Can you reuse marinade used with raw chicken?

Most reliable sources will warn you strongly against reusing marinades because they can continue to harbor bacteria. Even though the second batch of meat will be cooked, there'll be lots of time for the bacteria to multiply in the meantime. (And given the symptoms caused by foodborne illnesses caused by bacteria like salmonella, the risk isn't worth the few cents you'll save on marinade.)


Ideally strawberries should be picked the day they're eaten.  Adjusting your shopping plans to the day before or so would be best in any case.  I've never heard of this vinegar bath trick, but I've sometimes kept strawberries overnight that I had mixed with lemon juice.  They're not less sweet, but the texture is blah, going on mushy.  I would experiment at least a day or two with your vinegar bath before relying on this for an actual holiday.


Should I add salt to my sauerkraut recipe if I add vegetables?

If you are fermenting sauerkraut, then you should keep the salt content the same if you add other vegetables. The salt helps keeping undesirable bacteria in check, so you probably don't want to "dilute" it. Increase the amount of salt so the ratio between cabbage/vegetables and salt stays the same.

TL;DR: Treat any additional vegetables like cabbage when calculating the amount of salt.


How to cook cubed fish for a fish taco (tortilla)

Don't cut it up before cooking, do it after cooking. This is a common issue with many Mexican style recipes

Coat the fish with your spice mix, and cook as desired. When done, cut into cubes/chunks or flake onto your tortilla

Usually thinner fillets work best for this style in regards to surface area exposed to spices etc

Do the same for beef tortilla, spice and cook a steak, then slice it up thin and add it to your tortilla


Egg and flour proportion for pasta extruder

What type of flour are you using? If you are using semolina, as expected, you should try to sift it and remove the coarse parts. Also, you can mix 75% semolina and 25% of a softer wheat flour. The egg makes the dough much (much) harder to extrude, you can try substituting water for egg:

for 453 grams of semolina, 162 grams of water

I make my fresh pasta with the wonderful mx700 Simac (which you can find online for about 40/60$) and I can assure you that the pressure applied by the machine is tremendous and when I don't get the mix carefully balanced the motor clearly screams and the machine cracks like it's going to open in half.

In Venice, Italy we have a traditional manual pasta machine called Bigolaro that resembles a bit the one you posted, but the handle is much larger, hence easier to turn: you should use a metal pipe (on each side) to make your work easier!


Home made pickled peppers without sodium - botulism risk?

As Lorel C mentioned in the comments, botulinum clostridium won't grow in acidic environments. It also won't grow in cold environments. You've got the peppers in vinegar and in the refrigerator. I think you're good.

Even with the peppers being fairly warm when refrigerated— it's always a good idea to let things cool in the open air before putting them into sealed containers in the refrigerator because even under refrigeration they'll take much longer to cool in a sealed container— adding a bunch of acid and storing the jar in the refrigerator reduces the risk to pretty much nothing.

You primarily have to worry about botulism when you've got things in an anaerobic environment (e.g. covered in oil, or honey, or vacuum sealed, or in a package filled with some other sort of gas, or packed into sausage casings) between 3C/37F and 50C/122F, with a PH above 4.6. Garlic and onions are more likely to have spores on them because the spores are very common in the soil of many places where garlic and onions are grown.

In the famous case where a man was poisoned with botulism toxin when eating a home-pickled egg, they determined the source of contamination was a toothpick which he used to poke a hole in the eggs— a commonly-used (and likely ineffective) method to get the brine to penetrate pickled eggs more thoroughly. The spores entered the egg via the toothpick, the hole in the egg was an anaerobic environment suitable for the bacteria to grow, and he stored them at room temperature. Had he simply stored them in the refrigerator, the spores would have remained dormant, he could have eaten his tasty eggs, and he would have been alive to tell us how tasty they were.

If you want to nerd out on this for a hot second, here is an article that discusses bacterial growth as it relates to food production and storage.


What can I do with 500 ml of demi glace?

You can make some very good sauces, based on demi-glace.

Bordelaise (if you add chopped shallots, red wine and a bit of marrow) (eat it with grilled beef, steak or pork)
Robert (if you add chopped onions, vinegar and white wine, and a bit of mustard) (fits very well with grilled pork)
Zingara (chop ham, mushrooms and truffle into tiny pieces) (You can mix this with tomato sauce and it goes well with beef tongue)

If you want to use demi-glace as it is, it fits very well with pork chops or lamb, hogget, or mutton.


Does using dark corn syrup instead of light affect the white color I usually get making fondant?

Yes, it will make it darker and more brown than white. It may also affect any colours you add, adding a slight brown tinge to them.


You do need to soak the beans unfortunately, you are not going to get good results without soaking them. There's really no substitute for adzuki beans which would work well in this recipe, I'd go for another type of filling.

Choux pastry (ie the puff) can be baked ahead of time but is best fresh as it gets soggy easily.You could make the pastry cream the night before, just remember to get it out of the fridge a good half hour or more before piping so it loosens up. If you absolutely have to make everything the night before don't pipe until the morning as your pastry will be very soggy by the time they are eaten.


I did it a few times and it worked great! My artichoke plant makes rather small artichokes, so I put one stem down in a teacup in the bottom of the distiller. I filled the distiller with 1-2 cups of water, estimating that would get me enough cooking time to cook that size artichoke. After it distilled that water and automatically shutoff, I waited until it was cool, opened it up, and found my nicely cooked artichoke. :)

For a larger artichoke I might try to find a metal stand of some sort and lay the artichoke on its side.

Yes, artichokes produce a smell when being steamed. Will this adversely affect the innards of the distiller? I'm  no chemistry expert, but I kind of doubt it, hence my willingness to try this experiment. Probably it is a volatile gas, not a solid, that gets absorbed by the distiller's carbon filter with the rest of the volatile gases in the water. Solids should remain in the distiller's "tank" with the rest of the crud and scale that builds up like normal.

So in the end, if you're living by yourself in a small space, just want to steam one artichoke at a time, and don't want to waste space with a regular steam cooker, this seems like a good alternative. Plus, you get to keep humidity down and get clean drinking water to boot.


Historical recipe for cake before refined sugar

See Food Timeline, which explains that historically, the closet thing to cake was more an enriched, sweetened bread, enhanced with honey, perhaps with fruits or nuts added.  They would have been closer to what we think of as fruitcake.

According to them, the precursors to modern cakes came about due to more reliable ovens, and the availability of refined sugar.  They were baked in a ring or hoop, and covered with a boiled sugar icing.

Truly modern cakes did not emerge until baking powder became available:

  It was not until the middle of the 19th century that cake as we know
  it today (made with extra refined white flour and baking powder
  instead of yeast) arrived on the scene. A brief history of baking
  powder. The Cassell's New Universal Cookery Book [London, 1894]
  contains a recipe for layer cake, American (p. 1031). Butter-cream
  frostings (using butter, cream, confectioners [powdered] sugar and
  flavorings) began replacing traditional boiled icings in first few
  decades 20th century. In France, Antonin Careme [1784-1833] is
  considered THE premier historic chef of the modern pastry/cake world.
  You will find references to him in French culinary history books.

I was not able to easily find historical recipe for very old precursors to cakes.

Still, the archive of The Old Foodie includes a recipe it indicates is circa 1769, which is in the refined sugar era, representing one of the early transitional recipes:

  Gateaux d’Amandes. Almond Cake.

  Take half a Pound of Flour, half a
  Pound of pounded sweet Almonds, and five or six bitter with it, half a
  Pound of Sugar, six Eggs, and work it well all together; form it into
  a Cake; bake it on a sheet of Paper, well buttered; when cold, glaze
  it with a white Sugar-glaze: another Method for the same Sorts of
  Cakes; bake it in a Mould, or Baking-hoop; pound a Pound of sweet
  Almonds very fine, and one Dozen of bitter ditto, putting Whites of
  Eggs, to hinder them from turning to Oil; then put to it half a Pound
  of fine Sugar-powder by Degrees, two whole Eggs, Lemon-peel, finely
  chopped or rasped; when this is properly mixed, add eight Eggs, the
  Yolks and Whites first beat up separately; stir it, and mix it all
  properly; and pour it in the Mould, to bake about an Hour: serve in
  its natural Colour.


Placing a pizza stone directly on a burner will likely lead to cracking. If you are limited to stove-top cooking, there are two routes that you might use to make pizza.

First option, steal some of the techniques used for making grilled pizza:

Preheat a large skillet medium-high with its lid in place.
Cook the crust on one side, flip it over, then place the toppings while the second side cooks.
Cover the pizza after it has been topped.

Second option, use (or improvise) a dutch oven:

Preheat a large cast iron skillet or dutch oven over medium-high either with its lid
in place, or heat the lid on a separate burner.
Stretch the dough inside a pie tin and up it's sides.
Top with sauce, cheese, pepperoni, etc.
Place 4 wads of aluminum foil in dutch oven to raise pie
tin off bottom.
Set pizza in dutch oven and cook.

In either case you will be limited to making fairly small pizzas.
Keep your crust relatively thin.  A thick crust is going to burn before it is fully cooked inside.  It may also be beneficial to pre-cook as many of your toppings as possible prior to placing them on the pizza.


My best guess would be what Stephie already hinted at: "1 vanilla sugar" means "one sachet of vanilla sugar". I have seen these in different European countries, and they normally contain the "standard" amount of synthetic vanillin to flavor a recipe of up to 500 g of flour, and just a little bit of sugar, not to make it sweet, but to make it easier to handle, because that amount of pure synthetic vanillin is so small, you'd have trouble getting it all out of a sachet if it were there by itself.

You can recognize that this is the case if your recipe calls for what seems like a normal amount of sugar, and separately says "1 vanilla sugar". If this is it, you don't need to add sugar at all. Just take vanilla extract (or whatever your preferred form of vanilla flavoring) and add an amount which seems appropriate to you for the batch size you are making. Your main flavors are apple and strawberry, so if in doubt, stay on the low side and add a bit less vanilla.

The order of mixing can change as well. Vanilla sugar is added with the dry ingredients, but if you are using a liquid form of vanilla, it goes into the wet ingredients. If you want a vanilla bean, the best thing to do is to boil the seeds in one of the liquids (usually milk, if your recipe has it), then cool it down to room temperature. If you add them unboiled, they don't really release the flavor.

"Vanilla sugar" can also have another meaning. Sometimes people leave vanilla pods in a container of sugar for months and then use this subtly flavored sugar as the main sugar in the baked good. If this is the case, then the recipe needs to specify exactly how much sugar is needed, there is no good way to guess. As this kind of vanilla sugar does not come in packages but is made at home in whatever amount you want, "1 vanilla sugar" makes no sense in this context, and you should assume that whoever wrote down the recipe forgot to add the unit.

You can recognize this if you either have no other sugar in the recipe, or have a sugar alternative (such as corn syrup) in what looks like a low amount for the recipe. If this happened, the best thing is to throw out this recipe and choose one of the hundreds of other crumble recipes floating around the Internet. Re-engineering a faulty recipe to a decent state is hard to do and requires trial and error, so it's normally not worth the effort.

If you are sure you need this type of vanilla sugar and are very determined to try this recipe, the best way to go is to try it out with the most common unit in the recipe's culture and see if it works. In a US recipe, this would be one cup of sugar plus as much vanilla as you think is suitable for the recipe. Here you'll have to rely on baking experience, and depending on the recipe source and having worked with similar recipes before, see which unit is likely to have been meant.


How is plant based chicken and bacon made using soya and pea protein?

Those are probably trade secrets (beyond meat ans others...)
There are many recipes/youtube videos out there showing how to make it at home.
I assume industrial plant based meat producers are doing the same but optimized for high yield (and consistency)
for example, this one show how to make "chicken"


Is it safe to boil water in a microwave?

There is one very different issue to be kept in mind - water in a microwave can overheat and "explode" once it is disturbed.

Another poster had exactly this problem a short while ago: Water exploded in Microwave

So follow the usual precautions, e.g. putting a  wooden toothpick or a small, very clean stone (chemists have them in their labs) in your vessel. In a pinch, a spoon will do, but not all microwaves handle metal objects well.

If you are worried that heating your water in a microwave might not be sufficient to kill all "nasties", remember that killing bacteria is a function of time and temperature, so you might feel safer if you not only bring your water to a boil, but continue boiling it for another minute or so. I would assume that this is mostly for your psychological benefit, but it certainly won't hurt. The temperature reached is identical for different heating devices as physics dictates the boiling point of water and it can't exceed that as long as it's liquid.


What kind of flour is needed for strudel/fillo dough?

Your best bet is a stone ground bread flour or hard flour in the US that means finding a local mill. At your standard supermarket a high protein bread flour is your only option if you can find it there. I generally have to venture out to a Whole Foods market to find that as my "local" grocery store doesn't carry it. You could also try Tipo 00, I have run across it in some specialty stores. You are looking for the highest gluten content you can find so that you can get the elasticity you need to make proper strudel.


What can I do about peeling wok seasoning?

The most likely problem is that you let oil pool in the bottom of the wok during seasoning, so it didn't polymerize properly.  Personally, I would scrub that portion off, and reseason only the bottom, using this method:

Heat the wok to smoking hot.
Turn off the heat, and immediately polish with a lightly oiled cloth or paper towel.
Turn it upside down to cool (this prevents oil pooling at the bottom).

A second possibility is that you cooked something very wet, and maybe acidic as well, in the bottom of the wok while the seasoning was still fairly new.  Again, the answer is to scrub off the damaged portion and reseason it.
Some relevant links for general care of carbon steel woks:

Patina burning off
When to redo seasoning
Serious Eats wok seasoning

Overall, don't worry about it too much; I find that I mess up the seasoning in my wok (usually due to too much steaming) at least once a year and re-do it.  As long as you don't scratch up the metal (use a bamboo or plastic scrubby), you can rescue your wok from any kind of seasoning problem.


Onigiri (rice balls) can be frozen; that's probably your best bet for long-term storage. They can be simply tossed into the fridge the night before consumption for defrosting, or you can microwave them using the defrost setting if you have microwave-safe plastic wrap. The rice gets dried out pretty fast if you try to store them without freezing them. Note that if you want to wrap nori (dried seaweed) around them, you should do so moments before consuming, as the nori gets soggy REALLY fast even on a fresh onigiri, and crispy nori is much tastier :)

You mention a "weird consistency", but I'm not sure what you mean by this. If it's the filling getting rubbery, that'll be the microwave; try the fridge-defrost method instead. If the rice is drying out, you need to freeze them faster or wrap them more tightly.

I don't know about the recipe, but if you have a lot of sauce left over, have you tried using it as a dipping sauce, either for the filled onigiri or for some plain-rice onigiri?


A (somewhat south) Vietnamese not currently in Vietnam chiming in ^^ :

Apart from some exceptions (like cà phê sữa đá) I have the impression that there are no traditional ice-cold Vietnamese dishes whatsoever (I'd even dare to say that almost all desserts are eaten warm or at least at "room temperature" at 36°C / 96°F). Maybe it's just due to the non-availability of ice and constant power outrages that lead to cozy 20°C / 68°F in the freezer. What I've also observed is my Vietnamese relatives in Vietnam always want to have their tender herbs / lettuce / mung bean sprouts blanched and served immediately. The reasons are omnipresent nasty pathogens.

(Don't ask me how they eat their bún chả or bánh xèo with lettuce without getting belly-ache. Perhaps it's all about mitigating risk but not completely avoiding it at all costs.)

To answer the question: Probably no. At least not traditional phở.


How do you prevent oatmeal from overflowing?

A bigger container is definitely the 'instant' solution.

I've never hear of fruit preventing overflow.  I'd guess the theory there is that it has something to do with the fruit interfering with the bubble to prevent them from forming...but I'd doubt it without A LOT of fruit.

Generally I've done two methods:

Reduce the power and increase the cooking time.  Cut the power by 30% or so and increase the cooking time, this seems to prevent as much of a rapid boil and alleviates the problem.
Determine the time right before it starts to boil over, cut power off, cover it tightly and just let coast the rest of the way.  This is particularly effective if you're cooking in a  vessel with good thermal retention.


It strikes me that it would be a bit overpowering, and that even with a binder you would have a hard time keeping it together. Cured ground beef just seems like it would be nasty :-)

I've experimented myself with two 'inclusions' in fresh beef patties. One is bacon (cooked), the other is salami. They are both interesting, and if minced finely and added to the grind they do not interfere with texture but add some excellent flavors and saltiness.

I would imagine pastrami would give you a nice result as an inclusion too. I'd chop it up and mix it in with the cubed up beef before you run it through the grinder.

With burgers really the fresher the better. I grind about 2 hours before grill time, and that is only so I can throw the patties into the freezer. I like them thin and cooked through, so I need to freeze them so they hold their shape better during the first side cooking. If you like your burgers to have some pink you'll probably want to skip the freezer.


How to store cooked Quinoa for few hours at work?

You should always try to first bring hot quinoa to room temperature and follow the rest which you already mentioned. That works great, else if you try to pack it when it like burning hot, then the steam kind of stays in the packed room which later creates moisture and later spoils the food even though you keep it in the refrigerator.

Best worked for me is by cooking quinoa in the night. Now I have lot of time to bring it to room temperature followed by pack it, store it and use it.


If you try to use a dry method (don't add water to the syrup when you heat it back up), you will likely get a very uneven heating and risk ruining the syrup. If you use a wet method (add water and let it evaporate), you will spend as much effort and time on the coating day as on making it from scratch, so your preparation would be superfluous.

So, while in principle it could be made to work, it is easier and quicker to not do it. Just do it the normal way.


What is the Key Difference Between Nougat and Meringue?

The basic difference is consistency: meringue tends to be lighter, airier, and drier, while nougat is more chewy.

This is achieved by different ratios of sugar to egg whites. Nougat has significantly more sugar in proportion to egg whites. (Compare this nougat recipe, ~4 cups sugar/honey to four egg whites, and this meringue recipe, 1/4 cup sugar to four egg whites.)


The rule around here is when in doubt, throw it out.

That said, personally, I doubt there is any issue, especially if only healthy people are eating it.  I've never heard of an age-related problem with cakes and breads other than mold which would be visible, or rancidity when the fats spoil from age which you can both smell and taste easily.


Can I freeze bread dough after the first rising?

Yes, you absolutely can - this is the common way to freeze dough, actually.  It's better to freeze after the first rise.  Often the second rise will be done in the refrigerator along with thawing; and most of the recipes I've seen skip a third rise (so you freeze the dough shaped, and you're rising in shaped form alongside thawing plus a warming stage while you preheat the oven).

See for example this guide to freezing different doughs; or King Arthur Flour's article on the subject.


How do I make Vietnamese Yogurt more tart?

First, the tangness of yogurt depends on the culture, and somewhat on the temperature of incubation. Lactobacillus bulgaricus will give you a tangier yogurt than streptoci or bifidi-based cultures. So buy a lactobacilicus culture (either the pure culture or the yogurt made with it) and use it as your culture. Then make sure to incubate at the proper temperature (which is 43-46 for lactobacillus bulgaricus). If that's not tangy enough for you, leave the incubated yogurt one night at room temperature before putting it in the fridge.

Second, sweetness and sourness are an unusual pair of tastes in that they inhibit each other. I have not had vietnamese yogurt, but the Internet tells me it uses sugar. So consider reducing the sugar in order to get more of a sour taste when you eat it.


You can do it either way, but I typically go for convenience.  Remove protein from water bath. Leave in bag. Allow to rest on counter for 15 - 20 minutes. Chill in ice bath.  Refrigerate or freeze. I deal with the contents of the bag at the end.


How can I prevent the odor in my dishwasher?

Try throwing some baking soda and lemon juice in it and run an empty load without soap. Repeat as needed.

I'd try about half a normal sized box of baking soda and half to a whole cup of lemon juice.


What is a cheap but good cut of beef for grilling?

I've had great results with flank steak.

Best to marinate it with a mix of salt, sugar/honey,  vinegar/lemon/lime, water/whiskey/tequila/soda, olive oil, spices, and herbs for at least a few hours before grilling. More salt will help tenderize but can't be left too long at too high concentrations (search "brining").

Don't overcook it, of course, that's the quickest way to make it chewy (unless you're going to cook it on low heat for several hours). Then let it rest before eating.

For flank steak, cut it across the grain.  If you look closely the meat has fibers which run parallel to eachother in only one north-south direction.  Cut across this, severing many lines with your slice.  It severs the connective tissues before chewing, doing a lot of the work with the knife rather than your teeth.


Cream cheese frosting split. Is it still safe for consumption?

Assuming it split while mixing, and all of the ingredients were fresh individually, yes it is safe.  You can use it, although it may be unsightly.


Some of the situation depends on how dry the climate you live in is (and how dry your house is). The temps suggested sound OK, if you are in a hurry.  If you don't live in a really humid climate, you could probably just shell the beans, and then dry them in a single layer on a sheet pan over a few days, giving them a stir, to flip the beans over, and redistribute the moist sides vs. drier sides.  How long it would take depends a lot on how warm and how humid your air is.  You could also try using a dehydrator, which uses a fan to speed the process up.


Bad tasting mussels and avoiding buying them

Always check that most of the mussels are alive when you buy them.

Check that the shells are not broken, and that they are wet.

At your house, throw away all the dead mussels and process as soon as possible.

Cook (steam) as fast and as furious as you can for no more than two minutes. At that point, the mussels should have opened and nearly done.

Overcooking can produce a rubbery texture and spoil the taste.


What variety of shrimp paste should I use for Brazilian Vatapa?

Asian shrimp paste is fermented and very strong and salty — I don't think it's going to give you the same kind of flavor as dried shrimp at all.


When braising, how deep should I fill a single pot?

If you are simmering, boiling or poaching something, the depth does not matter. As long as your food is completely immersed in liquid, all the liquid has a sufficiently regular temperature due to convection, and it cooks well. So the stews you mention are no problem, you can fill the pot up to the brim.

Braising is a different beast entirely. In braising, you want the liquid to reach to the half of the food or a bit lower. Obviously, you can't do that if you stack your food. When you braise, the heat penetrates into the meat from all sides, but much quicker from below than from the sides (which are only steamed). The upper half still gets done early enough because of heat conducted from the hot bottom half. If you put a piece of meat on top of the first layer, 1) a much larger height (100% of it) is getting heated by steam only, not liquid, 2) the boundary between the two pieces of meat slows down conduction considerably, and 3) the heat which gets transferred bottom-up is much lower, as it is in contact with a piece of meat and not the pan bottom. So, a piece of meat on top will get much later to the desired temperature.

You can get away with it, if you are not after perfection and if you are cooking for long enough for both layers to cook through, but the degree of tenderness will still vary within the stew. So, if you are braising large chunks of meat or vegetables, do a single layer only.

If you are cooking a rice dish, or something with finely diced ingredients, it is again OK to make it deep, even if you are not covering them in liquid. In this case, you'll want to stir them a few times during the cooking. Don't stand there stirring all the time, it's counterproductive. Do it 2-3 times during the whole cook, but do it thoroughly, exchanging the "layers" as good as you can.


My yeast recipies seem to harden somewhat after baking

Using a dough hook versus hand-kneading won't make your bread harden after baking. If your rolls are hardening then you have either overcooked them, or there's not enough water in the dough. This can happen for several reasons:

The recipe doesn't call for enough water. Use a different recipe or add a bit more water to the one you have
The flour your are using is a higher protein content than the recipe is designed for. Gluten is a protein, and higher protein flours use more water. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, gluten makes your bread stretchy. The answer is the same: add more water
You are adding too much flour when kneading. I made this mistake for years! When you put flour on your surface to keep it from sticking you are reducing the moisture content of your dough as you work it in. This can turn a dough dry very quickly. If you want flour to knead with then reserve some of the recipe flour, but don't use more. Some doughs are meant to be sticky. If you want to keep it from sticking knead with oil instead. Personally, I let the dough stick and use that stickiness to stretch the glutens, it makes for faster kneading that way


Cookbooks describe the state as "smooth and elastic" I think this is a reasonable description.

When the dough is first mixed it is very wet and sticky. As it is mixed you can see a lot of clumps and heterogeneous textures.

As the proteins in the flour mix with water they form gluten and the kneading folds the elastic gluten over itself again and again making sheets. The dough becomes less sticky and wet and more springy. The texture becomes completely homogeneous.

Kneading by hand it is impossible to over knead this type of dough. I have read that it is possible to over knead in a machine. In this case, supposedly, the protein sheets eventually rip up enough that you lost what you created and the dough reverts. I have kneaded in a machine for a long time and never personally seen this effect.


Subsitutions for Monterey Jack cheese in the UK

Monterey Jack is in no way cheddar.  The advice to use Gouda was about as good as you can get. (make sure it is neither smoked nor aged).  Sainsbury has a four cheese pre-shred mix with MJ, Aged Cheddar, Edam and mozz that will approximate those four cheese mixes found in most US grocery stores and the finer 7-Elevens but MJ itself is near impossible find.


It won't go unsafe if it's refrigerated or frozen, but it might pick up off flavors or turn rancid eventually. You can probably use it for 6 months if it's well-sealed and not exposed to air.


Gluten-free replacement to coat something with before roasting, to obtain crust

Rice flour should work well for this; it produces very crispy crusts.


How much white chocolate should I use in a white chocolate cake?

Looking at your recipe, there's not enough butter or eggs for the amount of flour and sugar. I'm saying this because I'm assuming the the oz measurements are weights. You could also increase the amount of white chocolate to 6 oz.

Since white chocolate doesn't have much of a presence in a cake - the primary flavour is vanilla - you may want to make a good white or yellow cake and save the white chocolate for a spectacular icing.


How can I get a more homogenous Bavarian cream?

Pinapple + gelatin should raise red flags.

Pineapple contains bromelain, a protease enzyme similar to papain in papayas. This enzyme when active will prevent gelatin from gelling. Heat will deactivate that enzyme. Canned pineapple is usually cooked enough that it isn't a problem.

If you are using fresh pineapple (or suspect your canned pineapple wasn't cooked enough) you should cook it to at least 65C to ensure that it doesn't eat your gelatin.

Protein-devouring-pineapples aside...

The gelatin mixture is going to be much denser than the whipped cream. The pineapples will be even denser than that. In order for the two liquids to stay mixed they will have to be well gelled. Make sure the gelatin mixture has cooled enough to be very viscous. When adding the whipped cream you should fold (even though the recipe doesn't say to).

To keep the pineapples from sinking you should cut them into smaller pieces. Additionally, you might let the mixture partially set before folding in the pineapple.


I would think this is happening because your cream is just about to turn sour.

As cream ages, lactic acid builds up in it.  The acidity in your coffee is enough at that point to push the cream over the edge to curdling.

Try newer cream or a very low-acid coffee with old cream and you should be OK.


Can one be "taste blind" to the sweetness of stevia?

There's some variation in how people respond to Stevia:

From 2013: Multiple genes manage how people taste sweeteners

  another study recently published in the journal Chemosensory Perception, Allen had 122 participants taste two stevia extracts, RebA -- Rebaudioside A -- and RebD -- Rebaudioside D. Stevia is a South American plant that has served as a sweetener for centuries, according to the researchers. While the plant is becoming more popular as a natural non-nutritive sweetener, consumers have reported a variety of tastes from stevia-based sweeteners, including bitterness.

No mention of people not tasting the sweet at all, but it is a big gene pool.
In me, the stuff is a slow,tight binder. It takes a while for the sweet to come on once I've eaten the stevia, and it takes a minute or two for the sweet to wear off after I've had it.


Why does my olive oil smoke/burn when I fry with it?

You're heating the oil past its smoke point.

There is no trick or technique that will prevent oil from smoking and oxidizing ("burning") at temperatures above the smoke point. It is literally being slowly destroyed at that temperature.

I honestly don't know why TV chefs are so attached to the idea of cooking with olive oil when most serious attempts to compare it to other oils (for frying purposes) strongly indicate that it loses all or almost all of its unique taste by the end. Some cite dubious health benefits, but the low smoke point of virgin/extra virgin olive oil may also make it worse for you health-wise due to exactly what you've witnessed - smoke and oxidation.

EVOO is great as a dressing but it's a terrible choice as a cooking oil. If you absolutely must imitate these confused TV chefs, you can either fry at very low temperatures (as in, just barely a sizzle), which will take considerably more time, or used a refined (not virgin) olive oil which has a much higher smoke point. These would typically be the "cheap" olive oils you find in large plastic or metal containers.


Well, sautéing within itself is the process of frying in hot oil. So I'm not sure how you would actually sauté potatoes in hot oil without actually frying them.

If your potatoes are sticking to the bottom of the pan, then you're not using enough oil to fry them in.

It's difficult to give you any specific advice on this without actually knowing what what you're trying to make and what you're trying to achieve, what the next stage of the recipe is or how the potatoes are meant to be treated.

Do you liquidise this into a soup or are the potatoes meant to float around in the soup whole?

Here's a couple of thoughts on how you might get round this -

Sauté them in a non-stick pan. You won't find the potatoes will stick so easily in a non-stick pan. Then add the contents of this into a larger pot to continue your recipe.
Sauté just the carrots and onions in the pot and sauté the potatoes separately and add them later.
Par boil the potatoes, part sauté the onions and carrots and add the par boiled potatoes to the pan with the onions and carrots to sauté the potatoes before they have a chance to stick to the bottom of the pan.


Can I make bone broth with bones without marrow?

What you're proposing is similar to 'remouillage' ('rewetting'; sometimes called 'second stock').  It's a stock made from bones that have already been used to make stock.

It may not be quite as flavorful as you'd get from your first stock, but in your case, you haven't made stock with it, so any water-soluble bits that haven't been removed would still be on/in the bones.  And if the bones were roasted, they'll have extra flavor from the browning of the bits of flesh that can remain on the bones.

You'll also still get flavors from any vegetables you might use, so you can make a beef/vegetable stock.  Bonus points if they're also things that might have been trash -- parsley stems, the ends of onions, that sad looking pepper that you found in the back of your fridge, etc.  Growing up, my mom would keep a bag in the freezer of such things, and when she had a carcass, she'd toss it all in the pot and let simmer.**

This second stock can then be used in case where you might not want the full strength stock, but as you found, you can also reduce it to intensify the flavors (but if you do that, go light on the salt)

** She'd also make seafood stock from crab shells (including legs), or shrimp shells, tails and heads; her mother grew up in the Great Depression, and you learn to be frugal.


What can I do to help prevent flatulence from beans?

In fact, soaking helps reduce the flatulence-causing sugars and starches. See this answer, for example. Soaking alone won't completely neutralize the problem, though. Certain spices may help; according to Wikipedia:

  Many herbal substances have been observered since antiquity for reducing flatulence, particularly gas from eating legumes. Cloves, cinnamon, and garlic are potent in reducing gas. The potency of garlic increases when heated, whereas the potency of cinnamon decreases. Other spices have a smaller effect in reducing gas, including turmeric, black pepper, asafoetida and ginger.

Another possibility is to take an enzyme supplement like beano to break down the starches before they get to the large intestine. See Wikipedia for more info.


Lemon juice as drinking water preservative

This is more likely to introduce organic matter (the lemon cuts) that can induce spoilage than prevent it... common experience shows that food that has "some lemon juice" added (and the amount you are suggesting is in the same order of magnitude) is not significantly preserved by that, so we can assume the acid (which would be the preserving factor) is far too diluted in that mixture to keep either the water or the lemons from spoiling. Also, lemons as bought from a store or vegetable stand are far too widely variable in their acid content to make any statement on chemical potency - the only remotely safe way to preserve anything via the acid from natural produce would be to educate yourself on the suitable pH range, then after each preparation take a sample and examine it with a pH measuring device (pH meter, indicating paper - do not dip such devices directly into anything that still gets served as food or drink!).


If you're cooking store-bought frozen food (a pot pie for instance) and you thaw it first, following the cooking instructions on the package will lead to over-cooking, burnt crust, and a dry meal. The instructions are predicated on direct from freezer to oven and you must adjust accordingly.


What is the temperature range for food not to burn your mouth?

I made myself some spicy chicken and macaroni soup, and put it in a bowl while it was still boiling. I put a thermometer in it as it cooled and I started to eat. I figured the soup was a good thing to test as I could take big bites that included liquid and solids that required chewing.
I took a bite every minute or so and noted the temperature, and I repeated with boiling soup after it had reached "too cool to enjoy".
At temperatures over 190F (87.8C) I couldn't put it in my mouth without giving it time to cool on the spoon and "blowing on it".
At 180F (82.2C) I was still "blowing on it", but not in an unpleasant way for the first bites of soup. I would consider that to be the optimum serving temperature for this kind of soup (see quote concerning Chinese noodle soup below).
At 170F (76.7C) I could put the bite straight into my mouth without pausing or "blowing on it" but it was still a bit hot, if I were eating without paying attention to the temperature, I would have "blown on it"
At 160F (71.1C) I can and did eat comfortably. It was just pleasantly hot.
At 150F (65.5C) it was still pleasantly hot.
At 145F (62.7C) It was still quite warm, pleasant for soup.
At 140F (60C) it was still fine, but not hot at all.
At 135F (57.2C) it was still OK, but definitely getting on the cool side for soup.
At 130F (54.4C) I was glad to be almost done.
At 125F (51.7C) I was thinking seriously about the microwave.
At 120F (48.9C) It was too cool to enjoy this particular soup.
Obviously, different foods are going to have different optimal temperatures. I wouldn't want steak to have ever hit over 130F (45.4C).
Also, consider that I have been cooking for 35 years. I am accustomed to sticking a spoon into something boiling on the stove in order to taste it.
Consider too that there is (at least there is for me) something fun and vaguely comforting about soup that's still a bit too hot to eat. Some of us blow on it, noodles are often slurped for that reason:

Slurping is de rigueur among the Chinese, for practical reasons. “It’s a way of introducing cool air into your mouth to cool off the noodles and the broth if it’s a noodle soup. … Chinese food is generally served hot, often served piping hot.” -Chow.com

So, I don't think there is really such a thing as too hot to serve soup to "consenting adults".
Other types of food are cooled or rested before serving for other reasons. Meat should always be rested to allow the fibers to relax so that the juices stay in the meat instead of running all over the plate. Cheesy things like pizza are easier to cut and serve after they have cooled a bit. Some things are just (subjectively) better after cooling (I prefer fried chicken barely warm, for instance).
So, that's my $.02 on the subject, the answer of "best temperature" is largely subjective.


If you google "vegan fondant recipe", you will find a number of recipes for fondant which do not use gelatin.

In general, they use agar agar in lieu of gelatin (most seem to use flaked agar agar substituted one to one by volume for gelatin powder), and include glycerin as an anti-cracking agent.  Most seem also to use some hydrogenated vegetable shortening.

While it is possible that a cornstarch gel might be effective, I have not tried this, and none of the references I could find mentioned it—they all seem to use agar agar.

. . .

If you are not averse to a commercial product, the Satin Ice prepared fondant is certified kosher pareve, and vegan, and so contains no animal products.  There may be acceptable commercial products, but this one came up several times in my research.


Does washing kimchi with water reduce the sodium content much?

Answer depends on how the kim chi is made.

I make it using a variant on this recipe.
The protocol there is to treat the leaves with a salty brine for 4 hours, then rinse them extensively.

No further salt is added in the recipe, so any salt in the final product will have osmosed into the leaves. Most of that salt won't come back out except with a prolonged soak*.

I've seen other kim chi recipes that do involve adding back salt after the initial brining and rinse. The sodium content of those could be reduced with a quick rinse, but you'll likely lose flavor too.

Juices in with the kim chi are likely at euilibrium with sodium in the leaves, so simply pressing the stuff lightly to remove as much juice as possible might be the best way to limit sodium without sacrificing too much flavor.


What to do with layer of fat on pork spareribs?

Seems like you get the importance of the fat rendering but still want the spice rub on the meat. I would trim the skin and fat off in one piece, if possible, using a very sharp filet knife. (A small amount of fat left on the meat is okay.)

Then rub your spice mix over all sides of the meat. Place the fat cap back on the meat where you removed it. On the top of the skin/fat season with salt or your spice rub and go to cooking.

The fat will render and you should still end up with well seasoned, moist, tender ribs. Bonus, you should get a well seasoned crispy skin. If the skin doesn't crisp enough with the cooking method, you can remove the fat cap when the ribs are done and place it on a pan under the broiler to finish the crisping.


Bread and butter pudding - but with juice?

Yes, you can use fruit juice instead of some or all of the milk in bread pudding. As Juhasz points out, whether or not the result will "really" be bread pudding is open to debate.
Since bread pudding is basically bread + custard, I looked up recipes for custard made with fruit juice and no milk. There are some custards made with fruit juice substituted for some of the milk. For example, Soft Orange Custard is butter, sugar, eggs, flour, salt, orange juice, lemon juice, orange zest and milk.
I found one juice-only custard in Joy of Cooking by Rombauer, Becker & Becker, 2006 edition. The recipe is Lemon-Orange Custard Filling; ingredients are lemon & orange zest, lemon & orange juice, water, sugar, flour, salt, and egg yolks or eggs. Most other custard-like fillings or sauces made with only fruit juice are thickened with cornstarch, like a pudding. Curd (lemon, lime or orange curd) is a custard-like filling or spread, made with citrus juice and no milk.
The custard in bread pudding is usually thickened with eggs, but there are some recipes that use cornstarch. Fruit juice might substitute well into one of those recipes. There are even recipes that don't use any kind of thickener. The basic idea of bread pudding is quite simple, and fairly flexible.
I substituted apple cider for the milk in my regular bread pudding recipe. I also reduced the sugar to compensate for the sweetness of the cider, and omitted vanilla extract and nutmeg. It was delicious. The flavor of the cider worked well with the flavors of cinnamon and raisin. But, the texture was not quite right. My guess is that the missing elements are some protein and fat from the milk, and that could be made up by adding more eggs and butter. I will definitely make this again, with some modifications. Here's the recipe I made, with suggested modifications at the end; the original is from Joy of Cooking.
Apple Cider Bread Pudding
------------------------

16 oz sliced bread, stale but not hard (I used fresh bread, lightly toasted)
3/4 cup raisins
4 eggs
3 cups apple cider (the original recipe calls for whole milk)
1/4 cup sugar (the original recipe calls for 3/4 cup sugar)
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
butter

Butter a 2-quart baking dish. Cut the bread into 1/2-inch cubes.
Spread the bread and raisins in the baking dish.
Whisk together the other ingredients and pour over the bread.
Let sit until liquid is mostly absorbed, 10-20 minutes.
Place the baking dish in a hot water bath, and bake at 350 F for about an hour.

Suggested modifications: Add a couple of extra eggs and some melted butter to
compensate for the missing fat and creaminess that the milk would have provided.
Increase the cinnamon to 1 tsp, or even 1-1/2 tsp.
Possibly add back the 1 tsp vanilla and/or the 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg from the original recipe.


Best-before dates aren't the same as use-by dates. Whilst you shouldn't consume a product after it's use-by date, best-before dates are more about quality than safety. Basically, after the best-before date, the product may start to deteriorate in terms of flavour, but that doesn't mean you can't still eat it.

I'd expect that the salt content of Vegemite would keep it sound for a long time. I've certainly had half-eaten jars of Marmite (sorry, I'm a Marmite guy, not Vegemite) kicking around in the pantry for way longer than they ought, and they've been just fine.

Butter and breadcrumbs from the knife may well develop mould if they're left in the jar for a while, but that would normally just be on the surface and easily removed. Much better to remove crumbs before they get to that stage - or, easier, just use a clean knife.


Throw it out.

Tofu has a very short life. Once opened it can last up to 5 days in the refrigerator, but only if you store it submerged in water, and change it daily.

See also: http://stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/18509


Why do you need to wrap containers of brined meat?

It helps prevent contamination from outside sources. You don't want nasties in your brine anymore than you do in your fresh salad.


I don't think it is really possible to name exact times. It depends on the age and toughness of the particular batch of vegetables, how thick they are and how you've cut them. The way I do this is to make my initial judgement based on color change, and then start poking at them with a cake tester every 30 seconds or so until they reach the perfect degree of tenderness, then shock them in a bath with plenty of ice immediately.


In Halwa, Milk tea, cake, Indian sweets, and Custard can white sugar be replaced with Jaggery?

Of course you can use jaggery in all of these recipes or in any recipe in lieu of sugar, but like all substitutions, they may not be perfect or one to one.  The outcome and flavor profile will be slightly different.

Consider what jaggery is made of (per the infamous wikipedia):

Up to 50% sucrose
up to 20% invert sugars
moisture content of up to 20%
remainder made up of other insoluble matter such as wood ash, proteins and bagasse fibers

The parts that are not sucrose are the parts that are interesting.  How will they affect your recipe?  What adjustments should you make?

Invert sugars taste sweet, but are even more hydrophyllic than sucrose, and interfere with crystal formation of the sucrose.   This may be an advantage or a disadvantage depending on the recipe.   Candies dependant on sugar crystalization will be trickiest to manage.
Moisture means water, you might have to reduce longer or reduce water content elsewhere in the recipe, or it could be a non-issue.
Other content will lead to the unique flavor profile, which may be why you want to use it in the first place

In regards to the specific foods you have mentioned:

Gajar ka halwa -- You would have to adjust the ratios, but no reason it would not work based on how this dessert is described in the wikipedia article
Barfi -- I don't have any personal experience with barfi to know how much it depends on crystalization versus denaturing of the milk proteins for its texture--you would have to experiment.  The descriptions I have read sound like it is more about the milk.
Ready made custard powder -- I don't know what ingredients are in the "ready made custard powder"--the result would certainly be safe.  Assuming the custard powder contains proteins and starch which thicken the custard when you add it to milk or water, then I see no reason why the jaggery should not work, although the result may be somewhat less thickened.
Milk tea - no issues other than the flavor profile
Cake -- with appropriate adjustments (mostly for the water content) it should work fine, except possibly those made by the creaming method

Note that everything I have written is based on the science, and internet descriptions of local food items I am not familiar with.  You should also consult local recipe books, and find variations which use jaggery--or the lack thereof.  That should give you some idea what is common, and how recipes using jaggery vary from those that don't for the same item.


Make lemon balm tea - recommended method

The flavors will be different; try both and see which you prefer. Personally, I love teas made from fresh herbs.
I'd start with, say, 6 fresh leaves in a mug of tea. Roll them and unroll them first to bruise the leaves and release essential oils. Depending on how you like that, adjust up or down next time.
It is in the mint family, it should make a tea somewhat similar in character to mint tea. You should just try it alone first and see. If you decide it needs something else, any of the herbs that go with mint will make sense here too.


Is sous vide better for lean meat or fatty meat?

A big problem with traditional fatty meats such as brisket, pork butt, or such is that Sous Vide temperatures don't get the meat hot enough to render the fat. Lean meats are hard to get tender because of the lack of fat, so Sous Vide is better for lean meat.

I would argue that for things like Brisket and Pork Butt that low and slow without using Sous Vide will always give better results.

For steaks, you can sear after Sous Vide, but just trim the excess fat because it will be easy to get the steak too done if you try to let it render all the fat.


Will soaking chicken in milk hurt the chicken

Soaking chicken in milk or buttermilk in the refrigerator overnight is a common practice when making Southern-style fried chicken.  This practice supposedly tenderizes the chicken through the actions of enzymes naturally present in the milk.  Yoghurt is used in a similar way in many Middle Eastern and southern Asian food ways.

The milk can be used alone, but is often seasoned with onions, garlic, or spices.


Unpeeled garlic cloves in French / Belgian cooking?

Unpeeled onions and garlic help thicken liquids (just a little).  The skins of onions and garlic are at least 10% pectin, the substance that is used to thicken jellies.  If you are making a stock or a soup, you can place the washed unpeeled garlic or onion quarters in an oversized herb sachet.  After cooking you remove the sachet and discard its contents.

The skins have also been found to be rich in antioxidants.  You can read all about the science of garlic and onions in Garlic and Other Alliums.  While it does discuss the antioxidant effects of Alliums in general it does not treat the particular compounds that have been discovered in the skins.


How can you tell if if a meal is thawed?

Aside from simply feeling the package, a thermometer would be the most accurate way to tell.


How to get spices off pan - even after washing

As the coloured component Curcumin is soluble in oils not water it may help to wipe the dry and washed pan with oil. Hopefully the colour  will be absorbed in to that oil rather than into the next dish you cook. You may leave the oil on while the pan is stored and wash that oil off before cooking the next dish.
Turmeric does not seem to stain the plastic (ptfe) of non stick pans but it does result in hard to remove stains on some other plastic utensils, containers and surfaces. Neat household Bleach works to quickly remove such stains on counter surfaces but would not be the first choice to use on a food pan.
Soaking with "Milton" eventually removes stains on plastic containers so may work on Aluminium. I have also seen suggestions that vinegar or lemon juice may work. They are both acidic and could theoretically corrode Aluminium, but I doubt it has a noticeable effect. My sweet and sour source will be acidic as will be Rhubarb but I have not noticed them damaging aluminium cookware.
(Although I do recall a health scare about aluminium leaching in to acid food which may have some scientific backing e.g. )
Links

Milton Steriliser A traditional method of sterilising babies milk bottles etc.

It is actually   based on a very dilute Sodium Hypochlorite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_sterilizing_fluid
And whilst I would not recommend drinking it to cure covid. It does have a history of dilute solutions being used as a mouthwash

14 methods to remove turmeric stains. It may not cover frying pans but may provide useful tips to experiment with


Ideas for using garlic scapes (other than in pesto)?

Personally, I just throw them into stir fries or fried rice (add them near the end of the cooking time). I've also had them slightly stir fried with pea shoots in sesame oil. Simple but delicious.

Tofu666, an amazing vegan blogger, fries them often. Here's a sample:
http://veganmenu.blogspot.com/2007/06/seitan-and-lentil-stew-fritto-misto.html

This page has instructions for pickling them:
http://notwithoutsalt.com/2009/06/18/garlic-scapes/


There are special kinds of food colouring for icings, such as those sold by Wilton.  As a rule, you should use these, not traditional food colouring.

You can use ordinary food colouring but it will be hard to get the colours you want, and your icing will end up being watery/runny.  The icing colours (AKA gel icings) preserve the texture of your icing and, in general, are much more effective at actually getting the right colours.

You should be able to find these at any baking supply store.  There's no special technique, you just mix them.  They are completely fine to use on ready-to-roll icings as well as homemade.


Does having spoiling food in your fridge cause other food to spoil faster?

I'm sure that most of us have, at one point, left some smelly food in the fridge (fish, onions, etc.) and later found that other foods have picked up the odour. Given that, it's a pretty safe bet to say that if some contaminant becomes airborne, it's definitely possible for it to come into contact with other food. So the question then becomes whether or not these spoilage agents can become airborne.
Let's break the problem down into the four major types of spoilage we are presumably concerned with:
1. Ripening ("Rotting")
This is induced by ethylene gas, as discussed in the question: Why does a brown paper bag speed ripening?
If sufficient ethylene gas gets trapped in the fridge - or more likely, in a small compartment of the fridge - then you'll get that same "brown paper bag" effect. If you leave, say, avocados, in the same compartment as a bunch of bananas, and the airflow in and out of the compartment is minimal, then you'll see the avocados ripen and eventually spoil faster than usual.
Note that this would only affect produce which actually ripens in storage, and only when one item produces a lot more ethylene than the other item(s). So while a banana might cause avocados to spoil faster, a bunch of avocados probably wouldn't affect nearby apples very much, and wouldn't affect citrus fruits at all (they don't ripen).
2. Mold
Mold colonies continue to grow spores which eventually become airborne when there's no "room" left for the new spores.
Check out this fun-filled diagram of mold growth stages taken from Envirochex: Mold Growth Requirements. I'd post the image right here, but an animated GIF would be a little distracting.
Anyway, the best way to visualize this is to think of the dandelions you've probably seen outside. Not so much the bright yellow flowers in the summer, but the seedheads (fuzzy gray ones) more common in the fall. Mold colonies look a lot like that on a small scale, and any kind of air current (say from the regular opening and closing of the fridge door) can disperse the loose spores. Even if the fridge is left unattended, its circulation fan is still going to run and that could be enough.
Now, this effect is more likely to be observed if you have everything completely uncovered. Simply being non-airtight certainly makes this transmission possible, but the amount of spores that manage to escape the container and settle on another piece of wet food where they can grow again, is going to be very small if there's anything at all in the way, even just a layer of plastic wrap.
But it could happen. Many canned/bottled foods which clearly could not have started with mold, such as maple syrup, can still end up with mold, and that's because they take in mold from the environment. The more mold is in the environment, the more likely this is to occur.
Even if the mold doesn't manage to inoculate any other foods in your fridge, it's still going to be present in the air, so unless you really like breathing in mold spores, please get rid of anything with more than a 1-inch-thick layer of blue fuzz.
3. Rancidity
Rancidification affects fats, and when not caused by bacteria (see below), is usually caused by oxidation.
Oxidation is (simplifying here) a function of heat, light, and oxygen (or some other oxidizing agent). This is a chemical reaction and not a biological process; since the process of oxidation consumes these things, and does not produce more, food spoilage due to rancidity is not going to affect other nearby foods.
...that is, unless you have other spoiling food that is somehow producing large amounts of light, heat, or oxygen, and if so, forget about cleaning your fridge, you'll want to send it to NASA for further study.
4. Bacteria
Right off the bat we can rule out transmission of any obligate anaerobes like C.botulinum, since those can only grow when there is no oxygen present. That still leaves quite a few pathogens, though, the most notable of which are probably salmonella, E.coli, and C.perfringens, and possibly Campylobacter.
The answer for these is... more complicated. It is technically possible for these bacteria to get airborne, but not by themselves; they need to be carried by something, like dust or aerosols. The exception is Clostridium, which can produce spores, which can become airborne just like mold spores - which is a significant risk with the aerotolerant ones like C.perfringens - but most of the time, the spores won't germinate at cold refrigerator temperatures.
All in all I'd have to say that this is an extremely unlikely occurrence, but any of the following would make bacterial cross-contamination more likely to occur:

Warmer-than-optimal temperature (should be about 4° C)
High humidity (water vapor)
Dust or other particulates

And, as with the mold spores, cross-contamination is much more likely with uncovered food. Since the bacteria themselves are not airborne, it's the particulates - dust, water vapor, etc. - which must land on other "clean" food in order to contaminate it. This is very unlikely to occur if the other food is covered.
The larger concern with bacteria, from my perspective, is contamination of the refrigerator or container surfaces, which can then be easily spread to other foods or directly to your mouth by ordinary human contact. Just one of many reasons why you should probably clean your fridge on a regular basis; however, I'll confess that I don't, and have never gotten sick from my own fridge, so even this possibility seems pretty remote.
Conclusion:
I haven't attempted to quantify any of the possibilities here, as that would probably require a microbiology lab and a lot more education than I've personally had. But those science experiments at the back of your fridge definitely do have the possibility to accelerate spoilage elsewhere, and even items that aren't yet science experiments (like ripening bananas) can still have unintended side-effects.
If you want to be absolutely safe, try to make sure that all or most of what you store in the fridge has an airtight seal, and get rid of any visible (or smellable) spoilage as soon as possible. It's just common sense anyway.


How much temperature control does an emergency food cache need?

Short answer: you need to keep those goods above freezing, below 85F, and in a low-humidity environment.

Long Answer:

Freezing: Canned goods, jars, and tetrapaks that are frozen can leak, split, or even explode, and are often unsafe to eat after thawing.

Heat: canned goods safe and nutritious lifetime decreases at temperatures above 85F, and US regulations allow them to fail preservation outright at 100F (which means some).  TetraPak also recommends against exposing those milk cartons to temperatures above 100F for more than 24 hours.

Moisture: cans and jar lids can and do rust, and if the rust penetrates into the interior can cause seal failure.  While TetraPak provides no information about failure modes, they also recommend storing cartons in a dry environment.

So, if you want those supplies to be wholesome and nutritious until their printed expiration dates, store them between 33F and 85F in a dry place.  In Florida, that might be a challenge, but in the NW USA, you can solve that by putting them in a well-lined, well-drained cellar.


Why does the broccoli at Chinese take-out restaurants have a crunchier texture than those bought at supermarket and grocery store salad bars?

Raw broccoli is crunchy, and cooking softens it. Usually it's cooked until somewhat softer but still with a bit of crunchiness or at least firmness.  Most likely the very soft broccoli you describe is just more cooked, probably overcooked by a lot of people's standards.

You can't easily tell that much about the quality of the broccoli at that point; the cooking is going to affect the texture and flavor a lot more than anything else. There's certainly nothing here that suggests anything specific about the broccoli (like GMO).

Also, while it's possible that the crunchy broccoli is actually undercooked, many people do like it relatively crunchy. Your soft "crumbly" broccoli sounds much worse to me, so even in terms of the end result, we can't really say anything about quality, just personal preferences.

I see that you've speculated that the soft, crumbly broccoli is raw. First off, it's extremely easy to tell: the color changes as it's cooked, becoming slightly translucent and shifting to a deeper green, probably slightly less blue and slightly more yellow. Raw broccoli should never be soft, and if it's actually soft and limp then it's very far from fresh. It's also only crumbly in the sense that the teeny darker bits on the top can crumble off. So given that you haven't said it's horrible, it seems more likely that it's (over)cooked and chilled, similar to how you might see chilled roasted peppers or cooked meat in a salad bar.


Why add yogurt to curries spoon by spoon instead of all at once?

Yogurt curdles at high temperatures. If you curdle a big lump of yogurt, breaking it up well is hard, and it doesn't taste too well. You want to end up with tiny particles evenly dispersed in the dish. So when you add it a spoon at a time, you can mix it really well before it has had time to curdle.

An alternative method is to do it the other way round. You remove a spoonfull of the curry and dump it into the yogurt, then stir immediately. When it is completely absorbed, you add the next spoon. You continue until you have something like a 1:1 mix in the bowl, then dump it into the still cooking curry and stir.

The second method requires less than 30 s between spoons, but isn't necessarily less work. (You may have to prepare a separate bowl for the yogurt). However, it produces even smoother results. If you have a problematic yogurt (low fat content, high clumping tendency), use the second method.

Edit HenrikSöderlund's comment makes me think that my explanation wasn't clear enough, so here an addition.

The yogurt will curdle a few seconds after it is dumped in the pot. The point is, you don't lumps of curdled yogurt. A lump of curdled yogurt is grainy and sour and doesn't mix well with liquid. Encountering a lump of curdled yogurt in your soup/curry unpleasant in a way similar to encountering a lump of undissolved baking powder in your cake.

On the other hand, A tiny droplet of curdled yogurt is too small to feel as grainy, too small an amount of acid to give you an unpleasant sensation, and small enough to form a suspension with the "broth". That's why you have to break up the yogurt in droplets before it curdles, and this is only physically possible when you start out with a small amount like a single spoon.

It is even more important to do that when adding to the dry-ish mixture described in the edit than when adding to a simmering broth. The broth is below 100°C, the curry base can be much hotter, causing the yogurt to curdle quicker. Also, a liquid will dissolve the yogurt easily and disperse it, but with the dry curry base, you have to rely on stirring only to reduce the yogurt to droplets.


Moose have bellies, so there is no reason that you can't make moose bacon.  If you like moose, there is a high likelihood you will like moose bacon.  Whether or not other people like it or not is not really something we address on this site.  I would say, give it a go and report back.  Here is a brief conversation about moose bacon.  It might help.


I would really like to go to bed, but the slow cooker isn't done

Warm isn't guaranteed to be safe. On some cookers it might be, but unless you've checked yours already, you can't say for sure. I suppose you could try it and check the temperature in the morning, and if it's above 140F everywhere, it's okay, but I'm not sure you want to risk that.

So I think you're stuck either cooking it overnight (on low, not warm) or moving it to the fridge and cooking more tomorrow.


Distilled alcohol doesn't spoil, and in high enough concentrations (20% or above) will preserve food. If your grandma's homemade hooch is strong enough (and it isn't adulterated with any harmful chemicals) it will not have any foodborne illnesses in it and should be safe to drink.

A quick test for alcohol content is to see if it starts on fire at room temperature, if so you're fine as it's at least 50% alcohol. You can also try heating it in a pan a bit and then lighting it (keep your eyebrows clear and be careful as it will flare up). If a bit of heating helps it flame you are also ok. If it smells strongly of alcohol you are probably fine, but if you are cautious (or curious) you can measure it using a spirit hydrometer, which you can buy online cheaply in many places.


Yeast is a living organism that has basically been put into suspended animation by being dried out. Like all living organisms, water is critical to support life.

Trying to use yeast without water will not work.


Best variety of garlic for slow cooking?

Almost all readily available garlic is of the softneck variety. The mildest of true softnecks is artichoke garlic. Aside from a true softneck garlic, you may also want to try Elephant garlic. This is milder than true garlic, as it is actually part of the leek family, and might be too mild for what you're attempting to do here. Try both!


Yes you can.
just be careful, thawing the raspberries will make them more mushy and release more water.


What to do with the fat rendered when making beef stock?

Rendered beef fat can be used in a lot of ways.  You can use it in place of oil in a lot of recipes, but finding out which ones you like will take some experimenting.  Around our house, I use rendered fat from beef or bacon in place of oil when sautéing, for example with onions and peppers, garlic or mushrooms.  I've also used it to add some kick to gravies.

You could use it to pop popcorn, which I've heard is delicious but unfortunately have never tried.

I've had pasties made with beef fat, and they were delicious.  Mashed potatoes as well.

As far as fat ratio goes, it's better than butter, but not as good as other fats.  Beef fat has a high smoke point and is suitable for frying.

The table below is based off of 1 tablespoon.  Ratio means saturated to unsaturated.  Smoke point can vary depending on a lot of factors (olive oil can range from 300 when unrefined, to 375-450 when refined depending on quality) but the table below should be a good guide.  For the oils, I took the refined numbers.

                   sat   mono  poly   ratio  smoke
  Canola Oil       0.9   8.2   4.1    1:12   470°F
  Olive Oil        1.8   10.0  1.2    2:11   450°F
  Chicken Fat      3.8   5.7   2.6    1:2    375°F
  Duck Fat         4.3   6.3   1.7    1:2    375°F
  Lard (pork fat)  5.0   5.8   1.4    5:7    365°F
  Beef Tallow      6.4   5.4   0.5    1:1    400°F
  Butter           7.2   3.3   0.5    7:4    350°F

(fat source) (smoke point source)

A lot of people mix it into their dog's food, or use it to feed birds.

Seach for tallow if you want to find recipes that specifically use it.


Is it possible to use a commercial oven range in the home?

You seem to be speaking of gas, but I am not entirely sure. Gas might be easier. A commercial electric oven needs more electricity than usual, in Europe they go on a 380 V line. I don't know if there are 380 V lines in the USA, I think I remember seeing somewhere that they manage it somehow with 240 V for commercial.

The other point is that there may be regulations. You are not allowed to operate any electric or gas device you want to. This is why you can't import a range meant for sale in another part of the world. I think ranges must pass some tests after they are installed in a kitchen, and I can imagine that the safety criteria and maybe even the overall legality differ between home and commercial type ranges. So you should clear that with your regulation body (I have no idea who this might be, just that they exist) before you spend any money.

A completely different thing to consider is that there is an optimal temperature for preparing most kinds of food. If you are making steak on a 3 kW burner turned all the way up, you are doing it very wrong. A stronger burner won't give you steak faster, it will give you raw meat with a charred shell. There are foods which need the high temperature (anything prepared by strong boiling or deep frying, some stir-fry dishes), but for normal cooking amounts of them (4-6 portions at once), a 3 kW gas burner is more than adequate. You will need more power if you are preparing bigger batches at once. If not, the problem may be with your cooking method and not the burner.


Not guaranteed:

If you don't mind just wasting the Jello, or winding up with Jello as a snack*, you can try this to kill some time:

Try to dissolve the whole thing in very cold water. Maybe even ice water. The water must stay cold for this to have a chance.

The sugar should dissolve at least some, and with stirring a little more. The sugar in the packet is superfine compared to table sugar if my memory is correct.

The gelatin will absorb water but not dissolve. so it should precipitate to the bottom.

Decant the liquid off. take care to keep everything cold.

Then maybe try it all again to further purify.

This should reduce the percentage of sugar in whatever you have.

The flavoring is probably citric acid and esters, so they are probably very water soluble.

The problems:

You will not know precisely what percentage of whatever is left is gelatin vs. other stuff.

You will not know how much "dry" gelatin is left as it will be hydrated now. So for example, will not know how much of your gelatin = 1 tsp of dry gelatin.

The chemistry
Taking advantage of relative solubility of the components in cold water. This site says gelatin will absorb but not dissolve in water under 40*C (about 104*F).

*If it fails, just heat the whole thing up in a sauce pan until all dissolved (do not boil), stir well, and then pour into bowls and chill.


I work at a charcuterie but we are partnered with a professional baker who provides us with macarons to sell in our store. From your picture, it looks like the tops of your macarons have deflated.

I wouldn't decrease your temperature, but instead increase it. Our most common problem was deflation and often times our temperature wasn't high enough in the oven. Also, it is of prime importance that you do not take your macarons out until they are done, or they will deflate and never rise again. Make sure they are cooked through before you remove them.

Also, if your ridges are cooking faster than the middle, check the position of your oven. Every oven is different and may have inconsistencies in heat dispersal. My own oven is hotter on the right side, and I have to be careful to rotate things accordingly. I heat macarons, biscuits, and souffles with this in mind.


You are right that you need to use pressure to get enough whey out of the curd to get a firmer cheese like halloumi.

I am surprised that the recipe you're linking to tells only to drain the curd in a sieve or cloth. Just draining the curd will give you a very loose or moist product similar to cottage cheese or quark.


What is the name of this machine and what is it used for?

It looks like it's just a commercial version of the machine we normally call an ice cream maker.

Even some of the home machines have a similar armature structure to hold the motor over the mixing container:

Its function is to stir the mixture as it freezes to aerate it and prevent large ice crystals from forming.


Unexplained Butterflied Roast Chicken Success

It sounds like you accomplished something like braising in your oven. Low moist heat for an hour will definitely make meat fall off the bone for something as delicate as a chicken. The skin was crisped up by the broiler, of course.

You could probably accomplish something similar by crisping up the skin in a pan or under a broiler, then putting the chicken and some liquid in a crock pot (slow cooker) for an hour. Brining the chicken first helps prevent it from drying out. If you didn't brine yours, it's possible that there was enough salt in your rub to do the job.


Are there any risks using a non-microwavable plastic plate in the microwave?

Yes, there are risks. Avoiding those risks is the entire point of the microwave-safe labeling.

When plastic is marked as microwave-safe (in the US), it means that the material has been tested and found not to release harmful chemicals when heated, by FDA guidelines. This is a stronger assertion than just that it doesn't melt. Something that's unsafe in the microwave may not show it visibly; it may leach chemicals without melting.

It's entirely possible that something not marked as microwave-safe may actually be safe, and just not be tested. But you have no way to know, and you should assume that anything unmarked could potentially be harmful.


Is it a bad idea to pour water on a pan without letting it cool off?

Depends on the pan and how hot the pan is ; glass pan is likely a problem, and some of the glass-like decorative coatings on metal pans are a risk. Otherwise temperatures would need to be well above cooking temperatures to even consider damage to a metal pan. Hot enough that the water will "bounce" out of the pan because of rapid steam development.  Aluminum could be a problem at 800 F ( Melting begins around 1000 F ). Magnetic stainless ( 13 % Cr)  is happy as auto exhaust to 1400 F ( red). Non-magnetic stainless ( 18-8 ) will go higher. Cast-iron and copper can go 1300 F + ( dim red) : however the tin coating on older copper will be destroyed above 600 F... BUT , some pans will warp even at normal cooking temps; I have had a couple inexpensive aluminum frying pans develop a rounded bottom so they won't sit flat on the stove (no water cooling involved)


I'd guess your doughnut dough was too dry.

I've seen doughnuts with a pale ring around the sides, I'd guess it came from either less contact with oil (if floating fairly high) or from the sides stretching as the heat made the dough puff up, which meant less direct oil contact for the newly stretched dough surface.

For dough to split instead of stretch while cooking, I'd look to similar reasons this happens, eg, in bread - which can include being dry (and especially the surface drying to form a skin, which doesn't stretch), not rising enough beforehand so the "oven spring" is overenthusiastic - which might be a cause for yeast doughnuts though not other varieties, and so on.

With the information that those who tried the doughnuts found them "dry" and "crunchy", I'd go with my first guess of there not being enough moisture, so the dough wasn't flexible enough.  If they sat out long enough to form a dried skin, this would be especially likely to cause splitting.  Moister dough, or keeping covered better, or brushing with water, etc just before frying, might all work to ameliorate this problem.


How do you make a cake lift equally and minimize doming?

Why the doming happens

When you heat leavened dough, two things happen:

leavening agent creates bubbles, causing the soft dough to rise. For chemically leavened doughs (baking powder or baking soda), the amount of lift mostly depends on the time the bubble creating reaction goes on and the concentration of non-spent leavening agent.
The gluten in the dough sets, building a sturdy 3-d mesh of long, branchey molecules. When the mesh is strong enough, further bubbles cannot stretch it more, despite the fact that the leavening reaction is still going on. The setting of the mesh depends mostly on heat and the amount of gluten present in flour.

The pattern you are seeing means that your cake gets hotter on the sides than in the middle. The sides get set early and stop rising, while the middle is still soft and continues rising.

This happens because the walls of the pan conduct heat to the sides of the cake quicker than heat is conducted inside the cake. You see the phenomenon in an exaggarated form in a muffin, which is usually higher than wide: it is always rounded on top, and often split, because the liquid core from the middle continues to rise after a crust has formed on the surface.

How to prevent it

Slower heating
One good solution could involve a slower, more even heating method.

This can be accomplished by using a pan which insulates well. With an insulating pan, the sides will stay liquid longer and rise more. Unfortunately there are no insulated drop-out-bottom pans.

Porcelain
I have had good results in a porcelain or Pyrex pan. The pan insulates the cake from the bottom and the sides, but not from the top, so you will need to bake it on a lower rack and/or reduce temperature on the upper heater in order to not burn the upper surface.

Getting a cake layer out of the pan in one piece can be hard.
To deal with this problem, if your batter is not too sticky, the bottom of the pan can be lined with parchment paper. The sides can be lined with a strip of parchment or well lubricated with fat. This approach is a hassle.

Insulate a metal pan
Perhaps, when combined with other approaches, a metal cake pan with thicker walls will work well enough.
You could also try a more DIY solution, like attaching 2-3 layers of a cut-to-fit silicone rolling mat stripes to the outside of the walls of a metal pan. However, it is quite hard to come up with a good attachment method (glue could release toxic fumes at oven temperatures, if it holds at all). So this method should work, but is somewhat hard to apply.

Glass and silicone pans
There are pans with glass bottoms and silicone walls but I think these would not help because the glass would insulate better than the thin silicone.

Preheating
Perhaps preheating the detached bottom of a metal pan with the oven could help, but I haven't tried it.
Minimize the center
A second approach is to minimize the liquid core by making a thin cake.
If the middle of the cake is heated quickly enough from above and below, it will set shortly after the walls do, and there will be no unset center to "bloom".

Use a bigger pan.
I think that Americans mostly use 9 inch pans, but if you used an original sacher recipe from Austria, it is probably meant for a 26 or a 28 cm pan.

Bake the two layers separately
Divide the batter into two pans instead of making a single layer and cutting it. This is unorthodox, as you get more crust but it's better than a hunchbacked sacher. You should use a scale or at least a measuring jug to divide the batter, or you'll end up with different thicknesses. Also remember to reduce the baking time, as the core will heat up faster.

Use a toothpick for probing doneness.
Reduce the leavening
The third idea is to reduce the amount of leavening agent.

The walls will always set before the core and, if there is enough baking powder, the core will still expand a little bit more. If the concentration of baking powder is low you'll get less bubbles, so less lift.
Of course, using too little baking powder will also ruin the cake, so you'll have to be cautious and experiment a bit before hitting the correct amount.
Lower heat
The fourth approach is to give the outer portions of the cake more time to rise by baking at lower heat.

This is somewhat risky, as it can result in a different texture of the final product, due to the different rate at which water will evaporate from the dough and a longer baking time. Also, if your temperature is too low, you won't get a golden crust on a light-coloured dough. This should not be a problem for a frosted cake like the sacher.
Less gluten
The fifth approach is to use a flour with less gluten.

With less gluten you get a mesh which is less dense and needs more time until it gets firm enough to prevent rising. Use cake flour instead of all purpose flour. A bit more fat will also help to inhibit gluten development but too much will change the taste and texture.

All methods I described should attribute to a solution, but probably none of them will be sufficient by itself. You'll have to pick a combination of them and see what works best for you.

General Cake Techniques

You should also apply all the usual methods for getting a good cake:

measure with a scale
use room-temperature ingredients
sift your flour
only combine dry mix with fluid mix at the last moment before putting it into the oven
preheat the oven well

These techniques ensure a better batter texture, which means a more even heating. They will also ensure a more consistent leavening process because:

the ratio of leavening to other ingredients will be correct
the batter will be more thoroughly mixed
the leavening reaction will not start early

Not following these techniques is more likely to result in a lopsided cake or a big bubble. I realize that this hasn't happened in the case you describe, but it would be too bad to get an asymmetrically risen cake after you took all the precautions against a disproportionally rising center.


What are the difference between outside and inside skirt steak?

Per Kenji Alt's Food Lab article on fajitas:

  [T]here are really two distinct cuts from the diaphragm of the steer.

  The outside skirt steak is from the plate section, below the rib and
  between the brisket and flank, and usually comes with the membrane
  still attached, which needs to be trimmed before cooking.

  Inside skirt comes from the flank—it's narrower and thinner than the
  outside skirt, and comes with the membrane removed.

According to the Houston Press, outside skirt stake is extremely rare in the US, as much of it gets exported to Japan due to a quick in the tariffs.  The outside cut is tougher, but extremely flavorful.  Both are used in similar applications, if you can get them.

Given that any skirt you buy is probably inside skirt, the difference is likely to be moot.  In making fajitas, Kenji Alt recommends grilling it over extremely high heat, to get browning flavors on the outside, and not overcook the center.  He recommends not cooking it over medium rare.

A couple of pictures:


Slowing motor and electric smoke coming from Magic Bullet blender?

It's basically dead. The insulative enamel surrounding the wires in the motor has become overheated. That is where the smoke is coming from. If you continue to use the unit the enamel will degrade completely resulting in an electrical short. It is actually a bit of a fire hazard, so I would suggest discontinuing use of the unit.

It is possible that the unit is defective. Given its age I'm sure its covered under warranty. Early failure of electric motors can also be from excessive load. It may be that your unit is not intended to process something so substantial as ice. Another thing to note is that if the unit is jammed and cannot spin, you should release the power immediately. This is the fastest way to burn out any electrical motor. That goes for a cordless drill and the like.


This is not a real answer, but rather some info to hopefully, help:

Egg whites are 90% water, when they harden, the protein unravels and creates a grid network that does not allow the molecules to slip past each other.  If the protein level drops, it might make it harder to set and stay runny.
Egg white proteins go through a phase change (become hard) at a lower temperature than the Yolk by a few degrees, that's how you can have soft-boiled eggs.
If you crack a fresh egg and it sprawls on the dish (as opposed to hold tall), you're looking at an egg from a chicken that didn't eat many insects/larvae. ;) This may be expected as at this time of the year (northern hemisphere) insects aren't very active.

There is a good section in Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma that gets into more detail.  And perhaps better information regarding the off-season feed.


Cooking rice on a fire pit vs gas burner

The simple explanation is firewood produces smoke and other sources of heat don't. Smoke imparts aroma and flavor to the dish. Firewood doesn't cook the rice any better than a gas or induction range or a rice cooker, it's just about the smoke.


What is considered to be an ideal roasting time and temperature for Cauliflower?

There's a lot of range of acceptable outcomes for this, so let me give you the parameters I work with.

I generally start by mixing the cauliflower with some oil (olive oil typically; others substituted depending on the flavor profile I want) on a baking sheet, then sprinkling with salt. This part is important; if you skip the oil, you'll likely just end up with dried out cauliflower. So every other bit of guidance I give is based on that. Additionally, it's important to try to spread out the cauliflower so that it makes just a single layer.

350F works well when I don't want to pay much attention while roasting. It usually takes 30-60 minutes, depending on how finely I break the florets. Larger pieces take longer. I usually check it every 15 minutes or so and flip pieces around. In most cases, you'll get more gentle browning with this temperature than with higher temperatures. You'll probably get the softest, sweetest cauliflower this way.

If you are more impatient but you are willing to check on the cauliflower more frequently, you can easily go up to 425F. I can shave off a fair amount of time, and I've had good results with even large pieces cooking fairly quickly, often in the 25-40 minute range. The caveat is browning is much more aggressive, and you need to rotate pieces more frequently, possibly every 8-10 minutes. You will often get a more caramelized result than with lower temperatures, and you may find cooking slightly less even. I sometimes prefer this because I like a balance of chewy and soft texture and I like the extra caramelization on the surface.

Generally seasonings other than salt are best added near the end of the cooking process so that you don't burn them; spices, herbs, and garlic in particular can't typically handle much more than about 15 minutes baking.


Overnight cooking: Is sous-vide safer than electrical oven?

On top of the stove the issue is boiling dry. At that point the temperature can rise almost unchecked. This will result in unpleasant fumes at best, flames at worst. Even in the latter case, because you should be using a fairly tight fitting lid, everything should be contained, but I wouldn't rely on that.

The oven is different. Once the pot is up to boiling point you can set an oven temperature of just over 100°C. In the unlikely event of boiling dry, the contents still won't exceed that temperature - no burning. Like you I assume an electric oven.

Using a sous vide circulator you'll actually struggle to get the inner pot hot enough - you generally want a gentle simmer for broth/stock. The outer pot will loose a lot to evaporation even if it never boils.

I'd have more confidence in the oven, but if you're shopping there's one more option - a slow cooker. Making stock is trivial: put in bones (and any veg etc.); pour over boiling water; leave on high for a few hours or low for up to a couple of days; strain. I normally use low overnight for chicken stock with onion, celery, & herbs. These are specifically designed to run for long periods unattended without boiling dry (as the power input is low and the lid fits tightly).


Is it safe to eat a cake with semi spoiled lemon rind?

Of course if an item is spoiled this means you should throw out anything that contains the spoiled item. However, based on your description, I have an alternative hypothesis. Brown discoloration in fruit does not mean the fruit is spoiled. Discoloration can be normal, especially if there was no unusual smells or changes in texture in the lemon. You said the lemon still appeared fresh on the outside.

The more likely scenario is that the bitterness is from the lemon rind itself. The white pith underneath the outer bright yellow layer of the lemon rind is very bitter. If you go too deep while zesting a lemon your dish can easily be ruined by nasty bitterness. Only scrape the outer yellow surface when zesting a lemon. This can be quite challenging and takes some practice before you start zesting like an expert.

Without a further description of the lemon, it is impossible to say whether it is spoiled or not (it very well could be), but even if it was I doubt the spoiled lemon is causing bitterness (it would probably cause a different but equally undesirable flavor).


For each of my (now 16) birthdays, I've had a cake decorated by my mum, with ready to roll icing:

I just asked her. She said:

  I normally go for 4 to 5mm. Any less and it is liable to rip. 3 is the thinnest I can get it.

I think that 5mm is a reasonable thickness (I like icing) but if you can get it to 3, go for that. 2 or less is stingy!


You may be able to save the dish by adding some bitterness and sweetness to counteract the acidity. Spinach, Kale and other bitter vegetables would work, as would bitter herbs like fenugreek. Sweetness could be sugar, honey, any sweetener to be honest.

There's limits to this approach, you may end up with something that is overwhelmingly sour, bitter and sweet at the same time and you have to get rid of it anyway. Sometimes you get something that tastes good with a neutral accompaniment like rice or pasta, you won't know unless you try.


If I use instant mashed potatoes for my potato bread, what do I iuse to replace 1-3/4 cup potato water?

Sorry if this comes over a little curt…

  Is there a liquid substitution for the potato water?

Water. 1:1 ratio.
Check for seasoning.

It won't taste like potato water, but then again instant mash doesn't taste like potato, so it won't really hurt overall.


Flavour-wise, what is the use of an electric/gas BBQ?

When you're grilling food at high temperatures on a barbeque most of the smoke comes from fat that strikes the hot surface of the coals/vapourizer. It's only when you're slowly barbequing food, cooking it at cool temperatures, that the difference becomes important. With a gas or electric barbeque you'll need to add a source of smoke (eg. wood in a smoker box) if you want to add any smokey flavour. Even with charcoal it's normal to add wood to the coals in order to increase the amount of smoke.

When cooking on an indoor griddle or frying pan, unless something goes seriously wrong, there's usually no smoke so the flavour will different than when grilling on any sort of barbeque.


How can I estimate the time required to bring a piece of meat to a certain temperature?

I think this will be impossible to do accurately, in an oven, without a thermometer. I know you want to estimate, but a few degrees will be the difference between rare and medium rare, for example. Variables include: thickness of steak, internal temperature of steak when you begin, accuracy of your oven temperature, and time.  In an oven, even though you set the temp for 275...not only might that be inaccurate (thus the use of oven thermometers), it also fluctuates fairly widely throughout the cook time.

If you were cooking in a water bath (sous vide) you could solve this problem with excellent accuracy.  See http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Beef

Caution: Do not apply Baldwin's charts to oven cooking.


They say to cook until 190F because that's the temperature at which the stuff that actually makes your slow-roasted pork moist, the collagen, fat, etc. is breaking down and coating the meat.  Less than that and you'll have all those bits still intact in your shoulder, which you don't want.
ATK explains this in their footnote on the recipe:

LOW OVEN
Just like in a pot roast, cooking the pork low and slow (325 degrees for 5 to 6 hours) pushes the meat well beyond its “done” mark into the 190-degree range, encouraging intramuscular fat to melt, collagen to break down and tenderize the meat, and the fat cap to render and crisp.

ATK's foot and header notes have taught me a lot over the years and I highly recommend them.


Are you just using eggs for your filling?  Most quiche fillings are a custard, with milk, cream, or other dairy as well as eggs, and often cheese as well.

It sounds like you are over beating your egg or custard mixture, and inadvertently incorporating air.

In general you want minimum air in a quiche filling, so whisk or stir it briefly until it comes together, but not extra.

Its harder to tell from the description, but you may also be over baking the quiche.  You want to cook it until the center just barely jiggles, about 180 F / 82 C.


Oven Spring when first stage of recipe includes a ten hour first rise

Generally when you have issues regarding oven spring at home, the problem is heat and steam in your oven rather than yeast activity. In commercial bakeries, sourdoughs are frequently fermented for overnight or longer, so that shouldn't be a problem. A lot of the expansion you see in the oven is from the moisture in your dough converting to steam before the crust has set. In a bakery, we can achieve this by using steam injected ovens which allow the crust to remain elastic longer. Bakeries also use hearth and convection ovens which transfer heat into the loaf more efficiently causing it to create steam faster.

To recreate this at home, you can try moistening the crust of your bread before baking it or trying to create steam in your oven. You can encourage steam by starting your oven at a higher temperature and turning it down after a few minutes, or by baking on a pizza stone to simulate a hearth. It's important to get the steam down first though, as the heat transfer without steam will cause a lot of crust cracking and weird rising.

It's also important to note that if your dough has a high proportion of rye flour, rye traps bubbles via gums called pentosans rather than via a gluten network like wheat dough. It generally won't rise in the same way that wheat doughs will.


The important part of making risotto is that you're moving it around in a little bit of liquid, so you end up scraping of the outside of the rice, causing the loose starch to thicken the remaining liquid to a creamy consistency.  The overall dish should be creamy but not mushy, with the individual grains of rice still having some firmness to them.

As for your specific questions :

For details on preparation, see https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/137/67 .

Most ingredients are simply for flavor.  The acids (wine or vinegar) change how starch cooks and can keep it from getting too mushy, and add some brightness to the dish, but aren't absolutely necessary.