Are insects bought as pet food safe for human consumption?

I am unaware of regulations in Germany with regard to edible insects, but in North America, insects must be raised/farmed rather than wildsourced, and they must be specifically raised for human consumption. Everything that the insects are fed, treated with, moisturized with or housed in must be logged. While there are currently no regulations for edible insects as such, producers are advised to adhere to the FDA's regulations regarding the production of seafood. Because standards for pet foods are usually less stringent, it is not advised that humans use insects produced for that purpose.


What should I substitute for shortening: lard or butter?

Yes, and also yes. Moreso lard than butter, as butter has significant water content, but it often does not matter enough to worry about. Most recipes that have been around for a while probably started with lard.

For MOST things, you can simply pick any of the three and it will be fine, or you can mix them if you like.


Bread won't rise during proof after overnight fermentation

Overnight proofing in the fridge is a great way to improve flavor, as you suggest (creating more alcohol and allowing a better gluten structure). There are a couple of things you should keep in mind. First is the temperature and length of your bulk fermentation. Too long and/or at too high a temp it could be using up most of the sugars, and the yeast could be simply running out of food. Are you doing this fermentation above 75°F? Second, too much salt in the dough will negatively affect your proof.


Freezing a Peanut Butter Chip Pound Cake

Absolutely. Your pound cakes will be just as tasty and fresh tasting as if they were baked the same day. Even cake mix variety can be handled the same way and it is absolutely the way to store butter based breads.

I learned the proper storage of cakes from Rose Levy Beranbaum and her Cake Bible. This is not an ad for the book but a suggestion you will not regret if you are are a baker.

If you like, use a little simple syrup and brush over cakes...

You need to allow the cake to come to room temperature. Then, if baked in a bundt pan, put plastic wrap in the center hole. This is to emiminate as much air as possible. Wrap cake in a layer of heavy duty aluminum foil by folding lengthwise, then folding the ends up tightly. Repeat the process in the opposite direction.

The cakes can be stored and frozen for a month or longer. When thawing, bring to room temperature for maximum flavor. I've done wedding cakes this way.


Do you need to sterilize jars when making yogurt?

Just clean with soap and water. Sterilization is not necessary.


Kara, you shouldn't need to adjust the cooking time at all. If the recipe says to bring to a simmer and then cook for 45 minutes, it will probably take longer to come to a simmer, but once it is there, you can leave it for 45 minutes.

The best recipes (in my opinion) will give you a time as a guideline, but the real instruction will be some target like "until 160 degrees" or "until peas begin to break down". If your recipe has that, you can look for those cues at roughly the same time the recipe suggests.

edit: I forgot to mention the pot size issue. It shouldn't be a problem. The two issues you could encounter would be:

boiling over
temperature variation

The former you're aware of already; the latter issue is that the soup at the top of the pot could be a bit colder than lower down. The two solutions are:

use a lid (this keeps the heat in)
stir periodically (this keeps both the heat and the peas better distributed)


Yes, you can; for example, from Charlotte's Lively Kitchen we have the following remark:

Can lemon curd be made with clarified butter?
OK, this is maybe a slightly unusual recipe adjustment to have tested.
However, I decided that as lemon curd is such a classic recipe, I’d
see how it was made in an old Victorian cookbook I was given by my
Granny, and that recipe used clarified butter so I thought I’d give it
a try.
It was delicious. However, I didn’t think it tasted like lemon curd as
we know it today so I decided to stick with regular butter.

Note that butter is about 80% fat, 18% water, and 2% milk solids (varies according to the butter).  So, you may wish to reduce the amount of ghee and adjust the moisture content based on your recipe.


What is the fastest way to cool hot soup?

Ice bath.

Put a bunch of ice in your sink or in a container large enough to place your soup pot in.  Add enough water to cover the ice.  If the soup pot is large or wide, you can speed up the cooling by periodically stirring it: this is particularly important for thicker soups or stews, where the middle section of a pot can stay warm for a long time.  Or, for maximum cooling, break up the soup into smaller -- preferably more shallow -- containers first and then place them in the ice bath (though this isn't generally necessary if you're using ice).

If you don't have that much ice, you can use a cold tap water bath to at least get it down to near room temperature before refrigerating.  But you will need to replace the water frequently for fast cooling.

(Unless you're breaking up the soup into smaller containers first, I would strongly recommend an ice bath over simply putting a large pot in the refrigerator.  It can take many hours for the contents of a large pot to cool completely in a refrigerator, which can be a food safety hazard.  If you do use the refrigerator alone, put into smaller containers and don't stack them to allow air circulation, and obviously don't place them next to highly perishable foods like raw meat, etc.)


How can I correct this Brandy Snaps disaster?

You will have to put on your asbestos chef's fingers and roll them while hot I'm afraid. You should leave them for about 15 seconds once they're out of the oven. If you leave them for too long to cool you can always pop them back in the oven for a few seconds to re-soften.

One thing that might help you is silicon baking sheets. Not only are these very 'non-stick', they also flexible, so you can use them as pseudo-oven gloves to roll the brandy snaps up.


What is a substitute for corn syrup in boiled icing?

When heating sugar up in boiled icing or in making candy, the problem is sugar crystallization.  This happens because the solution becomes supersaturated and any movement can cause it to shift back into a crystal state.

The corn syrup is there to prevent this from happening by providing glucose to 'get in the way'.  You can get just 'glucose' at the drugstore to replace the corn syrup.  Any other sugary thing that's high in fructose or glucose should work.

Another option is an acid.  Some acid (like lemon juice) should make some of the sucrose break apart into simpler sugars and prevent crystallization.


The beard is also known as byssus threads. They are the filaments that the mussel uses to secure itself to hard surfaces. They are usually brownish and may appear somewhat like seaweed. Most mussels commercially available have been farm-raised so often the beards have already been removed during processing. If you have beards, grasp them firmly and pull towards the shell hinge until it comes out. You may need to use a dry paper towel to increase your grip as they can be slippery.


Found it! Here is the Wikipedia article on the gourd: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichosanthes_dioica

It is also known as the Pointed Gourd.


I agree with the comment by Richard ten Brink: you can't really do this in a home freezer and expect good results.  Even with a large home chest freezer, it will take way too long for a whole carcass to freeze all the way through.  Freezing requires a lot more energy than maintaining something that's already frozen, and the process for a pig carcass would probably take several days (depending on the size of the pig).  You'd likely get significant quality degradation during the freezing process itself: slower freezing means more damage to cells, which affects meat quality when defrosted, not to mention that it could take many days for the interior to freeze solid (which could also impact quality).

And "freezer burn," by the way, isn't necessarily caused by long storage: it's the result of poor packing, usually combined with temperature cycling in a freezer, which allows air near the surface of food to lead to oxidation and dehydration.  Yes, a poorly packaged food will get worse over time, but a properly packaged food will last years in the freezer with no freezer burn.  (For a whole hog, you'll need a large chest freezer at home, preferably one without an auto-defrost cycle.)

Anyhow, my personal recommendation would be to seek out a local meat packer or meat processor with access to a commercial freezer.  (Perhaps there's someone who people take game meat to for processing or something?)  Ask them if they'd be willing to freeze the carcass after slaughter and vacuum seal it for you.  The vacuum sealing will significantly help to prevent freezer burn.  I don't know whether vacuum packing is feasible depending on how large the pig is (many processors only do it with small whole pigs), but that would be your best bet.

They'd also be able to advise you on the feasibility of freezing a larger pig for that long if they can't vacuum seal it.  But my guess is that it should be fine for a few months if you can keep it consistently below 0F and away from temperature cycling.


How long can a stacked carrot cake be stored

There are two main considerations here -- temperature, and icing.

For most stacked cakes, you typically don't want to store them in the fridge once they're iced, because the chill can cause condensation on the cake once it's removed from the fridge, which can adversely affect the job that you did icing it.

If your room temperature is relatively cool (ie, it's winter and you don't blast the heat, or it's summer and you're running the air conditioning), with most cakes, you're fine leaving them at room temperature for up to three days, with or without icing, although if without, you'll want it covered or wrapped to prevent it drying out.  (personally, I always bake my cakes the day before I stack and frost them, so that they've had a chance to thoroughly cool before splitting the layers apart).

My real concern is that carrot cakes often get a cream cheese frosting, and I would want to keep that refrigerated.  If you're not using cream cheese, then you likely don't have to worry, but if you are, I would bake the cake two days in advance, let it cool to room temp overnight, stack it (or at least, each tier), then put it in the fridge, and ice it the day of the event.

If that would be too tight of a time frame on the day of the event, I'd ice it a day or two before, but do whatever I could to prevent condensation.  If it's the sort of icing that crusts up a little bit, you might be able to let it sit out 'til it's set up well, then wrap it in plastic wrap / cling film, refrigerate it, then pull it out the morning of, let it get to room temp, then unwrap to do the final stack.  If it doesn't crust up, I'd look into getting appropriately sized cake boxes or other containers for when you store it in the fridge and let it come back up to temperature.


Can I substitute green cardamon for black cardamon in curry?

There is quite a difference in the tastes of black vs. green cardamom. In fact, they come from different but related species of plants.

Try asking your Indian grocery store for badi elaichi or badi welchi. It is the Hindi name for black cardamom.

Green cardamom has a minty flavor and is highly aromatic. It is also slightly sweet. It pairs well with spicy-sweet dishes as it enhances the taste. The ground cardamom in the store is probably green cardamom, because the powder is often used in recipes for masala chai (tea).

Black cardamon has a stronger flavor. It is more smoky (kind of like cinnamon - only kind of). It is best used in meat and savory dishes. So that's probably what the recipe uses.

As for Indian curd, also called dahi, it is closest to Greek yogurt in consistency and taste. However, dahi usually has a more tangy, sometimes sour taste. You may want to consider that while pairing up your dishes.


Cookies for shaping are usually rolled cookies.

Common categories would include:

Sugar cookies (as Mien mentioned)
Gingerbread
Linzer cookie dough

Look for recipes where you use a rolling pin.  These are already formulated for minimal spread.

Adapting other cookie recipes for use with cookie cutters will be trickier, and probably not worth the effort, in my opinion.


How do I make stir-fry sauces that don't get watery and thin as leftovers?

This is pure conjecture:
It's possible that the issue is in how the vegetables are cooked -- commercial restaurants have crazy hot burners so the vegetables are cooked on the outside while still firm in the middle.  It's very difficult to achieve this with a stove at home.
The closest that I've managed to get to it is by cooking in batches ... an ingredient or two at a time (or half of a given ingredient when I'm cooking for a crowd) in an oiled skilled that's heated to smoking ... and then move it to a bowl once it's cooked, and cook the next batch once the skillet is back to smoking hot again.  (I deglaze in between batches, with mirin or similar, if needed)
Another possible issue is the ingredients.  There are a few foods out there that will break down gels due to enzymes in them.  So if you're making sweet and sour dishes with fresh pineapple, you're actually better off using canned as they've been cooked thoroughly enough to deactivate the enzymes.  You should also only taste your sauce with a clean spoon (or using the two spoon method), so that enzymes from your saliva don't contaminate the sauce, as that can also break down gels given sufficient time.


Cleaning wax and pesticide from apple skin

Just rinse them quickly with hot water, and afterward with cold water. That should melt the wax, and remove everything.


Suggestions for storing homemade frozen custard

Any air tight plastic container will do to keep smells out. I use either cheap, disposable plastic leftover containers, or used ice cream tubs that I saved from previous purchased ice cream.

As for the crystallization- The only way to prevent that is my having no air in contact with the ice cream at all. I don't know how to solve that completely. I avoid the issue by not making more than we can eat in a reasonable amount of time (a week or so).


Accidentally bought a "butter basted" turkey. Can/should I still brine it?

Pre-basted turkey is indeed already brined. You can double check this by looking on the ingredient list of the turkey packaging and you should see a salt or vinegar solution listed.

You can still soak the bird if you would like, but either use no salt or a low-salt brine, like a 0.5-1% solution. In this case you will probably be pulling out some of the salt from the brine that's already on the turkey.

Here's a description from The Food Lab (a pretty rigorous source) on these types of turkeys:

  Self-basting birds have been injected with a salt and flavor solution
  to help keep them moist while cooking. They come out incredibly moist,
  almost wet, and can be cooked directly from the package with minimal
  pre-roast work required. They also tend to be dull and diluted in
  flavor.


If you cook rice for 200 people you could consider 100 grams per person so a total of 20kg.
I'm making a lot of assumptions here, I know, like I have no idea what your other servings look like.

As a general piece of advice and as semi-professional chef, I'd recommend to use grams at all times. Cups is a volume-based measurements and rice has a lot of air around it, and its volume will depend on the type of rice, temperature of the environment in which you measure and even humidity! If you go pro, you should resort to using accurate weight-measurements rather than volume-units.


Can you take a cooked roast and make it tender and moist?

I would dice it and make something else out of it -- roast beef hash comes to mind. The potatoes, onion, and whatever else you decide to toss in will overcome the dryness, and chopping it will overcome the toughness.


Eggplants differ in bitterness. You can cook some of them and never notice a problem. But other exemplars are quite bitter, and can overwhelm a dish. That's why it is a good idea to preemptively do something to remove their bitterness.

I have read dozens of suggestions how to do it. Some are OK, others are downright terrible. Have you tried soaking eggplant in water with lemon juice? An eggplant being basically a sponge, you end up with pieces bloated to three times their original size, dripping water into whatever dish you try to use them in. Also, they stay rather bitter.

The logic behind the salt is that it will suck out the bitter juice of the eggplant through osmosis. You can then remove the mushy salt and use the eggplant pieces. You can certainly use it if you want, but it isn't the best method. First, osmosis does occur when you salt food, but nowhere near the rates claimed. You don't end up with a dessicated steak if you salt it 10 minutes before frying, and if you salt a slice of eggplant, you have to make thin slices (doesn't work for ratatouile 2-cm-cubes), give it some help (press the slices with a weight so the juice will be pressed out) and wait a long time. Even then, the results can be inconsistent.

The good news is that one of the few veggie-themed Food labs posts is dedicated to the problem of disembittering eggplant. The tests seem to be as rigorous as usuall, and the best practice recommendation is to not salt the eggplant, but bake it.

Microwave is the best method, as it dehydrates well and does so quickly. If you don't have a microwave, the second-best method is the oven.

Slice the eggplant, aiming for even thickness
Put absorbing paper towels on a baking sheet (oven) or a wide plate (microwave)
Arrange the eggplant slices in a single layer on the towels
Cover them with another layer of towels
Optional: stack another layer of slices and towels to get all the eggplant ready at one go
Anchor the towels with some weight. (I use all-metal serving knives laid across the slices; another plate on top would work in the microwave).
Microwave for 3 min or roast at 175°C for 30 min
Use your eggplant as intended

Obviously, this isn't good for all applications, because it dehydrates the eggplant. For example, I don't think you can make a good imam bayildi with the dry roasted eggplant (but then, maybe it will be OK, I've never tried). But for the typical uses in Western cuisine, it should go fine.

The original article is also highly recommended reading, as any of Kenji's stuff.


Searing frozen meat is fine, and is a useful way to get a good sear without overcooking the inside (since you can sear for longer, and at a lower temperature). There are no food safety issues I can think of which would apply to short ribs but not steaks, particularly since the former are cooked for longer at a higher internal temperature.

The only problem I can think of is if the ribs are frozen into an irregular shape. You want good, broad contact between the surface of the meat and the pan. If the frozen meat only contacts the pan in a few small places, those areas can burn long before the rest of the surface is properly seared. Adding a bit of oil can help with this if the surface is nearly flat. Alternatively, if you have a powerful enough broiler (aka grill), you can use that to sear instead.


Coffee brewing methods - scientific analysis?

Could this help: http://www.goodfood-project.org/www/Links/Hashimoto.pdf?

I had a quick flick and it basically uses infrared analysis to work out the quality and underlying flavor of the beans.

Other sites I found (though less of what you asked) are http://www.web-books.com/Classics/ON/B0/B701/22MB701.html which is just a general look at the science behind coffee and http://www.marco.ie/other_pdfs/070516_SCAE_Gold_Cup_Filter_Presentations.pdf which looks at the methods behind brewing.

Anyway, hope this helps.


Uncooked?  I was shocked at how unimpressive the flavor of raw shaved truffle was.  It was kind of earthy, not particularly strong in flavor; in this case the truffle was probably not fresh enough.  When heated and allowed to release their full flavor and aroma into food though, they are phenomenal.  There's a rich, luscious taste and smell, with an almost petrol pungency to it. The latter is primarily from the 2,4-dithiapentane, which truffle oil replicates, although it has a harsher and less complex flavor.  Truffle oil will give you this top note, but without any of the additional layered complexity.

All this said, different people have different reactions, and freshness matters greatly for raw truffles.  If you really want to try truffle, canned or jarred truffle can be had in small quantities for under $20.  The flavor is quite distinctive, unique, and pairs well with cream, milk, cheese, and butter.


Why does frozen food still have an expiration date?

Frozen food does spoil over time. Much slower than even just thawed, sure, but don't expect that something that would spoil within few days at just above 0°C will last with unchanged quality for years at -18°C (even if it were always at that temperature). There are also physical and chemical effects contributing to spoiling of food.

Freezing refers to water forming ice. The spoiling of the aqueous parts (water and the stuff dissolved in water) is extremely slowed down due to the phase change liquid -> frozen.

But food is not only water, and e.g. lipids (fatty, oily) parts are much less affected by the lower temperature. The lipids in food are are often mixtures of fats and oils that get slushy and finally more and more still in the temperature range we're talking about. E.g. squalene (which is fairly abundant in some fish oils) has a freezing point of -75 °C - having such components helps keeping the mixture from freezing (crystallizing).

Lipids can go rancid by hydrolysis and/or oxidation. This is slower in cold temperatures (as a rule of thumb, for lipid oxidation I'd expect maybe an order of magnitude slower for 10 °C lower storage temp. So 3 weeks instead of 2 days. If you manage consistently -18 °C instead of +2 °C, maybe several months, but not years. Gas-tight containers help against oxidation by oxygen from the air - but it is extremely difficult to seal food really air-tight at a time scale of several months.
Hydrolysis would be hampered by forming of ice, so the prediction of the time scale isn't that straightforward. In particular glycerol (e.g. from hydrolysis of lipid) will act as anti-freeze and keep some tiny fraction of the water in a liquid phase where it can help hydrolyze further lipids.

Fish need to have lipids that stay suitably liquid at water temperature (i.e. for some fish even around 0 °C). Thus, while tallow is more-or-less solid already at +20°C, fish oils are liquid at close to 0°C. Which means that at the same -18 °C both oxidation and hydrolysis will be faster in cold water fatty fish than in the meat of warm-blooded animals.

Health considerations: hydrolysis is affects the sensory quality, but AFAIK does not have health concerns (triglycerides are anyways hydrolyzed in our lipid metabolism).
Oxidation of (unsaturated) fatty acids OTOH leads to so-called lipid oxidation products (duh!). They include mutagenic and carcinogenic substances. BUT: this is also something that happens inside our body during lipid metabolism, and sufficiently often that we do keep detoxification pathways up and running. We includes the animals of whom we're discussing the meat here. This detoxification uses antioxidants (that's why they are healthy), and in the cells they are stored together with antioxidants (e.g. vitamin E). Before lipid oxidation (and the formation of potentially unhealthy components) starts, the antioxidants are used up - that's their biochemical purpose. In terms of health effects, in this stage, we're not getting as much of the particularly healthy antioxidants out of this food as we'd have gotten by eating that meat earlier, but  also there aren't yet particularly unhealthy compounds in it.
All in all, I'd say also the oxidative rancidity is not very concering in this scenario:

we're quite good at detecting rancid fat (also from hydrolysis) so the risk of unknowingly eating dangerous amounts is low.
The lack of antioxidants from this piece of food can quite easily be compensated by adding some more fresh veggies or nuts to the meal. In addition, the potentially toxic effects from possible lipid oxidation products can to a certain extent be counteracted by eating yet more antioxidants. Add another big spoon of broccoli with some fresh nuts or almonds to your meal.
If you're frying meat/fish in oil, that may be a far more important source of lipid oxidation products in your diet.

Volatile substances (which are important for smell/"taste") also have lower vapor pressure but it's still above zero. Getting a container gas tight at a time scale of months is difficult. In the end, after a year or so in the freezer is is quite possible that all the food acquires the average freezer smell/taste.

Health effects well, we don't know what substances float around in your freezer. But the total amount you eat probably doesn't differ much whether you let one piece of meat "soak" in that atmosphere for a years vs. 12 times eating a piece of meat that was in there for a month.
If you flash-freeze food, there will be tiny ice crystals, but given enough time they will grow (depending on temperature again, the colder the slower, and the more gas volume the more). This has two consequences for the food: the crystals can grow so that they damage the cell walls (in fish/meat or vegetables): the thawed meat is noticeably more tender, for vegetables we call the same effect mushy and often do not appreciate is as much. (Freezing in a home freezer is sufficiently slow to get this effect)

The 2nd effect is that even at these low temperatures, water evaporates (that is part of how the re-crystallization processes work), and pure water crystals form. Over time and helped by temperature changes (due to opening, putting in new stuff, cooling cycles), pure water tends to crystallize outside the food at the wall of the container. This water comes from inside the food, which is dehydated (freezer burn).

Health effects none, or only indirect ones: destroyed cell walls may mean that microbial spoiling is faster once the food is thawed. But here again the time at -18 °C makes hardly any difference compared to the slowish process of freezing in a household freezer.
Dehydration/freezer burn also causes the protein to precipitate but that doesn't cause health concerns. And cooking/frying anyways leads to even irreversible protein denaturation (denaturation from drying may even be reversible).

In terms of packaging, vaccum sealing (in a material that is has low permeability for oxygen - not all plastics are gas tight on the time scales we're talking about, and permeability varies for different gases) helps. Frozen fish is sold glazed with a protective ice coating that also helps, both against freeze burn and by adding another barrier for oxygen.

  below 0C environment, no bacteria or fungi may grow

I wouldn't bet on this as a general fact of life, see psychrophile microorganisms.
But for the food-relevant microorganisms it is a good approximation.

For your lobster, all that I explained about cold water fish will apply. It may not taste well any more. In terms of microbiological spoilage, months at -18 °C matter hardly at all compared to the time spent not or incompletely frozen.

For the yeast (pizza) dough, while you can freeze yeast dough (dried yeast is usually produced by a freeze drying process), yeast can also die and your home freezing process may not be as nice to the yeast as an industrial process optimized to keep it "alive". But you'll notice if it doesn't rise when thawed - and as @GdD points out, you may not need it to rise after thawing.

If there are freeze burned spots, you may get away with thorough kneading like when  the surface of the resting dough accidentally dried a bit. Also, you can check the smell before putting any toppings.


How can I tell if my grill pan is preseasoned?

Per the information on starfrit.com , there is no mention of the pan being pre-seasoned. But there is also no mention of needing to do so.

From the maintenance tab on the linked page:

  Before you cook

  Remove all labels and packaging materials.
  Before using your new cookware, wash thoroughly in hot soapy water using a soft cloth or sponge. Dry completely.

  General cooking tips

  Prior to each use, it is recommended to add a teaspoon of cooking oil for better cooking results.

  Never heat an empty utensil. Be sure there is oil, butter, liquid or food before placing the cookware on the range
  or burner.
  It is not recommended to use high heat. Cooking on excessive heat can cause permanent damage to the surface and
  utensil.
  Never cut anything in the cookware or use utensils with sharp edges as to avoid damaging the surface.
  Add salt to water only after is has come to a boil. Salt grain deposit on the cookware bottom will attack the metal as
  the heat melts it down.

There is also other information about cleaning and oven use.

All said, I don't follow a set rule about seasoning non-stick cookware even though I've often seen it recommended. But when I have heated oil in a non-stick pan it does seem to do better afterwards, especially with older pans. And I always hand wash non-stick cookware.

To sum up, I don't see how you could cause any harm by pre-seasoning the pan and occasionally reseasoning, even if it doesn't need it. But this is based on my experience and I haven't used this brand.

The only other thing I can suggest is to contact the company and see what they say. Since they don't mention pre-seasoning, I suspect they will say it isn't necessary. If you do contact them, we'd be interested in what you find out.

And welcome to Seasoned Advice!

EDIT:

I was assuming that the OP knew about seasoning a non-stick pan, as the question is about how to tell if a non-stick pan is pre-seasoned when new.

To be very clear, seasoning a non-stick pan is NOT the same thing as seasoning a cast iron or other bare metal pan. Should you (or anyone) decide to season a non-stick pan, please make sure to follow a recommended procedure.


I would think you'd be able to.  I'd look for recipes on camping websites for baked goods in dutch ovens, as it'd be pretty similar.

You should be able to pull off biscuits and brown bread pretty easily.  And I'd tell you about cakes cooked on campfires such as upside-down cakes, but you're the one who asked about it earlier.


Assuming that you are talking about a tempered glass bowl that is marketed as microwave, dishwasher and oven safe, there should be no problem in the pressure cooker. For glass vessels, the most critical uses are rapid temperature changes and uneven heating, the surrounding pressure isn’t an issue.

I recommend the following safety measures:

Before every use, independent of cooking method, check for (hidden) cracks with a quick visual inspection and by lightly tapping it with your knuckle or fingernail. You can hear hidden cracks. Don’t use a damaged bowl for anything involving heat, cold or temperature swings, ideally discard it entirely.
Don’t place the glass directly on the pot’s bottom, use a wire trivet, steamer insert or other support.
Don’t seal the container, if you want to cover it (e.g. to prevent condensation from the water in the cooker), use a loose lid (not the plastic lids that come with the oven-to-fridge storage containers), a plate, or tent with foil.


What's a good substitute for basil in pesto sauce?

If we're talking about the big classic pesto alla genovese, then unfortunately...
There is no substitute.
Basil is the majority ingredient in pesto.  None of the other suggestions here will taste even remotely similar.  You'll be making a completely different dish entirely.  It will be some type of vegetable/oil paste, but it will not taste anything at all like pesto.
It would be like trying to make baked beans without beans, or french onion soup without onions.  These ingredients are so dominant and so essential to the flavour of the dish that there's literally nothing left without them.  Just forget about it and make something else.  It won't be pesto without basil - not even close.
Critically, if you're using this pesto as a component in a larger dish then
it definitely will not come out correctly with any of these substitutions.  Pesto is used in a lot of ways and every recipe that asks for it is expecting the flavour profile of a basil pesto.  No substitution will be effective in this case, and each recipe that calls for pesto will have its own unique flavour profiles that will clash in various different ways with each of these substitutions.
If you're desperate, whatever substitutions you do end up making will depend heavily on what you're ultimately doing with the pesto - what you're pairing it with.  We don't know what that is, so it makes it that much harder again to make a reasonable suggestion.


What should the results of my chocolate soufflé be like?

A chocolate souffle should be warm and gooey in the middle, if it is solid throughout it has been cooked too long.  It sounds like you have it right, I wouldn't change it. If you want to prove it to her do a google image search on chocolate souffle, you'll see what the result should look like.


It's the equivalent of 'from concentrate' on fruit juices.  Only in this case, it's made from dry milk powder.


How can I tell if a balsamic vinegar is good?

Well, it IS vinegar. However as you probably already know, higher quality balsamic vinegar is less sour and more rich tasting than its cheaper counterpart. It's unlikely that your balsamic is spoiled--in most ways vinegar is as spoiled as it's going to get.

More likely is that you've uncovered one of the issues with balsamic vinegar: Most of what you can get in a supermarket is of low quality, and is not produced in the traditional way (years of curing and evaporation in wooden casks). What you can get is more likely to be much more mundane wine vinegar with flavorings. And that is often more acidic-tasting and pungent than the real thing (which costs an arm and a leg).

I'd say sample it carefully and see if it's as sour as it smells. It might be OK, or you might want to find a new brand or get it at a store that goes through it faster (check the best by date, if there is one).


How can I make the best use of prime beef?

If I'm spending the money to get prime, aged beef, I'm going to cook it rare if I cook it at all. The more you cook it, the more flavor you're going to lose. In the restaurant business, it's not uncommon to slip you a substandard chunk of meat if you order the fillet and you order it well done. How would you know the difference between good and bad at that point?

Likewise a lot of additions. There is a place in town here that does an extraordinary fillet stuffed with goat cheese and cranberries, and one of the best I've ever tasted was covered with bearnaise and crabmeat, but, as a general rule, don't add a lot of extra flavors to high quality beef. The worst thing you can do is hide the taste, since that's what you're paying for.

Still, aside from the two that I mentioned, you can stuff with blue cheese, make beef wellington, or make beef stroganoff (Link is to James Beards version, which, imho, is the best); quality of meat is huge in stroganoff. I'd only use fillet there, or some other very lean cut. Saved the marbled stuff for the grill.


Cheese is not made from "rotten" milk, let me clarify that. Rotting is an uncontrolled process in which bacteria, molds and other life forms colonize milk, eat it, release waste into it and die. The resulting, rather unpredictable, crud we call rotten (or more precisely spoiled) milk.

Most cheese is the product of highly controlled action by bacteria that produce acids that coagulate the casein in the milk. The type of bacteria, the temperature, the amount of time they are allowed to act, the amount of water you drain out of the curdling milk, all control the end result in terms of texture, taste and flavor.

The kicker, though, is that cheese is by no means a sterile product - not even cheese made with pasteurized milk. Bacteria remain inside the cheese, and of course bacteria (and molds and yeasts) land on its surface through its processing and shelf time. While the action of these bacteria can be slowed down by cold and dryness, most cheeses will go bad after a while. How long is "a while"? It depends. At room temperature, mozzarella will go bad in a matter of hours while an aged unopened Parmesan may sit happily on a shelf for months and even years.

(apologies for the short and brutal definition of cheese: I have omitted curdling by other methods and the various surface treatments that can be applied to cheese crust)


Was too much oil used, or not enough when seasoning?

You used far far too much oil. And you definitely used the wrong oil.

Ever notice how oil moves around the surface when you pour some in a hot pan? It doesn't spread out uniformly flat like water does but seems to be moving in a changing pattern. I don't know what this oil fluid dynamics is called but I'm sure you've seen this too.

When you oiled your pan, this pattern is what started to form and then from the high heat - and it doesn't take long - it baked on with thicker and thinner layers of hardened oil. Rather than trying to bake on a layer of fat in one sitting, you'd do better to laminate your seasoning so it lasts.

What you want to use is a "drying oil" that will form a hard slick film that fried food will slide off with the addition of a little cooking oil. What's the drying oil painters use? Linseed oil. The food grade and safe equivalent is 100% pure unadulterated flax  oil. So your second choice is what you need to use.

But remember, you should laminate your seasoning. By repeatedly adding a thin layer of flaxseed oil and then heating it for an hour, letting it cool for a couple and repeating this 4 or 5 times, you'll end up with an almost glass-like smooth finish to your pan that's more nonstick than Teflon could be.

It's important when you coat your pan for seasoning, you wipe off any excess before baking it. You want a barely there film. Why? Because doing so, enables the oil to absorb oxygen in the air evenly (a thicker layer would prevent oxygen reaching the oil next to the pan's surface) which is necessary. It also lets the iron function as a catalyst that speeds the process. What you get is polymerization of the flaxseed oil (the actual chemical change) from a liquid to a hard solid, not a thick sticky layer of half-baked oil.

Before you can properly season your pan though, you'll need to remove that previous attempt. The easiest method is to place your pan, face down, in a self-cleaning oven to thoroughly burn the old oil off. Then, you can brush off the ash, wipe your pan clean and begin seasoning it correctly.

Just a tip about maintaining the finish. Use your pan for frying only, not stewing or ever cooking with acidic foods. The best way to clean residue on your pan after frying is with salt and oil. I scrape the worse off and then add about 1/2 teaspoon oil to my pan and pour some ordinary table salt on the oil. With a bunched up paper  towel, I use the lubricated salt to scrub off any food residue. The salt doesn't scratch the seasoned finishing and really cleans well. I usually rinse it under water before drying the pan and putting it on the heated element just to be sure it's completely dry.


How to open a malfunctioning tamper-proof bottle cap?

I've had this before, and solved it by breaking the join  between cap and ring with a small screwdriver, one section at a time.  Long nose pliers may be handy towards the end.  You might manage to get the tip of a butter knife in the join instead of the screwdriver.
Trying too hard when it's not coming off tends to deform the threads in the cap, so it may not go back on securely later - you might need to decant the contents.


Is there a frosting similar to whipped cream but without cream?

There are dozens of different types of frosting.

Whipped cream frosting is one of them. It's made very simply by whipping heavy whipping cream until it reaches stiff peaks and then adding a tablespoon or two of sugar to help stabilize it. It is light, airy, and not particularly stable for long periods of time unless it is kept in the refrigerator.

Another very common type of icing is "buttercream" frosting. There are several different kinds of buttercream but the most simple kind is made out of butter whipped together with lots of powdered sugar and a small amount (a tablespoon or two) of liquid - either milk or even various types of alcohol if you want your icing to be boozy. It can be made with most solid fats including margarine or shortening.

Buttercream is pretty stable without being refrigerated but it will not have the same texture (it's more dense and "fatty"). It sounds like you're used to the former but you tried out the latter and you weren't happy with the results - which I understand - it is generally significantly sweeter because you're using cups of sugar instead of a few tablespoons as with whipped cream icing.

If you want to try something that's a bit in between these two products - that has the light, airy texture of whipped cream but is sweeter and doesn't use cream, you might consider trying a "seven-minute icing". It's a cooked, egg-white based icing that is similar to meringue. It's made with egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar (as a stabilizer). Done correctly, it makes lovely fluffy peaks with a shiny gloss.


Possible dangers of home fermentation of vegetables

Fermenting vegetables is a pretty safe procedure, in fact, if done properly, fermented veggies are probably safer than raw.  Really, little can go wrong if handled properly.  The process is literally thousands of years old.  In fact, your biggest concern is contamination after the process is complete.  Of course you need to use safe food handling procedures to begin with (clean product, clean hands, clean containers...etc).  Then you need to use the proper level of salt for the product you are fermenting--2.25% by volume up to 13 or 14% depending on the vegetable.  The idea is to bring the product to a pH level of 4.6 or lower. Basically, using the correct amount of salt, at the correct temperature, for the correct amount of time achieves this.  There are lots of online resources.  Probably the foremost expert on ferments is Sandor Katz.  He has an excellent book and an informative website.

If you can verify that your product was handled correctly (cleanliness, salt, temperature, time), there should be no reason that it is not safe.


I think that your problem doesn't come from using the wrong cut, but from using the wrong quality tier of meat.

The cheapest pork in the supermarket, no matter which cut, is produced from cheap mass-held pigs with a certain type of "lifestyle" - no movement opportunities, cheap feed, lots of antibiotica. It produces a certain kind of meat, known as PSE meat, which stands for "pale, soft, exudative". The last word means exactly what you describe: a meat which loses lots of water during cooking. So no, you cannot get more "bang for the buck" by changing the cut.

I still assume that you are getting a better price per gram cooked meat from buying cheap meat and cooking it down than from buying expensive meat which will lose less water, so I guess that, if price is the most important part for you, you shouldn't change anything.

Another word about quality: the S in PSE is also your enemy when making goulash. Generally, you want lots of collagen in goulash, and some fat for taste. PSE meat has almost none of them. The old idea that cheap meat is best for goulash comes from times where the difference in meat prices was based on the cut: a shoulder cost less than a filet, and that was it. Nowadays, this connection still holds for the same animal, but if you look at the different price tiers, the cheapest meat, especially in pork, is not at well suited for long and slow cooking methods. If you buy cheap meat, the best you can do with it is usually mini-steaks or schnitzel, heavily dressed to make up for the lack of taste.


I will answer what I know and leave it to others to add more.

Two major changes that take place as cheese ages are fermentation and drying. In some cheeses time is also needed for mold growth such as Brie or Blue cheeses.

The fermentation is usually the more desirable. Bacteria is introduced when the curd is formed. The bacteria consumes lactose and turns it into lactic acid and other flavorful byproducts. This acidifies the milk and is an important factor in curdling it and creating the cheese curd.

When the curd is pressed, excess water is removed. In the case of Parmesan most of the water is removed. This retards the progress of the bacteria. As the cheese ages the bacteria stays active and makes a lot of flavor. Think of a bread- a little yeast with a lot of rise time tastes much better than a lot of yeast and a short rise.

The acidity and flavor increases. Drying also plays a part in concentrating flavor.

Both the acidity and drying will change the protein structure of the cheese and is what gives Parmesan its characteristic crumbly texture. I can't speak to what these changes are on a molecular level.

Is there a food and/or dairy chemist in the house?


Food container "not suitable for foods with a high fat or sugar content"

The best reason I can come up with is that microwaving items with oil and/or fat can lead to temperatures much higher than the 90C maximum that is recommended.

From the link:

Microwave, dishwasher and freezer safe
Suitable for temperatures up to 90c
Not suitable for foods with a high fat or sugar content


What is the most comfort temperature for tea?

Tea temperature and brewing time is purely personal preference, as is tea condiments (milk, sugar, honey, lemon etc.)

The only real factor is maximum brewing heat, some teas taste very bad if brewed too hot. Most teas should be brewed at 95°C or less, which luckily is more or less what happens if you aren't too fast with pouring out the kettle. AFAIK heating tea above 95°C or boiling tea brings out a very bitter tannin that most people do not like to drink

Interestingly most tea brewing charts with any science behind them are from Asian medical studies on tea health properties, and reflect the best way to brew tea to get the claimed good bits out (antioxidants, flavonoids etc.). These brewing time and temperatures charts don't necessarily reflect on the method to get the best taste, and certainly this is anecdotal to my own experiences with tea


If I'm understanding correctly, the crust came out okay when you used AP flour, but was more difficult to work with and came out tough when you used bread flour.
So to answer your question, yes, you do need more water when working with bread flour than when working with AP flour. From  Serious Eats  regarding bread flour:

Will it produce a traditional Neapolitan pizza with a super-crisp, airy, and delicate crust? No. But the pizza it does produce is great for its own merits.
Bread flour requires a little more water than most other flours to produce doughs of equivalent viscosity. Because of its high protein content, some people may find bread flour doughs a little difficult to stretch — it has a tendency to bounce back. The key is to make sure that it's well-rested before you being to stretch it.

You may find that the linked article has a lot of good information about different types of flours.
From what I've read, because bread flour is a strong flour, it requires less kneading that AP flour. And a personal observation, regardless of what I am making - biscuits, a loaf of bread, a pizza dough - when I need to add more liquid later in the process rather that at the beginning, it somehow affects the results.
I would say that if you're happy with the results using AP flour, keep using AP flour. If you want to experiment using bread flour, add extra liquid at the beginning and knead less, making sure to rest the dough before forming the crust for baking.
You may also want to try other recipes. The pizza dough (for a thin crust) I make doesn't use any sugar and a very small amount of oil. And I've read that traditional Neapolitan crust uses only flour, water, yeast, and salt.


Bottom of my charcoal grill keeps falling out

Push & twist, very similar mechanism to a bayonet-fitting light bulb.

Three hooks go over three pins, then you turn it to lock.

I cannot tell from the photos whether the pins are in situ.

Just in case it's not entirely clear from that brief description, you lift the 'bucket' up underneath, it should fit outside the flange on the main structure. Then you slot it over the three pins & twist slightly so it drops into the little locks.


You can buy very reputable paella pans from The Spanish Table. I got mine there in person and have been very happy with both the pan and the advice I received in buying it.


Sounds like you didn't roast sufficiently or not sufficiently hot. The outside should be really charred, and the inside will be not so watery.


I assume you mean fig jam as jelly is clear and made with fruit juice. Figs don't really do that.

Fresh figs have a delicate texture. When I have frozen them they were just ok. They were damaged and were not nearly like fresh.
However, this damage is nothing compared to the damage caused by boiling them into jam.

Your frozen figs will be fine for jam making.

Freeze them fast to minimize damage, and seal them in an airtight container to prevent freezer burn.
I lay mine out on a cookie sheet until they are frozen solid and then pack in freezer bags for short term storage or vacuum bags for longer term.


Does simple syrup require refrigeration?

The key factor in syrup's shelf life is the water activity in the syrup, rather than the ingredients used to make it. Generally, the water is all 'bound up' with dissolved sugar so microorganisms can't use it to grow, but the lighter the syrup, the more available water it will have.

In my experience, simple syrup is usually kept refrigerated except for small portions that will be used within a day or two.

For a chart of water activity (aW) of related foods, check here: Water Activity Table


Homemade fresh garlic dressing fridge life

Really it is dependent on the acidity of the mixture. For example if you were pickling the garlic you could have a shelf life of several months. However using olive oil changes the acidity lowering the shelf life. If I remember correctly, at the last restaurant I worked at we only kept our house made vinaigrette for 7 days.

On a side note, keeping your mixture in the fridge is extremely important in order to avoid botulism which is found in soil and on the surfaces of certain produce.


Is there any advantage to cooking beans in a pressure cooker, besides saving time?

Besides what Layne mentioned :

If you're at extreme altitudes, you may not be able to get things hot enough to cook.  A friend in Boulder, Colorado once mentioned that she can't cook beans without one.  (I don't know if that's technically "too long to be practical" or "completely impossible", though)

Also, for pressure cookers that don't release steam as they're cooking, you prevent the aromatic compounds from leaving, resulting in more flavorful food.


Place one of the take no tsuyu in a bowl then you pour boiling water over.  The rice cake outer layer will soften and come apart as you stir it with your chopsticks and the red bean soup powder inside will hydrate and create a flavorful broth.


How can I recreate the dipping sauce for the cream cheese wontons served at Pick Up Stix?

Can't help you with this sauce in particular, but I can give you how I would approach it and maybe that will help you.

First, have some of the original around so that you can test against it.  Testing against your memory will never work, although you may get some great results anyway.  It just won't match the original.

Second, take good notes of each attempt.  You're going to be working in one of two ways to create the recipe, either method requiring excellent notes if you are going to duplicate your success once you achieve it.

Third step you're doing right.  What are the predominant flavors?  What is the base, most likely?  In this case you've identified soy as the base, and then sweet, acid and ginger.  Ginger is fine (although you will have to decide if it tastes like fresh or ground), but the others are too vague.  What could the sweet and the acid be?  When you are trying to duplicate something, think of the cuisine.  In this case we are talking Asian (although commercial Asian) so the sweet could be Mirin and the acid is most likely rice wine vinegar which is a mild vinegar.  The Mirin would be a sure thing if this were not commercial Asian...odds are it is just white sugar and it only seems mild because the vinegar is mild.

Now you get to choose which method you want to work with.  You can make several small batches, changing things with each batch, or you can make a single progressive batch, modifying as you go.  If this was a baked good, you'd have no choice but to do each batch separately, but since this is a dipping sauce, you can modify a base batch slightly to get to where you want to be, and is how I would approach this.

Start with your base (soy sauce) and pick an amount that is reasonable.  Since this is a dipping sauce I'd probably start with a quarter cup.  Not too much, but not so little that I have to measure 1/16th of a teaspoon of the ginger, say.  Taste the original sauce, taste the soy sauce.  If the soy sauce is WAY stronger than the original sauce, they probably added some water to it.  If needed, add water to your experiment, measuring and writing down each addition, until it seems a little stronger than the original.

Now go for the next major taste, probably the vinegar.  Add a little at a time (measure, write down) until the basic acidity is right, maybe a little shy.  Now balance the acid with the sugar (or Mirin) a little at a time, tasting yours and the original until they are close.

Now add your top notes (ginger and sesame oil).  You should at this point be close, and can adjust.  If you put in too much of something (say the ginger) you will need to add a proportional amount of everything else to bring it back to balance.  This is why you wrote EVERYTHING down...you did, didn't you?

In the end you should have a batch larger than you wanted, but you'll know everything that went into it.  Look at your actual amounts.  Readjust all of the amounts to be something that you might actually make.  If, for instance, you needed 1/8th of a teaspoon of grated ginger to make this taste right and you know you'll never get that right again, multiply everything by four, so you can do your ginger at 1/2 teaspoon.  It's all about proportions at this point.

If, by the way, you wanted to do this as separate batches, you'd do the first batch as described above.  Decide what is off (too much sesame oil? too much vinegar?) and rewrite the amounts the way you think the next batch should be and then make it.

By the way, if you believe that you didn't have enough of an item, you can always add it to the current batch to see if you were right.  Not enough? Try adding it to the current batch.  Too much? Either adjust the amount for the next batch OR using the progressive method above, adjust the other ingredients to bring things into balance and then proceed.

Note that in all cases I add less than I think I needed to get close, then sneak up on the amount.  Once you go past any amount, you have to do a more major adjustment.

And measure and write.  You will NOT remember the amount.  Really.

And, finally, have fun.  You may come up with something even better.


Handling raw milk is risky, and please note this information is not professional advice and is not to be taken as an authoritative response.  I will, however, attempt to provide some thoughts on handling raw milk below.

Selling unpasteurized milk is illegal in some countries, and official sources usually discourage the consumption of raw milk instead of offering handling instructions (for good reason).

The FDA has this article on dangers of raw milk.
There are other real dangers such as Brucellosis or Maltese's Fever with which I bouted as an 8-year old.  Think of 107F fever.

Also, keep in mind when you boil the raw milk you are going through a similar process as pasteurization in regards to the theory on breaking down the complex proteins and milk protein allergy.  Probably even more than pasteurization since that occurs at lower temperatures.  Those theories, however, aren't proven (yet) as far as I know, but you do burn some of the sugars in milk if you go above 70C.

The actual answers:

2: It is better to boil first for sure.  Don't store raw milk for lengths of time.
3: Theoretically, if you do everything right and vacuum pack the milk, it might last a couple of weeks, but the longer it stays, the more dangerous it can get.  Freezing might be a better option (we keep our pasteurized milk a couple of months in the freezer).
1: I can't tell you how long to boil it for, though the last time I had fresh milk, it was kept simmering on the burner for about 5 minutes by the folks at the farm.  It was also minutes after it was collected (fresher is better).

one of the safest things you can do if you're going to have raw milk, is to know the source and get it from a farm that takes care of the conditions.  If you know the farm, the farmer, and the cows conditions are safe, you're more likely to be able to enjoy raw milk in peace.


Which spice gives brown colour to Indian curry?

I've seen a lot of different curry recipes with varying levels of authenticity, but the most common ingredients I see in curries that might impart that colour are:

Garam masala (brown)
Chili powder (red)
Cumin (brown)
Paprika (red)
Tandoori powder (usually a mix of masala, cumin, ground red pepper, fenugreek, and others - very red)
Saffron (red)

Still, it's all kind of a moot point, because, in Indian restaurants the most common source of red is actually red food colouring.  Don't kid yourself; Indian restaurants use plenty of "artificial" ingredients - they also usually use food colouring in the saffron rice, which is how they get those few vibrant red grains to mix in with the yellowish rice.


Sugar "boils" at a temperature much higher than water. The water is there just to get things started, so you don't burn the non-melted sugar directly in contact with the pan at. Within a few minute the water will have evaporated, and all you have left is liquid sugar

Use a candy thermometer and slowly raise the temperature until you get the sugar colour and flavour you want

When it cools it will thicken, or become solid, depending on how high you heated it. It is not just a time thing, it is the maximum temperature your reached

Caramelisation with happen around 170°C (340°F) depending on what type of sugar you use. Caramel sauce usually requires the addition of a fat like cream


Controlling variables in homemade yogurt

The initial heating stage takes a little time to denature the water soluble proteins in the milk.

The hotter your milk, the faster the process. At 180 it takes 30 minutes. At 190 it takes 15 or so. Heating the milk longer than this won't improve the texture. I don't believe the texture will change very much unless too much water is lost.

Heating for a shorter time than this will make the yogurt significantly more fragile and less creamy.

"The milk mixture is pasteurized at 185°F (85°C) for 30 minutes or at 203°F (95°C) for 10 minutes."
http://www.milkfacts.info/Milk%20Processing/Yogurt%20Production.htm


If you're making the same thickness of cake, and it's a relatively thin cake (suggested by the fact that you're using a sheet pan), you typically do not need to change the time and temperature.  So if you've doubled the recipe and doubled the area of the pan, you don't need to make any changes.

A larger area cake will rise more as there won't be as much edge that will set before the rest has risen.

If it's a thicker cake (the batter is more than 1/2" / 1.25 cm deep before baking), you'll want to turn down the temperature and bake for a longer time.  If the batter is an inch or more deep, you may want to consider cooling strips and/or a heating core.


licking spoon and putting back in the food

Safety-wise: If the food is heated at least to 180° F/ 80°C, I'd like to cite Jefromi

  But if you're just cooking for yourself I personally wouldn't really
  worry about it, because in general you'll be cooking the food at a
  safe temperature, not just above the danger zone (140F/60C) but
  something safe for all meat (180F/80C) so whatever bacteria you put in
  with your spoon is just going to get killed. We routinely put
  potentially contaminated things like raw meat into our food while
  cooking, and let the heat take care of it; whatever you might be
  carrying isn't any more dangerous.

and logophobe

  Double-dipping isn't a big concern unless
  you're ill [...]
  You're probably introducing your friends and family to just as much
  contamination in the form of dust and such simply by having them in
  your home.

Quality-wise, as Stephie already pointed out: Liquids thickened with starch will liquidify if these come in contact with saliva (the enzyme amylase in particular). It breaks down starch to sugar.


I'm not sure about the possibility of getting the salt all the way into the center of a fish, but I can perhaps address some of your other questions.

First, if you do manage it with a simple salt cure - I expect your food will be inedibly salty.  You can look at simple salt curing as it was used as a historical preservation method - recipes using such show that the pieces would have to be soaked or even boiled and the water discarded, sometimes repeatedly, to remove the extra salt content before it was in a state suitable to cook with.  Because if this, I expect not having the salt penetrate too far in was a good thing - it would be easier to get the salt back out before cooking.

Second, I don't think a grill rack would be needed, or even desirable, if dry curing in salt.  Actually, I think that released liquid may be necessary for the curing to work.  The liquid dissolves salt, you see, and salt needs that mobility to get itself into the fish (or whatever is being cured).  The released liquid will be much saltier than the food - it has access to all the dry salt it can physically dissolve - and that gradient is enough to keep the salt flowing inward and the liquid flowing outward.  If the fish is on a rack, it looses contact with the salt still in the liquid, and it will take a lot more time for the salt particles on the surface to dissolve, and osmosis their way into the food, with all the extra salt being dripped away, and the food potentially drying out (and stopping the salt transfer for lack of medium) even faster.  Salt won't come loose just because you see a liquid, you understand, the liquid itself only releases when the concentration of salt is higher outside the fish - and as long as you have more salt outside your fish than inside it, the salt will keep going in as long as there's water to carry the salt.

Third, washing the surface after curing may release a little salt, but the emphasis is on very little.  It takes time for the salt to osmosis its way into the food, and it will take time again for it to osmosis its way out - so the rinse will only take the salt on the very surface, and not any that has spent that time to have made its way inside the fish.  In addition, the time it takes for salt to move from just under the surface means it will almost certainly not happen until the rinsing is over, so it may re-balance the salt gradient of the outermost edges before they dry, but not more than that.  And the edges will have the highest salt concentration anyway, because of physical proximity to the salt, so losing a bit of that is probably only going to help in the process of not making it inedibly salty.

If you honestly want the salt all the way through - probably the best way is to make a weak solution, with the percent of salt you want (remember to take into account your fish's volume), and let the fish sit in the solution for a very long time, so it reaches full equilibrium.  The more salt outside, the more water it will draw out of the center - and the presence of water is what lats the salt osmosis inwards, so if the concentration is too high, the salt will 'dry out' the middle before the salt can reach it.  Piercing the fish through in a couple places will also help, since it cuts down on the edges, and gives a shortcut in to the center of the fish,so it will reach equilibrium faster.


Can I use sugar as a pie weight when blind baking at 425F?

Unfortunately sugar decomposes at 367F/186C, so I don't think using it at 425F is a good plan.

That said, I think that lower-temperature blind baking will work on pretty much any pie crust recipe. I've used it on both the Stella Parks recipe you mentioned, and Kenji's easy pie dough and it worked fine.

The benefits of using sugar and of blind baking at a lower temperature are described in yet another article on Serious Eats. The lower temperature reduces the puffing and deforming, and the sugar is just easy and effective. None of it is associated with any specific pie crust recipe, so again, should be fine on the Cook's Illustrated recipe.

Of course, you can also always just pick your favorite plain crust recipe and use it on every pie you ever make that calls for a plain crust, even if it includes its own unique variation, and then you'll know exactly how to deal with blind baking it (with sugar).


One whole duck and extra pieces - how long in the oven?

Anyone who tries to match the variability of an oven (over time, no two heat identically, even the same brand, and most are inaccurate) with the irregularity of the food (no two whole ducks have the same mass and shape, and the side breasts don't have bones, which affect heat conductance) is doomed to be disappointed.  Anyone who suggests that you put in the breasts X minutes before the bird is done is leading you down a primrose path.

By all means, use the rule of thumb to give you a rough guess, but don't plan your meal around it. Get yourself a probe thermometer -- two, in this case: one for your whole bird and one for your separate breast.  Pull each piece out when it is done.  Plan your menu around that reality.


Perpetual stew-like stock using the fridge: is it a good idea?

I like this idea, a  lot actually, it would be an interesting experiment, but you would have to keep it on the gas.

Ignoring the safety concern of accumulating pesticides, which you mention, this would be like any stew which a quick Google search tells me should last about 3 to 4 days in the fridge. At least you don't want to cook meat in it.
Bringing it to a boil over and over again might help but you're also adding a new risk of contamination every time. Definitely not a long term solution.

In terms of flavors, you're basically making a stew out of anything; it could turn out great or horrible depending on what you cook but over time it would surely develop some strange off-flavors.

If you want to reuse your cooking water, I would do so in the same dish; for example, in the sauce. Or maybe you could keep it for a soup you want to make in the next day few days.


Why did my Turkish Delight come out flavorless?

First, I don't know where you people all get these gelatin-filled Turkish delight recipes. Turkish delight is made with starch, not gelatin (at least the recipes used in Turkey are all with refined starch or rice flour). What you are making here is jell-o (if you use small amounts of gelatin) or gummi bears (if you use lots of gelatin).

Second, about the taste. It is normal that fresh apple juice loses its taste when it is cooked. The normal Turkish delight tastes of sugar. Its aroma comes from strong aromas added to the liquid (rose essence, or artificial aroma). You don't preserve natural fruit tastes in Turkish delight. Even if you wanted to, I don't think there is a way to do it with apple juice. Some stronger tasting fruits (cherries, raspberries) could give a syrup with more taste, but are not part of traditional lokum.

Third, about the temperature. Your observation is correct, you are just evaporating the liquid. In some cases, it might be desirable to start with more liquid and evaporate, so you get more concentrated aroma - for example, if you have started with pure rose water. But if you are making a recipe which requires concentrated sugar syrup, it is OK to start with a ratio which creates saturated syrup at room temperature (3 parts sugar to 2 parts water) and cook until the desired consistency is reached (this is recognizable from the boiling point).

For most recipes however, you don't want a concentrated syrup. The candy hardness is defined by the amount of starch used. In this case, you just mix everything and you are ready after it has bubbled, just like any pudding. The amount of sugar seems to be 1 part sugar to 2 parts water.


Dried palm fronds are traditional Thai. Not sure you have access however.


Sous vide - add liquid or no in the bag?

Generally speaking meat that is cooked sous vide does not have marinating liquid in the bag, though a small amount of fat (oil or butter, for example), might be added to help with air displacement.  A lot depends on what you want to achieve and the specific cut or protein you are cooking. There are several ways you can go, but dry-rub or marinate...pat dry or wipe off...quick sear...bag...cook...final grill or final sear...is often a good practice.   A vacuum sealer is nice to have for extra long cooks, when you get into the multiple day range, but is not really necessary for most applications.  There are many online resources you can check for guidance.


It's not going to hurt anything. The apples they use for cider are usually pretty rough, so a little wrinkling isn't going cause a health issue. You very well may not get as much juice, but the juice you will get will be more concentrated.

The same principle applies to grapes used for wine...Ideally they will get very little water in the weeks leading up to harvest, so you'll get all the good sugars and flavours, and less of the undesirable water.


How to make creamy/starchy risotto with brown rice?

The "dissolved" starch is going to make a sauce or "gravy". Different sources of starch will have a somewhat different taste. So experiment a bit with different sources of starch and see which tastes best. You could even grind some of the brown rice in a mortar and pestle to get a brown rice flour that you could use for thickening.

My experience with a risotto is that the rice is breaking down somewhat when it gets to the point where it is cooked. So to make a gravy I'd have some extra water/stock for the rice, and then add a small amount of a starch solution which would thicken when heated. You wouldn't want to start out with a starch solution since that would be easy to burn. You can't add a dry starch to a hot liquid or it will lump.


Why does sauce go watery after freezing?

Sauces separate when frozen for several reasons.

If it contains vegetables, the plant cells rupture when the water in them freezes.  This means the sauce gets watery and the taste changes as the contents of the cells escape.
With emulsions, the oil/fat microdroplets clump together when they freeze.  When you thaw the sauce, the emulsion is wrecked, giving a runny consistency.  You can defeat this by re-emulsifying as you thaw the sauce.  See How can I prevent bacon mayonnaise from splitting when above fridge temperature?
Due to colligative properties, areas of less concentrated solution will freeze first, and more concentrated solution freeze last. As the solution gradually freezes, this has the effect of concentrating dissolved thickening agents in the last regions to freeze.  When the solution thaws, the thickener isn't as evenly mixed.


What to do with soft chicken bones after making bone broth?

Worm bin.

Worms need calcium and sometimes they struggle to get enough.  People recommend eggshells in the worm bin for that reason.  You are not supposed to put meat in the worm bin (because of rats) but I think these bones are ok.  They will fall apart pretty quick.

If you don't have a worm bin you could bury them in your garden.  I am told tomatoes like extra calcium in their soil.  Do an experiment and put them all by one tomato plant and see if that one is bigger.  If you have kids the right age, show them what you are doing and maybe they will make it into a science fair project for next year.


Should I be able to make a tarte tatin in a glass dish?

Technically you should be able to make almost anything you'd be able to make in a metal dish, in a glass dish, but if the preparation calls for one then you can't simply substitute the other willy-nilly.  It will likely require a good deal of fine-tuning.

Glass is an insulator.  It absorbs heat.  That's why solar panels are glass and why having a window in your home is not like having a gaping hole in your wall.  As a consequence of this, (a) it will take a longer time for the dish itself to come up to oven temperature, (b) it will cook much more consistently and evenly, even if you have an oven that turns the element on and off to maintain temperature, and (c) it will continue cooking the food after you remove it from the oven, unless you remove the food from the baking dish immediately.

What this means is that you generally have to extend the cooking time by at least 5-10 minutes (more if you are baking at high temperatures) when substituting glass bakeware for metal, to let the dish "pre-heat."  Except if you're going to let the food cool inside the baking pan, in which case you might actually need to decrease the overall time to prevent burning afterward.  It's hard to be precise because it depends on what you're cooking, how long you're cooking it and at what temperature.

To be honest, I probably would not use a glass dish for any recipe requiring caramelizing because caramelizing relies entirely on finely-controlled conduction; ovens are less sensitive than a stove top but nevertheless, a few minutes too long and it's burnt, a few minutes too short and it's still solid.  Better to choose a material that's highly conductive for that, i.e. metal.  Glass is best when you need slower, more even cooking, like casseroles.


Differences between heavy and light whipping cream?

Heavy Whipping Cream (at least in the States I believe) has a fat content of 36% or greater. Light Cream generally sits between 30% and 36%. Heavier cream generally will have a "richer" taste. Light Cream will also not whip quite as thick and not hold it's form as well. That said, for most cases, I've successfully managed to use them interchangeably. I guess it might make a difference if you were doing something where holding a rigid structure for extended periods of time was important.

Note: What various grades of cream/dairy are called varies by region... Here in Canada we have Whipping Cream 35% and Heavy Cream ~40%. If I were somewhere where "Light Whipping Cream" sat closer to 30%, I might grab something a little higher.

More info.


Generally oven cooking gives a more even, surrounding heat rather than the direct and concentrated heat from below that a hob supplies.


Refrigerate it and the fat will get on top of the water.


You can make a dinner based on corned beef all from tins, but of course that's fairly heavy for hiking. Fresh veg cabln be lighter and keeps a few days.

Tinned potatoes are the key to a traditional one-pot camping meal, fried first if you have some oil or margarine with you. Then it depends what you feel like, but baked beans and peas can be used to make a corned beef hash.

Alternatively (using two pans of some sort)

tinned tomatoes and dried herbs, with pasta on the side
tinned/dried/fresh veg, whatever you can find or transport, and curry paste, with rice

You still only need one burner as one pan can be kept hot while serving as a lid for another, so long as you've got a level, stable base.


Quicker freezing = smaller ice crystals.  One hour is a long time, that likely contributed to your grainy texture.  If the Breville ice maker is your only option, make sure your base is as cold as possible before using the ice cream maker.  That means refrigerating it for several hours in advance.  You also might want to strain your base through a fine sieve first.  This would help to ensure that the graininess is not coming from your ingredients.


How does the performance of a warped pan compare to a level one when using gas?

A slightly warped pan will perform the same as a flat pan on gas from an efficiency perspective, the shape isn't going to waste energy. As for whether the warp will impact your cooking experience it's hard to say, a warp can cause coatings to flake off, or make liquids pool in or run away from particular spots.


Is "quick brining" as effective as an overnight soak?

Given the source (Michael Ruhlman) and that it was linked by Seriouseats, I am willing to bet cash money that not only does it work exactly as stated, it will provide spectacular results.


What causes pasta dough to be holey after running through a machine multiple times?

I watched this video and saw I was adding an extra step. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6KhbS3q5b8

After making pasta again tonight, which came out perfect, I realized I was "re-kneading" the dough after I passed it through the machine.

Tonight I folded the dough once, and resent through the machine over and over, and it came out great! Hope this helps someone!


Because matcha is ground so fine, whisking helps break up clumps; usually with a matcha whisk (chasen). If you were to try with a spoon or a normal metal balloon whisk you would find that clumps form.
Think about cocoa powder and how that sticks together perhaps? Usually a good whisking is needed to mix it into e.g. milk.


Are there any scientific advantages to using a cork to stop a wine bottle?

If a wine maker loves their wine, and their customers, they will use screw caps. All the studies have come back positive for screw caps. See screw cap initiative for starters.

Some main points are:

Corks taint the wine
Corks, real or synthetic, have a very high failure rate. Screw caps are basically 100% effective (maybe too effective)
Wine ages better with a screw cap, as there is no chance of seal failure or tainting
Screw caps have been physically tested for over 30 years, and are designed to last longer than that
You can cellar wine bottles at any angle
The energy used in making a recyclable (aluminium) screw cap is significantly less than used in making a cork
Most corks aren't made in ethical plantations
No special tools are required to open and recap a bottle (cork knives can be a serious health hazard later in the evening).
Wines age more safely. Corks do not breathe, but they may shrink and let wine out (bottles stored on side). Good vineyards will re-cork cellared wine every 20 to 25 years, or when corks start failing. The wine is topped up to the correct level, and often the wine/cork gap is flooded with nitrogen to avoid oxygen contamination which will "soften" the wine.

All in all, some pretty convincing reasons to go with screw caps.


What's the difference between Red and Panang curry?

I have just looked in the book "Thai Food" (by David Thompson).

Both are very similar. The main difference I can see is that there are souring agents in the red curry (fish sauce and shrimp paste). These are absent in the panaeng which has peanuts as a major ingredient in the paste (and nutmeg).

The panaeng is also usually made with beef which is simmered in count milk until tender.


How do I thicken tomato-based pasta sauce without adding starch?

Fresh tomatoes are insanely watery, so you're starting at a pretty big disadvantage here. Trying to fix it with a thickening agent alone might not be the best plan.

That said, if you want a short answer: use tomato paste, whether homemade or storebought. It'll thicken and improve the flavor. Watery tomato sauce usually has watery flavor, not just watery texture, so any way you thicken besides tomato paste is likely to leave you with a thick sauce that still lacks flavor somewhat.

First off, try to make sure you're using more pasty less juicy tomatoes. It's hard to give very specific advice since this depends a lot on exactly which varieties you get. But everyday supermaket tomatoes are generally too juicy, with the plum tomatoes often (but not always) being somewhat better.

From there, the most common options leave something to be desired:

Remove some of the juice before cooking. This costs you some flavor, though.
Cook longer to reduce the sauce. This costs you the fresh tomato flavor.
Puree the sauce, so that the pulp gets spread around and thickens the liquid. This doesn't fix everything, but it helps a bit. You get this for free with longer cooking and reasonably small chopping, but you can also use a food mill, or grate the tomatoes, or find another way to thoroughly smash them.

So the best option, if you're looking for a totally fresh tomato sauce might be something like:

Make your own paste (nice and thick and rich). It's easiest to reduce without burning in the oven, but you can do it in a pot too with some care. This is the time-consuming part, but if you do it in bulk, maybe not so bad.
Make your own quickly-cooked puree (so you keep the fresh flavor as much as possible). If you have a food mill you can save a lot of time here by just hacking up the tomatoes and bringing them to a boil as fast as possible and cooking for 5-10 minutes, then using the food mill to get the skins and seeds out.
If you want chunkiness, either mix in some fresh tomatoes just before serving, or if you want the chunks cooked, accept that you'll need more paste to make up for their water.
Add paste until it's thick enough.

Then since that's all a bit time-consuming, you can save time by buying paste (it's cheap and easy). If you don't have a food mill, peeling and seeding is kind of a pain if you're making larger quantities, so you might consider just chopping reasonably finely and tolerating the skin and seeds.

There's a much longer writeup, "How to Make the Best Tomato Sauce From Fresh Tomatoes", of essentially this technique with an awful lot more attention to detail at Serious Eats. I personally find the lazier versions to be a better balance of time spent and resulting sauce quality, but you might think it's worth it.


Chia seeds have been known to harbor salmonella, and considering their high fat content, high carbohydrate content, and their physical/chemical reaction to being soaked in water, they are an ideal growing medium for any number of hazards.

The USDA does not have a published opinion on the topic.

The EFSA has approved them as an ingredient in all forms,including uncooked, but has only researched cooked form (which is typical for seeds and nuts)

Give the lack of guidence from a credible organization, and the wildly varying ranges of unauthoritative sources, I would treat soaked chia seeds as most akin to leftovers of a salad that has dressing applied, which is to say even in the refrigerator, no more than a day and "when in doubt throw it out".


Which type of oil/fat should I use for deep frying?

For the very best tasting fries, onion rings and battered fish are fried in fat made from rendered beef fat. When I was a cook we rendered down a thousand pounds of beef fat a week, it took days to do. But it made the very best tasting savory deep fried foods. The burning temperature is lowish, so food needs to be cooked at 325 and changed more often. It's not good for things like doughnuts.

I'm not a fan of Canola, I find it often has a taste which I don't like. I don't use peanut mostly due to habit, too many people I've run into with allergies. I can't find rendered beef fat and I'm not going to render it at home.

At home I use a mixture of Sunflower and lard, about 1 part to 3 parts. The sunflower oil makes it easier to handle when filtering through a very fine mesh sieve (more liquid at a lower temperature) after use, then I put it in an old olive oil can which I refrigerate between uses. I leave out overnight before I use it then warm in hot water to pour it out. I don't usually use more then once a month. The more crumbs and batter bits you filter out the longer the fat will remain good. So filter, and don't pour the last bit into the can.

Refrigerated the oil mix doesn't go bad before it becomes no good to use. I get well over a years use. I love sunflower oil, it has almost no taste at all and a high smoke temp. It is pricey.


How do I substitute canned pumpkin for canned pumpkin pie filling?

The most common, almost canonical brand of canned "Pumpkin Pie Filling" in the US is Libby brand. While the canned pumpkin puree is just canned pumpkin, the Libby "Canned Pumpkin Pie Filling" also has sugar syrup, natural flavoring, salt and spices. So I would add the spices, salt and condensed milk in @Phrancis's recommendation to 30 ounces of pumpkin puree (probably without the cornstarch, there is probably cornstarch or other thickener in the rest of the recipe, if not, consider adding it as a part of the next step I am recommending here), more or less of the spices and sweetener to taste. The eggs and dairy (other than the sweetened condensed milk, which would serve in the substitution as the sweetener) are most likely in your recipe, not expected to be in the can of "Pumpkin Pie Filling").

You want a texture pretty similar to the unadulterated canned pumpkin product. If your substitution is a bit thinner than the the canned pumpkin was (as it should be, with the addition of sweetened condensed milk) simmer it a while to reduce. That can get your volume down to 30 ounces and intensify the pumpkin flavor, making your substitution probably better than the stuff for which you are substituting. Libby sells the pumpkin puree in 15, 29 and 106 ounce cans.

BTW, America's Test Kitchen does that reducing trick to canned pumpkin just routinely to give it a more intense pumpkin flavor and to eliminate "the taste of the can".


Convection microwave oven capable of only 200C

Convection microwaves are a bad solution for baking. In the worst case, you get one which cannot turn off the microwave part, which means you can forget baking at all. In the best case, you get a compromise solution which is not as good quality as a dedicated tool. This is quite independent of the temperature setting.

If you want to bake, buy an oven. Toaster ovens of the appropriate size and strength (1500 to 1800 watt) do quite well, and are easy to get on a budget. If the dial only goes to 200, that's OK. You won't get optimal results with some breads and pizzas, but for those you need a bigger investment than most home cooks have anyway.

A microwave is a luxury item with limited usefulness (it doesn't do anything that can't be done with a stove, adds a bit of convenience), but if you want one and have the resources (money and counter space), buy it separately from the oven.


Replacing cream and butter in a carrot casserole/pie

A mixture of almond milk and silken tofu (1:1) will yield an inexpensive half and half replacement, top with earth balance margarine as necessary. For baking, flax or Chia eggs or commercial egg replacer should fit the bill. If the baking time is not too long you can incorporate tapioca flour in slurry for a creamier texture and extra thickening, our just use a corn starch slurry.


How can I reduce the bitterness of onions?

Although I've never encountered bitter onions, if something is bitter the best thing to do is counteract the bitterness with more sugar.

If you're eating them raw I would recommend mixing sugar and lemon juice in a bowl and mixing with the onions and leave for about 20 minutes. The sugar balances out the bitterness and the lemon juice helps to take away from the "rawness" of the onions, as well as adding flavour to mask any bitterness.


Dealing with a hank of natural sausage casings

Hanks of casing aren't generally that big (of course, this is relative - if you're only making one pound of sausage it's gigantic!) so I've always soaked the whole thing.  They should be slightly easier to pull apart, but it helps a lot if you soak them in slightly warm water and then after they've soaked for a bit, find the end and run warm water through the hole (so it goes into the casing), then pull the end out of the hank so the water runs down and through the inside of the remainder of the casing.  The water will bulge out the casings and help to make them easier to remove and also wash out the inside (which also contains some salt) - once you have the casings separated as you want them, you should wash them out using this method again.
I have saved the leftovers in the past, but how you do it depends on how long it will be before they're used. In any case, you should rinse them in warm salt water as when you're making sausage, bits of meat tend to find their way where you don't want them.
If you're going to use them soon, just make a more heavily salted brine than what you rinsed them in, make sure the brine covers them completely and there's no air inside, and put them in the fridge (ideally in a dark container)  If it will be longer than a week, you can brine and then freeze them - but this is a bit of a controversial issue.  Some say this weakens the casings, but I've done it in the past for up to a month with no problems.  Your milage may vary.  In the future, if possible, only buy what you need.


There are two basic mechanisms:

the salmonella is on the shell and when the egg gets broken the interior gets contaminated; or
the chicken's reproductive system is contaminated and lays an egg with contaminated interior.

To reduce the very common (a few percent) shell contamination, eggs sold commercially have their shells treated (typically washed). After washing only about 50 in every million eggs will still have some shell contamination. The shell contamination may have been there when the chicken laid the egg, from fecal matter, or as a result of plant processing.

In some rare cases the surface salmonella can make it to the inside without breaking the egg: if it was there while the cuticle dried, if the egg is stored at room temperature, or if the environment is moist.


Undercooked eggs that were in the pot plenty long

If your eggs came out soft boiled then that means they weren't exposed to enough heat - something in your method went wrong. I suspect that when you turned it down low the water temperature dropped below 140-150 degrees F, which is the temperature that egg white will cook. It doesn't matter how long you cook eggs below 140F, they will never get done below that temperature.

To fully cook egg white it must be heated to 150F, egg yolk to 160F. If your eggs were cold when you put them in and the water boiled quickly the inside of the egg would still be fridge temperature, so when you turned the heat down low the eggs cooled the water below 140F, and the amount of heat the burner was producing wasn't enough to heat the water and eggs above 140-150F.

I use a similar method, however I put a lid on the pot which makes a big difference. If you don't want or have the right lid simply keep the heat turned up to where the eggs bounce around a bit.


Making Pâté à bombe without sugar thermometer

120°C is what's known as the firm ball stage of caramelisation, because when you drop some of the caramel into cold water, you should then be able to make a firm but still pliable ball with it. You can use this to determine the approximate temperature. This page lists all the stages so you can determine how far along you are.


I don't see a safety risk.  Oil can go rancid.  That is a quality issue, rather than a safety issue.  Moist sugar could potentially mold, I suppose.  If you see mold forming I would discard.  Otherwise, this seems like a low risk situation to me.


How to veganize and improve this cake recipe?

To make it vegan is simple:

Replace the milk with any other kind of milk (soy, rice, hemp, etc.)
Replace butter with some kind of margarine (I recommend Earth Balance, but just pick anything that doesn't have trans fats)
Replace eggs with either commercial egg replacer, or apple sauce

As for making it moister, I have no idea.


What are some different ways of preparing flax seeds?

The tricky thing with flax seeds is to grind them fine enough. I've found that my coffee grinder, for example, won't do the job because the seeds have a very hard coat. You can buy vacuum packed pre-ground meal and that may be a good option.

Once you have ground flax seeds, they can be added in small amounts to baked goods very easily. Adding say 1/4 to 1/2 cup to a muffin, quickbread, or yeast bread will work nicely and add a nutty flavor.

They can also be sprinkled on salads or grain dishes. You could add a little sea salt and use them somewhat like gomashio.


Making flour tortillas softer and more elastic

Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_burrito

  Two key technologies that made the San Francisco burrito possible are
  the large flour tortilla and tortilla steamers, which together
  increase the flexibility, stretch, and size of the resulting tortilla.
  The tortilla steamer saturates the gluten-heavy tortilla with moisture
  and heat, which increase the capacity of the tortilla to stretch
  without breaking. This in turn allows for the size of the San
  Francisco burrito. Corn tortillas, the original indigenous
  pre-Columbian form of the tortilla, cannot achieve either the size or
  the flexibility of the flour tortilla, and thus cannot be used to make
  a San Francisco burrito. A few San Francisco taquerias grill the
  tortillas instead of steaming them, using heat and oil instead of
  steam; and a few grill the finished product before the final step of
  wrapping it in aluminum foil.

  The aluminum foil wrapping, which is present whether the customer is
  eating in the restaurant or taking out, acts as a structural support
  to ensure that the tortilla does not rupture. One of the main
  difficulties of the San Francisco burrito is the issue of structural
  integrity, but skilled burrito makers consistently produce huge
  burritos that do not burst when handled or eaten. A successful large
  burrito depends on an understanding of the outer limit of potential
  burrito volume, correct steam hydration, proper wrapping/folding
  technique, and assuring that excess liquid has been removed from the
  burrito ingredients prior to inclusion.


The yellow flour you are referring to is most likely durum wheat semolina, which is yellow in color and is often used in making pasta, breads, and pizza dough.

As noted in some of the comments, semolina can come from different grains and other types of wheat.

Please see this  link  for more information about semolina.


How do I keep my zoodles from being too watery?

Here are a couple of options I've found online:

Dry them in the oven

  Dry the  noodles out in your oven at 200 degrees, for about 10 minutes or until they are finished “sweating.”  You’ll want them dry to the touch, but still very flexible and moist on the inside. Stir them after about 5 minutes and see how they are doing…the time they need to dry  will vary depending on how moist your squash is. Once they’re fairly dry, transfer them to boiling water for just a few minutes. I stood over the pot and watched as they turned darker green, it took about 4 minutes for my noodles to reach a texture that was similar to al-dente.

Encourage them to "sweat" out the water by using salt:

  Sweating the zucchini noodles with salt is essential in this Paleo recipe so they don’t become watery and limp during cooking.
  Place the julienned zucchini in a colander or wire strainer and toss generously with salt until the strands are lightly coated. Allow the zucchini to sit for 20 to 30 minutes. Rinse with running water, drain well, and squeeze dry in a clean dish towel.


I'm assuming you're talking about shredded style hash browns.  I'm not sure how much potato variety affects the outcome, as I tend to buy yellow potatoes (as they can typically be used either for roasting or mashing, so I don't have to think about how I'm going to use them in advance).  I'm also more likely to make 'home fries' style hash browns, but I did a bit of research & testing for my pancake demonstration

Most recipes for this style call for soaking the shreds in water to remove the starch, then wring them out in a dish towel or similar.  You can get sometimes get better adhesion if you don't soak them, but still wring out as much water out as you can.

If you're making latkes, you'll want a bit of depth to the oil, but generally 1 to 3 tablespoons of oil or butter is enough for hash browns, depending on how large of a surface you're working with.

Make sure the crust is nice and brown before flipping. Also, make sure that you're flipping it over in chunks suitable for your spatula size (either divide it up into quadrants or similar if coating the entire pan; or make individual piles only slightly larger than your spatula).  If the potatoes drank up all of the oil when cooking the first side, it's generally a sign that the heat is too low and you might need to add some more (before you flip, so it has a chance to heat up)

The exact temperature to cook at depends on how much you're trying to cook at once, how fast your pans recover after putting the food in, and how thick of a layer you're cooking.  (you want to make sure that the middle is cooked before you've burned the outside; if you're having problems with this, you can also par cook the potatoes in a microwave first).

If your pan/burner combination has a particularly slow temperature recovery, you might want to get the oil up to shimmering before you put in the shreds, but you typically aim for a little lower than that.