Seltzer and carbonated water are the same thing. Club soda is slightly different. "Seltzer" comes from German:

  The term seltzer water is a genericized trademark that derives from
  the German town Selters, which is renowned for its mineral springs.
  Naturally carbonated water has been commercially bottled and shipped
  from this town since the 18th century or earlier. Generally, seltzer
  water has no added sodium salts, while club soda still retains the
  sodium salts.

So, the primary difference is that seltzer has no added ingredients, but club soda does:

  Sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, sodium phosphate and sodium
  citrate are added to club soda…

Here's a decent review of the ingredients list and taste of various types of fizzy water.

So to answer your question directly, you can make seltzer just by carbonating regular tap water, and you can make club soda by adding potassium bicarbonate, potassium sulfate, or baking soda to water and carbonating it.


What is the name for a dish similar to chili but with no chili peppers or related spices and some very non-chili ingredients?

I would call that a stew or a soup depending on how "brothy" it is.


Is it a good idea to use cardamom in chili?

Cincinnati Chili often has cardamom, along with cinnamon and cocoa. Cardamom is used in savory and sweet foods all over the world, not just in India.

If you have reason to want to try this particular recipe, then try the recipe as written. There are thousands of beloved recipes for all kinds of chili. There is no reason to say, "That one looks good, I'll do it just like that but omit a certain ingredient 'cause it makes me nervous."

Your friend's advice is a bit odd to me because Garam Masala usually contains cardamom (sometimes black, green and brown)

My advice is to either try the recipe as written, or find another with which you're more comfortable.

Or come up with your own. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to chili.

BTW, I love cardamom in savory. I make a Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup (Pho) that I crave if I haven't had it for a while. It wouldn't be right without cardamom.


How long does it take for potato dough to become thinner?

If your potatoes are prepared correctly before adding the other ingredients, then excess water should not be a problem.  After boiling your potatoes until tender and draining them, I recommend placing them on a sheet pan and drying them in a 300° F oven for 5 minutes or so before passing them through your food mill or potato ricer.

With properly prepared potatoes there should never be a problem with thinning.  In fact, prepared gnocchi can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated until ready to boil without fear of disintegration.  With most fresh pastas and dumplings, time delays in preparation usually pose the greater threat of allowing the dough to dry out.

The secret to delicate gnocchi is to use just enough flour for the dough to come together and to knead that dough only briefly.  More flour and more kneading generates more gluten and that means tougher gnocchi.


Yes, kneading develops gluten. Specifically, the gliadin and glutenin proteins in flour form gluten when mixed together with water. It's common, but inaccurate (and confusing I think) to refer to gliadin and glutenin as gluten.

For more about the chemistry of how gluten develops see the paragraph on 'bread products' in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten.


Should steaming water be used for stock/gravy?

It shouldn't matter if you re-use the water you used for steaming or use fresh water. I would only use it in a few situations:

You want to season the gravy with whatever flavors ended up in the water
You want some of the starch in the water to help thicken the gravy
You want to be frugal and reuse the water and not pour it down the sink

The benefits of one and two are mostly negligible because the amount of flavor or starch isn't going to be that much.

Situation three is really the only reason I would reuse the water, but most of the time cooking water ends up watering the plants.


Is using treated wood safe for smoking meat?

Good lord no. You have no idea how the drumsticks were treated or with what chemicals (cyanide derivatives are often used in pressure-treated woods, for example).

No. No no no no no.


Why is my pastry cream (custard) grainy?

I think it all got too hot, but there might be other problems.

Did you mix the cornstarch in completely? Leaving undissolved cornstarch is a sure way to obtain 'blobs'.
Did you pour the hot milk onto the egg-mixture? You should do that very slowly and whisk vigorously (while trying to splash everything). If the eggs get too hot, they will coagulate.
Did you use a double boiler? Putting the pan on an open flame will make the bottom too hot and the eggs will coagulate.
Even if you did use a double boiler, did you whisk regularly while heating? The eggs at the bottom will become far warmer than the eggs in the center...

As rumtscho mentioned, a thermometer will be useful for monitoring the done-ness of the custard.

  Generally, a fully cooked custard should not exceed 80 °C; it begins setting at 70 °C.

Source: Wikipedia


Completely untried idea about efficient testing: You might be able to evenly divide a batch after churning, and stir a different, carefully measured amount of guar gum into each. (I'm not sure if you'd need to pre-dissolve it in a bit of cream). Then you could freeze them all at once, and test for texture. Hopefully your favorite ratio of guar gum will be less than or equal to the average ratio of the batches, so that you can then let it all soften and mix it back together (possibly with additional guar gum), and refreeze. If you're careful to not let it soften too much, you shouldn't have to rechurn it.


Can crockpot chicken be made with wet ranch dressing, instead of dry?

It will likely work, but the flavors will be muted.  At a minimum, I would leave out the milk in the recipe.  You might be better off using other dried herbs and spices, even if they aren't specifically 'ranch'.  The recipe in question links to a recipe for making ranch dressing mix, which is black pepper, dill, garlic, onion, parsley and salt.

The advantage of dry mixes is that they have a lot of flavor, without any liquid to water things down.

As the recipe stands, the liquid would be from the milk, condensed soup and the liquid that the chicken exudes as it cooks.  To get the same amount of ranch flavor in the dish as you'd have gotten from the dry mix, you'd have to use as much as the dry packet would make ... which is typically a couple of cups of dressing ... and that can be a lot of liquid to add to a dish.

In addition, the extra dairy will mute the flavors some, and it'll be a bit more soupy -- you'd likely want to serve it over pasta or rice to help absorb some of the sauce.


Why does the breading always come off of my oven fried chicken?

The longer you let the flour/breadcrumb mixture set on the chicken before cooking, the more the gluten network will set up, which will improve adherence to the meat, as well as make the breading stay intact as a shell. The issue is that when you cook the meat, the breading and meat expand at different rates and are pulled apart. A longer set time will make the breading hold up better. Also make sure you're baking on silicone mats or parchment paper. Any amount of sticking to the pan will make the coating peel off - non-stick pans are great, but nothing is non-stick like parchment paper is, for baking.

I'd recommend trying to bread the chicken then let it sit in the fridge overnight so the gluten network can set up more. If your breadcrumbs get soggy try doing the egg wash and bread crumbs as the very last step - apply the buttermilk, flour, let it sit, then add the egg wash and bread crumbs just before baking.


American recipe using 'a can of tomato sauce'

I pulled out some cans of tomato sauce to answer your questions. The details are listed below, but it looks like they are generally diluted tomato paste with spices. If you can get tomato paste (canned or in a tube), that should get you the consistency that you want.

The ingredients as listed on the Hunt's brand are:

  Tomato puree (water, tomato paste),
  water, less than 2% of: salt, citric
  acid, spice, tomato fiber, natural
  flavor

Shop Rite brand (a supermarket house brand) contains:

  Tomato concentrate (water, tomato
  paste), onion powder, garlic powder,
  citric acid, natural flavorings,
  dehydrated bell pepper

And a can of Rokeach brand (a kosher food processor) tomato sauce with mushrooms contains:

  Tomato puree (tomato paste & water),
  mushroom, modified potato starch,
  peppers, cottonseed oil, sugar, onion,
  apple cider viengar, garlic, celery,
  white pepper, bay leaves and citric
  acid.


How do I choose frozen fish so that it doesn't release so much water?

As far as I am aware, you cannot recognize this in advance.

What you describe is due to very damaged cell structure in the fish. The "water" are the fluids contained in and around the fish cells, which make the filets juicy. They flow out when the cell walls in the fish rupture.

The reason for rupturing is that the fluids are water-based, and water expands in the 0 to -4 Celsius range. When meat or fish is flash-frozen, it goes very quickly to under -4, and in the small time it spends in the problem range, the cell walls withstand the pressure from the expanding ice crystals. When it is frozen in a "slow" process, the cell walls rupture. Or, if it was flash-frozen, but sometime during storage it spend long periods above -4, it will also have this problem.

There is no way for you to recognize whether a piece of frozen fish or meat in the supermarket was flash-frozen or not. So sorry, but you have to rely on luck, and maybe try to find if there is a correlation between certain brands and quality by buying them repeatedly.


Can I thaw frozen spinach that´s meant to be boiled frozen?

In my experience frozen spinach will never be close to fresh, so I guess it depends on what sort of consistency you are hoping to get. In any case boiling from frozen sounds like the world's worst way to prepare it! There is no reason you can't thaw it before you cook it, but I wouldn't boil it in any case. I'd that it and drain it well, maybe even squeezing excess water out of it before pan frying it. Season it well with salt and pepper, a bit of butter never hurts.


What type of yogurt is most similar to the yogurt used in authentic Middle-Eastern cuisine?

Greek yogurt is simply strained yogurt. It was only fairly recently that Greek yogurt was widely available in the United States, so prior to wide availability, a simple substitute was to strain normal yogurt.

The type of sauce you are trying to make would definitely use a strained yogurt. Whether you wanted to strain your own or buy strained yogurt (aka Greek yogurt) is really up to you. In Greece, sheep's milk was traditionally used for yogurt, but now there's a lot more cow's milk too, so either would be authentic. I would think that full fat would be the most authentic, but not the healthiest, as I doubt low fat varieties were used traditionally (if they even existed).

The American use of the term Greek yogurt is really just one of branding. Many other areas in the middle east use the same style of strained yogurt. The Greeks also have plenty of normal (unstrained) yogurt.


Is poaching a foie gras torchon really necessary?

Poaching a foie gras torchon is not necessary. Essentially, the liver is a cured charcuterie before the poaching step would occur. From this  Serious Eats  method of preparation:

To Cook or Not To Cook?
At this stage, the most classical of recipes will have you poach your torchon in a bath of sub-simmering hot water for about 20 minutes, long enough to bring the whole thing into the range of 130 to 140°F, effectively cooking it. More modern recipes, such as Thomas Keller's go for a much, much shorter cooking time—about 90 seconds. Tasted side by side, I've always preferred the shorter cooking time. The foie is denser, has a more buttery texture, and doesn't leak as much fat when you slice it or eat it.
I always wondered why this was until I came to what was a pretty obvious realization: Thomas Keller's 90-second poached torchon is essentially uncooked. I stuck a thermometer into a torchon during its simmer and measured the internal temperature. It started at around 40°F, and finished exactly where it started. Aside from the outer few millimeters, absolutely no cooking occurs in a 90-second poached foie. No wonder the texture is so significantly different—we're essentially eating raw cured liver here!
There is, however, a good reason to poach the foie, even if it's only for a brief period: The exterior layers soften enough that you can wrap the cheesecloth even tighter, giving you a better looking finished product. That Thomas Keller poach is really all about appearances!

For those not familiar, this article from  D'Artagnan  explains the differences in foie gras terrine and foie gras torchon. (No endorsement intended, just good info.)


Process of water-bath food to pressure cooker?

Ok. I've canned for 30 years. If the beets are pickled they are fine as long as they "popped". The vinegar acidity makes it fine for water bath. I've canned carrots using a pressure canner to "recommended" times. They were a disgusting mush. The only thing I pressure can now are meats and fish. Veggies I just sterilize the jars, cold pack the veggies, add boiling pickle juice or water, seal and then water bath process for 10 mins. When you open a jar it is pretty obvious if the food is spoiled. But this is not the "safe" way to can!  As of yet, I've not had a spoiled hat and no one has gotten sick. So just be aware that what I do is not recommended.


How do I properly substitute flour and water for sourdough starter?

Starters are typically maintained at 100% hydration.   That means equal parts water and flour.  So, in your case, mix equal parts water and flour.  Measure 1 cup of that, and add it to your mix.  Of course, this will mean that all of your starter is gone.  Alternately, feed your starter (equal parts water and flour) with more than you need, and let it sit on counter over night.  Then you you can save the left over to use again next time.


Is the 'stick' going to be standing up?
if so you could dip it in melted chocolate and then into a bowl of sprinkles before leaving it to dry


Best way to impart rum flavor in caramel candies?

Your best bet is to use rum extract, especially one designed for candy making, and to add it only after the sugar (or honey) syrup comes to temperature.

The extract is going to have a much stronger flavor than actual rum.  You will not need to dilute your syrup base to get a good flavor.

Adding it at the end minimizes the amount of volatile flavor lost to evaporation.


This author says to avoid overheating or boiling the green juice.  I suspect that your end product is actually clumps of chloroplasts not chlorophyll.  Overheating or boiling the chloroplasts could destroy their delicate membranes and allow the chlorophyll molecules to mix into the liquid.  It is not water soluble though, so you may be able to collect it using something like filter paper instead of a mesh strainer.

Boiling can also lead to conversion of chlorophyll to phaeophytin, a olive-green pigment.


Does black tea have the highest level of caffeine? If so, why?

Rate Tea tells us this is a myth:

  Many tea companies, and even some reputable entities such as the U.S.
  Department of Agriculture, have made misleading generalizations about
  the caffeine content of broad classes of tea. It is a widespread myth
  that black tea contains more caffeine than green tea, and another myth
  that white tea contains the least caffeine of all teas.

They indicate that brewing method is the main determiner of caffeine levels in the brewed tea.

The source article goes on to cite various credible scientific sources, which raise the credibility of this assertion.  Unfortunately, most of their links have gone bad, which makes it harder to check the background science.

This caffeine level table from Mayo Clinic does indicate slightly different levels, but that is likely to be a result of different brewing details across tea types rather than fundamental to the tea plant itself.


Sugar acts as a stabilizer in the heating process of eggs. It acts as a bit of "insurance" to keep the eggs from curdling under the moderate heat during the cooking process. It is a necessary component in making citrus curds.


Black tea develops cloudy dregs; how to avoid?

Those particles are bits of tea leaves (etc.) that came out of the tea bags. They're fine enough particles to get through the bags. Basically, tea dust.

You don't notice them at first because they're suspended in the tea. So you could just stir it up before pouring off each cup. Alternatively, disturb the pitcher as minimally as possible, and pour off the tea. Leave the settled tea dust at the bottom.

Rinsing the tea bags in cold water before steeping might help. (Make sure to use cold water so you don't remove much flavor.)

Other than that, a fine enough filter will remove them. You could try coffee filters, they're cheap enough. Or a nut milk bag. Or a superbag. (Coffee filter is probably the finest filter of those, though by far not the sturdiest).

PS: You might be covering up the oversteeped tea flavor with enough sugar...


How to shell a coconut without breaking the seed?

Freeze it and then break the shell careful with a hammer...


How to raise the setting and melting point of gelatin

I have tried a variety of additives to gelatin in a range of blends and unfortunately, nothing seems to significantly increase the melting point. The additives I have tried include: agar, glycerin, corn starch, pectin, sugar, and corn syrup.


How can I cook with worcestershire sauce in a pan without leaving an impossible to remove char on the pan?

Worcestershire sauce is fairly sweet, it's the sugar that's blackening. There's nothing you can do about it - if you add it to your pan it's going to char.

The solution is not to put it in the pan, but put it on afterwards or mix it in with the meat before making patties. You'll get a better result that way as well, you're destroying the flavor of the worcestershire sauce by charring it in the pan like that.


Does this tinned food need to be cooked?

All tinned foods which are not dry (like flour or coffee grounds) have been sufficiently cooked and are safe to eat directly after opening. Once opened, leftover contents should be treated like any perishable food. Of course, some canned foods should be heated before serving, but that's a culinary consideration rather than a safety concern.


Most efficient technique to prepare milk and butter for proofed yeast?

I would put the milk in a glass, and then put that glass in a large pot filled with warm water, this should help get the milk up to temp quickly with out haveing to worry about going over.  When ever I use yeast i always shoot for around 100 F. Since body temp is 98.6, just stick your finger (clean finger) in the liquid and if it feels slightly warm you should be good to go.


Why do some say my fried chicken tastes like peanut butter?

I like to eat some Asian food for the sole reason it's made with peanut oil. So it's taste like peanut butter but have different texture.
In the case of BK I would say that it's more of a metaphor because people from USA love their peanut butter and it's taste.

Anyway. If you make your chicken without peanut oil or spices that resemble in taste peanut butter maybe it's the chicken itself?
I've bought a few times chickens that was feed with fish flour. And guess what - they tasted like fish (not the best thing in the world). Chickens feed with corn have yellowish color and have a cornflakes taste.
So maybe chickens that have been feed with something peanuty?


How best to cook frozen (homemade, not store-bought) blintzes?

Thaw them longer and be sure they are thawed to the core before cooking; if you made them properly they will not break apart or unfold.

I wouldn't recommend warming them in the oven because most oven's lowest temp still cooks slightly and deteriorates the dish.

Once thawed FULLY cook as if it was freshly made (it, of course, will clearly have a minor difference in taste because you froze it and the best course of action would be to make less but if you have excess there's not much you can do besides add fresh ingredients regularly to refresh the old.)


Is is safe to use a stainless steel pan that has been cleaned with bleach (Comet)?

Can you smell bleach?
If yes, rinse it & use it.
If not, just use it.
Is it stained?
If not, just use it.
If yes, you can remove the staining with bicarbonate paste made with water or Barkeeper's Friend.

Once any staining is gone, the natural coating [chromium oxide passive layer] will reform.
Just cook with it as normal.


To clarify a little, there are several ways you can cook onions.

You could be trying to get them to turn translucent. In which case, you can cook over medium heat, stirring frequently. This will take somewhere around 5 minutes. Preheating the pan isn't really required (especially if using a non-stick pan). If they start to brown, turn down the heat.
You could be trying to get them to turn translucent, with brown edges. Proceed as with translucent, but make sure to preheat the pan, and also use medium-high heat (but if they get too brown, turn down the heat).
You could be trying to caramelize them, turning them brown throughout. Cook them on low heat. At first, you can stir infrequently, but as they turn translucent and begin to brown, you'll have to speed up your stirring. This takes 30+ minutes.

So, if you were actually caramelizing onions, your heat was much too high.

In general, when something is browning too much (or outright burning) before the center is cooked, you need to turn down the heat or if only the pan-contact parts are browning then stir more frequently. To some extent when cooking in a pan, there is a trade-off you can make: low heat, infrequent stirring, long cooking time vs. high heat, constant stirring, quick cooking.


What are the benefits of "fuzzy logic" in a rice cooker?

I just purchased a Zojirushi rice cooker a couple of months ago and can’t imagine cooking rice without it now.

Fuzzy logic in comparison to binary logic is a varying degree of a state.  In binary logic an item is either true or false (on or off) but in fuzzy logic it can be in between, partially on or partially off.  Instead of hard “done” state the fuzzy logic states may be “somewhat” or “nearly” done.  This while cooking it could take on the meaning of” too hot”, “about right” or “not much change”. Where this comes into play in a rice cooker is when the sensor monitoring the water content reaches the critical point an ordinary cooker will just turn off the heater however, a fuzzy logic cooker will use an equation (usually derived from experimentation) to vary the temperature and optimize the amount water being absorbed and evaporated.  Typically a fuzzy logic system will have multiple “critical” points and will vary the temperature during ramp up and down as well as during the cooking. Generally, different types of rice will absorb different amounts of water at different rates.  The fuzzy logic circuitry will monitor the changes and adjust itself to accommodate the predetermined profile.

I guess you could say the benefit of a fuzzy logic cooker is that someone took the time to learn the complexities of the cooking process and characteristics of the rice then adapted the preparation process to match the “ideal” conditions for the perfect rice.


Those are Shanghai Rice Cakes - Nian Gao  If you google, you'll find a bunch of recipes for what I think of as the "standard" rice cake dish, with shredded pork and cabbage.  In most of them, the soaked/softened rice cakes are added at the end, after all the other ingredients, so they only get lightly fried.


Does cooking in a pressure cooker destroy nutrients?

According to Eating Well who consulted a food scientist, yes, some heat sensitive nutrients are lost, but no more so than other forms of cooking:

  Pressure cooking can reduce heat-sensitive nutrients (e.g., vitamin C,
  folate) and bioactive phytonutrients, such as betacarotene,
  glucosinolates (helpful compounds found in cruciferous vegetables) and
  omega-3 fatty acids, that are beneficial for human health. But so do
  other cooking methods—and generally to more or less the same extent.

but in other cases, as in grains and legumes, the pressure-cooking is helpful:

  in the case of grains and legumes, although the vitamins and
  heat-sensitive vitamins and phytonutrients are vulnerable to
  deterioration, the net result of pressure-cooking is a positive
  nutritional gain—from the increased digestibility of the
  macronutrients (protein, fiber and starch) and the increased
  bioavailability of the essential minerals.


How to bake cake and pastries without oven?

When I was young in Asia, my mom would bake a cake on a coal stove in a cast iron pot. Hot coals were then added on top of the lid as a secondary heat source.


Cake yeast rolls recipe missing part of flour measurement

The only practical options are 1/4, 1/2, or 1/3.  I would start with 3 and 1/4 cup flour.  If it feels to sticky, add 1/4 cup more flour.


Are the NAAN flatbread {from simply chef} ok to eat without warmed up in the microwave or oven?

Yes, they are safe.

The reason why warming up is recommended is simply taste and texture:
When cool, they are more rigid, dry and crumbly, warmed up they become soft and more pleasant to eat. So if you are just hungry, start nibbling.

Regarding the food safety aspects:
Warming up will in no case make unsafe food safe, see our generic post (about meat) why even boiling won't do that. Bread is not a food that is prone to super-fast spoiling and can be safely stored at room temperature. Apart from that, those pre-packaged breads contain preservatives (see your ingredient list) and are typically sealed to prolong shelf life.


That seems normal.

All the "raw" means is that it was extracted from the honeycomb without significant heating. It's liquid to start with in the honeycomb, so it's normal for it to still be liquid when you get it. I don't know if I'd call it runny, it should still generally be a pretty thick, slow-flowing liquid, but it's not a paste.

The color is mostly just a function of what the bees were gathering. Dark is often more flavorful, probably a good thing, but depends on your tastes. Mass-produced honey is very often lighter, and wildflower honey (where the bees just get whatever they want) is very often darker.

I've definitely seen plenty of raw, unfiltered honey that looks liquid and roughly the darkness of the raw honey you bought, judging by the picture in the linked page. If anything, it's probably more common to find dark unfiltered honey, because the filtering can lighten it up a bit.

The "paste" you linked to looks like it's crystallized/creamed. There are a lot of tiny sugar crystals, making it thicker and opaque, which tends to make it look a bit lighter too. (It's not completely smooth, like "perfect" creamed honey, but it's a lot smoother than uncontrolled crystallization, so I think it's fair to call it creamed.) Raw, unfiltered honey does crystallize more easily, because it has more imperfections in it to jump-start crystallization, so it's not entirely surprising to see raw honey in that form. But raw honey certainly doesn't have to be that way.


The cream whipper relies on gas expansion to work.

When you make whipped cream by beating, you beat fine air bubbles into the cream. The cream traps air and becomes essentially a matrix that holds those bubbles--a foam.

Your gas-charged whipper does the same thing in a totally different way.

When you charge the whipper with gas, there's high gas pressure inside with the cream. The cream will actually absorb the nitrous oxide you put in. Because of the pressure, the gas absorbed can be thought of as really really really small bubbles within the cream. So you have a matrix of gas and cream, but because the bubbles are so small, it's essentially just cream.

Chilled liquids more easily absorb gases at high pressure, which is why it's good to use cold cream and keep the whole unit in the fridge. A limited amount of agitation (shaking) exposes more cream to the gas, improving absorption.

When you release the cream from the device, the absorbed gas expands rapidly. The bubbles get bigger, and your cream to bubble ratio becomes more like the foam that we know as whipped cream. It's really exactly the same thing, only with nitrous oxide instead of plain ol' boring air inside the bubbles.

Why nitrous oxide? As I understand it, it's because it's the cheapest non-toxic, odorless and tasteless gas you can get. Carbon dioxide would almost be a good choice, but unfortunately it's bitter. Not a good match for cream.

Finally, why is shaking too much a bad thing? That one I don't know for sure, but I know what happens when you over-whip cream with the mixer. You make butter. Perhaps the gas or high pressure encourages this conversion, or maybe you're just churning it that much when you over-shake. Either way, I'm sure you've essentially made butter when you shook it too much.


Is cooking with fruit liqueur comparable to cooking with fruit juice?

Sorry rumtscho that is incorrect. Alcohol will completely evaporate, what does stay "forever" is the flavor the spirit will impart but chemically ethyl is evaporative, to test my posit try wiping some rubbing or high proof vodka on a glass surface and you can actually watch it evaporate. The "How" depends on the recipe in e.g., deserts usually @ the end or in a finishing sauce. You could also make a chutney or in a marinade.

Cheers!

EDG


According to David Lebovitz:

  Because natural cocoa powder hasn’t had its acidity tempered, it’s generally paired with baking soda (which is alkali) in recipes. Dutch-process cocoa is frequently used in recipes with baking powder, as it doesn’t react to baking soda like natural cocoa does.

So, if you're using non-Dutched (natural) cocoa, you can use baking soda for leavening, but you don't have to. As I mentioned in comments the vast majority of recipes for chocolate biscotti in fact call for baking powder. I suspect that part of the reason for that is that many people don't know the difference between Dutched and non-Dutched cocoas, and in some places outside the US, Dutch-processed is the norm. There is no harm in using additional acid (like natural cocoa) with baking powder. The effect of additional acid is not enough that you're likely to even notice it.

Also note that if you use baking soda for leavening, you have to bake right away. Baking soda, like single-action baking powder, causes the release of carbon dioxide only when it is first mixed with the liquid (and acid, in the case of soda) in the recipe. It doesn't react to the heat of the oven. So, its leavening action is short lived.

Baking powder is roughly one-third baking soda, so if you do choose to substitute baking soda for baking powder in a recipe that contains plenty of acid, you want to use about a third of the amount of soda as the recipe called for baking powder.

EDIT: I just came across this answer: How can I identify dutch process cocoa? by hobodave. That excellent answer has more information that you might find helpful. Of note as it relates to your question is this paragraph:

  There is a bit of misinformation that floats amongst bakers that the pH of the cocoa can affect the leavening of the baked good. Many recipes will actually sternly suggest using either Dutched or natural cocoa depending. This makes sense since leavening is a sort of balancing act that involves both acids and bases. However, it has been experimentally shown that this does not actually occur, and baked goods made with both Dutched and natural cocoa powder showed no differences in leavening.

So he concurs. While it is fine to substitute baking soda for baking powder when introducing natural cocoa, it is unnecessary. No modification of leavening agent is necessary.


Could I use a sous vide rack for cooking lasagna in boiling water?

There are no metals used in cooking that can go in hot water but not boiling water.
While metal racks for sous vide aren't meant to contact food directly they're still cooking equipment, and should still be made of food-safe materials (e.g. common culinary grades of stainless steel).
From a safety point of view I'd have no concerns at all.
Whether these racks would be much help is another matter.  The upper picture shows the lasagne sheets sitting on flat shelves.  I'd expect them to stick a bit; this is one time oil might help but you'd have to apply it to each layer of the rack.  The second picture only has a few slots available, so the sheets would be prone to sticking together.
A stainless toast rack (example from Amazon US, not a recommendation except it's about the right shape) would also work.  Do be sure to buy one that's stainless steel and not chrome plated; the plating tends to flake off at the welds before long
You can cook pasta slightly below boiling, especially when you're only par-cooking as in lasagne.  What I do if I need to precook lasagne is this case is: fill a jug (sized so the sheets sit on end) with boiling water; add the sheets one by one to make sure plenty of water gets between them; briefly microwave (perhaps 2x1 minute bursts).  Par-cooked like this they stick a little to each other but no problematically so.


Should I rinse the flax seeds after soaking them when making flax milk?

You should rinse them as if you were rinsing off rice. This allows you to remove the dust from storage and transport (may just be flax dust, may not...who knows?). Also, it allows you to do a final visual check and remove any big things (bits of stick, or staff) that may have made it through processing.

I don't have any sources to cite except personal experience working for Cargill in Uni. as well as making my own ground flax seed (can't rinse for a dry good but I did restrain it), soy milk and making these products as well as my work experience allowed me to see what can make it through filtration.


Is my thawed chicken still good 4 days later in the fridge?

It's impossible to answer this for sure, it depends on how fresh they were when they were frozen and other factors. If they were frozen quickly after you bought them and they were well within their sell by date they are probably still good.

The easiest way to tell is to smell them, your nose is the best detector you have. If they smell bad get rid of them. If they smell okay feel them, if they are super slimy it's not a good sign, although they still may be edible (wash them in cold water first). A bit of sliminess is perfectly normal.


Cooking meat directly above the flame of a gas stove

Stoves aren't grills. They're not meant to have food in contact with them. If you're doing something like warming a tortilla above it that's fine, but as soon as you mention things dripping into the flame that's a red flag, especially if it's fat. You really don't want to start a grease fire, especially one that's down in the burner.

A couple alternatives:

use an actual gas grill, outside
use the broiler in your oven, with a broiler pan (they have grates so the food is held above the pan)
use a very hot skillet or a tabletop/countertop electric grill; it's not the same but it's still good!


Would smoked chicken work well in paella?

I don't like the recipe much.

First of all, paella is a one pan dish, normally. That is, all ingredients are cooked in the same pan (paella) and in sequence. This means that all the flavors are stacked one on top of the other.

Second, if you are going to use saffron, the most expensive spice in the world, hold down on any other spices. In particular, most recipes I've seen, use paprika powder explicitly forbidding the use of 'de la Vera (smoked)' paprika powder.

Third, if you are going to use saffron, at least treat it with delicacy. Put a pinch of saffron in a cup of warm chicken broth before you start cooking. This way, the saffron will release it's color and flavor slowly. When you must add the broth, first add the saffron broth, then the rest.

Fourth, this recipe has way too much ingredients: Chicken, Chorizo, Lobster, Shrimp, Squid, Mussels, Clams in the protein department. Honey, Saffron, Garlic, Pepper and Parsley in the flavor department.

Fifth, Spanish paella (Arborio Bomba) rice has a thick grain that resists cooking that long.

Having said all that, and to answer your question. If you are using saffron, don't use the smoked chicken as you'll not be able to taste where your money went. If not, and if you insist on using this recipe, go ahead. Paella really accepts all you want to put into it (but do look for a simpler recipe).


Improving tomato sauce in beef liver recipe

A few finely diced mushrooms or olives can add a lot of extra flavour, Worcester Sauce is of course an option too for quickly adding flavour.

There are quite a few 'proper' recipes which recommend fried and blended celery but I've never found it to work that well, it can add body if thinly sliced but doesn't do much flavour wise.

Personally I'd add a good helping of coarse black pepper and some dried parsley. I've always found simply adding more garlic can add flavour too so you may want to experiment with that too.

If it's specifically more tomato flavour you want then really the only thing you can do is reduce it more.


Can you use just egg yolks when recipe asks for eggs?

It really does depend on the recipe. Egg yolks have some protein but a lot of fat which adds flavor and makes baked goods more tender and moist.  Whites are just protein which adds structure and has a drying effect.

If the particular recipe is depending on the eggs for the binding power of their protein you may not get enough by substituting just yolks. Remember that the volume of the yolks is less than whole eggs so you may see better success substituting two whole eggs with three yolks.

Some cakes will handle the reduced protein. White and yellow cakes will be ok. Pound cakes will also be fine and in fact some recipes call for only yolks. Expect your cake to be a little denser, softer, and tastier. Any kind of sponge or angel food cake won't work because they rely wholly on the protein from the whites.

Soft, rich breads will also benefit from the added fat. The breads will derive their structure from the gluten in their flour. Cinnamon rolls and rich doughnuts come to mind. A local doughnut shop is famous for the yellow color which comes from using fresh yolks.

Yolks can be used in many recipes that call for whole eggs. Look for recipes that will benefit from all the added fat. Anything custard-like, where the eggs are mixed with milk, will work very well- even better than with whole eggs in fact. Examples are custard, flan, puddings, french toast, etc. Given the season you might consider a custard-based ice cream.


What is a good substitute for Fish Sauce?

Try mixing hoisin or miso into low-sodium soy sauce.

From one of my favorite bloggers, Smitten Kitchen, "I often see low-sodium soy sauce suggested as an alternative but I’m not convinced it’s a fair swap. There’s something more caramelized and fermented in the fish sauce that you’d miss. If you feel like playing around, I might whisk some additional hoisin or even miso into that soy sauce for a more complex flavor."


Can I safely roast a chicken for 4 to 5 hours on a low heat?

Warning: Although I've cooked the following low-temperature chicken two or three times without a problem, I'm no longer convinced that it is safe (see this question). Nevertheless, it is advocated by a well-known and respected chef, so I won't delete this answer unless I'm able to establish to my own satisfaction that it is, in fact, unsafe.

According to this article, also backed up with data from the USDA, you can cook chicken as low as 140F (60C) as long as the internal temperature of the bird reaches and maintains that temperature for at least 35 minutes.

You may have to do a little calculation and experimentation to find a chicken weight and temperature that hits the five hour mark, but it seems that you can do it safely as long as you have,

an oven that can maintain a
temperature (I would invest in an
oven thermometer to be sure, most
oven dials are way out);
a good
digital probe. Probe the meat in
several places to make sure of the
temperature;

I would also leave the meat to rest a while so that cooking continues with the residual heat. I don't know how long you would need to feel safe, but I would probably wait 30 mins.

A tip taken from a Heston Blumenthal recipe is to brine the bird before hand. That way you will also kill a lot of bacteria from the skin.

Update:

Brining won't kill bacteria. The Blumenthal recipe involves dunking the chicken (see In Search of Perfection p.56) twice for thirty seconds in boiling water. I imagined, erroneously as it turns out, that this was a regular part of the brining process.


How can I boil an ostrich egg to ensure it is soft boiled?

You can't easily get a set white and a runny yolk, but 62.5°–63° (145℉) for 3.5 hours gets a cooked yolk that's still runny; the white will not be set, however.
You may be able to get a soft-boiled ostrich egg with two-phase cooking though.
The fundamental problem is that ostrich yolks coagulate at a lower temperature than ostrich whites. Thus if you just cook to a constant temperature inside, by the time the whites are set, the yolk will also be set.
Ostrich egg whites do not coagulate the same as hen egg whites, but the yolks seem relatively similar; thus you can follow hen egg guidelines for the yolk, but the white will be off.
I tried cook sous vide at 64° (~147℉) for 6 hours, and ended up with an egg with the yolk fully set, but a gelatinous white: almost the opposite of what we were looking for!

For another attempt, you can see Nicole Miizuka: The Ostrich Egg, who cooked it at 145℉ for 3 1/2 hours, and got a runny yolk (and runny white).
I found a paper discussing this: Gelling and color properties of ostrich (Struthio Camelus) egg white, and it found that at 65°, hen egg white rapidly coagulated completely, but ostrich eggs only coagulated to 70%.
Thus, if you'd like to have a soft-boiled ostrich egg, I believe you would need to cook it for a long time (3 or 4 hours?) at ~62.5° for the yolk to cook, and then raise the temperature to close to boiling, but only leave it for a brief time (10 minutes?), so the white sets, but the yolk stays liquid.


Is there a website on how to store specific foods?

The resource we generally use here on Seasoned Advice is stilltasty.com.

Feel free to edit this answer to include other resources.


Is there a use for bean juice - the cooking liquid of beans?

It can be used as an egg substitute in various baking applications; search with the keyword "aquafaba" to learn more about this.

Also, it is used as a thickener in some bean-based dishes (eg common in chana masala).

Also, it can be used as stock for some types of soups.

Since you describe the juice as brown, it seems that you are cooking dark coloured beans like black or kidney beans; the same usages apply but might be limited by the unwanted color.

The same usages apply to bean juice from canned beans.

Mind that bean juices do have the same (or even stronger) flatulence-inducing effects that beans have.


How long will live lobsters last in the fridge?

They should be fine until Monday.  Do just as he said...keep them in the fridge covered with damp newspaper.  Cook them tomorrow or Monday.

If you can't/don't for some reason have time to cook them then just stick them in the freezer alive.  They'll freeze and you can then cook them another time in the future.


Extra yolks means more fat which gives the cake ultra moistness! Add the amount of eggs called for in the recipe but add two extra egg yolks.It adds density, fat and most importantly, extra flavor to your mix. Only adding egg whites and not adding the yolks to the cake makes the cake fluffy and whiter!


What are the tradeoffs between spiral and C-shaped dough hooks?

The C, J or spade hook is a dismal excuse, having an older "professional" (as you say, in name only) 5-quart Kitchen-Aid mixer that came with one. Per comment above one evidently cannot just swap to the spiral hook on that era of mixer due to the bearings being different. The C hook works against the sides of the bowl, while the spiral works against the bottom, so it pushes up on the shaft.

Of course, I'm comparing against the way that a 30 quart real commercial unit works, with its spiral hook. I wanted a mixer for my kitchen that worked just the same, but smaller, and it's not...

So while you may find the faux-commercial spiral disappointing, you may not have plumbed the depths of the well of disappointment; unless you really want to go there, stick with the spiral, bad as it may be, it's probably better than the C.


Lemon juice and kale/green leaf lettuce salad produces a very horseradish-y taste and smell

Interesting question and even if I am just speculating, there is a probable chemical explanation to this.

If you are used to handling horseradish, you may have noticed that it must be cut or grated to produce the typical smell. What actually happens is that myrosinase and singrin from the broken cells react and produce allyl isothiocyanate, the compound causing the typical pungent smell of horseradish, wasabi and mustard. If left open in air, the grated horse radish looses its smell, since allyl isothiocyanate is rapidly oxidized (it reacts with the oxygen in the air) and form other compounds.

Now, kale contains both myrosinase and singrin as well, but not nearly as much as the horseradish root. Probably, the content is so low, that the produced allyl isothiocyanate is oxidized so fast, that the pungent smell is not noticed. If you however throw in some lemon juice, the contained ascorbic acid acts as a strong anti oxidant, preventing the reduction of the allyl isothiocyanate and potentially keeping a noticeable smell.

If I am right, sprinkling lemon juice over freshly cut broccoli should have about the same effect. I don't have any at hand, but it would be interesting to know if someone tries.


Can I use a china oven dish to make a sponge cake?

Yes, it is just fine to bake a cake in a pan like the one we talked about in comments. A pan of that type may stick a bit more than a metal pan, so you might find "cake release" to be of benefit.

It's unlikely that you will have any problems at all, but read Aaronut's answer here.


Glass drink dispenser for vinegar long term storage?

Don't use brass– I believe the vinegar cleans it by dissolving a thin layer from the outside. It looks like the 304 stainless steel tap should work fine.

If the rubber seal is the same material that canning (e.g. Weck) jars use, it'll probably be fine. Weck only warns against overheating vinegar solutions, which can cause the seals to become distorted— they don't recommend against using vinegar altogether. If you can find out what rubber, specifically is being used in the seal, you can check it out on this chart

I really don't think you'll have to worry about the glass wearing down. Really.

Your other option is to keep it in the plastic container and use a 5 litre bottle pump dispenser, which works with everything from cooking oil to mayonnaise to corrosive cleaning chemicals.


Seasoning steamed vegetables (in particular potatoes): advisable?

One thing we have found that helps in adding flavor during the steaming process is to slice garlic thinly, and line the bottom of the steamer basket with the garlic. Then afterwards, toss the garlic in with the potatoes and add salt/pepper/etc. (I'd probably add paprika, onion powder, and a pinch of cayenne.)

I would imagine orange or lemon peel might work the same as garlic when steamed, although you might get better results tossing the steamed veggies with some zest.

You can also toss the steamed potatoes with vinegar or lemon juice (whether or not it's combined with oil is up to you) along with the spices.

Another option would be to bake your potatoes rather than steam them. Just wash, poke, and bake at 350F for 1 hour. There's no more fat, but the flavor and texture are VERY different. Just make sure not to wrap them in foil, since you won't get the same results. (Wrapping potatoes in foil is essentially steaming them, and the crust won't get crisp.)


I've used dark beer with good results. It just depends on what flavor you desire.  I often use Lion stout, for example, which imparts a strong, intense flavor and color, which I quite like, but it would not be appropriate for all applications.  Also Sierra Nevada porter has happily found its way into my bread. Keep in mind that these beers may be too strongly flavored for your taste, in which case you can add some lighter beer to balance it out (lager or pilsner).

Personally I don't like to add pale ales to bread as I don't enjoy the way the hop flavor comes through, but this comes down to personal preference.

In general, the flavor of the beer will come through in the bread, but you won't notice all of the subtleties of flavor that you do when drinking, so I wouldn't put too expensive a beer in bread--the bread will turn out fine, but you're not going to appreciate the beer to its fullest.


How many times is it safe to reheat chicken?

Taken out of context, that doesn't make much sense, but I can think of several similar claims you might have heard - all of which are true and most can be found on the USDA fact sheet and the sites of most other agencies:

Perishable food should not be left in the "danger zone" (4.4° C - 60° C or 40° F to 140° F) (room temperature) for more than a total of 2 hours; 1 hour if the temperature is above 32° C / 90° F (mouth/gut temperature).
Freezing does not reset this countdown, it only stops it temporarily.  Thus, it is not a safe practice to thaw and refreeze food several times (especially if it's being brought above refrigerator temperatures).
Cooking does reset the countdown, but unless you are in a completely sterile environment (hint: you aren't), you still have to keep food out of the danger zone after cooking, which is why guidelines say to refrigerate within 2 hours.
Most people reheat their food to "warm" or even "hot" but not cooking temperature.  Unless you reheat to an internal temperature of 74° C / 165° F, then all that time in the danger zone after cooking is cumulative.  So if you do what most people do and reheat food to 40°-50° C, a nice comfortable eating temperature, then you'd better either (a) only reheat the portion you plan to eat, and/or (b) throw out any uneaten portion instead of putting it back in the fridge.

Really it's all about the cumulative amount of time, since being fully cooked, that the food has spent in the danger zone.  Theoretically, if you boiled the same piece of chicken every 12 hours and quick-froze it immediately afterward, it would stay safe indefinitely. It would also have no flavour or texture left, so I don't recommend it.

Since most people don't carefully measure the internal temperature of food when they reheat it, we have the "best practice" of only reheating perishable food once after it's been cooked, because otherwise it gets really hard to estimate how much time is left on that metaphorical clock.  And, obviously, don't leave it in the fridge for more than a few days, because it can still spoil in there, just slower.


I'm taking a stab here, but since you're accustomed to making mayonnaise in a food processor, you probably already have a habit for how you pour in the oil. Since a food processor moves so fast, it can emulsify quickly, so you can pour the oil in relatively quickly.

A mixer is much slower, like using a whisk, you need to pour the oil very slowly, so every drop becomes completely emulsified before more is added. So try it slower next time.

For this mayonnaise, try to fix it as if it's broken, as in this video

Put another egg yolk in a mixing bowl and slowly add your thin mayo while whisking (or mixing in your mixer). Then slowly add more oil until the consistency is right.

BTW: See how slowly she's pouring?


To add to @moscafj's answer:

There is a saying "There's no such thing as poison, there's only dose". If you take too much of anything, it can be hazardous to your health or wellbeing. Your body needs both calcium and magnesium to function properly, but taking too much can cause you issues as well.

Calcium chloride and magnesium chloride can cause burns if ingested as a solid,or if touched with wet hands while in the powder form, as well as "gastric distress, and vomiting". These mostly taste like ordinary table salt (sodium chloride), and calcium chloride is often used to replace the sodium in "low sodium" foods. These salts are hygroscopic and will absorb water from the air rapidly unless kept tightly sealed.

Magnesium sulfate is used to treat a range of health problems, including constipation, but too much can also result in hypocalcaemia (low blood calcium) and resulting depression of heart function. MgSO4 is also bitter and unpalatable, but that doesn't stop people drinking it.

The chemical forms of these various compounds don't matter at all unless you happen to be into chemistry and are working out something quantitative in terms of molecular amounts or Moles as they are known. If you see a term containing the word hydrate, this means water of crystallization, which is a chemistry term for the naturally occurring amount of water that is found in the crystalline form. The exact number of water molecules associated with each molecule of the chemical is indicated by the prefix, which might be mono (1), di (2), or a number of other prefixes and varies according to the chemical and which forms it can take. For cooking purposes the hydrate form is the same as anhydrous (without water), though the anhydrous is often more expensive and will usually absorb water from the air rapidly to form the hydrate.


How to store chicken breasts for cooking

Ok, so I'm not really sure what you're saying here... are you looking for a cool chicken breast or a hot one? I'll try to cover both.

First things first, completely twice-cooking chicken breast, (unless the second cooking method is braising or stewing) is a road which only leads to dryness. You can try to mitigate this dryness by just barely heating the chicken through on the second cook, but the best you're probably going to do is get 'less dry' rather than 'juicy.'

If you're looking for a cool poached chicken breast but just want that nice grilled flavor, you should give it a hard sear on the grill without cooking it through immediately before you poach it, and then use the smallest amount of liquid that you can to avoid diluting the grilled flavor too much. This method ensures that you only completely cook it through once.

If you're looking for a hot chicken breast, the approach is different. Burger places that make grilled chicken sandwiches either a) grill them to order, b) grill them and then hold them at about 140 degrees until they're ordered, or c) par cook them and finish them to order. Some lower quality places might grab the cooked chicken they have as a salad condiment to put on a pizza or into a saute or
 on the griddle for a hot chicken sandwich— those are the kind of places that don't care if they serve you dry chicken.

Larger pieces— like spatchcocked grilled smaller chickens or half-roasted chickens— are often par cooked, which means they're partially cooked and finished to order. Any place I've seen that par cooks chicken well does so within an hour or two of when they expect to sell them and doesn't refrigerate them before cooking. The birds that are par cooked and not ordered generally get finished before they're supposed to be thrown away (2hrs according to the FDA food code) and repurposed (perhaps as chicken salad for the next day's lunch, chicken soup, or chicken pot pies.) Par cooking, cooling, and finishing is probably only marginally better than twice-cooking for the meat towards the outside.

Edit: Saw your comment above. I really do think your best bet for cooking chicken sandwiches on the grill is just doing it to order. If you need to do it fast, pound them out or butterfly them first, then grill them. If that's just not doable for you, I recommend trying sous-vide cooking the chicken, which can be MUCH gentler than poaching. You can pasteurize the breasts at a low enough temperature that you don't tighten up the muscle fiber much, cool them extremely rapidly for safety, and then keep them refrigerated for a few days until you're ready to use them.


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

I know I'm going to get panned for this… ;)
Eating something left out overnight can only kill you once; every other time it doesn't.
If bacteria were growing in it they've had sufficient time to build to harmful levels. This is not a 'good thing'.
However, people have been eating last night's leftovers for today's lunch since time immemorial & most of them lived to tell the tale.
Food safety authorities write guidelines for restaurants & commercial kitchens, reducing the potential risk as far as is possible. Restaurants must follow these guidelines because not doing so can kill people.
If it goes awry in a restaurant it can kill many people.
Killing people is not good for business.
These authorities say that keeping food at higher than 4°C & under 60°C for more than two hours [cumulative] is no longer guaranteed to be safe.
This is true.
If it's your own leftovers, it's your call.
Most people do it, most people survive. Some don't.
It's a numbers game. The only one at risk is you.
Right - time to microwave last night's curry leftovers…


What are "goes well with" recommendations based on?

This question is very broad, but yes there are some general principles.

Foods that grow together (geography) or ripen at the same time are often considered to go especially well together. Tomatoes, for example, are more often paired with basil or oregano than they are with other herbs. Pork and apples, for example, are not ready until the fall and grow in the same parts of Europe.
Some meats are richer and fattier than others and are often served with an astringent red wine or an acidic (lemon, wine, vinegar, ...) sauce for contrast. This doesn't just make the food taste better, it's often more important the effect on how the wine tastes after eating different foods.
Some proteins (such as fish) are softer and less chewy or crunchy than others, so they're often served with a crunchy starch - French fries instead of mashed potatoes, for example - or vegetable (coleslaw made with raw cabbage) for texture contrast. Others are chewy so they're served with mashed potatoes, again for a texture contrast.
Some fish is light and delicate while other fish is stronger and oilier. You would use a different sauce with each and drink a different wine with each.
Some combinations are traditional and people enjoy them whether there is science behind them or not - we put butter on mashed potatoes and sour cream on perogies, but there's probably no good reason we couldn't switch those pairings, for example.
Some foods have more flavor than others and can stand up to a strongly flavoured sauce or drink. This is probably why people make pepper-crusted steak, but not pepper-crusted chicken. Some need to be enhanced by adding more herbs, spices and other flavourings.

Generally the recommendations come from either experiencing that exact combination (until you've tried ground black pepper on strawberries, you just will not imagine that it could be good, but it is) or from experiencing half of it - this sauce was great on that cut of beef, I think it would be even better on a particular cut of bison (because I know the similarities and differences in the meat and can imagine that combination.) The more different kinds of food you eat, and the more you think about what you're eating and why it's yummy or not, the better you will be at knowing the likelihood a particular combination will be good.


What does leftover rendered chicken skin consist of?

Fried chicken skin (gribenes), what's left of the skin after you render off the fat (schmaltz), gets its crispiness from the skin's protein. However, there is still a lot of fat coating and within the skin. When you crunch into it, there is still a "juicy" mouthfeel of telltale greasiness. The protein provides structure, but carries plenty of fat with it.

Similar phenomenon can be observed with chicharróns and pork rinds (fried pig skin).


Can you butter-baste steak without a gas stove?

The couple of seconds it takes to scoop up the butter won't have any significant effect on your pan's temperature, especially if you use something that retains heat well, like cast iron.


Why has my recently bought peanut butter such a liquid consistency?

What you can see in the jar is peanut oil, which has separated and floats on top. It means, you have bought a non-homogenized product, possibly an "all-natural" or "organic" product.

Just stir the oil into the thick paste at the bottom and use as usual.

For a discussion on how to best achieve this, see What's the most effective way to mix a jar of natural peanut butter?.


I would say the refrigeration is the culprit. Fridges suck the moisture out of anything that isn't tightly covered.

I would either wrap the cake in plastic wrap or put in an airtight tub or cake tin before refrigerating.

This will also prevent the cake from absorbing any smells in the fridge: chocolate is very prone to this.


Can a clear glaze be made without gelatin or starch?

Bakery glazes are frequently made with pectin, so that is an option. It would still be a noticeable glaze, though it would be clear and could be flavorless. If you just want the flowers to stick to the top of the cheesecake, it's possible that it would be tacky enough without any glaze. They might just stick to the surface. Alternately, you could use one of the other glazes, but just put a dot under each flower rather than glazing the whole surface.


How do I remove bitterness from zucchini?

Mild bitterness in zucchini, like that found in cucumber, may be
  result from environmental factors such as high temperature, low
  moisture, low soil nutrients, etc. The bitterness is caused by
  compounds called cucurbitacins. There is also a rare condition which
  can cause extreme bitterness in zucchini. A compound called
  Cucurbitacin E is found in wild species of squash, but is extremely
  rare in cultivated species. (Univ. of Arizona)

Having bounced around to the various other sites I basically had what I've heard anecdotally before confirmed; salt and lay out to drain liquid. I suppose the implication is that by dessicating the zuke a little bit, it can remove the Cucurbitacin (which is a steroid developed to ward off herbivores). Putting the zukes in salt water is also recommended by some.

It appears that people can become ill from incredibly bitter zukes, so be wary of eating extremely bitter ones. In this case, you may want to follow the wisdom of your taste buds and drop the zucchini in the trash.


If you can cut out the moldy parts and the mold has not moved deep into the beet then yes. Just make sure you cut it all out.


What the advantage of a 'bakers couche' for proofing bread and is it safe?

The bakers couche is not just floured fabric, it is usually a hard wearing canvas

It is used to allow the dough to breath, and hold it's shape while your actual bread moulds are being used in the oven. The all over air gap allow the crust to dry slightly. A dry crust  makes it easier to handle and bakes slightly more crispy

The flour is there to stop the soft dough from sticking to the canvas, but a with careful handling and a well worn in couche this should not happen

If you keep the couche dry it should not develop mold or mildew. Even if it does, leave it out in the sunshine, so that the UV light can deal to it. I can't imagine that the occasional normal household mold is going to form dangerous toxins that can survive the oven!

After use, give the couche a good brush down with a clean fine bristled brush, and store somewhere dry

If you have plenty of the fine perforated steel moulds, you wont need to use a couche, just use the pans


Emulsifying ingredients for vinaigrettes

According to Serious Eats, mayonnaise is even better! Honey or egg yolk work too. Whatever you do, use some kind of emulsifying agent. The same article shows the havoc a non-emulsified dressing will play on a perfectly innocent salad.


Pickles (cucumbers) came out a little soggy after canning

First off, processed and canned pickles are almost always going to be less crisp than refrigerator (acidified) pickles or those fermented at room temperature.  If you really like crisp pickles, I'd recommend against canning.  Recipes with proper levels of salt and acidity can keep for several months in the fridge without noticeable quality degradation.  Also, reputable traditional brined/fermented pickle recipes should maintain safety for a year or more in the fridge, though they too can begin to soften after a few months, depending on the exact processing and storage conditions.

If you don't have room to store in the fridge or want to can for some other reason, this page has some tips on maintaining crispness.  The lack of sugar in your batch should not have made a significant difference.  The temperature of the water is, however, important.  If you want to maintain crispness as much as possible, I'd recommend trying a low-temperature pasteurization bath (as described, for example, here), where you process for 30 minutes at 180F.  Please note that this method should only be used with recipes from reputable sources and is only recommended for people experienced in pickling; it does require very careful monitoring and exact temperature control to prevent spoilage.

As for what you can do now?  Not much.  Soft processed pickles have essentially been "cooked" by the processing.  There's no way to restore their crispness.  Personally, if the lack of crispness was bothersome, I'd consider slicing them up in smaller pieces where the lack of crispness would be less noticeable or chopping them and using them for relish or something.


What is a good mortar and pestle crushing technique?

Were you just working from the video, or following the recipe?  They added some coarse salt when they started with the garlic, which isn't apparent in the video.  The salt acts as an abrasive when you're crushing wet things (garlic, herbs, etc.), so it takes a lot less time and effort.  I also tend to use the 'smash with knife' technique (even if they're already peeled, and crush them really hard after they're peeled), so they have a head start.

They also added the basil a little bit at a time -- too much and it'll just slip against itself, taking much longer to break down.  Although he was adding a 'handful' at a time, if we look at the version annotated with pictures, we can see that he's got a rather large mortar.  If you're working with something smaller, you'll need to add less with each addition.

As for when things start coming up the sides, I'll grind with a more downward motion (almost pounding), as I go around the edges to push things back in.  But this also be a sign that you're filling the mortar too much.  (Mine is about 4" across, but rather deep.  I don't know if this technique would work as well for the ones that dished without having the vertical sides)

All that being said, I normally make mine in a blender.  (which does require blending in the oil, as you need the liquid so it'll move).  In part it's because it's how I learned to do it from my mom, but I also tend to make huge batches** (like when things start getting cold and I strip all of my basil plants yielding a lot of leaves.)

**Pesto (at least, blender pesto) freezes well if you leave out the cheese.  My mom would use ice cube trays to freeze it in, but if you're doing that, make sure you keep a separate tray (or 6, if making large batches) so you don't end up with garlic flavored ice.  I tend to freeze an ice tray or two, and freeze the rest in muffin tins.

...

I can't help with whole spices -- I've never gotten the hang of when you pound vs. grind, and how much to add at time, or what order to go in (hard to soft?  soft to hard?  large to small?  small to large?) so I tend to make a bit of a mess of things.


Does kale taste sweeter and more flavorful after being frozen?

You have misread the Wikipedia quote. It says (emphasis added):

  Kale freezes well and actually tastes sweeter and more flavourful after being exposed to a frost.

While not terribly well written (since there is the red herring that it freezes well), this doesn't mean that the harvested plant was frozen, but rather that the live plant in the ground was exposed to frost.  This causes it to begin converting starches to sugars in preparation for winter, giving it a sweeter taste.

Per Burpee, for example:

  Frost enhances the flavor. Some of the tastiest kale is harvested
  under a foot of snow! Never harvest kale until after a hard frost or
  two. A few freezing nights make all the difference in flavor as the
  kale plants need a hard frost to transform their starches into natural
  sugars.


What seasonal vegetable side dishes are appropriate for Hungarian Goulash?

[Possibly irrelevant-to-you aside: a true Hungarian goulash (as opposed to a North American or German or what-have-you goulash) is a soup. It includes a few root vegetables and possibly some "pinched noodles" (tiny little egg+flour dumplings) in the soup itself, but it is served with a hearty slice of bread or two, nothing more. So in that sense, the answer to your question is "mu".]

If what you're actually making is a meat stew with paprika (what in Hungarian would be called pörkölt), then the traditional accompaniments are either potatoes (with beef) or spaetzle (with any type of meat), and some sort of vinegary vegetable salad — either a cucumber salad, or some other vegetable dressed the same way as a cucumber salad (tomatoes, peppers), or pickled vegetables (sauerkraut-stuffed peppers, gherkins, that sort of thing). Another possibility is red cabbage, which (unlike cucumbers) is at least starting to be seasonal at the end of October.


There are a few tricks to get an alcohol-cream mix right:

Pour the alcohol into the cream and not the cream into the alcohol
Stir gently while pouring
Don't overdo it: don't pour more than 15% alcohol into the cream
(yes, Baileys is 17% but they're professionals and you're not  ;-) )
Don't forget that you're diluting your cream so if you normally use 33% fat cream, buy the 40% if you plan on adding 7 Volume% alcohol and 50% if planning on more.

Using the above, you don't have to stick with Baileys but you can use your own favourite brand of whiskey or raspberry liqueur or ...
(If you want authentic Baileys taste, use Jameson's Irish whiskey instead.)
Warning:
Keep these kinds of desserts away from kids and warn guests before serving them something like this.


When food researchers want to compare the flavors of a food item, they assemble a group of expert tasters and train them on a controlled vocabulary to describe the many different compounds that can be detected in the food item.  Over time some of these vocabularies get standardized.  A limited vocabulary has been adopted by the International Olive Council to describe commercial olive oils and will give you a rough idea of what to expect from a brand.

To try different oils you can look for a local tasting bar (similar to wine bars) or search for “tasting notes” and “olive oil” to find postings from olive oil enthusiasts.  A good place to get started with oil tasting is the olive source, which enumerates a vocabulary with short descriptions, offers tips on tasting olive oil, and lists tasting bars.


The rate of slime of a piece of food has to do with amount of surface area it has. At each point a food's surface is an entry point for bacteria. Since there is always bacteria on any cutting utensil or machine every cut piece of meat has been seeded with a bacteria culture. Although it might not kill you or make you visibly sick, the slime is coming from microbes which will stress your immune system that might be fighting other things instead. Unless it's Nato beans or oysters slime on food is no good. If the cold cuts are sliming quickly it might be because the grocer is not cleaning the machine properly or somebody's refrigeration is not cold enough, 5 to 10 degree f too warm.


It's generally presented in a small bowl or container at the table. I've tried using it for cooking, but not with great success. It just separates...
While it can make an emergency substitute for raw garlic or garlic powder in cooking I guess, I'd not call it a satisfactory alternative for either.

Generally in Spain I've seen it served mostly as a dip or spread with bread or toast (though it can also be used at the table like you'd use garlic butter, but again it separates rapidly when heated so is less than ideal).


How can I tell if bell peppers have gone bad?

Here are a few things to be wary of when buying peppers:

Wrinkled skin -- it's a sign that they're drying out.  It should be firm and smooth.
Soft areas -- it's a sign that it's starting to rot in areas.  It should be firm all over.
Fuzz near the stem or blossom end -- you can't always see outward signs of the fuzzy mold, but if you do, it'll be right around where the stem attaches, or in the crevice on the other side.
Cracks -- it's a sign that someone's dropped it, and opens up the possibility of rotting faster
Spots -- besides the soft areas, you can get small dots in an area ... it's a sign of disease.  (I'm not sure which; I typically get this when growing my own, don't see it in the store).
Holes -- a sign that there's an insect that's eaten its way inside.  (again, I see this more on home grown ones)

Things that aren't always a problem:

Discoloration : if it's a green pepper, it might start turning red, yellow or orange.  Red peppers might have an area that looks black or brown.  So long as that area isn't soft, and the color changes look blended in (not where it's an obvious line between colors), it's fine.
Weight : you typically want heavier specimens, but some varieties are thinner skinned, and won't be as heavy.  If you find one that seems abnormally light, compare it to similar sized ones in the display.  If they're all the same, and don't have wrinkled skin, they're probably okay.
White lines : you typically see this more on hot peppers, but it can happen on bell peppers, too.  They'll be roughly parallel to each other, along the line from stem to blossom.  It's a sign that they got a sudden burst of water while growing, which caused the skin to crack (but then heal).
Folds : some varieties of peppers are more balloon-like, while others may have a few folds; so long as it's still smooth skin (not wrinkled), relatively heavy for its size, and you don't see fuzz in the folds, it's not an issue.


Pizza dough didn't rise, maybe yeast cells were killed off

Very possible your yeast was killed or was dead to begin with. The recipe you linked has no sugar, and sugar usually is used to speed up fermentation. The recipe does call for salt, which tends to inhibit fermentation. The recipe calls for pretty intense mechanical mixing for 2 minutes, which is going to raise the temperature of the dough by the friction generated. A lot of potential things working against you.

I've had pizza making disasters and have managed to salvage some dead doughs and at least get something on the table that can be called a pizza; but you aren't going to get great results unless you cut your losses and start over with new ingredients.

To prevent waste of that flour, you could salvage it and at least cook it as a flat bread or garlic knots, etc.

The way I salvage dead dough is by putting about 10g of yeast in a tablespoon of water with 10g sugar, let it become active to prove you have action happening, then mix into your dead dough, then let rise.


Why is it necessary for Turkish Coffee to start brewing with cold water?

Turkish coffee refers to the method of making coffee, not a type of coffee. Also known as mocha or kahve, it is traditionally made in an ibik using cold water to prolong the time the coffee "brews" and releases flavour. The ibik (aka cezve in Arabic) was invented in the 16th century, replacing the previous method of steeping the coffee in hot water set in sand on a tray over glowing embers for a whole day.

The Turkish coffee or mocha maker also aims to produce as much foam as possible and has to bring the mix of water. sugar and very finely ground mocha coffee slowly to the boil stirring all the time. Cold water ensures the maximum oxygen content in the water and therefore potentially more froth. As the coffee comes to the boil and the froth rises, it must be quickly removed from the heat before it boils over -- a little like boiled milk.

Sometimes the froth is skimmed off and divided into the demitasse or mocha cups about three times before the coffee is finally served. The more proficient the mocha maker, the more foam they can produce. And a real Mocha Master knows exactly when to take the mocha off the hotplate at the first boil. Wait too long in the hope of obtaining more foam, and the coffee "catches" and is overcooked. It is then considered a failure and has to be thrown away, because it tastes too bitter and burnt. If, however, you get the timing right, the taste and the silkiness of the foam is unforgettable. Interesting to see that Wikipedia Turkish coffee page mistakenly shows a cezve and not an ibik serving Turkish coffee in Turkey.

In Turkey it is said when a girl can make coffee with a full "head" of froth, she is ready to marry.

The Coffee Barer by John Frederick Lewis (1857) The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons


Does adding alcohol to dough prevent it from soaking oil when deep-frying?

Yes, it is probably true to a small degree, but irrelevant.

In any deep fried food, the rapid expansion of water as it vaporizes pushes the oil away from the surface of the food, preventing it from immediately penetrating during the entire frying period.

While alcohol may not have the same 1700 (IIRC) ratio of expansion in volume that water does when it goes from a liquid to a vapor, it will still offer some of the same effect.

The thing is, most oil that penetrates deep fried foods does so after the food is removed from the oil bath, as it cools.  Alcohol in the dough would not prevent this.


How to bacon infuse solid cheese block for smoking?

Part of it depends on how you use the cheese.

To get a bacon-infused cheese block, the best and easiest way would be to buy some cheddar culture and make your own - the bacon fat, or even crumbles, well dried, can be added during the process, layered between curds, etc.  The block can be aged and/or smoked after pressing.

It may, maybe, be possible to take a block of cheddar, shred or chunk it, toss in some grease and/or crumbles, and press it into another block.  You would need to start with a young cheddar, and give a great deal of time and/or pressure to re-combine the cheese - seems like a lot of work for little return, and it saves very little work over making from scratch.

Soaking the cheese block in the grease, or adding a layer of such onto it after smoking and before storage, would get flavor into the outermost edges (it would not likely infuse far without extensive time).  Cutting those edges off would readily undo most of the flavor addition, though.  That saturated section you're concerned about, though, would not necessarily be a large part of any portion - it would be mainly be around the rind of a slice (small surface area) or mixed into a shredded pile... though additional cheddar can be added if the smoking on top of grease is still too much flavor.

The only other alternative I can think of would be keeping the bacon flavor on hand (as grease, or as commercial seasonings or flavorings) to add to the cheese at the time of use.


Yes, you can use kombu.  I would re-hydrate first, as these folks do.


I figured it out after looking at the recipe as I was copying it to my question. I didn't add the milk!


Calculating Nutrition Information for Commercial Food Labeling

Use Wolfram Alpha, it is just adding them up. But any lab result has to use average ingredient figures too. You need to allow for variance in supply i.e protein level of flour changes with variety and season.

It produces pretty labels, all ready to go!

e.g. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=100g+flour+and+100g+butter+and+50g+sugar


How to clean a clogged Misto oil sprayer/spritzer?

I generally clear my clogged misters / spray nozzles by unscrewing the spray part from the bottle and then submerging the uptake tube in very hot (but certainly not boiling!) water and then pumping as long as it takes to clear the clog out and start spraying a mist / spray pattern again. The hot water should be enough to break up the clogs, and the pump action should force the clog out.


White chocolate mud cake with dark chocolate ganache?

I am assuming that by mud cake, you mean a tight crumbed chocolate layer cake, almost always iced with ganache.

There are a myriad recipes on the Internet for both regular chocolate, and white chocolate variants, which span the gamut of techniques and ingredients.  While they do in fact most often call for a ganache matching the type of chocolate used in the layer, there are variations, such as strawberry frosted white chocolate mudcake, or coffee filled white chocolate mud cake.  There is even at least one recipe for white chocolate mud cake with chocolate ganache.

I think you will find two preferences lead to the relative scarcity of white chocolate mud cakes with a chocolate ganache:

Chocolate ganache may overwhelm the delicate flavor of the white chocolate layers
People who like (regular) chocolate tend to really like it, and thus tend to favor chocolate mud cake with chocolate ganache

Nonetheless, there is no other reason not to pair a white chocolate layer with a chocolate ganache if you enjoy the combination; they should work well together, although the ganache will probably be dominant.

I suggest a practice run, perhaps with cup cakes, to test whether the combination works for you before trying it out for your friend.


Yes, you’re right, invert sugar slows down the crystal formation and improves the texture of frozen products.

The way I use invert sugar in most frozen products is as a direct substitutue for the added sugar; for the frozen yogurt, it is no exception. You can just follow your recipe and replace the sugar with invert sugar by 80% to 100% of the weight of the original amount of the sugar.

Since the bonds between the glucose and fructose are broken, invert sugar is sweeter. It's of course a matter of taste, but I don’t think you'll notice a very big difference, even if you replace it 1:1.


if you put a dead animal in the freezer, wrapped in a plastice bag, lay the dead animal on top of the other

Anything you store in the freezer needs to be airtight, or odors will propagate. And they'll linger in the freezer itself, not just the other food, so you really want to avoid this.

If you're using plastic bags to store things in your freezer (and they're not zip-seal bags), make sure they're thick and tied off airtight. No harm using multiple bags to make extra sure!


My yeast doesn't bubble but kinda works?

I whisk together active dry yeast with water at 105 to 115 degrees F (40.5 to 45 degrees C), not room temperature water

If the kneaded dough rises properly (as expected) I believe nothing is wrong and no action is required
Your yeast is alive and fine!


Hmmm, funny you should ask that. Just now I am experimenting with using oil and other edible stuff to extract various chemical compounds from herbs without waste of those compounds. Grit or any identifiable vegetable matter is definitely a negative. It is very much the same thing you are talking about because flavor compounds vary in particle size and solubility.

So far, this product has shown great promise in my experimentation:

They work like cheesecloth, but the filter has holes measured in microns (25 - 220) instead of millimeters. You can wring the heck out of them, wash and reuse. They are constructed kind of like paper grocery bags, each about 1 gallon or 4 liters capacity. The bottom panel is a mesh filter.

It may be an odd off-label use because these things are actually for making hashish, but I saw their culinary potential when I first saw them at a fair. I'm using them now and they really work well to keep infused oils made with ground dried herbs grit-free. You can't wring them too hard, they can handle it.

If a clear, grit-free infused vinaigrette with finely ground dried herbs or food-processed/blended fresh herbs was my goal, I'd definitely give these a shot. Think of them like adjustable, reusable coffee filters.


Will marinating chicken for 18 hours make the meat fall apart?

It'll be fine.  I've done this multiple times, even occasionally for more than 1 night and never had a problem, if anything it improves things as the marinade has time to work into the meat.

If you can, give it a stir a coupe of times (every 6 hours maybe?) to ensure even coating.

The acids in orange juice and most (?) marinades are generally too weak to break down chicken into component parts.


I'm guessing this is sourdough bread, naturally leavened. The tastes can vary because the fermentation is natural and therefore a little bit random. The microbiome is different in every bakery so two loaves from different bakeries will always taste different even if they have the same starting flour and water.
The sourness of the bread comes from the fermentation duration and the microbial culture of the starter.


What is each side of a 4-sided grater for?

To answer in the language of the question asked:

Medium holes with a cutting edge on bottom (look like large raindrops) : used for shredding.
Small holes with cutting edge on bottom : used for shredding when you want it finer than the larger size.
Outward protruding holes with spiky edges on all sides : used for grating.
Wide holes that look like a smiley : used to slice things to an even thickness.

As for recipes ... I generally don't use the slicing portion too often, as I can get fairly consistent slices with a knife, but if you're not so skilled, it could be used to slice potatoes for an au gratin (might need to slice them in half first, is the slots aren't wide enough to fit the whole potato), or to slice firmer cheeses.  It can also be used for slicing cabbage for coleslaw (again, once cut down to fit), cucumbers or carrots for salads, etc.  As the blades aren't razor sharp, there are some softer items (eg, tomatoes) that it just won't work for, that you'd have to do by hand or get a much more expensive mandoline.

The grating side I only generally use for hard cheeses, when I need a more powdery texture than I can get with the shredding sides.  I've also used it for zesting citrus (although it only works in large quantities, as you end up losing about 1/2 a lemon to the groves and it doesn't release without a brush**), and I've used it for pulping carrots (was mixing them into a sauce, and I didn't want identifiable bits)

The shredding sides are the ones I use the most, with the choice of side dependent upon what size I want the resultant shreds.  I use it for firmer vegetables and fruits that I'm baking into breads (zucchini, carrots, apples), potatoes for hash browns, medium cheeses for firmer cheeses (when I want this texture), etc.

Although a food processor can be used for this task, you have to consider a couple things (besides initial cost & space it takes up) : it's really easy to go and shred lots of cheddar cheese in a food processor, but it cramming all in there and fusing back together from the force and heat, defeating the purpose.  Chilling the cheese helps, but you also need to keep dumping the work bowl out.  If you have a strong arm and a small food processor, a hand shredder might actually be faster and give better results.

When using a shredding disk for firmer things, you do more damage than by hand, resulting in lots of liquid being given off.  Sometimes, this is better ... I have a potato kugel recipe that comes out very light as I can get more of the liquid out after having gone through the food processor ... so you may want to try both tools (if you already own them both) to see which one gives you better results.

** ... I've heard you can wrap it in plastic wrap, use the grater, and then pull the wrap off to get it to release; I've never tried it, in part because I now have a microplane grater, but also because I'd be afraid of getting bits of plastic in the food.  I also want to say that I saw the trick the context of pulping ginger or garlic, but it's been long enough ago that I don't know that I can trust my memory


safe to sear beef tenderloin the night before?

Yes, should be safe, provided your beef was fresh before preperation.


You should be fine for 10 hours if the freezer was working fine (at the proper temperature) at the beginning of that 10 hour period. If you are past 10 hours when the new freezer is ready, you're still very unlikely to be over refrigeration temperatures.

Starting NOW, don't open the freezer until you're ready to transfer the food. If everything is still frozen when you go to transfer it, you're golden. If it's cold but has just started to thaw, you're still OK as far as for safety to just refreeze, but you may see some loss of quality. If your stuff is still cold to the touch but partially defrosted, pick the most expensive meat to cook that day, the rest of it is likely to face some quality issues if refrozen. If it's not cold anymore, consider it a lost cause, safety cannot be guaranteed.

Unopened vegetables aren't really a safety issue, but they might take a quality hit.


Do I need a special recipe for mini cheesecakes?

A full-sized recipe should be fine for putting the mini-cakes together. The taste of your cheesecake will stay the same regardless of size, so long as your ingredients are mixed well and you don't overfill the cups of your pan. Marbling shouldn't be a problem either.

You may want to watch your cooking time. The cakes will be smaller, so it won't take as much time in the oven to cook all the way through. I'd set the timer for half the time that the original recipe calls for. If the mini-cheesecakes aren't done by then, monitor very closely for the next couple of minutes. It won't take much more time than that.


What impact does the order of assembly have when making cookies?

Generally with baking you mix all the wet ingredients, then all the dry, then incorporate the latter into the former. This prevents clumping and helps make sure everything is mixed uniformly.

In some recipes, adding the eggs (often un par un, or one by one) also contributes (via the yolk's supply of lecithin) to emulsifying e.g. butter and milk together.

The best way to find out, of course, is to experiment. Next time you're making these cookies, make a double batch. Do one according to the recipe, and the other your way. Honestly with cookies I doubt you'll see much difference; they're basically foolproof (I have, when in a hurry, made chocolate chip cookies by dumping everything in the mixer, whacking it about with the paddle attachment, and then folding in the actual chips. Worked fine, basically). When it comes to baking things that are more finicky--cakes etc--I would follow the recipe directions.


What happens during a cold fermentation that makes bread taste so good?

A cold/delayed ferment does several things:

Allows for more complete hydration of the starches, and more gluten development.
An enzyme called protease, which is naturally occurring the flour, breaks some of the long gluten bonds, making the dough more extensible. (This is not in conflict with the first reaction, it just controls the gluten length).
Creates flavors through alpha-amylase action converting starches to sugars.

The first two items are lumped into the term autolyse, which can be done in time frames of anywhere from 10 minutes to several hours.

The third item of a cold ferment gets more complex... Additional enzymes (alpha-amylase enzymes) that come along with the flour, yeast, other ingredients added to the flour (malt powders), or grain mashes, perform a set of reactions that break starch molecules into sugars. This reaction is what turns malted grain from starchy soup to sweet liquid in the beer-making process of "mashing". These sugars both add flavor of their own, caramelize to create new flavors, and feed the yeast creating even NEW flavors.

The trick, and reason it is cold, is that the yeast contribute valuable enzymes to this process, but can be too energetic. If they are allowed to ferment wildly they would likely over-leaven the bread. The cool temperatures slow the enzymes down as well, but not as much as the yeast, letting the enzymes catch up with the process.

Now - no part of this process is dogma. There are people who cold-rest their dough and THEN add yeast the next day. Problem here is that you need to allow at least 6 hours at room temperature for the yeast to catch up, and it is hard to integrate yeast into pre-made dough. The results can be similar, but the scheduling is awkward. Other variations include cold resting only part of the dough, or making a liquid "soaker" that includes some mashed grain, allowing that to sit at room temperature without yeast, which is then integrated into the main dough on the day of baking.

Cold-resting dough is also a practical matter - once the dough is mixed and resting, if it spends 12 or 36 hours in the fridge, it doesn't matter too much, and once it is pulled out, only requires a few hours to come back to temperature, final proof, and bake. It sounds like a slower way to make bread, but personally, splitting the process into two days makes it easier to fit into a busy life - I start the dough on one day, then the next day (or two or three days later, if I get busy), I can pull the dough after work, proof and bake for a late dinner that evening. The flavor and dough development are icing on the cake.

To really dive into this process and what drives it, check out Peter Reinhart's books "Bread Baker's Apprentice" and "Whole Grain Breads", both of which go into the process in great detail, and are excellent reads for anyone wanting to improve their baking. It includes a lot of the science, and enough background information to make you feel comfortable with what you are doing, and comfortable experimenting on your own with variations to the process.


Will Asarum europaeum add a ginger flavor?

Short answer: kinda-sorta, in a weak way.

Long answer: European wild ginger is grown as a ground cover, not for culinary purposes.  It is closely related to American Wild Ginger, though, which can be used to cook with, but it has a weaker flavor than Chinese ginger, less pulp, and you shouldn't actually eat the roots.  I would presume European ginger to be a very similar experience, but only have experience with the American variety.


Amount of food to prepare for bagel & lox brunch

@bikeboy389 was the closest!

I ended up ordering way too much food. When all was said and done, for 40 people, here's what people ate:

About 1 bagel each

Seems low, huh? Some people had already eaten, I guess.
About 2 ounces of lox each

There is a metric ton of leftover lox in my fridge. And Taco even snatched a couple of ounces off of somebody's bagel.

Picture of Taco:

Three big tubs of cream cheese
Three tomatoes and one red onion, sliced
4 lemons, sliced
2 gallons orange juice
1.5 gallons Apple Juice
6 bottles San Pellegrino
About 30 small (6-oz) cups of coffee
About a pint of tuna salad
Negligible amount of peanut butter
Assorted fruit and cheese platter
Three pies (one blueberry, one cherry, one pumpkin).


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

Ok, did a little more hunting and found this link which says:

Some packages contain a sugar packet and a small tube of banana essence. The banana essence can be a bit strong, but if you enjoy it, add during the last minute of cooking.


You can, but you should take care to not overwork the dough when you add the final egg. Whisk the egg lightly on its own and then mix it in as quickly as possible to avoid developing too much gluten in the dough. You will need the binding power of the egg for the cookies to hold together well after baking. Water will not help with that.


Are there any vegetarian-friendly egg substitutes that can be used in cakes?

Yes, there are multiple substitutes.
I can't explain it myself any better than here, but I have tried to summarize it:

The best substitute for egg in a dish depends on the dish itself (because the function of the egg isn't the same in every dish). As a general rule, the fewer eggs a recipe calls for, the easier they will be to substitute. Also consider how the substitute will affect the overall taste of the finished dish.

Possible substitutes:

Bananas and/or apple sauce (not flavourless, baked goods such as muffins, pancakes or yeast-free quick breads, especially banana bread; if you want something fluffy, make sure to add a bit of baking powder)
(Silken) Tofu (flavourless, best* substitute for quiche, fritatta or egg salad, can work in 'heavy baked goods' such as brownies or pancakes, doesn't work well in fluffy dishes; add bit of mustard, turmeric or nutritional yeast if you want the same colour as you would have used real eggs; I advice you to search for recipes that use tofu in stead of egg in the first place, as other recipe adaptations can be required)
Ener-G egg replacer (flavourless, works best* in baked goods, it can also act as a binder; if you chose to use a different brand, be careful to read the ingredient list, as some may contain egg white)

Less common substitutes (though I'm not sure if/how they work):

Flax seeds
Soda
Bread crumbs or oats (for savory dishes)

*) In the opinion of the site, I have no experience with it.