I don't know that outdoors would be the best place to store your home canned goods. Even in an insulated cabinet, that the sun doesn't hit, the temperature in the cabinet may rise in the summer above recommended levels. Also, humidity may rust your lids(and bands, if you leave them on).
From Nation Center for Home Food Preservation

Label and date the jars and store them in a clean, cool, dark, dry place. For best quality, store between 50 and 70 °F. Also for best quality, can no more food than you will use within a year unless directions for a specific food provide other advice.
Do not store jars above 95° F or near hot pipes, a range, a furnace, in an uninsulated attic, or in direct sunlight. Under these conditions, food will lose quality in a few weeks or months and may spoil. Dampness may corrode metal lids, break seals, and allow recontamination and spoilage.
Accidental freezing of canned foods will not cause spoilage unless jars become unsealed and recontaminated. However, freezing and thawing may soften food. If jars must be stored where they may freeze, wrap them in newspapers, place them in heavy cartons, and cover with more newspapers and blankets.


Substitutes for beer... in beer cheese soup

Note: This is a suggested experiment, rather than a tried-and-tested solution
From the comments, yeast and malt extracts were suggested.  I'd go further and say both, as neither will replicate beer flavour alone.
Both are rather variable.  Some experimenting will be required.
In case you go too far with either of them, I suggest you have spare ingredients on hand to allow dilution (leftover soup should freeze well, to avoid waste)
I suspect that too much yeast extract will be worse than too much malt extract, so use caution on that.  Yeast extract (referring to Marmite/Vegemite or own brand equivalents) is used in some vegetarian recipes as a source of umami; it's useful in savoury dishes but can get overpowering. It also has salt, so you might need to reduce the salt in your recipe.
I'd guess at a starting point of 2 tbsp of the liquid malt extract I've used and 1 tsp of yeast extract plus 0.5l (1 pint) of water for 1 pint of beer.  That balance could be way off, but luckily both are highly processed and won't change much in cooking so you can add more to taste (as you can with salt).
A little acid wouldn't hurt (ideally lactic acid), maybe 1/2-1tsp of malt vinegar in that same substitute pint.
A way-out idea I'd be tempted to try (as I've got it on hand) is replacing the flour with dried sourdough starter, to bring in some yeast flavours and acid
Luckily that recipe doesn't call for a particularly bitter beer, as that's harder to get right.  I wouldn't worry about bittering agents.  You could though: hop extracts are rather strong (used at a few ml per gallon of beer, though they're available. If you wanted to try them you'd need to dilute the extract first then add, otherwise you might find one drop too little, two drops too much.


I'd avoid this practice.

  The olive pit husk is very hard and should not be eaten, however, as it is indigestible and might injure the intestinal wall if sharp edges are present.  Also, do not chew the husk, as it is so hard it could break a tooth. Swallowing the husk is also a bad idea, as it has sharp ends that could be dangerous.  It is also quite indigestible and will come out just as it went in. (source)


Yeast fermentation slows down under refrigeration but does not stop altogether. After 10 hours, the poolish probably exhausted all of its food for the yeast. Putting it in the fridge did not accomplish much of anything afterwards. It needed to be fed again.


It depends on how fast you want to eat.  If it's a matter of quite a bit of time, then a safe route would be to have it in an oven-safe vessel, covered with foil, and leave it on the oven at a relatively low temperature (275 to 300)  for a long time (depends on serving size and type of frozen meal, 30 minutes to an hour, usually).  That's the method with least effort and intervention.

This will allow the food to get hot, all the way through, but not to scorch or overcook.

If you forgot to defrost and want to eat fairly quickly, the microwave, or defrosting in the microwave, and then moving to the oven is a quicker route to eating.


What's an easy to use juicer that juices oranges as well as other fruit?

I like the OXO good grips citrus juicer. It has a reamer for fruit the size of orange which flips over for smaller fruit such as lemons. I think it beats a wooden hand reamer because it holds the juice and filters out seeds. No peeling is necessary. It's manual, but I think that is easy.


Sauce in a sealed jar smells off, has it gone bad?

It is far more likely that the ricotta has gone bad. If your nose picks up off smells, you should generally trust it.  The best time to take a sniff is right when you pop the jar open. We change ricotta's water everyday and try to finish it within a couple of days. I've also seen many freshly openned ricotta (well inside the expiry date) that had gone bad, and didn't look bad.

Another thing you can do when you cook for others is to taste your food in small samples along the way. That way you get feedback and don't surprise yourself (or others).  Use two spoons (one to pull food sample and dollop on the second spoon that you taste). That way you don't contaminate the food.


Cooking more than one dish that require different temperatures

I would put the oven on 350, and cook the pork chops according to the recipe. Put in the vegetables for the last 30 minutes. Once the pork chops are done, cover them and let them rest for 15-20 minutes. In the mean time, turn up the temperature to 475 and finish cooking the vegetables for 15-20 minutes.

The reason I suggest you adapt the temperature to the pork chops is that they are most likely to dry out if you deviate from the recipe. Roasted veggies on the other hand are almost fail safe. The first 30 minutes on a low temp will start cooking them, and the last few minutes will add some crispiness to them.


Baking time difference in pyrex versus metal

Time is only a rough indication of whether any dish is "done", the biggest 'unknown factor' from your question is, "what temp are you baking at?".

I would suggest you use the following 3 tests to determine when your banana bread is done (regardless of whether you are using pyrex or metal):

The bread is very brown and solid on top
A toothpick or chopstick inserted into the bread comes out completely dry. (Even a few moist crumbs are evidence that your bread is not done.)
The bread has reached an internal temperature of 195°F to 205°F (90°C-95°C)

Each condition should be met in order, so don't bother with the toothpick until you see the rich brown color, then once the toothpick is clean, check the internal temp.


Hard boiled eggs in "insta-pot" type device

I use eggs right out of the refrigerator, large or extra-large (today's were AA Large, average 57 grams). I have also used room temperature eggs, and the difference was tiny. We can tweak for those variables.
The rack keeps the eggs at least a couple of centimeters above the water. This one has another tier so I can do up to a dozen eggs (actually fourteen) at a time. You can certainly jerry-rig something if you don’t have a rack. Keep the eggs vertical if you want them to be pretty.
Add 1 measured liter of cold water to the pan, put the rack in the pan, place the cold eggs on the rack, and set the cooker for 5 minutes at high pressure.
High pressure on the Instant Pot reaches 11.6 PSI. That’s lower than a standard pressure cooker (they run 15 psi), but it should be about the same as yours if it’s a similar type.
Now, this part's important regarding cracking: Time how long it takes your machine to warm up and start the clock. The warm-up should take at least about 8 minutes give or take a minute. You might even want to do this as a dry run with just the liter of water and tweak from there. If it takes significantly more or less time to heat up, that will affect your final result. So add more or less water as appropriate. You can also use warm or hot water, or add ice cubes to cold water to get that 8-minute warm-up time. If your cooker got to pressure significantly faster than that, that could totally have caused your cracking (see GdD’s answer).
Once it heats up, it’ll cook for five minutes.
After it cooks for 5 minutes (the Instant Pot beeps), let it sit without venting for five minutes. Time it carefully. That’s called a five-minute natural release.
While it’s doing its 5-minute natural release, prepare ice water for plunging the hot eggs. I use a pan with a lid for that. I’ll show you why in a moment.
Once the 5-minute natural release is over, vent the pot (if necessary to open) and immediately plunge the eggs into the ice water.
Let the eggs sit in the ice water for 5 minutes.
If you use a pan with a lid, now pour the water out and shake the eggs with each other and the ice. Peel. THIS is my favorite part of pressure-cooking eggs. Check this out, they just slip out of their shells.

And voilà!

Now, if you follow those instructions and they’re a bit overcooked or undercooked, adjust the natural release time. That you can control to the second. The 5-5-5 time routine has worked perfectly for me with cold, large eggs. If your eggs are extra-large, maybe add a minute to the natural release. If you start with room temperature eggs, subtract 30 seconds or so.
To illustrate how that works, check this out:

I forgot that egg after it cooked, and it stayed in the unopened cooker 26 minutes after the pressure cycle was done. See how dramatically overcooked it is? The natural release time gives you control.
This last egg went straight to venting/ice water (no natural release) after 4 minutes on high pressure, then opening the pot and plunging the eggs as quickly as possible:

I had never actually done that until tonight. That was yummy! An easily peelable, creamy,  very soft-boiled egg.


There's a lovely middle-eastern recipe for mint lemonade.
I used to make loads of this stuff in my navy days.
So, for a jug serving six sailors:

Juice of about 2-3 lemons
Six tablespoons of sugar
nice handful of mint

Put the mint and sugar in the jug and pour about half a cup of boiling water.
Stir well, and leave for a few minutes so that the mint can think about what it has done.
Add lemon juice and water slowly while stirring.

The amounts may not be precise, as I used to make this in an eight gallon saucepan, and these days I make it in a 2-cup shaker.


Despite the fashion of using "processed" as if it is a derogatory term, and processed foods are dangerous, almost all foods are processed in some way(s).   Most of us, for example, do not chew wheat berries directly off the stalks, but prefer them threshed, hulled, ground into flour, and then baked into breads or other foods.  What is that, if not processing?

Of course, cooking itself is a form of processing, since most of us no longer eat our meat raw from the carcass.

There are a number of common ways that meat is processed, after being butchered, some of which are more extreme than others.  Some foods have several of these processes applied.  Among the more common are:

Cooking
Grinding (as in hamburger, and many sausages)
Curing with salt or other curing agents (as in bacon)
Canning (as in the infamous Spam, or Vienna sausages)
Drying or dehydrating (jerky)
Pickling (pickled pigs feet)
Smoking (which is often combined with curing, cooking, or drying, such as Virginia ham)
Freezing
Injection of brine or other flavorings or enhancements (many ham products)

I don't think there is any universal measure by which you can consider processing good or bad.  You have to consider each within the context of the particular food product, and its outcome.


Why do fry cooks use water to cook burgers?

I often use this technique at home to cook proteins.  It shortens cooking time by using steam as a heat transfer medium to cook the top of the item at the same time as the bottom.

You can also use this method on frittatas, dumplings, etc.

You can also use flavored liquids to impart flavor as well.  I particularly like hard cider with chicken and pork.


How can one make a reasonable curry with limited spices and poor quality equipment?

The one thing that makes a big difference is the knife (and I say that as someone who doesn't look after mine very well). You may be able to take a small sharp knife with you (you can buy paring knifes with plastic sheaths, for example) though this depends how you're traveling and on thy knife laws where you are.

Then generally the idea is to cook simply. Simple doesn't have to mean boring, but dishes that don't use lots simultaneous cooking steps. Space can often make prepping everything in advance a challenge, but you can use cups, plates, and cereal bowls for anything you do prep (and put them on the dining table). Prepping at the dining table can also be a way to gain space, especially if you're sharing the kitchen facilities. Cutting up veg before meat to make better use of the only knife and chopping board is one simple way that does require prepping in a particular order.

Lack of non stick means using a bit more oil to fry, and keeping things moving. This may not be the time to try or your new recipe for homemade burgers, or other things that are prone to falling apart if handled roughly.

Most ovens should be up to most things, including baking cakes, but do you really need to? If you're only using the oven to roast, or make stews or jacket potatoes, you don't need precision, just too cook until done. This makes synchronising something cooked in the oven with something cooked on the hob a little tricky, but that's where simplicity comes in.

I go away with friends quite a bit, in holiday cottages, bunkhouses etc. and also have a campervan in which I like to cook proper if simple dishes, so face this quite often. Making a risotto in the van, for example, I kept the stock hot by putting it in a casserole dish on top of the pan in which I was cooking the rice, then used the pan from heating the stock to cook green beans. The beans were stored in the cold oven after trimming because I wanted to do that before cutting the onion and garlic with the same tools so as not to transfer flavour. My total food preparation surface there is about 40x50cm.


If it is sparking then it is not microwave safe and you should get your money back. No change of mode is going to help, it is the material and construction of the pan which is the problem.


Most crab legs are packed in ice after being caught. Most of the lice do not survive the freezing process. They definitely do not survive the cooking process and do not harm the meat. It is unclear if fresh, raw crab lice directly from the ocean cause issues.
http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/crab-leeches


Are chocolate brands taking countries temperatures into account?

It's simple: people in hot countries eat dark chocolate.  In Southern Italy, chocolate is dark as coal and almost as hard.  Mexican chocolate classically contains only cocoa, sugar, and spices.
Well-tempered dark chocolate, without dairy products, wax, or other additives with low melting points, melts at a higher temperature than your Kit-Kat does.
Per Gizmodo

Dark chocolate has a higher percentage of cocoa in proportion to milk fat, so it has a higher melting point. Dark chocolate melts in your mouth; milk chocolate is much more likely to melt in your hand.


Can I substitute Maida Flour for All Purpose Flour for making Tortillas?

Real tortilla would be made with corn flour or wheat flour. You can use the maida, it would taste little different, but not much to matter


The quantity of which ingredients should be increased to raise the moistness of a cake?

Talking about the role of each single ingredient and how they interact is way too much for an answer here, and parts of it have been discussed in other questions anyway. So I will give a quick info on the recipe you linked:

It has way too much flour. For a standard pound cake, you want equal weights of flour, sugar, fat and egg, and most muffins follow a similar ratio. Some of them add liquid. But what you have here is a recipe which adds 50 g of sugar, 55 g of egg and 60 g of oil to 130 g of flour. Luckily, the oats are soaked, so they are probably not sucking out additional moisture from the batter. But still, you should change the ratio to get a standard muffin. Or, better still, you can get a recipe that works instead of fiddling with a bad one; finding a new, good recipe is generally easier than repairing.


How cold can a brining turkey get before freezing?

Short answer: a recommended 6% brine solution will not quite freeze at 26F.

Long answer:

You should have just looked at the chart on the Wikipedia page, which has % by weight.  That's easy to calculate; just divide the weight of the salt (4.5oz for 1/2 cup) into the weight of the water (133 oz).  This is, of course, way easier to do in metric (128g into 4000g).

Note that you will find widely varying estimates for the weight of a half-cup of kosher salt on the web, from 2.5oz/70g up to 5oz/140g.  Based on weighing Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt in my own kitchen, the correct answer is towards the high end of this range (4.5oz / 128g).  To answer the math part of your question, if you're willing to believe my scale rather than getting out one of your own, each 1/2 cup of salt per gallon represents about 3% salinity by weight and about 3.5deg F drop in freezing temperature, at least up to 2 cups.

You also should have read better instructions on brining a turkey, as the amounts you ask about, 1/2 cup salt per gallon of water, is far too low in salt.  That's only about 3% to 3.5%, which is well below the recommended brine strength and will result in a watery turkey (as well as frozen brine at 26F).  You want a 6% saline solution by weight.

And, coincidentally, per the chart a 6% brine solution should freeze at around 25F, putting you in the clear.  Mind you, that means you'd better be pretty confident in that weather forecast.

On the other hand, maybe you should try a dry brine instead?


It is certainly a fermentation. A simple chemical neutralization wouldn't need that much time, and wouldn't produce lasting fizz.

You can be certain that there are wild yeasts everywhere: in the air in your kitchen, on your elderflower, probably on your utensils, etc. It is impossible to say which ones prevailed in the fermentation, the ones you brought in with the elderflower or the ones which came into it from some other sources.


How do I determine the cut of a pork steak prior to purchasing it?

The bone structure is an excellent clue -- each of these three cuts have completely different bones -- and you should be able to learn to distinguish the muscle structures easily as well. (There's almost certainly a price difference, too -- I'd expect a shoulder steak to be the cheapest, followed by leg, then loin and rib.) I've made some quick structural drawings, and I'll try to describe them in detail.
Rib and Loin
 fullsize
The loin is a long piece of muscle running alongside the backbone and atop the ribs. It will be cut vertically, giving a oval/oblong cross-section somewhere around 4" diameter. That oval is solid muscle, although there may be some streaks of fat. There will usually be another strip of muscle above it, and a strip of fat along the top and one side (this was the pig's insulating back fat). Opposite the fat will be a rib bone, if it hasn't been removed.
The bone will not be split, but it will be cut short at some point. It is convex towards the fat, and usually has some of the fat running down along its length. If the rib is there, the steak (or "chop") will have a smaller oval of muscle below the loin, separated by fat, which would otherwise be served as part of the rib meat. As the cuts of the loin move backwards towards the leg, the tenderloin may begin to be incorporated, and the rib will disappear. The tenderloin is perhaps half the loin's size, and appears on the opposite side from the loin of a slice of the backbone, which has a rib-like sideways protrusion. This cut is the "porterhouse", also known as the "T-bone" if the steak were beef. It may also be called a "loin chop", as opposed to the "rib chop" from futher forward.
Rib/loin chop summary description: oval/oblong of solid meat with a strip of fat at one side, possibly an intact bone on the opposite side, curving towards the fat. Possibly two ovals of meat, one half the size and on the opposite side of a protrusion of split bone from the larger.
Ham or Leg
 fullsize
The part of the leg you're getting for steaks is the upper part, i.e. the thigh, sliced horizontally. This has a single cylindrical bone -- the femur -- running through it, which will be around 1 1/2" diameter and off-center. The thigh is basically oval in cross-section, and made up of several large muscles, with fascia (silver skin) and a small amout of fat between them, so you will see four to half a dozen large pieces of muscle in the steak. There may be a strip of fat along one side, and perhaps even some skin attached to that. A leg steak is the same cut as a "ham steak", although "ham" is often used to mean that the meat has been cured, and possibly even cooked.
Leg summary description: Oval-shaped steak with a circular slice of bone off-center. The steak is composed of half a dozen sections of meat, possibly separated by thin strips of fat, and may have a strip of fat on one outer side.
Shoulder or Blade
 fullsize
The shoulder is a beautiful cut of meat on a pig, made up of dozens of pockets of marbled muscle, connected and wrapped by intermuscular fat, as well as an extension of the loin. Like leg, a shoulder also has just one bone, the blade (which connects via a socket to the arm-bone near the bottom of the shoulder). The shoulder blade (scapula) is somewhere in the center of the shoulder, and is, as you would expect, a thin, arrow-head-shaped formation, with a flat ridge running down its center; from the top, it looks a bit like U+22A6: ⊦. (This protrusion or spur points to the outside of the pig.) Therefore, a slice across this shoulder muscle will be made up of several pieces of white-streaked muscle, held in a web of fat, and it will either have a fully-enclosed thin segment of bone in it, or a split where the bone was removed. With the bone left in, I believe the cuts are usually made horizontally, and the muscle segments may appear larger (they are mostly longer than they are tall). With it removed, the slice could be made vertically, in which case you will see more, and smaller, pieces. There may also be a strip of fat along one side of a shoulder steak; this is the same under-skin fat that you saw in both other cuts.
Shoulder summary description: Vaguely rectangular piece of meat, with a thin slice of bone in the center. The bone may have a perpendicular ridge. The meat is in many small pieces and is webbed with fat.
For less diagrammatic images, this Texas 4-H site seems to have some good photos of the various cuts, grouped by the section of the pig. (Other meats such as beef and lamb cuts are included on this page too!)


Mold from cheese on sausage, is it safe to eat?

If it was normal blue cheese, there's a pretty high chance the mold is Penicillium roqueforti, which is harmless. However, if the mold comes from something else, it can be basically whatever. In order to assess what kind of mold it is, you need to evaluate if it could have gone from the cheese to the sausage.

What kind of sausage is it? Was it saucisson or a dry sausage, or a chipolata, or wurst, or something different? Do you mean that it looked like salami before the mold grew on it, or that now that it's there it looks like salami? Was it already cooked? Were they stored in the fridge or at room temperature, and for how long?

If it's a dry sausage or already cooked, it's pretty unlikely that a foreign mold would appear on it, so you could conclude that it's the mold from the cheese, therefore safe. However, if it was a pretty "wet" sausage that you stored at room temp, I wouldn't suggest eating it.


What is this slimy coloured stuff growing in my plates?

My first guess is oil deposits that have hardened through oxidation. Especially the highly unsaturated oils are prone to oxidation, which will after a while lead to insoluble deposits (like in the original oil paints, where the linseed oil polymerises after prolonged contact with air). It's hard to remove as it's not brittle, and deforms rather than breaking, like an oil varnish.

(are those items you show plates, or pan covers/lids?)

It doesn't look like any kind of mold.


How to make Menthol crystal from mint leaves?

Every recipe I’ve seen asks for mint extract, which is mint that has had the flavors removed by steam distillation. This is not very difficult to do if you purchase some glass distillation equipment from a science supply company. There would be no need to further process it to pure menthol and crystallize. There are plenty of videos on YouTube which demonstrate essential oil distillation. Making crystalline menthol would likely involve solvent extraction, and could produce a toxic finished product if the menthol were not sufficiently dried.

There was a really good answer to the version of the question you asked last week.


Will searing meat before braising it improve the flavor?

Generally, yes.  Searing the meat will improve the flavor on the outermost layer of your brisket due to a process known as the Maillard Reaction.  It's the process of using heat to chemically transform proteins and sugars into new complex flavors.  This process creates the "crispy" layer found on steaks and burgers and releases the smells that make your mouth water.
While this flavor will only be present on the outside of the meat, it will help to season the broth/liquid which will penetrate the brisket as it cooks, flavoring more of the meat.
I would be cautious when searing after using a mostly mustard based marinade, as the mustard could possibly burn before getting the desired level of sear.
As far as removing the meat from the braising liquid, the flavor will not be affected as much as the juiciness of the brisket as well as the continued cooking time.  Air cooling a brisket will cause the meat to cool much more rapidly compared to cooling the brisket and liquid together (since the liquid must cool as well, it will take longer).  This continued "cooking" during the cooling process will help to break down the tough connective tissue, which briskets contain much of (hence the reason that most briskets are cooked/smoked for 10-12 hours).  If the brisket turns out a little tough after after air cooling, you can braise for a longer period to overcome the toughness.
If you do choose to remove the brisket from the liquid to cool, I would recommend to wrap the brisket with plastic wrap to help the meat keep all of its precious liquids!


Can I substitute quark (40%) for cream cheese in basque burnt cheesecake recipe?

When using quark instead of cream cheese, the main issue is that quark is overall “wetter” - especially when the recipe uses US cream cheese, which is pretty much a “brick” compared to the (same brand) product in Germany. You can mitigate that by placing the quark in a cloth-lined sieve overnight to drain it, but that’s optional. I find that most recipes that use quark instead of cream cheese are a tad crumblier, cream cheese fillings are a bit smoother (if you use a good brand).
That said, there’s a huge tradition of quark-based cheesecake in Germany and other European countries, and as long as your recipe contains enough binding agents, i.e. eggs and/or flour or starch, you will be fine. Looking at your recipe, it uses six eggs. That’s on the generous side even for a regular quark-cheesecake. So I’d say just go for it. If you are super worried, you could add a tablespoon of cornstarch, just in case, but I don’t think it’s necessary. I would suggest that you do a quick Google search for “Käsekuchen ohne Boden“ (crustless cheesecake) as that’s the German cousin of the basque cheesecake. You will see that the recipes are quite similar, just with quark and maybe a bit of flour, starch or semolina.


If impressing guests is not in order, some string and cork (possibly cut to shape) is the cheap way to improve a handle. E.g. I got tired of the all-metal tea pot handle being hot and probably in hindsight used too much string


How to increase the temperature of my double boiler?

While I personally appreciate your scientific approach to this, I think this concept is fraught with peril. :)

For the acute application of a double-boiler to fudge: don't. Fudge is sugarwork/candy! Managing the heat and temperature over direct heat is part of the fun and peril of sugarwork in general! logophobe's "why" is on-point. You want to boil-off a fair amount of water in making fudge; indirect heat like a double-boiler probably isn't a good choice for that.

If you're interested in another take on the science of fudge, I recommend the fudge episode of Good Eats.

For the actual question of making a double-boiler work at much higher temperatures: I think you'll want a different (non-water) substrate. But unless you've got something with exactly the right boiling point, it's not going to automatically regulate the temperature any better than direct heat, and that entirely defeats the purpose of a double-boiler. You could try regulating something like vegetable oil at the correct temperature; perhaps there's an electronically-regulated temperature-controlled deep fryer or something that has a temperature setting in the low-100C/200F range, but most frying is in the 175C+/350F+ range.

As an aside: As pertains to Wayfaring's recommendation from comments to use sucrose syrup: Keep in mind that fudge is in fact itself candy / sugarwork at soft ball stage. Unless I misunderstand, I strongly believe that you do not want to use sugar syrup in the bottom vessel of a double-boiler. While clever, this solution will soon exceed the temperature you want to achieve, then in the worst case boil-off all the water and burn. Wayfaring's link is a good one and does contain percentages: sugar temperature chart; another from FAO has a more concise percentage chart by weight. Kb for water is 0.512°C/m ; more here. For any substance in the bottom of a double-boiler, you're going to be boiling-off some of the water, making higher concentration of whatever solute. That is, your boiling point is going to keep creeping up.


What Sampling Bread to use for Pulled Pork, open faced?

It may be a little soft for that compared to most sourdough (but I like a softer bread for something like pulled pork, it competes less for texture), but I'd try a potato based bread.  It's a classic flavor pairing with many of those other flavors (especially bacon!).


Freezing affects the texture of avocados rather poorly.  Freezing a whole one or chunks will result in a mushy avocado on refreezing.  Its not recommended apparently.

To properly freeze an avocado, it should be washed, pureed (not just mashed) and frozen with a bit of lemon juice (or other applicable acid) to prevent browning.


Will Cinnamon ever dissolve in a cocktail?

Cinnamon is the bark of a tree. It is either sold as rolled strips of bark (=cinnamon sticks) or ground.

It will not dissolve, neither in water nor in alcohol.

What you want to do is basically the same as was done commercially with the vanilla extract you are already using:  Extract the taste, then discard the bark itself.

Alcohol is a good choice for extracting volatile aromatics. You could try and soak a few cinnamon sticks or a few tablespoons of ground cinnamon in a "neutral" alcohol like vodka or - if you are using it exclusively for your signature drink - use the brandy. This process might take from a few days to a few weeks, so nothing you can do "on the spur of the moment".
Another good carrier for the cinnamon taste would be water. You can simmer a few cinnamon sticks in water, then sieve. This is the same method that is used for mulled wine or mulled cider. To extend the shelf life of the "cinnamon water", you might considering turning it into simple syrup by boiling it with an equal amount of sugar.

Whether you use water or alcohol is a question of personal taste and planned other uses. The shelf life of an alcohol based extract might be longer, but with a sufficiently high sugar content, clean handling and refrigeration the syrup will last long, too. Time is a factor: The syrup can be ready and cooled in an hour or so, whereas the alcohol will take significantly more time.

Both methods work for vanilla, too - you could even make a "instant mix" for your drink.

Be warned, though: Filtering ground cinnamon from a liquid can be quite a hassle. It tends to clog coffe filters, but is too fine to be held back by a sieve. If you decide to use ground cinnamon because that's what you have at hand, consider letting it settle at the bottom of your container and carefully decanting the liquid from top. A coffe filter or a cloth-lined sieve can catch stray particles. You should get much better results by using whole or coarsely crushed cinnamon sticks.

There has been an ongoing discussion on what kind of cinnamon to use, so a short wrap-up here:

Cinnamon is derived from a group of plants, which vary in their properties and compounds. Especially coumarin, a substance also found in tonka bean, woodruff and other plants, has been widely discussed for its toxicity and is regulated in the EU.

Cassia cinnamon has the highest content whereas
true / Ceylon / Sri Lanka cinnamon contains only traces.

From a culinary point, the cheaper cassia, which contains more bark and is usually sold ground or in pieces, is often considered inferior in taste to the true cinnamon, which often comes in sticks.

I will not venture a statement here, neither on health nor culinary claims.
I am sure every reader of this post is capable of making an informed decision.


Should sharpening nicked knives with whetstones leave the nicks in the blade?

You are indeed supposed to remove so much material from the blade that the nicks disappear completely. You'll have to lose what's probably a least a milimeter of the blade's width.

For that, the 1000er grit is indeed too fine. Go for something much coarser, and use finer grits for finishing. With the stone you're using, you'll have to spend days to get so much steel ground away. Something in the 150-300 range will do nicely for the task you have.


How to adjust for making candy from corn syrup instead of sugar?

This document seemed like it might answer your question as it talks about the temperature it takes to crystallize supersaturated sucrose solutions in the presence of fructose glucose and corn syrup.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242257775_Crystallization_of_the_supersaturated_sucrose_solutions_in_the_presence_of_fructose_glucose_and_corn_syrup
From what I know about candy making it is because sugar starts out as a crystal it can recrystallize after heating easier. With hard candy (glass candy) you're manipulating the sugars to reform the crystals how you want them.


microplastics from plastic pepper grinders?

If you go small enough, you're always inhaling/ingesting something foreign.

Your concern, although logically valid, is nearly impossible to regulate or even measure. We're talking about amount that is, literally, microscopic.

You're definitely eating it, but discussion of the consequences (if any) is off topic on the site.

The environmental concerns are valid, because even though they're small, they do not decompose and collects.


Peanut butter - store bought texture at home

Well, you could shell out for a commercial nut butter mill, if you had an extra thousand bucks lying around. But otherwise the answer is probably not. I believe that commercial peanut butter makers grind the nuts between metal plates, which gives the very fine texture. At home, you're presumably using a food processor, which can't make thick-textured pastes very fine.

Some health food stores have nut butter mills, though, so if you're looking for freshness, you can grind just before you buy.


In order to preserve your custard applies I would suggest canning them since you have already frezing it. It does lose it's freshness to an extent, however, the shelf life would last longer.

Canning is also a good method as is can use vacuum sealed packaging which restricts air into the packaging which is what causes micro-organism growth an multiplication.


Lemon juice as a natural preservative for soups

Anything that will keep bacteria and other spoilage microorganisms from growing will extend shelf life.  Acidity and salt are the most common historical preservatives, since they create inhospitable environments for many microorganisms (or only allow the growth of ones that are less harmful).  In high concentrations, sugar can also function in this way, as in jams or jellies (though this is probably not applicable to soups).  Unfortunately, any soup with enough salt and/or acidity to stop bacterial growth entirely will probably be unpalatable.

That said, lemon juice is highly acidic, so it's likely that it could prevent spoilage a little longer than in soups without it.  However, unless you're adding a lot of lemon juice, chances are this effect will not be long enough to call it a "preservative" -- but it might make your soup last a day or two longer in the fridge.  A fairly acidic soup using things like tomatoes, lemon juice, vinegar, etc. will generally last a little longer than a similar one without those ingredients.

Nevertheless, the normal storage recommendations for soup should still be observed.  Soup in general is very perishable.  Stocks and broths are a near ideal growth medium for any bacteria that might contaminate them, and various ingredients in soups could contain spore-forming microorganisms that are not completely killed during cooking.  More importantly, not all spoilage -- even that from dangerous bacterias -- produces odors or molds that could be easily spotted.  Thus, while adding more acid to soup probably makes it safer a little longer, I still wouldn't depend on it to last more than a few days even using proper cooling procedures and stored under proper refrigeration.

As for cabbage, I'm not aware of any significant anti-microbial properties.  It's possible that soups which contain more vegetable matter (like cabbage) will also contain less meat and other ingredients prone to fast spoilage, but the cabbage by itself isn't likely to have a significant effect.


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

That advice isn't "wrong" and millions of people keep keep fish sauce in a cabinet for decades. Regarding safety, it's generally OK to store fish sauce at room temperature for years, but that isn't recommended by government worrywarts for best quality. Still Tasty. Pathogens run in fear faced with this stuff, but it can (rarely) develop "offness".
It is conservative to even bring up this article from Slate:

The fish-sauce-making process is carefully controlled to prevent the growth of dangerous bacteria. First, whole, tiny fish (predominantly anchovies) are combined with salt in roughly a three-to-one ratio. The mixture is then tossed into either concrete or wooden tanks. Enzymes contained within the cells of the fish flesh degrade the proteins, fats, and other molecules into amino acids (compounds responsible for the deeply savory flavor in fish sauce), eventually liquifying the solid tissue. The salt accelerates this process, known as protein hydrolysis, by causing the fish cells to open up, which releases the enzymes.
The briny conditions in the tank keep most microbes and all pathogens at bay, but some harmless, extremely salt-tolerant bacteria, known as halophilic bacteria, survive. These occur naturally in the guts, mouth, and skin of the decomposing anchovies. They too break down the fish proteins, yielding various acids, alcohols, and nitrogen compounds that give fish sauce its characteristic cheesy, meaty flavors. But by the end of fish sauce’s six- to twelve-month fermentation period, the salt has managed to kill even the hardiest halophilic bacteria. At this point, the clear, amber liquid in the tanks is filtered, and any sediment is discarded. The fermentation process does such a good job of killing off bacteria that no pasteurization is required.
There is no legal requirement in the U.S. for fish sauce to bear an expiration date, but most manufacturers put dates on the label anyway, since people are more inclined to trust foods that tell us when they should be discarded. These dates tend to be three to four years from the date of manufacture, which is actually on the conservative side in light of industry guidelines. The Handbook of Indigenous Fermented Foods in the ASCA Countries (published by the Association for Science Cooperation in Asia, a science-policy organization) ascribes to the condiment a shelf life of five years.
This is isn’t to say fish sauce will always be good, either before or after the use-by date (though you should always refrigerate it after opening). It can deteriorate in quality over an extended period of time due to chemical reactions, resulting in color changes or the development of “off” flavors. On rare occasions mold or yeast might develop on the inside surface or lip of the bottle where there’s excess moisture and less salt. These growths are usually innocuous, but as with any food, if it looks strange, smells strange, or tastes strange, you should throw it out.

So, grudgingly, I say throw this batch out 'cause it's fuzzy. But don't lose any sleep over it.
Next time buy a bottle that you're likely to use within a couple of years and keep it in the fridge after opening.


You can do either, but personally I have experience with drying and milling.  To dry the sprouts, make sure that you keep them at a low temperature.  You could do this using a dehydrator or in the oven at the lowest possible temperature.  The claim from sprouted grain companies and proponents is that this keeps beneficial enzymes alive.  After this you can mill your grain.  I made the mistake of attempting to mill before fully drying one time - this may clog your machine.  Make sure your sprouts are fully dry before grinding.


Whiskey inside a metal flask for a month. Safe for drinking?

Whiskey is quite high in alcohol, on the order of 40% by volume, and is not hospitable to pathogens growing.

The flask is intended to hold liqueur, and so is made from or lined with a food safe material, such as food grade stainless steel (assuming you have one from a reputable manufacturer).

So yes, it should be fine.

Remember:  when it was distilled, the whiskey was probably held at different stages for long periods in a stainless steel vat.


An alternative suggestion for producing multiple omelets (rather than frittatas) at once would be to get a griddle pan or electric griddle and then he'd have to learn to cook on a flat top, which would probably only take a short time.


How do I change cake recipes for cupcakes?

I've not yet found a cake recipe which I could not use for cupcakes instead.
I always change the baking time and only the baking time.  I rotate the tray of cuppies after about 7 minutes, and after another 7 minutes or so I use the "clean toothpick" method to see when they are done.
It does vary greatly, but from most cake recipes, I expect to get 18-24 regular cupcakes, about 40 mini-cupcakes, or 9-12 large ("Texas") cupcakes.


In the accepted answer to this question, it says that you can try wringing the pumpkin purée out in cheese cloth; or in a comment, that you can let it drain in a colander.


converting a muffin recipe to a cake recipe

Most of the bake times that recipes give you are very general ideas of how long you should bake something. This is why most of them are given in ranges rather than in specific values. (20-25 minutes instead of specifically saying 21 minutes)

The reason for this is because there are a lot of variables when it comes to baking including the thickness and material of your pan and the type of oven you have.

The best thing to do when you are trying to bake batter for muffin/cupcake in a cake pan is to start out with the initial time the recipe gives you and then there after, check it periodically with a toothpick in the center. If the batter sticks to the toothpick then it is not done. You can check it every 5 minutes to start off but as the "cake" start to stick less to the toothpick, check more often.


Is there any truth to the idea that you shouldn't multiply seasonings when multiplying a recipe?

The notion that salt or spices specifically don't scale linearly sounds like nonsense to me.  In any recipe involving salt and water, the salt is dissolved, so all that matters is the concentration, and that concentration is going to be the same with linear scaling.

Scaling in general is problematic when scaling more than 2x or 4x.  When you take into account that:

Recipes targeted at home cooks are imprecise to begin with and often use volumetric measurements that are sensitive to heat, humidity, and other environmental conditions, so the imprecision is magnified at larger scale;
Larger portions of food may get cooked less evenly and/or at less consistent temperatures due to the volume/surface area ratio; that part is correct, but it has nothing to do with salt, it has to do with your equipment.  On the stovetop, most of the heat is coming from the bottom of the pan unless you use induction, and even in an oven you've got one or two heat sources radiating heat in a specific pattern.
Cooking times are also going to vary due to changes in things like rates of evaporation.  The total amount of heat you're able to deliver at any given time generally does not increase as quickly as the amount of heat you need to deliver, so very often you need to increase cooking times.

I'm sure you probably already know all this, but the reason I'm pointing it all out is that I'm pretty sure that this odd-sounding assertion about non-linear salt/spice scaling is due to some mutation or misunderstanding of general scaling issues.

Probably, salt and spices are typically present in very small quantities in most recipes, and those quantities are already wild guesses much of the time, so the effect of compounding all this wild inaccuracy, especially with volumetric measurements, is actually pretty noticeable at large scale.  Scaling sucks with these ingredients because the initial quantities and scaling method are both nonsense.

Assuming you have a precise recipe that gives weight measurements, and you scale by weight, then you're not going to have any problems as long as you either cook it in batches or adjust your cooking time/temp accordingly.

I suppose I could be wrong, but I spent 20 minutes digging for some evidence to contradict my claims above and came up dry; you'd think that somebody would have presented some evidence if the claim were true.


"Softened" butter will flex if you try to bend the unwrapped stick.  You can actually get the ends to 90 degrees to each other when you have it just right.

"Over softened" is when you can't even pick it up to try to flex it.  This actually happens before it fully melts.

The problem is that you need the butter to be at the right consistency when you're creaming in the sugar.  "Creaming" is really about cutting little holes into the butter to get air into it.  If it's too stiff, the butter just stays as a lump or maybe crumbles into pieces, but the butter never really gets any air into it.  If it's too soft, the bubbles won't stay in the butter after the sugar cuts it in.

Microwaving doesn't really help as you end up with an over-softened outside, while the middle is too firm.  You really have to leave it out at room temperature for a few hours, but if you're in a rush, you can slice it up so there's more surface area so it warms up more quickly.  (but there's the problem that "room temperature" is a cultural thing, and seasonal, so one area's "room temperature" might be too warm or too cold either all year or for some part of the year)


Why does my red wine reduction go 'grainy'?

I have to wonder if you are using a wooden utensil to 'scrape the meat remnants'.  If so, stop using wood.  The wood will char and leave bits in your sauce, creating the bitterness.  Try slowing down the process a bit and using less heat, at least initially as you deglaze the pan. The graininess could be charred bits of food which are burned before they are loosened from the pan surface; this could account for the black spots too.

Cooking is love, and love doesn't hurry.

:)


There's a bit of trickery going on in the comparison of vinegar (acetic acid) to spirits of salt (hydrochloric acid). Your 5% (0.83 molar) vinegar has a pH of about 2.5.
You need much less of the stronger acid, HCl, to reach that same pH (2.5); in fact only 0.003 molar, a factor of 277 less.
Since you taste the anion (acetate or chloride), not the proton (H+), it's no wonder that the vinegar is much more flavorful; there's a 277 fold difference in the concentration of the flavor agent. Pick a different acid, and you'll get a different tasting anion, and a different concentration needed to reach pH 2.5.

Response to comment on taste of anions:

Your linked Wikipedia article gives the impression that the taste reception system is fairly simple, and well understood. It is neither.

Here are a couple examples of reasonably current research on the taste of anions:

The Anion Paradox in Sodium Taste Reception

Anion size of sodium salts and simple taste reaction times.

Take a look at Wikipedia's article on taste receptors. you'll see that 'bitter' tastes are subclassified by 30 or more different receptors.
Salty taste receptors (specific anion and cation) are still are poorly characterized

Research on humans is hard, so it'll probably be decades before the mechanisms of tasting are fully sorted out. Until then, consider sources like Wikipedia expositions of the current state of knowledge, rather than the final word.


Honey will caramelize and burn before the chicken is fully cooked. It would be better to bake or roast the chicken in the oven at an even temperature, if you've marinated it prior to. Covered in foil at first and then finished off uncovered to add a little colour.

If you prefer to cook it in the pan, then adding the honey should be your last step. Turn off the stove element and drizzle the honey onto the chicken, the residual heat in the pan will take care of the rest. Chicken doesn't release enough fat to make a sauce out of it like you would with a pork or a duck (in reference to making a sauce with the wine).

I do this myself with chicken thighs (fattier than chicken breasts, so flavours tend to adhere better), honey, and paprika. Heat the oil in the pan, medium-low. Add sliced onions, sprinkle with salt to release the juices and gently cook until they're soft and caramelized. Rub paprika onto the chicken thighs and add them to the pan. Cook until the juices run clear. Turn off the heat, add the honey, mix it in and let it cool a bit before serving.


Mystery kitchen device with three finger loops, one attached to a sliding rod that passes through a ring

This is a cherry pitter. The metal ring holds the cherry while the piston forces the pit out right through the cherry.


There are two parts to this question, the stated part, and the unstated "are you really frying an egg if there is no oil?"

For the first part, most manufacturers of non-stick pans claim that their product makes oil unnecessary, and generally I've found that to be true. A little oil helps, but "necessary" might be a stretch.

To maximize your non-stickyness of a non-stick pan, you should always preheat the pan before adding the food, at least to 250F or so. Preheating causes the teflon to expand a bit, closing up pores and micro-scratches in the surface.

It is also common for oils from the past to form a polymerized layer on top of the teflon, making the pan more sticky. This is actually worse when you use aerosol spray oils, because the tiny droplets hit the pan and very quickly polymerize to form a slightly sticky layer. This layer is similar to the one you intentionally create when seasoning a cast iron pan, but in this case it is not helpful. All-Clad recommends periodically cleaning teflon pans with a light scrub of baking soda and water to remove that coating of oil. It should bring back the maximum slippery of your teflon.

When cooking protein-rich foods, you can also minimize sticking by letting the food cook a bit before attempting to move it. The loose, floppy denatured proteins in an egg are extremely sticky, but when they coagulate (set) from cooking, they become less sticky. It may seem impossibly sticky at first, but may release on it's own after a minute of cooking.

As to the second, unstated part, oil provides flavor, and is also a heat-transfer vehicle. When the food is on the pan, if you looked at it with a microscope only a small portion of the food is actually in contact with the pan. Those areas will get heated more, and other areas will get heated less. A little oil fills those gaps, causing more even thermal contact, which allows fried food to fry, rather than just get burned in some areas.

It is really a matter of taste whether the flavor of the oil and the way that it changes the texture of the food is appealing to your boyfriend. I wouldn't like it without any oil, but if he does, well, so be it. If he doesn't really like the taste, but is concerned about health, I'd suggest using a little olive oil - it has no cholesterol, is low in saturated fats, and has a good flavor. Different than butter, but still very enjoyable.


What is the best utensil kit for the cost?

As knife sets available/affordable with vary from region to region, from year to year, and from wallet-size to wallet-size, I think it'd be best to answer this is a general fashion. I have worked as a chef in the past in a restaurant where we were expected to bring our own knives, although generally the one thing we were expected to bring ourselves was a long (20-25cm), broad-bladed, chef's knife. I am by no means the most experienced on this topic, but having expanded on my own knife collection in the past I can add my own real-world advice.

Firstly, you probably want to choose a brand. I do like the look of the global knives, but don't personally think they're good value for money. There are other brands out there, but there's a good comparison of 20cm chef's knives here:
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/129/Chefs-Knives-Rated

If you are buying for a kitchen, I wouldn't get a bagged/cased set unless you want to keep them hidden in a drawer/cupboard. A bag or case is for carrying from place to place, IMHO. It may be cheaper than a set with a fancy rack, so I suppose you could combine it with a magnetic knife rack, but from my experience it's a bit too easy to knock knives off these... Probably not a good idea if there are small kids around. If there are small kids around, super-sharp knives are probably best kept hidden somewhere out of the way.

Secondly, I'd think about what you use your knives for. I expect most sets will contain a main 20cm chef's knife, a shorter filleting knife, and an even smaller pairing knife. If you bake or buy whole loaves, you'll probably want & find everyday use for a bread knife to do your crusty creations justice. I own a tomato knife and I find I use it a lot, tomato knives are also useful for other delicate vegetables where you may want to disturb the flesh as little as possible (I use mine for finely dicing red onion for salads, I find it easier to keep everything uniform than when using my other knives).

From there I'd consider what you cook and what other knives you may want to add to the set. If you're partial to a roast more than once a year, and haven't succumbed to the temptation of an electric carving knife, a matching carving knife and fork might be tempting. If you eat a lot of cheese, you might find a cheese knife a useful addition, etc.


What techniques or tricks make soft, flaky pastries instead of leathery ones?

There are two ways that I make puff pastry. The first is Rough Puff Pastry which is a quicker way to make puff pastry and you get about 75% of the rise you get with normal puff pastry.

Here is a link for a Rough Puff Pastry that I use. I'd say that the most important tips to take from that recipe is that the butter must be cold when you start and make sure you're using really cold water to mix in. Using a knife instead of your hands is also a good idea to stop your hands melting the butter too much - you want to see the pieces of butter in your pastry. Making sure you chill the pastry after folding for an hour or as long as you can.

Secondly, to make 'real' puff pastry, you need to have to plan in advance as it is going to require a lot of chilling. Firstly, make your dough separately, roll in a ball and chill overnight. Then roll out your butter and make sure you then chill the rolled out butter again. You then continue with the folding and chilling as before. Again, the most important thing here is to chill for at least an hour in between the folds. This ensures that the layers of butter and pastry build up, and that is what gives you the best rise and the flakes you are after. Here is a good recipe that I use with lots of other tips and tricks in.

From looking at your pictures, in my opinion, the 'leatheriness' you are seeing looks like the pastry is a little under baked. The 'tough crust' looks to me like there aren't many layers of butter towards to the top of your pastry which is why it hasn't puffed out when it's been baked. Definitely try following one of the above recipes - if only to get the technique right - and go from there. I definitely find the trick is lots of chilling and keep everything cold! I sometimes even chill the flour!!


Is foreigner-grade VB sold within Australia?

Its possibly due to the recent changes the company made to their branding.. which also changed the strength, and the labelling.. its likely your friend received "old ones"..

There was a loutish back-lash against the company, they have since "reverted", and embraced the fact that people LIKE a stronger brew..

still has no fizz though.

http://www.news.com.au/business/aussie-beer-favourite-victoria-bitter-back-to-full-strength/story-e6frfm1i-1226464247134


I think you were just lucky in that they didn't go moldy or rot in your refrigerator.  So, if you want more control, it would be a simple matter of peeling, slicing and dehydrating.  You can do this in an oven set on it's lowest temperature, or more reliably by using a food dehydrator. You can certainly experiment with whole fruit or larger chunks, but I think slices are the way to go for ease of use and storage.


My Fudge Is Crunchy! Where Did I Go Wrong?

The most likely culprit is how well you beat the mixture just before pouring it into the pan.  I really like Alton Brown's explanation of the fudge-making process.  What you're trying to do is form very small sugar crystals which provide fudge with its fine texture.  Those crunchy bits you describe are larger crystal formations which can happen if you have a "seed crystal" remaining in the fudge as it sets.  The purpose of stirring the fudge very well before pouring it into the pan is to deliberately form small crystals and break up any larger ones.  If you didn't really thoroughly stir even just a few small patches of the fudge, some seed crystals may have developed there.

The clumps you describe in the initial mixture should have dissolved, but working them out would make sure that everything is evenly distributed.  You can add the butter to the original mixture for the same reason instead of waiting until the end like the linked recipe recommends.  A little bit of corn syrup will help control crystals too.  Lastly, stir the fudge like crazy and scrape down as much of the work bowl as you can while you go.  If your arms don't feel like they're about to fall off afterwards, you probably should have mixed it more.

Regarding temperature, remember that when simmering your fudge will carry over a couple degrees even after you turn off the heat.  So you can kill the burner when your thermometer reaches 235F and monitor until you hit the target temp of 238F.

Quite honestly, fudge-making is a pretty sensitive process, so don't be too broken up if it takes a few tries and a lot of attention to detail before it's perfect.


Cast Iron Skillet with Lid Rusted togethe

There is a product called Naval Jelly that is designed to remove rust from metal items.  Its available in our area at most hardware stores.  Menards has it. Use a toothbrush to work the jelly in between the lid and the skillet and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.  It literally changes the rust into a water-soluable paste that you can wipe away with a clean, wet cloth.  Then you will be able to season your skillet (and lid) so it can be usable again. Hope this works for you.


Buy a slow cooker.  They're cheap, and it will cook your food slowly in around 6 hours.

Don't overcomplicate things:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_cooker


When to use glass vs. metal vs. stoneware baking dish?

Before I say anything further, if you are beginning to bake, I'd suggest investing in a basic introductory cookbook, which can provide more detail than I will here.  Also, you'll find that recipes will generally the type of pan to use.  (And when no material is specified, metal is a pretty good default for most applications.  Recipes designed for glass will often say so, and those which require stoneware will say so or recommend a "heavy casserole dish" or similar.)

Here are a few very general observations, though:

Metal baking sheets: generally have large surface area and are good for things you need to spread out while baking/roasting, e.g., cookies, individual pastries like croissants, etc, as well as things like roasted vegetables.  Baking sheets are also useful in some circumstances where you don't have a pan with a specific shape/size for whatever you're baking (freeform loaves, strudel, galettes, etc.)
Other Metal bakeware: generally made in specific shapes and sizes which will determine what they can be used for (round vs. square cakes, deeper loaf pans, shallow pie plates, muffin tins, etc.).  There are many special metal pans too which have specific purposes and unique construction, e.g., angel food cake pans, tart pans, popover pans, springform pans, etc.

Generally speaking, metal pans are more responsive to changes in heat.  Metal pans are probably the standard for most "baked goods," particularly for things that bake for a short time frame (less than an hour, and especially for things which cook for less than 30 minutes or so).  Metal pans will often promote surface drying and browning too, though the effect depends on the color of the pan.

Glass and stoneware will take longer to warm up and are probably more commonly used for roasting, braising, casseroles, etc. rather than what we generally refer to as "baking."  (Relatively few recipes for baked goods tend to request glass or stoneware too, so you may need to be ready to adjust time/temperature a bit to use them for baked goods.)  Glass and stoneware often perform similarly, though with a few differences:

Glass is transparent, which can increase radiative heat and in some cases promote more browning.  (It also allows you to see the bottom and sides of your food during cooking, which can be helpful.)
Stoneware is sometimes porous, in which case you may want to be careful about what you put into it (since it can leave stains and sometimes off flavors).  If fully glazed, it basically performs somewhat similar to glass without the transparency.

Because glass and stoneware heat slowly, they're most appropriate for applications that will bake for a long time.  Glass and (glazed) stoneware also tend to be used in circumstances where the food may be more reactive with metal, e.g., if you're making a fruit cobbler with acidic fruit, some metal pans may leave a metallic flavor in the dish (though stainless pans and metal coated pans generally don't have that problem).

Glass and stoneware also aren't generally a good choice if you require rapid changes in temperature and/or direct heating of the pan -- such as stovetop cooking (browning something before roasting, cooking a gravy after roasting, etc.) or broiling.  Rapid temperature changes could crack or shatter glass and stoneware dishes.

Finally, since glass and stoneware change temperature slowly, they're better for situations where you want to keep food warm during serving for a longer time.


How can I reheat chicken without it getting rubbery or dry?

Try wrapping it in foil and cooking on a very low temperature in the oven or toaster oven. (Our oven has a "warm" setting that's ~170 F.) You can also include some water or broth in your foil packet but it won't penetrate much beyond the surface if the meat has been cooked before. It'll make that 1st bite taste more moist but in the long run it won't do much.


Are the white dots mould or part of the bread?

Malting is when a grain is sprouted then dried.  Often it is then ground, or in the case of some well known and often appreciated drinks fermented. In your picture, I see malted grain kernels in the upper right.  Completely normal for a malted bread if whole grains rather than ground is used for some of the malted portion.


Why can boxed brownie mixes use so little "wet" ingredients?

I've seen an awful lot of from-scratch brownie recipes with 2-3 eggs and a cup or less of butter/oil. I wonder if you're comparing recipes of the same size?

Beyond that, although brownie mixes may look like just dry ingredients, if you look at ingredient labels, they often have oil as an ingredient, so you may not be adding quite all of it yourself. Sometimes they also  have emulsifiers that can help out with one of the roles that eggs play. And it's hard to judge from ingredient/nutrition labels, but they often taste very sweet to me, so I wouldn't be surprised if they have a bit higher ratio of sugar and a bit less flour/starch to need to hydrate.

Anyway, if you're trying to replicate, it's probably easier to start from an existing from-scratch recipe and tweak it than it is to copy the wet ingredients and invent the rest yourself. It may be hard to get exactly the same results as you can with a mix that contains a lot of fancy stuff (emulsifiers, different starches, maybe corn syrup...), though.


What is the difference between cream cheese and sour cream?

There are differences in base ingredients, as well as in the method used for production. The production of cream cheese starts with milk (or a mixture of milk and cream), which is curdled after which the whey is removed. Typically, rennet or acid are used to curdle the milk, so that one can separate the whey from the curds. Cream cheese can be fermented before curdling, but I do not believe this is common.
Sour cream is cream that has been fermented with lactic acid bacteria.
The difference in names is thus also explained: sour cream is cream that has gone sour, while cream cheese has undergone a fairly typical cheese-making process.


Baked item that would catch on fire/smoke?

By far the main way you make a smoking mess in your oven is by baking something in too small a vessel, so that it boils over and burns on the bottom of the oven. The actual food can be pretty much anything you want, as long as it has liquid. (Similarly, baking a cake in a springform pan that leaks around the bottom will tend to cause messes.) If you want actual flames, I'm guessing something greasy would do it, but I've never been crazy enough to try it. Alcohol does burn too, but you'll get much stronger flames from a grease fire.

Alternatively, you can set a lot of things on fire by leaving them under the broiler too long. A minute or two? Nicely browned. Five or ten minutes? Charred - and there'll probably have been flames if it was flammable.


I have tried many techniques but what gets the best results for me is dropping them directly in water and vinegar. Complete method below:

Take eggs out of fridge early and leave to reach room temp. It is okay to leave them out of fridge overnight if cooking for breakfast.
Fill pan with water - I use frying pan with minimum depth of 4cm.
Add splash of vinegar to help the egg coagulate.
Bring water to boil then reduce heat until you can see a few tiny bubbles rising from bottom of pan.
Crack 1st egg into ramekin of some sort - I use a narrow tea cup.
If cooking one egg:

Stir the pan very slowly from the outside and then gently slide egg from ramekin into middle of pan.
NOTE: Do not make a rapid whirlpool in the center of pan - the centrifugal forces will pull the yolk towards the side of the pan creating a yolk sack with whites left in the middle of whirlpool.

If cooking many eggs:

Gently slide egg from ramekin near outside edge of pan with following eggs near edges of pan. Use a spoon to push escaping whites towards egg after sliding in for a couple of seconds until it starts to coagulate.

Cook for about 3-4mins for runny, longer for harder yolk.
If eating immediately:

Use a slotted spoon to lift eggs onto a plate with 2 layers of paper towel. Make sure to drain excess water - you may like to shake slotted spoon a bit.
Place a paper towel over eggs and press down gently to soak up excess water.
You should be able to pick up your perfectly poached egg with your hands and show your friends how pro you are.

If cooking lots or eating later:

Remove eggs with slotted spoon and place into bowl of cold water.
You may quickly heat them up in hot water when ready to use.

This is my morning routine twice a week - with english muffin, butter, bacon, rocket/spinach salad and hollandaise sauce.


When is homemade wine-based vinegar simply bad wine?

There is not really a turning point. The way that wine goes bad is the process of making vinegar. From wikipedia:

The word "vinegar" derives from the Old French vin aigre, meaning "sour wine".

The Canadian government limits things that can be sold as 'vinegar' to something with an acetic acid content of 4-12%, so you could do the technical-bureaucratic thing and wait for the acetic acid to get up to 4%.

If you aren't hung up on technicalities, then you can  use it as soon as it gets sour enough. It is done when all the alcohol has been changed to acetic acid, but it is a bit hard to taste since the acetic flavor dominates.


When to add the rye flour if it really makes a difference?

Putting the rye in the levain will make a few positive differences:

The rye will give the yeast a different food source, so the flavors the yeast produces may be subtly different
It gives the flavors from the rye grain longer to permeate the dough
Rye is often used in sourdough starters because of its natural yeasts. Natural yeasts add complex flavors, the earlier these are introduced the longer they have to contribute these flavors to the end result

These differences may be very subtle though, especially since you are adding a small amount of rye. There's no downside to adding it earlier, so no reason not to try.


What is the difference between French-pressed and Turkish coffee?

You list the main differences already (and yes they can be both made from the same bean or blend).

The name turkish coffee refers to the preparation method ... and the grind/granulation/coarseness is adjusted to the method.

Coarse ground coffee - Turkish preparation:

I come from a culture where Turkish coffee is brewed in almost every
home, so I always preferably go for it. And sometimes not having the
fine turkish-style coffee powder at hand (living abroad) I have made (read: tried to make)
"Turkish coffee" with a coarser ground coffee powder many times -
the taste is often quite alright, as you can compensate for the
surface (exchange area) with adding a bit more powder or letting it
sit a bit longer. However, as for this preparation you leave the
powder in the coffee (also while drinking) the coarser coffee does
not sink easily ... so you get it all between your teeth, if you
don't filter it out somehow (which is then not the traditional
Turkish coffee anymore).
Turkish-ground coffee - filter preparation / French press:

On the other hand using a French press, the fine Turkish-ground
coffee escapes through the mesh. This is not too bad, as the super fine coffee will sink and you will end up with coffee brewed in the carafe (like the "mud coffee" or kafe botz that they drink in Israel), with the unnecessary addition of making the French press dirty. Used to prepare filter (drip) coffee, the
finely ground coffee clogs the filter paper.  (being the adventurous
type I have experienced all this already, but wouldn't dare
recommending it)

In both cases you get coffee as a result after some hassle ... and even the desired taste might be reached ... but using the right coffee grind with the right method makes everything way easier.

The best is if you can grind your beans yourself (in Europe you can find public coffee grinders in many supermarkets and stores) ... then you can always achieve the desired coarseness for the right method of preparation (drip brew, french press, espresso, turkish,...).

Some additional notes:

You mention arabica - it is the most widely cultivated and
commercially used species of coffee (Coffea arabica) - so you will likely find it used in most preparation methods; the
other species that you sometimes get is called robusta (Coffea
canephora) and has a much stronger bitter flavor.
Not only the specieas, but also the roasting is very important for the flavor. So with the same bean you can get very different coffee (from a very strong dark roast to a very light roast). In some places I have seen turkish coffee prepared by quickly roasting the dry coffee powder in a cezve before boiling water was added, which gave it an extra toasty aroma.
In some places, turkish coffee will be made with the addition of spices (e.g. cardamom), which you can find also already in some ground Turkish/Middle Eastern/Iranian coffee blends. This will quite likely make a big difference in flavor when compared to "French" coffee (or to some drip-coffee blends that are sometimes made with the addition of hazelnut or vanilla flavors).


I've found a couple of plausible candidates.
The first (and I think more plausible), prompted by a twitter thread is an oven-bottom bread-cake*.  Here's (Facebook, with discussion buried in reminiscences, but no recipe I could see) an old photo showing them at Drewery's Bakery.  Similar things exist across northern England.  Until recently they could apparently be bought from Dixon's Bakery in Hessle Road.  It's worth looking at other traditional bakers, though the most likely I've found are currently closed.
The second is related to the clapcakes or havercakes found in other Northern counties.  These are made largely with oats, like the Staffordshire oatcake.  They sound like they're rather flat (even pancake-thin, and may use a little baking soda (recipe) or yeast (various sources but no recipe online that I've found).

* For anyone confused Bread-cake is a Northern English term for some types of bread roll.


From your descriptions it seems just freezing of some of the oil components.

When the oil is kept at low enough T, it is naturally subjected to partial of even full freezing.

White wisps, flakes and even little solid spherical drops can be seen, which tend to deposit at the bottom but are about floating in the volume if the recipient is moved.

This is totally normal, right as water inevitably becomes ice when the temperature is about 0 °C.

In the olive oil case, a denser liquid forms starting at about 12/10 Celsius and becomes evident as described above when the T is about 5 or 6 °C.

This is a normal occurrence during winter time whenever the oil is transported and/or stored in caves, supermarket corners, and even at home like in storeroom or balconies.

The oil slowly recovers its liquid clear appearance if left at normal room temperature and most important it is still safe and its organoleptic characteristics are basically unchanged, too.

There are tests based on freezing behaviour as for oils will have specific T profiles depending on their composition and possible treatments (e.g. filtration, ..) they could have been submitted to.

At a very deep level of discussion, an oil that underwent freezing might be susceptible of a faster rancidification, as for in the while the crystallized fat part is unprotected by natural radical scavengers such as phenols compounds naturally present. But this should matter to those dealing with the storage of trade/business amount of oil.

Recommended storage conditions are in dark and at temperature in the range 13 to 18 °C.

Here is a picture of a quite severe freezing:

Enjoy your oil.


What is this bread making technique called?

The "well method" is commonly used in pasta making, though some bread bakers also use it. When one uses an autolyse step in bread making, all the flour is mixed with water.  This begins hydration and enzymatic processes.  With the method you describe, all of the flour making up the "well" is just sitting there...inert.  The only thing I can think of is that the baker in the video is letting the yeast proof before mixing.


How to par cook potatoes for use as home fries

I wouldn't deep fry potatoes to par cook them for use with anything other than future frying. That cooking method gives the potatoes a hard exterior that won't cook as easily on your griddle.

Instead for home fries I prefer to blanch my potatoes in boiling water. This makes them soft and absorbent to seasoning and the starch is pulled to the surface which then gets that nice crispy exterior that you want at the END of the homefry cooking process.

Oh and since your size will effect your cooking time I will just give you a ballpark 7-10 minutes but really you are looking for about 60-75% doneness.


Yes. Crockpots are carefully calibrated to come to temperature quickly in the beginning of cooking (this is why they need to be 1/2 to 3/4 full of liquid). Without the lid on it would not come to a safe temperature and you will be at risk of foodborne illness if you eat the chicken or serve it to someone. Sorry! I know that's frustrating to waste good food, but it's better safe than sorry.


What is the shelf life of homemade compote?

If you placed it in a sterilised jar (boiled for ten minutes, compote added, jar sealed, then boiled for another ten minutes), and assuming it had a decent amount of sugar, it should last weeks even outside of the fridge, especially of unopened. This is standard practice for making homemade jams.

Once opened, it should be kept in the fridge to inhibit mould growth. It should still last a couple of weeks.

If you didn't do all this, I would think it would last a week or two, but there's really too many factors to give an accurate answer. You'll just have to judge its look, smell and taste.


Mirepoix means 1: diced onions, carrots, celery and leek. 2. the type of cut of the mirepoix (see 1).

The dices are roughly cut about 1cm and don't have to be completely regular.

When talking about the cut, it should be about 1cm and regular. So you can cut potatoes in mirepoix, meaning 1cm cubes.

So, a cook can say, 'cut me a mirepoix' to mean roughly diced onions, etc.

And a cook can also say, 'cut me a potatoe in mirepoix' to mean evenly diced potatoes.

So, the answer is both. A cut and a combination.


What is the typical shelf life of grains and seeds?

Here is a site https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information-center/self-reliance/storage-life-of-dry-foods#link7 which addresses many of the items listed, but unfortunately does not address the ones of most concern to you, the fattier items of sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

Flax they call a hard grain and put at 10-12 years with wheat and such.  Rye, oats, and barley they class as soft grains and 8-10 years in dry 70 degree temps.  Lower temps would extend.

I would think that pumpkin and sunflower would be considerably lower, possibly treated more like a nut.  For very long term storage, canning, or vacuum sealing may be an option for reaching the 4+ year stage.  I have had several year old nut meat which was canned then frozen with only minimum degrading beyond the initial softening caused by heating to can.  All long term storage will cause some degrading though.  To minimize, you would want cool, dry and no sunlight.


Two Reasons:

1.) The faster the food drops below the 'Danger Zone' the less spoilage it will have

If it takes that freshly-cut steak 2 hours to cool down from cow-body-temperature to a safe 40F, that's more spoilage and less shelf-life for the product. A rapid chill-down means a more valuable product.

2.) Ice-crystals damage food, and the faster water freezes, the smaller the ice-crystals

If the temperature of the water drops slowly, the water-molecules will have time to organize themselves into nice, neat rows (imagine a big snowflake). At a microscopic level, these ice-crystals will puncture cell-membranes and cell-walls, damaging the food and affecting texture.

If, on the other hand, the temperature drops rapidly, the ice-crystals will form more haphazardly, with less well-organized crystals. This means fewer ice-javelins stabbing into your food.

Try an experiment sometime: take a serving of ice-cream out of your freezer, let it melt completely,  put it in an airtight container, then toss it back in the freezer. Let it freeze completely and taste it. The flavor will be roughly the same, but the texture will be much worse. There will be big, crunchy ice-crystals throughout.

The big-time ice-cream makers invest in heavy-duty freezing tech that allows them to freeze the ice-cream faster, and with smaller crystals, the less-granular, and more creamy this tastes.


You can replicate a Thai rice steamer with a deep frying pan, a splatter guard, and a heatproof bowl. Just place a mound of soaked glutinous rice in the centre of the splatter guard over simmering water, then place the bowl on top, and steam for about 20-30 minutes, turning the mound over once or twice to ensure even cooking.


Is it true that bananas are radioactive?

Yes, it's true that bananas are radioactive, however, the amount of radiation that you get from eating a banana is negligible. It's also true that eating too many bananas can kill you, but if you manage to eat enough bananas to get radiation poisoning, you're going to die from something else long before potassium exposure comes into the equation - like, say, the death penalty after murdering the next person to bring a banana within 50 miles of you.

Source https://xkcd.com/radiation/

Bananas are on the left, third from the top. To better communicate the scale, the top legal (i.e. totally negligible) radiation dose for US workers is equivalent to eating 500,000 bananas/year.

There is actually a unit of radiation exposure measurement called the Banana equivalent dose. Suffice to say, there are about a thousand other sources of radiation in your day to day life that you should worry about before how many bananas you eat starts to become a real concern. You can safely eat as many bananas as you please, at least, from a radioactivity standpoint.


Low-calorie alternative to Lao Gan Ma spicy chili crisp?

Fermented chopped chili (duojiao) or pickled pepper (pao jiao) would be a good alternative in terms of flavor: spicy, tingly, salty, umami. The two are prepared using a very similar recipe, with the former the Hunanese variant and the later the Szechuanese varient. The usage, however, is very different from that of Lao Gan Ma: Lao Gan Ma is usually added to stir fries, but pao jiao/duojiao require a longer cooking process (e.g., steaming, braising, stewing) for the flavor to be fully released.

Fermented chili/pickled pepper is extremely easy to make: the main ingredients are red chili peppers (perhaps chopped), some sugar, salt, garlic and ginger (and Szechuan peppercorns, if you are making the Szechuanese variant) to taste, and (imporatantly) rice wine. The umami flavor comes from the fermentation process, while the wine contributes to an esterification process that adds more flavor to the completed dish.


Interesting question.  Did search 'how do I make puffed rice'.  Came up with some interesting information.

There are some writings that suggest that puffed rice can be made like popcorn; get the moisture in the grains of rice to the correct level (no idea what the level should be, experimentation should guide you I suppose) and then (depending on what source you read) put in a popcorn popper, put it on sheets in the oven or fry it in oil.

The history indicates that the first puffed rice made in the U.S. was actually shot from a cannon, after, I presume, being thoroughly soaked to some level of softness; there was a cereal advert in the '60s that bragged "this is the cereal that's shot from guns".  Am thinking that the softening of the rice, probably by cooking, and then putting it into a pressure vessel in which the pressure is allowed to rise to a certain PSI (pounds per square inch) and explosively releasing the pressure, causes the grains to boil or fizz or effervesce, gives them the light puffiness we see at the market.

If I'm reading the information correctly, the devices to make puffed rice are available

Here is a link to a video showing the explosive creation of puffed rice by a traveling puffed rice manufactury on a bicycle in Taiwan;

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3915559836111131480#docid=-4928826327589404249

Here are some other links, kind of vague, regarding non explosive puffed rice:

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/question393.htm

http://www.cheftalk.com/t/20752/how-to-make-puffed-rice

http://www.indiamike.com/india/indian-recipes-f108/how-to-make-puffed-rice-at-home-t94003/

This last link has some history & speculation of how puffed rice has been made non explosively using hot salt, or sand...didn't read all of the ideas.

Have fun, and be safe.


There's no right answer to this, every brand is different. Plus, you are assuming that you will have this problem when you don't know if the pot you bought is hotter than normal. In any case as long as you have enough liquid in it and use a low setting you shouldn't have to worry about anything burning.

My advice is to try a standard slow-cooker recipe and see how you do. If it cooks too fast then try bigger chunks.


Why shouldn't a precooked pie be frozen?

Generally, these warnings are for food quality reasons, not for safety reasons.

Assuming this is a fresh strawberry pie, I'd guess that - because strawberries don't bake or freeze particularly well - if you freeze the pie, the fresh strawberries will turn to mush and not taste very good, particularly if you try to bake it to heat it up.

Freezing something should never make it unsafe to consume... freezing is a preserving method.


The secret is in varying the temperature. Toss the pieces in baking powder or corn starch and fine salt, with or without other dry seasonings. In a non-convection oven, bake first at 120°C/250°F for 30 minutes to melt the fat and thin the skin layer, then at 220°C/425°F for 40 to 45 minutes to "crispy it up."


Was my bone marrow broth boiled too long?

Ideally it is simmered, but the proof is in the taste really as there's no safety issue. If it tastes good then use it, if it doesn't chuck it.


Should I get a thin, flat bottomed wok to stir fry large amounts of veggies on an electric stove?

I'll try address your questions:

Firstly, woks should always be thin. The point of a wok is to get extremely hot at the bottom, without heat being conducted much up the sides. Thin is best for this
The problem with this in your case, is that a small amount of your vegetables will be touching the bottom and cooking, while most will be sitting on top, or in contact with the sides, just getting warmed slightly.
The point of a stir fry is to slightly char the vegetables as they get tossed around the pan, moving between hot and cooler parts, so that they cook evenly, but get a good browning at the same time. The problem is that this is really only suited to smallish amounts of food, unless you have an enormous wok and burner/stove.
As you have indiciated that convenience is more important to you than flavour/cooking quality, I would suggest a large, flat, heavy bottomed frying pan (fine with straight or curved sides). This will cook large amounts of veg best, without cooling down too much when you add them, and the larger bottom surface will mean more veg is getting contact with the hottest surface

I wouldn't normally recommend a plain frying pan for stir fries, but I think this is the best option in your case. The outcome will not be the same as a stir fry - might be more moist and less browned, but should suffice for convenience's sake


Simmering, rather than caramelizing, onions (plus garlic and ginger)

Without the water, I'd call it 'sweating'.
With the water & lid, they're going to come out a bit like like fairground hotdog onions… not really like caramelised.
Fine for Spanish Tortilla (or hot dogs), not so great if you need that Maillard-like reaction.
If you don't use the water, or the lid, you can slowly caramelise onions with little supervision, but not none.
Check them every 10-15 mins at 'too slow to burn' pan temperatures, with plenty of oil. This is another one of those "work it out by repetition based on your stove heat & your pan thickness" things that might take you a few tries to get just right.
After that you can do it every time.
You can also cheat a bit (it's a fake & doesn't taste quite the same…)
Sweat at minimal heat, like for tortilla, for half an hour, then push up the heat a fair bit once you're there to supervise & quickly brown the already soft onions by keeping them moving constantly.
That's still a bit 'fairground' but a reasonable cheat.


How to get the pits out of clingstone peaches for peach butter

You may try a mango pit remover. Slide the peach up as far towards the small size as possible. This is just a thought, I have not tried it.


How to treat a cast iron pan that only gets occasional use

My (carbon steel) wok is used with that sort of frequency and doesn't go rancid.    What I do is (you may want to modify a little for the fact you're on cast iron):

Rinse and dry it.
Get it fairly warm.
Pour in a little oil (sunflower as that's what I mainly use).
Swirl/wipe the oil over the surface.
Heat until I think it starts to smoke; turn off the gas.
After a few seconds wipe of the excess with a paper towel.
After a few minutes wipe it off again as some oil will have magically appeared
Heat until it just starts to smoke again (fairly slowly to allow the heat to even out).
Allow to cool before putting away.

Now this isn't a very hard seasoning, but it does a good job of stopping the pan from rusting and stopping food from sticking next time it's used. The final amount of oil is very small, which helps.


How can I make home-made veggie burgers stay together so I can grill them?

I second the recommendation for Lukas Volger's Veggie Burgers Every Which Way. I've been working my way through it and have made several of the recipes so far, all of which have been good. However, I would say that not all of the recipes in the book work well for the grill.

I've been doing everything vegan from the Volger book with mixed results. Many of the recipes use eggs, but you can do them with just breadcrumbs and water as the binder. They come out pretty delicate that way and are better in a skillet and then baked, as Volger recommends. His tofu and chard burgers use some tofu that has been browned then pureed as binder. This works ok, but the burgers came out quite delicate (but still delicious).

Silken tofu pureed in the food processor gets a thick, creamy texture that could also be used as a binder.

Eggs are by far the most common binder as they may be the best edible binder there is, since they are basically liquid protein, but obviously not vegan.

For delicate burgers, I use this cooking grid on the grill, which works great. You can find something similar at most kitchen stores.

Another binder option is steamed rice, prepared like you would for sushi. It gets sticky and makes a great binder, though they'll still be a bit delicate.  I've been making the beet, brown rice and black bean burger recipe from Volger's book. I add bbq sauce and a paste of pureed rehydrated prunes, similar to the veggie burger at Hillstone/Houston's restaurant and they come out really great. They work fine right on the grill, though refrigerating them overnight makes them a little sturdier.

Another option is adding vital wheat gluten and water, aka raw seitan dough. This is what is done in the Veganomicon black bean burger recipe. I tried these straight on the grill also and they stayed together perfectly, as well as any commercial veggie burger. However, they were a little bland and could use some more seasoning.

I haven't tried any of these in burgers, but some common binders in vegan baking are peanut butter, apple sauce and Ener-g egg replacer. I bet peanut butter would work well in a burger with flavors that work with peanut, like Thai flavors or chipotle.

Falafel-style burgers also don't need any binders, they stick together pretty well and can be grilled, though you may want to use a grill grid or something similar.

Lastly, you can put a cast iron skillet or pizza stone on the grill - it's common now for grilled pizza and will work for delicate burgers.


Yes, if you have the right pot, namely one that has a steamer insert that is well above the bottom of the pot, or even stacks.
In fact, in several cuisines this is the standard way of getting several ingredients ready at once.  For example, it's common to steam couscous in the steam from the Moroccan stew cooking below, using a stacking pot called a couscousiere.
Just make sure that the food in the steamer will take less time to steam than the food below takes to boil.


Use the fact that you have two hands*.

If you don't want to pre-mix your spices, open all containers you intend to use.
Assign one hand to be the "clean" one, one the "contaminated" hand.
Use the clean hand to shake or pinch spices or salt from their jars (onto the other hand, the meat or your work surface, depending on your preferred method of seasoning).
Use the contaminated hand to apply spices to the meat, rub them in, turn as needed, move the meat aside....
Wash hands, put close spice containers and put them away.

This system is largely independent on the method of seasoning (oil or not, sprinkling on or rubbing in, individual spices or mix...)

The only exception might be your pepper mill, which usually needs two hands. You can pre-grind the pepper, enlist the help of a second person (hint: kids love pepper mills!), invest in a battery-operated model or wash your hands.

If you know that you won't be touching your meat, you can use tongs to flip and turn your meat, eliminating the need to wash your hands in between steps. But that would render your question somewhat moot.

* For the sake of simplicity, I assume you do have a full set of two healthy and functional hands. In case of physical limitations, seasoning your steak might be a minor issue anyway and you probably have developed hacks for a lot of things already.


Are "shelled nuts" with or without their shells?

In cooking, "shelled" usually means "de-shelled" or "shell-less". This applies to nuts, peas, etc.

The opposite that I've seen most often is "shell" to indicate that they still have their shell.

"Shell peanuts" have their shell intact.
"Shelled peanuts" are just the meat that has been removed from the shell


Is there any significant flavour difference between dehydrated and sun-dried tomatoes?

Making dehydrated vs. sun dried tomatoes:

Dehydrated tomatoes appeared later than sun dried tomatoes, in part due to the added complexity in how they are made. For dehydrated tomatoes, the tomatoes are washed, then passed through long tunnels in which they are exposed to a current of warm air. It is a speedier alternative to the sun dried variety, and allows for greater variation in the product. Dehydrated tomatoes most commonly produced in Chile, Mexico, Morocco, California and in China. Dehydrated tomatoes have a moisture content below 7 percent, a less sharp taste and lighten slightly in color after 12 to 15 months of storage.
The making of sun dried tomatoes is different. Ripened tomatoes are first washed, halved and then usually put through a water bath containing sulfur dioxide. They are then put into drying trays in the sun for seven to ten days. Thereafter they are cut and packaged. The industrial market for sun dried tomatoes in North America is currently supplied by Chile, Turkey, Mexico, California, Spain, and Italy. Sun dried tomatoes typically have a 12 to 24 percent moisture content, are more robust in taste, and darken after expiration after nine to 12 months. Cool storage is recommended.

Source: Sundried vs Dehydrated tomatoes


How do I stop onigiri from falling apart?

Things to try

Rice should still be warm
Handle rice gently, don't squeeze it

Does it fall apart because it is sticking to your hands? If so:

Use warm salt water on your hands (not dripping wet hands though)
Rinse the rice more before cooking to remove excess surface starches. The process is: Rinse in bowl of water, gently tumble, let stand 20 minutes, change water. Repeat until rinse water runs clear

If this still fails to solve this sticky issue, you can use cling film (plastic wrap) as a guide and release agent on your hands. Peel the plastic off as you wrap the nori on