texts: Would pre-sliced, pre-packaged fish be considered sushi grade if I freeze it for at least a week before consumption?

texts:
I'm planning a sushi dinner party for my birthday in a month and I'm trying to do research on where to get my ingredients and supplies.

I'm finding that trying to find "sushi grade" fish is the hardest thing to do, and the only place that I can find anything where the person working the deli knows what they are doing is at Whole Foods. But their price for their salmon and tuna is really high.

In doing research to see what sushi grade really means (and searching here on Seasoned Advice) is that it just needs to be Frozen at -20° C (-4° F) for 7 days.

I found this pre-sliced, pre-packaged smoked salmon at my local grocery store: http://www.vitafoodproducts.com/p-315-vita-wild-nova-salmon.aspx

I asked the guy at the deli and he didn't know if it would be considered sushi grade or not. But from what I'm reading, I don't see why I couldn't just freeze the fish in my own freezer for a week or so before my event.

Is this not the case? Should I invest the money on getting already-confirmed sushi grade fish?


texts:
Background

I am someone who has a family history of high LDL cholesterol and my LDL is within 4 points of 100 (the barrier between "ok" and "healthy").  Therefore when I cook eggs straight up, I always cook without the yolk, since the yolk has all the cholesterol of the egg.  However, I have never done this when cooking pancakes, cake, cookies, etc.  Therefore I wanted to know if I could use egg for it's intended function (i.e. binding mixed ingredients) without the yolk.

Question

What is the binding agent in eggs, is it the white, the yolk, or both?


texts: Why are chicken thighs sold as bone-in skin-on or boneless skinless but never boneless skin-on?

texts:
Chicken thighs are fantastic pan fried skin down for that crispy texture. The bones tend to get in the way of eating them however, and they are a hassle to remove (though quick with good knife/shear technique). I'd love to be able to buy boneless skin-on thighs as they seem like the ultimate easy/juicy/flavourful cut of chicken.

Is there just such a small demand for boneless skin-on thighs that they don't bother producing them, or is there a butchery processing reason (e.g. does industrial-scale deboning damage the skin)?


texts:
More like meta-cooking question, but I believe it fits here better than on travel stack.

All around the world, one of the symbols of Thailand is Pad Thai. And multiple versions of curry.

But when I wander around Bangkok or other Thai cities, I see pad thai served mostly in tourist areas like Khao San Road and its surroundings, around the Royal Palace, etc.
When I look and most food street carts there are plenty of sticks (meat/fish/sausages/balls/seafood put on short wooden sticks and grilled over fire), soups (tom yum based, clear soup with noodles, wonton's), many kinds of meat, seafood, noodles (though not strictly pad thai I think) and so on.
Not that many curries either, but in more in-house restaurants you can find them.

So my question is - is the pad thai really Thai? Maybe I'm just overlooking it, or search in wrong places. Or is it a dish once found by a western traveller, made famous in the West and then its renown came back with the travellers.


texts: If I want to reduce the amount of sugar (to reduce sweetness) in a cookie recipe, how would that affect the end result (mainly with respect to texture) and what can be done to negate it?


texts: Does meat (Black Angus) caramelize just with heat?

texts:
I follow a famous chef in Spain. He uploaded an Instagram Reel showing a quick recipe: Black Angus burger (smash burger), cheddar cheese, truffle cream, fried egg and chips. Watch short video in here.
So the thing is that on the first step, he says "Black Angus" (while putting it on the grill), "very well pressed so it can caramelize" (and pressed the burger to leave a thin and wide burger). He adds later the rest of the ingredients directly to the burger (bread, etc). But I am still curious about that caramelization he mentions. No sugar, nothing else added to the meat. I was looking at the comments of the video, looked for specific information about Black Angus but did not find anything relevant. So he either made an unlucky mistake while talking, or I am definitely missing something.


texts: How to use rehydrated Kombu after making Dashi?

texts:
To prepare a Miso Soup the first step is the preparation of the Dashi.
The Dashi will most certainly contain Kombu. Can the rehydrated Kombu be used in the Miso? What kind of preparation does the rehydrated Kombu need, before consuming?
Is the Kombu actually used in Miso in Japan or other sea weeds (such as Wakame) are used?
Is there any other used of the rehydrated Kombu from the Dashi preparation?


texts: What considerations should be taken into account when adding any fruit to any cake?

texts: I have a pineapple-orange cake recipe that is very good, but is from a relative - I didn't develop it.  I am curious how to adjust a typical cake recipe or even a box cake mix so that I can add fruit (pineapple, peaches, cherries, apples, oranges, mango, etc...)?  Do I need to adjust the baking soda, oil, flour, sugar, etc...?  Thanks.


texts: What do I need to clean off before I season this cast iron?

texts:
Here's my cast iron frying pan. I had seasoned it before but wasn't sure if I'd got it right so I figured I'd start again. I'm not clear on what state it needs to be in before I do that.
I sanded a little bit to remove the bumpy black residue but it was an extremely slow process. What is the black on my pan and do I need to remove it all to be silver again before I season?


texts: Making super-sour sweets -- issues with stickiness

texts:
I've successfully home-made gummy sweets -- my preferred flavour currently is scotch bonnet chilli. They are made of sugar -- heated until just below hard-ball temperature, gelatin, chillies.

The problem I'm having at the moment is that I want to give them a super sour coating. I've done this by covering them with citric acid, which gives exactly the desired taste effect, however...

Within a few days, they go more and more sticky and gloopy until they congeal to form a gloopy, sticky mass.

This is not desirable. How do I avoid this? And how do things like Tangfastics and other super sour gummmy sweets work?


texts:
I want to bake a cake with the following ingredients:

200 g butter
200 g sugar
200 g grated marzipan
4 eggs
50 g flour

This is a classic recipe were you cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at the time and fold in the flour. However, I'm in doubt when to add the marzipan for best result.

Is it best to mix sugar and marzipan first, then start to cream with this mixture?
Is is it better to cream butter and sugar first, then add marzipan and stir until smooth?

What should I do?


texts: Undercooking tofu causes a bad stomach. Is this true?

texts:
My girlfriend, who is Japanese and has thus eaten and cooked a lot more tofu than I have, says that tofu should either be eaten "raw" or well cooked. To be half and half will cause a bad stomach. She last said this to me when I said I only added silken tofu to miso soup just before I eat it.

However, in the last year I started to make my own tofu, so I know that the last heating of the soy milk makes it digestible. Then, for example with silken tofu, the soy milk is steamed/cooked in a bain-marie to produce the silken tofu. So from my experience of eating it with miso soup I've never had a bad stomach (because I'd assume dropping it into hot soup would constitute undercooking) and from my knowledge of the process it is rendered edible at the milk stage.

However, tofu is so ubiquitous in Japan that I find her input hard to dismiss. Does anyone have any insight that would help clarify this.


texts: preserving dehydrated foods prepared with citric acid, honey or syrup

texts: Can anyone please confirm for me whether food that has been dehydrated with honey, syrup or citric acid (which I understand has a shorter life span than those made with preservatives which cause allergic reactions) can be kept fresh longer by vacuum sealing and then freezing.  Also if this is true can you please guide me to a website where I can get info on the "shelf-life" of the various items such as fruit, vegetables. I am very allergic so fresh fruits and vegetables are my main source of food.  I have a vacuum sealer and a food dehydrator and would like to make the most of bulk buying.  :)  Thank you


texts: Should I include egg shells in my stock?

texts: I've been making stock from vegetable scraps I've been keeping in the freezer (mainly carrots, celery, onion, tomato, and parsley). I read elsewhere that one could include egg shells in stock. Is this a good idea? How many should I include?


texts:
Recently a friend of mine made a sous vide brisket.  This was done by leaving the brisket at 140F for 4 hours, then finishing it on the stove with high heat.  It was extremely tender, even though it wouldn't have come much above that 140F mark.  From reading another Seasoned Advice question, I thought that brisket would have to be cooked to much hotter (185-200F) or potentially much longer (most recipes there called for well above 4 hours) in order to come out tender.

Is there something else going on there, how does sous vide break down the connective tissue at a lower temperature than regular smoking / baking / braising?


texts: Time&Temperature vs energy needed for molecules structure's changes

texts:
Recently I've read an interesting post about time vs temperature (Time vs. Temperature - What changes what?)

I've been thinking about this problem for a long time.
and I'd like to share an idea..
"A single piece of meal, need certain amount of energy to modify its molecules structure."

Sous vide technique for cooking pork cheeks says (made by a well known Chef):

48h at 65ºC or 24h at 80ºC

This long time is needed to denature the myosin and other internal transformations...and so
For those transformations, we need to give energy to the meat.

So, if we asume, that both temperature/time alternatives, give us the perfect result.

Is it possible to know how much energy is used in each situation? could it be a similar amount of energy?

If this hypothesis is valid, then, we could use that value, to answer two questions:
1.-how many hours will be needed if we cook it at 70ºC?
2.-if we'll cook it for 36h, what should be the temperature than we need to keep?

anyone could help us with the formulas?
thanks a lot!


texts:
Natto makers - I'm looking to make natto with plenty of "neba-neba".  This is natto's characterist slime/string/goo.  I read somewhere online that adding some japanese yam during the inoculation stage helps, and if true, I wonder if this provides the natto bacteria with 'special' nutrition, and I wondered if that would be some kind of sugary starch?

I've also read online (natto dad blogspot website) that using store bought natto as a starter makes better natto than using pure spores as a starter.  This makes me wonder if there is a connection between this, and using an added ingredient such as yam.  Can anyone provide any additional information about this please?  Thanks a lot.


texts: How much gluten will set off somebody's celiac disease?

texts: I have a house guest incoming that has celiacs and I know that it means they can't eat gluten. But does that mean that I need to yank everything that has wheat out of my kitchen for the duration? I need to know if this something that gets set off just by looking at wheat or if it's tolerable in small quantities.


texts:
For a single burger I am using a Cusinart 7 ¼ model II 9022-18 18/10 stainless pan. For my first attempt at searing a 3 lb. pot roast I will be using a 4 quart Dutch Oven. My oil is GV Light Tasting, which is supposed to have a high smoke point.

Up to last night I have avoided seasoning my burger to avoid salt. Last night I seasoned one with salt and pepper: that seemed to help with the sticking, but the burger still wanted to become one with the pan. Unseasoned if I used too much oil when cooking the burgers (90/10) they got oily: if I used too little they stuck to the pan.

So how do I determine how much oil to use in each application so that the meat does not stick to the pan at all and sears properly? I am thinking that there should be an optimal depth of the oil in millimeters for specific types of meats?

Secondarily I am uncertain if I should expect seasoned meat to stick to a pan as part of the searing process, and if I  should flip the meat for minimizing any sticking of a forming crust.

Thanks for any thoughts.


texts: How to have my solar system stick that would be edible

texts: I am doing a solar system project in my science bell. I have the choice to make edible food. So I wanted to make cookies for the solar system. Here's the problem, I can get all the colors I need with my parents, but I need to find out how to make it stick without using glue, or icing. How do I make it edible to eat afterwards. My project is due on May, 10th 2016 and any response before that would be great.


texts: Is there a mold test kit for packaged food?

texts: Many packaged foods taste moldy to me but not to others. I return some products but the stores are acting like I am trying to rip them off. There are several mold test kits for homes and air. Will these detect mold in packaged foods? Recently I got a moldy taste in Vitamin C gummies and dairy-free chocolate chips. These were not expired but I could not even swallow them because of the mold taste. Does packaged food look okay but taste moldy to you?


texts:
I'm making Heston Blumenthal's roast potatoes, but I need my oven to finish sous-vide prepared spare ribs as well. The potatoes need well over an hour, the ribs around 40 minutes. The long times both need makes it impossible to prepare both dishes sequentially.

Can I make the roast potatoes a few hours before and reheat them in the oven right before serving?

If not: would having the spare ribs and potatoes in the oven at the same time influence the flavour of either (or both) dishes?


texts: Is it OK to defrost chicken by running water over it?

texts: I know that there's a risk of bacteria in any area where you defrost chicken, but what about the chicken itself?  Will running water over it (unwrapped) reduce the taste or change the texture?


texts: How can I quickly save an unflavorful curry?

texts:
I prepared an Indian curry last night for this evening's meal.  The dish I made is based upon a lamb curry recipe, replacing the lamb with pieces of aubergine.  The main ingredients are aubergines (eggplant), yoghurt, ginger, turmeric, cumin and chilli.  Note that when I was adding in the aubergines, I was not paying close attention to the original recipe's quantities.

After cooking it, I gave the dish a taste test, and the flavor is rather bland. I think the problem may be having too low a ration of spices to aubergines.
 Tonight, I will not have much time to fix the curry's flavor before dinnertime.  Does anyone know what the best way would be to quickly add more flavor into this pre-made curry?  Is it as simple as adding some raw ginger and spices, or is there a better approach?


texts: Isn't moisture a problem when measuring flour by weight?

texts:
In this thread:

Is it okay to measure flour by weight by converting from volume?

The choice of measuring by volume and weight is discussed. I've always preferred weight, but have a lingering feeling of an additional error that is more prevalent when measuring by weight, namely any amount of moisture content in the flour.

Say, perfectly dry flour has a certain density d.

The flour that has a "maximum moisture content", have certain percentage flour, and a new density d_2. These two numbers conspire to change both the volume and weight measurments.

"Maximum moisture content" means "not obvious", I guess.

Are there any known results of this kind? How much more/less moisture may exist in the flour without being noticable?

To further complicate matters, I guess it also means that any added water should take that extra moisture into account?

I'm thinking of the similar discussion of mushrooms; weight vs volume, which always claims weight is better - to which I disagree; just think of dried mushrooms, at a fraction of the initial weight. Of course a powder isn't the same as a mushroom with cell walls, but I guess as single flour particle could absorb moisture anyway?


texts: Why does the inside of fried chicken sometimes turn brown?

texts:
Tonight I cooked fried chicken on the stove. However, I have seen chicken with brown ligaments or bones, after cooking before. Not just from frying the chicken either. Is it due to the age of the chicken, or an incorrect temperature or overcooking?
I hate seeing that when I eat chicken and if I knew what was causing it, I could avoid it, and enjoy my chicken more.


texts: Does there exist a conversion between a sourdough and preferments recipes?

texts:
I tried asking a similar question: From regular fresh yeast to sourdough
and didn't exactly get real answers, so here I am asking something easier.

Is there a formula to convert a sourdough recipe to a preferment recipe using either biga or poolish and vice versa?


texts:
While searching online for a recipe, I found this YouTube video: How to bake 4k german white bread and followed the recipe (in the description):

German White bread (Berliner schrippe)
Ingredients for 6-9 bread rolls:
pre-ferment / vorteig:
200 gr Flour / Mehl
150 ml water / Wasser
5 gr instant yeast / trockene Hefe
main dough / teig:
300 gr Flour / Mehl
5 gr instant yeast / trockene Hefe
1 teaspoon salt / Salz
1 teaspoon sugar / Zucker
pre-ferment must be kept overnight in the fridge, then add pre-ferment to the remaining flour and the dissolved (yeast + sugar + water) and mix with the kneading attachment of the kitchen machine for about 5 minutes. Let it rest covered in a warm place until doubled. form into equal balls and brush with water, cut a line on them, let rest for another 30 mins to 1 hour. bake in a preheated oven (180-200 degree centigrade) until golden. cover the hot bread balls for 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

The only thing I didn't do was pouring water on the bottom rack as shown in the video. The bread rolls came out dark brown, I mean not as shiny and golden as they look in the video. Is this step necessary?
What is achieved by pouring water? Are the bread roll's final look related to that water step? Will putting a pan of water in the oven do the trick?


texts: Can I freeze a baked frangipane puff pastry braid and have it come out right when thawed?  Will it be soggy or change the texture?


texts: Why won't my bread rise much during baking?

texts:
I'm trying some bread making for the first time and am having a hard time getting my bread to rise during baking. Here is the recipe I'm following: http://www.food.com/recipe/5-minute-artisan-bread-325571

(FYI I'm at 5,200 ft above sea level)

I followed the recipe exactly, except for the following modifications or problems:

The steam part didn't work since I have a gas oven so all the steam just got exhausted out
I baked the bread at 440 rather than 450 to compensate for the higher altitude (I've heard people say that you should subtract one degree for every 500 feet)
I forgot to do the little decorative slashes on top

The dough rose really well right after I made it. And it rose a bit while resting 40 minutes prior to baking. But it hardly rose at all in the oven (sitting in a glass baking dish), and the finished loaf is barely two inches tall. Any idea what went wrong? It was still plenty tasty… just a bit flatter than desired!

]1


texts: How can I get a takeaway style pizza base?

texts:
I would like to make a pizza base that is similar to takeaway pizza, in other words a base that is quite thick, spongy, chewy and stretchy.  Domino's and Papa Johns are examples of the kind of base, but most takeaway pizza places do something similar.  The base is usually covered in quite a bit of cornmeal.

I have tried all sorts of ways, plain flour, strong bread flour, extra strong bread flour, more oil, less oil, drier dough, wetter dough etc. and I've have always kneaded well for at least 12 minutes.  My base turns out soft but always comes apart really easily, far from the chewy and stretchy nature of a typical takeaway base.

I do not have a pizza oven, my oven can only reach a maximum of 250C.

So does anybody know the secret to a good takeaway style base?


texts: I melted chocolate chips and a small amount of oil and coated cookies. Here's the problem: the chocolate won't harden up. Is there anything I can do NOW to help the situation, or is this just a sticky, melty, lost cause?


texts:
I want to make soup, a random soup.
suppose that I want to to give it a deep taste, like a caramelized onion taste.

because I only need the taste, I don't care about texture.
can I get the equivalent of caramelized onion fast? like, 15 minute fast?

I read somewhere that I can brown onion fast if I fry it first without oil,salt or anything, destroying interior speed up the process of carammelizing and browning.

or is giving the soup a storebought caramel bar able to give equivalent deep taste?
or caramelized carrots, garlics?
I only need the caramelized taste, because the main flavour will be from spice and herbs.
the question is this:
what are the fast ways (under 16minutes) to give a soup a deep,caramelized taste?


texts: What is the actual probability of food poisoning with food left unrefrigerated overnight?

texts:
There are two components to risk: probability (how likely is the bad thing to happen) and hazard (how severe are the negative consequences). I know that hazard can be quite bad in case of food poisonings so I'm not surprised official sanitary guidelines often require taking the probability all the way to zero. But as an individual I have a hard time being able to properly evaluate food safety-related risks - not because I don't know the hazard but because I don't know how likely is it actually that dangerous bacteria will develop etc.

When I leave home forgetting my bicycle helmet I can roughly gauge if cycling is a risk worth taking because I know the conditions on the road and can anticipate the probabilities of collision. With a soup left overnight I have no clue of the probabilities involved: is it definitely unsafe? One in ten chance of diarrhoea? One in hundred chance of death? Or maybe one in a million?

I remember from growing up in central-eastern Europe that my family left food unrefrigerated overnight on a regular basis, often intentionally to improve the flavour profile - and so the probability of poisoning is definitely on the low side. Still, with my hypochondriac tendencies, and scared straight by overly conservative safety guidelines I end up throwing out a lot of food these days, which pains me a lot. I want to be able to manage risk in a more informed way so hopefully someone can offer any insight about this.


texts: How do I make vanilla sauce without air bubbles?

texts:
Yesterday I made vanilla sauce to go with an apple pie. I used about 2 dl milk, 3 egg yolks and some sugar. I whisked it in a double boiler maybe too vigourously, because there were tiny bubbles of air in the finished sauce. It reached to correct consistency and otherwise was completely fine, but I would think vanilla sauce should have a relatively thick, rich consistency without any bubbles in it.

How can I do it better next time? Would heavy cream help? Should I not use a whisk and just stir with a spoon? How big of a risk is it that my sauce will curdle if I don't use a whisk?


texts: How should I control the time and temperature when baking two dishes?

texts:
I want to cook multiple dishes at the same time using a conventional oven. A 9x 13 pan with potatoes should bake in an oven of 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. The other dish, a ham, should be in a 325 degree F oven for about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

How long can the potato dish be cooked for at 325? Any help would be appreciated. This will be done for Sunday dinner while at church. Please help.


texts:
The background: I baked bread a couple of days ago, and I was out of yeast, so I borrowed a couple of packets of Fleischmann's Instant Yeast from a neighbor. I'm used to dry active yeast, which requires two risings. My neighbor told me that with the instant yeast, she kneads for only five minutes instead of ten, skips the second rise and shapes her bread right after the first. I tried it her way, and I have to admit, it was the weirdest bread I've ever encountered. Even though the dough ended up smooth and elastic, the resulting bread was noticeably sweeter than my recipe, and it had a texture closer to cake than to bread.

The question: When using instant yeast, how many rises are needed to make a non-sweet bread? Do I have to stick with just one, or is it permissible to use two rises with this yeast? Definitely it needs more kneading, as my neighbor's recipe didn't form proper gluten chains, but should it have the second rise as well? Will something bizarre happen if I use two rises instead of one with instant yeast (asked as if this wasn't bizarre bread in itself)? Or should I just refrain from baking bread until I can get some proper -- read: dry active -- yeast?


texts:
From my understanding, a cocoa nib is unprocessed cocoa (correct me if i'm wrong please).

Are cocoa nibs ever used for cooking or baking? My assumption is that they need to be processed in order to be utilized.


texts: How to determine if refrigerated unopened cocktail sauce is still good?

texts:
I found two unopened bottles of cocktail sauce in the back of the fridge. I have no idea how old they are.
One is Heinz "original". The label says "Best if used by date on cap", but there's nothing on the cap.
The other one is some generic brand in a very similar bottle, with "Best by 4 12 20" on the cap.
Is there a way of figuring out how old is the Heinz one?
Is the other one still ok, even if it's not "best" any more?


texts: Just wondering when you add salt to dosa batter? I guess it depends on where you live (eg climate) - for example I live in not hot nor cold city, and I would generally add salt after fermentation. I know that in hot places, people would usually add it before so the batter doesn't go bad. Is there any difference in taste if adding before or after?


texts: Tortilla Espinoza — what is it and how do I make it?

texts:
It's been requested that I make a traditional Spanish dish named tortilla espinoza.  I have no idea what this is, and Google has failed me in finding something remotely close to it.

Does anyone know what it is and could point me to a recipe?


texts: What happens chemically when flavours 'mingle'?

texts:
When I make a stew and cook it for hours, the flavours combine to make a better combination than if I cooked them for a short time. The same thing happens when I leave a sauce like a ragu in the fridge overnight.

People talk about flavours mingling, but what is actually going on here? When the cells of foods break down and are released, what happens when they meet?


texts: How can I make a smoothie that will last 6 months and still be drinkable afterward if unopened?

texts:
How can I make a smoothie that will last 6 months and still be drinkable afterward if kept unopened?
The drink must:

Taste and have the texture of a smoothie
Be drinkable after 6 months (still in good flavor without rotting)
Be stable at room temperature


texts: How do I properly wash bugs out of green onion?

texts: How do I remove bugs from the inside and outside of green onions? I don't want to split open the green onion just to remove them, and washing them thoroughly in cold water seems to get the onions soggy.


texts:
I had this chicken that was extremely soft at a thai restaurant in Portland, Or.  The cashew nut chicken dish had small strips of extremely soft chicken.

As you can see, the chicken is not cripsy or seared, it is just cooked in some fashion that makes it extremely soft.

Any ideas on how to reproduce?


texts: We are big dairy eaters in our home, so I successfully make about a gallon of Greek yogurt every few weeks. Today I started my process as usual, but with so many things happening at once (just had my 2nd baby, so things are hectic), I failed to remember to let the milk cool before adding in my enzymes: I stirred them in right at 180 degrees. So having killed my enzymes (sigh), what can I do with all of this milk/yogurt mix aside from throwing it down the sink? Pardon my stupidity and lack of knowledge on the subject, but would the heating process alter at all the calories/nutrients in the milk/yogurt in any way (aside from the obvious death of the innocent enzymes)? Will my milk curdle or something? Thank you!


texts: Why does Béarnaise separate as opposed to crème brûlée or lemon curd?

texts:
When making creme brulees in the oven, they are heated to something like 100° C, or over. When making bernaise, heating it like that is a sure way of making it separate.

As far as I've understood, it is the vinegar and the fat that separates, when the protein in the egg coagulates, and of course there is no vinegar in either creme brulee or lemon curd, but the protein still coagulates. Still, the result is silky smooth.

Why is this? All I have are guesses, and some small amount of culinary science to shed some light on this would be greatly appreciated.


texts:
I recently bought a house that has an oven with an electric 4-burner flat cooktop (estimated circa 1970s/80s), as well as an additional electric 4-burner cooktop. What I'm wondering, is there an electric flat top griddle on the market to replace the standalone cooktop? I'm envisioning the equivalent to a short order single large cooking surface for things like pancakes, fried rice, etc.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!


texts: What is the bright red ingredient in Japanese chicken curry katsu?

texts:
I have had chicken curry katsu at different restaurants in different countries, and there is always a diced bright red ingredient, the color of a tomato, put on like a garnish. Some told me it was a red pepper, others a variety of carrot. I could not ascertain the flavor from eating a small bit of just that.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Curry_rice_by_Hyougushi_in_Kyoto.jpg

This picture seems to have it hiding in the back behind the rice, and I alway have seen it served in a pile in the corner, although I often have seen it chopped into smaller bits.

Does anyone know what ingredient is used? Is that intended as a garnish not to be eaten?


texts: Can I keep chillies in alcohol long term without continuing to affect the flavour?

texts:
I want to make jalapeno or habanero infused tequila for a friend's Christmas present. I'd like to leave them in the bottle for presentation.

I've seen recipes only recommend a 24 hour maximum infusion time. Is there a way to leave them in without causing the flavour to develop in undesirable ways from over-infusion? Is over-infusion even possible in this circumstance?


texts:
I'm making some spring rolls for a party on Friday. As I will not be able to make them the same day I was wondering what the best option would be. I will have the possibility of frying them directly at the place, but making them there would not probably be feasable.

What would you advice me to do?

make the rolls the night before, then freeze them and fry them the next day
make the rolls the night before, keep them in the fridge and fry them the next day
make and fry the rolls the night before. Reheat them (in the oven?) the next day (this sounds quite bad to me)

I think I will have some with pork, some with shrimp and some with veggies only.

Thanks


texts: Are there substantial benefits to grinding your own flour?

texts:
I've read that most of the nutrients of wheat are stripped for the sake of shelf life.  Is this marketing propaganda or is there truth behind it?  It was my impression that white flour (even fortified) is nowhere close to the original thing but whole grain flour is still pretty good.

The grinders are pretty pricy and after that even buying large amounts of grain (if you can find it) doesn't ever appear to pay off.  Am I mistaken?
Are there any real benefits to doing it yourself (whether nutritional or not)?
Does it taste as good?  (Sorry, I know this question is opinion-oriented, but I'm curious)


texts: Hot chocolate and cheese (Colombian Special)

texts:
I recently visited Colombia in South America and I'm trying to recreate one of their traditional delicacies.

They give you a lovely thick cup of hot chocolate and together with a few slices of cheese. The idea is you break up the cheese and put it into your hot chocolate. The cheese melts partially and you can then eat it with a spoon.

It sounds quite strange, but actually tasted great.

My question is, that I'd like to try to find the same cheese to make it (in the UK). I've heard that mozzarella is the closest, but it doesn't melt in the same way.

The only Colombian cheese I have found is called Queso Compasigna, which means country/rustic cheese). I believe they have another type of cheese, specifically for dipping in hot chocolate. I'd like to know what cheese it is, possible where to buy it or if not how to make it?

Any ideas if its made with cows or goats milk or what sort of manufacturing process it uses?


texts: How to clean stains from inside of vacuum flask?

texts:
I use my vacuum flask to bring my lunch to work. I've been doing this almost every day for half an year or so. Now there are some sediments or stains in the bottom of the flask  although I wash the flask almost always immediately after it's emptied.

How can I get rid of the stain and smell inside the flask? I even used steel wool on a stick but could't make it clean 100% and I don't want to scratch it too much inside. Because I use it for food I am not sure if bleach is a good choice to go for.

Update

I have original Thermos made of stainless steel interior and exterior. Something like that one http://www.thermos.com/products/vacuum-insulated-10-oz-food-jar.aspx

Note that I am located in Austaralia so no cleaning products are available to me.


texts: I have a recipe that uses island cheese and I am not sure what type of cheese that is.  I've found a place online that sells "Island Cheese" in the Azores but it doesn't describe the type of cheese.  I am trying to find a substitute that would be similar.  Any ideas?


texts: Why does cooking mushrooms longer alter the taste so much?

texts:
When pan frying sliced regular white mushrooms, I prefer to cook them on high-heat with a generous amount of EVO until they shrivel up quite a bit and become golden brown in color.  This is opposed as opposed to cooking them with less heat for a shorter duration to the point where they do not change in size and only darken slightly, or not at all.

I find that mushrooms cooked to this lesser degree have a distinctive taste and smell (that some dislike very much), yet when raw or cooked to the degree in which I first described, they do not contain this smell or taste.

My question: What is the reason for this?  Perhaps there is some sort of chemical responsible for the change in taste (similar to the idea of raw garlic versus well cooked or roasted garlic).


texts: Preparation Techniques for Tilapia Filets

texts:
In my freezer, I have two thin tilapia filets that need to be eaten.  I realize that I can:

wrap them in foil with seasoning and cook
bake or broil them with butter, wine, lemon juice, and/or other seasonings
bread and fry them
grill them

What I'd love to know is what I'm missing: what's are techniques to use with this mild-flavored fish in it's preparation?


texts: Should I refrigerate homemade yogurt before making Greek yogurt?

texts:
I have a yogurt maker and a so-called Greek yogurt maker; the latter is basically a fancy strainer. Both gadgets are from Euro Cuisine. My process for making yogurt is as follows:

Scald milk at about 180º F for about 20 minutes
Let milk cool to between 100 and 110º F
Add starter culture
Incubate in yogurt maker for 8 hours
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

The yogurt seems pretty thick to me when I take it out of the machine after the incubation, but the instructions that came with the yogurt maker say that the last step, refrigerating, is needed for the yogurt to set properly.

The instructions that came with the Greek yogurt maker say:

Put yogurt into strainer
Leave in refrigerator for at least 4 hours, longer for greater thickness.

My question is: if I make a batch of regular yogurt intending to convert it to Greek yogurt, do I need to follow the last step of refrigerating the yogurt for 4 hours before putting it in the strainer to make Greek yogurt? Or can I just put the yogurt into the strainer as soon as the 8 hour incubation period is done?

Update: I checked with the manufacturer and got an email back from them that said:

  You can move the content of your yogurt made in the YM100 into GY50 after yogurt is ready, without putting the yogurt in the refrigerator for 4 hours.


texts: I would like to make the dense&soft bread like the bottom one and the taste is plain not sweet. What techniques will make bread closer to the one I want? I also want it to be chewy, not just soft.


texts: I seasoned uncooked rib steaks yesterday (using a truffle sea salt). cooked 1 today and it was way too salty. How can I salvage the 2 remaining steaks. I cooked the 1st steak in the oven broiler.Thanks


texts: What is the difference between boiled vegetables and stewed vegetables?

texts:
I would like to know what the difference is between boiled vegetable and stewed vegetables? Are the methods for preparing these different? How do these differ? My understanding is that with boiling nothing is mixed with the vegetables, whereas with stewing something is added to the water (powders, vegetable cubes, etc.), so that such flavors may enter the vegetables and make them more tasty.

Is this the only difference, or am I missing something else?


texts: I always seem to accumulate vegetable scraps faster than I do bones, so would it be possible to create a vegetable stock in a pressure cooker, to then create a chicken /beef stock at a later date when the bones are available? Specifically, would there be a considerable loss in flavor, or would there be a better way to go about this?


texts: How do you source meat that will be minimally cooked?

texts:
I was recently asked where one could find meat that could be prepared "blue to blue-rare". What kinds of meat (other than fish) can be prepared this way and how would one go about finding a reliable source?

I imagine chicken and pork are out due to salmonella and trichina, but what about (non ground) beef? Are any other land animals typically prepared this way?


texts:
If you're making a regular cake, you add all the first ingredients (eggs, butter, sugar, ...) and mix everything well. When you add the last ingredient, the flour, you mix until it's just incorporated, since over-mixing can make the gluten form and you'll end up with a tough cake.

If you work with gluten-free flour, can you mix as long as you want?


texts: Make Kiwifruit sauce less sour without sugar?

texts:
I've prepared a Kiwifruit sauce, adding also some sugar and honey.

I was wondering - is there a way to make it less sour, that is not increasing the sugar and honey content?

The recipe was:

4 Kiwifruit, ripe
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch


texts: What teas with natural caffeine can be used for lemon tea?

texts:
I like to drink hot, naturally caffeinated tea (so no added caffeine please) in which one entire lemon or lime is prodded, pulped, and steeped. What kinds of naturally caffeinated tea would correspond?

A Google search desultorily yields 'black tea', a term which is too vague, and 'Earl Grey' tea?


texts: Which is the better substitute for tapioca: corn starch or potato starch?

texts: Which is the better substitute for tapioca in Chinese/South East Asian dishes, e.g. for thickener of soups and for meatballs? Is it corn starch or potato starch? I am asking because both corn starch and potato starch are more readily available in general supermarkets, whereas tapioca is a bit harder to find.


texts:
Recently I was preparing kotlet schabowy from pork tenderloin. The tenderloin had a bit of excess fat in it and I cut it out(a small slice, approx 3-5mm x 1cm x 5cm).

What can I do with those? I don't really like throwing things away and it looks like it could be useful. I cut it into small pieces and roasted it in a pan to get a nice brown color on it and it gave off a bit of that fat into the pan. Looked nice too, but was chewy(well, it's a fat), so definitely not something I would try to eat.

Do I have to toss it away, or is there any way to make that edible?


texts: How can I add flavor to green tea at home?

texts: I often buy green tea with different flavors like lemon, strawberry, and jasmine from the market. I want to add these flavors at home.  Can you recommend how I might do this?


texts: Seasoning, freezing, thawing and then deep frying chicken

texts: I plan to season chicken parts (wings, legs), then freeze, then thaw them out to batter them, and then deep fry them. Will they keep their flavor? Is it safe to do this?


texts: Gas or electric for rack oven in a bakery?

texts: I plan to purchase a rotating rack oven for my bakery. What type (gas or electric) would achieve the best result for pastries and small breads?


texts: My question is this: Can you reuse the left over scone dough to make a loaf of bread? And how would you go about doing so?


texts: Many electric pressure cookers, such as my Power Pressure Cooker XL come with delay time feature. According to the manual this can delay cooking by up to 24 hrs. Apparently to accommodate user's schedule. But wouldn't the ingredients spoil by that time? Has anyone used this feature? Am I not getting it right?


texts: Is liquid seeping from the fish normal when making gravlax?

texts:
I'm currently trying to make gravlax for the first time! I bought about 2 lbs of fish, specifying that I wanted to eat it raw so they gave me something appropriate for that. I put lots of salt, a bit less sugar and some dill between 2 large pieces of fish, wrapped it up tightly in saran wrap, put it in the fridge with some weight on top.

This morning when I went to flip it, there was a lot of liquid in the bottom of the dish I put all of that in. It didn't smell fishy at all, I cleaned it up and flipped it and put it back in the fridge.

The lack of fishy smell makes me think everything is all right, but I wanted to ask if that's something to be expected, or if it's usual, or if it means the fish isn't safe to eat.

Thanks a lot!


texts:
I'm cooking a recipe for a Bread that requires a Dutch Oven.

All I have is a Casserole Dish.

The recipe calls for 40mins then 20 mins in a 400F Oven in the Dutch Oven.

My question is: Can I adapt a baking recipe for a Dutch Oven to a Casserole Dish?


texts: Can I store fish sauce at room temperature, and how do I know when it's gone bad?

texts:
For a long time, I believed this advice:

  Don't refrigerate your fish sauce. Whatever can happen to this brew
  has already happened; it's not going to go bad. You can pass your
  half-empty bottle down as a family heirloom, and your grandchildren
  will enjoy the same golden liquid that you have on your shelf today.

And then one day I noticed what was clearly white mold growing in the bottle; so much for sharing it with my grandchildren.  For reference, this was one of those standard big one-liter bottles from an Asian grocery, and I use the stuff maybe every couple of weeks.

So is it generally OK to keep fish sauce at room temperature, and how do I know it's gone bad?  The sniff test obviously isn't of much use.  I get the feeling that fish sauce gets darker as it ages, but that's hard to measure.


texts: Making chocolate covered strawberries without parchment paper

texts: What can I use to set the strawberries on to cool if I don't have parchment paper or a cooling rack?


texts: Are meatballs different from Hamburgers other than in terms of size?

texts: The recipes in for meatballs and hamburgers have their variations, but a lot of overlap. Many look almost the same. Other than the cooking method and size, is there a fundamental difference that sets them apart?


texts: Why do grape-flavored foods taste different than actual grapes?

texts: Grapes are one of my favorite fruits, but I typically don't like grape-flavored foods. For example, grape jelly or grape candies (like Jolly Ranchers) have a distinctly different taste. I imagine some of the taste perception has to do with water content. Why is it so different?


texts: Preventing discoloration when making fresh mint liqueur

texts:
Twice I have tried to make a fresh mint liqueur (flavored vodka), and both times it has turned a very unpleasant brown/black color.  I'd like to figure out how to do this while keeping the nice bright green color, or even no color.  The discoloration is also associated with a change in smell - not completely unpleasant, but not the same mint.

The method I tried is just the standard that you read on the first 10 google hits, or the question found on seasoned advice.  Wash the mint leaves, put in alcohol, let sit, add sugar syrup, possibly glycerin, and enjoy.

The first time I did this, I left the stems in the mix out of laziness.  I let it steep for a week or two, and it was completely brown/black.

This second time I removed the stems, and I also only steeped the leaves for 24 hours.  I also used a glass weight to keep the leaves completely submerged.  After the 24 hours, I strained the flavored vodka into a clean jar and put it in the cupboard.  The mint vodka was always kept in the dark cupboard, at room temperature.  24 hours later, the top half of the vodka had already discolored, and an additional 24 hours later, all of the vodka had browned.

I had hoped that the discoloration was due to something in the leaves oxidizing(?), and that by removing the leaves after a short time, I'd remove what was causing the browning.  Sadly, the alcohol appears to have extracted whatever is browning.  Note: the leaves themselves also browned in a similar timeframe, and from the top down (they were compacted in the original jar).

The mint is a spearmint variety, for what that's worth.  I've not tried it on a different mint, b/c the variety I used is my favorite.

Any ideas on how to prevent the discoloration?


texts: Tips/resources for learning how to plate dishes

texts:
I'm getting close to pulling the trigger on a couple books about plating from Amazon (Food Styling, by Custer, Dishing with Style, by Trovato, perhaps Culinary Artistry, by Dornenburg), but before I do, I figured I'd ask if anyone here has tips or resources that may be of help.  I'm thinking websites or book recommendations, but any advice will do.

The lower the cost, the better, but since I'm willing to buy a book or two, I'm willing to put the money elsewhere as well.

Thanks!


texts: Can I make skim milk from whole pasteurize homogenized milk/yogurt?

texts:
I'm trying to turn whole milk/yogurt into skimmed/no fat milk/yogurt. I don't live in US and no fat dairy products are 4-5 times expensive also hard to find in store. Can I just whip pasteurized homogenized milk or yogurt and make butter.

If I take butter from milk remaining liquid is buttermilk, can I use this for sour cream, is this cultured buttermilk. Of course I can't find buttermilk either.


texts: I don't know how to pickle cayenne and jalapeno peppers. I tried putting them in a mason jar w/ vinegar. They didn't last too long because the top rust. I don't know what 'brine' mean and I don't know what 'water bath' mean.


texts: Why is the fourth stomach (abomasum) of cows not used for tripe?

texts:
Many sources will state that the first three stomachs of cows are used in tripe. The only reasoning I have found for not using one of the stomachs is listed by sciencedirect.com:

  The third compartment of the ruminant stomach is the omasum. The internal wall is in the form of deep, thin folds like the pages of a book. This appearance accounts for the popular name for the omasum, which is ‘bible.’ Although the omasum has a delicate flavor and texture, it is not commonly used as tripe because of the difficulty of cleaning the stomach contents from between the folds. The fourth part of the ruminant stomach is the abomasum, sometimes called the reed.

Is the logic the same as often not using the third stomach (omasum) but to a larger degree? Is the abomasum just too difficult to clean for use as tripe?


texts: Does the definition of "cooking" imply heat?

texts:
Through comments posted in this question, I'd like to expand the commentary on the definition of cooking.  Specifically, is heat an essential stipulation?

According to the wiki article on cooking:

  Cooking can also occur through chemical reactions without the presence of heat, most notably with ceviche, a traditional South American dish where fish is cooked with the acids in lemon or lime juice.

Another example is cooking with liquid nitrogen.  Am I wrong in calling this cooking?

NOTE: I could not find a duplicate question, but please let me know if you find otherwise.


texts:
Many people prefer certain dishes and drinks to be hot (or cold).  I can understand the impact it has on mouthfeel for some foods (cold pizza has a very different texture than hot pizza, for example), but for liquids like soup and coffee that doesn't seem to be a factor.  But both of these are often seen as disgusting when they're at room temperature.

Why do we prefer food at a certain temperature?  Is it just conditioning?  Does it impact taste?  Is there some physiological reason?

(Obviously, some foods, like ice cream, can only exist at certain temperatures.  This isn't what I'm asking about)


texts:
I am from Scandinavia, and I am currently living in North-America. I am having problems finding this species of fish, usually referred to as Arctic Char. It is closely related to salmon and trout. Is it farmed in North-America at all?

According to the article, a subspecies is known as blueback trout but was extirpated. Does this species survive in the waters here at all? Can it be bought fresh?

I think this species of fish if referred to under a different name in the US.


texts:
I'm regularly baking pies again and I might want to get into pastry a bit more and looking for tools to help me out.

I have seen about a dozen videos about creating the perfect pastry dough and I cannot decide between the Dough Blender and the Dough Cutter/Scraper. The dough cutter seems more versatile white the blender should do it's job of blending the butter with the flour the best. However, the people using the cutter made it look easier then the people with the blender where the dough and butter mixture stuck between the blades and you still had to push it out with your hands or another tool. Whereas holding two cutters you can clean them by simply scraping them against each other and to shove the blend together with one scraper and chopping with the other looked very efficient.

So I am very much leaning towards buying two good sturdy cutters. But every pro makes his tools look so easy to work with. I am just going to make a dough two times a week at the most and I am looking for the right choice.

-edit-

I understand my question is a bit hard to answer. The short question is:

Do I need to be a Japanese ninja to blend my butter and flour with 2 scrapers/cutters?


texts: Should I reheat my eggs before using in recipe?

texts:
I premade scrambled eggs tonight for this recipe (very early tailgate party tomorrow, don’t judge): https://www.hgtv.com/design/make-and-celebrate/entertaining/ham-egg-and-cheese-croissant-wrap

My question is should I reheat the eggs first in the oven before adding them to the crescent rolls and baking them? Or will the 15-18 minutes the recipe calls for be enough to warm the eggs through?


texts: Can I use unsweetened baking cocoa raw, or do products with it in it need to be cooked?

texts: I'm asking because I found a recipe online for an ice cream that calls for baking coco, but doesn't call for cooking. I've used baking coco before to make hot chocolate, but it seems that it wouldn't dissolve fully if not first put in some sort of hot liquid, even though it's finely ground. If not, do I need to treat it differently before putting it in a recipe?


texts: Rice Cookery in water containing sugar versus plain water

texts: I need to have a scientific explanation of why rice cooks faster in plain water than water containing sugar.  I know the sugar interferes with the gelatinization of the rice, but I would like a scientific explanation - such as how the elements within the rice respond to the water with sugar in it to interfere with the gelatinization.


texts:
I stopped by a farm stand last weekend, and found the strawberries were rather pale looking. I commented on this, and the farmer assured me that this was no worry, and that furthermore I should be wary of bright red strawberries. His claim was that bright red strawberries at the supermarket are in fact dyed that color.

Is it common practice to dye berries? Is it even legal? Is this something one would normally expect to find at a grocery store, or is a technique used elsewhere (say, commercially, or in restaurants?) Or is this guy just trying to convince me to buy his product?


texts: When making batter/dough, why is it really bad to clean your spoon by hitting it on the edge of the bowl a few times?

texts:
Mom and I were looking at a holiday cooking tv-show a few weeks back, and during the part where the host made the dough for the oliebollen, he hit his spoon a few times against the bowl, to get rid of excess stuck to the spoon. Apparently, this was bad enough that mom felt she had to comment on that out loud (NOOO! You fool!).

According to her, when making oliebollen (or any other kind of dough/batter which includes yeast), you should never hit your spoon on the bowl, as this will prevent the dough from rising properly. I've tried to look this up on the internet, but found no such claims/instructions nor any explanation of why hitting a spoon on the edge of the bowl would prevent the dough from rising properly.

So, when making batter/dough, is it really bad to clean your spoon by hitting the edge of a bowl? If it is, why would doing so prevent the dough from rising properly?


texts: Can I use short rib bones alone to make beef stock?

texts:
I have almost 2 pounds of uncooked short rib bones (I cut them off short ribs  then froze them). There is very little meat, if any, on the bones. Am I able to make beef stock using just these bones? Should I add one of the small marrow bones I have in the freezer (I don't want it greasy) or buy different bones? Or do I also need to add meat to have a tasty stock that will 'gelatinize'? In other words, are short rib bones enough?

I've made chicken and turkey stock countless times, but never beef, so I am truly clueless. I generally don't add meat to a chicken stock, just whatever little I haven't cleaned off the carcass, and wonder if I would get the same good outcome with just beef bones. I have read this question, but it doesn't address my question of short rib bones. What bones for beef stock.
This question Making Beef Stock, while telling me HOW to make the stock, doesn't tell me if short rib bones work.
Thank you.


texts: Make chocolate with a high melting point?

texts:
Is there something that can be done to chocolate which will raise its melting point?

I ask because this question wanted a way of getting space dust into a cake, which might be able to be done by encasing it in chocolate chips, but to have the best chance of success the chocolate needs to have a higher melting point.  So can this be affected, and if so by what?


texts:
Some times it can be difficult for me to get the right look of a dish in a photo.  I have used extra butter for a more glossy look, swapped corn starch for flour in sauces for the same reason, even once went so far as to use a fine water mister/spray. It seems that by the time I get around to taking the photo the freshness of the dish does not translate to the camera (though the meal is still great to eat). Is there a method for this, whilst still being able to eat the food afterwards, and not change the basic ethos of the recipe.  So, the question is:  How do I make dishes more glossy without changing the recipe too much?

Found some great ideas here from the BBC, but still do not want to 'brush' oil over meat which I then intend upon eating.


texts: Is there a device that can be used to grate coconut and sweet potatoes electrically?

texts:
Does anyone know of a tabletop device that can grate coconut electrically? I love coconut products but most recipes call for grating the kernel which I do not like to do, it is a hard job, sometimes bits of my skin end end up in the grate. Long ago my brother made what he called a coconut mill by wrapping and fastening a nail punched tin plate around a cylindrical wooden block and then attaching a shaft through the block with a hand crank at one end he then attached the shaft through bearings fastened over a box for catching the finished product which was milled by pressing the coconut kernel between a narrow gap made by a rigid piece of material and the milling block and turning the hand crank.

I know many will say just use a blender but a good amount of people warn me not to blend coconuts for making the products of interest, they also warn me not to blend sweet potatoes for the famous sweet potato pudding the Caribbean people love so much, so the above device could be used for grating sweet potatoes for puddings as well,

I have searched a lot but can not find any electrical device that will give the same result as grating, is there something that can do this that I am not aware of?

If nothing exist I may have to use my brother's idea with an electrical motor and control to invent something.


texts: How to keep saute pan hot without it burning for searing fresh greenbeans or zucchini

texts: Im working in a restaurant that has pan-seared greenbeans and sauted chopped zucchini with onions&peppers. It seems were constantly waiting for the damned veggies or GB to complete our plates so the rest of the meal gets effing' cold! After a few batches the pan gets all charcoaly and the veggies get all grainy and ugly. (We use nonstick spray to do the greenbeans and in a separate saute pan we use a soysauce type mix for the zucchini stuff.)


texts: What is the ideal hydration for bread dough?

texts:
I made a bread that called for 1kg of flour and 700ml of water. That is a 70% hydration.

The problem was that the dough became absolutely soaked, so in the end I added more than 500g more flour. Which meant that my salt ratio was off...

The resulting bread was not too bad, but it wasn't great neither.

What is the 'proper' flour to water ratio? I've made bread with 55% water and that was OK. I know this depends on the flour, but some kind of rule of thumb must exist.

Edit I've made the same bread again. This time with 60% hydration as I'm using all purpose flour (11% proteins) and I don't have a mechanic mixer. It turned out alright, but a little bit low. I guess bread flour is really needed here.


texts: Will freezing affect the quality of a dry-aged steak?

texts:
I'm used to buying moderately-priced meat from the supermarket, with which I can generally never tell the difference between fresh and frozen - it's maybe a little tougher after freezing but that's about it.

Today I happened to be in the area of a good butcher and decided to splurge on a couple of dry-aged ribeye steaks. The first one was, of course, delicious, but I may not have time for a home-cooked dinner during the next few days, so I'm considering freezing the other steak.

Will freezing do anything to ruin or diminish that unique dry-aged flavour and give it the same taste and texture as the supermarket fare? Since dry-aged steaks are already, well, dry, will the additional water loss from freezing turn it into inedible shoe-leather? Should I be worried about anything else?

Or can I just toss it in the freezer for a week?


texts:
I have baked baguettes a few times, the recipe I used was something from the net which might or might not be good. It went like this:

13 dl wheat flour
5 dl clean, cold water
salt, some olive oil

  Mix, knead, allow the bread to rise to double size in a cool environment. Bake at 275 C.

Now, the first time I made this, I was surprised how well it went. Pretty decent crust, hard but not burnt, easily done and so forth. I noticed however that after a short while the crust was soft. I stored it in plastic bags.

The second time I did it, which to me was very consistent with my first attempt, the crust was soft from the beginning, even though the bread was approaching a color of brown almost burnt.

What techniques should I know of that can improve the crust? Store bread in paper bags would probably help the crust stay hard, but is there anything else? Am I doing anything completely wrong?

I tried to search the site but I find it is not entirely easy to find what you are looking for.


texts: What are some pros/cons of restarting a bread machine mid-cycle?

texts:
The situation:

I put all ingredients in the bread machine pan as usual (but with a little extra sugar or honey and liquid) and start the cycle. After the first or second kneading cycle, I restart the cycle. Sometimes I'll restart the cycle a second or third time, as well. My thought is that this would produce a more uniform bread texture, and perhaps some sourdough flavor. I add the extra sugar so the yeast will not starve, and the extra liquid so the dough will not dry out. None of the ingredients are by themselves perishable (e.g. milk, eggs), so I'm not particularly concerned about spoilage.

The Question

I'm curious what the effects of extra kneading and rise cycles are on a loaf of bread in the bread machine. What outcomes should this produce, in theory? Are there things I should be aware of if I do this for different kinds of yeast breads (e.g. white vs. whole-wheat)?

I know I could experiment with this a number of times and find out, but I don't have the time to perform this experiment with sufficient control and precision, or to my standards, so I'm appealing to community experience instead.


texts: Will a grill pan reduce oil splatter when pan-frying steaks?

texts:
I have recently started cooking steaks at home and I really enjoy it.  BUT I really hate the oil splatter all over my kitchen floor and stove top after I'm done cooking.  I am already patting my steak dry and using very little oil.

Would using a grill pan reduce this problem?  I'm think it would as the oil will collect in the ridges as opposed to being caught between the meat and the pan.


texts: How can I remove oil spots from kitchen floor?

texts: Sometimes during cooking oil drops falls in floor, and look ugly. How can I remove these types of oil spots from floor?


texts: I make sanding sugar cut out cookies often. I sometimes have excess sugar left on the cookie sheets after baking. Could this excess sugar be saved and reused for the next tray. I often dump the excess in the trash and feel like I am wasting it. Any answers would be appreciated :)


texts: My Shrink Wrapped Steaks are Brown when I thaw them!

texts:
My parents bought a slab of steaks from my cousin who personally shrink-wrapped them. But when they thawed them out they were brown!

Are they still good to eat? What's going on?

My dad didn't cook them.


texts:
After many searches on the Google, I still can't find out how to make club soda.  So, I have to ask the question - what is club soda exactly?

I bought a iSi Soda Siphon and have figured out how to make carbonated water (finally).

Now what do I have to do to make club soda?  How about seltzer?


texts: Are recipes for Antonin Carême's original mother sauces available?

texts:
Did Carême publish actual recipes for his mother sauces?
I'm not looking for recipe suggestions, or Escoffier's revisions, or anyone else's revisions. There are numerous recipe suggestions available from many reputable sources, many with impactful variations. (Plenty of them are effective in dishes and meet current textbook and conventional wisdom definitions.)
The intent here is to find the originals, if those originals exist.


texts: Ice Cream Sugar Substitutes - Applesauce?

texts: Can I replace the sugar in ice cream with (very smooth) applesauce. I do not enjoy my desserts to be super sweet and I always have tons of homemade applesauce sitting in the fridge. How much would this affect the texture?


texts: Can you caramelize onions without using fat?

texts:
Serious Eats: caramelizing onions

In this article the writer suggests slightly caramelizing table sugar and after that toss the onions in the caramelized sugar. My question is - wouldn't you need a fat like butter to transfer heat from the pan to the onions? Does he take for granted we add butter to the caramel? Or does he mean we add sweated onions to the caramel together with the fat?


texts:
I made an experiment today making mango yogurt by adding mango puree BEFORE incubation. I used canned mango, pureed and strained it to eliminate fibers. I also added in the mixture condensed milk and powdered milk to increase protein. My yogurt was firm, thick and sour with mango flavor but it tasted chalky.

I'm not sure it was due to mango or powdered milk since I haven't used powdered milk in making yogurt as well and I added a quite large amount of it?

One more thing, I used skimmed milk without lactose and plain yogurt as culture.


texts: Can I use reverse osmosis water for cooking?

texts:
I am considering buying an in-line reverse osmosis (RO) filter for our new house, as #1, I like to drink good water, and #2, I like to brew with good water.  Somewhere in between those two, however, is I also like to COOK with good water.

I feel like a water report is like a snapshot of a single point in time, when the composition of the municipal water can change throughout the year to match rainwater pH/composition, so I'm likely going to start building from RO up.

I can't seem to find any information on the webs about cooking (baking, bread-leavening, etc.) with water that is good for brewing, that is, good for brewing after some salt/acid/base additions. The last thing I need is to be adding CaCl to my wife's shortbread cookies.

Will plain RO water work for cooking as well as brewing, or will I need to make similar additions?


texts: I have heard that you can leave a pizza stone in the oven all the time, essentially storing it there.  What are the considerations to keep in mind when doing this (type of oven, placement of stone, etc.)?  I currently have a gas oven with the element located inside the broiler drawer below.  Can I put the stone directly on the bottom of the oven, or should I keep it on the lowest rack?  Are there reasons to remove the stone from the oven, if you're cooking certain things?


texts: Will chopping hard destroy my new knives?

texts:
I bought a new set of knives and my dad used the chopping knives to cut onions.

Instead of chopping by slicing the onions with the usual technique, he was using his two hands to hold the knife by the extremities and chopping the onions this way. Is this going to destroy my knives?


texts: Pulled noodle dough: how can you realign the gluten after a failed attempt to pull?

texts:
I've seen many videos regarding how to knead the pulled noodle dough. The one recipe I used for this is:

For hand pulled noodles you need:

Bread flour (wet gluten 29-30%, protein 11%-12%)
45% added water 1%
sodium carbonate (soda ash)
0.2% sodium chloride (salt)

sourced from here.

I believe I've done the kneading right because the dough is smooth and elastic. I can pull & twist it a few times. Then I made a mistake and the dough broke and then it failed. After a few attempts to re-knead the dough using fold and knead techniques, it seems the gluten structure is messy. I can see the dough is rough. Seems like it's too alkaline or something.

Anyway, the question is can I fix the dough? because no matter how long I kneaded it, it seems not to realign (the dough is coarse and lacks the plasticity and flexibility, and tears easily if you tried to pull it, revealing the gluten mess).

Can anyone make any suggestion or recommendation from experience?


texts: Nutrient loss when baking in roasting pan

texts:
To retain the most nutrition, steaming is the suggested method of cooking

How much worse is it to bake, say potatoes, in a roasting pan with some water? Is it that much different? I'm more interesting in roasting as it allows the adding of other food, sauces, flavors, etc.


texts:
I have lately come across good recipes, which happen to require tomatillos. Sadly, I don't have a source for tomatillos.

Is there some way to substitute them in recipes? Physalis berries? Underripe tomatoes? If tomatoes, then which kind?

Will it be a result similar to the original recipe, something definitely different, but usable, or so different that it only works by accident?


texts: How important is fresh ground coffee vs a good coffee grinder?

texts: Given a choice between using a good coffee grinder a few days in advance, or one of those whirly-chopper grinders immediately before brewing, which would you choose?


texts: Higher temp and lower rack for thicker crust in brownies?

texts:
I would like to thicken the crust of my brownies. Will I be able to achieve this by setting the pan at a lower level on the oven racks and increasing the temperature? Or do I maintain the same temperature and increase the time? My oven uses a large heating element attached from the top -- that's also where the thermometer hangs.

Presently, the brownies I have are nicely done through and through, but it seems to need a thicker crust. Is this achievable? Or does having a thick crust sacrifice internal doneness due to non-penetration of overhead heat?

Recipe is as follows:

80-g (3/4 cup) pecan halves, roasted and chopped

88g (3 oz) unsweetened chocolate

1 tsp salt

220g (~1/2 lb) unsalted butter

150g (3/4 cup) granulated sugar

100g (1/2 cup) brown sugar

2 large eggs (~110g)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

140g (3/4 cup) All-purpose flour

18 g (1/8 cup) cocoa powder

Deposited in 12-slot pan made for circular cupcakes. 30 mins in a 350F oven with the thermometer hanging directly on the heating element.


texts: What is the difference between a young coconut and a white coconut?

texts:
I am reading conflicting information.
https://www.friedas.com/products/young-coconut/ (mirror) says young coconut and white coconut are different:

Young coconuts, white coconuts and brown coconuts all come from the same coconut palm, they just differ by stage of maturity.

https://www.chowhound.com/post/white-coconut-292062 (mirror) says they are the same:

The white coconuts are the young coconuts with the green outer skin removed.

Which one is right?

Young coconut:

White coconut:


texts: Can I bake a finished Ginger Bread House

texts:
I made a gingerbread house using store-bought gingerbread cookies (from Ikea, if it matters) and using just royal icing made from whipped egg whites, powdered sugar and vanilla paste. Because I couldn't find meringue paste being sold anywhere around me, I had to use the unpasteurized egg whites.

From the remaining icing I had, I made meringue kisses, which were pasteurized in the baking process.

Now I have a gingerbread house which was fun to make with the kids, but I'm afraid to give them to eat because of the unpasteurized eggs.

Will baking the house in the oven as I did with the remaining icing (90 deg C for 1.5 hours) to pasteurize it have any adverse effects?


texts: Is zesting lemons effective when making lemonade?

texts:
It's too hot. The air is oppressive and sticky, and it just keeps getting hotter... I need a nice, cold glass of lemonade.

Fortunately, I have a bag of lemons and plenty of ice! So now the question becomes one of technique. Keeping in mind that I'm hot (and consequently lazy), is it worth taking the time to zest the lemons before adding sugar and ice, or will the sugar alone suffice to extract those refreshing oils from the rind?


texts: I've half a pound of salmon en croute (made from this recipe) left over from dinner this evening. I've never dealt with pastry encrusted salmon, so I'm not sure of storage best practices. I'd like to store it for approximately 12 hours, preferably in a way that preserves the puff pastry's stable, yet light, texture. Any ideas?


texts: I put chicken in a crock pot and thought it was on low. It was off. It's been two hours. Do I need to throw out the chicken? It was fairly cold because it was mixed with a cold teriyaki sauce among other things. Thanks!


texts: Is there a name for the partial dish where you simmer macaroni in milk for 30-60 minutes? It's called stuvade makaroner in Swedish:


texts: Can I substitute Hong Kong curry cuttlefish with pre-cooked Joya octopus?

texts:
I want make Hong Kong cuisine Dim Sum  Curry Cuttlefish at home.

Because COVID19, my supermarket is not selling cuttlefish or squid or uncooked octopus, just this pre-cooked Joya Octopus.
My issue is octopus is much bigger. Thus how substitute Cuttlefish with Octopus? Will this  Joya octopus work?


texts: Are there any research-backed sources on cast iron seasoning?

texts:
I've always seasoned my cast iron pans with vegetable oil because that was what I was taught. I'd done some research before, and even came across this StackExchange post on asking the best oil for the job.
To my dismay however, when I tried doing some research myself, all sources pointed to blog posts, particularly the Sheryl Canter one. There is not a single source on her post and she doesn't seem to be very near a materials scientist. The closest paper I could find to the topic was this one. Other than that, it was all anecdotal evidence, many people claiming many different things. This will bug me till the end of time until I figure it out, so I need to know - does anybody have any real sources on cast iron seasoning?
Much appreciated.


texts: Does an acid actually stabilize meringue and if so why?

texts: Is it scientific fact that acid stabilizes meringue or is this a fallacy? If so does anyone know actually why and are there any other substances that do this well also?


texts: Having trouble getting lower fat fluffy pancakes with baking soda approach

texts: I have a baking soda and vinegar pancake recipe that uses too much butter for my liking. When I reduced the butter content, the pancakes seemed too thin and crisp. I tried yogurt, but they seemed too heavy and didn't rise enough. Any suggestions on how I can get a fluffy, light pancake?


texts: Why pour water over the covering plate while cooking okra?

texts: When my mom makes okra, she adds okra in the pan with all the masala. When she covers the pan with a plate for the okra to cook, she pours some water over the plate. She says it helps it to cook faster or something, but she doesn't know any scientific reason. It's more like advice passed down from others. Is there any reason we should?


texts: Can half cooked pork chops be cooled then fully cooked later?

texts: I started baking pork chops at about 2pm. 30 mins into cooking I had to leave. I turned off oven and left. It's now 640pm and I'm just getting home. The pan is still slightly warm. Are the pork chops still good to continue cooking?


texts: Which of these ingredients are the acid component of a marinade?

texts:
Here are some ingredients for a a sheek kebab recipe.  Which of these acts as the acid component of the marinade?

onion, lentil flour, green chilli, salt, garlic, ginger, herbs: fenugreek, fresh coriander, spices: cumin seed,coriander podwer, crushed chilli, chilli powder, garam masala(cinnamom, cloves, ginger, star anise, cumin, chilli, fennel, black pepper, bay leaves, sun. oil, nutmeg, cardamom).


texts: What is the layer of grey stuff on the bottom of salmon?

texts: On the bottom of a piece of salmon there is a layer of grey stuff, I am wondering what this is?  I assume this is its fat?


texts: How do I make a really flavorful turkey burger?

texts:
Since turkey burgers don't have a lot of fat, you lose a lot of the flavor that you get with beef.  Also, you have to make sure you cook them through (170 degrees), so they tend to dry out.

What are your pro tips for cooking great turkey burgers?

Preparation
Seasoning
Grilling techniques (high heat? tin foil?)


texts: How important is the creaming process while making a cake?

texts: A few of the chocolate cake recipes I read always start with the step - mix butter and sugar until creamy. I've tried a couple of times but failed to create anything near to creamy. But a few recipes completely eliminate the creaming process, wherein the wet ingredients are added directly to the dry mix. I'm looking for a cake which has a light and moist texture. What should I do? All my previous cakes were either too airy or grainy! On a side note, no matter how much time I mix, I'm not getting the sugar to completely dissolve in the butter. Should I be adding more butter?


texts: Should bubbles be forming only in center of pot when simmering? (Dutch oven on gas burner)

texts:
I'm cooking Marcella Hazan's bolognese/ragu recipe using a brand new Le Creuset 7-quart round dutch oven. For the long simmering stage, the recipe says to keep the heat very low, which is what I'm doing. I'm noticing that the bubbles are appearing only at the very center of the pot (presumably because the flame is so small). Around the edges, I'm able to dip my finger in the sauce and keep it submerged without burning, and I can touch the handles and sides of the pot, too. Is this temperature variation typical and/or acceptable?  (I am stirring occasionally, so I guess that might help give everything a turn in the center.)

It tastes OK so far, but I'm just wondering if I should do something differently next time (e.g., using a pot with a smaller diameter or better conductivity, or even trying to simmer in the oven.)


texts:
I have a wonderful mousaka recipe which involves layers of baked potato, eggplant, and beef. It is topped with a cheesy bachamel and cooked until golden brown on top. It is very similar to a lasagna.

I would like to cook this dish for a party for 20 people. Unfortunately I cannot prepare everything immediate beforehand. So I would like to complete as much as possible a day in advance.

I could cook this dish completely and then reheat it in the oven before the party, but I'm afraid the bachamel top will over crisp and the bottom will burn.

Can I instead parcook this dish? I believe I could cool all the ingredients up until the point the bachamel is added, then chill it, and then simply bake as is for 1.5 hours until warmed through and the topping browns nicely.

Or should I worry about the sauce clumping or other concerns?


texts: What quantity of coconut oil should be substituted for butter in a brownie mix?

texts: I want to substitute coconut oil for the butter in a brownie mix but I don't know how much to use. The recipe calls for 3/4 stick of melted butter. How much coconut oil should I use?


texts: When do you add spices to homemade butter?

texts: I have looked up many homemade butter recipes. I know how to make plain butter. I have seen some recipes with herbs added and other seasoning. They don't say when to add the seasonings. Do you add them with the cream or after it is turning into butter?


texts: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

texts:
I smoked a whole chicken. When I cut into the breast I found this:

What is it and is my chicken ruined?


texts: Is there a substitute for powdered non-dairy creamer that does not have transfat or hydrogenated fat? I want to make dry hot chocolate mix.


texts: What to do with butter that has been mixed with baking soda?

texts:
I was making sugar cookies andI had a baggie that had about 1/2 cup or more of baking soda in it but I thought it was powdered sugar so I added it to my butter! I don't think I can use it for the cookies.  Doesn't taste too bad in the beginning but it has an aftertaste.

How can I get rid of the taste of baking soda in the butter?   Can I salvage it into maybe icing or something?   I am just having a hard time with throwing it out!   Please tell me there is something I can do with it!


texts: How do you tell if a cheese rind is edible?

texts: When I buy a cheese from a type I don't know, I usually discard the rind, just because I'm not sure it is edible. Is there a way to tell if it is edible, other than researching the cheese type?


texts: How and when should I use a bread knife?

texts:
I know the answer is "it's for cutting bread" but what I really want to know is when does its uniqueness actually help?

What I've noticed is that it's sooooooooo much easier to use the santoku knives to cut breads with a harder crust like french bread or sourdough or a batard. They require no pressure, they easily cut all the way through, and they don't make a giant mess of crumbs. Where as when I try using the bread knife, since what I'm cutting is bread, it requires much more effort to cut, there is always a big pile of crumbs and the last cut, the cut needed to separate the slice from the rest of the bread is always very difficult without feeling like I'm going to accidentally saw the cutting board instead of the bread.

Am I doing it wrong or is the bread knife really not designed for hard breads but maybe only soft breads (the kinds that are usually bought already sliced?)


texts: What elements in green leafy vegetables provide carbohydrates?

texts:
If you boil some greens and drink the liquid only, will that give you a lot of carbohydrate energy or none to little i.e. do you actually need to eat the solid or how much energy can you get from the liquid alone?
If it comes from the solid, is most of the carbohydrate it in the stalk or leaf?

Thanks


texts: My Apple Dumpling Recipe calls for Sprite or Ginger Ale to be added around dumplings before baking. What is the effect of the Sprite?


texts: Does Boiling Water, Instead of Warm Water, Hurt the Flavor of Tea/Hot Chocolate

texts:
I have a counter-top water kettle that I frequently use to boil water for tea, hot chocolate, and powdered drinks (e.g. chai).  I don't think anything of it when the water starts boiling and keeps on boiling for 20 to 30 seconds before the kettle automatically shuts off, then I almost immediately use the water.  Should I be worried about:

The taste of my water changing from boiling and thus changing the taste of the drink?
The boiling water altering the drink's compounds and thus changing its taste?

Finally, if I should be worried about these, what method should I use to heat my water and what temperature should I aim for?  Specifically, I most often make tea (mint, earl grey, etc.) and chai lattes (from a powdered mix).


texts:
!
After Pot

My electric coils have what I think are cold spots. None of my food heats evenly when cooking. I noticed that when I turn the stove on, the coils heat up perfectly and are bright orange but the minute I put a pot on they get black spots, which I’m assuming are cold spots. If I boil a pot of water, I can see where the heat is going and the cold spots always match to wherever the black spots are on the coils. Is this normal? Or is this something that can be fixed?


texts: When potatoes are part of, say, Bacalao, why aren't they boiled into a mash?

texts:
If I boil potatoes for an hour or more they invariably turn into a mash.

Why doesn't this happen if the potatoes are part of Bacalao that is left to simmer for a lot longer?


texts:
I cooked a bag of chickpeas in a slow cooker, just water and the peas.
Once the peas were soft I ate them with the water they were cooked in, like a bean soup.
Once that cooled the "soup" congealed like jello.

I didn't know it would do that. Is that good for you...I mean it looked like something that would clog your arteries.


texts: Why do egg yolks change color from orange or dark yellow to yellow or light yellow when cooked, esp. hard boiled?


texts: Blind baking: Does the choice of weights matter?

texts:
Blind baking is done by lining a pastry shell first with parchment paper and then with some kind of weights to ensure that the bottom stays flat and the sides upright.

I have seen recipes that use rice, lentils, beans or even ceramic pie weights. And apparently all of them work. But does the choice of weights matter? Is there a difference e.g. between rice (small grains, each comparatively light) and beans (larger heavier beans)? Has anyone tested this?


texts:
I accidentally let some of my okra grow much too large.  It's about six inches long, and I've heard that it's inedible at this size--per this video it should be 2 1/2" to 3".

Is there any way to cook these or are they really best sent to the compost bin?


texts: What is the right use of bake and broil?

texts:
I look inside the oven and realize that when baking the heat comes from below and when broiling the heat comes from the top.

Although there's a intuition which says that the oven is small and so everything should be at the same temperature from the inside I'm sure that as I have two options there's at least one big difference.

What is this difference between them? Why do I bake a cake and not broil it? Which should I use for all kinds of meats? Depends? If I could extend this question to the default temperature of each, why are they different?


texts: What is the best way to go about developing and formulating a product?

texts:
I hope this is within posting guidelines. I have an exciting vision for a product but I have no formal culinary experience (mixing, baking, etc) I do have extensive knowledge in the field of nutrition from hundreds of hours of research (personal not formal again) and I have a pretty good idea of the ingredients I want to incorporate into my product but what is the best way to go about testing the final product, Is it better to hire someone that has experience in this field or should I try to do it myself and see what happens?. I am looking to do a private label manufacturing but no one seems be able to help with what I'm trying to do (doughnuts)

Any advice would be appreciated.


texts: The last time I checked, most sugar is really dry (unless it's something like brown sugar).  So why is it categorized as "wet"?


texts: How do I make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that are thick?

texts:
I'm looking for a way to make "heavy" oatmeal choco chip cookies.
When baked, the cookie keeps the shape of the scoop instead of spreading out. Does using eggs or baking soda make cookies spread out?


texts: Using Milk Chocolate instead of unsweetened chocolate in a pie

texts: I would like to make a chocolate silk pie for Christmas.  I have a LOT of unused Milk Chocolate left over from a wedding and so that's why I am using the milk chocolate.  Most of the recipes that I've read call for unsweetened chocolate and then melting the chocolate and then adding it to a creamed mixture of butter and sugar.  Since the chocolate is already sweet I don't really need to do that, so should I just melt the chocolate and then add eggs and pour it into the pie shell?


texts:
When I make peanut butter at home, in a food processor, it comes out reasonably creamy as in store bought peanut butter, but when I put it in my mouth, it sucks the moisture from my mouth and is too dry and hard to swallow.

How can I prepare it so that it is easier to consume and closer to store bought peanut butters. I tried adding a couple of spoons of oil. Would adding honey help?


texts: What is the best method for stick-free cooking of bacon in a stainless steel pan?

texts:
I recently made the switch from the non-stick pans to stainless steel. If it helps, I also have a natural gas stove-top.

I began cooking bacon and did not add any oil to the pan as I figured the bacon grease would be enough to prevent any sticking. Knowing sticking is a problem with stainless, I started out with a lower temperature. But as the bacon started to cook, more and more 'residue' built up on the bottom of the pan. I tried to frequently move the bacon around, but between that and the low temperature, it was taking forever to cook.

I should also add that as the bacon was close to being finished cooking, there was a good amount of grease in the pan, so I threw in some thinly sliced potatoes, onion, and pierogies. Have done this before in the non-stick without any issues. What ended up happening in the stainless was that the residue began to build up more and more, and it was tough to get the food to cook. I managed to get the food to turn out pretty good, but I was left with a thick layer of stuck on food. It was at the point where the food was cooked just enough to my liking, but if it needed more cooking the residue would have burnt and probably ruined the food.

So, I know throwing all that other stuff in the pan didn't do me any favours, but even still if I had just cooked bacon there would have been stuck on food. What could I have done to avoid that?


texts: How to keep drop dumplings from soaking up all the liquid while holding to be served

texts: My wife and I have been doing a little catering and want to make our chicken and dumplings but we are not for sure how to keep the dumplings from soaking up all the broth. We use Bisquick to make our dumplings and just drop them in to the chicken broth pot for them to cook. Making and serving them at home is alright as we can add more water of chicken broth to thin them out but I'm not for sure that would work in catering and holding temp before being served.. Is there a different type of dumpling we should look at? Thanks for any help you can give.


texts: how do I replace a heating element in the oven

texts: My heating element in the bottom of my oven went out. I replaced it with a new one and it doesn't get hot. Now what?


texts:
This question is inspired by this week's cooking of a 3kg (estimate - it was plenty huge and took 6 people to eat) courgette / zucchini. The 'quote' is a digression about what happened - skip it if you will).

  I had created two 'boats' to stuff:
  the 'hull' was about 2 cm thick.

  My guesstimate at how long it should
  cook was 30 minutes at 160C, and then
  check.

  In the end I used about 20 minutes at
  160, 10 minutes at 180, and 10 minutes
  at oven full blast (~260). You can
  probably tell it wasn't cooking fast enough and I just wanted to pump in heat at some point.

  I started with visual inspection to
  see whether it was cooking well: at
  some point I decided to stick my
  digital probe in the 'hull'. The
  temperature was 82C when I pulled it
  out of the oven: this produced a good
  result.

My question: can you determine how well a vegetable is cooked (in the oven) through this type of probe use, and what temperature should a vegetable reach (a table would be ideal, but any answer's welcome).


texts: Does it take more energy to maintain a higher cooking temperature?

texts: This is just the curious cat in me. When heating water on a stove top in a covered pot, once the desired temperature is reached, does it take more energy to maintain the temp if it is higher (say 200F) vs if it is lower (say 150F)?


texts: Should I pre-cook sausages before scrambling into eggs?

texts:
I have some fresh longaniza, maybe about 1 1/4" thick. Normally I'd throw them in the oven for 30-40 minutes or so then fry them real quick for texture.

I want to skin them, mash them, then mix them in with scrambled eggs or omelettes.

In terms of safety, should I still bake them before preparing them? Or mash them up raw and fry them for a while before adding the eggs? Or can I just throw the raw meat and eggs in the pan all at once?

They'll start cold, going from the fridge (~38F) to the oven/pan.


texts: Ought I refrigerate an Inner Pot with stew inside?

texts:
If I can't finish stew in the inner pot beneath, can I place the pot (with the lid on)  into the refrigerator. After 2 hours in the thermal cooker, it usually will have cooled enough. Being lazy, I'm aiming to shirk transferring the stew to a container (e.g. Glasstock). Can this refrigeration damage the pot, or spoil the stew?

Another picture:


texts: Why do crisp bread rolls have more water than soft bread rolls?

texts: I was wondering why my recipe for crisp bread rolls needed more water than soft bread rolls.


texts: Scoby for kombucha usually needs to be fed every 10-14 days. I’m going away for a month and can’t take it with me. I need to devise a super simple way my family can take care of it till I get back. What’s the best way to do this? I would assume that feed it right before I leave and put it in the fridge but it is exposed to air and until the PH goes up (due to it being cold and slowed down) I’m concerned it will go moldy.


texts: Can I further ferment store-bought kim-chi?

texts:
I find that store bought kim-chi is not very fermented. Real kim-chi, as I understand it, is pickled and then buried in the ground for a year.

Can I just bury store bought kim-chi in my back yard for a year to improve it, or will that not work? (Note that I live in a place with a climate similar to Korea)


texts:
My dad and I bought some pollen at a fair about five years ago, and other than taking a little handful out and munching it every so often, we've never really used it.

How can I use pollen?


texts: Is using a frying pan to boil water for pasta a good or a bad idea?

texts: I just found out how my girlfriend makes pasta: She uses a (non-stick) frying pan to boil the water. I told her she should use a cooking pan. When she asked why I did not have a response. After some internet searching I still have no plausible arguments, it just seems absurd.


texts: When I doubled my last batch of peanutbutter cookie dough I only added one egg instead of two. Now it is crumbly and won't form a ball. Can I add another egg now? Or is adding some water better?


texts: Presentation - How to make a Tiramisu to be photogenic?

texts: Sorry if this is the wrong forum. I can make a nice Tiramisu but the photo does not look good. I make Tiramisu, get a slice of it and photograph it. Challenge is that we have zero control over how the sides are going to look. It looks messy


texts: What kinds of coffee beans are more successful at producing crema on espresso?

texts: This question mentions one factor in crema production to be the choice of beans.  I have tried many types (brands), all approximately equal in darkness of roast, and had some wildly different results.  Why would this be?  I'm sure the beans may be grown in different areas, but are all (probably) arabica beans.  There even seem to be a lot of variance with different product lines in the same brand.  Can someone explain why, or what I can look for in the future?


texts: Why do apples bleed after soaking in boiling water for 10 seconds and what substance is it?

texts:
I was trying to remove the wax. I don't really know what kind of wax is used. It is not listed as an ingredient. That's a mystery for another day. Nor do I know if it is harmful to eat but I thought I would remove it and enjoy an apple. I read a 10 second soak in boiling water and then I scrubbed with baking soda.
The apple skin felt dull and slightly able to be shifted so I assume all the wax was gone. I put the apple aside for an hour or so and it was bleeding a tear shapped sticky substance that I rinsed off with hot water. I sat the apple down and a few hours latter the same thing, Bleeding a sticky substance. I washed it off again and finally ate the apple. Does anyone know what the substance might be and why is it bleeding out?
A word of warning, You will need a heavy duty scrub pad for your pot if you boil apples in it. After the pot dried there was a sticky substance which I asssume is some unknown type of wax that covers the sides of the pot. I was able to get most of it off but not all of itf. The pot is stainless steel with copper bottom.


texts:
I have many apples, but the insides are already brown. The outside is slightly soft, perhaps bruised. The inside appearance is the same as if you cut an apple and let it sit out for 1 hour, but this is the appearance immediately after cutting.

Can these still be used for apple sauce or apple pie or some other dish, with good results?


texts: Are there different grades or styles of bacon?

texts:
In commercials and when I go to restaurants (even fast food!) the bacon that I get is a reddish brown color and seems to be mostly meat, or at least meat textured.  However, when I buy bacon at the grocery store, it's inevitably almost all fat.  It curls badly when cooked, creates a ton of grease, and never looks anything like what "professional" bacon does.

I've tried thin sliced, thick sliced, apple wood smoked, etc. , etc. and I always seem to have the same problem.  I try to look through the packages and I can never find anything that has mostly meat (lots of white fat).  Even when I find a pack that looks good, it seems like the few slices I can see are meaty, but the rest are again mostly fatty.

So, what is the secret?  Where do restaurants get their perfect bacon?  Do I need to ask the grocery meet department for a secret stash of pro bacon?  Do I need to go out of my way to a special shop?  Is there a name for what I'm looking for other than "bacon"?

I'm in the US, Texas.  I know other countries have different ideas of what "bacon" is (right?).


texts: how to get powerful flavours when spherifying

texts:
Whenever I try to create something delicious using spherification I find that whatever has gone in comes out quite bland (I've tried using fruit juices (non-citric), liquers, soups).

When I taste the food before it goes into the salts, it usually packs quite a punch; so, it's quite disappointing when it comes out and has the lovely texture of caviar but no flavour!

Any suggestions / ideas gratefully received!


texts: Just about every recipe advises to preheat the oven before using it. I often forget this, but luckily this doesn't seem to matter all that much. Hence my question: why would it be necessary to preheat the oven?