You can also crust the meat with salt, removing the crust after dehydrating (or smoking).  The goal is to

pull the moisture out, and
to season

Note that traditionally, some bacons and hams are preserved by burying the meat in coarse salt, then hanging + smoking.  You can jerk in the same manner, by using salt to pull out the moisture, then remove from the salt (or remove the surface salt) and dehydrate. The trick is in balancing the need to remove the moisture, and the desired flavour.


What are the best substitutes for arborio risotto rice?

Your best replacement would be another short grain, or in a pinch, medium grain rice.  (if it's a variety that doesn't cook up creamy enough for your liking ... you can cheat and after you remove it from the heat, quickly stir in a beaten egg)

  And how about when your only choices are all the local shops have: pearl barley, or 'brown rice with barley and spelt blend'?

I'd probably go with the pearl barley, just because it'll have a more consistent cooking time than a blend.  (so you don't end up w/ little uncooked nuggets in a puddle of overcooked mush.

  This makes me think pearl barley is the best option. It take a lot more boiling than normal rice (40 minutes), so I'll have to half-cook it by boiling before adding it to my pan with stock as my risotto recipe calls for.

Don't pre-cook it.  You want to toast your uncooked grains in the oil, just as you would with a rice-based risotto before you add any liquid.  If you don't do this step, you won't get the same flavors (I can't comment on the texture, as I've never tried cooking pearl barley this way).

If you're reluctant to spend almost an hour in front of the stove, the period to cheat is in the middle; toast it, do a couple of stock additions w/ lots of stirring, then add lots of stock & let it cook, then once it's nearly dry go back to stirring & slowly adding liquid 'til it's done ... or use a pressure cooker


How do I rid my new plastic appliance of its plastic smell?

You could also try running white vinegar through the coffeemaker. It's a technique used to clean the coffeemaker. Vinegar in general is good for getting rid of smells, so I'm thinking it will be useful here.


Yes, Yes, and Yes.

Citations:

If you plan on offering seafood as well as other proteins you will want a separate cooker to prevent the dreaded fishy taste transfer.
Typically, once you fry fish in the oil, it tastes like fish, which might not be a flavor you want in your fried chicken.
A fish and chips concept risks not only rancid flavors from frying oil overdue for a change, but also unwanted odors—and more importantly proteins—from fish and breading that could have cross-contact with the fries.


Why did my meringue deflate and go soft?

How long did you cook it for?  If it did not form a good crust in the oven it would deflate.  If you used 140 on fan forced oven it could be too hot, which would rise and brown the outsides without forming a crisp crust.

Usually the rule is to turn the oven off and let it cool completely before removing from the oven, but without the recipe or knowing if there was an intention of "softness", its hard to give specifics.


Are vanillin/vanilla powder safe to use in savory dishes?

The vanilla chapter of Ian Hemphill's "Spice and Herb Bible" says,

  Vanilla is also delicious in savory cooking because it is not overtly
  sweet. An innovative Mauritian restaurant in Sydney served a delicious
  vanilla chicken [...] It was aromatic delicate and beautifully
  balanced.

The same book has a recipe for Vanilla Salmon Salad where vanilla seeds are scraped into the dressing.

I did a quick taste test using vanilla extract with various savory things from my fridge. Here are the results:

Cheese: tasted fine, but I wouldn't call it a taste sensation;
Vegeburger: nasty combination; I think the leeks in the burger were a problem;
Avocado: actually quite a nice combination;
Roasted aubergine: not bad;
Tomato: fine;
Savory omelet: not good; onions don't seem to work with vanilla extract;
Baked beans in tomato sauce: very nice.

Note that using vanilla extract and a vanilla bean to flavor a dish are not the same thing. There is an amount of alcohol in the vanilla extract I used (bourbon) and this may completely invalidate the test. Having said that, the first indications are that alliums (onions, leeks, garlic etc) don't go with vanilla. So onion soup may not be a good plan. And since curry generally contains plenty of onion and garlic, I'm skeptical about using it there too.

Turning to the question of whether vanilla and vanillin become dangerous when heated, the answer is almost certainly no. That doesn't mean that heating vanilla is inconsequential. Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking" mentions that vanilla beans contain more than 200 volatile compounds and notes,

  Prepared vanilla extracts [...] are best added toward the end of
  cooking; any period of time spent at a high temperature causes aroma
  loss.

On the other hand, heating vanillin at normal cooking temperatures (i.e. normal for soup and curry) is not a problem. Its boiling point is around 285°C.

As another answer mentions, vanilla has a more complex taste to pure vanillin. Most of what you will read comparing the two will be very much in favor of using real vanilla beans in cooking. Instead of repeating this advice, I'm reminded of having read that in a Cook's Illustrated taste test comparing genuine vanilla to synthetic vanillin, the artificial flavoring came out on top. It's probably not be enough to conclude that vanillin tastes better than vanilla but may encourage you to forge ahead if vanillin is all you can afford.

Update: Having read @papin's suggestion that you may need to caramelize the onions, I just did a quick taste test with rostad lök (not sure how it translates from Swedish, the literal translation is toasted onion). It tasted slightly better but still not great. Again, I'm using vanilla extract so my taste test is not necessarily valid.


What can I add to veggie burgers to make them less brittle?

Wheat gluten.

Buy some powdered wheat gluten at a health food store.  Add it to the mix, add some water if necessary, and stir it around in the same direction for 30 to 50 strokes.  The gluten will bond and start forming long chains, and bring the whole mixture together.  Nothing else really works as well.

Eggs and cheese will also help hold a veggie burger together, but only gluten really gives it cohesiveness and a springy texture.

FWIW, I can't imagine that veggie burgers made from juicer pulp will be even remotely appetizing.


Ideal temperature and stabilizer for chewy ice cream?

There is an article on Serious Eats that is pretty much entirely about replicating Herrell's style ice cream at home. The differences I can see between your recipe and the one discussed in that article are the addition of egg yolks, the addition of arrowroot powder, using evaporated milk (rather than milk and milk powder), and they stop their machine early (as most overrun happens in the last few minutes usually).


Why fry onions without oil and then add oil?

According to Wikipedia,

  the preparation of a wat begins with chopped onions slow cooked, without any fat or oil, in a dry skillet or pot until much of their moisture has been driven away. Fat (usually niter kibbeh) is then added, often in quantities that might seem excessive by modern Western standards, and the onions and other aromatics are sautéed before the addition of other ingredients. This method causes the onions to break down and thicken the stew.


How should I add smoking wood when grilling on charcoal?

Adding wood and allowing it to ignite is the proper procedure. You can do this with the cover on your grill so that it doesn't burn up too fast.  You want the smoke to look bluish, rather than white, for the best flavor.  When you see white smoke, the wood is not hot enough and you will get more acrid, less desirable flavors. You also don't need to see a massive billow of smoke. Catching this at the right time is a matter of adjusting the air flow, and it takes some practice with any grill/smoker set up.  I will also point out that, in most cases, smoke has most of its impact during the first 30 minutes of cooking, so there really is no need to keep it going beyond that.  I will further point out that cooking with hardwood charcoal (rather than briquets) also contributes to the smoke flavor.


Why refresh lentils before making lentil soup

It's been years since I've cooked lentils, and I haven't done it very often, but I'm going to guess that the issue is that like other legumes and grains, you can end up with a gummy exterior, so by rinsing it in cold water, you both stop the cooking process and rinse off any starch that might've been over gelatinized.

If you hadn't done it, the most likely difference would've been a a thicker soup, and possibly overcooked mushy lentils.  (I don't know how lentils behave when colled; some starches will behave differently if you cool then reheat it vs. if you keep it warm the whole time it can get mushy)


French fried potatoes (or as the British say, chips) are a deep fried food.  In fact, the US term "to french fry" orignally simply meant to deep fry, although simply "french fry" has now come to mean the dish of french fried potatoes.

As such, they inherently are not a low fat or small-oil-volume food.

If you are asking how you can create these with less volume of oil than required for deep frying, the answer is simply:  you cannot.  There are appliances that claim to "air fry" but I am skeptical of their outcomes.

You can make alternate dishes, which may be very similar, but they will be different.  Oven fries are one close alternative--here is a recipe from Tyler Florence of the food network.

You can minimize the amount of oil that penetrates the actual fries by cooking them properly:

Use a large volume of oil (counter-intuitively) so that when the potatoes are added, the temperature drop is minimized.
Use a deep-fry or candy thermometer, to ensure the oil is at the proper temperature.   This will reduce the amount of oil that penetrates the fry.  When proper deep frying is happening, the rapidly vaporizing water expressing from the potato prevents the oil from entering.  This is by far the most important factor.
Make sure the potatoes are dry before putting them into the oil.
Immediately upon removing the fries from the oil, put them on a wire rack to drain.  Paper towels are good, but they leave the fries in contact with the oil, and as they cool, some will enter the fries.

With proper technique, only a small amount of oil from the deep frying will actually remain in the final product.


Is it safe to eat moldy cheese if you slice off the edges?

I think it would depend on the cheese.

For a reasonably hard cheese, like cheddar, I have done it, and never gotten sick (your results may vary).
If it's pre-grated, then I would not touch it anymore.
For a softer cheese, like a brie, I would not risk it.


How to use meat from bones when making stock

Well this might sound strange, but I do this with any chicken carcass even the precooked rotisserie ones. It turns out delicious and makes several meals from one carcass - both stock and meat. So I get 3 to 4 dinners for two out of one rotisserie chicken.

So after eating the best slices off the rotisserie carcass, I hack the carcass into several manageable chunks, and put the very meaty bones (some thighs / legs even have all the meat on them) in the pot with mirepoix and cover with water for stock.

After about the first hour, I remove the chicken to a cutting board, let it cool a bit, then remove all the good meat. It pretty much falls off. Then I put the clean bones back in the stock pot and simmer for another 2 - 3 hours (I like mine to simmer a long time). The next morning this stock is always super gelatinous, a quivery chicken jelly. I make this into gravy, and the meat with a bag of frozen vegetables becomes pot pie. Yes the meat is probably overcooked, but it's moist and tender and perfect for pot pies. Super, super delicious.

I admit I've even bought rotisserie thighs and legs from Sam's club, for $2.75 for a huge box, then popped them right in the stock pot, making three nights' worth of dinners for about $3.


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

It's possible that it's designed to conduct less heat from the bottom.

Many gas ovens have the flue in the bottom and the heating is only from below in the oven. To make things more even, most electric ovens have an element at the top and one on the bottom.

Speaking of bottom, the bottom line is that you should be ok. If you find the bottom of you cake not being done very well, move the form to a lower rack next time.


If it says "tomatoes", I would think that your first guess is correct. I have not seen or heard "tomatoes" being sold in cans smaller than 14 oz, at least in US. The only tomato products in smaller cans are tomato sauce/paste.


Oil Dates, If a cooking oil has never been open how long past the "Use by date" would be acceptable?

It depends on how the oil has been stored. Light causes oil to oxidize and go rancid. If the oil is stored in a cool, dark place it will last much longer. The true test is simply to smell the oil. If it has any off aromas, don't use it. Neutral oils like vegetable or canola oil shouldn't really have a smell at all because they are deodorized during processing.


How much salt does fish in brine absorb?

There are a number of factors that will contribute to how well the salt penetrates the interior of the piece of fish including thickness of the fish, types of tissue that have to be penetrated, and length of brine.  The skin creates a significant barrier to salt penetration and the solution will penetrate the meat from its face and from its leaner side. After brining there will be more salt near the lean face than near the skin area. In order to get the most even salt penetration remove the skin, cut the pieces thin like sushi or ceviche, and brine in a 15% salt solution for 2-3 hours.  For even penetration you need even contact on both sides of the meat so you either need to suspend the pieces in the solution, or flip them at regular intervals.

The surface will always be saltier than the core, but with thinner pieces and sufficient time the difference will be negligible.

If you want to use larger pieces you will need to extend the time.  Consider combining a soaking brine with injections of the brine solution into the meat itself.

You could brine any kind of fish that you would find in a sushi restaurant, just make sure it is as fresh as possible.

EDIT:

After reading citizens comment I was able to find this site which states that salted herring typically has a salt concentration of 7-13%, however this article's abstract leads me to believe that a dry cure then brine combination may be responsible for the higher salt concentration.  According an article about hams and sausages, wet curing methods can reach salt concentrations up to 26%, but maximum weight gain is reached with a salt concentration around 5%.  The first site also notes that salt concentrations above 7% are considered unpalatable by most people.


I would crumble it up into a blender, add some vanilla ice cream and some milk.  Blend it all together to make a Brownie Milkshake.


Bagel chips are just bagels sliced into little rounds- think bagel pepperoni. I know of a few different ways to make them, but generally you just bake or toast the rounds (you can butter each slice a little bit or drizzle olive oil over them before baking) until crispy. Here's a good recipe. I'd personally recommend using egg bagels, they have an excellent flavor.


how do I get the salt out of my chinese take out

While Erlenmeyer flasks and graduated cylinders and food-science may not be able to save your leftovers, adding some cooked rice with fried egg (basically any fried rice recipe) will likely crowd out the saltiness of the base dish as well as extend your leftovers.


How do I get crispy but thin bread crust?

Assuming that this is what you want:

This kind of crust is made with steam injection. Normal household baking methods will give you a thick crust, which is usually also hard. Wetting and covering it right out of the oven will give you a chewy crust. If you bake the bread in a fitting pan and tweak the recipe, you can get thin, almost non-existant crust, but also soft, like sandwich bread.

For what you see in the picture, you need standard French bread dough (60% hydration, AP flour) and a blast of steam in the oven at the beginning of baking. Sadly, homemade steam methods which rely on evaporation won't work, because there is a limit to the amount of water which will evaporate even of high temperatures, and you need to get more steam inside than that. So, you'll either need a pro oven or a steam modding (which only works on an oven with vents, unless you are prepared to drill a hole into the oven cavity).

For extra tweaking the crust, you can use a glaze. We had a question explaining the different glazes and their results.


Why does strata have to come to room temperature before baking?

My guess - and this is just a (somewhat educated) guess - is that it's just to promote more even cooking.

Since you're talking about a layered dish, some parts are definitely going to cook faster than others. If the entire dish starts from room temperature, as opposed to fridge temperature, then that means less time is required to cook it through. Less time and less heat required to cook means that all of the layers will be more likely to end up at similar internal temperatures - as opposed to having burned bread, liquefied cheese, or rubbery eggs (I'm not sure offhand which cooks the fastest).

Even if it's not an issue with the thermal capacities of your individual ingredients, you're also layering these each several times over, creating a very dense product, so there would still be a significant risk of the middle layers being undercooked, or the outer layers being overcooked.

You might be able to bake it straight out of the fridge; however, you would definitely have to increase the cooking time to account for the temperature difference, and there are a lot of variables that come into play which would affect how evenly it cooks: the intensity and location of your oven's heat source(s), the density of the casserole, the kind of baking dish you use - I probably wouldn't chance it, at least not when preparing this for other people.

You tend to see the same recommendation for anything particularly dense, such as a roast, or anything layered, such as a lasagna, and generally, you do want to follow those recommendations for the same reason. They cook rather poorly if you cook them from cold or frozen, leaving you with a charred surface and an only-mostly-cooked interior. It can still happen even if you start off at room temperature, but it's less likely and the effect tends to be less pronounced.


What is the purpose and effect of using knuckles when kneading bread dough?

I don't think that it is really necessary to use your knuckles. Rather, there are ways to knead dough well, and ways to knead dough badly. I have seen ineffective people pinching the dough, or turning it between their hands, or other strange motions, which in a cargo-cult way resemble actual kneading, but don't do anything useful.

My guess is that whoever writes such instructions has learned a correct way of kneading that involves the knuckles, and writes down the admonishment to remind people that they have to do it right for the recipe to work well. The reason for the choice of label may be because the author is unaware that there are effective kneading methods which don't use the knuckles, or because the author has taught new kneaders and has found out that "use your knuckles" is a good cue to get them to use the right kind of motion.

A third possibility is that the author is referring specifically to the punching down step of a double-rise bread process. In that case, the motion between the first and second rise is not the same as standard kneading, and maybe the author wanted to underscore the difference.


Are slightly moldy beets edible after boiling?

If it were just mold, I would say you could just cut the moldy portions off prior to cooking. The smell, however, tells me they have turned bad. The mold may very well be more extensive than just on the exterior, it has probably penetrated through the stem to the center of the beet. If food ever in any way ever looks or smells "off" don't use it. Possibly getting sick or even food poisoning is not worth it. There would also probably be a very bad smell in your home while they cooked that would be hard to get rid of. Play it safe and throw them away. I grew up learning the phrase: "when in doubt throw it out." I have no doubt here, though that these beets have gone around the bend.


How to gauge chicken breast doneness on grill pan?

At my restaurant, I'll cook a chicken to 160 and let it carry-over to 163 - 165. 165 is only the highest you should ever go with chicken. I do this just to stay within compliance and to be honest if someone asks me if it's "all the way done." It really messes with the meat, though.

At home, or when I'm cooking for friends and family, you bet your ass I'll pull that bird off at 150 to 155. As you noted in your post, that is when it's cooked all the way through and still retains a pleasurable texture. But the idea that the chicken has to be cooked to hell has been beaten into us and never really challenged. 165 is the temperature at which salmonella is effectively killed off when you're cooking relatively hot and fast. These guidelines were also made at a time when food manufacturers were hellhouses, unsafe and unsanitary. Nowadays, by and large, the reality is much different. There's still risk, but as long as you're not serving chicken tartare, your risk for getting sick off chicken cooked at 150 is extremely low. (That said, if someone has a vulnerable immune system, it's better to just take risk off the table and cook it "all the way.")

One other thing: one thing that will help with this issue, and acts as a safety net just in case you walk away from the stove and your chicken does get overcooked, is to dry brine the chicken. Don't do a wet brine for chicken breasts, because it ends up waterlogging the meat and whatever you cook will be rubbery as hell. Wet brines should be reserved for WOGs or other whole carcasses. Dry brining is basically doing a short-term salt cure. A 1/4 teaspoon of salt on both sides of the chicken and let it sit in your fridge for an hour or two. The chicken breast will then be more forgiving and still stay a good piece of meat.


Slicing bratwurst for quicker, more even grilling

Boil or steam them using beer (for a traditional flavor combination) or water before grilling. Grill for flavor, not as the sole means of heating them.

This is more about cooking faster (or more evenly, anyway) than slicing, though that step will also make them hold together better if sliced after boil/steam and before grilling. But if they are basically cooked via boil/steam, you don't need to do any further processing before grilling, since you can just grill until the outside suits your sense of grilled.

I think scoring is more about releasing some of the fat than actually grilling faster. Slicing (like in half lengthwise, or in chunks) will grill faster, and/or give you more grilled surface area/flavor (if you're pre-boiled and just grilling for flavor.) It may fall apart completely if not cooked somewhat before that.

This site looks reasonable: https://www.bratsandbeer.com/how-long-to-boil-brats/


How do you keep chicken breast juicy when grilling?

Don't over cook it.  Aim for it to be a little under done.  It will still be hot and will finish cooking after you've taken it off.


Can I cook hamburgers in the microwave oven?

In short, kind of, but only with the proper accessories/equipment.  You'll never match a grill or griddle but you can get surprisingly close.

As was mentioned in other answers, what you're going to lose most is the sear.

I was given a Corningware Microwave Browning Dish a while back and found that it actually works pretty well when you're stuck with only a microwave.  They were apparently popular when microwaves were new and exciting, but people didn't know how to use them well and they faded into oblivion.  I've seen them on sale on eBay so you might be able to find a good price there if you're going to be stuck in the hostel for a while.

The basic idea is, there's a special kind of microwave-safe metal inside the base of the casserole.  You heat this with nothing on it for 3 minutes to get it nice and hot.  When you drop the patty on, it immediately sizzles.  You use the microwave function to heat the inside, while the hot surface sears the outside.  Although you're likely not going to get a perfect burger, you do get a real nice Maillard reaction on the outside of both sides (assuming you flip halfway) and if you play with the cooking time and power (to reduce that rubbery texture from overcooking), you can get something that's (in my opinion) a good 75%-quality burger compared to a griddle or grill.  I actually burned pork chops on it once, that's how hot the surface gets.

As a bonus, similar to a nice Boos block, there is a gutter around the outside and the plate is slightly concave, so the juices run off into the reservoir and the burger won't sit in fat during the cooking.

After reading the other answers (ElendilTheTall's specifically), I would think if you combined the steaming method to cook the burgers, with the microwave browning dish to sear, you could probably get a really good result.  If the burgers were fully cooked via steaming you could probably heat the dish and sear the burgers without even turning the microwave on (except to heat the casserole initially).

I believe Alton Brown did an episode where he talked about a specific type of brick that you can find at most hardware stores which is microwave-safe for the same searing purpose, but I can't find that info right now.


Which non penetrating method is recommended to check chicken breasts for done-ness when pan fried

There isn't one.

The only reliable way to determine doneness of a chicken breast is to use a thermometer. If you didn't have a thermometer then you would have to cut open the breast to confirm. Outside of those the only other method is experience. e.g. knowing that it takes 5 minutes per side to cook a breast of X size, in Y pan, on Z stove, at M heat.

Given that you own a thermometer, it's kind of silly to ask for another way. Use it.


Add 1 TBSP of water to 1 TBSP of (AP) flour and mix to form a paste. Brush the edges with a thin layer of the mixture, which was what a chef on a TV cooking show recommended.


I'm going to assume you're not considering deep frying, which would generally be the easiest way to fry evenly on all sides (at once).

If you want something similar to pan frying, probably the simplest solution to get evenly browned cubes, assuming you have sufficient time, is to roast the food in the oven instead with a little oil or fat (which some people call "oven fried").  I'd particularly recommend this for "intermediate" sized cubes, which are too small and numerous to bother turning individually with tongs, but large enough that you care about all sides getting done.

Be sure the food is tossed well in your fat before putting in oven, space it out well in a single layer, and turn periodically.  As long as you don't roast at a ridiculously high temperature, it's much harder to burn food this way, and the browning will be more even.  It may take a little longer.  But it's also lower maintenance, since you're less tempted to hover over the pan and can do other things without worrying about food burning.

If you have to do it in a pan (to achieve the texture you want or to do it faster), the most important thing is not to crowd the pan and have a single layer (but it sounds like you may already be doing that).  The other general advice is to fry the first side the longest: it's always tempting to start turning early if you want to get it done fast, but it's important to get good color on the first side before starting the flipping.  After the first toss, try your best to get most of the food with new sides down, and again wait a long enough time to get the second side cooked.  After that, it's probably going to become much more difficult to always have a "new side" down, so decrease the time between subsequent tosses.

If you do the first two sides well, with small cubes this will often be enough to create the appearance of relative evenness (combined with the uneven later tosses).  With larger cubes, you'll have to use tongs.

A few other factors may come into play which have to do with how easily and evenly the food will cook in general.  For example, choose the right fat and the right pan temperature.  If you're using only unclarified butter, the burning will start much earlier.  It may be worthwhile either clarifying the butter and/or mixing butter with some fat that has a higher burning/smoke point (most oils, or bacon grease, etc.).  Using an oil that is stable to higher temperatures will help to prevent burning.  Pan type and surface can also play a role: a dark pan that food sticks to will burn more quickly, but it can also be helpful for cooking the first couple sides quickly, so it's a toss-up for quick cooking vs. higher maintenance.

Also, with some foods like potatoes, the way you prepare the cubes can make a difference in how easily they brown.  For example, many recipes recommend blanching diced potatoes for a minute or so before cooking and then shocking with cold water before frying them in a preheated pan.  This "precooking" will alter the starch characteristics on the exterior of the potatoes and make it easier to brown them faster (and more evenly).


Can I always use butter instead of margarine when baking?

Margarine has less fat than butter, but it doesn't give quite the same flavor as butter does. You also have to be careful what KIND of margarine you are using.  Tub margarine has a higher water content and can ruin your baked goods and the stick margarine can have a lot of trans fats in it.  If you really want to get detailed into the differences, check out this site:

http://www.baking911.com/pantry/fats.htm

I agree with everything stated on that site in the fact that butter, in my opinion is far superior in flavor and texture than margarine.  I have yet to meet a dish that butter didn't improve the taste over margarine.  But there is the thing, it really is a lot about taste.  A good quote from the site about margarine:

"Not great for baking: does not allow foods to become flaky, rather more cakelike; does not spread as well as lard or shortening; adds a greasy taste. However, some bake with it all the time and have great success; it's a matter of taste."


How do I know if my meat thermometer is ovenproof?

I'd suggest a digital probe thermometer AND an instant read digital thermometer like the OXO (which is pretty cheap) or the Thermapen (which isn't). A leave-in probe lets you monitor the general progress of the food, giving you a good way to gauge how much cooking time remains without having to open the oven and slow down the process. The instant read variety is great for checking the internal temperature of all sorts of food that you might not normally measure -- steaks on the grill, mashed potatoes, stocks and soups (to make sure that they're cooling quickly enough), bread (to check for doneness)...

Both leave-in and instant read are extremely useful, and neither of them will expose your turkey to the risk of glass shards.


Typically, yes.  (it depends on the exact recipe).

There's actually a whole category of crafts / gifts for various 'mixes in a jar' where you mix up all of the dry goods, put it in a jar, decorate it, and label it w/ instructions on what else needs to be done.

update:

To clarify -- if the recipe calls for mixing all of the dry ingredients together before you start, there will be absolutely no problem.  If you specifically go out and search for "Mix in a Jar" recipes, you should have no problem.

The issue comes when the dry ingredients aren't added all at the same time -- sugar is often mixed with the wet ingredients ... it might be used for creaming the butter, or in a chiffon or angel food cake whipped with the egg whites.  In those cases, you may need to hold back an ingredient from the others, not pre-mix them.


I have neither cooked nor eaten kangaroo, but I think the information that it is very lean should be sufficient to answer this question. Smoking is a low and slow technique that is used to make tough cuts of meat tender. This works by using a low temperature to break down the tough connective tissues which makes the end result both tender and moist. This would not work with a lean cut of meat like a filet. You'd just end up with a tough piece of meat. So unless you really go after the toughest bits of the 'roo, I'd advise against smoking.

As ESultanik says in a comment, to attack the lean parts of the animal, treat it like any other piece of non-fatty meat (filet / tenderloin for example). Use a very hot grill and shoot for an internal temperature of rare to medium-rare depending on preference. The exact technique for cooking is up to you. I tend to do a two level fire for searing and then finishing, but the exact method depends on the type of grill, thickness of the cut, etc. If you would like some smoke flavor, you can throw some wood chips on while cooking like this and see what you get. The short time and frequency with which you tend the meat / open the grill may make this completely ineffective, but it's worth trying to see if you get some smoke flavor, if that's what you really want.


How long do you cook a custard after you add cornstarch?

I would argue that it is the gentler methods like Doug suggested which create problems. They are intended for eggs only custards, not eggs-and-starch. If you use them, you risk that your mixture doesn't get hot enough. Then your starch stays uncooked, and your eggs' starch-digesting enzymes stay intact and can liquefy everything.

If you use either starch only, or a mixture of eggs and starch, your custard has to boil. I slurry the starch with a bit of the milk, never tried it with the eggs. Then add the slurry to the almost-simmering milk (which already contains sugar and flavors), and pour in the tempered eggs afterwards if using them. From the time the starch hits the liquid, you have to stir constantly or you risk burnt bottom, so you don't want to do it too early, but if you do it too late, the stream of slurry will start gelatinizing before it has been dispersed in the milk, and will clump. So, do it just before simmering, or if it has started to simmer, take it off the heat, mix it there, then back on the heat.

After you have the slurry well mixed in, you simply stir slowly until after it has blubbed. You will notice a moment when it goes from liquid to thick, this is when the starch starts gelatinizing. Less than a minute later you should see the boil bubbles, which are very large and slow-forming in the viscous liquid. That's the time to take it off the heat, your starch is fully cooked and will not taste chalky. If you are serving it for a fussy occasion, it makes sense to pass it through a sieve to catch stray clumps of starch or egg protein, but I usually don't bother.

If you were trying to keep the eggs from overcooking, that's impossible. Eggs overcook at around 87 C, while starch gelatinizes around 96 C. Also, the yolks will eat up your starch after 24 to 48 hours if not heated well. So you cannot keep the taste of a starchless custard if you use starch. That's not a problem texture-wise, since the starch takes care of the texture and you don't get the corning or whey exudate associated with overcooked egg custards.


Swapping sugar for something less calorie dense but keeping the volume

Yes, the lack of volume will be a problem. Sugar makes up much of the structure of a cake. But since Stevia is 300 times sweetener than sugar, you'll end up using 300 times less. In addition the bulking issue, sugar plays many other roles in cake: it tenderizes, retains moisture, and contributes to browning. A sugar-free cake may be disappointing no matter what.
I also worry that you are making too many big substitutions. The recipe you are referencing was carefully developed to use wheat flour and real sugar: substituting vastly different products could lead to inferior results. Why not follow a recipe developed with your ingredients in mind? This recipe uses Stevia and almond flour as desired, but supplements with other binders such as flax and tapioca to ensure sufficient structure. Another uses Stevia, a gluten-free flour mix, buckwheat flour, eggs, applesauce, and flax. As you can see, to totally remove sugar and gluten from a recipe, you may need to carefully add other ingredients.
If you are really set on using an existing recipe, some recommendations for substitutions exist. This blog post prescribes replacing each cup of sugar with 1 teaspoon of Stevia plus some extra liquid. They give options:

applesauce, 100 percent fruit juice (apple, pineapple or grape are good choices), fruit puree, egg whites or plain, unsweetened yogurt. Fruit generally provides a lighter, fluffier texture, while yogurt gives the cake a rich, moist feel. Egg whites tend to lend density to cakes. Experiment with different substitutes until you find the one that best suits your tastes.

I haven't tried any of these recommendations, but let us know how your banana bread goes!


Best approach to making a loaf of bread stale

Don't use a paper bag, it actually helps the bread keep somewhat longer.
Your best approach is to put it in the fridge. This is the temperature at which the starch crystalizes at the highest speed.
Update, shamelessly stealing from Tristan: If you cut it up first, you will speed up the process too. The more surface you have exposed to airflow, the better.
You'll still need to give it time, but it's maybe half the time it needs at room temperature.


What is the stringy slimy stuff in Peace Tea?

The ingredients list:

  TEA (WATER, TEA POWDER), CANE SUGAR, NATURAL FLAVORS, CITRIC ACID, PECTIN, SUCRALOSE

None of those should be slimy or stringy, and also wouldn't form a fibrous string even if it was sitting for a long time. It's almost impossible to know what did contaminate your drink. However, you can get in touch with the manufacturer about it!


Can I replace Lard with Ghee in tortillas?

You could try substituting leaf lard for regular lard.

Lard has characteristics that make it perfect for tortillas.  But the big square bricks of MANTECA sometimes taste piggy even to me.

Leaf lard is super premium lard from a particular part of the pig.  I have found it only at farmers markets and occasionally at specialty butchers but of course you could order on line.  It is expensive.  It is essentially tasteless.  I bought a tub and my daughter used the entire thing for pie crust, which my lardophobic wife ate merrily.


Frying then finishing breaded pork chops in the oven

A quick google search give multiple results.

Most are in the range of oven at 350F, pan fry 3 minutes each side and put in oven for 10 minutes or until around 150F internal temperature.


Any good yeast that you bake bread with will do the job.  I have very good success with so-called quick rise or instant yeast, but any of the types will do.   Fresh is more difficult to keep on hand, as it doesn't last as long.

What you will need to adjust seasonally is how much yeast you use and/or how long you let the pizza proof before baking it.   The temperature at which you proof--which is often room temperature in the kitchen--will effect how long it takes the dough to rise.


How to deal with small batches on a KitchenAid?

I would first make sure the beater to bowl clearance is set correctly. The manual (which I linked) shows you how to do it.  However, there is a minimum amount of ingredients that will mix well.  For those cases, maybe a whisk is a better tool.


What causes the texture difference between Greek style yogurt and regular yogurt?

I would describe it as an almost chalky texture. Greek yogurt is typically strained 3+ times before packaging and in most cases is made from dairy with a higher fat content. The tang and texture are due to the whey being almost completely removed from the yogurt. The higher milk serum content (whey) in US yogurt makes it sweeter and obviously less viscous.


Why does my sourdough loaf not get an ear

with no photo of the crumb it's hard to know whether there's also a proofing issue but irrespectively let me tell you that it's notoriously difficult to get a consistent ear at home unless you bake the bread in some sort of hot enclosure (dutch oven, cast iron pot with lid etc). That is my experience at least. Sure, the cutting makes a difference so as to have a nice ear but the moisture is the main culprit: your oven cooks the outside of the bread too fast before the temperatures reaches the air in the inside, so when the bread expands air is sealed in and doesn't get the spring it can. Cooking in an enclosure keeps the moisture from the bread close to the crust thus keeping it soft for a bit longer which is when the inside gets hot and expands. This whole thing happens the first 5-10' of baking so if you don't get an ear by then, it's game over.
I have been baking sourdough 2ice a week for about three years now, here's a bread that didn't quite open well enough (together with its crumb to show that it's properly proofed and folded)

and here's one that opened beautifully:

their only difference being that the second was baked inside an enamel pot (the baguettes always get an ear cause they are baked on their little baguette baking trays).


Making spice pastes with a food processor

It sounds like you are doing it wrong! :) Grind spices in a spice grinder first (a rotary coffee grinder works fine for that). See How do you finely grind coriander seeds?

Garlic, ginger, fresh herbs and coconut are fine in a small bowl of a food processor, but they need some time and a few restarts after cleaning the sides of the bowl with a spatula. After processing the spices and other dry things in the rotary grinder, you can add the spices to the moist things after they have been processed. The food processor will be fine to mix the dry and moist parts, after they have been ground/processed separately.


Are special recipes needed to preserve using a pressure canner?

The trusted recipes you get from, e.g., a university extension are tested to make sure that they actually heat through entirely and for long enough to destroy bacterial spores, in particular botulism (but also a few more less deadly ones).

In water bath canning, you're using acidity (primarily) to make sure botulism can not grow from the spores, which are not destroyed by boiling water canning. The inside of the jar isn't actually sterile.

In pressure canning, you're actually destroying the spores. So you can can things where the bacteria could otherwise grow—because the inside of the jar is sterile.

Destroying the spores requires reaching a particular temperature for a long enough duration. If you don't do that, once the food cools down, the spores will germinate. A very bad outcome.

The key thing is that (as always) the outside of whatever you're canning heats first. The heat then transfers in towards the center. But the rate of heat transfer can vary greatly depending on what it is.

If heat transfers slowly, you have to pressure cook longer. If heat transfers quickly, you don't have to cook as long. Generally, you'd like to process for as short a time as possible, to preserve texture and flavor.

When developing a safe canning recipe, multiple batches are prepared and each is canned with special equipment that allows measuring the temperature at various points inside the jar, during the pressure cooking. They time how long it takes for all the points to reach safety, and of course repeat this multiple times. That's ultimately where the processing time comes from.


What are the benefits of whisking when making muffins?

I think your question is been answered here

"Over mixing batter forms gluten, which in turn hardens the cake", @Theindependentaquarius.

"There's a difference between "don't overmix" and "don't mix" - you're supposed to mix enough to incorporate, just don't try homogenize it", @Aaronut.


Recommendation for thickening agent for use in basil seed drink, to prevent seeds from collecting at the bottom

I use xanthan gum to thicken dressing.  Not sure how it would work in a drink.


How can I get a syrupy "mouth-feel" in sugar-free syrup?

I don't have a good suggestion for what to use, but at least I can give you some info on xanthan.

Yes, syrup can take viscosity from an infinitesmal amount of xanthan gum. If you add 0.5% to 1% of the fluid's weight in xanthan, you get a pudding consistency. For a syrup-like viscosity, you need much less.

But xanthan is not a sugar, and does not make a syrupy consistency. It makes stuff gooey, not sticky. This may be enough for you, if all you need is some thickness, but the texture won't be the same as normal sugar syrup. I haven't tried commercial sugar-free syrup, so I can't make a comparison there.

Xanthan has also the unfortunate tendency to reduce aroma, although it may not be a problem in the little amounts needed for syrup-like thickness.


My soup tastes tart... Is it safe to eat?

I would not eat any soup containing meat more than a day or two after it was cooked, and certainly not if it smelled suspicious. The logic with this kind of thing is simple. If you have any doubts, chuck it out. Not getting food poisoning is worth losing a little soup over.


In my opinion, yes. Go easy, you can always add more, but you can't take it away.

I would actually grab nutmeg for chili long before I would consider cloves.


How to adjust time for oven stuck at 350F

The turkey is going to be quite happy with the slightly lower temp - you will need a bit more time, but I'd guestimate 1/2 hour tops should be ok. This is another occasion to repeat our all important:

  Use a thermomenter to determine doneness of your roast, not a timer!

The lasagna shouldn't be a problem either - I'm surprised at the long baking time anyway. Again, perhaps another 1/2 hour should be sufficient, if necessary at all.

Just note that at 350F / 175C your dishes might be browning a little less that you'd expect at 400F / 205C. Consider using the broiler when they are almost done to crisp them up a bit.


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

Could it be you are not using the same type of potatoes all the time? Different varieties of potatoes do have very different textures. The ones with the brown, rough, dusty skins ("russet" I think they are called?) usually cook up with the fluffy, dry, almost "sparkly" flesh. The smoother skinned ones tend to have denser, waxier texture inside. The pink, smooth ones ("rose" or "early rose") seem to fit the description of "looking dull" inside when cooked.


The frozen pre-cooked shrimp are of course safe to eat if they come from a reputable source.

You may wish to cook them a little bit to heat them up to service temperature, and integrate them with a sauce or spices or so on, but you could just peel and eat them if you wanted to.

The shrimping industry may have some variation in how it processes shrimp after they are caught.  There are certainly some vessels that are capable of cooking their fresh caught catch on board; there are also some shrimpers, especially in waters near the US, which can freeze the shrimp on board.  Hopefully someone more directly familiar with the shrimping industry can give you a better answer on this part of your question.

Even if the shrimp were caught, frozen on board, then cooked at a processing plant and refrozen, assuming that the various parties took good and reasonable care, they could still be of high quality and of course safe.

All of the above assumes you are buying shrimp from repuatable and licensed sources in your own jurisdiction.


How do I make my bread heavy when baked?

This is personal experience, and I am not a professional cook. However are you sure you are using the right kind of flour?

I personally find making bread using anything except strong flour makes bread that is light and almost cake like, not very pleasant in my opinion.

Strong flour has more protein and gluten and gives an overall heavier feel to the bread, both in weight and texture/taste.

If you are already using strong flour consider using less yeast, this will cause the bread to rise less and be heavier, but this may make the taste and texture less pleasant.

(A Friend informed me strong flour may have different names depending on your region and part of the world, so if you are not sure exactly how to get it I would suggest researching online to find a good supplier in your area.)


How do I keep chocolate chips from melting in cake batter?

My experience tells me that the better the chocolate is, the faster it would melt.  I would suggest to lightly coat the chips in some flour and then add them to the mix.

Let me know if this works, will ya?


My google-fu powers tell me that yes, it's indeed a mini cake divider.

You put it on top of the cake and slice through the slits to get uniformly sized cake slices.


Does incorporating whipping cream in a chocolate syrup extend its shelf life?

If you have an ingredient which is supposed to be cooked through, and cook it before it expires, the shelf life of the now cooked dish would be the standard for all cooked dishes, 3-5 days, no matter if the expiry date of the ingredient falls within these 3-5 days or not. Assuming that your syrup is cooked, and your cream is still good, I think it is safe to use that rule.

But in your case, the problem is that you already opened the cream "some months ago". This means that you bought UHT cream with an expiry date months in the future. The important point here is that this date assumes a closed container. UHT is a sterilization technique, similar to canning. Just like you can't open a tin of beans and expect them to sit in the open and stay good for months, you can't expect the cream to stay good. UHT dairy, once opened, should be treated like any other perishable food: refrigerated and used up within 3-5 days. Most people don't care about this, as it doesn't change its taste for over a week outside of the fridge, but keeping it out is not a safe practice. In any case, sitting at room temperature for months is way too long.

You mention freezing: don't freeze dairy, it doesn't work well.

Bottom line: When you open cream, you have to use it up. Whether you make syrup with it or not, it has the same shelf life from the point of opening.


My refrigerator is not efficiently cooling

John, you might want to find the manual for the fridge, and see if there's some way to get a trouble code.  You can often find them online these days ... even for older appliances.

It's possible that with everything computerized, you might have to do something before display a code, but in previous decades, there'd be a light that blinked with a given pattern, or multiple lights in a pattern, and you'd compare it to a table in the manual.  I would try to find one on the manufacturer's websites, although there are some sites that specialize in just manuals.**

It might be something as simple as needing to clean some cooling fins or coils, or just making sure they have proper airflow.  It's possible that they've gone the way of modern cars, where you have to connect a device to read the code ... in which case, the cost might be high enough to check the code that it'd be better to just  get a repair person in to take a look at it.

** But there have also been groups putting up PDFs with exploit code in them ... they take legitimate stuff from other sites and use them as trojan horses.  I haven't heard of it happening with repair manuals, but I'd make sure your virus scanning software is running and up-to-date before downloading PDFs from just anywhere.


How to get rid of foam on shaken cocktails

Foam in shaken cocktails is often actually considered a desirable quality. This is the reason why you'll sometimes see egg white included in recipes like the whiskey sour - the proteins in the egg white help to maintain a long-lasting froth on top of the cocktail, which many drinkers find appealing. It adds a slightly different mouthfeel too and can make a nice change in some cocktails.

So, while I encourage you not to discount the foam completely, understanding what helps produce foam can also help you to avoid it. Scientifically-minded bartenders have conducted experiments on foam and how to produce it which we can learn from.

Basically, the foam is a collection of tiny air bubbles dispersed in the liquid, which is mediated by emulsifiers and proteins in the citrus juice. This is commonly lemon juice or lime juice (both of which do actually contain a small amount of protein) and could be either depending on the Jack Rose recipe that you're using. The more viscous the liquid mixture, the more stable the bubbles will be. Forming the foam in the first place takes a fair amount of force, which you provide with turbulence when you shake the drink with ice.

This suggests a few possible approaches: change how much turbulence you produce, change the viscosity, or try to eliminate the proteins.

Changing your method

Let's start with the approach that's easiest and most practical for the home bartender. This involves building the drink differently to generate less turbulence.

Don't shake. This has already been suggested by another answer, and it's certainly effective; it eliminates the turbulence almost completely. There are two problems with this: it takes much longer to chill a drink when stirring (it takes easily 45-50 seconds of continuous stirring to produce the chilling effect of 10 seconds of shaking), and the drink can taste "flat" as compared to a shaken drink. It's generally thought that shaking better integrates citrus juice and somehow "wakes up" the flavor of the citrus; I haven't seen a detailed scientific explanation for this phenomenon, but I'd guess that it's somehow related to oxidation of the juice, which can also change the flavor of citrus juice as it ages after being squeezed.
Shake more gently. Something of a middle way. Oddly enough, how hard you shake doesn't appear to be much related to how quickly the drink chills, but many Japanese bartenders in particular use a method called the "hard shake" to produce more foam in the final drink. Perhaps not surprisingly, the idea is to produce more turbulence. You can go the opposite route: shake gently, almost lazily, and only for as long as the drink needs to chill (10 seconds at most).
Use smaller ice. This is an interesting one! Dave Arnold, a well-regarded molecular mixologist, shares an intriguing finding in his wide-ranging book Liquid Intelligence. He's observed that using a single large ice cube (about 2 inches in diameter) seems to produce more froth in his shaken drinks. So you can go the opposite direction: use smaller, cracked cubes when shaking.
Let the drink stand before pouring. These foams aren't particularly stable, and they'll break down pretty quickly. If you let the drink settle in the shaker before you pour it into the glass, some of the foam will naturally break down. As an adjunct to this, pour carefully; the foam will rise to the top of the shaker and will pour out last, so you can keep it from making it into the drink if you pour slowly and are willing to discard a bit of liquid.
Use a blowtorch. This is a really cool suggestion from @DietrichEpp in comments, and works amazingly well! If you have a gas blowtorch available, you can pass the flame very quickly over the surface of the cocktail and eliminate nearly all of the foam. My guess is that this works by heating up the air within the foam bubbles and popping them, without appreciably heating up the drink itself. The only problem, of course, is that you need to have a blowtorch.

Change the viscosity

This gets a little more difficult, because the main element affecting viscosity in cocktails is sugar, which also balances the flavor of the drink. If you simply make the drink less sweet, you might wind up with less foam, but it'll also taste different. Still, there are a couple things you can try for the Jack Rose in particular.

Make your own grenadine. If you're not doing this already, I encourage you to try. It's really quite easy. Rather than using a pre-bottled version like Rose's, this allows you to adjust the ratio of sugar to water in the syrup and reduce the sugar content somewhat while maintaining a nice pomegranate flavor.
Use a higher-proof liquor. Alcohol is less viscous than water, so a spirit that's higher in alcohol content will reduce viscosity somewhat. If you're using an 80-proof (40% ABV) applejack in your Jack Rose, try seeking out a 100-proof (50% ABV) version like Laird's Straight Apple Brandy instead. This idea can apply to other cocktails as well; a lot of whiskeys in particular can be found in overproof versions where less water is added to bring down the proof.

Reduce the protein

The idea here is to eliminate some of the proteins from the citrus juice that mediate the formation of foam. That sounds promising, but it's also fairly advanced and perhaps too much work to make yourself a drink or two. Still, experimentation can be fun and worth exploring.

Note that for the Jack Rose in particular, pomegranate juice also contains proteins; if you're making your own grenadine as suggested above, you can do this with all the juices that you use.

Run your juices through a fine filter before use. Strictly speaking, this won't eliminate a lot of proteins, but it will reduce some of the particulates in the citrus juice that give gas bubbles a place to start forming. This needs to be a very fine filter: a coffee filter is a good start. Note that this takes a while, and you may need to change out the filters several times. A device such an an AeroPress can help you force the juice through the filter more easily for this approach.
Clarify your juices. If you really want to get serious, you can use methods otherwise applied to clarify stocks to clarify juices as well. This takes a lot of work and special materials, so be warned. However, it's a very effective filtration method that will eliminate almost all of the proteins and particles that cause foaming. Be warned that it does strip out some flavor as well, but it will produce a very clear final product.

It probably goes without saying, but you can combine as many of these ideas as you want. Start with changing up your method and move down the list if you're still not satisfied with the results.


A lot of it depends on the type of pizza you make. Where I worked we did thin crust pizza, and these were the reasons we tossed:

Speed. Trying to roll or pat out a 17 inch pizza would be very time consuming.

Consistency. Was easier to make the crust a consistent size and shape.

Space. Rolling or patting a person needs the table space 100% of the time. When tossing you can step back from the table and let another person get in to prep (or finish) their toss.

Job marketing. People wanted to work there just to learn how to toss, and it helped maintain that "authentic" vibe.

And as you pointed out, the show aspect of it. Kids loved to watch our staff toss.


From the comments - you used a different brand of whole wheat flour this time around. My best guess (and really that's all anyone can do with something like this as there are way too many factors) is that this new brand is the reason for the difference in the bread.

Just because they are the same type of flour, it doesn't mean they are all milled, sieved etc. the same way.

It may be this new flour is:

More coarse or finely ground
Different additives
More of the wheat husks are sieved out

All these factors can effect how the bread cooks as well as how much liquid the flour absorbs.

I would say it is very unlikely that your bread machine has broken since it sounds like the bread still cooked!

It's also unlikely that the bread will cause you any harm. An enriched plain loaf bread mix can be eaten raw (not that you'd want to).

 Please feel free to edit my list with any other changes flour can have between brands.


Should pans be washed before adding more poultry?

IMO, in a professional/commercial kitchen you should never re-use and always use clean equipment.

The risk of contamination is great(er) in case of chicken, so is the risk of having an inspector coming in and seeing dirty equipment lying around.


Is there a known 'lifehack' to facilitate the picking back up of the bay leaves after cooking with them?

In Germany there is a „Spickzwiebel“ especially for red cabbage. You put your bayleave on the onion and attach it with cloves. For other dishes I use onions the same way but substitute the cloves with a sprig of rosemary or some other hard herb. Works best if herb bags are too small for lager sprigs that don‘t fit the bag.


How fast does water cool off after boiling?

As long as you are talking about a normal pot with or without a normal lid (i.e. not a pressure cooker) and you are reasonably close to sea level, you're right, boiling water is at 100°C.
However, if you start to climb in altitude, that is no longer the case, at 300m, water boils at 99°C, at 600m, 98°C and so on. Wikipedia has a page with information about High altitude cooking that contains a reference table.


Resources for cooking for Wilson's Disease?

When I saw this question a few months ago, I didn't want to answer it because:
cooking for people with any kind of nutritional disease is not only difficult, but also dangerous,
therefore, before you move on, please ensure:

You have to have more than a basic understanding of (bio)chemistry
You have to have more than a basic understanding of nutrition
You have to have more than a basic understanding of Databases
You have to consult your physician (in this case: your friend's endocrinologist) with any recipe that you come up with using the below method:

The best freely publicly available scientific source for nutrition is the United States Department of Agriculture's SR28 Database so start with reading the manual!
In this particular case of Wilson's disease, the NUTR_DEF 312 Cu is the one to look out for, so load the raw data files into your favourite RDBMS, delete all references in FOOD_DES that contain 312 and presto: you have a USDA database customised to your friend's disease!
Select any of the ingredients that are left in the database, and start coming up with safe and yummy recipes that you have to give to your friend's  endocrinologist to vouch for them before actually making them...  :)
Note 1: If you have multiple friends with multiple allergies and intolerances, you leave everything in the database and SELECT * FROM Food_Des WHERE Nutrient_No NOT IN (Nutrient, Nutrient, ... );
Note 2: I answered your question because I feel sorry for your friend and no one has even tempted to answer your question in the last few months that I can notice.
Note 3: No, Seasoned advice is not a recipe-writing service so don't bother asking for recipes, they're off-topic here!
Note 4: Yes, I'm a chemist and I help my cousin, who's a professional chef, come up with recipes for sick children's birthday parties, but I have her run any recipes by the child's doctor...


What determines if the handle of a pan gets hot while in use?

The usual heat transfer issues all apply.

What are those? Well, let me see

The handle will warm up until it's total heat losses equal the total heat coming in.
Heat comes in mostly by conduction from the body of the pot.
Some materials conduct heat better than others. Metals tend to have high thermal conductivity (with aluminum and especially copper begin particularly good at it). Plastics and wood tend to be poor thermal conductors.
Thick pieces of material can conduct heat faster than thin ones, but they also take proportionately more heat to increase the temperature, so this is a wash...unless you connect a solid handle to the body with thin spars (as in your upper photograph).
The handle loses heat to the air by conduction (very little), convection (much more), and radiation (very little until it gets to hot to hold). For all of these having lots of surface area improves the rate at which heat can be dumped into the surrounding environment.
Shape and orientation matters a lot to convective heat losses, but the dependence is too complicated to describe in a few words.

I find that bent sheet metal handles tend to stay cool, while solid handles get hot. If the half-n-half version you describe above has a pretty solid piece of metal that that part will behave very much like a all-metal handle (it may even be worse as the teflon will insulate the underside).

Short of taking detailed photos and constructing a model in a thermal simulation there is no rigorous way to know in advance. Still, if you've been cooking for long you probably have some intuition in this matter. Trust it.


I don't think you can make a Beef Wellington without the obligatory mushrooms, it essentially becomes something else.

The whole concept behind beef wellington is to keep the meat juices in by being surrounded by pastry but there's no reason why you shouldn't omit the mushrooms for something else. I really can't think of any other food substance that would replicate the flavour of mushrooms without being mushrooms other than truffle.

I would try something like a pork/onion sausage meat stuffing and being the time of year it is, perhaps with chestnuts as a possible alternative, either surrounding the beef or inside it.


Sourdough starter - when do you give up?

Typically you can begin to give up at around day 5-7. (Especially if you've taken an aggressive feeding schedule.)

With an aggressive feeding schedule (2-3 times daily), you should begin to see bubbling and sour notes by day three (and is a good indicator for collecting the Lactobacillus bacteria).

Ref: Full Proof Baking

By Day 5, I typically give up if there's no rise or sour notes.

There's two common factors that make sourdough fermentation difficult.

the Type of flour

  If you use plain/white, there's not enough nutrients - so adding rye, ground cereal, or anything with whole grains will help.

The water quality

  Chlorine or other chemicals might be present in your source, so getting a tap filter and boiling/resting the water will assist.

Summary:
- try increasing the feeding cycles until you get the sour notes, keep note of the water/flour until you get some smell/reaction.


The difference between Pecorino Romano and Parmiggiano Reggiano (Parmesan) is that the first is made from sheep milk, the last from cow milk.I think this is the reason that they behave so differently, because they are made from milk of very different animals.The closest type of cheese to the pecorino romano might be the pecorino sardo.


If you sterilise the jars before and after sealing, it should easily last a year if not more. Sterilising will involve boiling the jars in a large pan of water for 15 minutes, filling and sealing them, then boiling for 15 minutes again.


Can you boil the potatoes for mashed potatoes too long?

Yes, you can.

The problem is that the potatoes start absorbing water, and you end up with a really runny mash that's difficult to flavor (as most people flavor their mash by the addition of flavorful liquids).

update : There's a few things that you can do to hold them.  The first is to drain the water, and leave the potato bits (unmashed) in the pot.  If you leave them uncovered, they'll cool off, but it'll also let moisture evaporate, which can help to fix some of the problems I mentioned earlier.

You don't want to let them cool off too far, or they'll not mash up smoothly; if you're going to need to hold them for more than 5-10 minutes, put a lid on them.  Once it comes time to mash, refresh them with whatever liquid you're going to add to the mash, warmed.

If you're going to need to hold them a really long time, you have two options ... one is to mash them but intentionally reduce the liquid, and then refresh them with more hot liquid a few minutes before serving.  The other is to transfer them to a baking dish after mashing, and put it in a low oven.  (if you rough up the surface, and put it under the broiler right before serving, you can get a crust on it for a bit of variety).


How do I remove bloomy rind without wasting too much cheese?

When the cheese is very cold (even frozen), use a sharp knife and it will be easier to cut the rind off more precisely, to waste less cheese.
(I assume you're aware that the rind is edible and indeed enjoyed by many people. Another way to avoid wasting cheese would be to find a rind-eating friend to share your cheese with.)


The best method, for flavor development and low labor, is probably to simply roast the pumpkin.

Derobert has written a blog entry describing this in great detail.  With pictures!

Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and guts, and then roast (cut side down) on an oiled sheet pan at about 425 F for about an hour (optionally turning face up to brown slightly at the end).  Let cool enough to handle, then scoop out the flesh and puree in a food processor.  Derobert then recommends a second roast, spread out in a sheet pan at 350 F to reduce the water content--it is done when it darkens slightly or shows cracks.


How do cooking utensils remain safe for use?

There are several aspects to this:

first, consider the meat. Chicken from the supermarket, ground beef, or a piece of steak? Chicken is more likely to be contaminated - I treat anything that has touched raw chicken as contaminated and do not reuse it. A steak I am a little less worried about, partly because I like my steaks well seared on the outside so they are hotter on the outside towards the end of cooking than other meats.
second, do you have to use tongs to put it in the pan? I often use my hands and then wash them, and only start using the tongs once I'm dealing with hot (cooked on the outside) meat. Same for burgers: I don't put them in the pan with the flipper, it gets involved when they're ready to turn for the first time
third, consider that if some bacteria did get onto the tongs, after 10 or so minutes on the counter while the meat cooks, that bacteria would not have grown considerably, not all of it would then get on the meat when you reused the tongs, of those that did reach the meat, some would be killed in the remainder of the cook time or just from contact with the hot meat surface, and after 5 or 10 minutes of resting whatever remained would not have a significant growth. Compare to picking up yesterday's raw-chicken tongs from the counter where they've sat for 23 hours and using them to handle today's rare steak. That would be nasty.

My rule is to minimize reuse of utensils, but I don't have 10 pairs of tongs and someone to wash them for me, so for some meals it happens, and as long as it's not chicken, I don't worry about it.


Store meat in marinade or after cooking (for taste)

Marinades are surface treatments.  However, many marinades contain salt.  Salt does penetrate proteins. Over time, you will get a more "cured" flavor and texture.  So, your pork might begin to resemble the structure of a cured or brined pork product. You may or may not want this result.  On the other hand, some marinades contain ingredients that denature proteins and impact the texture of the product in a way that makes them more "mushy" over time.  For these reasons, I would marinade for the prescribed time, then cook...then store (not in the marinade, and especially not in the same marinade that was used for raw proteins), if not eating or if you have any left over.


Why the pizza is able to "recover" so quickly?

Yeast action is only one factor in getting a rise when baking. Yeast metabolizes sugars and produces CO2 bubbles which puff up your dough, and also help with gluten development to make your dough stretchy. However, when you bake your dough much of the lift you get is from the expansion of water turning into steam - this is what makes pizza dough puff up a bit when baked and gives you that texture.

Water is also important in gluten development when your dough is proofing, without enough water you won't get an elastic dough with good crumb. My thinking is that your dough is too dry, so add more water to your dough. Stick to the amounts of flour and water in a trusted recipe and knead with oil instead of flour. After kneading your dough should be fairly loose and just a bit sticky, and you should be able to stretch it quite a bit without breaking.

Regarding oven temperatures you don't need the fires of hades to make a good pizza - the most important things for a good pizza is a good base, sauce, and quality ingredients. Crank your oven up as high as it will go and use a pizza stone (make sure to heat it up for at least 30 minutes) and you'll get a good result.


The most likely explanation is that your pan starts failing. When ceramic pans fail, they do so by getting gummed up with food buildup.

I am a bit surprised to see it first occur with cheese, but maybe you dipped it in batter before frying? Also, the herbs on it could have been mixed with starch before being applied to the cheese, this is done to prevent caking and mold. Typically, the worst combination for these pans is starch with fat. On the other hand, I have no proof that it can't happen with cheese, it's just that I haven't heard of it being the first food to start sticking.

Once this happens, you can't really clean it. A lye solution will restore it for a short time, but I don't know the physics of the pan failure, so I have no idea if it is beneficial, or on the contrary, if it speeds up the degradation process.

Just continue using the pan, and once it becomes too non-nonstick, decide if you want to keep it that way and fry with it as with a standard pan (it behaves much like a stainless steel pan afterwards) or throw it out. For me, it depends on the pan heating quality, if it is a good pan with thick bottom and even heating, it continues doing a good job after the coating fails.


They = cake decorators

They have an artistic hand (I don't have one and cannot decorate anything).
They have lot and lot and lot of practice.
They have wasted a lot and lot of cakes and icing and fondant to achieve that level of perfection.

They have a lot of experience with making their own icing (and fondant) that will work well when decorating bags in their own controlled environment (temperature/humidity)

They usually use small pipettes (or syringes) and small pastry/decorating bags with fine points couplers.

As for "naming them", I assume you are talking about "cake decorators" and google will return gazillions entries.

Max.


A very fresh, ripe ear of corn will have a moist, green, unblemished husk; when peeled back, its silk will also moist and clinging to the kernels. In the store, you may find that an ear of corn will have a slightly dried out husk, but if it's still green and the kernels look plump when the husk is pulled back, that ear's fine. Ignore any husks that are very dry with rotten-looking, off-smelling silk tops.


Did you measure by cups or otherwise by volume, as opposed to by weight? I'd bet that this is the issue, too much flour compared to the rest of the ingredients. Have you made these cookies often enough that you can feel when they're right? You can still save them by adding everything else a bit at a time, and feel for the right texture. Feel, don't look, and let your fingers tell you the answers. Take your time and listen to your fingers. It sounds cliche, but I think it is your best shot.


How would I measure Bouillon Cubes compared to the actual powder

The bouillon cubes I am familiar with are equal to 1 teaspoon of powder.


Banana bread edges are burnt, top and middle is underdone

The usual remedy for something both burned and undercooked is lower heat, longer cooking time - it lets the temperature equalize a bit more, so it cooks more evenly.  You might try 300F for your usual 1:20 cooking time, and see if it doesn't burn and/or needs more time.

Alternatively, since the overcooking is directional (from the bottom) you can move the rack up, so its closer to the top, or else put something underneath to partially block the heat - like having a sheet a rack below your bread, to hopefully provide a baffle to radiant heat and let the indirect heat spread a bit more evenly.

I would also recommend, as moscajf suggested, checking your oven temperature, and/or checking other recipes in the glass pan to see if there's similar issues, in case one of them is the culprit.


What is the difference between instant and filter coffee?

"Filter" coffee in general, is coffee beans that have been roasted and ground and is for use in coffee making machines. This makes 'fresh' coffee that may have a variety of qualities not found in instant - such as sweeter or more distinct flavours, etc.

"Instant" coffee is normally a coffee that has already been made (they had the fun already!) and is dried (usually through freezing) into a dehydrated state, hence we just add water and get coffee.

I would think that most people who have drunk proper (freshly made) coffee would prefer the flavour, quality and effects from caffeine, over that of instant. For me, instant is a back up, in case the real stuff runs out, but I feel always tastes a little woody and not as satisfying in terms of a caffeine hit. There are several coffees available now - Kenco Millicano is one - that offer both instant and some kind of coffee bean, but all I see is coffee grinds in the bottom of the cup, and not much difference in flavour.


Are they're any ovens that have Programmable Stove top element features like an OVEN start stop feature?

It looks like some Siemans hobs have that feature.

http://www.siemens-home.com/Files/Siemens/Gb/en/Document/SiemensBuiltIn09_Hobs.pdf


Prefermenting the whole sourdough rye bread

I am still very much an amateur in this area, however my current mental model is that the way to develop more flavor is by slowly cultivating many generations of yeast.

So, the potential problem with letting your young yeast get all the sugar all at once, is that you greatly reduce both the time and the number of generations.

One option is let your yeast multiply in a small portion of you total
dough before it joins the rest of your dough.
Another option is to let your yeast multiply under refrigeration.
A third option is to do both.


What is the 'Steam-Chill-Bake' method of making hot wings?

I believe you're referring to my comment and it was actually referring to my answer to the question.  To summarize (follow the link for specific instructions), the technique is:

Steam the wings for 10 minutes
Season, then chill them in the refrigerator for 1 hour
Bake at high temperature (450° F) for 20 minutes on each side
Toss with sauce.

Why cook them this way?  Because it makes them perfectly crispy and juicy, almost like deep-fried wings (better, if you ask me).  Assuming the sauce has an appropriate amount of fat (butter) then it will also bind perfectly.


How to Use Ravioli Maker without Press Insert

Just push down gently with your thumbs; you want an impression that's about 1cm deep.  There is no way to ensure uniformity if you have lost the insert.

You can just buy a replacement ravioli maker, which will have the plastic plate.  I suppose you could even fabricate a replacement for the missing plate, but anything you make is liable to be more expensive than simply buying one.


What is the dark stuff inside a green bell pepper?

It sounds like it was gassed to stay bright green and firm but the seeds are showing how old it actually is. The pith (the whitish veins on the sides) is also firm on a fresh pepper, if its limp probably due to age.


Equivalent of cracked fennel seed to ground fennel seed

I used a spice grinder to actually measure how much ground fennel I would get from 1TBS cracked. I got just over 2tsp ground. Therefore, 1/2 cup of cracked fennel is in a sense equivalent to about 6TBS ground. However, don't do it that way! Cracked fennel gives a little burst of flavor as you crunch the seed. Powdered fennel will strongly permeate the whole dish, and that much ground fennel will seriously overpower all other flavors. If the fennel is really necessary to the dish, and you can only get ground fennel, start with a single tablespoon, and then add more to taste. My guess would be that 2TBS will be plenty, but seriously, I wouldn't even try the substitution.


How can I remove moisture from my onions?

One technique for removing water from a vegetable, which works very well for onions, is to salt them liberally.  Then give them some time to sit, preferably in a shallow layer.

The salt will extract water from the vegetable, due to the osmotic gradient between the salt outside and the vegetable inside.  Some of the salt will go into the vegetable, but much will remain outside; you'll need to figure out how much salt you can get away with using before your vegetable is too salty, but it's typically a large amount in my experience.

Once enough water has been extracted, rinse the vegetable off (to remove the excess salt), and pat it dry between two parts of a towel (or two paper towels).  The vegetable will now have much less moisture in it, which will both lead to crispier and quicker frying, and less moisture coming out in the cooking process.

A second option, in your specific case, is to store them in open containers.  The refrigerator will dry the onions out over time.  This is usually a bad thing, and you intentionally close containers to prevent this; but in your case, depending on the length of time you're talking about, it could be a good thing.  I wouldn't do this for more than a few days (as it will really dry the onion), but it might be worth testing to see if it helps.  This may leave your refrigerator (and its contents) smelling like onions, of course.

Alternately, you can store the onion on a mesh or grate which allows moisture to slip down below the onion; it may help prevent some moisture re-absorption and improve your results.


Grilling long beans, and a substitute for cooking twine

NO--I cannot emphasize this enough--you CANNOT use nylon rope (or any other random rope you have laying around, unless you can be guaranteed that it is 100% cotton or hemp)! It will melt all over your food. Cooking twine is generally, if memory serves, pure cotton and thus safe (though perhaps not tasty) to eat.

Tying your beans in bundles would be counterproductive; only the outer beans would cook. Unless you did some sort of weaving thing like a bamboo mat, at which point I would have to question whether the extra work actually saved you any time.

The mistake that most people make when grilling long skinny things is, as you say, to roll them. Or to flip them as though they were bigger objects. The trick is to turn them from their ends, so it's just a matter of grabbing the end--straight on, parallel to the bean--with your tongs, twist your wrist, move on to the next one.


What is the best way to store the whole wheat flour for daily usage?

Hermetically sealed (airtight) containers. If it's not airtight you will eventually end up with flour bugs and they will move into to your non-airtight cornmeal container, and anything else they care to infest that isn't locked up tight. The old metal tins or quaint crockery are not adequate to prevent infestation, and sooner or later you'll buy some bag of something that already has the bugs in it; they'll spread.
I use plastic tupperware type stuff. It's cheap and effective. Beauty comes at a substantial extra cost.


Making Kombucha - problems and questions

All of your scobies look safe and healthy. They will start out thin and slimy. If you want to grow a more substantial scoby, leave your ferment for longer than usual until it is strong enough to not crumple completely and can continue to grow in future batches.

For your food safety concerns, you want to avoid anything green, blue, or fuzzy. One method of reassurance of safety would be to keep track of the acidity of your kombucha.

The preferable pH for Kombucha is 3.5-2.5. You can get hold of some pH strips to test this. Any pH below 4/3.5 is considered safe, amd will prevent any harmful micro organisms from growing, due to the acidity. When you first mix a new batch it will likely be above this mark, but should drop below 4 within a couple of days.


My time pressed tofu draining method is the microwave.

You slice it into the size pieces you wan then there are two different ways I have used:

1) Microwave it for about two minutes. Water leaks out onto the plate, which you drain then microwave it for a couple more minutes. Keep doing this until it stops leaking out water.

2) Microwave once for three minutes then place over a colander to rain.

The multiple time method works slightly better (more through draining) but once plus draining is easier.


Freshly ground coffee, how fresh should it be?

Coffee begins to lose its flavour and freshness as soon as the roasting procedure is complete. Whole beans are best used within a month of roasting. The best way at looking at ground coffee is that it is similar to the whole bean, only with a whole lot more (pardon the poor english) surface area. That means that any of the breakdown that occurs to the bean will occur exponentially faster with a grind. You should always grind beans for each use, if you wish to have maximum flavour.
I am no expert, but I can tell the difference between freshly ground beans (like my wife and I do), or not so freshly ground (like my in-laws do).  I am no scientist, but the older the grind, the 'flatter' the flavour. It is definitely noticeable.


I have a similar wok, I bought at Target. It was described as "seasoned". I thought I was buying a genuinely seasoned wok.

Nope. It was a black coating just like the one you linked to.

It's a non-stick coating. It worked well for a few meals, then it started to peel.

I used a plastic scrubby to clean the sauce that stuck to the pan, and it cut through the coating. From now on, I will not buy anything from Target. Lie to me one, and you are done.

I paid $80 for it a few years ago. $80 would buy a genuinely seasoned wok back then.


There is no such reference. In the strict sense, hydration levels are only strictly defined for non-ennriched breads (those without dairy or other sources of fat).

If you want, you can calculate some kind of hydration level for enriched breads, but they become less informative. One option would be to count the whole weight of the fat/dairy as "hydration", the other option would be to count only the water proportion of the product you are adding. I would generally prefer the second one, but it has the problem of getting very misleading when the fat proportion goes up.

Both methods don't create reliable comparisons. For example, if you have a bread at 70% hydration, where all the hydration comes from 700 ml water, a bread at 70% hydration where you are using 795 ml milk, and a "bread" at 70% "hydration" when using 4.1 kg of butter (!) will be really different in their behavior. Similarly, a dough with 700 g water, or 700 g milk, or 700 g butter will not behave the same.

You will get closer to comparability if you also track the fat amount added, that makes it of course also complexer.

If you still insist on calculating something, here are the numbers for the water proportion in the liquids you asked for (needed for the "second method"):

Butter: 17% water
Margarine: different, depends on each brand
Evaporated milk: 35%
Buttermilk: 87% water
Heavy cream: 67% water


Potassium bromate is used as a flour improver in the US as it strengthens the dough and allows higher rising. It is an oxidizing agent, and under the right conditions, will be completely used up while baking bread.

It has been banned in the rest of the world because of its potential for being a carcinogenic if used improperly.


Is there any way for me to reheat mini beef wellingtons without toughening the meat?

Very doable, you just have to fool around with them a little.

Watch the meat carefully, and check the internal temperature in several pieces with a meat thermometer, as they're heating. If you're concerned about a hot spot in the oven, you can rotate the pan every couple of minutes. Pull from the oven once they've reached serving temp. Remember they'll continue heating for a couple of minutes once they're resting.


How can a dutch oven reach 400°C on an electrical stove?

The 300 Celsius you refer to are the air temperature inside the oven. The energy in your oven is quite sufficient to heat a piece of metal to much over 300 (in fact, judging from the color I have seen on my heating elements, they are probably in the 600-700 C range). But the air around them has quite bad thermal qualities, and doesn't heat up well. It also constantly loses heat to the oven walls and to the outside air. So, you cannot really get above 300, which is actually quite high for a domestic oven, most stop at 250.

Your Dutch oven has excellent thermal capacity and is in direct contact with a heat source. Even though it is not a great heat conductor (in comparison with other metals - it is still much better than air) it is not a problem to heat it to 400 Celsius with a 2 kW heating element. You can actually get higher - watch out for reaching the self-ignition point of cooking oils. This doesn't mean that the air above the pan, or the food in the pan, gets to these temperatures (neither does the food in your oven get to 300 inside).


Can fondant be frozen before covering the cake?

There's really no point to freezing them, because once you take them out of the freezer, they start to accumulate moisture, which will cause the fondant to melt, or at least get all goopy, as you said. The only way to avoid this when you freeze them is to wrap them airtight, but you have to leave them totally wrapped until they thaw, so why bother? I would just air dry them for a few days and apply them to the sides of the cake. Better yet, why don't you do this with gumpaste instead of fondant? That will dry a lot faster and better and won't lose its stiffness when you apply it to the cake, so you'll get a more box-like effect.

I just used this method for a wood crate and found this tutorial : http://sugarsweetcakesandtreats.blogspot.com/2010/04/wine-bottle-in-crate-cake.html

I would to ensure it dries firm and is strong enough to stand on end. I can't remember the exact amount - I just added a little bit at a time until I noticed the color start to lighten, slightly. Once dry, I attached the panels to a fondant covered cake with a little buttercream. The panels stayed in place and remained firm. When it was time to serve, we just removed the panels and then began cutting.

the precolored fondants are so saturated with color, you can also add a little gumpaste to your black fondant without it affecting the color. Not sure what brand you're using, I'd used Satin Ice for this purpose as it will dry firm. I did for the panals on my shoebox cake and my Alamo cake - both times they were ready to use within 24 hours (flipping a few times during drying time).then measured the crumb coated cake and cut out the fondant panels with those measurements adding about 1/3" on both the front and back panels (cut the two sides exactly as measured).The panels dried for 48 hours (they were still a little flexible, but stiff enough to work with). then cut out four strips of black fondant and put them on the four corners of the cake (wrapped around the edge). it helped because any small gaps between the sides of the panels were largely disguised by the black underneath instead of white BC showing through.

I didnt have to re-cut/re-size the panels once appllied to the cake. I found that with the black fondant underneath and by simply applying or scraping off BC where needed to make it fit, it all worked out. Oh ya, I applied gumpaste/tylose glue to the fondant corners so that the panels fit nice and tighltly.


How do I roast eggplants without a gas stove?

You have several options:

Use the the broiler (or grill, as they say in the UK).
Use a wok ring or similar to suspend the eggplant above your electric element.  Set the element to its highest setting, cooking the eggplant by infrared.  It just may take longer than the gas element would have.   If you don't have a wok  ring, you can use aluminum foil crushed to improvise an eggplant stand.
Buy a small hibachi and use it—the original recipe is designed for a grill (in the US sense, barbecue in the UK parlance).


What do I substitute for Greek yogurt in a pizza dough?

You can make your own version of Greek yogurt and it will be even better than what you buy in the stores.  What you need to do is buy "plain unflavored yogurt", preferably full fat or whole milk.  Then get a cheese cloth, and put the yogurt into the cheese cloth that is covering a bowl (please make sure the cheese cloth or a very thin cotton type wash cloth not (like a bath towel) but very smooth like a bed sheet, is secured over a bowl so that the yogurt can drain and the cloth will stay in place. It will take an hour or maybe two or even three, but the water will come out of the yogurt and it will be thicker and richer.  I think the water that comes out is called whey.  Preferably buy a middle eastern brand of yogurt, or an Armenian or even Russian brand.  There is something different in those brands that tastes a little bit better, especially if you get the water out, Mountain High is also good.  You can also buy something called "lebni" but that is a different product of yogurt, similar process, but if you try what I say, it will work fine.  If you do this with nonfat or lowfat, it is ok also, but we prefer the whole milk style and my friends and family do not like the Greek yogurt at all.  Funny, my Greek friends don't care for Greek yogurt either. We find Greek yogurt has more of a cloudy taste rather than a crispier creamier fresher taste and not so heavy and old as Greek yogurt.  Good Luck


Time vs. Temperature - What changes what?

One fundamental error in this question: 400 degrees is not twice as hot as 200 degrees. Temperature is a measure of the kinetic energy of the particles involved. The only scale on which you can do the kind of ratio you are imagining is Kelvins - you have to measure from absolute zero.

400 F = 477.59 K
200 F = 366.48 K

so the kinetic energy of the air in the oven is only about 477/366 = 1.3 times as high at 400 F as it is at 200. For simple cases, like how long it takes to evaporate a pan of water, 1.3x is probably pretty close to right, but as is pointed out above, there are a whole host of other variables that come into play with real food.

So ...

Bake time variations for a recipe that calls for 400 degrees for 30 minutes converted to a 450 cooking time and a 350 cooking time:

400 Farenheit = 477.594 Kelvin

477.594 x 30 minutes = 14327.82 HeatPoints

450 F = 505.372 K

14327.82 HP / 505.372 K = 28.35 or 28 minutes 21 seconds


I think what you would want to do is reduce the amount of fat in the recipe, as there is no way to get fat to dry out (well, except by using n-zorbit). Maybe use more cocoa powder and less chocolate, and skip or reduce any butter or other fats. Add more water or skim milk as needed to get a spreadable batter. Then proceed as you are currently doing, baking it as thin as possible. I would aim for a longer time at a lower temperature as that will produce more even baking, instead of only crisp at the edges.


In a roux, the starches are not normally gelatinized during the production of the roux--in fact, if you make your roux with oil rather than butter, there is no water present (other than latent moisture from the flour) to do so.

Roux thickened sauces must normally be brought to the boil; this is when the actual gelatinization takes place.

. . .

Roux is easy to prepare in larger batches, stove top.  Simple use a larger pan, such as a six quart dutch oven.

Melt your butter or add your oil, then whisk in the flour.  Cook for a couple of minutes (after the bubbling subsides if using butter), and you are good to go.  Don't be afraid to turn the heat up as long as you are standing by, watching and stirring to prevent burning from hot spots.

Butter can foam up considerably, so use a large pot in comparison to the quantity of roux.

For dark roux, I would start stove top, and finish in the oven to reduce the likelihood of taking the browning too far, and reduce the labor of stirring required.

The roux can be refrigerated.  You can scoop it with a spoon and add it to sauce at the simmer and whisk, and it will thicken almost instantly.

See also:  Is there a technique for making larger batches of roux?