I choose one over the other?


texts: When freezing jalapeños, can I leave the seeds in?

texts: When cutting up the jalapeño, can I leave the seeds in them if I just lay them on a tray, freeze, then put them in my Seal a Meal? Do you think I need to blanch them, and if so can I leave the seeds in?


texts: Can I use low-temperature cooking for foie gras

texts:
I used to cook my meat (beef, duck) at 58°C, but I never cooked foie gras of myself. Is it possible to use this cooking method for this?

I am wondering this because I saw a recipe with a beef piece half-opened with a raw foie gras inserted in. Then all of this baked but with normal cooking temperature+time and I would like to try low-temperature cooking.

Thank you


texts: Change of volume mixing dry & wet ingredients

texts:
4C Water ~ 4 C Sugar ~ 1C instant Coffee[dry]  1QT Vodka

Water & dry ingredients mixed-simmered & cooled prior to adding Vodka.  Need to know volume as must let sit 30 days in glass vessel & stirred/swirled daily.

Would like to know amount volume of output


texts:
I want to make chocolate chip cookies that are chewy and thin (spread out).

I followed the recipe here however I reduced everything by half.

The result was not impressive at all. It's nothing like what you see on the website - it's thick and has a dome-like shape, not thin and spread out and without cracks.

I added more milk in hopes it might help make the cookies spread more but it still didn't.

I tried to use only egg yolk instead of the whole egg but the problem still persist.

What did I do wrong??

These are my guesses:

Over-creaming process? but it's melted butter (and melted butter is supposed to spread, doesn't it?)
Egg? Do eggs leaven the cookies?
Baking soda? Does it make the cookies puffy?

Also, how do I make them flat and have cracks on the top?


texts: How to infuse black layer of peppercorn into an oil?

texts:
I am interested in infusing the black layer flavours(not inner white parts) of black pepper into an oil.

I imagine this can be achieved by adding whole black peppercorns to oil and frying a little. Or do you have to add whole black peppercorns to oil then leave it overnight?
If you say you need to grind the peppercorns first, why so? Since I am interested in the black part only would putting it be whole be better it is there some reason flavour would not extract so well like this?


texts: What the expected temperature veration between shelfs in a fan oven?

texts:
When a fan oven is set to 200c, what is an reasonable range of temperatures to expect on each shelf?

I have a tenant complaining then does not cook correctly and when I measured the temperature, the top shelf gives 180 and the middle shelf 160, with the bottom shelf at 150.  I have replaced the thermostat and the fan seems to be working OK.


texts: I've had really good luck with brining turkey & chicken. I am making goose for this Christmas and have found mixed suggestions on whether to brine the goose. Does the fat content of an average goose lend towards not brining? Are their alternate techniques that would better bring out flavour in a roast goose (just do a straight roast, no brine)?


texts:
I like eating food with phyllo dough and I like preparing such food. However, phyllo dough is not easily available where I live. The only packages I can find are rather large. I usually use how much I need, then cover it as best as I can and store it air-tight in the freezer for later use. If I thaw and refreeze and rethaw some sheets, they tend to get dry.

Even just working with non-frozen phyllo dough, can make your sheets dry out if you don't work quickly an/or with a wet towel.

I was wondering if you could do anything to reverse this process. Is there a way to rehydrate phyllo sheets?


texts: How to keep cake soft when served frozen (Ice Cream Cake)

texts: I am a baker and want to offer ice cream cakes, consisting of actual cake with a layer of ice cream on top. I need the cake to stay as soft as possible when frozen. I know oil based cakes will do better than butter based cakes. Any other suggestions? What else I can do to help keep a cake soft when frozen? How do ice cream makers keep cake pieces soft in their ice cream? Thanks!


texts: How do I preserve picking pepper to last a year

texts: What is ratio of vinegar and salt for picking pepper to last a year


texts: Can you use pre peeled garlic to make black garlic?

texts: Is it possible to make black garlic from pre peeled garlic or is the fresh bulb imperative?


texts: How can I make vegan Chinese Sweet Corn Soup?

texts: Is it possible to make Vegan 玉米羹, e.g. without the chicken and eggs? I like the Chinese style of the soup, unlike Western Corn Soup that blends the corn. Source.


texts: Chicken marinade with soy sauce - have I done something wrong?

texts:
I have made a chicken marinade with soy sauce, olive oil, dry herbs and spices.
I put it to marinate for 3-4 hours (like I mostly do), but I couldn't cook it that night so I left the chicken in the marinade over night.
The chicken was left to marinate in the refrigerator, in a sealed ziplock bag.
The next day the chicken had some brown dry parts (almost like a burn). I expected it to be brown, but the dry parts were looking awful. I threw away the chicken at that time because I thought it wasn't safe to eat.
Have I done something wrong? Is it safe to marinate in soy sauce for more than a few hours? Could I have prepared that chicken without any worries?


texts: How can I troubleshoot unsuccessful knife-sharpening?

texts: I wanted to sharpen my knives, so I took a cheap whetstone, watched a YouTube video for guidance, and got to work. The results are unsatisfying. Is the next step to buy a better whetstone (if there's no point trying with the cheap one I have) or to develop better technique (without which no whetstone will do me any good)? If the latter, what should I do to develop better technique?


texts:
My favorite restaurant has an appetizer (or banchan) that my friends and I all adore. They're eggs that have been soaked in some kind of soy sauce brine and quartered.

Back when I was just learning how to cook, and regularly made terrible, terrible decisions, I came up with "Osaka eggs," in that restaurant's honor. (I still make terrible decisions, actually, but now with confidence.) My Osaka eggs are boiled for as long as possible in a salty soy sauce broth. Since it takes some time, I usually make a big batch, and occasionally I lose a jar in the back of the fridge, and a month later they've gone lacto on me. Probably safe, but I'm not a fan.

As a result, I've been considering the possibility of canning them. But I don't have a pressure canner. So I looked into hot water bath canning, and... you're only supposed to do that with sugary or acidic preserves. I'm not interested in introducing any more sugar or acid to my eggs.

So, my question comes down to what can I (or must I) do to preserve my Osaka eggs without introducing a bunch of sugar or acid? Use more soy sauce? Could I strain/reduce the braising liquid and have high enough salt content to make the hot water bath safe?

Or, counter-intuitively, should I not heat the soy sauce at all? I know vegetables are preserved, via fermentation, in miso and doenjang. What about soy sauce? Because with the long braising time, my soy sauce brine is pasteurized.... So, could I actually make my eggs last longer by simply leaving the soy sauce uncooked? (And cooking everything else in some lightly salted water, just so we're clear.)

**Here's the basic recipe I multiply for making terrible Osaka eggs so you can see the relative concentration (or lack thereof) of salt.

(...And a warning that you might not want to try these at home, kids. One person thought they were tea eggs, got all excited, and ended up running outside to spit it out. They taste like ...something that should be meat but isn't meat and some people become confused and even distraught by the cognitive dissonance they create. But I love them and want them to last, dang it.)

2 cups of water
1/2 cup of soy sauce.I like Lee Kum Kee's double-fermented. Sometimes
I'll add some dark soy sauce or mushroom-flavored for part of it.
1/8 cup fish sauce
1 T oyster sauce
Some kind of spices: cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, star anise, black
pepper, fennel, allspice, cloves, coriander.... Whatever makes you
happy.
.....
A sliced red onion
A sliced shallot,
Some rough-chopped garlic, you measure with your heart,
A hot pepper,
7 or 8 dried anchovies, heads and guts removed.

The first block of ingredients go in a pot, preferably of the crock variety. The other stuff goes in a dry saute pan and are accordingly sauted before being added to the pot. If anything's stuck to the saute pan, splash a little more water in to clean it and add that to the pot. Then add a bunch of boiled and peeled eggs, and let it go however long you want. My friends and I will let them go for a full day or three, and the mushy braised vegetables (and anchovies) are a nice bonus topping for rice.


texts: Items in freezer, including ice cubes, taste freezer burnt. Possible causes?

texts:
Items placed in my freezer take on an awful flavor that tastes a lot like freezer burn, even ice cubes.  If I put items in the freezer over-night and it isn't tightly covered, this problem occurs.

With the ice cubes I can rinse them off to eliminate the bad flavor, but I'd prefer to find the root cause and fix it.

Any ideas/suggestions are quite welcome.


texts: Seasoning a wok, have I burned on the factory oil?

texts:
I have recently purchased a new wok, it is a standard carbon steel one (Hancock/LondonWoks). I cleaned it in the sink using soap and water and then heated some water in the middle and coating started coming off, all good so far. I realised that it would be difficult to boil the whole thing in water as it is so large so thought I'd do something else I read, which was to use salt, heat the wok and toss around a large amount of salt to clean of the coating, this however didn't seem to work., the middle of the wok is silver but the rest more an orange. I have since tried water, scrubbing with a plastic scourer and cream cleaner, but it is still orange round the sides and silver in the middle. Right near the top it feels very smooth.

I am wondering if I have burned the factory coating on, an if so what should I do, I don't want to make anyone ill with my food!

EDIT: Photos

More photos

Thanks
James


texts: Is Salmonella from eggs a US-only problem?

texts:
A google for "Europe egg wash" will show up a lot of interesting results about differences in Egg processing and storage.

NPR says European chickens are vaccinated against Salmonella; and that US ones are not, but the egg washing has the same safety effect.
Forbes suggests that unless egg washing is done correctly, it is more likely to cause Salmonella infection than leaving unwashed. And thus implies that Eggs in Europe are safer because they don't run that risk.
The TV show good eats, as I recall, suggested the US egg washing was purely a matter of looks, and was partially responsible for Salmonella outbreaks.
io9 states: other countries don't need to refrigerate their eggs.
Salmonella is a living creature (rather than chemical caused by molecular breakdown etc), so presumably it can just simply be less concentrated in some areas.

I read a lot about egg related Salmonella in reference the the US. The wikipedia page only talks about Eggs in a US context, so it is kind of unhelpful for answering the question.

An excellent answer to this question would cite statistics talking about cases of egg related Salmonella in the US (per egg), vs similar statistics from other countries.


texts:
I've recently been looking at Keto recipes and Fathead dough came up. The recipe specifies that I should be careful to not cook the egg before you put the dough in the oven. It was really difficult to get the egg to mix into the melted cheese, almond flour mix. I'm wondering why I shouldn't just mix the egg in with the almond flour and cheese before melting the cheese?

Fathead recipe: https://www.ditchthecarbs.com/fat-head-pizza/


texts: I would like to upgrade from the novelty plastic bin I currently use for cookies. What cookie jar features would prevent the cookies from getting stale for the longest amount of time? What shape of jar will allow for storing the most cookies? Is light sensitivity a factor?


texts: How can I vacuum seal acidic ingredients with meat or poultry for freezing?

texts: What if I want to prepare packets for sous-vide and freeze them? I want to include an acidic marinade in the bags, but I don't want to turn the meat into mush.


texts:
I was trying to customise blueberry jam for a friend who did not like the jam with the entire fruit in it. So I had to filter out the seeds and skin. But the consistency is always a bit runny.

I use Frozen blueberry and for 650 grams of blueberry I used 150 grams honey. 1/2 a lemon's juice.
Thawed berries and heated a bit, filtered the pulp and juice. Then added the honey and lemon juice . Brought it to 96°C (205°F because if I boiled more than 98°C it became too hard) and cooled down before packing.


texts: Is there an optimum (or minimum!) thickness for a steak when cooking on a BBQ?

texts:
I've just purchased approximately 3kg of Ribeye steak (which has come in at about 30cm in length as a visual estimate) with the intention of cutting it into multiple steaks to be cooked on a BBQ. The primary reason I've done this is that I find that steaks which are available locally are too thin to allow for sufficient browning/searing whilst also being cooked to medium-rare.

What thickness should I look to cut steaks when the objectives are:

Medium-rare done-ness
A good level of browning/crust/caramelisation on the surface
Pockets of fat in the steak (the best bit!) have sufficient opportunity to cook to a soft, "melt in the mouth" texture

I can say definitively that 2cm, which is roughly the thickness of steaks purchased locally, is not thick enough, but whilst trial and error would be a mostly enjoyable experience, it would also be an expensive one!


texts: Margarine vs Butter in cinnamon roll schmear

texts:
What properties of margarine makes it better as a schmear in cinnamon rolls? According to an online source:

  The oil-based fat holds up better than butter under the oven’s heat,
  so the goo doesn’t ooze out into the bottom of the pan.

What's so special about oil-based fat? Why is this type of fat different? And does margarine with a higher fat content act as a better schmear?


texts: How long should I cook sliced russert potatoes for mashing?

texts:
I'm making potatoes mousseline tomorrow morning for a 3pm service.

While the recipe doesn't call for it, I want to wash off as much starch as possible to minimize glueyness.  I'm planning on soaking overnight, and then rinsing after boiling. In order to maximize surface area for the soak and rinse (and for a faster prep) I plan on using a mandolin to cut the spuds into 1/2" slices.

However I suspect this will change the cooking time since the surface area has also changed.

Any suggestions or educated guesses?


texts:
I forgot to cook turkey first. How long should I cook ground turkey on high in crockpot?  It’s one pound of ground turkey already defrosted in spaghetti sauce.  It’s already in it.  It’s the original crockpot from 1980
Thank you
Karen


texts: what is a good liquid to replace tequila with?

texts:
I'm looking to try a marinade recipe I found recently that calls for tequila. However one of my friends is unable to consume alcohol. What would be a good flavorful liquid to use? I'm looking for a flavor that is fairly similar or at least somewhat close.

Here's the recipe I'm looking to make courtesy of Alton Brown

Ingredients

3 cloves garlic
1 cup packed cilantro leaves
2 limes, zested
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup tequila
1 pound tilapia fillets
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions

Put the garlic, cilantro, lime zest, cumin, salt, and pepper in a small food processor bowl and pulse until combined, approximately 20 seconds. With the processor running, add the tequila. Put the tilapia fillets into a 1 gallon resealable bag, add the garlic mixture and move around to coat each fillet. Set aside at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes.

Heat an electric nonstick griddle to 375 degrees F.

Brush the griddle with the olive oil. Cook the fillets until just cooked through and opaque about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Cut into strips and serve in warm tortillas with crema, shredded red cabbage and lime wedges.


texts:
I don't know why I did this and still can't believe I did it in the first place. I was cooking yesterday and had taken out some cheddar cheese. When I went to put things away I put the cheddar cheese in a Tupperware container to put away. Instead I put the container with my cheddar cheese in a cabinet and didn't find it until this morning. The cabinet was warm. My cheese was obviously very soft to where you can see oils from the cheese.

Is my cheddar bad now? I put it in the fridge this morning trying to save it. Is it going to be safe to eat or should I throw it away?


texts: My sourdough starter is going wrong in every possible way

texts: I have been feeding my sourdough starter daily for just over two weeks and everything is constantly going wrong. At first water was sitting on the top, then it started smelling of nail varnish, and now it has a green mould at the top. Should I just give up and throw it in the bin?


texts:
I want to make ramen, in particular, tonkatsu ramen. My cookbook is in Japanese and even though I'm reading everything else fine, a part of it is confusing me (but no worries, I'm not confused about the Japanese part).

I'm supposed to make the broth (I think the book is saying "stock" here, but I'm going with broth because the way it's written makes this a little unclear) at a "rapid boil," which I put in quotes because this cookbook follows this up with some ridiculous claims. I'm going to do it on my stovetop. The cookbook says to do rapid boil the broth on the stovetop for 90 hours. To put it frankly, that is ridiculous. A rapid boil for 90 hours is... well, I'm pretty sure ramen can be made in a day and I'm nearly 100% certain I shouldn't be rapid boiling broth (it should probably be simmered if it's stock). The book also says you can make the broth in a pressure cooker in an hour and a half. That's more reasonable, but I don't have a pressure cooker.

There are a couple mistakes in this book, whether because I'm not translating correctly or because there are actual mistakes I'm not sure-- rapid boil, for example, is used a lot in places where I know I shouldn't be doing that, which makes me think my translation is wrong-- but it absolutely, positively says 90 hours for stovetop.

I highly doubt that I need to make this ramen broth by boiling for a whole 90 hours on the stovetop. I'm certain it could be done in less time. Is there a conversion process between pressure cookers and stovetop? What I mean is, is there some way for me to determine how much time it would take to cook something on my stove top based on the directions I was given for the pressure cooker? Thus far I've only gotten "keep temperature on low and keep it at a slow boil," but I'm wondering if there's something more concrete than that.


texts:
I would like to try and imitate the flavor of lamb in a plant based dish.
Googling "why does lamb taste like lamb" I found that the most common explanation is that lamb fat is comprised of, but not only, branched-chain fatty acid, which give it the distinctive taste.
Is there a plant based source for branched-chain fatty acid?


texts: This is the toaster that I have. I wish to clean it from inside. It has got a kind of wire mesh inside it. What's the way out?


texts:
The following is an extract from 'How to Cook Everything' by 'Mark Bittman' about sharpening knives:

  An electric sharpener is the best, easiest, and most
  expensive way to keep knife blades sharp; even moderately
  serious cooks should consider this a worthwhile
  investment. The alternatives are to learn to use a whetstone
  (not that difficult, and very effective, but timeconsuming)
  or to take them to a hardware store to have
  them sharpened professionally.
  A steel is a handy tool for maintaining the edge of
  knives between sharpenings. (You should use it every few
  days, at least.) It’s nothing more than a sturdy rod stuck
  in a handle, but it takes some practice to get the hang of
  it

Firstly, this addresses how we could sharpen knives - an electric sharpener or whetstone do the same job of sharpening. Then it mentions that a (sharpening) steel helps in maintaining the edge of the knives between sharpenings.

Does this mean that, in order to sharpen knives, we need an electric sharpener/whetsone and a sharpening steel? Can we just use a sharpening steel to sharpen knives - why?

Sorry if this seems like a silly question. I've not been taught anything about sharpening knives, and only know of its practice. My understanding is that we can sharpen knives using either a sharpening steel, or a whetstone. I've never heard anything about 'maintaining the edge of knives between sharpenings' as Mr Bittman states in his book


texts: Could Someone Please Help me to Identify What Type of Squash This One Is?

texts:
So I can try and plan out some recipes using it..
Thanks in advance!
:D


texts:
While in Phra Khanong market, the only Burmese market I know of in Bangkok I bought the following seemingly-to-me similar products of Brown to Black dried tea leafs (pictured below).

I dranked a small glass of a hot tea of these leafs and it had a very mild comforting taste.

What is this Burmese/Myanmmarese Brown to Black dried tea leafs?
What is the English name please?


texts: Can I freeze left over Shake & Bake coating mix after it's used?

texts: After coating my chicken with Shake & Bake, I transfer the remainder into a container and freeze it until I need it again. Is this an unsafe practice? I figure if I'm freezing meat so it won't spoil, then the Shake & Bake coating mix should be safe in the freezer until I need it again.


texts: Do professional chefs ever suffer food poisoning?

texts: Quite often you see celebrity and professional chefs taste the meat or sauce from a dish that is clearly not fully cooked. Is there a different length of time you should wait before sampling an uncooked dish (e.g. beef versus chicken) and do chefs ever suffer food poisoning for the sake of their art?


texts: What temperature and time should I use for a cupcake recipe?

texts:
I am having difficulty baking a vanilla and chocolate cup-size cake. The ingredients are as follows:

12 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup butter, cut into pieces
1 cup cold milk
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup white sugar

The problem is that the cake burns on the outside, and then the inside is not completely done. If I reduce the amount of batter I use in the tin to a half-size cup, they end up as cookies. I have also tried to reduce the temperature from 200 degree to 100 degree, extending the time from 15 minutes to 30 minutes but still do not get a well-balanced end result.

I would like to know if I have a bad mixture of ingredients, or a completely wrong temperature and timing for cupcakes.


texts: In making homemade pasta some recipes call for semolina flour. There are two types of semolina that I know of one is the course grind and one is the fine grind which they call durum flour. Both are from semolina wheat. So the question is when they call for semolina flour which one do you use ?


texts: What is this yellow "fat" thing on my bacon

texts:
Searching in google for yellow bacon fat returns nothing

I'm assuming it's fat, but have never seen a large yellow lump of it on any bacon I have had in the past.

Would this still be good to eat? (Already ate half the pack...)


texts:
free pancake recipe (see below) that requires applesauce and would like to know how I could best incorporate canned pumpkin, to make some really yummy pancakes for the holidays. Can I just replace the applesauce and add water until it is the right consistency?

  1 cup wheat flour

  1/4 teaspoon salt

  1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

  1/2 cup soy milk or applejuice

  1 beaten egg (or substitute)

  1/2 teaspoon vanilla

  1 1/4 cups applesauce

  1 teaspoon cinnamon

Alternative formulations also appreciated.

Thanks!


texts: Is it safe to eat veggies that were chopped on bloody cutting board and then cooked?

texts:
I made steak last night, and my girlfriend just chopped up some broccoli on the cutting board I used to prepare the meat, without washing it. She plans to cook the broccoli in the oven, which she said will cook off any bacteria that would have been transferred from the cutting board, but I'm really worried about cross contamination since it was 80 something degrees today and that cutting board had a fair amount of dried blood on it...

Should I eat the veggies tonight? I always err on the side of caution and think I'd rather mildly offend her by not eating that part of the meal than risk getting sick.


texts:
I recently had a recipe that called for applejack (apple brandy) in the glaze. Now I've got a bunch of this stuff lying around, and I'm looking for cooking applications for it.

Can it be substituted for regular brandy in recipes? Are there any particular situations where you would recommend its use?


texts: I browned the outside of a beef roast then left it in crockpot which was accidentally unplugged. Didn't realize it until 48 hours later. is it safe to cook?


texts: Cooked food (+seafood) left out overnight - common practice in some parts of the world?

texts:
My partner and I made some shrimp pasta last and forgot to put the leftovers in the fridge. The next morning I promptly proceeded to throw it away, but my partner stopped me and said it was still good to eat. I was very surprised and told him no way should we eat this, and he in turn was very surprised that I would think it was unsafe. He claimed maybe it's a culture thing-- He's from Japan and said people do it all the time there, but noticed his friends in the UK (where we live now) are much more careful. He claims it's also common practice in other places he's lived. I told him it's definately not considered best practice in my home country, but to be fair food freshness in the US is sometimes questionable (e.g. it's not necessary to store eggs in the fridge in most parts of the world).
Am I missing something? Is he just taking a massive risk or have I been raised with overly sanitised food safety practices?


texts: When to apply a white egg wash on white wheat bread?

texts:
My go to bread is a much appreciated result of many tips from this site. It is a basic 75% hydration high-protein wheat bread that proofs in total for about 4.5-5.5 hours. I think it qualifies as a no knead bread.
I wanted to get a shinier and softer surface so I tried to brush on a white egg wash with a 3:1 whites:water ratio. I can't imagine this to be an issue.
I applied the wash just before I tossed it in to the oven at 240C -> reduced to 200C after the initial steam (about 40 grams of water I threw in) wore off.
The result was disappointing in that I didn't get it as shiny as I'd hoped for and the brushing looked like it was painted on, not a part of the crust. The crust also has none of the softness I'd expect from something with egg-white protein in it.
I hope my question isn't too broad, my immediate concern is, should I brush on the egg white just after final shaping: 20 minutes before it goes in the oven or is it fine to brush it on immediately before?
After the answers:
This is a poor reference: My main problem was that my electronic scale was off in an unpredictable fashion.


texts: Should I pre-season meat with salt even if it's skinless?

texts: I read a lot of mentions of pre seasoning meat with salt 24 hours before cooking, with the idea that it draws moisture out, which can make the skin crispy when you cook it. I've also heard that it can make it more absorbent of marinade, but not sure if that's true. Anyways, my question is is this worth doing even if the meat i have is just boneless skinless chicken breasts (for example)?


texts:
Sauteing is pretty problematic for me with butter. It is difficult to find the sweet spot where you don't burn the butter but don't steam the veggies, and even then seldom I will not get a sizzle even thought I did not crowd the pan.

I know sauteing in butter may be a bad idea, but I like the flavor it gives to sauces, especially Marinara (and how can I make an Alfredo without sauteing mushrooms?? Ridiculous!)

Any methods for melting an sauteing in butter?


texts: Why do chocolate chips stay softer after being baked?

texts:
I could be wrong, but I have the feeling that after baking chocolate chip cookies, the chocolate chips are still melted; or at least a lot softer than before you bake the cookies.

It's logical that the chips melt, when they are in the oven, and even half an hour later. But why are they still softer the day after? What's the explanation behind this? It's as if the melting point has lowered.

Or am I imagining things?


texts: How to prevent oil splattering when placing steak in pan?

texts:
Lately I've been trying to cook steak.

I pat the meat with a paper towel, then I put salt on it. I wait another 10 mins, then when I put the meat on the pan, the oil splatters and burns my hand.

I am wondering if I should dry the meat one more time right before I put it into the pan? But if I do that, then am I going to wipe the salt and pepper off the meat?
Or what else can I do differently?


texts: How can I recreate the dipping sauce for the cream cheese wontons served at Pick Up Stix?

texts:
The dipping sauce for the cream cheese wontons is delicious and I would like to duplicate it at home. Anyone have any luck reproducing this sauce?

(Note that this is a soy sauce based, and not sweet-and-sour based sauce.)

EDIT:

Sorry about the recipe request. Here is my take on the sauce.

I think the sauce contains sesame oil, soy sauce, some very slight sweetener, and I think I detect a subtle acid and ginger flavor. Whenever I try to recreate it, the ratios don't seem right but I don't really know which to change. The soy sauces I've used so far are Kimlan and Kikkoman.


texts: How to get very smooth, flat cooked potato pieces

texts:
For an upcoming party, my girlfriend and I have been discussing trying to create "potato jenga."  The idea is to cook smooth, flat pieces of potato and stack them in a tower, so that everybody has to play a game of Jenga with the potato pieces.  If anybody has tried any similar structural potato projects, I'm keen to learn how best to pull it off.  (I'll also accept references to other fun ways to get party guests to play with their food, if this project proves impossible.)

So, what method of cooking will make the most suitable potato pieces?  I need to avoid warping or a rough texture.  Is baking better than frying?  Any particular oil I should use if I fry them?  High heat or lower heat for more time?  I'm at a bit of a loss with where to start because everything I know about cooking relates to the eating, rather than use as a building material!


texts: Why does the beef in Goulash need to be floured and brown before cooking?

texts:
In most recipes example from BBC, in making a Goulash, a step is to brown/fry lightly the beef in flour before the stewing steps. Why is this done?

Since the beef will be in a liquid it can't be to prevent drying. Is it to keep the form and texture of the beef?

If you fry without the flour what difference is made?


texts: What chemical processes occur in tea that spoil it after some time?

texts:
What happens to the brewed hot tea when it is left in a cup for some time (up to several hours), that spoils the taste of the drink and change its color? What chemical processes lead to such unwanted results and what are the general methods to prevent tea from going bad too quickly?

If there is a significant difference in different tea types' brewing processes, I'd like to know that too.

Assume we make a cup of Earl Grey tea with a spoon of sugar and leave it for a day at room temperature.

I've seen a thin rainbowy layer appear after leaving tea for a few hours (up to a day). I often saw that in teas made from cheap bagged tea. Also the color of the drink becomes distinctively "stale".


texts:
Can you make your dough and stuff it/roll it with meat or whatever you choose, then place it in fridge overnight to be cooked the next day?

What I mean is, do everything like you are about to bake but instead of putting it in the oven, you put it in fridge. Will it keep and bake right the next day?


texts: What emulsifier can be used for an Egg-free mayonnaise?

texts: What emulsifier can be used for an egg-free mayonnaise?


texts: I tossed mothballs in my kitchen cabinets about a month ago, now everytime I open cabinets all I smell is mothballs, and the food smells like mothballs too. Can I eat the food or should I throw it away?


texts: What method can be used to peel an Avocado without damaging it?

texts: This is a problem I really have each time I want to peel them. Over the years I used forks, spoons and knifes but always the Avocado gets damaged as it is mushy, pulpy when I peel it and gets a mess. Is there any method than can I use to properly peel it or perhaps a tool developed for this purpose?. If there is a video or picture that can accompany the answer that would help me a lot.


texts: Will cooking meat in a slow cooker longer than the recipe calls for have any adverse effects?

texts:
I have a recipe for slow cooker beef curry that calls for beef chunks, coconut milk, and red curry paste.  It says to cook on low for 8 or so hours.  Suppose that near the end of the 8 hours I suddenly have to go somewhere else for a few hours and can't take the food out of the slow cooker until I get back.

Will cooking the beef for 10, 12, or even 15+ hours degrade the quality of the finished dish?  I've heard that the longer you cook meat the better it is - is this actually true, and if so is there a limit?


texts: Frozen sea squirts: any suggests on cleaning/preparing?

texts:
I bought a pack of frozen sea squirts from Korean market. They are quite small - 3-4 cm long creatures. I dug all possible recipes about sea squirts, but all of them are about either alive or dried sea squirts. Can you please recommend how to clean them and prepare for cooking?

My current idea is to unfreeze them, wash intensively, and ultimately cook (uncut) in a medium intensity sauce for 10 minutes.


texts:
I bought a bag of chickpea flour once thinking (erroneously) that I could use it to make hummus.  I've since bought dried chickpeas and made hummus the "right" way... but now I have no idea what to do with my unopened bag of chickpea flour.  What is it generally used for?

Now, I know it can be used as a substitute for eggs (in vegan baking) and flour (for gluten-free cooking), but I'd rather not use it as a substitute for something better if I don't have to, so I'm looking for recipes where chickpea flour is the preferred ingredient.


texts:
I have no trouble preparing the seitan dough, or at least, that is what troubles me the least and can be fixed easily. However, I can't get the texture right. I don't use yeast, just vital wheat gluten and flavor adders.

First I tried with the simmering method. I put a broth to a boil and dropped in small loafs of seitan. As they cooked, they grew bigger and bigger, as they absorbed water. The loafs grew a ridiculous amount, and I was consequently left with loafs made of water and seitan, in that order.

I thought maybe water was the problem, so I tried instead of simmering it, baking it; like some online recipes indicate. I made a seitan tube and wrapped it (rather mediocrely) in aluminium foil and put in the oven. I had preheated the oven to 190 °C. The recipe I used instructed to bake the seitan for 90 minutes, and so I tried. However, about 60 minutes into the cooking, my loaf exploded in the oven (the wrap wasn't strong enough, I recon, although it was a few layers thick). To my surprise, the seitan already had a thick hard crust, and it was quite inedible to my taste.

What recommendations do you have for me? Is there something I have done wrong in each of my attempts? (Is blaming the great growth of my seitan on water wrong, on the first method I tried?) And finally, I am left to wonder: is it really necessary to precook seitan? (Why?)

Thanks a lot chefs! I know practice makes perfect but I'd rather quit wasting ingredients until my ways are right.


texts: How to prevent burning when frying bread?

texts:
I have the following recipe:

1 teaspoon of milk
1/4 teaspoon of sugar
1 fresh egg
2 slices of bread

I cut the bread into some squares and throw it inside the mixture (milk + sugar + egg). Later, I put them in a wok and fry them.

However, I always get 25% to 30% of them burned, another 10% to 20% of them quite wet.

So, how do I prevent the 25% to 30% of them from getting burned? (I tried reducing the heat and using less oil but could not prevent them from either getting burned or soggy.)


texts: Baking a Brie with the outer rind broken

texts: How can I fix it when the Brie is cracked on one spot? I am planning to bake it and I do not have a receipt to return it. I know last time I baked a Brie with crack, the inside just gooey spread-out.


texts: I am working on a recipe that uses gluten-free flour and cauliflower flour. I am having trouble getting the bread to be like a bread and not an edible brick. Any suggestions on proofing and baking temperature? I can not use any baking soda/powder or xanthan gum. The combined flour weight is 3 lbs, and water is 2 lbs.


texts: How do you keep a Turkey Meatloaf from getting too "dry"?

texts: I just made a Turkey meatloaf, using a standard recipe that usually turns out good with ground beef, but it was too dry - any help would be appreciated.


texts: Is there any way to store hollandaise sauce?

texts:
I've just made hollandaise sauce following Alton Brown method. I used only about 4 tablespoons and I have about 1 cup left.

Using google I found that I shouldn't put it on the fridge, doesn't freeze well and shouldn't be more than 4 hours without use. That leaves little margin.

Is there anything I can do?


texts: Will smoked-then-fried foods impart smoke flavor to cooking oil?

texts:
I am preparing for a chicken wing cooking competition later this month. One way I've been making wings lately is starting with a ride in the smoker to par cook and add a hint of smokey goodness (think apple wood smoked roasted garlic butter wings).

During the competition I plan to offer some smoked wings as well as some non-smoked wings.

I am worried my smoked wings will leech so much smoke flavor into my oil that I will have to either fry them all after I cook the non-smoked wings or use multiple fryers and designate one for each style.

I haven't had a chance to test this theory yet. Am I over thinking it or will this be a problem?


texts:
I've got a recipe (Hawkmoor at Home's) for ultra slow roast rump which roasts 1.2-1.5kg rump at 75deg C for 4-5 hours (after searing it on a large griddle)
How long would it take to roast a 2.2kg boneless topside joint at this temperature?


texts: Can I use a gas oven spring form in my electric oven?

texts:
I have ordered a spring form online. The package arrived and on the packaging it says "especially for gas ovens".

I don't have a gas oven, but an electric one where I can set many different types of heat. Can I still safely use the form or should I return it? What is the difference between a gas oven form and a 'normal' form?


texts: Anyone know of any completely flavorless syrups?

texts:
I'm looking for a syrup that has absolutely no flavor... not even the sweetness you find. Just as bland as you can get it (think water). I need this syrup to absorb other flavors as I'm trying to make something savory but the natural sweetness in corn syrup or vegetable glycerin is destroying it. Anyone know of any?

Thanks


texts: What beans can I use to make refried beans?

texts: Refried beans are traditionally made with pinto beans. However, I'm having trouble finding them; what other beans can I use to make refried beans?


texts:
Since I found out that I can't use soymilk faster than it expires, I'm looking for a better solution. If I were to portion out the soymilk into containers, could I freeze all but a week's worth in advance to use later? Or would that not help?

As a reminder, I use it solely in tea, not to cook with or drink plain.


texts: What to do with 10 liters Heinz BBQ sauce?

texts: I just got a 10 liter bucket of Heinz BBQ sauce for free, and the expiration date is next week. Any ideas how to properly utilize it?


texts:
I'm new to bakery and I can bake chiffon and angel food cake alright, but everytime(3 times) I bake chocolate sponge, I always end up with something with good moisture but super stiff. What could I have done wrong and how can I make the cake more tender in texture? Thanks!

My recipe: 3 eggs, 40g butter, 40g(in egg white)+20g(in yolk) sugar, 60g flour, 20g cocoa powder for a 8-inch square baking pan. 170°C, 10min.

And what I did:

Separate the egg white and yolk, whip the white until there's a curly spike when I pick up the wisk. During the whipping process, pour in the 40g of sugar.

Add 20g sugar to the yolk and stir until the mixture gets a bit pale.

Add 40g of melted butter into the mixture and stir until the mixture is smooth. Pour 1/3 of the egg white foam into the yolk-butter mixture. Mix carefully as not to deflate the egg white. When mixed well, pour in the other 2/3 of egg white and mix.

Add in the flour & cocoa powder. Bake in preheated oven.


texts: Recipes - Adding up calories and nutritional info?

texts:
When cooking, a recipe has a list of ingredients. If I wanted to find the calories in the recipe would I just add up the calories of every ingredient? Same situation with carbs, protein fat ?

Or does cooking change the number of calories the ingredients originally had?


texts: How do I avoid my food becoming brownish/dark while cooking?

texts:
I recently encountered a few recipes where food is not allowed to 'get colour', or become brownish while baking.
A few examples of what I mean:

Chicken turns a golden-brown colour.
Burgers get a very dark crust.
Onions turn brown.

How do I avoid my food becoming this colour when cooking? Is there a way that works in general or if not, a way to find out how to do this for the food I am cooking today?

Specifically, in this recipe for white asparagus panna cotta, a brown colour is undesired.

  Bak de asperges een minuutje of 5; ze mogen niet kleuren!
  Cook the asparagus for less than 5 minutes; ensure they don't change colour!


texts: Mold forms on sweet miso -- can I still use the miso?

texts:
We have a jar of sweet miso that has been in our fridge for several months.  I know that miso keeps practically forever, and that is naturally fermented.  But I was surprised to find when I opened it that a layer of mold had formed at the top.

If I scrape off the top layer and discard it, is the rest of the miso safe to use?  Or do I need to toss the whole jar?


texts: I am looking for exact instructions on how to cook chicken. I have bought fresh chicken numerous times and its mostly chewy. It can be in gravy, oven cooked, tandoori style etc etc I just want it cooked perfectly.


texts: With the new trend of slow cooking (at very low temperatures for very long periods of time), is there potential for increased unsafe bacteria growth?


texts:
I made some cookies about four days ago - a modification of a fairly standard chocolate chip cookie recipe augmented with cocoa powder in the dry ingredients, and marshmallows in the center. They are moist at the center and crisp at the outside. Baked at 350 F for about 15 minutes.

They were left in my car, at a temperature of probably about 90 F (outside temps were cooler, and I was parked in the shade, but it was very hot out), for about two hours later that day. They've been in my refrigerator since then.

Now, ordinarily I wouldn't hesitate to leave them out on the counter (at a normal 70 F or so) or in the fridge, and eat them until they were gone, or became too stale. I confess, I didn't think twice about eating one this evening, either, until I read about food safety on here and saw the special rules about 90 F and higher temperatures.

My question is: Are foods that are normally considered safe for some days/weeks at 70 F unsafe after a shorter time 90 F? If so, does the standard "one hour at 90 F" rule apply, or is it some longer period of time? Is the added risk significant enough to be determinable?

Edit: In appreciation of the thorough answers, just want to update everyone: after more than a day, no ill effects. I've continued to eat them. Believe me, they are amazing cookies. If anything else happens, I'll update again, but otherwise, thanks for the responses and it looks like no harm, no foul! (Naturally, this is only anecdotal, but at least it's a nice data point.)


texts: Choosing between semolina and non-semolina durum flour

texts:
I have a big confusion between flours, aggravated by the fact that I do not live in an english-speaking country and labeling and translations are confusing.
I like fresh pasta and have experimented with certain recipes and proportions of eggs, bread flour, semolina and durum flours. However, now I wanted to go into a little more detail regarding the flour but I am lost in translation.
My understandment so far:

Semolina is the specific way of taking a grain (which layers and parts) and converting it to "powder".
Durum wheat is different from the typical wheat used for white bread flours.
Semolina from durum wheat (sometimes seen in recipes as "semolina flour" or simply "semolina") is used in certain pasta recipes.
"Non-semolina" durum wheat flour exists and I cannot find the proper term for that in English. But I have it. And it's different from semolina.

First of all, are my understandings correct so far? Can some english native-speaker confirm the common terms for those things and what should I search for? Bonus points if there is any Italian speaker that can say them in Italian --that will allow me to search and understand more recipes, and I don't believe in automated translators for such niche terms.
And my main question, why and when may I use semolina and non-semolina durum wheat, and should I (may I?) combine it with bread flours? Should I change those proportions when doing egg-based fresh pasta? How will change the texture and flavour of the pasta when changing those flour proportions?


texts: How to properly sharpen Santoku and any other knife using a water sharpener/Japanese whetstone?

texts:
I've recently bought a really nice Santoku knife from Wüsthof along with a Japanese water sharpener, and since then I've been watching a lot of videos and reading a lot of guides about how to use the sharpener. I've come upon many various ways to do it, but I never know if one is "right" or better than the other to get things started. I've never sharpened a blade before, and I've never really taken good care of the knifes I already own, so I thought now is a good time to start with it.

What I do know is that for Japanese knives, I use a 15 degree angle, and for European knives, it's usually about 22-23 degrees. I also know how to properly prepare the whetstone for use. What I do not know is: how do I do the actual sharpening properly?

Some people I've seen slice the knife over the stone diagonally at the correct angle, while only taking care of one part of the knife (the front, the middle, the back) and move on to the next after a while, while others straight out do everything at once, sharpening the whole blade in one motion, alternating between one side of the blade and the other.

Now my real question is: What kind of technique should I apply as a total beginner, and can I use that technique for both the Japanese and European knives I have (excluding the angle at which the blade is put onto the stone which I know of)?

Also, how often should I sharpen these blades usually to keep them in a decent shape? I have the typical 1000/3000 whetstone.


texts: How to make sure that potatoes are boiled properly?

texts: I once boiled some potatoes of average size, by inserting a fork into them I thought they were boiled properly but cutting them in half, I saw the center is still raw with a lighter color. So how should I know it's enough boiling?


texts: Proper cook times for mushrooms, onions, and peppers

texts:
One of my favorite meals is poached chicken cut into strips and stir fried with mushrooms, onions, and peppers and a bit of oil-based salad dressing for flavor.

However, most of the time I get the timing wrong and end up with over or undercooked veggies by the time the chicken is done cooking.

How long should I cook the mushrooms, onions, and peppers for? It seems to work best to add the onions first so that they cook down a little bit but I'm always guessing when to add the peppers and mushrooms to the skillet.


texts: How can I best bake cookies from cold dough?

texts:
I like to make chocolate chip cookies, and the first batch always turns out great. However I don't use all the dough at once, so I refrigerate the leftovers. When I use this cold dough to make another batch of cookies, they are usually a little overdone on the outside while still a bit underdone on the inside.

I've tried setting the dough out on the counter for a while to let it warm up to room temperature, but even sitting out for over an hour, it hasn't noticeably changed temperature. I've also tried rolling the balls of dough in my hands for a bit to warm them before placing them on the pan, but that seems to make the issue worse (probably because the outside melts before the inside thaws). This leads me to think any other solution (microwaving the dough, putting the pan in a slightly warm oven, etc) will make things worse rather than better.

Is there some easy solution I'm not thinking of besides making dough in smaller batches (which is tough because you can't go down to less than one egg)? Do I need to store the dough in a different way or prep it somehow before baking?

I generally use the recipe on the back of the bag of Tollhouse chocolate chips, which uses butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, flour, etc. I use real butter, not margarine or shortening.