Looking for meal-planning / grocery list software

Disclaimer: I am the owner of the company behind this service as well as the programmer of it.

Except for calculating nutritional data, http://bechamel.net does exactly this, if you are a registered user (which is free). Please note that there's not a whole lot of activity on the rest of the site though, and because of that, there's not a lot of development going on (that doesn't mean there are any plans to shut it down, there's not).

To use Béchamel for this, go to a recipe, click "I want to eat this soon", drag the recipe to the applicable day, go to the shopping list, and add the recipe. You can adjust servings either per recipe in the list, or globally in your profile. It will even coalesce equivalent ingredients in the shopping list (2 eggs in one recipe and 3 eggs in another will become 5 eggs in the shopping list).

Feel free to use it if it fits your needs.


I've been making a lot of room temp gelatins lately; not gummybears, something else with a bit lower gelatin concentration. The secret ingredient seems to be time. The first day, things are pretty jiggly, but even when hermetically sealed, things get tougher and tougher over a course of about three to four days. I expect it's some colloid maturation process involving random chains finding their best fit over time. Don't quote me on that, but the same sort of thing commonly happens on a faster timescale with gluten  maturation in bread dough.
A few hours in the fridge can speed up firming, but I'm not sure you end up with the same final gel structure that way.


How to reduce or eliminate the flavor of orange in a stew?

I've normally found that acid (vinegar) and bitterness (sharp herbs perhaps) can lower the intensity of the sweetness of orange. I also think that a slightly bitter herb like rosemary or sage would meld nicely with the orange, burying the flavor a bit. It might already be a little bitter from the pith of the orange.


storing liquor in cabin for the winter--quality loss?

I don't think that this temperature range should be a problem for the spirits. If there is a significant amount of air in the bottles, though, you might want to decant them into smaller ones to reduce oxidation.


Can I bake 1 round of puff pastry on top of another

Yes, but you might want to use an eggwash or water to make sure the two layers stick together.

You'll want to be careful about not brushing near the edge -- if it drips down, it'll glue the side together preventing it from puffing properly


How to write the so called wooden tomato / wooden potato in Chinese (and where to find it)?

By your description I would say it's taro or 芋头 (yu tao) in chinese

https://www.google.ca/search?q=mu+shu&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=J862VLp1ivxSvZODoAM&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1394&bih=827#tbm=isch&q=%E8%8A%8B%E5%A4%B4&imgdii=_

It can be bought in most chinese supermarkets

For more info http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/taro


I'd guess there are many factors. For instance, in manufacturing, small differences in raw material cost and process requirements can have a big impact.
However, in this case, I'd say it comes down to temperature resistance: polyester (PET or PETE) does not do well at high temperatures, PP does. A reusable cup for microwave use is going to have hot (probably boiling) liquid in it.
From Plastic bottle - Wikipedia:

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET, PETE or polyester) is commonly used for carbonated beverage, water bottles and many food products. ... This material does not provide resistance to very high temperature applications—max. temp. 200 °F (93 °C).
Polypropylene (PP) is used primarily for jars and closures and provides a rigid package with excellent moisture barrier. One major advantage of polypropylene is its stability at high temperatures, up to 220 °F (104 °C). Polypropylene is autoclavable and offers the potential for steam sterilization. The compatibility of PP with high filling temperatures is responsible for its use with hot fill products. PP has excellent chemical resistance, but provides poor impact resistance in cold temperatures.

Here's an additional source: The 7 Most Common Plastics and How They are Typically Used. In summary: PETE is easily recyclable but breaks down under both heat and light exposure. So it gets used for one-time-use applications but isn't suitable for reusable containers.


Is there a difference between coca, focaccia and pizza?

First of all is coca a Spanish dish with huge variety. A coca can just as well be made of thin yeast dough with savory topping (similar to an Italian pizza but not necessarily with cheese) as well as sponge-cake-like (leavened just with the beaten eggs or with baking soda) with sweet topping.

Foccacia also comes in many varieties, but typical foccacia is made of yeast dough, about one inch thick, which is sprinkled with olive oil and herbs before baking. Foccacia can also be made thinner and without yeast, but that makes a much crispier bread. It may be topped with other ingredients, but does not have to and if it is topped, it is mostly only a simple topping like olives, onions or cheese. It is usually not eaten alone, but as a side dish. Here is a typical foccacia, topped with black olives.

Pizza dough is very similar to foccacia, but in Italy, a pizza is always much thinner. The thick American style pizza is not common in Italy. Except for the thickness, the difference between foccacia and pizza is much more in the topping. A pizza is almost always topped with at least tomatoes or tomato sauce and cheese and mostly with other savory ingredients.


Apparently, pizza's can be pre-baked up to 80% of the normal baking time. People recommend:

Baking without the filling (as this can make the base soggy).
The filling should be pre-baked (otherwise the base will burn when finishing).

I've pre-baked 10 individual coca's and they're frozen. I'll report back how they turn out of the oven.

Edit: I did two straight out of the freezer, fresh ingredients. It worked pretty well, but not perfect (a little bit soggy). I'm guessing this was because the coca's were only 50% pre-baked.


What is the setting for the strongest brew on my coffee maker?

That depends on what you mean for strong.

Straing in flavor:

If you mean strong in flavor than you need to set the machine to a "fast" brew (Espresso in Italian).

The flavor gets extracted almost immediately from the grounds upon contact with water. You can visually judge how strong it is by the color: the darker the stronger. So the settings on your machine should be to use little water.

High in coffein:

If you mean high in coffein, than you need longer brew-time to extract this substance. As a rule of thumb the extraction is proportional to the time water stays in contact with coffee.

For coffee machines this means more water running through the grounds.

Note on "Fast Brew":

By "fast" I mean that it takes little time to make the coffee and not that the water runs faster through the grounds. The water runs always with same velocity, therefore if you use more water you'll wait more for your coffee. It takes less to make an espresso than to make an american coffee, obvioulsly.

Espresso vs American Coffee:

Italian Espresso: strong in flavor
Cup of american coffee: taste is deluted compared to Espresso but amount of coffein can be 8-10 times higher.


What is the conversion rate between dry beans to cans of beans?

According to the Kitchen Companion, a terrific general handbook which I recommend, 1 lb (about 2 cups) of dried beans is roughly 6 to 7 cups cooked beans, and one 15oz can of cooked beans is roughly 1.75 cups drained, making it equivalent to 1/4 to 1/3 lbs ( or 1/2 to 3/4 cup) dried.

Per my personal experience, dried beans increase in volume from 2.5X at the low end (red lentils, mung beans, etc.) to 5X at the high end (garbanzos).  3X or 3.5X is a good median value for this.

So what kind of beans are we talking about?


Confused about cayenne pepper, chili powder and paprika

Cayenne pepper powder comes from the cayenne pepper.  It is hot/spicy, registering 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville units.
Chilli powder, depending where you live, can mean anything between pure powdered chilli pepper (location would determine the specific type of pepper) to a spice blend of chillies with cumin, oregano, and/or other spices.  Depending on the brand (or if you make it yourself) the heat and flavor can vary.
Paprika is the dried and ground pepper capsicum annuum, the species of pepper that includes a wide variety of shapes and sizes, such as sweet bell pepper, jalapeno, New Mexico chili and cayenne.  It appears that the tomato pepper is the most commonly used variety for the production of paprika.  Of course, there are also smoked varieties (sweet, bittersweet, and hot).

I would say that they are generally not interchangeable.  Just a little bit of cayenne, for example, will bring quite a bit of heat to your final dish.  Chili powder will bring more flavor/spices than paprika.

It really depends on the final result you are looking for, but simple substitutions will result in very different outcomes.


Grilling veggies & meat on same surface for vegetarian guests

My response to this kind of question is always just ask, and if you absolutely can't, err on the side of caution.

I'm assuming here that you're talking about a pretty thorough heating and brushing. If you're leaving a bunch of meat stuff on the grill, that someone could conceivably taste, that's not good - you certainly shouldn't be risking food that actually has meat in it. But if it's essentially clean, with pretty much everything burned and scraped off, you're in a much better state.

I believe most of the vegetarians I know would be okay with that general plan. They're pretty pragmatic about their diets, they they know that some people eat meat and aren't going to have two grills, and they'll regard it as pretty similar to you using a pan that previously was used for meat but has since been washed. I would be sure I was doing everything that I could, thorough heating and brushing, separate (or washed) utensils, and so on, but I wouldn't be overly worried at that point.

But there are also people who keep to much stricter diets for all kinds of reasons (see Journeyman Geek's answer, for example), who would not be okay with this.

The only way you can tell the difference between the two is to ask, or to know someone well enough that you don't have to ask. This is really a pretty general principle when it comes to potentially strongly-held beliefs: if you want to do right by someone, don't expect to be able to use generalized categories to get the answer, assume you need their answer.


What does it mean for a dish to be called poêlé?

"Une poêle" (pronounced "pwal") is a frying pan, so we have the verb "poêler"(pronounced "pwale") which means to cook in the pan. So we use the word "poêlée" (pronounced "pwale") for anything cooked in a pan, with a more or less reasonable amount of fat, generally at a medium to high heat. In the case of your foie gras poêlé, it will be quickly seared on each face on a high heat.
Poêler is very similar to sauté, except that sauté is generally used for vegetables you will put in a small amount of fat on a high heat for a short time.
But =D
For professional chefs, when it comes to meat, "poêler" can also mean put in the oven in a "poêlon", which is a different kind of poêle that is thicker and can go to the oven. So very often they will start cooking the meat in the poêlon on the fire to sear it, and then finish the cooking process in the oven in the covered poêlon for a maximum tenderness and juiciness.
Sorry for the complicated explanation but with French cuisine nothing is simple...
Now for your sauce there are many possibilities for a foie gras poêlé : with white wine, red wine, balsamic vinegar, red wine and honey... But they would all start the same way: once you seared your foie gras put it on a plate, turn up your fire to a high heat, and add the liquid to deglaze (you can also add shallots first, but I woulnd't suggest garlic whose taste is too strong for the foie gras). If you're using wine or another alcohol, wait until all the alcohol has evaporated, otherwise it will give acidity to the sauce (you can't really see it but you can smell it!). Let us know how it went!


How to skewer a baked potato without leaving bits of foil

While I have not tried doing this myself, I would imagine cutting an x into one side of the potato should give you an opening through which to skewer the potato, without dragging foil into the potato itself.


Why do chefs in cooking shows not always seem to do things the "right" way?

I have a couple of observations:

"Different" doesn't always mean inferior.
"Best" from a science perspective, doesn't always mean most expedient in a restaurant or home kitchen.
Sometimes the results of the difference between "scientific" best practice, and alternate restaurant or home kitchen practice are not noticeable, unless you compare these results side by side.
There are lots of ways people learn how to cook, and many practices have been handed down through generations.  While science is, naturally, the basis of all cooking, it is only relatively recently that people have taken a "scientific" look at cooking and shared those practices widely.

So, you are probably hearing more about "best scientific practice" these days.  However, old understandings and practices are hard to give up. People typically use the practice they were taught, because it has worked for them.


What is the correct reference for amount of salt in lacto-fermenting?

Simple answer

In general, when a recipe calls for "x tablespoons of salt per quart", you should add that amount of salt to a quart of water to make your brine.

The "correct" amount of salt

Salt in fermentation can vary wildly. As Sandor Katz notes in The Art of Fermentation (p. 99), "[s]ome traditions of fermenting vegetables, such as those of the Himalayas, mostly ferment vegetables without salt..."

As (very) general guidelines:

less salt = faster fermentation and greater risk of unwelcome microbial activity
more salt = slower fermentation and lower risk

Factors like the size and cut of your vegetables, or the coarseness of your salt, could make an even bigger difference to overall saltiness than measuring your salt by brine vs. measuring by pickling container size.

So it really depends on the recipe, and on your own taste for salt (and risk).


Why are Zucchini's refrigerated, but not acorn and spaghetti squash?

The short answer is that they are different types of squash, although both are squash.

Zucchini is a summer squash, which has soft flesh and a malleable rind.

Both acorn and spaghetti squash, much like pumpkins, are winter squash, with harder flesh and a tough rind.  If cured, they can be stored for months at cool root cellar temperatures, and for a reasonable amount of time at regular room temperature.


Can I boil a full chicken for several hours?

After maybe 45 minutes to an hour, the chicken will be very soft and falling off the bones, the broth will have a strong but pleasant chicken flavor, and the lemons and vegetables will probably be completely depleted and disintegrated.  This is usually a good start for home made chicken soup. At this point you'd probably strain it, let it cool, remove the meat from the bones and be left with soup.

After 3 hours the chicken meat will start to get mushy and disintegrate, the cartilage and connective tissue of the bones will also be melting and releasing gelatin into the broth, the vegetables will also disintegrate.  This would result in a pretty strong chicken broth that is full of gelatin, which would be good once you strained everything else out.

If you did not remove the fat and skin from the chicken, the will mostly melt and leave rendered fat in the broth, but some of the skin will never melt and will remain with a very unappealing texture and flavor.  The fat will generally float to the top and can be pretty easily removed once the broth cools.


You can absolutely make your own black garlic. All that is required is to have the garlic in a vaguely air-tight container (preferably individual wrapped or contained) for 30 days at 140°-155°F.  My method, covered at my blog, is to put the garlic in mason jars in my light bulb heated black garlic oven, which can be made for about $30 and can ferment 12 bulbs easily for about $4 of electricity over 40 days. With the cost of garlic, glue, aluminum foil and the mason jars, the oven with one recipe is less expensive than an equivalent order would be online.

The first 30 days, the jars are kept sealed in the mason jars, to allow the garlic to ferment properly. After 30 days, the lids are removed and the heat in the box dehydrates the garlic, leaving a dried out head with shriveled black cloves inside of it. The flavor is reminiscent of balsamic vinegar and soy sauce, but without the sourness of vinegar or the saltiness of soy sauce. The oven design is easily doable for anyone of any DIY skill level with access to a hardware store and an Academy (where they sell the Huskee cooler I use for $25).


These products are called thickeners.

Gum Arabic is often used for this as well as karageenan, xanthan gum, sometimes corn starch or potato starch.

You have to experiment with the different thickeners so you get the consistency you want.


Can any KitchenAid stand mixer attachments be used to make peanut butter?

The only one that could feasibly handle it would be the grinder. However, in the manual http://www.kitchenaid.com/assets/pdfs/product/ZUSECARE/FGA_Use%20and%20Care_EN.pdf on page 5 it states "Note: Very hard, dense foods such as totally dried homemade bread should not be ground in the Food Grinder. Homemade bread should be ground fresh and then oven or air-dried." If dried, dense bread is too much for the grinder then peanuts would definitely be to much as well. My recommendation is to use a food processor.


How do I determine roasting temperature as a function of time?

I have not seen this discussed in terms of oven cookery, however, it is certainly a part of the conversation when cooking with sous vide.  Douglas Baldwin, noted expert, has a guide.  Here, I have linked his appendix, "The mathematics of sous vide." Now, I am certain that you CAN NOT use this guide for oven cookery, because in the oven, you have a significant amount of evaporative cooling happening, which I think would dramatically change these calculations (I'm no mathematician).  However, I do include it to point out that the size and shape of your food must be taken into account.  You can't just consider time and temperature.
How do you know you need X minutes at Y degrees?  For how much lamb and bone?
I googled "slow roasted leg of lamb."  There are plenty of recipes, I don't see anyone cooking them for 14 hours.  I think you can achieve the texture you want in much less time.  So, I doubt you need to be as precise as you are suggesting. You might err on the side of your roast being finished early, rather than late, but even if it were finished well before your guests arrived, that is workable for a delicious meal.


Did I blanch baby-cut carrots correctly?

My guess is that you dropped 2lb of carrots into the water. This drops the water temperature under the boiling-simmering point. So, you're not blanching correctly. You should have taken about 3/4lb portions and blanched them successively. (Or you should have used more water on a bigger stove top.)


When you lift the lid on something that's been fryed in hot oil while the oil's still hot, any water that's cooked out of the oil and condensed on the lid has a chance to fall back into the oil. That can cause violent spattering. Usually being gentle in lifting is enough to prevent the problem.


How deep do you need to insert the probe in a piece of meat to guarantee accuracy?

My theory is that the probe should be inserted into the part of the meat that will be the last to heat up. For a roast without bones, that will be pretty much be the center of mass.

For something with bone it, I would aim for a point somewhere between halfway and 2/3 the distance from the skin to the bone in the place where that distance is the largest.

Are you checking the temperature while the meat is still in the oven/on the grill? For a large meat where the entire probe is in, there will be no effect. But for a thin piece of meat with just the tip inside the meat, the air temp and radiated energy will throw off the results. Either insert it length-wise in between the ribs, or set the ribs on the counter to check the temp.

If you are still getting inaccurate results after this, then I would suspect the accuracy of the thermometer.


How long to steam eggs for? (Instead of hard boiling)

I like to follow Alton Brown's approach: steam for 12 minutes, drop into ice bath. Always turns out perfectly for me this way (and as a bonus, they're much easier to peel than boiled eggs).

Here's the video from Alton's show, with some extra information in it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUHKpHek2E8

And while unrelated (since you want to steam them), if you want to know everything there is to know about hard boiled eggs, this Food Lab edition on Serious Eats has you covered: http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/10/the-food-lab-science-of-how-to-cook-perfect-boiled-eggs.html


Is "until juices run clear" a valid test for poultry doneness? Why or why not?

Chicken juices contain a soupy mix of proteins including haemoglobin (which gives blood its red colour when mixed with oxygen), and some myoglobin (which gives red meat its red colour when mixed with oxygen). Up to about 140F, they are unchanged, but heat them to between 140F and 160F and they lose their ability to bind oxygen and so their colours change. So if your juices are running clear, you know the temperature is at least higher then 140F and probably closer to 160F if they are indeed clear.

The question of what is 'doneness' is an interesting one. For most foods, doneness is a question of taste. After years of eating my chicken at 'at least 140F', I really like that taste. We usually cook foods to improve their taste, texture, nutritional value; very few foods traditionally kill or harm us if they are not cooked (cassava, certain beans are notable exceptions). Heating to 165F is recommended not for taste but to kill organisms such as salmonella - a tricky blighter that lives inside the cells of some other creatures and so can't be washed or peeled off.

I'm pretty sure that I'm the first generation cook in my family to own an instant-read probe digital food thermometer, so why is this now necessary? Well I may also be the first generation where salmonella in store-bought chicken is considered a saleable product and something to be cooked out by heat, rather than designed out by good farming and food handling practice. The 165F statement from food safety bodies was brought in to deal with such issues.

In France, there are still plenty of people who like their chicken very pink. With my own grown chickens, I will cook them till a skewer pierced into the deepest part of the thigh (but not near the bone), shows clear juices and on deep-breasted old breeds that can leave a tinge of pink towards the bottom of a (deliciously juicy) breast. I'm personally comfortable with that particular risk/reward balance.

But store-bought chicken? From an unattributed source? At $1:15/lb? Pass me the probe, please.


How can I get a better looking crust on my baguettes?

Regardless of the kneading method you use your loaves need to have a taut skin on top after shaping or they will look ragged. Another consequence of a ragged top is that it doesn't trap the expanding gasses as well and might not rise as high.
Boules are easier as you can pull all the dough to the underside in a circle to stretch the top. Baguettes are trickier.
One method is to push a finger into the underside of the baguette while stretching the top surface around it and then working down the length of the loaf.
This is a good description of this method:
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/guides/shaping-baguettes/
Another method is to pull the loaf along the table with the tips of the fingers on the edge of the loaf to let the friction with the table stretch the top of the loaf.
Don't forget to score the proofed loaves of that nice top will tear in the oven.


Is it possible to create the flavour of a food by using the component chemicals?

It's a little hard to understand exactly what you're asking, but flavor and fragrance scientists have been at this for a long time, and yes, there are people who specialize in flavor research, using methods like "collecting headspace" (gathering flavor compounds) and analyzing those with techniques such as gas chromatography. They work to figure out what the "most relevant" compounds are in a particular food. Seasoned professionals are usually able to recognize and name specific flavor compounds by smell.

But with a few exceptions, most of those chemicals aren't super easy to just buy off of a shelf somewhere without consulting with IFF or a similar company. (You can buy artificial vanilla, for example, and methyl anthranilate, the dominant flavor from concord grapes used in artificial grape flavoring, as a bird repellant). So for most of us without labs for fermenting synbio vanilla, we will find it more cost effective to use the original ingredient.

Most foods have hundreds of distinct flavor compounds and fooling the tongue, and especially the nose, isn't super easy. But it can be done in some cases, sure. It's worth noting that a great portion of how we experience flavor comes from texture in addition to the flavor compounds, however. Even when you buy a flavored chip that is meant to taste like steak or mango salsa or whatever, you'll often find it a bit off, perhaps the food industry's equivalent of the "uncanny valley" problem, thanks to texture and context differences.


Sausage left to thaw more than 2 hours - is this safe to eat?

The rule of thumb is over 40 F for more than 4 hours.  At best small portion of the sausage was over 40 F for 4+ hours. If bad stuff happened then baking will not fix it. I would eat it.


When is is necessary to par bake a pie crust?

The reason to par-bake your pie shell is because it would not cook through in the same time that the filling does.

So it depends on what type of filling you are going to use.  For example, if you are using a traditional short crust with a cream (custard) filling, the custard will probably cook faster than the crust would, so you would want to par-bake the shell.

On the other hand, for an apple pie with a deep layer of fruit, by the time the fruit is cooked through, the crust usually is too, so par baking is not required.

In your specific example, you have not said what the filling is, that you are precooking.  However, if it is essentially fully cooked, you could blind-bake your shells then just put them together to heat through for service.  You would need to share more details to get more specific advise.


Are there any reasonable substitutions for lemon juice?

When you find cheap lemons, buy a lot.  Squeeze half a lemon in each of the cavities of an ice tray.  Freeze.  Within a day, remove the frozen slivers from the tray to a ziploc bag in the freezer. You now have measured units of fresh lemon juice you may use for cooking and will keep for months.  The frozen lemons are a bit less acid than fresh juice, but full of flavor.  You can do the same with limes.


How much cayenne powder contributes the same spiciness as one minced habanero?

Notwithstanding the two current answers - that it's really hard to guess - there's an additional concern.

In terms of actual flavour rather than simple heat, you can taste (& smell) habanero in pretty much anything, even at low concentrations. It's a fabulous aromatic.  Cayenne, on the other hand, is really almost flavourless in comparison.

So, as well as re-balancing your heat, you need to work on how much of that habanero flavour you want in the final product.

I'd start by dropping your entire chilli content to just one or two habaneros, no cayenne. Taste halfway through the simmer. You can add more of either habanero or cayenne at any time, the flavour of chilli doesn't really change too much over the cooking time that you can't just slip a bit more in if it's too mild.
Work towards 'just enough habanero flavour' & if it's too mild, work in some cayenne nearer the end.


Technically, the minimum ratio of sugar is zero. You can definitely create a stable meringue without any sugar at all, although you'll have to mind your conditions and preparation - use a spotlessly-clean bowl, room-temperature egg whites (separated when chilled), initially foamed up on low speed with an acid such as vinegar or cream of tartar, superfine sugar (if you're using any at all) added very slowly after the soft peak stage, and a starch (e.g. corn starch or icing sugar) at the end for added stability.

The main problem, of course, is that as you allude to, when you bake it you'll basically end up with dried-out egg. It won't have any flavour at all. If you're just reducing the sugar then maybe this isn't a problem. If you're trying to eliminate the sugar entirely or almost entirely then you need to replace it with something - generally, a savory bomb, like very old cheese (for example Reggiano and chives), or very dark chocolate if it must be a dessert.

To do that, just grate or finely chop the strong/savory elements, whip the eggs up to the shiny peak stage, and fold in the shavings at the very end. The meringue will hold up.

But again, and I'm going to repeat myself here - you don't need a lot of sugar for stability. You can easily halve the sugar measurement for a traditional meringue recipe and still have it come out OK (albeit less tasty) - especially if you make one of the more stable meringue types, such as an Italian meringue where the sugar is combined as boiling sugar syrup. But you don't have to do that; simply reducing the sugar is fine if you're careful.


Is it possible/advisable to slice deboned Jamon Iberico on a mandoline?

I wouldn't recommend a mandoline for meat because clean slices of meat require a lateral motion with the knife. It wouldn't hurt to try it once just to see (especially after the next recommendation), but I'm pretty sure that your best bet is a sharp knife.

Put the pork in the freezer, still in its packaging, for 20 minutes. That's not long enough to actually freeze the meat, so it won't cause negative effects on the texture, but will temporarily firm it up, making it easier to slice. That works any time you want clean, thin slices of meat.


If you are going to be canning this for long term storage you will need to be pressure canning it, and as that will mean some pretty high heat you'd be better off not cooking you beans too long before canning. I'd add them in a few minutes before the end of cooking just to get them warmed up in preparation for canning it as a half hour of cooking plus pressure canning would probably mean mush.


Remember your stages of sugar boiling and how they come out, if it's too sticky or soft it is probably down to too low a final temperature (wrong texture) or more likely too much golden syrup.

Be sparing with the golden syrup / glucose syrup, the sucrose will set in to hard sugars, but the glucose/inverted sugar syrup acts as a crystallisation inhibitor, vinegar can be used to similar effect (though does not enrich the flavour so).  It sets too, but I find too much can lead to weeping.

Also, I have heard that an overly humid environment can be a problem.  People used to say not to cook toffee on a humid day.


Obtaining flavour with less fat/sugar/salt

You certainly cannot get the same taste response with low fat, sugar and/or salt, although you can do better than just take any old recipe and cut out the fat, sugar and salt from it.

Human reactions to taste is a combination of "hardwiring" and learning. Everybody is predisposed to like a bit more sugar, a bit more salt, a bit more fat. That's why these things get overeaten in the first place - our nervous system's reward response to them is exaggerated in comparison to their "usefulness" in the diet. But people are also remarkably flexible in learning to like whatever they are accustomed to. And this doesn't mean that you get so accustomed to something that you stop grumbling - I mean actually starting to enjoy it.

So the first thing when switching from a diet high in these ingredients, is to not react with "oh, this is bland, I hate it, I will never be able to eat like that". Put yourself in the best context for learning (including well prepared food, social rewards, etc.), eat mindfully, and continue making progress towards acquiring the taste without having the quick rewards of eating chips or having a sugar rush. Feelings of dissatisfaction in the initial phase are completely normal: first, one's expectations are not being met, and second, the body's reaction to food goes beyond taste. If you are accustomed to a sugar rush and it doesn't happen, you will have a feeling that something is amiss. There is nothing to do but acknowledge the feeling and weather it out until it doesn't bother you.

On the preparation side, just make sure to add enough other flavors, no matter which ones. Instead of salting, use a bunch of herbs - preferrably fresh ones, but dried ones will do. Instead of adding a pat of butter to mashed potatoes, make a mixed potato-sunchoke puree, which is more interesting in taste. And so on.

Also, find out what the eater is accustomed to looking for in a dish. Some people, especially supertasters, find aroma especially enjoyable, and actively look for new combinations. Others are aroma-centric, but have a firm set of aromas they expect, and don't like novelty. A third class is very texture centric, and you could add tons of subtle layered aroma, they will dismiss everything until you provide a satisfying crunch. So, pay attention to this kind of preference and make sure that the food delivers in the aspects important to the eater.

Another thing to do is to find tried and tested recipes which were designed with little sugar, salt or fat in mind. As I said in the beginning, just cutting out fat or sugar doesn't work, salt is more forgiving. Substitutions are also a difficult thing to do well, they require both good understanding of food science and a process of experimentation, more so in baking than in cooking. So, go around, look for good recipes with the nutrient balance you like, and cook these.


How can I safely store or dry wet sugar?

You shouldn't have any problem. Bacteria need sufficient water to survive, a few drops wetting the sugar are not sufficient for them. As far as I'm aware, even old-style jam (1 part fruit to 1 part sugar, boil some of the water out) is shelf-stable.

Even if you are close to the limit, it's still not too concerning. The good news is that, when you preserve something with sugar, and get a bit too low on the sugar, it's not bacteria that colonizes it first, it's mold. The mold can be toxic on its own - but it's nicely visible.

So, as long as you don't have a sticky mass and see mold growing on it, the sugar should be safe. It can be hard to work with though - we have an old question on getting lumped-together brown sugar out of the container, if you need it.


When you roll balls out of dough you want to roll/knead them until the seam lines vanish. Otherwise, as you noticed, they will split along the lines.


Are there any reasons not to include the zest when citrus juice is an ingredient?

Can't comment on the nutritional side of things, but the main reason I can think of for not always including it is that it has a slightly different flavour. A much more intense lemon flavour is provided by the zest while the juice has the more tart elements (and of course water).

If you're just interested in avoiding waste, you can freeze the zest.


It really comes down to taste. In this usage, you're treating sauerkraut like a condiment so there's not really a "correct" answer.. A lot of hot dog places have traditions - for instance, Nathan's Famous hot dogs (the original "Coney Island" hot dog) uses these combinations with kraut:

-Sauerkraut, spicey brown mustard (New York style)
-Thousand island dressing, sauerkraut, swiss cheese (Reuben style)

A famous hot dog maker in Pennsylvania, Yocco's Famous Dogs, uses sauerkraut and a thin bean chili combination to make their hot dogs.

The sauerkraut will often be very strong tasting, but not as "funky" as kimchi. It pairs well with a lot of different foods, usually other strong flavors (either strong tart like the spicey mustard, or strong sweet like the thousand island dressing or sweet relish).

Personally, I just eat sauerkraut with a fork. But if I have it on a dog, I pile it on with dill relish, country style dijon mustard, a dash of sriracha, and some diced onion. I recommend not kissing anyone for awhile after eating.


Coconut milk/cream vs cow milk in recipes

If you are not expecting a dairy-specific reaction, you can generally substitute fairly freely. Caveats are things like cheese- or yogurt-making, or whipping cream -- you can make yogurt or whipped cream but the process is not identical; non-dairy cheeses exist but I have never tasted one that approximates a flavor or texture that I associate with cheese; on the other hand, I don't think I've ever had one made from coconut, either.

One issue you may have, though, is in the terminology of defining coconut milk and cream. :-)

Coconut Milk #1 - In the US, you will find something called coconut milk in the refrigerated dairy section of well-stocked grocery stores in places where they cater to vegans and the lactose-intolerant. This is a good 1-to-1 substitute for regular dairy milk in most cases. I personally find that coconut milk is a lot closer to dairy milk than most soy or almond milks, and I think they have to work less hard to get it that way, meaning potentially fewer ingredients and stabilizers to mess with the chemistry of what you're cooking.

Coconut Milk #2 - In the baking section and/or the Asian food section, you may find something called coconut milk in cans. This is a good direct substitute for dairy cream as long as you're not trying for whipped cream (if you are, you need to chill it first to separate the actual fatty cream from the liquid). Check the ingredients. There should be no added sugar, it should look something like this:

Coconut Cream #1 - In the US, most products called "coconut cream" are cans of a combination of coconut milk with various stabilizers and flavorings (to make it taste more coconutty -- real coconut milk has a distinctive but mild flavor) and a lot of sugar. These are generally intended as mixers for tropical drinks, but they are sometimes found in the baking section as well. Check the ingredients. If it has a lot of sugar, it's not meant for baking and it is not a good direct substitute. (you'd have to adjust other ingredients, and depending on the brands and what else is in there you could get some weird flavors.) If you see an American recipe that calls for coconut cream, you may need to use some judgment to determine what is actually intended, unless it gives a brand name like Coco Lopez.
Not good for substitutions:

If you have a good Asian market nearby, you have some other options.

Coconut Milk Powder - In addition to tins of Coconut Milk #2 from above, you may also find Coconut Milk Powder (Maggi brand is common in Indian markets) which is an acceptable substitute for either dairy or coconut milk or cream in baking or curries (adjusting the liquid to powder ratio gives you the distinction), but it is a little harder to get fully reconstituted to a smooth texture, so while I do like to have some on hand and I do use it in my baking, it isn't really quite as simple a substitution.

Coconut Cream #2 - You may find pressed blocks of semi-dry coconut cream, the fatty part that was separated out when you chilled your can of coconut milk to make whipped coconut cream. This is another one that is great to have on hand and can work but it's not as easy to work with as a direct substitution.

EDIT: I didn't answer all of the question, I think, regarding what coconut milk is like.

Coconut milk has a very mild taste. It is mostly fairly neutral (reasonably similar to cow's milk) and not what you think of for "coconut" flavor (or at least, for me, that is more the flavor of the toasted coconut flesh). It does impart a distinctive flavor to foods, but it is still a mild flavor and can be overpowered by other ingredients and may not be as pronounced as you might expect at first.

The drinking style of coconut milk (non-dairy cow's milk substitute) is pretty much just like cow's milk in texture, or as close as they can manage to get it.

The baking/cooking style of tinned coconut milk is a little fattier than heavy cream, and tends to separate, but mixes back up to a similar consistency to dairy cream. (It mixes better at room temperature, or when just a little bit warm.)


Smoking time for 6 racks (18 lbs) of baby back ribs?

The extra cooking time would be negligible. Cooking time is predominantly a function of temperature of the cooker, and surface area and mass of what you are cooking.


Which herbs are cooked and which go raw, when making fish pate

Raw garlic isn't to everyone's taste so should be cooked. The flavour of rosemary is also best cooked, or even infused and removed as it can be rather dominant if you find a big bit. You may want to be gentle with the rosemary the first time. I assume you're poaching or steaming the fish.

Lemon and parsley are usually added raw.

Black pepper can be used raw or cooked. Cooking softens the flavour and allows it to spread through a dish, but adding a little more at the end allows for adjustments to the flavour.


Is it cost effective to make your own roast beef sandwich?

You've got a few things to consider --

cost of the ingredients
shrinkage
energy costs
time costs
wastage

So, in our decision making tree, we have to consider the real costs of each option.

Say for instance that whole roasts are on sale, so the cost of a roast is 1/2 the cost of buying the deli meat.  The roast is going to lose weight as it cooks ... it's just part of the cooking process.  It could be anywhere from 10 to 25%, depending on the cut of meat and how hot you cook it.

Obviously, there will be other spices and such, but we'll assume they're mostly negligible.  There will be the cost to power your oven ... and that'd be a function of where you live, if it's gas or electric (or solar), etc ... and if you make too much, and can't eat it before it spoils, then there's waste.

... but then we get to the most important part in my opinion -- time, and slicing.  Even if we assume our time costs nothing (and when you're throwing something in the oven and leave it for a few hours, that part's negligible).  Our real time comes in slicing it -- and I don't have a professional slicing machine, just a bunch of knives, so it's going to take me quite a long time, and I'm not going to get it as thin as the deli can.

And in my opinion, it's the shaving of the meat that matters; there's a big difference between large chunks of meat vs. thick slices vs. thinly shaved.

...

So, in my opinion -- is it cost effective?  maybe a little bit, if you assume your time is free.  Is it worth it?  Maybe if you want to spice it special, or make it lower salt, stay away from sulfides / sulfates, or do something else special ... but as you likely can't slice it the same, it's more likely to come out as an inferior product.

That's not to say that I won't ever do it, but I doubt I'd do it anytime soon, and it won't be because I think it's a cost savings.


Can I use diastatic malt in applications which call for non-diastatic?

diastatic malt powder is milled malt that hasn't been heated to deactivate the enzymes.  To deactivate it to use as non-diastatic malt, heat to 130F/55C


Those bugs are probably weevils.  I would take it back to the store and ask for a refund.  If the rice is the only grain with bugs, chances are the larvae were already in the rice.

The weevils are about 1/4 inch long and they have a little tube sticking out of their head.  The larvae take about 35 days to emerge from inside the kernels.  A farmer can only control a weevil infestation with chemicals, which would preclude the organic label, and there is just so much frogs and birds can eat.


The canning process makes food safe: existing bacteria and fungi are killed, the intrusion of new pathogens is prevented by sealing the container. (More e.g. here.)

As soon as you open the can or jar, its contents are exposed to the surrounding air which will contain bacteria and fungal spores. Some of those will happily grow feeding on the food they land on. Refrigerating slows down their metabolism, meaning they can't reach dangerous numbers within the recommended storage time after opening. For more info on storing food, see our canonical posts on food storage and on how long quickly-spoiling food can be left at room temperature.


How do I interpret this date on tortillas?

You could guess it's Best Before June 17th 2019, but the only way to confirm it would be check a new pack at the supermarket & see if it's a couple of months ahead of that, with a similar pattern, e.g. Oct 05 19 etc would confirm it.

Either that or it's the manufacture date.

Depending on when you bought them would hint as to which it might be.


Julia Child - Mastering the Art of French Cooking - OK for Kosher?

I think you should take it out from your public library and take a good in depth look at it. This way you don't have to buy it and you can look at all the recipes. If you see enough recipes in there that you don't have to change, or just have to change minimally, then you can justify buying it. If your library doesn't carry it you could either get an interlibrary loan from another library somewhere else or you can always request if from them. Most libraries are really good about buying books (cds, dvds, etc).


Vegetable Oil vs. Canola oil in DIY Spreadable butter

In terms of spreadability, the real issue is the level of saturation.

Coconut oil is quite saturated (especially for a vegetable based lipid), and so it is far more solid at room temperature than most oils.   (Cocoa butter would be another exception; it is quite hard at room temperature).

Generic vegetable oil, at least under US labeling laws, may contain any number of vegetable oils including corn, soy, rapeseed (canola) and so on—or even a mixture of any or all of these.  They are all quite similar in the saturation and viscosity at room temperature, and so any of them should perform similarly in your butter application.

So go ahead and use the vegetable oil.


What is ideal temperature for baking cupcakes?

The most common reason for cupcakes to sink is an oven temperature that is too high. 180C is equivalent to 356F. Most recipes in the US for cupcakes call for an oven temperature of 350F. 180 and 350 are just round numbers signifying a moderate oven. Cupcakes are picky though, a very slight difference in temperature can make a big difference in the final cupcake. So try dropping your temperature a bit, and be sure to use an oven thermometer.

Opening the door during baking can cause sinking, so don't do that! (I see that you didn't, so that's one possibility down)

Use fresh baking powder. Baking powder that has been opened for just a matter of a few months starts losing effectiveness. Baking soda on the other hand, lasts pretty much forever if stored properly.

Are you by any chance using Dutch processed cocoa? If so, try adding a small amount (a quarter teaspoon or so) of white vinegar. Baking soda needs acid to work properly, and Dutch processed cocoa has been made nonacidic. Since your recipe also includes baking powder, that is unlikely to be the problem unless your baking powder is stale.

Finally, follow the recipe carefully regarding beating. Overbeating the batter can cause sinking.

That's the best answer I can give based on your limited information. We can help you narrow it down further if you give us every little bit of information you can.


Making my cocoa mix into instant cocoa mix

Looking at the ingredients for Nesquick for example:

SUGAR
COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI
SOY LECITHIN
CARRAGEENAN
SALT
ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS
SPICE
VITAMINS AND MINERALS: CALCIUM CARBONATE, ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), ZINC OXIDE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), COPPER GLUCONATE, MANGANESE SULFATE, BIOTIN.

The key elements are soy lecithin, which is an emulsifier, and carrageenan, which is a thickener especially effective in dairy products.  The lecithin will help the cocoa to become suspended in the liquid phase, and the carrageenan will help the particles not stick to each other.

What does not appear on the label is how some of these ingredients are processed.  It is likely that the cocoa is modified by being pre-gelatinized, so that  it will have reduced clumping properties, and then reground quite fine to enhance how well it dissolves.  This is not something that you can achieve at home.

As you mention, you can probably create a syrup from your ingredients, but it may settle over time and have to be shaken.


How can I reheat coffee without imparting bad flavor?

It's not going to be nice to drink a day later, no matter what.  I'd use it in baking a chocolate cake or something like that instead, if you can't bear to throw it out.

The problem is not just the reheating, which will further cook the coffee and affect flavour, but that it's been losing aroma and oxidizing for a day first.  If you're serving it to anyone you like even a little bit, serve them fresh coffee!!


How to tell which induction cookware is most efficient in conducting heat?

Your rule of thumb for induction cookware of any sort is that if a magnet will stick to it, it will work. If you can get to a store that has the kettles you are interested in, bring a magnet with you to test the various models. The better the magnet sticks, the better off you probably are.

I would give a couple of extra things some consideration.  The heavier the pot, the more consistent the heat, though most induction cooktops are really good at maintaining a temperature.  Second, go with stainless if at all possible.  It's so much easier to clean and maintain.

Edit:

Just climbed out of another internet rabbit hole.  Induction cookware works because of a current induced into metal that does not conduct electricity well.  Iron works great because it is not a totally efficient conductor.  Stainless steel, because of the different alloys, does not always work on an induction cooktop.  Clad pots and pans that have layers of ferric metals sandwiched between layers of better conductive metals can give you a balance of heating ability and conductivity.  All of this, though, can in general be boiled down to: Heavy is good, Magnetic is Good, Stainless is Good. You can check these in store before you buy.

If you are looking to buy online, you face a different set of problems.  An "Induction Ready" label is a place to start.

Second Edit:

Fantastic Information here.  Tells you a lot more about how the whole shebang works, so you can decide what you will require in a Kettle.


Cooking pasta in water temperature range?

Cooking pasta (i assume dried pasta here) has two stages:

hydration
starch gelatinization

The hydration can be done completely off the stove, earning you back come of the cooking time and energy. Just soak the pasta in water, it depends on the type of pasta and thickness, if your soaking time is more than 4 hours, i would refrigerate it to avoid food-borne illnesses.

The starch gelatinization is the part that actually the pasta becomes cooked. Most starches gelatinize at 80C. That would be a good starting point for temperature, and since your pasta is already soaked, you just need to keep your pasta until you get your desired texture (mine is al dente) and cook in minimal amount of water to gelatinize.


Acids tend to reduce the heat of chilli, so you could try adding some vinegar or lime juice. If that makes the dish too acidic, add some sugar to balance it out. Dairy also reduces the heat so you could serve with sour cream and/or cheese, or even stir some butter into the chilli, which would also give it a slightly richer taste.


If I want a complex, yeasty soy sauce, what to look for?

Soy sauce should only contain at most 4 ingredients - soy beans, wheat, salt and water; Chinese ones often leave out the wheat, which is a more typical Japanese ingredient.  The quality of the sauce depends on the fermentation and maturation processes (like a good wine or beer), so is not reliably predictable from the ingredients lists. Some types have sugars and/or spices etc added as well, but it depends on the variant.

Good quality soy sauce is usually expensive, so cost can be an indicator, but is not reliably so, just like you can find good quality cheap wines, you can find good quality cheap soy sauce. In general, a longer fermentation time leads to more varied and richer flavor profile

Dark soy sauces tend to be richer in darker(maltier)/yeastier flavors, while light sauces are saltier with brighter flavors (think aromatics). However, the use of the soy sauce alters how you might interact with it. If, for instance, you were using the sauce for dipping sushi or dumplings, you would use a different sauce to one that you might cook and blend flavors with. Chinese actually have a double pressed variant on light soy sauce used specifically for dipping.

First of all I would suggest working out what you want to do with the sauce, and what style of food you are making - Chinese? Japanese? Thai? Malay? Korean?... etc, all have different ideas on soy sauces and how to use them. Then, go and have a look at the local grocer and see what they have, look for brands that have wine-sized bottles - those are probably the go-to for people doing regular, every-day cooking at home, so will be both cheap and (probably!) moderate quality. If you can find smaller versions of the same brands, they are a good place to start for testing out what you like

Another way to do it is to ask - the people at the shop, your favorite local [insert-asian-food-style-here] waiter, your colleague from work...


Little bit of an odd question, but what does pelican taste like?

I've never had pelican, but I have eaten a number of fish-eating birds, like loon/duck. There is a sameness in taste in fish eating birds: oily meat, dark, with bad fish flavor. Not advised unless closest store to buy food is more than 3 days walk away.


Can any potatoes be cooked in the microwave?

Yes, you can cook potatoes in a microwave. If you have not cut them up, poke a few holes in the side with a fork or knife point to allow steam to escape.


While you could certainly use plain white vinegar, there's not all that much difference between that and cider vinegar if "vinegar" is the taste you're objecting to.

If you are canning the pickles, changing the recipe could kill you. The vinegar helps to produce an acid environment where botulism does not grow.

So, if it turns out you don't like pickles in vinegar, stick to "refrigerator pickles" if you want to reduce the vinegar further. That is, keep them in the refrigerator the entire time.

You might also want to look into lactic (naturally fermented) pickles where an appropriate salt level keeps things safe until the lactic acid bacteria make enough acid to further keep things safe. Those are refrigerated when complete, typically.

Waiting longer (rather than throwing away) may help the ones you have - it takes some time for the exchange between the inside of the cucumber and the brine to be complete. Or, a refrigerated dip in fresh water for overnight or a few days might help them suit your taste.


Almost all of the high heat sprays are not expected to last against direct flame exposure.

I have a outdoor fire pit/BBQ with plain rebar as the grill. Even though it does rust a bit, the exposed rebar is thick enough that it would be decades before I would need to replace it, and the baked on char/oils actually protect the metal quite a bit. The other option would be using stainless steel rods as the grill rack material, then there would be negligible amounts of corrosion.

If i had to remake the grate on my fire pit I would probably use 416 stainless steel rods like these http://amzn.to/2gV2DVD

Also, avoid anything that is chrome or zinc plated. When chrome or zinc gets burnt, they produce toxic byproducts. Just to be safe, I would avoid anything that is plated for your grill grates.


Honey is acidic with a pH of 3.9- that's more acidic than some oranges. There is also quite a lot of honey in this recipe that will give the acid the baking soda needs to react.

In this recipe, both the egg whites and the baking soda are going to provide some leavening.
Without the soda the cake will undoubtedly be a little more dense.

Additionally, even when not contributing to leavening, raising the pH will promote browning of baked goods. I think the ground almonds will give nice color but the recipe may be a little paler without the soda.

There is no soda in angel food cake and I expect this cake will also be just fine without it.


Melting sugar on creme brulee with blow torch

The technique for creating a proper layer of melted sugar on your creme brulee involves three important elements:

After you add the sugar, gently swirl the ramekin to create smooth layer of sugar. You don't want it too clump or be uneven.
Gently 'kiss' the sugar with the tip of the flame, moving the flame around to heat evenly, just until the sugar starts to flow.
Hold and rotate the ramekin to cause the melting sugar to flow around the cup and form an even layer.

Your goal is to distribute the heat, and sugar, evenly and smoothly around the top of your custard.

The technique to use is easier to pick this up by seeing it rather than reading about it. Alton Brown did a segment on Creme Brulee on Good Eats where he demonstrates the technique.

(if the link fails, you can Google "Alton Brown Creme Brulee on You Tube")


Name of a cheese they prepare in Switzerland

If I ignore the "on a spit" part I immediately think of Raclette, which is melted, roasted cheese served typically with bread or boiled potato.

In household settings the cheese is often heated in small individual pans under a table-top broiler, each guest gets his or her own pan and prepares his food.
Traditionally (and in larger settings) halved wheels of cheese are turned with the cut side towards a heat source and servings of molten cheese scratched off. The heating can be done either at a fireplace (embers) or on a special "machine" consisting of a heat source and a (often movable) tray for the cheese(s). The melting and serving is done by one cook for all participants. In Switzerland, but also sometimes in neighbourung countries, traditional Raclette is sold on food fairs, festivals and markets.


You can try to treat it as a really, really small dice if you have a sharp enough knife.

But it's easier to use a chefs knife to cut it in one direction, and then try to start cutting it into sticks .... but when it starts getting difficult, just rock your knife back and forth, slowly moving it through the pile.

After a while, turn your knife (or the board) 90 degrees, and rock it some more.  As the pile starts spreading out, use your knife to pull it back into a tighter pile ... and keep rocking and turning until it's down to the size you want it.

...

If you're going to be using it right away, you can also give it a quick crush before mincing -- but this damages cell walls differently than cutting, and can cause some chemical reactions that change the flavor (the intensity fades quicker).


That thin layer of eggs sure is a pain. I take a two-pronged approach: immediately after taking the eggs out of the pan I run it under water until it stops hissing.  This helps loosen the stuck-on stuff and rinse away any heavy crud.

Then I fill the pan with water and leave it on the counter while I eat my delicious eggs.

After breakfast I rinse the pan again and hit it with a green scrubby (e.g. Scotch-Brite brand - don't use this on non-stick) or the scrubby side of a sponge.

After the soak, the eggs pretty much just wipe right out.


Vietnamese Sandwiches - Spread Identification?

Pate can vary in color depending on what you put in it, so I'd say what you were eating was pate!

Here's a pate recipe with a resultant gray hue: http://berriesandspice.com/vietnamese-banh-mi-pate/


How can I cook chicken breast like Nando's?

Yes, this technique will give you approximately the same results as Nando's. You want to use an oil with a relatively high burning point like sunflower, rapeseed or groundnut - olive oil may burn.

Another point to remember is that Nando's chicken breasts all have the skin on: this adds flavour and helps keep the meat moist. For the best results, both in terms of not giving yourself food poisoning and avoiding dry chicken, use a quick-read digital thermometer to ensure the breast is only cooked as much as it needs to be, but at a safe internal temperature. It should reach 75ºC in the thickest part.


Can I leave flour to autolyse for long period of time?

Yes letting the sourdough sit at room temperature over night should work. This is in fact the way I handle the refreshing of my Lievito Madre usually and from my experience sourdoughs tend to be robust enough that some hours more or less should not matter much. When starting a culture it´s even common to let it sit at room temperature for up to two days between the feedings. But I would not recommend to let it sit for such a long time before storing it in the fridge again because even there the process does not stop entirely and also consumes some food.
To get more life into your dough also ensure it is sitting warm enough. For me room temperature at ~20°C works well usually but if you are experiencing trouble to get it started again aiming higher at around 28°C might also help as the bacterias are getting more active at warmer temperatures.
(Autolyse does not exactly mean refreshing/feeding of sourdough. It a process where just flour and water is mixed before other ingredients (yeast, salt, ...) are added to reduce kneading and improve taste and texture.)


Does the beef cut matter when making stroganoff?

Beef cut does matter. Sirloin tip is a relatively tender cut, cuts that have done more work like shoulder, round, leg cuts have more connective tissue and need a significantly longer cooking time. In a pressure cooker this isn't that long, 1 hour is what I've seen for instant pot recipes using working cuts.

Also what matters is fat content. Whatever you put in the instant pot is going to come out of it, if you put a fatty cut in you'll have a fatty result, so think about trimming.

I would fry a portion of one of the steaks and see how tender the result is, that's a good gauge. Plus you get to eat steak.


cooking canned veggies in a Korean clay pot?

Generally, as canned vegetables are already cooked, they can be mushy regardless of the vessel you cook them in. Depending on the desired result, I would add canned vegetables near the end of the stew's cooking time, especially peas and spinach e.g. in some sort of pie filling. You could cook them further, but expect vegetables like carrots to disintegrate.


Vegan binder for chinese style dumpling fillings

You can use any type of starch-paste. For example, flour paste (mix water with flour to form a thin-paste-like consistency) works good and is traditional in many parts of the world. similary, arrowroot paste, rice flour paste also works good.

Another option---boiled rice, the more glutenous the better (basmati, jasmine, any japanese rice). Boil them in extra water than directed, and then smash them with finger----excellent glue paste.


Why are the stems left on when cooking an artichoke?

The stem is an extension of the heart, and is good to eat. The stem may be peeled prior to cooking to remove tough exterior, this applies more to older artichokes that are more open. Young artichokes that are still tightly closed don’t generally have tough stems.


Hooves are generally not eaten directly but make great soup. If you Google 'trotter soup', you will find recipes from many different culinary traditions, most of them middle-eastern or from the Indian sub-continent.

This page has some typical recipes: http://www.khanapakana.com/recipe-search/s/trotter

Although trotter generally means pig's hooves in the west, it's used to mean any hooves in the east.


How do I finely process/puree a large amount of chillies?

I assume you will be cooking the sauce. If this is the case, my recommendation is to cook the chillies first and puree them afterwards, as with traditional ljutenica or ajwar. In this case, you can either peel the skin off after charring it and then process the resulting soft flesh whichever way you want (it's very easy, leaves no chunks), or put them unskinned through a meat grinder with a special disk which separates the skins from the pureed flesh.


Yes, just put them in a freezer bag and squeeze out plenty of air from it before you tie it up. It doesn't matter if they're shelled/crushed etc. You can keep them for as long as anything else - some say 6 months, some say a year, some say indefinitely.


Does putting knives in a wooden block blade down wear out the blade?

Wooden blocks are ideal for knife storage because they keep the blades dry (the wood absorbs some of the humidity in the air), preventing rusting.

The motion of inserting and withdrawing blades over wood will not noticeably dull them, because you're not actually cutting the wood or indeed even applying any pressure as you do so.

A good tip is to use a good quality steel to sharpen your knives with just one or two passes on each side before each use. Wash them with hot water by hand, avoiding dishwashers unless you like replacing your knives annually, then return them to the block once they're fully dried.


Just because the recipe calls it an "omelette" doesn't make it one. An omelette starts and ends its cooking in a pan. If you finish it in the oven, it becomes a frittata. (There are a couple of historic differences, but let's just stick with that.) If the egg mixture both starts and finishes in the oven it would probably be a crust-less quiche.

The benefits of cooking in the oven is the ability to get more even cooking of the eggs to get a more consistent texture throughout.


How tight should the lid be when braising?

The advice isn't necessarily contradictory, both methods are valid depending on what you want to achieve. Running out of moisture in a braise is a bad thing, so if I'm braising something with limited moisture then a tight lid keeps the liquid from evaporating. A good example would be when I cook beef shin, I add a cup of water and a cup of wine, and that's all, so I don't want to lose any of it.

In some recipes you start off with more moisture than you need, or there are ingredients which are going add to the moisture in the pot as they cook (think peppers, zucchini, cauliflower). In these cases keeping the lid off a bit allows the excess water to evaporate, thickening up the cooking liquid.


You'd be better off trying to find the real thing.

Kochukaru is slightly sweeter and smokier than standard 'ground chilli' and simply substituting it will give you variable results to what your kimchi should traditionally taste like.

If you know what you're doing, and by that I mean you are able to know what Kimchi is meant to taste like and are able to tweak the amount of standard chilli powder you're using perhaps in addition to some sweet and/or smoked paprika you'd probably be able to replicate the flavour and taste of kochukaru in your kimchi.

If you're not at that level of ability (and I mean that with the greatest respect) then you're probably far better off trying to find kochukaru, perhaps at an alternative asian grocers or even online somewhere.


How can I prevent bacon mayonnaise from splitting when above fridge temp?

I think the problem is actually not the heating, but the refrigeration!

Consider: bacon fat solidifies easily and thickly, and does so even at room temperature. When you throw it in the fridge, the micro-droplets of bacon fat will turn to solids and clump together. These solid droplets are frozen in place when solid, but when you thaw it, they melt and reveal how wrecked your emulsion is.  Now, you could add additional emulsifying agents (lecithin, extra yolks) but that's not really going to solve the problem of refrigeration.

The solution is to break up the bacon fat as it melts, and re-establish the emulsion before it can break.  To do this, you have to whisk constantly as you gently heat the mayonnaise, generally in a warm water bath.

How to execute this in a restaurant setting:

Prep a big batch of bacon-mayo and throw it in the fridge. Just before service, warm some water in a pot and throw a cup of the mayo in a small bain marie or metal 6th hotel pan.  Immerse the bain/pan in the pot, and whisk it as it melts.  Hold the mayonnaise for service in water warm enough to melt bacon fat, and DISCARD THE WARM MAYONNAISE EVERY TWO HOURS AND THAW A FRESH BATCH.  Make sure no cooks get lazy about that -- it's a food safety problem.  Ideally, you should be using pasteurized eggs to reduce the risk of salmonella. Basically, you're treating your mayonnaise like a Hollandaise or Bearnaise.

I've found that the thawing trick works fairly well for home hollandaise (which most people say shouldn't refrigerate), and which does the same thing if heated fast.  It should apply to easily-broken mayonnaise too.


It's a while since I've made (vegetarian) moussaka but as Max says in the comments, lentils are a decent substitute here.  I've used Puy lentils or lentilles vert*.  You want something that holds a bit of texture/doesn't fall to bits too easily, unlike red lentils. A mix of red lentils and lentilles vert works well in other things for giving the sauce some body and maintaining texture.  I haven't tried this for moussaka but do use this mixture for lasagne.
For flavour, I'd also add mushrooms, but you don't have to.
Another thing I'd be tempted to try is urid dal (the larger of two things called black lentils) as I have them for making dal makhani.  These would need pre-soaking and longer cooking.
*yes, that is what they're called in my English supermarket; they also sell "green lentils" that are paler and larger.


Apparently marigold is quite common in Georgian cooking. I found the following excerpt on this  page :

  Marigold is the "saffron" of Georgia, and although only a little is used, it does make a difference to the colour and flavour. Now, you might think it might be hard to get the spice marigold in Japan, but you would be wrong! I know of at least 3 sources (1) super-premium organic marigold, (2) reasonably priced marigold tea, and (3) super-cheap marigold petals from my favourite spice shop, Ohtsuya (I am sure I saw the powdered spice in their shop, as well).

Most references I found say that marigold has a citrus flavor as noted below from this  link :

  Marigold (Tagetes tenuifolia - aka T. signata) - The marigold can be used as a substitute for saffron. Also great in salads as they have a citrus flavor.

Also, in looking at recipes for Georgian Satsivi I found several that called for saffron rather than marigold. Personally I would try saffron as I think it would work well with the flavor profile of the sauce.


I honestly cannot think of anything they'd be referring to other than a chemical compound, which, in layman's terms, is basically anything more complex than a pure element like oxygen.

A cranberry - and any other food - contains an enormous number of "compounds", so I'm pretty sure that the phrase "cranberry compound" just means that it's not made from fresh/whole cranberries.  It either uses some kind of artificial flavour or concentrate.

If it says "from concentrate" then it is almost definitely the latter; if it says "no artificial flavours" and nothing else then it might be the latter, and if it says "not from concentrate" (but doesn't say anything about artificial flavours) then I'd guess it to be the former.

I'd love to post some kind of citation, but as I said, I don't think it refers to any specific thing, it sounds more like a weasel word to avoid listing one or more "chemical" names like "proanthocyanidin".


Fresh milk curdles when added to hot coffee and tea

Boil the milk on its own in a clean/rinsed container (microwave).  If it curdles, it's the milk.

Otherwise either there is a decalcifying agent in the kettle or something in the coffeee is making it too acidic.  It takes very little, after decalcification, we usually have to pass about a gallon of water through the coffee machine before the steam wand stops curdling milk.

If you're in a jam, boil your water in a cup in the microwave and avoid the kettle.


Water absorption by flour varies by variety, brand, and even batch within brand. For example, I have an American bread book where I quite often have to use far more water than the recipe suggests to achieve the consistency stated. This is down to my British flour apparently absorbing more water.

Therefore, it's a good idea to simply use enough flour to get the desired consistency rather than worry too much about being precise. Having said that, when it comes to bread, wetter is better, so only add enough so that you can just work it comfortably.


I've seen a number of varying explanations of this phenomenon, but all agree that it's a normal effect to see on stainless steel cookware and is harmless (assuming you are cleaning your pan well).

It is probably some combination of the minerals in your water, high heat, and oil or soap residue.  The harsher detergents and sometimes less effective rinse of a dishwasher might make the problem more prevalent than if you wash the pots by hand.   It may also be caused by oxidation of the metal itself and you can remove it by scouring or with a bit of vinegar or lemon juice.

You can pretty much ignore it, unless it bothers you for aesthetic reasons.


You are going to find a considerable variation of quality when re-heating meats or meat dishes, by any method, including the microwave.

Much of this depends on what the particular cut of meat involved was, and how it was prepared or what part of the dish it is in.

Some meats simply reheat better than others, and some cooking methods promote a more reheatable dish.

Reheat Well

Slow cooked cuts, like shoulder or chuck, that are traditionally cooked for several hours or more in a number of methods such as a braise, a barbecue or a tagine tend to reheat very well by any number of methods, including the microwave.

There should neither be an off texture nor an off smell.

For poultry, the dark meat tends to reheat better in these types of meat.

Reheat Poorly

Simple, fast cooking methods like steaks or chicken cutlets tend to reheat poorly, by any method, including the microwave.

This is because it is difficult to rewarm them evenly without actually overcooking them the second time.  Once they become well done, even if during the reheating, they will be tough and rubbery and unpalatable.

The microwave is especially difficult, because it may not heat the piece evenly, and so it might overcook and turn rubbery at the tips, while it is still cold in the center.

Your best bet is to lower the power setting at the cost of taking considerably longer to reheat.  Make sure to turn the food over several times, during its reheating period, and if your microwave does not have an automatically rotating carousel, rotate the food as well to promote even reheating.

Even so, you will never get it hot without significant risk of overcooking.  Aim for just getting the chill off, or moderately warm at the top end.

Beef steaks are especially challenging as they are lean, and people are so sensitive to how much they have been cooked.  You might be better off slicing them thinly, and eating them colder.

Aroma

The main challenge in reheating meats is maintaining the texture.

There is nothing that happens in a microwave that should lead to a bad smell.   Sometimes the microwave itself may need a little bit of cleaning.


How to convert grilled Beer Can Burger recipe to oven baked

Putting the oven at a lower to warm setting like 200 to 250 Fahrenheit (93 to 121 Celsius) is a good approximation for long, slow indirect cooking on a grill.


Food safety concerns regarding cooked steak stored in the fridge

As you mention, cooking the steak to medium rare does indeed kill the bacteria on the surface of the steak which is where most of the risk of contamination exists, so immediately after you've cooked the steak, if you eat it, you're probably pretty safe unless there happened to be bad organisms living inside the meat.

Assuming that you've got a good piece of meat, with nothing terrible inside it, after you cook the meat, what you need to worry about most is bacteria that you introduce to the meat, and so to answer your question, cutting meat shouldn't affect the safety of storing meat after cooking at all (as long as you use a clean knife/cutting board).

While cooking the meat does initially kill all of the surface bacteria, the fact that the surface was once cooked doesn't really do anything to deter new bacteria from moving in and going to town on the meat.  What this means is that you need to be very careful to keep meat in sanitary conditions regardless of whether the exposed surface has been previously cooked or not if you're planning to eat it without cooking it again.

So, to recap, if you take a piece of meat where all bacteria has been killed via cooking, and seal it without introducing new bacteria, you should be safe to eat it.

The one remaining issue is that we're not talking about a steak that's necessarily had all bacteria killed.  There's a possibility that some bacteria survived the cooking inside the meat.  If this is the case, you may be safe to eat the meat right away if there are very few of these bacteria present (depending on what they are), but the longer you wait - even if you seal the whole thing up - the longer you're giving those bacteria to multiply into large enough quantities that they can destroy the meat and/or sicken you.  To avoid this, you want to put the meat in the refrigerator, as soon as possible to slow bacterial action, and eat it as soon as possible.  Like John, I've had success with around 3-5 days, but it really depends on what you're starting with, so I'd highly recommend that you have a good look/sniff before you eat to see if there are any signs of spoilage and discard if so.  Again, this is a risk whether you cut the meat or not, so that isn't really a factor here.

Regarding partially eaten steaks, this is just introducing one more place where bacteria can get on the steak before it's sealed up and refrigerated.  I could see this being no issue (if you're cutting off a piece of the steak, and sealing/refrigerating the rest while eating), or a significant issue if you're cutting the steak with utensils that have been in your mouth, or worse, trying to store a piece of steak that's been in your mouth.  In those cases you're almost certainly introducing more bacteria and decreasing the amount of time you'll have before spoilage occurs.

So, in summary, cut the meat if you like - that should make no difference.  Get it sealed up as soon as possible without exposing it to anything non-sterile.  Put it in the refrigerator as soon as possible.  Throw it out if at any point you detect spoilage.  Following these steps you should be safe to keep your leftovers for 3-5 days and only rarely need to discard spoiled food.


What is the boundary between beef aging and its decay?

Here is what some will definitely label a biased description of aging and packing that might help a bit.  It goes into the difference between wet and dry aging and gas packing which has become more common.

My description of dry aging, and wet aging for that matter, and how I was taught to think of it is that it is decay, but controlled.  Enzyme action breaking down tissue for a more tender product, and and improved and more concentrated flavor is the goal and this enzyme action is definitely decay.  As to bacteria, even the above article a supporter of aging, in its description of dry aging points out that the outer layer absolutely is contaminated by bacteria.

  During the dry aging process, mold and bacteria forms on the outermost layers of the beef which must be cut off and thrown away.

Also, the dry aging is done at 30-35 degrees (F), an area of slow bacterial growth and outside of the 40-140 (F) danger zone of fast growth.

Wet aging is also done, or at least should be, at these same "safe" temperatures and is normally done is vacuum sealed bags so should again not be high risk for contamination.  Dry is at more risk because it is in less sealed environment, but is also high price/high value so tends to be carefully inspected and cared for.  As normally 10-15% weight is lost during dry curing, and additional is lost to trimming for safety, plus the additional holding time and handling, prices are much higher.

ETA:  Their description of 10-11 days for dry aging I would definitely put at the low end of premium aging.  All descriptions I know of that is about the limit of water loss, but only the beginning of some of them big changes in flavor.


When should I use lemon zest and not just juice?

Lemon juice and lemon zest have a different taste. Lemon juice has obviously more water, is tart (adds fruitiness and freshness to the dish) and the aroma is not as intense as in the zest. If you bake a cake or cookies it's often more desirable to use lemon zest because it doesn't mess up the water-solids-ratio and what you often want is a rather sweet cake/cookie than a tart one. In contrast often the cookie glaze should be somewhat tart - you can use both zest and juice. I have the impression that the zest has a bitter component.

So you have to decide if you want to have a tart component in your dish and whether the dish tolerates additional liquid. Acid is not only important in taste but also in the further "food chemistry". As Jay pointed out, acid can make milk curdle. Also, cooking with acid in aluminium isn't good taste-wise (and probably health-wise, too, but that's another topic).

Someone else asked a question in the opposite direction: Are there any reasons not to include the zest when citrus juice is an ingredient?


Three ingredient peanut butter cookies - how to improve texture

I use a recipe that is similar and have good results. I believe that I use 1 cup of peanut butter, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 egg.

These turn out a very nice texture. If I were you I would sub some or all of the syrup for regular sugar to make it a bit dryer and make sure to add an egg.


I've never made Citrus Sugar, but I certainly have made vanilla sugar.  Crystaline sugar soaks up the moisture, so if bacteria or mold were to invade the pot, it would be dehydrated quickly and wouldn't survive, let alone thrive.  They need a good bit of moisture to reproduce.  I've never had a problem with my vanilla sugar and it doesn't take long for the vanilla beans to turn into little vanilla toothpicks.


I would like to know how to thicken sauces with blood and is it safe?

It should be safe, you would want to follow the same precautions you would when preparing meat. I personally like thickening my stews with bone marrow.


I'm not looking to learn a new skill; how do I make my knives better at cutting?

Yes, you can keep an everyday  useful kitchen knife serviceable with the Anysharp you linked.  For the majority of non-serrated knives sold in a supermarket it will be fine. I've got one, and use it on my Ikea, Sainsburys and Victorinox knives.  I can get a better edge with stones, but only once I've got my hand back in, so I don't bother.  I've got some better knives that it doesn't work on because the angle is different - so I end up not using those as much.  It's a bit aggressive really, so probably wouldn't be ideal on a quality knife even of the right angle, except for restoring a chipped blade.  It's not quite foolproof, but nearly.  The suction cup needs a good surface on something heavy to stick to, end you need to be careful to hold the blade square to the grinders.
That steel is OK for finishing the job if you can be bothered, but it's optional (I've got almost the same one, and only really use it before carving meat, which I do about once a year).
This will seems almost heretical to some people here, but if you just want to cook and eat, and not play with knives, that's fine.  But in that case don't waste your money on posh knives either.


Should I refrigerate vegetables in sealed bag or not?

It depends. Some fridges have a special area to store vegetables where they control the air flow and temperature in order to control moisture and humidity.

If your fridge is one of these, then removing them from the sealed bags is not a bad idea.

However, if you don't have such an area the vegetables are likely to dry or to get cold burns depending on your fridge settings, so keeping them packaged can help avoid that.

It is also important to notice that keeping things tidy and in separate containers in a fridge helps with higiene and keeps harmful bacteria from damaged products to latch onto newer ones.

Hope it helps.


I think the best choice is number 2, get them all wrapped up and ready to go, cover them tightly and pop them in the fridge.

3 is possible but you risk them going soggy. They'll be fresher if you fry them on the day.


How to cook bell peppers until they are VERY tender, but not broken down?

I'm not sure that this is how the restaurant did it, but perhaps that kind of texture could be achieved by blanching and freezing the pepper pieces, then reheating them in a microwave just prior to adding them to the sauce and serving. Blanching would ensure that they don't taste completely raw, and freezing would make them "mushier" without ruining the shape by extended cooking.

I haven't tried this myself, so no guarantees.


Tea water: heat to 80 °C or boil to 100 °C and let it cool down to 80 °C?

It's actually the opposite, you shouldn't boil water for tea unless you want it boiling. Water has dissolved oxygen in it, the more you have the nicer your tea will taste. This has been covered in this question.

The hotter your water gets, the faster it loses dissolved oxygen, so you'll get better tea (for most people's palates) if you raise your water to 80°C and use it right away. If you boil it and then let it cool you will lose much more O2.

FYI, 80°C is pretty low for most black teas, I experimented with this some years ago and found that most black teas brewed at 80°C came out pretty awful, green tea seemed to be the exception to this. I found 90–95°C to be more of the sweet spot.

Other than boiling to kill pathogens the one thing I can think of would be to purge chlorine from the water, which boiling does. However, you'd need to boil it for 15 minutes to get rid of all of it, not just raise it to boiling. Also, boiling doesn't get rid of chlorinates, which are used to purify water more often these days. See this question for more details on that.


Does shaking carbonated water before use increase the carbonation?

No. Shaking will create a lot of small bubbles which will act as nucleation points to release the dissolved gas when the container is opened and the pressure released.


Safety of (re)cooking potentially raw beef from delivery

It is common, when preparing pho, to add raw, thinly sliced beef to the piping hot broth.  That way the broth essentially cooks the beef.  So what you received is not surprising.  It is impossible to know, from what you have written, if there are safety concerns.  IF the beef was handled correctly at the restaurant, and IF you received and cooked the beef within 2 hours of it being in the "danger zone" (if it was in the danger zone...impossible to know without understanding how it was transported), then there is not a safety concern.


Why does the carbs / fiber ratio decrease after cooking?

When you cook things using water you add mass that have 0 calories. Some food, like rice, absorb that water. Hence boiling 100 grams of rice increase final mass to around 300 grams.
Then again you measure the 100 grams carbs and it's 3 times less than your starting points because you never added additional carbs in the process.

The fiber amount is IMHO wrongly calculated because 3,4 gram divided by 3,16 (ratio of carbs in 100 grams before and after cooking) is 1,075. Probably someone rounded up the 75 wrong and had 1,8 instead of 1,08.


What animal parts can be included in head cheese?

To address this, I think we should examine why head cheese is made from a head in the first place.

There are two main reasons, the character of the meat attached to the head: paucity, toughness, and (lack of) accessibility; and the large amount of gelatin that can be obtained.

The meat on a head is well-exercised, and, with the exception of cheeks and jowl, thin, full of connective tissue, and wrapped around an oddly-shaped skull. It's difficult and not exactly worth the effort to try to remove it raw; after a good deal of work, you would end up with small shreds of meat that would probably best be braised anyways. Much easier to braise the head in its entirety and pick off the meat once it's soft.

The potential for gelatin is abundant in a head, especially assuming that the skin is left on (which it is for pig's heads): the skull of course contains plenty of albumen, the ears and snout are made of cartilage, and there's tendons around the jaw and heading into the neck.

Considering this, to make a substitution for a head, we should look for other parts of the animal that have these characteristics. The most obvious choice is the lower legs: pig trotters are in fact often added to the pot when making head cheese. Shanks all the way down to the ankles, and clean hooves from other animals, if available, would be perfectly suitable. The chicken feet you mention have the characteristic of yielding a good amount of gelatin, so they are a candidate. Tails are also a fine source of gelatin, with skin and plenty of connective tissue. Skin on its own would also be useful. For the meat, any of the usual well-exercised cuts should be suitable; a jowl on its own, the shoulder, possibly a diaphragm (hanger) from a cow.

In fact, one could very well make a delicious head cheese-like terrine using commercially-prepared gelatin with a full homemade stock, and any flavorful cut of meat that was available.


Will cooking chicken longer in soup make it less tough and stringy?

There's several major reasons why meat and poultry can be tough:

Collagen: muscles exist to impart a force between bones, when they contract there must be a connection between that muscle and the bone or the muscle would not be able to do work. Collagen is a strong protein that is distributed throughout a muscle and connects to a tendon, allowing the muscle to distribute its' force to the skeletal structure of the animal. The more load a muscle takes, the more collagen is needed to distribute the force, and the tougher the meat is.
The animal was stressed before slaughter: if the animal was stressed before slaughter it will have lactic acid buildup resulting in tougher meat
Poor treatment after slaughter: Once an animal dies chemical changes happen that toughen the meat, and the correct treatment is needed to allow the meat to relax again. If that isn't done right you'll get tough meat
Freezing and thawing: freezing makes meat and poultry tougher

Collagen breaks down in the presence of heat and moisture, so a long stewing at low temperature could make your chicken tender. The collagen helps make your broth thicker and taster too! That would take a maximum of 2-3 hours on a low simmer. If it isn't tender by then it isn't tough because of collagen and there isn't much you can do. If you've got a chicken that was stressed, not processed correctly, and then frozen there's a limit to how tender you'll be able to get it.  You can try cooking it a couple more hours, but if it isn't tender by then it never will be.


How long / to what temperature should I let meat rest?

The resting period is not generally done by an absolute temperature—you would have measured for (near) your target temperature before before taking the piece out of the oven or off the griddle or whatever.

Traditionally, it should be proportional to the size of the cut or roast.

5-10 minutes is good for a steak or individual chicken pieces, depending on their thickness
Medium size roasts and smaller poultry, say 10-15 minutes
Large roasts and large poultry (like a turkey), up to 30 minutes.

If you do want to measure by temperature for more precise results, Kenji Alt of Serious Eats recommends based on practical experimentation, for steaks:

  Ideally, no matter how well-done you've cooked your meat, you want to
  allow it to cool down until the very center has reached 120°F (49°C).
  At this stage, the muscle fibers have relaxed enough that you should
  have no problem with losing juices.

He also reviews some of the science, and various explanations for why the resting works.

Cook's Illustrated's Americas Test Kitchen performed an experiment with several roasted pork loins, cutting them with no resting, or resting of 10, 20, 30, and 40 minutes.  They found that even a 10 minute rest cut down on juices expressed by 60% compared to the unrested roast.  They found far less difference in the roasts that were rested for longer periods, although there was continued improvement in the juice retention.  They summarize (original emphasis):

  So what to do? Curb your enthusiasm and let your meat rest. But not
  for too long. The most dramatic decrease in moisture loss for these
  pork loins took place during the first 10 minutes of rest. Additional
  time helps—but not if that means your dinner will be cold. If you’re
  cooking a big roast, you can wait longer—about 30 minutes. Thin steaks
  should only wait 5 to 10 minutes before you dig in.

This shows that the traditional advise on resting times is actually fairly effective.

Note:  Thanks to Jefromi for sharing this reference.


Which is the best way to de-grit clams and mussels? Salt, cornmeal, or salt + cornmeal?

I think salty water is a given in purging, and the article you shared is no exception to this. Quoting directly

You need lots of water—about 1 gallon of water and 1/3 cup of kosher salt per 1 dozen clams—that should be changed several times over 48 hours in order for them to be squeaky clean

I think salt and cornmeal can be used complementarily. As it’s mentioned in the article cornmeal will alter the taste, but it will also expedite the purging (from 48h to 24h per the experiment in the article).
It looks like using both is a better option than just using salt. And assuming salt should always be present in the water, I would rule out the only cornmeal option.


What is the texture of grilled swordfish?

You may have purchased mislabeled fish. Unfortunately, this is a real problem, alas!  (So at least the texture issue might well not have been your doing.)


Organic merely tells you that the wheat that was grown, was grown in a more environmentally friendly way, ie. without the aid of pesticides.  That on its own will have no effect on noodle stability.

They may be poor quality noodles, have gluten level issues, are they also wholewheat, do your regular udon have some form of strengthening additive like with ramen?  Many noodles have kansui added, or whatever passes for that chemically (sodium carbonate) added to strengthen the dough.  Of course it may not have been kneaded enough, too old, too dry.


Smoker Ideas, something between Ribs and a Brisket

If you want beef, try smoking chuck roasts ("chuckies"). If you want pork, try making pulled pork from pork shoulder. Both will produce nice results, but take less time than brisket.


What are ways to reduce cellulose in vegetables and fruits?

Ummm, this isn't a specific condition...cellulose is indigestible by humans.  It is the chief component of what we call "dietary fiber" or my Grandma called "roughage".
This question is really asking how to remove the fiber from fresh fruits and vegetables - puree and  straining, juicing etc. would all do the trick.


It is possible to do at home, but it is very labor intensive and requires equipment that most people don't have at home.

The first major step is to produce tapioca starch (ie tapioca flour). The cassava must be cleaned and peeled, then finely grated or milled to break the cell walls and expose the starch.  This mass is then washed in a large amount of water and the insoluble pulp is strained out and the starchy water reserved.  The starch-water mixture, called "Starch milk", is allowed to settle for 6+ hours and the water is drained off until a thick slurry is left.  This slurry is then either purified further with more water then dried to form the flour.  The additional washing of the slurry is important to remove residual insoluble fiber and, more importantly, cyanide-related toxins naturally found in the cassava. Traditional cultures dried the slurry on basketwork trays, but it is more efficient to do it in an oven at low temperature with regular raking and turning. The dried starch would then be sifted and used for cooking.

Making tapioca balls or pearls from tapioca starch is relatively easy compared to the processing of the cassava.  The tapioca starch is mixed with boiling water to form a dough which is then kneaded and rolled into the desired size balls.  The tapioca balls are then cooked in boiling water until transparent.

Other sources:

http://www.fao.org/livestock/agap/frg/AHPP95/95-81.pdf

http://phys.org/news90080234.html


How can I keep pasta from sticking to itself?

Italian here :) I know that the oil is a well known trick everywhere ... but Italy. The main problem about pasta is that people just tend to cook it too much. The cooking time for pasta should be between 8 and 12 minutes, above this number it will be sticky. Spaghetti is the quickest kind of pasta to get ready, so just cook it around 8-9 minutes and it won't stick.