texts: Pizza stone as floor pizza oven vs firebrick

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I’m building a pizza oven stainless steel and what i have seen is that they normally use firebrick as the floor but I would like to know if I can use pizza stone 3/4” as the floor having all the woodfire over it.

Thanks


texts: Storing knives: wood block or magnetic stripe?

texts: What's better for storing your knives? Wood block or magnetic stripe? And why?


texts: Why does flatbread have to be microwaved / cooked / toasted?

texts:
I was eating at a Subway restaurant the other day and they asked if I would like my flatbread toasted... I responded with a "No thanks."

They said, "Well technically the flatbread still HAS to be toasted, so would you like the meat toasted ?"

In confusion, I asked, "Why? I would prefer it un-toasted."

They said, "We are required to toast all flatbread, as it releases some chemical... or something."

Can anyone clear up what they may be referring to?  Does flatbread (non-homemade) HAVE to be toasted / cooked / microwaved ?

Edit:

  Ingredients: Enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine
  mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), folic acid, malted
  barley flour), water, soybean oil, yeast, contains 2% or less of
  nonfat dry milk, salt, wheat gluten, sugar, dough conditioner (acacia
  gum, guar gum, ascorbic acid, L- cysteine, enzymes), calcium
  propionate, baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium
  bicarbonate, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate), and sodium stearoyl
  lactylate.


texts: How do I deal with a really wet, messy dough?

texts:
I have been experimenting with bread recently and today made some really basic white bread with this recipe.

I found that the dough was really messy and sticky, so I ended up using quite a bit of flour during kneading, which I'm afraid messed up the flour to water ratio.

What is the best way of dealing with this kind of dough? Should I just work through it or was it not supposed to be like that? What about for other recipes?

A third of the flour was wholewheat, but apart from that I didn't deviate from the recipe.


texts: Bread from the machine always too soft, can't be buttered

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My bread machine (Panasonic SD-2501) makes good bread. The loaves rise every time and it has a great golden crust. However, the bread is always too soft.

The recipe:

1 tsp dry yeast
440gm baker's flour. I have also tried 00 pizza flour and 50/50 white/spelt blend
1 tsp bread improver (Wallaby brand)
tablespoon honey
tablespoon olive oil
teaspoon salt
330ml milk or water (doesn't seem to make much difference)

I am adding the ingredients in that order as Laucke suggests.

The bread machine cycle is 5 hours and includes about 30 minutes of "rest" once the ingredients are in and the cycle kicks off. I don't know why, since it seems like wasted time when nothing has been mixed; it all just sits there.

Anyway, the problem is not just that the bread is too soft right when it comes out of the machine, though of course it is even softer then. The trouble is that the bread stays too soft to butter even a day later, with room temperature butter, so it is very difficult to make sandwiches with. The bread feels very light, and I think it could do with a lot more body - I don't like fluffy white bread from supermarkets and I want to make something with a bit more chew and resistance to tearing. Being too soft also means it doesn't toast well; the toasting seems to take a lot of moisture out of the bread, and when you bite it there's not much there at all.


texts: Does it take longer to cook more pork ribs?

texts: I have to cook 6 racks (about 16lbs) of baby back ribs (packs of 3 from Costco). I can't find anything on the internet about how to adjust for time when cooking. I plan on a cooking temperature of 225f in the oven and finishing on the grill.


texts: How to draw peanut flavor into rest of dish?

texts:
I've tried on many occasions to cook with peanuts into curries just by roasting them slightly and allowing them to simmer with the rest of the dish, and no matter how long I wait, the peanuts themselves always taste flat and the rest of the flavor just disappears.
Is there a conventional way to pull this off? The peanuts I'm using are stale which is part of it I'm sure, but when I eat them raw they still taste like peanuts.


texts: Can any custard be made into a frozen custard?

texts:
I recently came upon a book of antique recipes, and there are several wonderful custards. I really have my eye on an almond custard, but not to serve as a custard, but to freeze in an ice cream maker and serve as a nice summer dessert.

So, quite simply, can any custard recipe be used as the basis for frozen custard? Or does a recipe have to be made specifically with freezing in mind?


texts: I have difficulty finding "ANGOSTURA" bitters, is there any substitute?

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My preferred pre-dinner drink is the Manathan, but I have difficulties finding ANGOSTURA bitters.

Is there anything else that I could use instead of it?


texts: How do I get my home-popped popcorn to be as dry as bagged popcorn?

texts:
When using an air popper to pop popcorn, it never seems fully dry as the healthier bagged popcorn from Smartfood, Skinny Pop, etc.

Before putting any toppings on the air-popped corn, I taste some of the plain popped corn and it seems to still have some moisture content.

I've tried to place the popped popcorn on a sheet pan in the oven at 200°F for a while in an attempt to dry it out further, but it never seems fully dry.

My wife makes kettle corn using oil, sugar, salt, and popcorn and it turns out much drier… but then it also has a salty-sweet coating. Perhaps I have to kettle pop plain popcorn to get a drier result?

How do I make really dried out popcorn?


texts: How can I make and store multiple pizzas before a potluck?

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My job is having a potluck soon.
I plan on making 2 Buffalo NY style pizzas, 2 Papa Johns clones, and 2 Traditional NY style pizzas.
How should I store the pizza once i'm done cooking it?

Once finished making the pizzas, should I put them straight in the fridge?

Luckily, I work at a restaurant, so microwave ovens  and hot air ovens  are at our own use if anyone wants to reheat their pizza.
How far ahead of time should I bake the pizzas? It will take me 15 mins to get to my job with my bicycle and me hauling pizzas on a trailer.
Should I buy pizza boxes to transport them in?

Any thoughts would be welcome.

I totally want to blow everyone away and show them homemade pizza is the truth.


texts: By size or weight - I never seem to know ...


texts:
I have the habit of boiling water before drinking.
I am planning to buy a copper dispenser.
In this context, I am getting the following doubts:

Can I boil water using copper water dispenser?

Is it okay to store boiled water insider copper water dispenser? If (1) is not recommended.


texts:
I have some runny, clear honey in a jar.

How can I turn it into soft-set honey?

I think honey sets over time, but how long does that take? Is there a way to speed it up? Should the jar's lid be on/off?

I've tried researching for answers but every single permutation and combination of search terms I try just gives me answers for the opposite problem.


texts: Which part of green onions can we use in recipes?

texts: For recipes calling for green onions, how do we know that whether we have to use the white root of the onion in recipe  or green leaves?


texts: Cooking pinto beans in a pressure cooker

texts: So I have read some of the questions and answers regarding soaking and cooking pinto beans and I am still trying to figure out the best process for my needs.  I cook a bunch of pinto beans at one time and then freeze them.  Because I cook a lot of beans at a time, I like using the pressure cooker.  My main concern is loss of nutrients.  I have been soaking the beans for 24 hours and then cooking them in a pressure cooker. Does this method compare well to others in retention of nutrients?


texts: How to sweeten pickled ginger to be served with sushi?

texts:
I bought a jar of pickled ginger from the local asian food market to go along with the sushi I have been preparing at home.  This texture of this ginger is harder, and the taste much bitter. This is not the gari I am used to tasting from the sushi bar.

The ingredients of the jar read "Ginger, water, vinegar, sugar, salt, FD&C red no 40. as colour, saccharin as sweetener, sodium benzoate and sodium metabisulfite as preservatives."

Do sushi restaurants do anything special to sweeten their gari?


texts:
I was recently given some home canned fresh pork, that was preserved by boiling at 100C for three hours. It is only a few weeks old and tastes delicious, but after reading up on canning processes, I believe the above process is not safe.

The canned pork, along with the new confrontation the US seems to be provoking with Russia and imminent apocalypse,  inspired me to look into canning my own meat.

As far as I can tell, the aim is to get the cold spot internal temperature up to around 120C for a while to kill clostridium spores, and it is not effective to use dry heat, because heat exchange is too slow and the cans don't like it.

The typical method I found online involves a water bath in a large pressurized container, to get the boiling point up.

I don't have a large pressure canner and I would like to do a large quantity of cans. Can i simply use a bath of vegetable oil maintained at around 130C?

UPDATE

As the answer and comments below describe, a pressurized can in a hot oil bath could explode and cause an eruption of hot oil. However, that leads to another avenue of thinking. PET bottles are designed to withstand high internal pressure, and would probably not melt at 120c (I need to check) but PET has high oxygen permeability. There are plastic canning jars such as these https://www.mycosupply.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?preadd=action&key=PLID02 . But there is no data on internal pressure abilities. Is there a common container designed to handle high internal pressure that can be heated to 120C with low gas permeability? (beer bottles come to mind)

It seems beverage cans, especially those designed for in can pasteurization, would work https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/SeemaMeraj.shtml but those cans require expensive equipment.

UPDATE 2
So after more research, there is a process called Flame Sterilization, done at atmospheric pressure, and requires a smaller, robust can. However, the process is problematic and little used in industry. The trick would be to source cans intended for flame sterilization and then the oil bath would work. Any clues where from?


texts: Does pouring water on burning charcoal when grilling make the meat more smokey?

texts: Does anyone know if pouring water during grilling on the charcoal, which makes the fire smokey, would actually make the taste of the meat being grilled more smokey?


texts:
What difference does it make to use a roux or a beurre manié ?

Are there any rules about their usage, or are they both interchangeable?


texts: How long does cooked TVP keep in the fridge?

texts: How long can I keep cooked textured vegetable protein (soy) in fridge and does it matter if it is mixed with for example some spices and rice? Will it then shorten the duration of how long it's good to eat?


texts:
I have these 2 pans and do not know what to cook in them. The square one is non stick; the lid has holes in it and is curved to fit the hump in the bottom part.

The second pan has a detachable handle.


texts:
I was following a simple butter tablet recipe. After 20 minutes of stirring and boiling the condensed milk, sugar, butter and milk mixture, I removed the pot from the heat, and started to beat. This was looking good, and getting sticky, and a darker brown, when suddenly the thickening mixture started to rise. I was forced to go to the sink to handle the problem, and the now quite porous mixture poured over the edges of the pot.

This happened twice. I blamed the first failure on using an electric hand mixture for the beating phase. I'm using a copper bottom pot. What went wrong?


texts: What is the dark stuff inside a green bell pepper?

texts: My wife has been cutting up some green bell peppers and on the seeds is some dark stuff. The outside was firm and normal looking.


texts: How much dried lemon zest to substitute for "zest of one lemon"?

texts:
Most recipes that use lemon zest call for "zest of one lemon" or some such amount. To avoid the bother of organic lemons that invariably go bad before I use them and having to fiddle with zesting I'd like to use dried zest soaked in lemon juice instead.

How should I substitute the amounts? I'm guesstimating that drying would reduce the volume by about half, but how much good fresh zest is there on a lemon in the first place?


texts:
I got a nylon bag which is marked 'PA' in the label, which I think is polyamide.

I plan to use it for mashing barley grains in homebrewing ( 62C to 78C, PH ~ 5, 90 minutes ).

The bag is black and was originally intended for washing clothes.

Is it food safe in this setting?

Will it leach chemicals?


texts: How can I make my lemonade more tart/tangy?

texts:
I'm making lemonade, but no matter what ratios of lemon to sugar I use, I can't get that tartness and tang that I can taste in my favourite commercial drinks. I noticed that even with drinks that don't have a citrus flavour, they sometimes have that tartness, so I examined the ingredients of various tangy drinks.

I managed to narrow down that tart drinks tend to have the ingredients citric acid and trisodium citrate. Neither of those ingredients are things I can get at the grocery store. Is there anything I can get at the grocery store that will have the same tartness as those ingredients? It needs to be something cheap please, because the whole reason I'm making my own lemonade is to avoid the expense of the ready made stuff.


texts: Can I add instant yeast to sourdough dough that is not very active?

texts:
I have a sourdough starter (rye flour based) that is quite active and I use it a lot.

I decided to make bread today and used AP flour instead of bread flour on purpose. I wanted to see what would happen. Turns out, not much is happening and the dough is not very active and not rising much. I wanted to bake it in a few hours. Assuming it doesn't pick up the pace by then, can I add instant yeast to it to at least get some rise out of the bread? I don't really throw out all that flour and it smells sour so I think some flavor will be there.

Or am I better off leaving it overnight to give the starter more time to work on this dough?


texts: This recipe for homemade Marmite says,"The entire process takes about ten days." How can that be? From what I see here I can't see it taking longer than four days. Or does that apply only to industrial-scale Marmite-making?


texts:
I followed Dorie Greenspan's recipe http://clclt.com/eatmycharlotte/archives/2010/04/09/dorie-greenspans-tiramisu-cake for making the sponge cake. The cake was very soft when it cooled down.

However, after sitting in the fridge overnight, it was quite tough. It was left uncovered in the fridge. Not sure if this caused it - if yes, what is the best way to keep it in the fridge while the flavours blend?


texts: Safe and efficient way to keep hands clean while preparing food

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In various cooking videos (either online or tv etc) I have seen the cook typically touch either raw chicken or raw meat or raw eggs and then without washing their hands touch other thing like salt and pepper, utensils etc. If they do something before touching anything else it is as trivial as wiping with a paper cloth.
I usually wash my hands before touching anything else but this turns out to be tedious and time consuming. So I was wondering if I am doing it wrong and it doesn't really matter or the cooks in the presentations are doing it only for time and is not safe to do or is there something safe in-between the 2 approaches i.e. constantly washing hands vs not washing hands at all


texts: What temperature would a "quiet oven" be in old fashioned temperature vocabulary?

texts:
I’m looking at a couple of recipes from the early twentieth century.  One calls for a quick oven.  The temperature for that (375 - 400°F) was easy enough to work out, several places online have it, including a 2010 Q&A from this site.  The other one, quiet oven, is proving a little more challenging.  (If this is a mistake, it was a typo/typesetting mistake in the original article: it is a newspaper article and is pretty clearly 'quiet'.) I am leaning toward ‘slow oven’, 300-325°F, because it is difficult to imagine anything being cooked at lower temperatures.  (It is a sweet potato biscuit if that makes a difference to anyone’s logic process.)

So, any ideas what a ‘quiet oven’ might be?


texts:
When I put garlic powder in a shaker, it ends up clumping.

I tried putting in some rice, but it still clumps.

Any ideas?


texts:
A relative of mine is in food retail, and recently she gave me some chorizo. With the basic advice 'hang it in the fridge'

I am not sure if it is edible as yet, and how long it will be edible for, are there any guidelines for this? Should it be eaten raw or cooked?

Also my fridge is not really suitable for hanging the food is there any advice for this?

edit

Thanks for the answers, I believe that it is cured chorizo, but it is still being cured, is there a guideline on how long it will be before it is safe to eat?


texts: Why shouldn't I bake on scratched silicone mats?

texts:
My Silpat baking mat came with very clear instructions to throw out the mat as soon as it becomes scratched. It now has a few very light surface scratches that don't seem to have penetrated the first layer of material.

What is the reason it's unsafe (or otherwise undesirable) to use scratched silicone baking mats? Does this vary between different types of silicone cookware?


texts: Is there any benefit to mixing bread dough by hand?

texts: A lot of bread making guides recommend mixing the dough by hand (as opposed to a wooden spoon, dough whisk or electronic mixer). Is there any actual benefit to the dough from this method? Or is it just a tradition?


texts: Making two no-bake pies, double the recipe, or make the filling one at a time?

texts:
I have a recipe for a no-bake apple pie. I'd like to make two pies, but I'm not sure if I should just double the recipe, or make the filling for each, one at a time. The filling calls for boiling the apples with one box each of lemon Jell-O and cook & serve vanilla pudding, which is why I am concerned about where I should just double the recipe.
I have doubled recipes before, but only once for a cobbler, and sweet potato pies.
I tried to Google the question, but the results generally were for making a double crust pie.


texts:
I have a DeLonghi EC-155 espresso machine. I can operate the machine, but I don't know how many shots I can make with one load of coffee.

How much ml has a shot to be?
How many shots I can make?


texts:
I am in love with Roti Canai, but I recently moved to a small island.

My local buddy at the farmers market sells Malaysian food, but she has been unable to make Roti Canai, so, what's the secret? Can anyone post a recipe or tips for getting it thin, nearly see-through, and crispy and soft when cooked?


texts: Is there any way to revive popcorn that is making too many duds?

texts: I've got some popcorn that I've had for a while, and when I try to pop it, a lot of the kernels remain unpopped. Is there anything I can do to revive it, or does it go in the compost?


texts: When making bread dough, can sugar and salt solutions be used or should the sugar and salt be added dry?


texts: How to choose fresh, ripe (hot) jalapeños?

texts: When shopping at a supermarket or a farmers market, how can I tell which jalapeños to take home? I want them hot and ready rock that very day. Do they get hotter off the vine? Is a ripe jalapeño a hot jalapeño? Does shape affect hotness (or the other way around)?


texts: How best to use gluten free all purpose flour?

texts:
In the grocery store mixup, I got a bunch of gluten free flour. I don't have additives like xanthan gum but would like to bake bread and other recipes so I don't need to go to the store for a few weeks while all this plays out.

Should I try mixing this with regular all purpose flour that I already have? Or should I use it on it's own, or any other advice.

Thanks in advance for all thoughts!


texts: Will chopped up dried fruit still be fine to use after it's been sitting in the fridge for about 3 weeks?

texts:
I was making some fruit balls, like raw/bliss type balls. I chopped up some dates (dried), dried apricots, dried apple, and sultanas; I put these in a bowl and poured over a small amount of boiling water to soften them a bit, and stirred in some cocoa powder and a few drops of liquid stevia.

Then I got busy with other things and never made the balls. The mixture has been covered and refrigerated since then, about 3 weeks ago.

Is this still safe to use? I'm thinking the dried fruit would have become partially re-hydrated by the boiling water.

Thanks


texts: Is sugar necessary for the texture of homemade sherbet?

texts:
I buy pure sucralose and acesulfame potassium which I mix half-and-half and use in my iced coffee. A scant 1/8 teaspoon of the sweetener sweetens an entire pot of coffee and the flavor is perfect, almost indistinguishable from sugar. I would like to try to make (almost) sugar-free orange sherbet with that mixture instead of sugar. I have the type of ice cream maker with an insert that goes into the freezer at least 24 hours before churning the ice cream, then you add the mix to be frozen and it continually stirs the mix for about a half an hour, after which you can pack the ice cream (or sherbet in this case) to freeze somewhat harder before service. If it turns out, it will probably spend 6 hours or so in the freezer before it is consumed.

I have a guest coming for dinner just soon enough that I really don't have the time for a test run, so I'd like to know any caveats now instead of later.

My plan is to mix 1 quart of fat-free half-and-half with orange juice concentrate, dark chocolate shavings, my sweetener, and vanilla to taste. Of course there is some sugar in the form of corn syrup in the fat-free half-and-half, and there is natural sugar in the juice concentrate, but the overall sugar concentration in the mixture will be drastically reduced from what I have churned in the past.

I understand that sugar will somewhat inhibit solid freezing if I were to freeze the mixture in say ice cream trays, but what if it is churned?


texts: What vegetables should I add to a japanese curry?

texts:
I am preparing my first Japenese Curry (cheating incredibly by using the S&B Golden Curry Medium Hot box) and it suggests adding "vegetables" without actually indicating what veggies to add other than onions.

Assuming access to acceptable supermarkets (Asian and normal Australian) what vegetables (normal and/or exotic) make the best compliment to a curry like this?


texts: What are the possible substitutions for Cumin in Indian cuisine?

texts:
I've always been interested in trying to make some type of dahl or other Indian cuisine but I'm severely allergic to Cumin. This typically strikes me out for recipes with curry or chili powder. Does anyone have some PRO tips on types of curry (green, yellow, etc) or Indian foods that would allow me to venture off into this culinary space?

P.S. I'm also gluten intolerant and allergic to nuts and shellfish.


texts: Cocktail shaker - silver plate but black on the inside

texts:
I picked up a 1920s, silver-plated cocktail shaker from the op-shop.  It is super fabulous.  However, the inside is all black.  Is it safe to make and serve cocktails from this shaker?  What should I use to clean it??
Thanks  xx  irene


texts: Beef Wellington - how to get it (especially the pastry) right?

texts:
I'm thinking about cooking Beef Wellington this upcoming weekend for six adults and three kids. I've made it, with ok-ish results, before, but the trick is always getting the pastry right. Not too dry, not too soggy. (It was a bit too soggy when I last made it).

Wikipedia suggests a crepe to help prevent this: what are some other techniques I can use? Should I make multiple smaller ones, should I twiddle with temperatures or let the pastry defrost more than I normally do - I'm open to suggestions.

Update:

I am using store-bought puff pastry
4 sheets of pastry vs ~350 g of meat
the meat has not been frozen and has reached room temperature before being wrapped
Starting at 200C
fairly small gas oven


texts: What's the best way to remove a light coating of rust from a carbon steel paella pan?

texts:
I was recently given a carbon steel paella pan with a very light coating of rust (its prior owner hadn't known how to care for carbon steel, and gave it to me and bought a stainless one).  There are quite a number of ways to remove rust, and I'm wondering which one will work the best?

I have a jar of Naval Jelly, which I use to remove rust from garden tools.  However, carbon steel knife forums warn that Naval Jelly can be too strong and etch the carbon steel.
A vinegar bath is another method (as well as other acid baths such as citric acid).  However, the paella pan is 15" in diameter, and I don't have a large enough basin to soak it in, nor am I eager to buy 3 gallons of vinegar.
Some people simply scrub off the rust with steel wool.  I'm concerned that this will scratch up the paella pan, which is otherwise fairly pristine.
Brasso is milder than Naval Jelly, so I was thinking of just using a tube of that.  It's not, however, primarily a rust remover.
It's possible that scrubbing with Barkeeper's Friend would take the rust off as well.  But it's also possible it won't.

Recommendations?


texts: Is there any danger to letting food cook in a slow cooker for a very long time?

texts:
I've recently started using a slow cooker and I was thinking about recipes that could be cooked for days.  My main concern is if there are any side effects for leaving food cooking for days that would make this plan unfeasible (dangerous to try).  Since it is at cooking temperature, there wouldn't be any reason to worry about bacteria growing on the food.  Liquid would be lost over time, which could result in burning if left unchecked, but if I add more every morning/night as needed, that too wouldn't be a problem.  All I can see is that most recipes wouldn't end up tasting as well, but undesirable isn't equal to dangerous.

There just seems to be something absurd with the notion of leaving food cooking for 5 days or even 2 weeks without there being any dangers, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what they would be.


texts:
My root cellar froze while I was away as we had extended single digit temperatures, which was not normal at all and we broke all temperature records. Now I have a whole basket of frozen onions and squash.

Should I go ahead and process them (I really don't have the time or the inclination as they are COLD!) or will they be fine just letting them thaw. Can I just throw them in freezer whole?


texts: Does resting stew lead to more succulent meat?

texts:
My wife makes a very delicious chicken curry. Part of the "recipe" is let it rest for 2 hours or so until it reaches room temperature. She claims the meat relaxes and reabsorbs gravy from the curry, making the chicken more tender and succulent. She claims if it is served immediately or chilled in the fridge, it never gets this opportunity.

I've heard of resting steaks or roasts. The idea is getting the moisture that's already inside the meat to stay there. But will resting a stew in fact help make the meat pieces more tender?


texts: How to cook fried chicken gizzards that are tender?

texts:
There is a local place that cooks amazing fried chicken gizzards.  Somehow they are really tender, and yet the breading on them is still crispy.  Every time I try to make them they turn out extremely chewy.  What could their secret possibly be?

I have tried getting really fresh (never frozen) gizzards from local farms, but I still can't cook them right!


texts:
My friend just gave me two lovage leaves and I am planning on making chicken soup (from bouillon crystals) with it. My question is how much lovage should I put in? Also should I leave them whole, chop them or crush them....

Update: I was thinking about throwing it in the soup like I understand you would a bay leaf. How long should it be in the soup. What ratio lovage to broth amount. Should the leaves be whole, chopped, crushed..


texts: I'm cooking 3 frozen pot pies do I need to adjust my temp so that they will cook in the hour it takes to do just one


texts: Is it possible to make yoghurt at home with dairy-free milks (soy, coconut, etc)?

texts: I regularly make my own yoghurt from cow's milk by adding live yoghurt and leaving it to incubate for a few hours.  Is it possible to make dairy free yoghurt (from soy milk, or coconut milk, or other dairy free milk alternatives?)  I know it is available to buy in the shops but what would the process be for making it at home?


texts: Replacement for ground almonds in a joconde sponge

texts:
I am going to try and make a petit gateau with a pistachio joconde layer, however I am not a big fan of almonds. Is there anything I can use that would act as a decent replacement for the ground almonds?

Original recipe is a Mary Berry recipe on the BBC good food site:

For the joconde sponge

3 free-range eggs whites
15g/½oz caster sugar
100g/3½oz ground almonds
100g/3½oz icing sugar
3 free-range eggs
30g/1oz plain four, sifted
30g/1oz unsalted butter, melted


texts: Does food cooked in firewood taste different than that which is cooked in gas?

texts: Does this apply to food in general or just proteins or a few items? Also, does the taste vary depending on the type of wood you use i.e. using bamboo as firewood?


texts: To achieve maximum flavour is it better to cut or tear basil leaves?

texts:
When I add basil to a dish should I tear or cut basil leaves?
Does it matter?


texts: Is only roe from sturgeon considered as caviar?

texts: Is only roe from sturgeon considered caviar? As sturgeon can only survive in cold waters it cannot occur naturally near the equator. What are substitutes for the sturgeon caviar so that one would be able to utilize fresh unpasteurized caviar in a country like pakistan?


texts: Home outdoor cooking apparatus for high heat cooking (wok, stir fry)

texts:
I am a chef over in Western Australia and love to cook outdoors in my spare time as we certainly have the weather for it. For Asian cooking (stir fried, in a wok) I'm looking for equipment, but there seems to be no proper market in this field for home use.

There are what is call the Rambo burners which seem excellent , but they do not have a proper housing kit for stylish outdoor entertainment.

Asian charcoal cookers look good but are not available for purchase here.

Is there a home outdoor cooking apparatus capable of high heat cooking (specifically for wok cooking) which is perfect for backyard entertaining??


texts:
In the recipe that I used for raspberry semi-freddo, one beats the eggs and castor sugar in a heat-proof dish over simmering water until it becomes thick.
Are the eggs actually cooked?
What is the purpose of beating it while it is being heated?


texts: Reheat coated fried chicken (salt and pepper chicken)

texts:
I followed a recipe for sat and pepper chicken, where I fry for 5 minutes, then let it rest then fry for a further 2 minutes before adding to the pan with the veg and seasoning.

The recipe said I could refrigerate some of the chicken (after the 5 minutes) for tomorrow.

I just wondered how long I need to re-fry it for tomorrow to make it safe, and Is it ok to add straight from the fridge or freezer to the oil


texts: What kind of vessel is suitable for storing and aging eggnog?

texts:
I am planning on making eggnog for the first time. I am from Australia where eggnog is not really a thing, and living in the UK where that still seems to be the case. This means I haven't grown up seeing how eggnog gets prepared and stored.

I am aware that some recipes of eggnog are made to be stored and aged for a week or more, sometimes a month or even several months. I plan to make some tomorrow to have on boxing day (so 14 days). If I were to make eggnog to be consumed in a day or two I imagine I'd just store it in a plastic jug, but what should I be using if I were to store it for longer?

The eggnog recipe on Alton Brown's website mentions storing it in glass jars. Should I be using mason jars, or jam jars with screw-on lids, or is either fine? Are there better/worse answers?


texts: Could chicken meat ever be safe when pink?

texts: I have cooked chicken breasts today and they read 83c (safe is 73c) with a ThermoWorks Thermopop (best company in the industry). When I sliced them they had small pink strips on the inside. What does it mean? Was the chicken safe? Is it impossible for chicken to be both slightly pink and safe?


texts:
What cut of meat does Arby's use in their roast beef sandwiches?

Looking at the slices (see: https://arbys.com/desktop/images/the_meats/beef_n_cheddar.png), they don't seem to have the muscle fibers I would expect to see in beef (e.g. https://www.eatdrinkri.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/20110315_charcutepalooza_mar_corned_beef_8.jpg). I wonder if this is a result of the specific cut of the meat? Or the method of slicing (e.g. very thin against the grain?), or something else? This video might help identify the meat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otDoG1OjBZA

I'm hoping to do a copy of their roast beef at home.


texts: What are some of the names of chemical compounds (minerals our what not) which make the healthy (sandless) pink salt pink?


texts: Reverse engineer the Perfect Japanese Omelet

texts:
I've come across this video of a very impressive japanese omelet and I've been trying to understand how it's done and what do I need to make it at home.

I've seen this video reproducing the technique, but the omelet's surface is not smooth at all.

I'm trying to reverse engineer this omelet and learn the key techniques to accomplish that.

My attempt so far has been on comparing what I can see to what I've read on traditional french omelets.

What I have come up with:

Traditional french omelet is done on medium-high heat, and this one seems to be done at very high heat.
Traditional french omelet takes milk or water (I've read on other questions here that water works best). The second video seems to use just eggs and comes out kinda bad. The kyoto guy seems to have a very smooth egg mixture but we don't know for sure if it's just eggs or what.
In french omelets, on the first seconds since you pour the eggs into the pan, eggs are mixed from the outside-in in order to allow a thicker layer of cooked eggs before turning the omelet. This kind of omelet is mixed in apparently quick random chopstick movements combined with shaking the pan, possibly because of the much higher heat?
Once the a layer of cooked eggs start to form underneath the omelet they should be flipped over. In french omelets, ends meet sideways. In the kyoto video, it seems the ends meet on the top, flipping them with cooking chopsticks in one direction, and turning them over with hand movements in the other direction. This seems to be important for the baloony shape of the omelet. Here the second video almost falls short. The ends of the omelet meet, but they are not perfectly tied.

UPDATE 1

My omelets are successfully runny on the inside and smoothly cooked on the outside. Watching Alton Brown's omelet advice was key into mastering this, also getting a new pan with a smooth nonstick surface.

I had been on a plateau for quite some time trying to make the omelet turn on itself while in the pan.

I was practicing using traditional pan flipping motion, the same one used for doing pancakes, and it was practically impossible to make the omelet turn on itself.

Watching the videos again I think I'm starting to get it. The trick seems to be punching the pan, which leaves the omelet in free fall and makes it spin on itself.

I managed to get the omelet to spin and turn completely over. I didn't manage yet to make the ends meet, melt into each other and turn the omelet into that impressive american football shape.


texts:
I am the new proud owner of more fenugreek seeds than I will ever use as a spice, so I thought I'd try my hand at sprouting. I have no idea if I will enjoy sprouting or if I will like fenugreek sprouts so I don't want to spend any money on a special tray or anything like that at this point. From what I have read (most notably, this: http://sproutpeople.org/fenugreek.html) it looks like I can just use a big jar with a screen lid. Wouldn't cheesecloth secured with a rubber band do the trick?

Also, I've been warned that there is a salmonella risk in sprouting. What precautions should I take?

Any other sage advice for a novice to sprouting?


texts: Can I use butter in cookies the same if recipe calls for margarine

texts:
Can I use butter in a molasses cookie recipe instead of margarine
I


texts: Will it wreck the dish if I pre-soak beef in brine, and then slow roast with Marsala?

texts:
I've found that pre-soaking my beef in brine helps to break down the fibres, making the subsequent roast tender.

I've found a recipe for slow-roasting beef with Marsala. I'm wondering if I can combine the two, or if that will be a terrible idea.

My question is: Will it wreck the dish if I pre-soak beef in brine, and then slow roast with marsala?

Clarifications:

This will be roasted in a ceramic dish, with a glass lid for eight hours.

By 'wreck' I mean the saltiness of the brine is pleasant during eating, as is the sweetness of the Marsala. My concern is that the two tastes (salty and sweet) will clash, making the dish inedible.


texts: How do I season potato wedges or quartered roasted potatoes with 'Leon's Baked Fries'?

texts:
From to right: Leon's official website, 2, 3. Google has more images.

Clicking on "MORE" (as per the green arrow) unveils:

Ingredients
Crisscut Fries (Potatoes, Vegetable oil, Modified starch, Corn flour, Rice flour, Salt, Starch, Spices, Garlic powder, Onion powder, Raising agents: Sodium Bicarbonate, E450(i), Yeast extract, Spice extracts Thickener: Xanthan Gum, Dextrose),
Leon Seasoning (Spices (Paprika, Smoked Paprika, Coriander (ground), Black Pepper), Herbs (Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano), Dried Garlic, Sea Salt, Smoked Salt, Onion Powder

Do I just mix the ingredients (hereafter IGT) in a bowl, and then  strew Leon's Seasoning  over baked potato wedges or quartered roasted potatoes? This  looks wrong, as the pictures above exhibit little seasoning on the fries.

If this is right, at what stage do I speckle?

Or must the mixed ingredients be in(ter)jected in the potatoes?


texts: Is there a difference in the end result between using mechanical leaveners vs chemical leaveners in a cake?

texts: Are they interchangeable? E.g. could you replace whipped egg whites in an angel food cake with enough baking powder/soda and end up with similar results? Or in a butter cake, replace the creamed butter and sugar with a greater quantity of other leaveners? If not, how would they differ and why?  Thanks!


texts: I have seen Chia Seeds used after being soaked in baking and other recipes, but could you just use them raw? I was thinking about replacing the poppy seeds in a lemon poppyseed muffin recipe with them to give them  more fiber.


texts: Why are my sous vide salmon fillets coming out raw in the center?

texts:
My wife and I have tried a couple times to sous vide salmon fillets and they seem to keep coming out undercooked or raw in the center and I'm really not sure why.  I took pretty good notes on what we did tonight and I'm hoping someone can find the flaw in my strategy.

We purchased 1 lbs. of salmon fillet from Trader Joe's.  At home, we pulled it out of the refrigerator and cut the skin off of the salmon and cut it into two separate fillets.  I have a FoodSaver vacuum-sealer that I used to vacuum seal the two salmon fillets into a single bag.  The salmon fillets were vacuum-sealed in the same bag, but were not touching on another (they were about 3 inches apart).

I have an Anova Culinary sous vide that I used to get a water bath up to 126 degrees farenheit in a large All-Clad stainless steel pot.  Image of the sous vide setup below:

Once the sous vide was up to temperature at 126 degrees Farenheit, I dropped the vacuum-sealed-bag with the two salmon fillets into the pot and started a timer.  To be on the safe side, I left the salmon in the pot with the temperature at 126 Farenheit for one hour.

When I took the salmon out of the pot and opened the vacuum-sealed bag, it seemed like it was colder than I would expect.  Upon cutting into the salmon, I noticed that it was still raw in the center.

After I noticed the salmon was raw, I put a thermometer in the pot and verified that the temperature was 126 degrees Farenheit, so I think the sous vide is working properly.  From what I've read online, cooking for 1 hour at 126F should be more than enough.  Likewise I read that vacuum-sealing fish tends to end up with overcooked fish rather than undercooked so I didn't think that was the issue.

Where did I go wrong here?  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!  Thank you!


texts: My church assembles apple pies for sale on a Monday.  Crusts are made ahead and frozen.  Crumbs are made on Friday and refrigerated.  This year the crumbs have become lump, hard, and almost impossible to sprinkle on the pie at assembly time.  What can we do to prevent this?  We don't have enough workers to make the crumbs during the pie assembly.


texts: Burned water out of pot...popping sound a month later?

texts:
A month ago I foolishly left a pot of water on to boil WAY too long.  It was a small pot and all the water was gone (though it had been covered) and it continued to sit on the stove burner with the flame on until I remembered much later on.
When I realized, I let it cool down and heard crackling as it did (which I'm told was the sediment deposition on the bottom).  The pot (All-Clad, stainless steel) was discolored (though looked kind of cool) and with some advice from here and other sites, I cleaned it as best I could (white vinegar, barkeeper's, dishwasher).  The pot still looks discolored but has worked fine, though the water appeared to boil strangely at times (with unusual bubble patterns that hadn't been there before), but no big deal.
I only use the small pot for boiling water.  But today, about a month after this happened, I put about half a cup of hot water from the faucet in it and i heard a loud pop.  Thinking this unusual, I thought maybe I misheard and I heated up the water as normal.  Then I heard a few more (but softer) pops.  Finally, the water was boiled, I took the pot off the flame, and left it to cool on a cold burner.  POP another strong one!
My thinking/hope was that the pot was ok because it's stainless steel and based on what I've read, permanent damage was unlikely after my initial over-heating incident.  But I have no explanation (nor can find one) about this new popping, long after this happened.  And I'm worried that the pot might split or shatter, or that it might be dangerous in another way.
Any information or advice?
Thanks!


texts: Alkaline ramen noodles shelf life in uncooked state

texts: I do make alkaline noodles by myself in our restaurant. David Chang suggests to mellow-stop the alcalic reaction to add citric acid. I dont have a good experience with it. The character of the dough changes. Its bloating (obviously) a little bit and its more prone to rip and end chewiness is not right. So we are making them every day fresh. As hours pass, they darken into gray-greenish color from previous yellowish. Those who make ramen noodles from scratch and cook them to order, how do you do it? How long do you keep your fresh-cut noodles for cooking to order?


texts: Is there really a tradition of some kind to eat white bread when it's hot outside and dark bread when it's cold?

texts:
I've heard this more than once in my life:

This hot weather really is suited for white bread. In the winter, we can eat the dark bread again.

And variations of that.
Is that based on any kind of logic/tradition? Why exactly is white bread "more suited" for hot weather than dark bread? Why does the kind of bread matter? Is there something I'm missing?
I might actually agree that it somehow seems to fit better, but I can't explain why exactly.


texts: Does turning a gas stove on high move the heat to the outside of the pot?

texts:
When you turn a gas stove on high, you get a big flame with a wide diameter. When you lower the heat, the diameter of the flame shrinks. (I'm not sure this description makes sense. Does it?)

Does turning the heat up all the way move the hottest part of the burner to the outside of the pot? And further, does reducing the heat just enough to shrink the diameter of the flame cause the heat to be more evenly distributed across the bottom of the pan? I've noticed that, while trying to boil water, it tends to boil first around the edges of the pot and doesn't necessarily ever get to a big rolling boil like I've seen on an electric stove.


texts: Do the herbs which promote relaxation in certain herb teas have more efficiency when theyre warm/hot as opposed to cool/cold?

texts: I had made Celestial Seasoning Sleepy Bear tea and left out too long and it got cool, and it just didn't quite have the same affect on me as when I normally drink it.


texts: Can self-raising flour be used in lieu of plain flour when making a roux for a bechamel?

texts:
I have plenty of self-raising flour (which will easily take me until its best before date to use) but am running very low on plain flour which I use predominantly for making a roux and then ultimately a bechamel. Given the current circumstances it seems appropriate to use up things I already have in the cupboard, rather than purchasing more if I don't need to.

Will the added raising agents in self-raising flour (the flour I have is from Sainsbury's and contains Calcium Phosphate and Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate, apparently) affect the production of a roux and then ultimately a bechamel sauce from the roux?


texts: Three different-colored Thai curry pastes, how are they different?

texts: Three different-colored Thai curry pastes that are readily available (plus Panang curry), green,yellow, and red. How do they differ in taste and heat? I’m pretty sure that it’s not green for “mild,” yellow for “medium,” and red for “scorch your mouth.” As I age, my tolerance for spicy foods is, alas, diminishing.


texts: I bought a piece of shoulder steak. Can I cook it like a london broil - marinating it and then broiling for around fifteen minutes?


texts: What is the difference between Clam Chowder and New England style?

texts: What makes clam chowder a New England style vs. some other style?


texts: Suitable oils for roasting chicken at high temperature in cast iron

texts:
Over the last several years I've been perfecting my roast chicken recipe, starting with Arthur Schwartz' Garlic and Paprika Rubbed Roast Chicken recipe.

The basic approach I now use involves transferring the chicken, coated in a mixture of spices and oil, to a cast-iron frying pan preheated in the oven to 450oF (230oC).

My question is regarding the oil, and which types would be appropriate.

What I am looking for is an oil with the following characteristics:

Light, neutral, or no flavor
High smoke point
Low or no omega-6 fatty acids (which rules out peanut, soy, corn, and sunflower oils)
Additionally, I am wondering if the choice of oil should be guided by the fact that I am using a cast iron pan?

I've looked at this list of cooking oil smoke points, and it seems the remaining choices are:

Safflower oil
Sesame oil
Olive pomace oil
Extra light olive oil
Grapeseed oil
Avocado oil

How can I decide which of these oils would be best?


texts: One of our favorite dishes involves rolling a piece of cod in corn and then sautéing it until the corn is somewhat caramelized. Then it bakes until the fish is cooked through. Here's the issue - one in five times, the corn actually won't stick to the cod, and then we have corn, cod, and a large mess. The corn is still in kernel form - that's why the sweet, caramelized thing is so delicious. How do I get the corn to consistently stick to the cod without battering and frying the thing?


texts: Increasing my pancake recipe..Are soda and salt in a different ratio than the other ingredients?

texts: I need to increase my pancake recipe 4.5 times.  I seem to remember that the salt and soda are increased at a smaller ratio than the rest of the ingredients.  Is that true, and what is the correct ratio for salt and baking soda?


texts: What temperature(s) should sweetbreads be cooked to?

texts:
It is very easy to find quick references for the various doneness temperatures (rare, med. rare, etc.) of different animal meats, but not so easy when it comes to offal. Sweetbreads, as far as I know, are usually prepared by poaching or blanching first, then a resting period, and then a final preparation like pan-frying before being served.

So, at what temperature are sweetbreads "done" (the temperature they should be cooked to during poaching/blanching)? Or is there a range (rare to well done)? I've never been served sweetbreads at a restaurant and had them described as being at a particular doneness, so I'm guessing there is one small temperature range at which they're not dangerous, and not overcooked. Most recipes I found just give a period of time for which they should be cooked, which varied greatly. The few references I found online which mention temperature at all only mentioned the temperature of the water bath for cooking them sous-vide (usually between 150-160 F). That seems a decent guideline for doneness, since cooked sous-vide, the meat will end up at the same temperature as the water. But never having cooked them, I can't say for sure...


texts:
I was mixing wet ingredients together for a muffin recipe, and I prepared the eggs, water and vanilla extract.  I melted Ghee butter in the microwave, and tried to cool it down some.  I then combined the eggs/water/vanilla and melted ghee together, and that is where I have been having problems.  Some of what I did:

1) Parts of the Ghee started to harden, causing chunks

2) The eggs did come out of the fridge; the water was roughly room temperature, maybe a bit below

I don't know if that would happen if I used normal butter instead of Ghee, but is there an optimal way to melt Ghee, and not have it harden and have everything mix together well?


texts: Torte Milanese without puff pastry dough

texts: I'd like to make Torte Milanese today, and I wouldn't use puff pastry dough in that recipe since my home-made puff pastry is not as soft as it is expected for such a dish. What other dough could I use here?


texts: How can I tell if a vegetarian recipe is suitable for freezing?

texts:
I am a vegetarian looking to save time. I thought cooking in large batches and freezing would be a good option. However, I don't know which of my recipes are freezable and which are not, how can I tell? Are there certain ingredients that make a recipe non-freezable, or is it only possible to tell on a case-by-case basis, and if so what are the criteria?

Otherwise, are there good online resources for healthy, freezable, vegetarian recipes? Or, can anyone share any suitable recipes they recommend?


texts: Is a steak OK to eat if it fell down, but I cooked it afterwards?

texts: If I am cooking steaks at a grill and one of them accidentally falls down on the floor/ground, is it safe for me to wipe it and cook it for a certain amount of time (till it is pretty well done) and then eat it? Or should I throw it away?


texts: Is spaghetti and bechamel sauce an authentic Italian dish?

texts: I have seen instances where people mix white sauce / bechamel with spaghetti or macaroni but never seen a reputable chef to do so. This mix is sometimes mistaken for carbonara since its creamy white. Is it authentic to do so? If not can please also expound what béchamel usually used for for added information.


texts: I'm making Pennsylvania Dutch ham pot pie.  A dough is rolled, cut and dropped into boiling ham broth with potatoes.  I would like to make it the day before serving.  Can I put the pan in frig and reheat it slowly?


texts: How do I keep leftover tomato sauce from spoiling?

texts:
I made pizza today.  The last time I did this I had some leftover tomato sauce; when I opened that it went POP and smoke came out of the jar.  Tasted really bad, too, so I threw it away and opened a new jar.

I keep having to do this.  I close the jar tight and put it directly in the refrigerator, but it still goes bad.

What can I do to prevent this?  Is there some sort of preservative I could add to the remaining sauce to keep it from spoiling?


texts: Four years ago I have harvested some liquorice roots in a field. After a brief cleaning with fresh water I have sun dried these roots for a day. These were very tasty. I kept these in a cardboard box. Now are they edible?


texts:
I have been trying to make a raspberry soufflé, because, well, I found a recipe, and it sounded tasty. It utterly failed, but because I'm stubborn, I wanted to keep trying until I got it right. However, every single time, it has turned grey. I've been beating the egg whites in a plastic bowl, and I've read  now  that you shouldn't do that for some reason or another, but never anything of them turning grey. Besides, the mixture doesn't turn grey until I add the raspberry mixture (which consists of raspberry, sugar, a bit of water, and maizena). My best guess is that the maizena somehow reacts with the whites, because I honestly have noe idea how raspberry would make eggs turn grey.

Help, anyone? The eggs were all fresh, and they looked completely fine up until I added the raspberry mixture, every single time. I just don't understand what's making them turn grey.


texts:
I've started frying recently, but already the grip of the basket has become sticky with oil, grease or whatever you call it... I've put the basket in the dishwasher, but with no effect. I guess it could be cleaned without effort with ammoniac, but that's a substance I'm not to fond of.

Any suggestions, apart from elbow-grease?


texts: My husband is on a dairy free, low sugar diet. How do I create a substitute for chocolate chips. The store bought sugar free chips usually are seasonal and have dairy in them.


texts: I have made a few corned beef with chuck and pot roast cuts. Using salt,sugar nitrite salt , etc: the results have been excellent. I have not used brisket because they are so big.  Pork loins and shoulders are so cheap I would like to try corned pork . What could go wrong ?


texts: What's a good spicy salt with only heat, and not a lot of flavor?

texts: I'm looking for something I can sprinkle on my food to add heat, but not change the flavor.  I typically add salt to just about everything I eat anyway, so I am considering a spicy salt, however, if there is some other spicy "powder", that would be perfect.  I have started using crushed red pepper flake, but it takes a fair amount to get the desired heat.  When I do that, the flavor is still normally fine, but the pepper flakes make the food gritty, and I can feel the dried bits as I chew... it ruins the texture of the food.  I've looked into pure capsaicin from an eye dropper, but that will be hard to spread over my wife's prepared dinners without adding too much heat.  Any idea's?


texts: Can I fix a chewy beef joint after it's already cooked and sliced?

texts:
Now I have cooked the beef joint & it's cut up into thin slices is there anything I can do to make it less chewy.

Editor's note: let's assume this is some kind of cut meant for roasting, presumably something with a fair amount of connective tissue.


texts:
I recently mixed 8 quarts of kimchi. I stuffed my cabbage into 8, 1-quart Mason Jars. I left the typical buffer space (about 1-inch) below the lid. I told someone else that I had jarred the kimchi in glass and they seemed concerned that the jars would explode. I read that you can relieve pressure intermittently for the first few days and then the fermentation will lessen in intensity -- no worry for explosion.

My question is this -- because my kimchi is in mason jars, it gets no air and I was wondering if I should use cheesecloth covering next time. Do the lids stifle fermentation because of their seal? Is it just a bad idea to stuff kimchi and krauts into mason jars?


texts: How can I reheat oats in the minimal time without microwave?

texts:
I warm up steel cut oats I cooked and stored in the refrigerator.
To warm the portion I use 4x the portion's size in water. I.e. for 50gr I use 200gr water.
This takes me 15 mins.
Is there a faster way to do this without a microwave?
Update:
I fill a pan with water 4 times the weight of the oats I got from the fridge.
I wait until the water starts to boil.
Then I put the oats in the pan (they are frozen and completely solid at this point).
I use a spoon to break the oats and after 2-3 mins I lower a bit the heat.
I wait until the water is fully gone (stirring) and the solid oats appear fluid. I like them warm


texts:
In my family I am well known for baking a great focaccia bread, but soon I won't be able to bake for some time, so my idea was to bake a big batch and put it into the freezer. Will that work or will the texture and taste of the focaccia change big time?

I know some people freeze their bread, but the one time I tasted such bread (wholemeal) it wasn't that nice, but I am not sure if it was because of the freezing or because the bread was just rubbish. Also, a focaccia is not a wholemeal bread, so I guess any conclusions based on that experience would be wrong.


texts:
I'm doing fish fries tonight, and my wife doesn't like breaded fish.
The thought was to pan sear hers and finish it with a sauce. Unfortunately, I'm having a tough time finding sauce ideas for haddock. What flavors/base would go well with haddock? I want to avoid tartar sauce for a pan seared fillet.


texts: Substitute for sugar/golden syrup as binding agent in breakfast bars for kids

texts:
I found this recipe for breakfast bars, and I would like to make some ahead of time and then give them to the kids on the go, to make mornings easier.  As my kids will be eating these most days, I want to remove the sugar as much as possible.

First question:  what is the binding agent in these?  Is it the sugar or the syrup, or something else?

Second question:  if I wanted to remove the added sugar (to Weetabix levels), what is another binding agent I could use?  I see some people using banana, but I would like some other options as one of the girls struggles when she eats too much banana.


texts: What is the most time efficient way to serve food fairly to ~100 people?

texts:
I'm the food manager at a student cooperative residence with 140 residents. A cook crew of 5 residents cook dinner every night, and usually 60-100 people attend dinner on a given night. Right now, people line up to serve themselves from a large table that has all the dishes. This method is very slow and it can take 30 minutes for someone at the end of the line to get food.

Since we are a cooperative community, we need a method that is equitable to residents. Our current method is accessible, but not time efficient at all.

In comparison, a different house but of similar size to ours uses a "mad rush" method to serve food, which essentially results in residents forming a mob and grabbing the food until it runs out. In this method, the food is usually distributed unevenly; some residents get more popular food items, (such as meat) and some get very little or none of the popular items at all. This method privileges members that are physically stronger and bigger and is very obviously not accessible to residents with physical disabilities or residents that are claustrophobic/have social anxieties. Their method is very time efficient though, with food being served in under 5 minutes.

I am looking for any ideas (no matter how novel) on how to serve food to the house, as long as it is accessible, equitable (all residents get a fair share) and time efficient.

Edit:
To clarify, we usually have ~4 dishes per meal and served in steel insert pans (or if it is a soup, straight out of a pot). Meals consist of at least one starch item, one vegan protein, and one vegetable dish. Meals may additionally have a meat dish, a soup, a dessert or additional starch/vegetarian dishes.


texts: Smen - Moroccan fermented butter.. best clarified or not?

texts:
I am making a 20kg batch for my niece's birth (I like the old traditions of the world!), and was wondering if anyone could direct me.

There seems to be recipes calling for fresh butter (https://www.thespruceeats.com/smen-moroccan-preserved-butter-with-thyme-2394939), and recipes calling for clarified butter (https://www.thespruceeats.com/smen-recipe-plain-salted-preserved-butter-2394938)

I need one to store for decades, so am wondering about the clarified butter one without the herb 'starter culture'.. and as an aside (for interest), are the differences just regional?


texts: Why can't I get a seasoning layer on my carbon steel pan using an induction hob?

texts:
I recently purchased a carbon steel pan (DeBuyer Mineral B Element), and have attempted to perform pre-seasoning on it. I checked out a bunch of videos on the process, and ended up doing the following steps:

Warm up pan
Coat pan in a thin layer of canola oil
Heat pan until oil begins to smoke
Take pan off heat when oil stops smoking
Cool to room temperature

I repeated the process around 6 times, and the flat surface of the pan still felt pretty smooth. Sides of the pan were slightly sticky though. I proceeded to cook bacon, which immediately stuck to the pan (I added about a tablespoon of oil before cooking too).

Any idea what I'm doing wrong, and why no seasoning layer is forming on the carbon steel frying pan? It's getting discolored but not turning black. Sides are turning brown, albeit slightly gummy.


texts:
I was looking through my Julia Child cookbook and noticed she said that the French use low protein flour for their plain French bread with a value of about eight percent. That is the value of protein in pastry flour but the only pastry I could find was Arrowhead Mills brand. On a whim, I thought I would whip up a loaf to see what would happen, though her recipe calls for all-purpose flour.

I found the dough to be very wet and a light brown color. I added some flour so it would be more manageable. There are three rising times including the final one. The first two bubbled up well, three times the initial size, but the last really didn't happen and I wound up with a flat loaf.

My question, then, is what happened? Does pastry flour require less water due to the lower protein? I used a quick rise yeast, too, but didn't decrease the amount. Did the yeast eat up all the protein and ran out by the final rise?

I also question whether I might have the wrong kind of pastry flour. The bag says "whole wheat pastry flour" but I read elsewhere that someone used "white pastry flour". I haven't found a difference yet.

My goal, as I said, was to make a loaf with eight percent protein flour.

EDIT: Looking around, I found what I suspected. Pastry flour absorbs less water, almost 50% less, than all-purpose. So reducing the amount of water might fix the problem. I intend to make another batch using all purpose and another with less water and pastry flour to see what happens.


texts:
I know that I can easily freeze shredded zucchini for long-term storage if I stored it in a vacuum sealed freezer bag. However there is a recipe that I really want to make over the winter that requires chopped zucchini. So I am wondering if I can use the same method for freezing zucchini when its chopped like I do when it is shredded. So all I have to do is :

chop it
fill freezer bag
extract air and seal it

Would this method work? Am I able to freeze chopped zucchini and have it taste the same when I thaw it? Is there a better method? Is there an ideal size for the chopped zucchini?


texts: How do I eliminate a lingering smell of fried food?

texts:
Some great friends of ours cooked us an amazing meal in our home three nights ago. The meal included gourmet french fries cooked in a home use deep fryer. While the fries were outstanding the lingering smell three days later is not. The trash is long gone as is the deep fryer, but the smell still remains. We have throughly cleaned the countertop and surrounding area. Additionally, we have been lighting scented candles in and around the kitchen since the morning after the meal to no avail. The smell is definitely less, but upon leaving and returning home the scent hits you when you walk in the door.

How do I eliminate the lingering smell of fried food? My wife and I have never used an indoor deep fryer is this just part of the deal of home frying?


texts: Are all the processing steps of tofu harmless?

texts:
Tofu is considered as a processed food. After watching a couple videos on YouTube. I am only concerned about two points specifically:

Is heating the soaked and crushed beans so that they become a paste harmful? As sometimes high heat can harm a food product.
I don't know about the coagulant they add, which is magnesium chloride. I see that they sometimes add calcium chloride/sulfate too. Are these safe coagulants?

Nothing else I watched in the process made me think they could be harmful.


texts: How long can refrigerated eggs last past their date?

texts: I have a set of eggs that expired last week, would they still be okay to cook with? Generally in the USA, can refrigerated eggs be used past their expiration date?


texts: When is best to apply sauce on to BBQ chicken?

texts:
I'm cooking a full chicken divided into 8 pieces...

When is the best time to put sauce on chicken cooked on a BBQ?

Is it better to do it after it sits for a while on the BBQ?
Is it better to let it sit in the sauce over night?


texts: Cooking and keeping food warm while traveling?

texts: Can somebody keep food warm by using heat from inside of an electric vehicle or do these vehicles waste less thermal energy, meaning more efficient in traveling then warming?


texts: Eggy cake with less egg is dry: what next?

texts:
I'm working to a pretty standard recipe for cake (s.r. flour, butter, sugar, egg, flavours, etc), and it comes out too eggy.

I can usually make a sponge without faff but to do that I use a different recipe. But for this cake, for  non-baking reasons I need to use this recipe with minimal tweaks.

I initially thought it was a cooking time/temperature thing but after a few trials it seems like it just has way too much egg in it. Assuming that it was originally written for smaller eggs, I just reduced the amount of egg and it's now too dry. Not remarkably dry, par for the course for, say, a cherry loaf cake, but this one is supposed to be moister than that.

Is there a way I can add the moisture in a less eggy way? I was thinking of just adding milk or water (say 150ml per replaced egg). Is that too naive? I've heard about tricks involving cornstarch but I can't get my head around them. Would such a trick work?

Current base recipe is (I've tried lots of variants around this and various additional flavour ingredients): 1/2lb each: c. sugar, s.r. flour, butter, 4 eggs. Seived and mixed at each step. Flour in last (which is new to me). 160C (fan) until skewer comes out clean. 4 eggs is v eggy; 3 eggs is dry. Running short of half-chickens to try in between!


texts: Binder, thickener, emulsifier for parmesan?

texts: I want to make a paste for coating out of parmesan. With softer cheeses that's not so hard, but how do I blend a hard cheese like parmesan into a paste or colloid-like form? Any suggestions most appreciated!


texts: Why does feta taste so terribly salty when grilled?

texts:
I love feta cheese, and I can't get enough of it, just like my family. But unlike them, I only eat it raw. I can't stand the grilled feta sandwiches my mother eats every morning for breakfast, and the reason is that, when the feta is grilled, it turns terribly salty and sharp.

The reason can't be just melting, because I enjoy lots of dishes which are baked with feta in the filling, as long as it doesn't get any direct heat.

What is the reason for this taste change? Can it be prevented?


texts:
I got a fairly expensive Kramer/Zwilling knife as a present and so now I am forced to learn how to at least hone a knife (or keep it on a shelf and never use it). I think for now I'll let a pro actually sharpen the knife since the knife sharpening sets are fairly expensive and I don't want to ruin the knife.

Anyhow, I was wondering if i should go with a ceramic or steel honing rod? If it makes a difference the blade is damascus steel. Any other considerations I should look at when honing this blade?


texts: For baking, is there a common "done" temperature across different kinds of breads?

texts:
I'm pretty new to baking, and it seems like the toothpick test is pretty subjective.  I'm wondering, can I use my Thermapen instead?

At a fundamental level, are all breads "done" at a certain temperature, or are sweetbreads done baking at one temperature, yeast breads at another, etc?  Is it common enough among recipes to have a chart, like for beef/chicken/pork/etc?

Or is it totally all over the map based on the recipe?


texts: Is there such a thing as a dish being bland from too many flavors?

texts:
My girlfriend has asked for my opinion on a few dishes that she has been experimenting with, and not being particularly well-versed in the language used to discuss food, I have been having trouble expressing my opinion on two specific dishes (namely, a stew using ground beef and a Thai curry with chicken).
I have eaten several different versions of both dishes over several months, so I have developed a pretty good sense of which versions of them I like the best. We have also tried similar dishes from local restaurants in order to have a common reference point. Generally, I think that the dishes taste fine, but sometimes I feel that they become "bland" (for lack of a better word) from too many spices.
What I mean is that sometimes when she prepares them she will use only a few specific spices or none at all and more fresh ingredients. To me, these versions taste the best. They have strong, distinct flavors, and I think that they taste more like the restaurant dishes that we've compared them to. However, she usually finds these versions under-seasoned, so she also experiments with adding lots of different spices. When she does this, she still isn't happy with the result but she says that the dishes taste more "complete" or more "harmonious" or just generally better. On the other hand, I think that these versions taste same-y or bland, which she doesn't understand since there are objectively more flavors in the dish. I have tried to describe it like the flavor equivalent of that color of brown you get when you mix all the paints together or if an orchestra just played all the instruments at once without regard to the timing.
To me, these versions sort of feel like filling in all the nooks and crannies of the flavor landscape to make the experience boring and flat. She says that I just don't understand flavor and that that's not a thing that happens. She says that adding more flavors complement and round-out the taste.
I am nowhere near as knowledgeable about food words as my girlfriend, and she also has a much more sensitive and discerning palate than I do. So it may be possible that I am just a bad food critic, but I would really like to understand my experience better and hopefully communicate it better to my girlfriend. My question is this: Is there such a thing as "the flavor equivalent of the color brown" in the sense that too many different flavors can make food sort of taste bland? If so, is there a technical way to describe that sensation?


texts: What are other techniques are used to tenderize steaks apart from using a meat mallet?

texts: I'm familiar with using a meat mallet to tenderize steaks, but I'm curious what other techniques or methods there may be to achieve the same or similar results.


texts: How can I make the tops of my macarons smooth?

texts:
After a recent trip to France, I have become mildly obsessed with making macarons (using this recipe). I have made a couple of batches so far - the first didn't turn out well, more like cookies than macarons, due to under-whipped egg whites and too-coarse almonds.

The second batch has turned out better, much more like macarons. I whipped the egg whites to stiff, glossy peaks and blitzed the almonds, powdered sugar and cocoa in a food processor to remove lumps and make the almonds finer. Some of the macarons even have the characteristic little 'feet'.

However, while the flavour and texture seem generally good, they don't have the smooth, perfect surface of a proper macaron. Looking at videos online, it would seem my mixture is too stiff, because any little tip of mixture left by the piping bag fails to 'melt' into the main part of the macaron - it simply sits there. Also, any little craters left by air holes in the mixture fail to smooth themselves out, so the result is a bumpy macaron.

Given that the egg whites need to be stiff and glossy, what else could be a factor in achieving a smooth macaron? I assume the amount of powdered sugar is a factor, but how much can I safely reduce the amount by?


texts: Explanation of the phrase "Eye of Round Roast"

texts:
I need to translate the type of meat called "Eye of Round Roast" to Danish.

It would be extremely lucky, if anyone here speaks Danish as well as having a quite good English cooking technical knowledge. It might be a long shot.

So, if there isn't any Danish speaking helpfull mind here, I would really appreciate if I could get a good definition or explanation in English of what the eye of round roast is.

I have tried with no luck the Google translator, www.ordbogen.com (a Danish very indepth dictionary), and other kinds fx www.thefreedictionary.com to try guessing the actual meaning. I need a dictionary with cooking specific technical phrases, and that is not exactly lying around.


texts: How should I keep the vegetables from flying off the board when I cut them?

texts:
Whenever I chop veggies like onions or carrots they sometimes just fly off the chopping board into the open space of the kitchen. Carrots do that especially often – I cannot chop them (dicing is also problematic) without the occasional pieces flying off the board.

What am I missing here? I try to imitate Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay chopping videos bit by bit.


texts: I ran out of granulated sugar for a cake recipe.  Will XXX sugar, or another sugar/sweetener be a good sub?  I also have brown, turbinado, and splenda.


texts: How can I mellow the taste of this goat cheese

texts:
Two days ago, I bought a goat cheese. It looked white and rectangular, it didn't had a particular name, and because it was in plastic I couldn't smell it. I got home, opened it, and wrapped it in paper.

Some time after, I took a bite, and the cheese's texture was already not as expected; not creamy, kinda hard, and without a layer around. I took a bite and it felt like licking a ram. I tried to mitigate it with bread, and left it alone. Later, I gave it another round; this time on toasted bread, hoping cooking it would get the stench out of it. It didn't work. Now, i tried to crush it and mix it with olive oil and rosemary; it didn't work.

I want to know what I can do to mellow out the taste of the cheese to a level I can enjoy.


texts:
A recipe I have been learning requires acorn squash wedges. I have been using my 8" chef knife to make a shallow cut in the outside, then kind of jabbing it with a small knife like carving a pumpkin until I have enough of a cut to split it in half.

How should I cut acorn squash into wedges? Techniques to make it easier?


texts: What meats can I serve medium rare and why?

texts:
It is generally accepted that pork and chicken must be cooked completely (unless put through a strong curing process) while certain cuts of beef and lamb can be served on the rare side.  Why is this?

Are particular bacteria populations present in some animals but can't survive in others? What is the inherent differences between these animals that makes the difference when eating? How can I objectively decide if it is safe to eat something partially on the rare side that does not involve simply trusting the "common knowledge" of the more experienced.

(Don't get me wrong - I appreciate any and all advice that I get from anyone who is more experienced than I am in anything, but I'd like to know how they came to their conclusions).


texts: I have a recipe for a French Toast Bake which calls for 30 ounces of pumpkin pie filling.  I am looking for something I can substitute since my family is not crazy about pumpkin flavor.  Any ideas?


texts: What is this vial for in this package of grass jelly?

texts: Recently I bought a package of grass jelly. My understanding of the instructions is that I should mix the powder in the package with a liter of cold water and 100g of sugar and then heat on a stove until it thickens. However, there is also a little vial of liquid in the package labelled "dầu chuối" which google translate tells me is "banana oil" and I don't see anything about it in the instructions. Is this something optional to add at the end for flavoring? Should I add it at the beginning? Or should I just not be consuming it at all?


texts: What's the difference between tamari and soy sauce?

texts: If a recipe calls for tamari, can I use plain soy sauce instead?  If using one for the other, what effect would it have on a recipe?


texts: How much weight does pasta gain when boiled?

texts:
In the diet my dietetician has prescribed me, I have amount of pasta allowed listed for dry (uncooked) pasta.

This is not a problem if I have the foresight to weigh the pasta before boiling, but it is a problem if I buy a dish with ready-made pasta or forget to weigh it before cooking (or just forget how much I had measured, and didn't write down).

Can you give me a rule of thumb / estimate, how much 75g of dry pasta weighs after it's boiled?


texts: How can I enhance fudge's "fudginess" and flavour?

texts:
My fudge recipe uses peanut butter, brown and white sugar, corn syrup, cream, and chocolate.

How can I can add a bit more "pizazz" to my fudge, taking the flavour from grandma's favourite fudge recipe and making it into a complicated, rich, exotic and exquisite taste?


texts: Is there really a difference by throwing the vanilla pod in as well?

texts:
Recipes with milk and/or cream (panna cotta, ice cream, pastry cream, ...) often ask for the seeds of a vanilla pod (in Europe at least). A fair proportion of those also mention to throw the pod in the dairy as well. Since I re-use the pod afterwards (for vanilla sugar or vanilla extract), I have to clean them and I don't like to do so.

Is there a real flavour difference in adding the pod as well, given that you can scrape almost all the seeds out? Do recipes just ask you to do so, because you'd get more seeds in the milk or cream, or does the pod itself give a special flavour?


texts: We're going to buy a large quantity of dried kidney beans. It will mostly be used for Chili. I've never used them before so excuse me if this sounds like a dumb question. Would I need to soak the beans overnight and then add them or would they turn tender on their own if I slow cook the chili for 6 to 8 hours in the crock pot?


texts: How would I susbtitute fresh spinach for frozen?

texts:
I have many recipes that call for frozen spinach but only have fresh spinach on hand.

Suppose I have a recipe that calls for, say a 10 oz. package of frozen chopped spinach with the water squeezed out.  Short of blanching and freezing, how can I prepare the functional equivalent using fresh spinach?

I'd like to know the approximate equivalent weight of the fresh spinach, plus some procedure for removing the moisture such that I don't end up with a watery mess in the end product.


texts: Is there a method to pour espresso shots without damaging the crema?

texts:
My espresso machine (DeLonghi EC155) is really short and will only allow shot glasses / really short cappuccino cups (if I remove the excess coffee catch) which I don't have.

So, I need to pull my shots into a shot glass, then pour the shot into my coffee mug. But when I do, I notice that all that rich crema I just pulled gets left into the shot glass as I poured.

Is there a technique to pouring shot glasses that will keep the integrity of the crema?


texts: Oil separating from fried onion/spice mixture, why does it happen?

texts:
I was always taught when cooking Indian dishes to fry spices in a chopped/pureed onion and garlic mixture to release their flavour and essential oils.

I was also taught that when the oil separates from the mixture, the spices are done and you can carry on with the next stage of the dish.

That's the principle technique I've always used.

Can someone please explain why the oil separates and what this signifies? Have the spices absorbed as much of the oil as they can and release the rest?

I'd really like to understand this process.


texts:
When I add cold pasta or ravioli to boiling water, water stops boiling. It needs a couple of minutes to boil again. So, the question is
Should I start timer immediately after adding pasta to boiling water?
or Wait for water to boil again and then start timer?
This may sound silly but I always wonder when to start timer.


texts: Why did my Creme Brulee end up with lots of oil?

texts:
I used a youtube recipe for passion fruit creme brulee. I followed the ingredients and the steps and my creme brulee ended with lots of oil on top of it.

Why did this happen?

EDIT.

My burnt sugar topping was chewy as well, instead of crunchy. Any tips?


texts: Portable induction cooktop with cast iron pans, will using these together break or scratch the cooktop?

texts:
I have been looking at buying an induction cooktop for quite some time.  Largely the part that has tipped the scales in my favor as of lately is that I would like to be able to use cast iron skillets regularly and my current situation does not allow for that.

I have read and seen some usage of cast iron skillets on these induction cooktops, but from what I have seen almost all of these are ceramic topped.  I thought ceramic topped cooktops and cast iron skillets were items that should not be used together.

Could someone please elaborate on the usage of these together?  Has anyone used these together and had no issues?


texts: Why does my bread have a dip in the center?

texts:
I made some white bread this evening and was quite happy with it except for the dip in the center:

I suspect maybe I left it to prove too long?  it seems like the air holes are too big and it has now lost it's structure.

Recipe was for 1kg flour I halved it:

500 g flour
12.5 g oil
20 g sugar
4 g dry yeast
10 g salt
300 g water

1) Mix all dry ingredients.
2) Add water and mix till incorporated.
3) Add oil and mix
4) Knead for 5-6 min
5) Leave for 1.5 hours
6) Place in bread tin
7) Leave for 1-1.5 hours
8) Bake at 220 C for 30 min

It was a very wet dough. I may have got the liquid measurement wrong. I ended up working it as much as I could and it remained pretty wet the whole time.

Can anyone indicate what I did wrong to cause the dip?

Apart from the dip I am quite happy with this attempt.


texts: Spice rack/cupboard for kitchen with lots of spices?

texts:
My wife and I really enjoy cooking, so we have tons of spices. I understand it's best to keep them in the dark, so we thought we might like a spice cupboard.

Probably 50 or so spices; they don't need to stay in their own container necessarily, though that would be easier.

Anyone have good recommendations?


texts:
I am looking to bottle my father-in-law's peri peri sauce and sell it at markets. The ingredients consist of fresh and dried herbs, garlic, salt, lemons and oil (sunflower, canola and olive).  This is the method I used with him in the past and make to make sure it's food safe to do so. The batch is brought to a boil and simmered for 5 mins. It's left to cool and then bottled.  The bottles are sterilized in hot boiling water for 5 minutes, left to dry (5-10 minutes) before adding the sauce. The caps (plastic) are also sterilized in hot water. Nothing else is done prior to storing them in the fridge, as they are perishable.

Is this a safe practice?


texts: Would there be any benefit to feeding a sourdough starter with beer instead of or in addition to water?


texts: should I freeze a two-day refrigarated meat sauce?

texts: I have fixed a pot of turkey meat sauce and a pot of turkey meat balls and I did not have a chance to freeze right away, which I usually do, they have been in the refrigerator for two days... Is it still safe to bag and freeze?


texts: How to polish wine glasses if my hand cannot reach in?

texts:
Washing leaves some stains, which I want to get rid of.
It's easy to do with paper towel on the outside, but inside the glass it's a problem.


texts: Whole wheat bread recipe not turning out

texts:
I have a 100% whole wheat recipe. I am new to bread baking. I have had this recipe turn out only once. My question is how would i know if my recipe is correct with "normal" ratio's of the ingredients. i know the more experience you have the more you can "push" the boundaries
of bread baking. would you have any suggestions on how to know if i have a good recipe or one i need to make adjustments for. unfortunately i don't know how to make adjustments.
any help would be a blessing. Thank you in advance, Lisa


texts:
In a recipe where you’re dissolving salt in water or a similar mixture(not sprinkling it as a seasoning, etc.) is it possible to substitute, for example, 1 gram of kosher salt with 1 gram of table salt?

I understand that you can’t do this by volume, but if both salts are mostly NaCl and I’m going by mass, then they should be close to equivalent, right?


texts:
I have some recipies for green smoothies, where some of the ingredients are for example "1 bunch of spinach" or "1/2 bunch of spinach".

The spinach I've found in the store are usually fresh leaves packed in a plastic bag of for example roughly 250 grams... But, how much is a bunch?


texts:
When cinnamon (or other spices) is past its "best by" date, I know that the flavor and potency will be less strong. However, is it still safe to use it on food?

(This came up because a co-worker asked me today whether he would be safe eating cinnamon that expired five years ago on a sweet potato at lunch. Why he has a very old container of cinnamon -- indeed, any cinnamon -- in his desk drawer, I didn't get around to asking.)


texts: What is the thick white substance in my pasta water?

texts:
As you can see in the pic, the water in my pasta has a thick white substance.  All I did was water, pasta, salt, boil.

What is this substance?

Is it a sign of overcooking, should the well cooked pasta be in clear water only?

How do I avoid it?


texts: How should I store leftover uncooked lasagna sheets?

texts:
I bought a package of these Delverde "no-precooking" lasagna sheets and used half a dozen to make a lasagna. Now I've got nine sheets leftover—and I don't make lasagna that often.

How can I store these noodles for the long term? I keep most uncooked pasta in glass jars in my pantry, but what about these big sheets?


texts:
So a burrito is made with a flour tortilla; it is wet if you put sauce on it.

An enchilada is basically just a wet burrito, but made with a corn tortilla.

A chimichanga is a deep fried burrito.

What is it called if you deep fry an enchilada instead of or before putting sauce on it?


texts: How to substitute canned Apricots with fresh when cooking

texts: My recipe calls for canned apricots, but I have fresh.  What do I need to co to make sure the recipe is successful.


texts: What is the percentage by weight of meat in a split chicken breast?

texts: We are planning on canning chicken breast and wondered what percentage of raw bone-in "split chicken breast" is meat (versus non-meat like bone and skin)?


texts: Dishwasher safety - "top shelf" vs. "bottom shelf"

texts:
The instruction manual for some of my kitchen equipment says "Dishwasher safe (top shelf)".

What difference is there between what an object on the top shelf of a dishwasher experiences, and what happens to an object on the bottom shelf?

What are the risks of putting one of these items on the bottom shelf?


texts: Why can't I get my new Misto Olive Oil Sprayer to spray?

texts: I received a Misto for Christmas. I cleaned and waited for it to dry. When I put the oil in it and pumped per the instructions, nothing happened when I went to spray it.


texts:
When jaggery / sugar syrup mix is rolled on to sheets, what kind of sheets would be most suitable - least sticky?
The recipe: Black Til Chikki
What kind of non sticky sheets and paper would be most suitable for making such dishes with sticky jaggery or sugar syrups?


texts: Which non-rice grains cook up most like sticky rice?

texts:
I enjoy sticky or sushi rice but have pretty much stopped eating rice (including wild rice)  because of concerns with arsenic.
Which grain, when cooked, tend to be the most "sticky" like sticky rice?


texts: This last season, I tried freezing mango puree. My google research told I me I can just freeze them as is. But when I thawed them, puree had lost its taste. What did I do wrong?


texts:
I haven't done this for a very long time. I am following Alton Brown's recipe, which conveniently fits perfectly into a little hack-job of containers I already had. (Related: Why isn't glass ideal for the fermentation of sauerkraut?) @Athanasius' answer to that question led me to what I'm doing with this batch. At this point I feel pretty comfortable with it:

The two containers are identical, and I have a few inches of water in the top container so that it weighs down the cabbage in the lower container. It seems to be working pretty sweet. I'm three days in and it's starting to smell like something is happening. There is a funk in the air.

So far so good.

Now I am dying to stir it...to do something! Everything I have read (including Athanasius' answer) suggests that in a less awesome container I might have to stir, but now I don't necessarily have to do anything but scoop off scum which has yet to appear.

That's killing me.

Is there a reason not to stir? Will stirring offer any benefit?


texts: I have a cake recipe that calls for baking in a bundt pan (it's a sweet potato spice cake). Can I use another kind of pan, or will it affect the quality of the cake?


texts: We would be visiting a Japanese restaurant this weekend. However we are completely clueless what should we order this being our first time. Could you suggest something for beginners?  Normally we prefer Indian cuisine and sometimes Chinese as well. To change our monotonous eating habits we decided to visit this place. Any suggestions?


texts:
Yesterday I did a batch of shortbread but the cookies have a tangy, almost bitter after taste. Initially I thought the culprit was the lactose-free butter I use, now I know it's probably because the sides of the shortbread browned a bit.
I think I know what I need to change next time I make this recipe, but now I'd like to know what I can do to mask the bitterness in this batch of cookies. I'm thinking of making a caramel sauce to dip the shortbread in. Will this work?
Also, out of curiosity, could anyone explain what makes shortbread taste bitter when they brown?
For reference, the recipe I used can be found here: Simply Perfect Crispy Scottish Shortbread


texts:
I have a caramel recipe that calls for hot raspberry puree to be added near the end of cooking. I'm assuming that the seeds are supposed to be removed, so how is this different from raspberry juice?

I have a bag of frozen raspberries. Could I just thaw them and put them through a mesh sieve (the way I would make juice)?


texts: How to cleanly cover the dough while it rise?

texts:
When I leave dough pieces (for pizza) to rise, I put a wet towel on top of them, and leave them for a few hours.

The problem is that when the process is finished, the dough sticks very strongly to the towel, and it's quite hard to scrap the dough from it for washing.

I've tried to top the pieces with plenty of flour, which improves the situation, but it doesn't work fully.

I've also tried with a food tent cover covered with a wet towel, but the dough gets drier, so I don't think this is an option.

Is there any clever way to cover the dough, in a way that it's also easy to clean?


texts: How do you cook nopales while keeping the green color?

texts: I am trying to cook mexican Nopales but they seem to loose their green look. Is there an ingredient that needs to be added or a special technique that would keep them as green as possible?


texts: How much smoke to expect from making a roux?

texts:
I live in an apartment and am considering making a roux for a gumbo. I've seen methods for using an oven to make the roux, but I've noticed that there's a high possibility of getting a lot of smoke with a roux.

Even if I use a relatively high smoke-point oil (e.g. peanut or avocado), how much smoke can I expect from making a roux? Is making a roux / gumbo only advisable for a very well-ventilated kitchen?

I don't want to have a continuous battle with my smoke alarm as I go through the process of making the roux. I live in a relatively cold area, and although keeping windows open is an option, I would prefer not to do that.


texts: Is food contaminated with swarf due to polishing metal plates or sharpening knives safe for our body?

texts:
Swarf is a word for metal particles or debris produced in polishing metal with abrasive tools. For example, swarf can be produced when polishing teppanyaki grill or sharpening knives.

I often see Kebab sellers who don't wipe their knives after sharpening and cut cooked meat.  Teppanyaki grills are often polished but without washing them thoroughly. Without any doubt many people still consume such contaminated food as if it is safe.

Is it safe to eat food contaminated with swarf? Is there any scientific article that support the conclusion?


texts:
My goal over the last year has been to reduce the amount of waste that comes out of my home. That means wasting less food and buying fewer items that come in any kind of packaging. When I can, I buy things in no packaging, but when that is not possible I buy either compostable packaging or reusable packaging (glass jars). Sometimes its unavoidable, of course, but I am trying. I also buy local and organic whenever possible.

I often come across recipes that call for a can of something. In the case today, it wants sliced mushrooms. Now, I know that if I am substituting fresh for canned, the mushrooms require a bit of preparation before I can add them, or else the texture will be off because the mushrooms need longer to cook. I have a little knowledge of the canning process, but I don't have the storage space in my small, city apartment so I try to do everything on an as-needed basis. I've never done it, but I know the canning process would be: wash and slice, cover with water in saucepan, boil for 5 minutes, transfer hot mushrooms to a jar, add 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/8 tsp of ascorbic acid powder per pint and add fresh, hot water and then carry on with the canning process.

So because I am not preserving the mushrooms and am going to use them right away, I will obviously leave out the ascorbic acid, but should I leave out salt as well or should I reduce it? And will this same rule apply to other vegetables as well?


texts: I want to make a bread with a stout in it for extra flavor. The stout will replace most of the liquid content of the bread and I am worried whether it will kill the yeast due to the alcohol (4% volume) content of the stout.


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I have added a good slosh of white wine vinegar to a dish by accident (it was meant to be white wine, not vinegar) and now all I can taste is a nasty vinegary taste.

I don't have any actual white wine so I want it to taste as if it's just without.

Is there anything I can do to save the dish?

It's a savory dish with mainly  bacon, onions, garlic, carrots and Spring Greens and stock


texts: Does water that's been left to sit and then reboiled taste different from fresh water boiled once?

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This may sound like a silly question, but I've always wondered:
If I boil some water and use some of it and leave the remainder in the kettle, and then a few days later boil that same water again, will it taste the same as if I'd emptied the old water and boiled fresh new water?
I've got a habit of emptying the kettle water and starting with fresh water to boil when I prepare my coffee (using a French press), and I'm wondering if there's no good reason to do that.
For what it's worth, the kettle has a top (so I'm ruling out dust as a concern), and the water I'm boiling is tap water that's been through a Brita filter in a jug.
If the taste is different, what's the chemical or physical justification?


texts: How much citric acid to preserve my juice

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I wanted to preserve my juices longer. I am using a mango juice powder that includes the ingredients Sugar, Mango Juice, Malic Acid, Natural Flavor. I am dissolving about the powder into 8 oz of purified water. How much citric acid should I use to make it last longer and about how long will it last me? I know this won't be exact but I am just trying to get an idea of how it will work. Thank you so much in advance and please let me know if you have any questions.

Have a great rest of your day!


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I have a delicious red curry recipe which I think could be improved if I could add a touch of acidity.  I've tried using rice wine but this seems to either overpower the dish or add nothing at all.  I'm wondering if I should be using a different type of acid.

My recipe goes:

Heat 1/4 can of coconut milk in a skillet.
Add 1 Tbsn curry paste.
Simmer until the oils separate and very little liquid is left.
Add remaining 3/4 can coconut milk.
Return to a simmer.
Add 1 tsp fish sauce.
Add 1 tsp palm sugar.
Add proteins and veggies.
Cook until veggies are soft.
Add 1 tsp rice wine.

I really want to add complexity with a bit of acid but I just haven't been able to achieve this.