How long does bicarbonate soda (baking soda) keep?

StillTasty provides a very conservative answer: 6 months at best quality. In my personal experience, it can last much longer and be just fine, though I think the longest I ever kept a box was a couple years, not 5 years like riotburn. StillTasty suggests that the concern after more than 6 months is lost potency, but I believe the potential to take on odors from the surroundings is much more of a concern; store it in something airtight like you said, and you should be pretty safe from that.

So I'm sure it'll last at least until next Christmas. And if you do get into baking, you might go through a box faster than you'd think. Otherwise, it's fortunately pretty cheap, and it does have other uses (e.g. cleaning) so it won't hurt you too much to just go for it.


What is the term for 'sunny side up' omelette?

I believe that is called a classic french omelette.
"Sunnyside" comes from frying unbroken eggs, where the yolk resembles the sun, and by not flipping the egg over makes it "Sunnyside up".


I'm going to blame your thermometers.
The one you used for your first batch you believe was a bad one, so it likely was measuring the temperature incorrectly, so you got poor results.
Then, you bought a really fancy infrared thermometer... which is great for measuring surface temperature but is pretty useless for anything else. Note that surface temp is usually much different than internal temp. Generally, if you're heating something up, the surface will be hotter than the inside and if you're cooling something down, the surface will be cooler than the inside.
This means that all your temperature readings were wrong!
Here's some info about the internal temperature reading myth:

2. An infrared thermometer will tell you the internal temperature
This is another myth worth busting. An infrared thermometer is a surface temperature tool – period. If you’re grilling, baking, smoking, or roasting you’re going to need a penetration probe to tell you the internal temperature of the food you’re cooking. An infrared will only give you the surface temperature of the food, and depending on your optical range, the temp of the surrounding grill, skillet, oven, etc.

I think you should try your chocolate tempering again but with a good-quality instant read thermometer (make sure the temperature range goes low enough) or a candy thermometer (again, some of them start at 100 F, so make sure it goes to the temps you need).


dealing with curved ribs in a flat rib recipe

Different cuts of ribs have different degrees of curve to them. In my experience, baby back ribs are the most curved, and St. Louis cut spareribs are the flatest (although that is a relative term). This page has a chart showing where the different cuts of ribs come from in the rib cage in case you're interested.

I wouldn't try to flatten the ribs; I can't imagine of any way to do that other than breaking the bones.


You can, but the surface-to-mass ratio means that the outer layers will overcook well before the inside is cooked, so unless you're interested in that texture, your two main options are:

Steam them (add some liquid, then put a lid on it)
Cut them smaller.  (halve or quarter before you saute)

I tend to halve smaller ones, and quarter larger ones, cutting through the stem each time so they don't fall completely apart while cooking (after trimming a little off the stem if it's showing signs of drying out).  Then saute 'til the outside has browned a little bit, and hit with salt and whatever spices (or bacon ... dice up some bacon and render the fat while you cut up the sprouts, then use the fat for cooking the sprouts)


Does capsaicin lose potency with oxidation?

Garam masala is not a "hot" (piquant) spice mixture. It doesn't taste spicy because it's not supposed to. I'm not sure if cinnamon contains capsaicin, but it certainly doesn't contain a lot; otherwise it would taste hot, like cayenne does.

I suggest that you try to think less about chemicals and more about tastes. Taste some garam masala; that's what (your) garam masala tastes like. (The taste will change somewhat during cooking, but it's not a night-and-day difference.) If you're going for heat, taste other spices until you find one that's what you're looking for.


It depends on why you're brining. I don't smoke fish so longer brining may be warranted for that use. I brine to keep fish juicy coming off the grill. For this I agree with Cook's illustrated:

We found that, for up to six 1-inch-thick steaks or fillets, the optimum concentration was a 6 percent brine (5 tablespoons of salt dissolved in 2 quarts of water) and the ideal time was 15 minutes. It worked no matter the species, improving the texture of the fish without over seasoning....
And brining works a lot faster on fish because the structure of muscle in fish is different than that in meat: Instead of long, thin fibers (as long as 10 centimeters in meat), fish is constructed of very short (up to 10 times shorter) bundles of fibers.


Adding liquid to Le Creuset Casserole during cooking

Adding cold liquids to a hot enameled pan is not going to crack the enamel, you can add a cold beer to a dish without worrying about your cookware. The main thing to keep in mind when adding cold liquids is that it will bring the temperature down below your desired cooking temperature, you will need to either crank up the heat to bring it back up to the desired temperature quickly or lengthen the overall cooking time.


Can I grill a whole octopus without pre-steaming or poaching?

Full-size octopus are tough and rubbery when cooked, so the purpose of pre-cooking is to tenderize.  According to some research, this can be done by hanging the octopus out to dry and then beating the crap out of it, but that sounds like more trouble than simply poaching.

If your octopus is already cleaned (i.e. ink sac, stomach, and beak removed) then all you need to do is pop it into a covered pot on high heat - after a few minutes, it will give up a lot of its liquid.  Turn the heat down to low, keep covered, and let it braise for at least an hour (or more - a restaurant I used to work in that served octopus cooked it sous vide for a good 10 hours).  If the pot starts to run dry, add a bit of water.  You can also add flavoring agents like garlic, wine, herbs, etc. to the braise if you like or just let the octopus hang out in its own juices.

After braising, you could either break down your octopus right away or bring it whole to the BBQ (somewhat diminished in size, but still impressive!) and cut it up there.  You will want to separate the tentacles from the body and cut the head sac into strips either way.  If you leave it whole, it will cook unevenly because of the varying thickness of the flesh.  Cook over the hottest part of the grill to finish, just to bring the flesh up to temperature and add a little char.

Skewering the tentacles with a little olive oil and salt will work just fine, but the flavor is fairly mild if you didn't add anything to the braise so a sauce or glaze is a fine idea.  That same restaurant got rave reviews with a simple sauce of olive oil, garlic, paprika, and a touch of sherry vinegar.


What is the proper way to dispose of a kitchen knife?

I agree on the Goodwill thing, but it pains me to think of putting tape on a knife blade -- someone's going to have to clean it off, and that risks someone getting injured.

Instead, find a piece of cardboard that's longer than the blade of the knife, and more than twice the depth of the blade with an inch (~3 cm) or more to spare.

Fold the cardboard in half, so it's now roughly larger than the size of the blade, and then place the blade so the back of the knife is against the fold (you can do it the other way, but you'll risk dulling the knife ... cutting paper isn't good for knives), then tape it down.

You want to make sure it's well compressed, so the knife is being held in by friction.  You could always sandwich something rubbery in there with it to help with the friction.

(this is how I used to transport my knives when moving between apartments)

...

Another alternative, if you're really disposing of it, and don't mind dulling the blade, is to poke it into a piece of corrougated cardboard.  Just find a piece that's longer and wider than the blade, set it on the edge of your counter, put a hand on top to hold it steady, and then slowly push the blade in.


White spots on the dough while it was rising

Those white spots are simply flour on the outside of the dough, it would take far longer for mold to develop. It's fine, continue your bake as normal. Leaving sugar out won't hurt anything except the dough will be less sweet.


Roasted chicken ends up only salty outside

Not trussing is not your problem. I don't always truss a bird and often spatchcock (butterfly) them. I don't find that it makes a difference in the seasoning either way.

What I suggest is to season inside and out, but with about twice as much seasoning on the inside. Then season under the skin. Let the chicken set for about 30 to 40 minutes before cooking.

You may consider adding a small amount of stock to your pan. (I usually put about 1/4 inch.)

I usually start any whole bird breast side down, flipping half way through cooking.

Lastly, you may want to consider lowering the temperature and cooking it a little longer.


How to heat up already baked french bread in oven to get a crispy crust

In my experience you have 3 choices. Lightly spray with water, oil of your liking (olive, canola, grapeseed, or sunflower not vegetable, and lastly, my favorite, brush on lightly sweet unsalted butter.  Preheat your over to 350 degrees F (give or take 25 degrees) and do not keep in oven more than 5-7 minutes depending on how round your bread loaf is.  Another idea is to slice the bread, spread lightly with unsalted sweet butter and bake for 1-5 minutes in preheated oven 350 degrees F and keep a very close eye on anything you do with all these suggestions because you don't want to end up with croutons. Good Luck and realize I myself would bake my own suggestions starting with less time, let's say 1 minute first, check then add a minute, etc.


Can I use a Lid for a glass vessel for cooking in microwave?

What is your lid made of? What are you cooking? Some lids won't be safe, some dishes can't be sealed airtight or they will explode. If the lid is glass or some other safe material and you aren't creating a lot of steam pressure or the like, you'll be fine.


I mainly use freshly made egg pasta and cook two or three sheets at a time. I build the lasagna as I go. So...
Bring water to boil.  Add a couple of tablespoons of salt.  Do not add oil. Drop in a couple of sheets of pasta.  Fresh takes a minute or two.  Remove to a towel on counter top with a spider.  When cool enough to handle, transfer to lasagna pan and add condiments.  Drop a few more sheets of pasta into water and continue layering.  Then bake.

For dry pasta, use a large pot and add all of the pasta.  Salted water...no oil in water.  Cook for a couple of minutes below the package recommendation.  Drain.  You could use a little bit of oil here to keep pasta from sticking together...or refresh in cool water bath.  I would blot dry before layering.  Build your lasagna.  Bake.


Do commercial yogurt starters (i.e.: store-bought yogurt) actually degrade over time?

Off the top of my head, I don't know of scientific studies that have tested this.  But even if there were, I don't think they'd necessarily be meaningful in comparing a particular store-bought culture to a particular "heirloom" culture.

The general thing to remember about store-bought cultures is that they are bred for rapid and consistent fermentation (generally in very clean and precise conditions), and they are propagated on a regular basis.  (That is, they generally aren't expected to survive intact for many days or weeks in a fridge before growing again.)  They also tend to have a few very specific bacterial strains added in specific amounts, and that mixture is kept constant.  (Usually, companies add bacterial cultures directly for each new batch, rather than inoculating with a "starter" from an old one; this ensures consistency.)

"Heirloom" cultures may have a greater variety of microorganisms, some of which may be adapted to surviving longer times between batches or fermenting in less precise conditions.

I'd say that when store-bought cultures "fail" or become "less potent" after a few batches at home, it could be due to a few different factors:

Culture was stored too long between batches, and some components died off
Storage conditions between batches were problematic (e.g., less optimal temperature, bad pH)
Less precise culturing conditions caused the "equilibrium" between various microorganisms in the culture to be messed up, perhaps leading to overgrowth or undergrowth of some elements, making the resulting product less consistent
Other microorganisms were introduced (usually inadvertently through contamination), which compete with or otherwise imbalance the growth of the original culturing ones; sometimes storage can also affect relatively relative populations here too

There's no guarantee that a product advertised as an "heirloom" culture will necessarily do better for your particular yogurt-making regimen.  I have certainly heard of people having mixed results ordering online yogurt cultures.  But if it is a culture that has gone through many cycles of less-precise ("home") propagation, it may last longer and be more adaptable to various changes in yogurt-making regimen than the specific mixtures found in commercial store-bought yogurt.  Such "heirloom" cultures have been literally "bred" for a different purpose.


Look for recipes and add in the things your attempt is missing.

The common denominator will probably be meat (ham bones are common), more salt, and pepper to taste. If you want to take a shortcut, you could use bouillon cubes or paste to provide both meaty flavor and salt, though pork is a lot harder to find than chicken or beef.

Salt and pepper you can just stir in. Same goes for bouillion cubes/paste, though you'll want to mix them into a small amount of soup first to get them to dissolve well and then stir that into the rest of the soup. If you want to add real meat, you'll want to cook it a while longer to get the flavor into the soup. Additional herbs and spices you'd also want some additional cooking time - the simplest rule of thumb would be to just look at the recipe and see how long it cooked the soup after adding those ingredients and do the same with yours.


What are basic concepts of fusion kitchen?

Fusion cuisine probably dates back centuries, as people and products migrated and influenced one another. Consider the development and spread of the noodle, for example.  However the term "fusion" cuisine was probably applied in the 1970s in France and, slightly later, in America.  The idea is simple.  Ingredients and/or techniques from different cuisines are combined to create something new.  In its best form, the result is unique, surprising, and delicious.  However, critics, especially when the combination doesn't work, have sometimes dubbed it "confusion cuisine."

It would be difficult, at best, to define any sort of rules or basic concepts.  Remember, the very idea of fusion cuisine is to break the rules or basic concepts of a single cuisine, by combining differing rules and concepts of two or more different cuisines.  I guess the only concept I can come up with is that the dish has to make sense from a flavor, texture, and visual perspective.  In other words, to be successful it must be appealing and delicious.


When making chicken soup, should I reuse the vegetables I used to make the broth?

It's definitely just a matter of preference. I'd expect the vegetables from the stock to be overcooked for my tastes, I like a little texture in my soup.


There is nothing wrong with them. The buckwheat is probably ok because on the on the official website called Anthony’s goods every single review is a five star( in fact one of the reviews called the grassy smell you talked about “natural”)one except one review which is four stars ( the four star review was because there was a rip in the package). Plus on the official store the buckwheat groats are sold out meaning people like them and want to buy them. Additionally all the other products on the store also are rated 5 stars. Here is a link to the official website (https://www.anthonysgoods.com/products/anthonys-usda-organic-raw-hulled-buckwheat-groats-grown-in-usa-5-pounds-5lb-certified-gluten-free?variant=1813269699)


Almond milk: pasteurize almonds and water before sealing?

In the US, most almonds are already pasteurized, even when they are listed as "raw". One of the methods is to steam blast the nuts, which heats up the outside of the almond to 205°F (96°C). However, this process is mostly done because of Salmonella concerns, rather than the yeasts and microbes that cause the souring of the milk. You could do something similar by blanching the nuts in boiling water for a few seconds before you soak them.

You could also try soaking the almonds for even less time, I've found that 12 hours or overnight will do the trick, rather than the 2 days you mentioned.

Some producers of almond milk also "ultra-pasteurize" the liquid by heating it to a temperature of 280°F (138°C) and cooling it down quickly before packaging but getting to that temperature is hard to accomplish in a home kitchen. You could try heating to 162°F (72°C) for 15 seconds after you've collected all the liquid, though be sure to have a plan to cool the milk down quickly afterwards.

Exposure to oxygen, yeasts and microbes are predominately what causes the spoiling. The oxygen can rancid the fats in almonds, molds can grown on the surface, yeasts can start to ferment the liquid, and other spoiling.


Goat is pretty mild, as gamey meats go, so it is possible that you just aren't fond of goat?  I know people who love lamb and so I turn them on to goat, which is milder, but if you eliminate what many would call gaminess, you have effectively blanded out your goat completely.

One technique that can work with your ground goat is to brown the meat, then rinse it with water, in a colander, to remove excess grease.  Much of the gaminess is in the fat.

The main trick is just to work with recipes that are designed for that taste.  Goat is great in curry, for instance.  The shepherd's pie that you describe is also good for goat because the blandness of the potatoes offsets the stronger taste of the goat.  You wouldn't want to make a traditional shepherd's pie, for instance, with chicken breast, or pork loin.  Not enough flavor.

To get your meat filling to hold together better, when you brown the meat, add a couple of tablespoons of flour and cook it in with the fat.  You are basically making a roux in place which will then thicken as your pie bakes, holding the moisture rather than letting it run away.  If you do the rinsing idea I mentioned above, then you would do this step after rinsing, although you might need to add a little oil to the mix.


Is a stainless steel french press good to make coffee?

Thierry,

Stainless steel French presses work fine.  In fact, you can construct a French press out of any chemically inert material: stainless steel, class, ceramic, high-temperature plastic, enameled copper, even marble, and it will make perfectly good coffee.  I myself have a collection of porcelain and stoneware presses.  What material you choose is really a matter of aesthetics and how you use the press.

All of that being said, my experience is that high-quality glass carafes do not break regularly unless you drop them (which is, admittedly, an issue).  I'm wondering if you bought a cheaper carafe with inferior glass, like one from Ikea.  I have a Bodum which is at least 8 years old.

Also, for brand name presses, you can usually buy replacement carafes, since breakage (due to dropping) is a frequent issue.  Sometimes the replacements cost as much as a whole new press, but you should at least check it out.


How do I concentrate the flavor in orange juice?

How about using orange zest instead of the juice? That way you'll get a lot of the aroma and flavor we think of as "orange" without really changing the sweetness or acidity.


Why does my chicken go dry when I boil it?

I may be wrong but I'll give it a shot.

When you heat chicken (or any other muscle for that matter) it tenses up. As it tenses up it is essentially squeezing juices out, because all the fibres are closer together.  Just think what happens when you slice a rare steak without letting it rest, there will be blood everywhere.

In general I believe boiling anything is bad practice. A slow simmer maximum is required to retain all the desired qualities. Hence the saying "low and slow" which I take quite literally band apply to just about everything culinary wise. From cooking stew to proving bread, the longer the better.

Edit:

I wrote that then went in the shower and remembered pasta & potatoes, so maybe low and slow unless it's a starchy carbohydrate. Or if you are searing, but often a blazing hot seat is accompanied by a nice rest.


How do you make pie with Citron watermelon (not just the rind)?

...NadjaCS seems to have already answered this question above, but here's a link to a website which explicitly gives a recipe for a pie-melon pie using diced and flavored pie melon. It also has a link to an antique recipe for what appears to be candied pie melon slices; I'm sure you could use those slices in place of the base for some other fruit pie.

https://ganga108.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/pie/


CO2 is carbon dioxide and N2 is Nitrogen gas.
In either case, this is referred to as "Modified atmosphere packaging", which means the food is packaged in something other than simply "air".
The point of doing this is that it increases the shelf life of the product.
From the website of a company who sells machines that do this:

When modifying the atmosphere inside of a package, the amount of oxygen can typically be reduced to 3% or less. Inert gases used for MAP are typically denser than oxygen. As such, the oxygen inside the package is forced out of the package. This results in extended product shelf life, product integrity, protection against discoloration, and for products like chips, a cushion-like buffer against damage (this is commonly referred to as a “pillow pack”).
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Carbon dioxide inhibits the growth of most aerobic bacteria and molds. Generally speaking, the higher the level of CO2 in the package, the longer the achievable shelf-life. However, CO2 is readily absorbed by fats and water - therefore, most foods will absorb CO2. Excess levels of CO2 in MAP can cause flavor tainting, drip loss and pack collapse. It is important, therefore, that a balance is struck between the commercially desirable shelf-life of a product and the degree to which any negative effects can be tolerated. When CO2 is required to control bacterial and mold growth, a minimum of 20% is recommended.
Nitrogen (N2)
Nitrogen is an inert gas and is used to exclude air and, in particular, oxygen. It is also used as a balance gas (filler gas) to make up the difference in a gas mixture, to prevent the collapse of packs containing high-moisture and fat-containing foods, caused by the tendency of these foods to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. For modified atmosphere packaging of dried snack products 100% nitrogen is used to prevent oxidative rancidity.

And additional clarity from the Wikipedia article on the subject:

The modification process often tries to lower the amount of oxygen (O2), moving it from 20.9% to 0%, in order to slow down the growth of aerobic organisms and prevent oxidation reactions. The removed oxygen can be replaced with nitrogen (N2), commonly acknowledged as an inert gas, or carbon dioxide (CO2), which can lower the pH or inhibit the growth of bacteria. Carbon monoxide can be used for preserving the red color of meat.


Food safety with broken glass in dried tomatoes

Simple, the answer is no. Throw them right in the trash.


What dishes are paired with agnolini in Mantuan cuisine?

The Google translation of this article was a bit rough, so I went through it for you and added some links to recipes and such. I hope this helps. I learned a bit myself. That Torta Sbrisolona shall be mine!

The recipe for Agnolini doesn't call for stock, but I bet you could use it in that preparation as long as you reduce it enough. You don't want a runny filling.

Source. http://www.ristorantimantova.info/piatti-tipici-mantovani

  The Mantuan kitchen is closely linked with the history and traditions of its neighboring cities. The
  geographical location of Mantua, squeezed between Venice and Emilia
  Romagna, characterizes the kitchen. The ruling Gonzaga dynasty heavily
  influenced the culinary traditions of Mantua. The Mantuan kitchen is
  often referred to as "Of the Princes and the People" because it
  combines the refinement of Gonzaga kitchen with dishes typical of the
  peasant folk.

  Among the typical dishes of Mantua, the real backbones are the first
  courses.

  Among the dishes are the very Mantuan "Miller's
  Risotto",
  the
  Agnolini (picture)
  and Tortelli di
  Zucca,
  a true symbol of the delicious local cuisine.

  As for the main courses, the Mantuan cuisine offers both fish dishes,
  such as catfish, trout, pike and saltarei the famous Sauced
  Pike
  and meat dishes, such as roast beef, poultry and game, stews, pot
  roasts and boiled him.

  Another highlight of the delicious local cuisine are the cold cuts and
  sausages. In addition to the famous Mantuan salami, one must not skip
  a tasting of Ciccioli, the
  Gras
  Pistàs,
  the sausages used for Risotto alla
  Mantovana
  and, especially in winter,
  Cotechino.

  Equally famous are the DOP (“Denominazione di Origine Protetta” or
  "Protected Designation of Origin") Mantuan cheeses Grana Padano,
  Parmigiano Reggiano and Provolone and the condiment Mustard
  Mantovana.

  As for fruits and vegetables, country kitchens are famous for their
  cultivation of melons and pears.

  Desserts, along with the first course, are the real highlight of the
  Mantuan cuisine, such as La Torta
  Sbrisolona,
  La Torta delle
  Rose,
  and La Torta
  Elvezia

  We must also say a few words about Mantuan wines: Denominazione di
  Origine Controllata Lambrusco Mantovano red
  wine, Colli
  Morenici white wines, and Garda Colli Mantovani
  wines.


Is it safe to boil sweetened condensed milk in the can to make duche de leche?

Yes, it is perfectly safe. Nearly all if not all canned foods sold commercially  have been processed in retorts (industrial pressure cookers) to kill microrganisms
The metal from the can is not going to leach into the food contained in it


Reasons for separating eggs in ice cream

Milk and cream are essentially made up of water, fat, and protein molecules. Within milk and cream, the fat globules are already emulsified in the surrounding water by casein (one of the proteins found in milk and cream). This means that casein molecules surround each fat globule and prevent them from coming together. This is why milk doesn't separate into fat and water, even though it's made up of two substances that don't naturally mix.

However, casein is a little too good at emulsifying the fat. When we add egg yolks, the lecithin in the yolk displaces some of the casein surrounding each fat globule. This partially destabilizes the emulsion of the milkfat by casein and allows some of the fat globules to partially coalesce when the ice cream base is chilled and aged overnight.

Partially coalesced fat forms a network that traps and stabilizes the air that is incorporated into ice cream while churning, leading to slower melting, better shape retention, and overall improved texture. Lecithin is why we need egg yolks.

Egg whites, however, are mostly water and don't contain lecithin. Adding water to your ice cream base leads to an unfavorable icy texture in the final product and doesn't contribute to partial coalescence of fat. Water is why egg whites are typically left out.

Further reading:

Chart demonstrating fat interactions with and without an emulsifier
More on factors affecting partial coalescence in ice cream
In-depth overview of ice-cream emulsifiers


There are lots of ways of doing this, depending on exactly what you want in your final product.  If you want an exact flavor and texture match to your specific brand of drinkable yogurt, you're going to have to try various things and experiment to see what works.  Here are some issues to consider and options.  (I'm assuming here that you're using store-bought yogurt as a base, since you post instructions that tell you how to produce a more drinkable style yogurt from scratch, and those should help if you were simply planning to make the yogurt yourself.)

Be sure you buy yogurt without any added thickeners.  Sometimes commercial yogurt adds substances to help maintain a thicker texture; obviously these will get in the way.
Try blending your yogurt (or whisking or whatever you tend to use) to break up the set part as much as possible.  For "homestyle" yogurts, this may be enough to thin them significantly.
If you prefer your "drinkable yogurt" to have fruit, etc. in it, try adding the ingredients first and blending.  The fruit juices may already thin the texture somewhat.
If you still need it to be thinner, start by adding milk.  If the result isn't "creamy" enough for your taste, add a mixture of milk and something with higher milkfat (light cream, half and half, etc.) next time.  If the result isn't tangy enough for your taste, you could add some acidity, e.g., lemon juice could work well if it complements fruit flavors or something.  Or, as an alternative for acidity, you could just dilute with another acidified milk product, like kefir or (cultured) buttermilk.  (This last option would actually be an ideal choice to maintain the "fermented milk" flavor and tang.)

To go further with that last point, frankly in your situation I'd just skip the yogurt completely and use another acidified milk product with a texture closer to what you want.  Kefir and cultured buttermilk both are produced by microorganisms similar to yogurt, they have similar acidity, and (in my experience) they taste pretty similar in a "smoothie" when blended with fruit or other ingredients to yogurt.  On their own, the flavors will be somewhat different from yogurt, but the flavor of a yogurt/milk/juice/whatever concoction will taste different from the plain yogurt anyway.  So, personally, I'd start with a thinner fermented milk product and go from there, unless you have some particular attachment to a specific yogurt brand or something.


Is it possible to whisk egg whites too much?

If you whisk egg whites to much they will definitely separate.

Basically you are over tightening their stretchy proteins which squeeze out all the water. You are left with useless protein fluff floating on water.

The flavor and odor will not change, however. That would be a sign off spoiling and unrelated to the whisking.


Simple recipe that when combined in a different order yields different food?

Developing upon a previous idea from @mroll, eggs + fat (oil or butter) has some interesting science to explore.

Slowly adding oil to the yolk while whisking will create an emulsion of the fat drops in the water: mayonnaise. This phase is not favorable energetically, and this is why you need to provide energy to the system to create it. The process consists of breaking water-water hydrogen bonds and forming oil-water ones. You can actually calculate with numbers the amount of energy needed! More detail here.
By whisking the egg white, you incorporate air into the liquid phase and form a foam. The science behind is that of protein denaturation. More here. A lot of recipes rely on the stability of this foam to create a 'light' texture. The simplest examples is a soufflé. You carefully mix the yolk back without breaking the foam and place the mix in a ramekin. In the oven, the air will heat up and tend to scape upwards (hot air go up). Meanwhile, the denaturated proteins will coagulate due to the heat and get stiff. The interplay between the air pushing the foam up and the proteins coagulating is the reason why the temperature in the oven (not too hot, not too col) is crucial in preparing soufflé.
The proteins in the yolk and white coagulate at different temperatures. If you simply mix all together and put in a very hot fire, you simply coagulate the whole ensemble of proteins and get a dry scrambled egg / omelette. However, you can play with this difference of temperature to create new interesting textures. Get a bowl with your yolk+white mix and put on the top of a pan with boiling water (heat bath or bain marie). Whisk the mixture continuously, so that you get a better control of temperature changes. You will notice that at some point the texture will start to thicken, while still liquid. At this point remove from the heat: you got a cream! If you salt it and add some fat, you get a hollandaise-like sauce. If you add sugar, you got a custard.

Of course the above is only for the sake of science. To get flavourful dishes should add other ingredients such as salt to the mayonnaise, cheese to your soufflé, etc.


Should I use whole eggs or only yolks in Spaghetti alla Carbonara?

I've asked this question to many friends of mine from Rome, and they all agree that only yolks should be used. Then I managed to find out the scientific reason behind this.

The real challenge with this recipe, which makes the difference between a perfectly made creamy carbonara and just pasta with omelette, lies in temperature control.

As a matter of fact, the problem of keeping the sauce from getting curdled arises when you mix pasta just taken out from water boiling at 100 °C with egg components that coagulate at a much lower temperature. In particular, as anyone having fried an egg knows, egg white coagulates earlier than yolk (protein coagulation temperatures are approx. 60-62 °C for the former, 68-70 °C for the latter).

This means that egg whites are more susceptible to ruin your carbonara, if you can't manage to rapidly decrease the overall temperature below 60 °C. Since egg whites function is just to provide a more fluid substratum (creaminess and flavour come mostly from yolks), they are usually left out and replaced with starchy pasta water.

So, put yolks only (one per person) in a large bowl and whip them, add pasta al dente without straining it first, using a large fork or kitchen pliers to take it straight from the pot, and then quickly mix them together while adding the remaining ingredients.

In this way, cooking water adhering on pasta surface will provide both the liquid base for the sauce and enough heat to thicken it, while the mixing will disperse the heat in excess.


Is it possible to fry breaded or flour covered chicken with only butter?

Yep, you can fry anything in just butter. You only need to know that whole butter has a lower smoke-point (~350F,177C) than a lot of other oils, so it needs to be done a bit slowly.

See this Smoke Point Chart: (the last column involves fatty acids, not relevant here)

Higher smoke points of course mean the oil can get hotter without burning. For what it is worth, slow frying in butter is often an awesome way to cook anything. It tastes great.

Clarifying butter brings the smoke point up to over 400F (205C), but you sacrifice some flavor that way. Exactly how hot you can get clarified butter (or unclarified butter, for that matter) depends upon several factors, including how it is manufactured and/or clarified.

If you're looking for breaded, bone-in fried chicken ala KFC, don't try to use butter, it would be problematic to keep the breading adhered at such a low temperature. It would have to fry for a very long time. I suspect the breading would get greasy and fall off. Plus, that much butter would be really expensive for cooking oil that can't handle multiple uses.

If you are looking to deep fry whole (bone in) breaded chicken thighs, for instance, it's pretty much unheard of (but not impossible) to do it it butter. However, butter can be great for breaded, boneless chicken breasts.


How much does one cup of fresh spinach weigh?

How much spinach is in a cup varies widely based on who is doing the measuring, how well the spinach is trimmed, whether it is chopped, the size of the leaves, whether it is cooked, and if it is cooked, how well it is drained.

That said, the FDA calls 1 cup of raw spinach 30 grams.

If you're looking for the number of leaves in a cup, that can't be answered because some leaves are much bigger than others. To measure a cup, you need a cup, a scale (30 grams would work for raw spinach) or to be willing to guess.

EDIT Now that you've added the size of the leaves, the question is answerable, but I would need leaves that size and a cup in order to answer.


How do you get gelatin from rendering cow fat?

I beg to differ with most of the responses. In my personal experience, rendering of fat - not simply suet - from 'general meat' produced a great deal of gelatin. I am using some as a base for tonight's stew at this very moment.

No, suet would not render out significant gelatin, but I have just now rendered about 3kg of fat from beef/fat leftovers from a butcher. I used a food processor to turn the fat/beef mistress to a chunky paste, then boiled the paste over water. I was left with approximately 25% hard tallow and approximately 70% meat. In the process of cooling the tallow atop the same water used for rendering, I found that the water gelled. I separated the tallow from the gel, then boiled down the latter, leaving myself with a gelatin - rich base for tonight's stew.


This is standard dating and would be June 5, 2009. In the US it's pretty standard for open dating to be formatted as month-day-year.
Also from the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service:

Does Federal Law Require Dating?
Except for infant formula, product dating is not required by Federal regulations.
For meat, poultry, and egg products under the jurisdiction of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), dates may be voluntarily applied provided they are labeled in a manner that is truthful and not misleading and in compliance with FSIS regulations1. To comply, a calendar date must express both the month and day of the month. In the case of shelf-stable and frozen products, the year must also be displayed. Additionally, immediately adjacent to the date must be a phrase explaining the meaning of that date such as "Best if Used By."

(Emphasis mine.)


Sadly, baked potatoes are one of those foods that are only truly at their peak when first baked.  Either re-baking them or microwaving them will give the least bad results for reheating.

Your better bet, however, is to give them a new life, for example as potato pancakes, hash browns, as an ingredient in a hash, or similar application.   While they won't have the same quality as a fresh baked potato, these can be very good dishes.


Is it okay to mix bread flour and all-purpose flour when making a pizza dough?

That is absolutely fine. 00 flour is super-overpriced here, so much so that it is hardly ever used. Semolina is often used on the pizza peel, but really not all that often in the dough itself.

There are more recipes for pizza dough than probably anything else on the internet. Some use all-purpose flour, some use bread flour, and some use no wheat at all. You can get away anything with some experimentation.

Serious Eats has some of the best instruction around on everything pizza.

You don't say where you are from, but know that "all-purpose" flour has a different meaning to some people in India, and will behave differently than the medium-gluten wheat flour that is "all-purpose" to most of us. That doesn't mean you can't use maida (what is sold in much of India as "all-purpose" flour), just that it will behave differently.

There is no safety issue at all to mixing flour types. Assuming that the flours are safe individually, they will be safe combined.


I would use this broth to make soups. It would make a great base for a number of soups such as scotch broth, but also for using for the stock for making other soups such as lentil or whatever you fancy.

Good luck!


I will generally reuse a plank on two conditions:

The bottom isn't completely charred. Sometimes, the bottom ends up complete black. I find that this won't start to smoke a second time. It's also a mess to store anywhere.
The top isn't a mess of food. This is largely dependent on what you cook. Fish skin sometimes gets cooked on, glaze bubbles and chars, oil lights on fire and the top surface chars. Something like shrimp, tomato, or sausage will be fairly clean though, and nothing will cook on to the top.

In order to reuse the plank, I clean it with soap and water, the same way I'd clean a wooden chopping board. I've never managed to use a plank more than twice and I usually just toss them after a single use.

Keep in mind that a dried cedar plank is a dried cedar plank. Cost is generally more based on the store that you buy it in than the product you're buying. A hardware super store (like Home Depot) will generally have these quite cheap.


Is steaming causing food to lose more flavor than baking?

Yes it does, and you actually already described some of the mechanisms in the question already. It is an effect that is more widely known in vegetables (roasted have more taste than steamed), but I suppose that this is much rarer to steam cakes.
First, you already mention that the baked one is drier, and the steamed is wetter. This is already a factor - try dipping a bite of the baked one in water and eating it, then eat an undipped bite, and you will notice a difference there already. The "waterlogging" itself is already a reason for the taste to change.
Second, steaming leads to much lower temperatures, especially on the outside of the cake. If you have oil added, either in the batter or brushed on the pan, you are also missing out on reactions which happen between the hot oil and dryish batter in one case (these are the reactions which make fried food so tasty) and are impossible, or very reduced, between the not-so-hot oil and the wet batter (that is also covered in condensation where not in contact with the pan) during steaming.
Third, banana flavor itself is brought out by heat. For many applications using bananas, it is normal (but not so widely known) that heating/precooking your banana changes its flavor and makes it more intense - you can use this for ice cream, for example. And I suspect that the lower heat in the steaming case is not sufficient for this to happen as much.
Fourth, there is the concentration issue Spagirl mentioned in a comment, which is partly overlapping with the first one, but I suspect that there is a separate effect beyond the intermediate experience of wetness on the tongue.
So yes, it is very normal to notice such a difference, and it goes beyond banana bread and its relatives.


Don't eat it! The soup or the chicken.

Chicken meat may contain bacteria (inside the meat, not just surface) and can grow.  Even if you've kept in the fridge for the weeks, it can still carry enough bad bacteria to seriously harm you.  From what I know, the meat and fat structure of chicken doesn't lend it to curing in open air and long term.

If you are in fact trying to make a beef-jerky or cured sausage style and then cook in the soup to give the soup flavour and maintain decent flavour in the chicken, then you should be doing it differently.

You can dry cure the chicken in a dehydrator set to temperatures above 140°F as in this recipe.

For the soup: you'll need a soup base that is nearly as salty as the chicken (say %6 solution) so the salt doesn't leave the chicken and try to establish a new equilibrium between the saltiness of the chicken and soup.

This may mean that you might have to hold a portion of your soup back to add after the chicken is pulled out so it becomes less salty, but maintain the chicken flavour.


How much do I reduce the sugar when using a sweeter fruit in a pie filling?

It's mostly a matter of taste. In theory you could leave the sugar out completely, it's not needed to "bulk up" the filling, but that would probably not match our expectation of "pie filling". Your own question mentiones blueberries, which have about the same degree of sweetness as Bing cherries. I would start with the amount from your blueberry pie recipe.

Apart from that, consider adding a tart/acidic flavour aspect because it nicely complements the sweetness and intensifies flavour. (Probably one of the reasons many recipes use tart cherries.) A dash of lemon juice or, if you have it, some fresh red currants (also in season right now).


As long as the whole dip is/was kept in the safe temperature range (under 40 °F / 5 °C), I don't think you will have a food safety issue.  Remember, time out of refrigeration (well, technically in the danger zone of 40~140 °F / 5~60 °C) is cumulative.  How was the dip served the first time?  If the cream cheese (a "potentially hazardous" food, much more so than parmesan or pesto) sat out at room temperature in the danger zone for 2 or more cumulative hours (4 at the outside) you should discard it.

Other than the food safety issue, there may be some minor interaction among the ingredients, but that will be more a palatability issue, not a safety issue.   The flavor might even improve.


How do I get Nooks and Crannies in my English muffins?

I found a great recipe for English muffins, which is a variation on Alton Brown's recipe.  Basically, the variation calls for adding a bit of baking soda after proofing the dough.

I've made this recipe a couple of times, with very satisfying results.  The yeast flavor is a bit strong for those used to store-bought, but I like it.


Dusty water, different taste if water has been sitting?

There is an easy experiment to see if your water is picking up dust. Simply cover a glass of water with a saucer and see if it tastes the same as a glass left uncovered.

You don't say where your water is coming from. Is this from a public water supply or from a well?

Either way it is possible that either the water is either absorbing gasses or releasing them.

Outgassing

In years gone by in southern Michigan there was hydrogen sulfide in the water which gave the water a rotten egg smell and taste. The hydrogen sulfide would outgas over time.

Water can be naturally carbonated so that carbon dioxide will outgas.

Absorption

It is also possible to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.


how to get powerful flavours when spherifying

Are you doing regular spherification, where the alginate goes inside the sphere and the calcium on the outside? If so, try doing reverse spherification instead, so the goopy alginate doesn't dilute the flavor.


How to tell if baked drumsticks are done?

There is a common misperception about redness in chicken and what it means when gauging the doneness of the chicken.

Fully cooked chicken can leak juices that are tinged with red, and fully cooked chicken can have pink meat and/or redness in the joints or bones!

From the USDA:

  The pink color in safely cooked chicken may be due to the hemoglobin in tissues which can form a heat-stable color. Smoking or grilling may also cause this reaction, which occurs more in young birds.

The acidity in the tissues can case a similar effect in the myoglobin.

From an unnamed research assistant at a major chicken processor speaking to Meathead Goldwyn at AmazingRibs.com:

  "When the muscle is high in pH [low in acid] it takes a much higher temperature to denature the myoglobin. The meat may need to be 170 to 180°F before the myoglobin in breasts is denatured sufficiently to see clear juices. The drumstick and thigh have higher levels of myoglobin and they require an even higher internal temperature to denature it.

Red or purple bones and adjacent meat are caused by modern chicken manufacturing that can produce chickens big enough to slaughter at an age much younger than used to be the norm:

  Darkening around bones occurs primarily in young broiler-fryers. Since their bones have not calcified completely, pigment from the bone marrow can seep through the porous bones. Freezing can also contribute to this seepage. When the chicken is cooked, the pigment turns dark. It's perfectly safe to eat chicken meat that turns dark during cooking.

-USDA

Furthermore, chicken that has not reached a safe temperature can have meat that looks done and juices that run clear!

  If the muscle pH is low then the myoglobin is denatured at a lower cooked temperature. This means that one might potentially see clear juices at 150 to 160°F and this is not safe.

-AmazingRibs.com

According to the same source, the PH of the muscle tissue can be affected by the chicken's genetics or pre-slaughter stress. That and the fact the source doesn't want to be named causes unpleasant images to appear in my mind. But I digress...

In my experience, dark meat is best cooked to the point that it has begun to shrink away from the bone; which is way past the point of it having reached a safe temperature. Therefore laxity is better test of doneness than color for dark meat. Another way to describe that is that the joints between the thigh and the body and the thigh and the drumstick move freely.

To be considered safe, chicken must be cooked to or above 165 °F (73.9 °C). Chicken breasts are (IMHO) best right at that temperature. Getting good at hitting that temperature takes some practice.  White meat is much more sensitive than dark meat to overcooking, so testing frequently with an accurate thermometer is really the only way to go until you have the considerable experience necessary to accurately gauge the meat's doneness without the thermometer.

Drumsticks are very unlikely to be undercooked after having been baked at 425°F (218°C) for 40 minutes. Watch for meat that has begun to shrink from the bone. You should be at or beyond that point already, which as I have shown, is a far better indicator of doneness than color. Of course, an accurate thermometer is always your safest bet.


Although there is a known problem with so-called melamine furniture and shelving off gassing of formaldehyde, the source is the particle board within, and not the melamine veneer.

Melamine dinnerware — often known by the genericized brand name, melmac — is by itself quite stable.

Either of your storage options should work just fine for melmac. Assuming your cupboard has a door that's kept closed, the dishes might not accumulate very much dust. However, you could use a paper, plastic, or cloth towel or bag as a dust cover — or else just rinse off the top dishes before you use them.

If you decide to seal the melmac in a freezer bag, it will not suffocate and should be just fine. Just make sure it's absolutely dry before you seal it up.


I use a basic marinade of lemon juice (from the squeeze plastic lemon, not fresh), brown sugar, Dale's sauce and Worcestershire sauce, so it would be similar to a lemonade base (lemon juice and sugar)

The lemon juice tenderizes and cuts the salt of the last two ingredients. Brown sugar also cuts the salt and gives it "caramel like" coloring. The Dale's and Worcestershire sauces just have nice flavor profiles when combined on any red meat.

I do the same for chicken but substitute Teriyaki sauce for the Worcestershire.


What actual effect does a Parmesean rind added to soup have?

What parmesan rind adds isn't so much cheesiness (an extremely difficult to pin down set of flavors, considering how many cheeses there are), but rather "umami".  Umami is thought of as the "fifth flavor", after sweet, sour, salty and bitter.  It's normally described as savory/musty.  Common foods with umami flavors (other than parmesan rind) include mushrooms, beef, anchovy, seaweed, soy and fish sauces, and (somewhat less so) tomato pastes.

In the right recipe (beef stews, coq au vin), a blast of umami can be amazing.  Parmesan rind is subtler than that, but still a good tool to have at your disposal.


Not really.  If you mix up normal cake batter with the directions, and microwave it, it will cook.  It doesn't taste like a baked cake, but its certainly edible.
Actually, specifically, you add Angel Food cake to other cake mixes.  The reason is that angel food cake mix usually contains powdered egg whites.  The other option is indeed powdered egg, but angel food cake mix is more common in these recipes.
Mainly its about expectations.  Many things 'work' in the sense that they're edible, but they may not resemble the product you think they should.


Any reason I can't use popover batter to make one huge popover without separating into little cups?

You absolutely can do that. Brits call it Yorkshire Pudding, and the technique is actually fairly forgiving. You can make them muffin sized, or you can make one big popover. Just don't mess around, popovers get their "pop" from steam. A medium cast-iron skillet (9 inches or 23 cm, roughly) is perfect, you can do it in a square tin too.

My British buddy says: http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/25537746#25537746


Possibly not. Lectins (the toxins found in raw beans) are inactivated by boiling, but dry heat seems to be less effective (though not entirely ineffective). See https://www.peanutscience.com/doi/pdf/10.3146/i0095-3679-13-1-2 .


There is no robust way to do this in the general case, other than to create  second batch with no additional hot peppers (or a reduced quantity), and combine them.  Of course, then you will have twice as much product.

In some cases, adding a masking agent like sour cream or cheese, which tame the effect of the spiciness may help, but those methods would be very odd with a Chinese dish.

Depending on the degree to which you have over-spiced your sauce, simply using it more sparingly may help.   Traditionally, Chinese food is not swimming in sauce in any case.


What is a non-alcoholic substitute for rum in a glaze?

The rum is just for flavor so you can skip it entirely if you like, just make up the liquid with more orange juice. If you want to use vanilla, just try 1/8 - 1/4 tsp. If you'd like the flavor of rum without the alcohol, non-alcoholic "rum" does exist (spiced rum here, which would be nice with orange). Non-alcoholic "Liquors" Just in case you'd like to know, these products are Halal certified. Halal Certificate


Why would the first few pancakes come out perfect, but only get worse from there?

Ah, the worsening pancake debacle. I know it well. We have all been there, even after training for countless hours to make the perfect soufflé at the Culinary Institute.

The pan is getting too hot.

You should cool the pan with a quick rinse. This will also have the effect of resetting the surface, to get rid of any built-up grime or grease.

Good luck and happy cooking!


How to keep a high hydration bread loaf from becoming flat

Hydration numbers aren't that meaningful by themselves -- whether an 80% hydration level can produce a high-rising free-form loaf will depend on a lot on the types of flours or grains that are used.  (Usually, 80% hydration is most appropriate for flatter or roughly shaped breads: ciabatta, focaccia, pizza dough, rustic baguettes, etc.)  With the specific mixture of spelt and "strong white flour" (high protein) you mention, it should be possible to get a loaf with a little more lift.  But it's hard to say for certain -- the flour itself will affect whether it's actually possible to do what you want.

Frankly, there are a lot of variables that could be creating problems beyond the ingredients.  A sourdough culture that produces a lot of acid quickly can make it quite difficult to get a tall loaf.  Or, if your sourdough yeast is weak and takes more than a couple hours for each rise, you might be producing too much acid.  The acidic environment will tend to weaken the gluten, and you'll inevitably get a loaf that spreads.  If this is the problem, you'll need to refresh the starter with a few closely spaced builds that really dilute the starter (e.g., dilute your starter 1:4 or even more with new flour/water in each build).  That will strengthen the yeast but cut down on the early development of acidity.  Unless you're a sourdough expert, I might actually suggest trying to get good results with regular baker's yeast in your recipe before doing the sourdough conversion, since the sourdough may be contributing more than anything else to the spreading.

If the starter isn't the problem and the ingredients can hold up the loaf, the next options are alterations to technique.  The best suggestion I can give is to introduce "stretch-and-fold" maneuvers into the first rise.  After you mix the final dough (which doesn't necessarily need to be heavily kneaded), come back every 30-45 minutes or so and stretch the dough from each side at a time.  Pull out, lift up, and fold on top of the rest of the dough.  Do this from each of the four sides of the dough.  Let rest for 30-45 minutes again and repeat as often as you need until you feel the dough strengthen significantly.

If you adopt stretch-and-folds, you may not see the same amount of rise you saw without them, so you need to just keep your eye on the clock and use the same amount of time you did before for the first rise.  By the time you reach the shaping phase, the dough should be much more taught and elastic.

The other significant issue is shaping.  Do you do a pre-shape and bench rest before the final shaping?  That can also help.  Preshape by pulling the dough taught, folding in upon itself a number of times, then let rest for 15 minutes or so before doing final shaping.  Basically, the more times you stretch the gluten and let it rest, the stronger the dough will get -- whether you do that in folding during the first rise or in a preshaping before bench rest, it will help.  The shaping technique itself can also significantly affect the stability of the final loaf (but that's hard to explain in a text response).

Also, you may be waiting too long in the final proof if you wait to fully double in size.  Unless the sourdough culture is very strong, you might have better results by waiting for only a 1.5 or 1.75 rise.  If you do that, you may want to be somewhat gentle during the final shaping to preserve some of the gas from the first proof.

In fact -- if all of this sounds way too fussy for you, another option may be to skip all the stretching, folding, shaping, etc. and avoid the final rise almost altogether.  Let the dough roughly double in size during the first rise, then shape very gently into a rough ball, rest just a short time until it starts to expand again (no more than an hour or so), and then throw it in to bake.

Lastly, the baking method could change things.  If you're baking on a flat stone, the dough can just spread significantly during baking itself.  I've sometimes seen this with high hydration sourdough -- I load it on a peel, and it looks okay before it goes in the oven, but during the oven spring phase, it just becomes wider instead of taller.  Baking in a pot or round pan could help to restrain that spreading a bit without making it look too much like bread from a pan.  And, if you cover a pre-heated pot for the first 15 minutes or so of the bake, it will help the oven spring and crust development.

It's hard to know which of these options will work best for you, since there are a large number of issues that could be at fault in this case.  In my experience, however, the two most likely causes for spreading are a weak sourdough starter or inadequate strengthening of the gluten during shaping.


When to apply a white egg wash on white wheat bread?

You are trying to counteract the formation of a crust - which is the opposite of what a good hot bake works towards.

The key to this is to keep the surface of the dough as moist as possible and this starts already after the shaping during the second rise. Apply the first wash at this point. I personally go for a whole egg, mixed with a splash or two of milk. This will reduce the “skin” that tends to form on the surface. Repeat the egg-washing right before you bake your bread. A generous steaming will also slow down the crust formation.

If you don’t like the slight color caused by the egg yolks, using more milk or pure cream could be a start in the right direction.

But without eggs, it’s difficult to get a soft crust and that lacquer-like gloss. This is an enriched dough, twice brushed with cream and baked at 200 - 180 C for about 45 minutes:

The crust is super soft, though.

For hard crusts on bread, a quick spray or wipe down with water just a minute or two before you pull it out will be the simplest way.


What is the best sugar for sweet short crust pastry?

Granulated to caster ie: fine sugar is the most recommended. I use caster sugar to get a smooth transition in the pastry. Then chill at least 20 minutes before baking to relax the gluten so it is nice and flaky.


How long takes store-bought fried tofu to go bad?

Expiration dates can be quite arbitrary. When tofu goes off, you should be able to smell it and it would also begin to taste sour. You also want to watch out for molds. Other than that, depending on the type of tofu and how they are packed/pasteurized, they can last longer than a week or two.


Can one get quality whipped cream by putting only 250 ml (1 cup) whipping cream into a half litre (1 pint) NO2 whipper?

I've done it lots of times and never needed a second cartridge. It helps to shake the unit while the gas is going in, to distribute it better, and to use very fine sugar.


How do I know if escargot is fully cooked?

By the time escargot1 are heated to serve (I presume you had the standard garlic / herb butter gratin version served in the shell?), they have already been cooked for two to three hours in total.

Escargot are killed by dumping them in their shells in boiling water, not unlike some cooks prepare lobster.2

The soft body is removed from the shell, inedible parts and mucus removed, then cooked for another two hours. Snails will always be a bit chewy (they loose about 2/3 of their weight during cooking), but shouldn't be rubbery.

After that, the meat is ready to serve or to be used in other recipes, stuffing them back in their shells with garlic butter is only one of them.

Without pictures, it's hard to tell what you mean by "black bits", from pigments in the snail's skin to flecks of herbs or peppercorns there are many options.

1  Typical cultivated species:

The Burgundy snail (Helix pomatia)

The Garden snail (Cornu aspersum)

2 Yes, some kill lobster before boiling them, but that's not the main topic here.


I think that may be unavoidable.

Even if (as @Chris H is hinting with his question) your fruit is coming from the same place every time, even if its the same farm, your raw fruit is unlikely to have the exact same taste and sugar content every time.  That will always lead to differences in taste.

Sweeter fruit will need less sugar, but if you're always adding the same amount then some batches will come out sweeter than others.

Differences in the taste of the raw fruit are likely, as you're purchasing at different times of the year.  Even just a couple of weeks can affect the taste of fruit significantly-- compare early season berries to mid- or late season ones, for instance.

In my experience those differences only be come more pronounced with cooking, especially when its done in small batches.  Mass-produced jams have consistent taste by using large quantities of fruit, so the differences between each individual farm's fruits become smoothed and averaged out.

In my opinion the difference in each batch of homemade is part of the charm, but if consistency is really what you're after I would suggest making slightly larger batches and combining the fruit from several different sources.


What was a black substance on the surface of cooked brown rice?

If this is the grey foam/scum that rises during the cooking, and eventually settled onto the surface and the pot itself, then it's just starch that gets released during the cooking process.  While not aesthetically pleasing, it doesn't change the flavor or texture of the rice, and is fine to eat.

Also, some people note this when their water source is hard water, so it might be the excess calcium/limescale from the water, itself, just like what accumulates on your faucet or in your coffee maker, but mixed with some of the previously mentioned starches from the rice, so it looks different.

(I'll try to find some authoritative links to confirm this, and post those as an edit when I have more time after work).


If you're operating a hot dog stand, I'm going to guess that you'll want to follow your local health codes.  There's a very good chance that it'd be a violation.

In most areas, it wouldn't be anything to stop you from using it for your own meals, so long as you didn't serve it to the public.  (and you might have to transfer it to a different container, so you keep the public & personal stuff seperate).  So long as they've been kept chilled through the day, I'd be inclined to use them in some sort of cooked dish for dinner.  At worst, you get sick, but you don't get the public sick.


How to saute dried and fresh mushrooms together?

I would .. hydrate the dried mushrooms in enough near-boiling water to cover, plus a bit, for as long as you like. Lift the mushrooms out and reserve the soaking liquor. Sauté the soaked mushrooms along with the fresh

If your recipe involves a reduction stage, of wine, stock,  or some other ingredient, add the liquor, and reduce alongside..

Or, if there is no step like that, add to the mushrooms at the end of the sauté step, and reduce to a tablespoon or two before proceeding with the recipe.

Take care not to add any grit or sand that may accumulate at the bottom of your soaking liquid: give the soaking mushrooms a stir or shake every now and then to coax it out, if there is any. Lift the mushrooms out rather than straining,  and carefully pour the liquor off the lees, when the time comes.

As Sdarb points out in the commentary, you can measure the quantity after soaking, if you need to. That won't be exactly equivalent to the same measure of fresh mushrooms.. but if you're not wildly out, in a recipe of this kind, that shouldn't be critical. Taste as you go.


How do I sautee tomatoes without them being juicy?

When tomatoes are used as a vegetable in a dish that does need extra water, I will often de-seed my tomatoes. For example, when I put them in an omelet.

The process is simple. Just cut the tomato in half and sweep and the seeds and pulp. Use the remaining flesh as a vegetable.

This technique will work with any tomato but obviously some are better suited for it than others. The meatier the tomato the more will be left. Juicy delicate tomatoes won't have much flesh remaining.

Another tradeoff is that the bulk of the fresh, tomato flavor is found in the juicy pulp that is being discarded. I've tried to boil off the water and put the resulting "sauce" back in but I found it wasn't worth the effort.


Properly stored, dry roasted nuts should lose none of their flavour. Keep them in a well sealed container and they will be fine.

Spices, however, should be freshly toasted, because the point of doing so is to encourage them to release their flavourful oils.


What is a good technique for making candy floss (cotton candy)?

It's been decades since I've done it, and it was with a full size professional machine (from a party rental store).  From what I remember:

Wait for it to accumulate on the sides
Reach in with a stick or a paper cone, down to the bottom of the spun sugar
Pull up while scraping the stick along the side of the machine.

There was spinning involved, too.  I want to say that you spun the stick after you had the candy clear of the machine, not while it was in the machine, but my memory of that part is a bit hazy.

Never put your hand into the machine.  I don't know if it was the hot sugar getting flung off, or some sort of a straw nozzle flailing about, but whatever it is, it hurts.  (that much I remember).

It's possible that the procedure is different for smaller, personal machines.  For one, they don't tend to have as much space to accumulate the floss to make a full cone in one pass.


I hate to say this, but broiling a pizza IS faking it!

You could get one of those small electric ones that are popular with students and other one room living people for less than $20 - or just cook things right at the top of the oven (that works too well for me) - or use a blowlamp.

Personally, I don't need a broiler to reduce food to a charred mess ...


What type of oolong is Twining's oolong? Or what would this be closest too?

From the UK site, it looks like it is also a type of Tieguanyin tea from Anxi in Fujian Province. Now Tieguanyin translates to "Iron Goddess of Mercy", so you are heading in the right direction.

I suspect, having had some incidental exposure to the tea manufacturing process for a different manufacturer, that the exact blend will be a matter of which farms they get the tea from, and which methods they use for preparation. These are likely single supplier farms - so they will only sell to Twinings or a handful of companies. It is said that teas have a terroir similar and even more complex than those ascribed to wines, so it could well be that the taste is down to the farms they have as suppliers.


Apparently, macerating the strawberries beforehand can help. As well as this, the shorter they are boiled the firmer they will stay [1].

If you wanted, you could create one jam base and add in extra whole strawberries at the end which will be firmer. Or even still, add them towards the end of cooking so they break down a bit but not as much as the rest.

Source:
[1] http://ewainthegarden.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/recipes-for-strawberries.html


Something came out of oats. What's this?

Looks like millet to me.

Your oats were probably processed in a plant that handles various types of grain and something was mixed.

It's a little hard to tell from just your picture but if it is millet then of course it is safe.


Can I make this caramel the "usual" way instead of using golden syrup and condensed milk

With millionaire's shortbread you need a caramel with the right consistency, it needs to be soft enough to cut through (and chew) but have enough resistance not to squish out. The golden syrup, condensed milk and butter recipe comes out with just the right consistency, is extremely reliable and easy to make which is why it is popular.

There's no reason you can't make your own caramel, you just have to make sure you don't get the end result too soft or hard.


The Ozeri Deluxe milk frother  claims an rpm of 15000 rpm

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BISKPMG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00BISKPMG&linkCode=as2&tag=nmjv-20

However I have seen in ikea (and pound / dollar stores) a much cheaper option that to me seems much the same

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/30100041/

Hope this helps


There are two traditional ways to reduce the hotness of excess chilli.

First, excessive spicy taste is can be neutralized by adding appropriate filler/absorbent ingredients to the mixture. Fresh coconut shreds are commonly used to absorb the excess chilli in chutneys.

Second, you can add sweet and/or sour substances to counter the feeling of hotness. Traditional sour additions to chutney can be:

Tamarind (common)
Tomatoes
Lime or lemon
Vinegar

Typical sweet alternatives are:

Honey
Brown sugar

All these additions may change the flavor and shelf life of the chutney, but you can always experiment. If that is not desirable, just add more of the other recipe ingredients to increase the number of servings.


Base gravy for British Indian food - is it useful at home?

As far as I understand, the base gravy is just something that is used to cook curries of all sorts quickly in a restaurant context, especially in BIR, British Indian Restaurant (I've not looked at other south asian curries)
The gravy is "curry" agnostic, it can be used in many different dishes.
When cooking a curry at home, you can normally take your time and create a curry dish from scratch, bypassing the base gravy.
On the other hand, making a large batch of base gravy and freeze individual portions for when you want to make a mid-week curry is something that should and could be easy to do (I think I'll try making a batch over the holidays)


How can I get sweet potato skin to caramelize without baking?

A microwave with a grill (broiler) element does this. You need to turn the sweet potatoes over a couple of times to get reasonably even coverage. Better still is a microwave with a combination microwave and convection mode (but these aren't cheap).

If you don't have such a microwave, you can try preheating your grill while the potatoes are cooking and finishing them off there.


Help finding information on Marble coated woks

Perhaps you could benefit from user experience by posting your question in the Customer Questions and Answers section of a product sold by Amazon.

For example, try posting here:

http://www.amazon.com/Ceramic-Marble-Coated-Aluminium-inches/dp/B004FSS43I#Ask


Adding sugar at the end of the mixture for apple bread

It is a bit of a guessgame without having seen the exact recipe, but applebreads tend to use rather robust recipes. So there is a very good chance that you will not notice much of a difference.

If the batter was on the dry side, you might get undissolved sugar. This will give you a grainy texture, possibly you will also perceive the applebread as drier, but the second effect can be subtle. In any case, it will be perfectly edible - it is just that, if the sugar is undissolved, it will deviate from usual expectations. Whether this is a problem or not will depend on the individual eaters.


Almost any fat, oil, butter, or lard will be fine for sauteing, although each may bring its own specific flavor.

If you are looking to most closely resemble grapeseed oil, choose a neutral flavored vegetable oil.  Any of the ones on your list other than olive oil will do just fine.


Can I mix food grade lye (sodium hydroxide) with water to make kansui?

80% potassium carbonate, 20% sodium bicarbonate at some concentration https://omnivorescookbook.com/kansui is likely to behave very differently than your sodium hydroxide.
Kansui is probably strongly buffered, while your pH is
likely to wander. That sort of thing is liable to wreck recipes.
I'd find a good how-to online, and make the stuff right.


Wet Brining Chicken with aromatics, does it work? Will pressure cooking be more effective?

Greg Blonder has the best information that I've found on the effects of brining and marinating. In fact, the "food myths" section of his website, has a lot of objective food science.  There are several links that are pertinent to your questions. You can see here, that Blonder uses dye to illustrate the effect of brining.  He concludes that brining is almost always a surface treatment (with the exception of shrimp and other arthropods).  Blonder concludes that salt "diffuses faster than any other component in a marinade or rub." Further, he concludes that "most flavor molecules will only penetrate a millimeter or two, thus basically only effecting the surface."

[On a side note, given that Thanksgiving is almost upon us in the US, Bloder suggests that those folks who enjoy a brined turkey just use salt and water, as the other ingredients added to the brine are fairly useless.]

So, I am afraid that you will not be able to get aromatics to penetrate deep into the chicken (even with injection...he tests that too).

Since brining and marinating happen before the cook step, I don't think the pressure cooker is relevant to your question.  That may make this question a duplicate of the linked, related question.


How can I know whether a potato is too old?

It likely depends on what 'turning bad' means ...

If you have a couple in the bag starting to sprout, but the rest haven't, you can roast or bake the ones that haven't sprouted, let them cool, then store then in the fridge so you can pull them out to use them in something later in the week.  (eg. home fries, patatas bravas or a hash).

For those that have started to sprout, but are still firm, you can cut away the sprouted bits (this time of year, you might even be able to plant them), peel them, and then boil them and turn 'em into mashed potatoes (which you can then vary for the next couple of days ... you can mash 'em with other stuff to make a sort of potato salad; you can add cooked greens to make colcannon or bubble and squeek; you can use as a topping for a cottage pie (the technically correct term for shepherds pie when you're not using mutton or lamb)

Some of these freeze well ... I've made up cottage pies and frozen 'em in oven-proof containers; you could likely do the same with just mashed potatoes -- I see 'em for sale in the grocery store all the time.

If you're looking for something to cook that just uses a lot of potatoes (in a non-whole state, in case you need to cut away parts) ... potato salad, potato bread, potato curry, latkes, potato soup, tortilla de patatas ... the list goes on.

... and if they're soft and squishy, or oozing liquid ... pitch them.  They're rotting, and not worth getting sick over.


What is an appropriate humidity for separating curds and whey?

86 degrees Fahrenheit (with citric acid added before the heating process, if you want mozzarella/ricotta curds) or a culture added after this point (if using a culture give it 1 hour to start reacting and forming acids) rennet will need to be added in both cases. The temperature should be held at 72-77 degrees during the separation process. Humidity will not really have any effect on your cheese or kefir during the separation process.


Assuming plain (American) white rice on a stovetop:

(Generally, American rice does not need rinsing for these applications)

From your description, it sounds like you are going for Steamed Rice; for that, here's what you want to do:

Bring your water, salt and butter to a boil, then add your rice. Stir it until it comes back to a boil. As soon as it boils again, turn your heat way down. Keep stirring until the heat is low enough that you feel safe that you can cover the pot without it hard boiling again. Cover and keep on low to medium-low heat or a moderate simmer (preferably without peeking) for 20 minutes (15 minimum). It is the steam that plumps the rice, so don't lift the lid! It may take some tweaking depending upon your specific equipment, but try to be patient. You may find that you like a little less water and a bit more time. When you do peek (hopefully after at least 15-20 minutes have passed) look for the water to be gone and for little holes or "divots" to be formed on the surface of the rice. If you still have water, cover again and keep cooking without lifting the lid for at least 5 more minutes. When it looks done, turn off the heat but still don't stir, you're better off just letting it sit for another 5 minutes - re-covered and with the heat turned off, then stir/fluff it.

If you find that your rice isn't done after 20-25 minutes with the lid on, bring up the heat a bit, but be careful. If your heat is too high, your rice can burn on the bottom. Within reason, if it's just a bit too low, it'll just take longer.

The lid is really key here. Do you have a tight lid for the pan that you are using? If not, we can help you improvise.

A slightly different method using the same ingredients is the Pilaf Method shown here in a great video from the love of my life, Alton Brown. 20 Minute Pilaf See the rice just before he fluffs it with chopsticks? Those are the holes/divots I referred to above in the explanation of the steaming method. In case the link goes bad, here's a description of the video: Bring 3 cups of water to a rolling boil. Meanwhile, in a saucepan with a tight lid, melt and lightly brown 2 Tbs of butter over high heat. Add 2 cups of rice (regular long grain, basmati or jasmine recommended) and saute for a couple of minutes, add 1 tsp salt (Alton uses kosher). When the rice smells "nutty" add the boiling water all at once (careful, it will boil rather violently). Cover and turn heat to low. No peeking, cook on low for 15 minutes. Fluff with chopsticks or a fork. Cover again for 5 minutes, no heat.

Note that Alton's pilaf also requires a tight fitting lid. If your lid isn't tight, try using aluminum foil to get a tighter seal.

Finally: With very small variations, these two methods of cooking rice will work fine for just about any type of rice. Some rice, particularly some rice harvested outside of the US should be thoroughly rinsed first. Check your label if you can or revisit this question if you're not sure if your rice should be rinsed. If you use rinsed rice you may find that you want to use slightly less water for cooking than instructed here.

You're using a 2 to 1 ratio for steaming rice, that's fairly typical but you might like a bit less water, just don't go lower than 1.5 to 1.

Brown rice works fine for these methods too but will take longer and require slightly more water.

The steaming method, particularly if you wait to "fluff" will produce a stickier rice, better for chopsticks :) and better to accompany food that has a sauce you want the rice to soak up. I prefer steamed rice to go with stir-fries, for example.

The pilaf method, particularly with medium to long grained rice will produce more individual grains. Nice with steak or baked chicken, something that isn't sauced.


What is the best way to turn soup into stew without using flour?

Let's leave aside the question of what separates a soup from a stew (there's no real answer, only mostly arbitrary opinions - which seems to be a somewhat widely shared belief around here: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/20963/70120).  It sounds to me like you have a dish with some liquid in it and you want to thicken it.
There are a number of ways that soups/stews are traditionally thickened.  I'd break them into four or six categories depending on how you want to count:

Add starchy paste: this is the method you've already found, adding slurry made from flour and water.  If you have a problem with wheat in particular, you could use corn starch, potato starch, etc. instead.

Add a starchy ingredient and cook it: a similar idea, but rather than adding a slurry of flour/starch and water, you add some starchy food like noodles, bread, or potatoes.  If you cook these starchy foods in the liquid for long enough, the starch will leech out of the potato/noodle/bread and into the liquid, having much the same effect as the first method. You can speed up this process by adding smaller particles, for example, shredded potatoes, or bread crumbs.

Add gelatin: this is not much different than adding starch, except that you usually don't need to make a slurry, you can add the gelatin directly and it may have a lesser effect on the flavor.  I'm including in this category thickeners like xanthan gum, or pectin, or other vegan alternatives to gelatin.

Add a gelatin-containing ingredient and cook it: rather than adding gelatin directly, you can add an ingredient with gelatin in it.  The most obvious choice here is bones. There's collagen in animal bones, as well as in skin and connective tissue (like you'd find in a tough cut of meat) and when you boil them (especially in something acidic) you'll get gelatin.

Add cream: cream itself isn't much thicker than water, but the fat in the cream can make the soup/stew feel, well, creamier and less watery.  Other milky ingredients can be used, including thicker ones like sour cream or yogurt. Generally speaking, the thicker the milky ingredient, the thicker the soup/stew, but if you add sour cream and then cook for a long time, it probably won't seem much thicker than it would have with milk. When we add thick milk products like sour cream and yogurt, we typically add them right at the end.

Blend the soup: rather than adding a thick or thickening ingredient, you can add structure to the liquid by blending in whatever you were cooking in the liquid.  This is very common in French vegetable soups.  Often only a portion of the soup is blended, so that you end up with a thicker liquid and some large pieces of vegetables and meat.


Most bread recipes that have cornmeal usually use a combination of cornmeal and wheat flour.  I have made pizza crusts with cornmeal leavened with yeast, but they are about 1/3 to 1/2 cornmeal.  Any more than that and they have a texture more like polenta or grits than bread.  Short answer, yes, if you mix the cornmeal with wheat flour.


Is there a way to make delicious donuts with a small amount of oil?

Donuts are a deep fried food. The texture of deep fried food is unique and cannot be duplicated by other methods. If you bake doughnut dough, you will get small rolls, which will have a similar aroma, but not the same combination of moist, soft inside and fat-crispy outside. You could bake it, as with any other yeast dough, only nobody will recognize it as a donut.

Assuming that you want to get actual donuts, you must fry them. And no matter what you do to them, the more oil you use to fry them, the better your donuts will turn out. The physics of deep frying include throwing pieces of food with a starchy surface (potatoes, or breaded items, or dough pieces like donuts) in oil at around 190 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the outer surface of the dough/vegetable/breading crisps immediately, preventing from any oil getting into the item and any vapor getting out of the item.

This only works when the oil in the vicinity of the fried item stays within a few degrees of the target temperature during the first ~30 seconds of the frying process. Which means that you need a stable temperature in your fryer. Now, thermodynamics tells us that, if you throw a 25 degrees piece of food into a puddle of 190 degrees hot oil, they will exchange warmth proportionally to their mass. So, if you want the oil to stay close to the correct temperature, the mass of the donut has to be very small in comparison to the mass of the oil — which means that you need lots of oil.

The options you have to do with less oil are all unsatisfactory from my point of view, you might decide to pick one of them.

Put up with the quality reduction. Use less oil in the pan, maybe even shallow frying in oil up to the half of the donut only. The donuts will lose moisture and soak up grease. The less oil you use, the worse the grease soak will be. Also, you will use up more oil, because you will have to constantly add the amount soaked up by the already fried donuts. You may consider it well used instead of wasted, because you get to eat it, but from my point of view this is the worst option.
Trade time for oil. You can use a small pot, and fry a single donut at a time. Frying 50 g donuts should go well with under 500 ml oil. You are still a bit constrained by the fact that the oil temperature will fluctuate more due to factors not related to the oil, but it should be manageable, if you have the patience. Note that if you place multiple donuts in the small pan, you are getting towards the first or third solution.
Try to manage a stable temperature in a donut-crowded small pan by using a very hot setting and letting the oil get too hot before adding a new donut. This is a very complicated thing to manage, especially seeing that you are trying to not burn the other donuts in the pan at the same time. I don't think I could manage it, and if I could, the oil wouldn't be worth the stress. There is also the extra energy to consider — not as expensive as throwing out more oil, but probably worse from an environmental point of view.

In the end, if you want good donuts, you have to use a pot/fryer where they can swim freely in oil. Any change you make to this setup reduces the quality of your donut, making it less donut-like.


I would think the red pockets are liquefied fat and/or water with red dye in them (and some myoglobin, which is what makes red meat red, but often dye is the bigger reason).

If it's steak from a supermarket, it's probably thoroughly dyed, so maybe some of the dye (or a lot of it!) stuck with the fat.  Blood wouldn't be bright red, it would be oxidized and a nice brown/gray (if it were even in the steak - almost no blood remains in a steak, it's not why they're red).  If you're used to grilling or similar methods, those would allow the fat (and water) to drip off, while SV won't: you're packing it in a bag and keeping the water and fat inside (that being the point of sous-vide cooking, after all).


How to remove the rind from Citrus Sugar?

Assuming the rind chunks are fairly large, you could use a colander with fairly large holes or a metal sieve.


Firstly I think you're having trouble making a distinguishment between water and oil absorption. Even though placing food in (room temp) oil may at first seem as if it had gotten it 'wet' it's a very different kind of soaked compared to doing the same thing with water, as the two liquids have profoundly different properties.

Oil when heated, however, behaves even more differently. The immense heat of the oil (160-270 ºC, 320-520 ºF depending on the type of oil you are using) actually vaporises moisture (water) contained inside of whatever it may be you are deep frying, which is why food thermally processed in this way is oily but not wet, and can even be dry if overcooked.

The key thing to remember here is that oils, being hydrophobic and lipophilic, are exceptionally different to water and should not and cannot be expected to behave even remotely similarly.


Sort of.  There's a trick to fix up peeler edges: rub the back side of a paring knife along the blade, at roughly the same angle as the peeler blade's edge. Use the tip of the knife if needed. You may need to do this with both sides of the peeler blade.

I suspect the result is closer to honing the edge, but the trick works well enough that I haven't bought another peeler since my kitchen manager showed it to me.


Differences between types of Italian coffee

This image (from visual.ly) shows the difference between the mixture of ingredients and (possible) cup sizes of various sorts of coffee, including the ones you asked for:

A (caffè) lungo is 'just' an espresso prepared with more (twice as much) water than usual, making it less intense.

A caffè corto, more commonly called ristretto, is the opposite: less water (half as much) is used in preparation than with a normal espresso, making it even more intense.

For the macchiato, milk foam is added to an espresso; a cappucino has milk foam and steamed milk added to it.

Another important difference, when you're in Italy, is that you don't order a cappuccino after 10am.


What cheeses have the least amount of whey in them (or not at all)?

When cheese is made, milk solids, in the form of curds, are separated from the whey.  The curds are then pressed to further release the whey.  Hard cheeses are pressed with greater pressure for a longer time.  So, the simple answer to your question is hard cheeses.


Can I eat eggs that are cooked over 3 hours with low temperature looking a bit brown?

Should be fine to eat, from a food safety perspective.  The heat will  be high enough to prevent bacterial growth.

I can't speak to the flavor, of course. Edible is a matter of opinion.  Goodness knows we've all eaten our culinary screwups that nobody else would touch at least once.


How can I make fluffy chocolate mousse without gelatin?

Gelatine has nothing to do with a mousse. That means it's no problem to find a recipe without ;) .

I'm doing Mousse au Chocolat like that:

melt 200-250gr (more is better for stability) of chocolate (70%+ cacao) in a baine-marie
whip 400gr of cream
whip one egg yolk in a baine-marie until fluffy *
mix the chocolate into the egg yolk
carefully fold the cream under the chocolate
refrigerate for a few hours

This mousse is pretty solid after a few hours in the fridge...without gelantine.

*if you want any flavor like vanilla or some liquor in your mousse it is a good idea to add it now to the egg


There isn't a universal way to tell. It's going to depend on the type of cookie. For chocolate chip cookies, I watch for a slight amount of browning around the edges. If you're using a chocolate flavored dough, that won't work because the dough is already dark.  So you'd have to watch for changes in the surface, such as cracks or dullness. The bottom line is that you're going to need to read the recipe and then experiment with it until you learn how to get it right.

As a general rule, the cookies will still be very soft and appear slightly underdone when you remove them from the oven. Leave them on the baking sheet for at least five minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. They'll set up during this time due to residual heat.


Yes, since the blueberries were already frozen, you are unlikely to have them making the crust soggy. It should work out well.

You will want to bake it from frozen, probably, rather than thawing.  You might want to slightly lower the oven temperature since it will need a little longer, and you don't want the crust to over brown.


How to liquify butter -- and keep it liquid?

You could blend it with an oil that does not itself solidify in the refrigerator, but that's no longer butter, it's possibly "butter flavored oil" - don't use olive or coconut as they solidify in the fridge (or moderate room temperature for the coconut.)


I think what your looking for is called poured sugar oil moulds(rings) that you want to use ant shape is okay then use 2 lbs sugar,1 lb water, 6.55 ounces of glucose  and food colouring if you want.make a syrup with the three and then boil until it reaches 260F add food colouring continue to boil until temp. reaches 330F  plunge the pot into a cold water bath to stop the cooking.remove from water and let stand 2-3 minutes to thicken. Pour mixture into moulds until 1/4 inch thick. Once edges have setenough remove the ring. Use a little reheated sugar to attached pieces together like a glue.this can be used as a base for any center piece you want to create with other sugar pieces


Can I make potato dauphinoise/potato gratin/gratin dauphinoise without cream and just milk?

At first I thought there wouldn't be enough moisture in a potato/bechamel combination to cook the potatoes, but a little searching on Google reveals a few recipes with non-parboiled potatoes and bechamel sauce - so go for it.

Example:
Bechamel Potatoes


Why are red wine glasses wider than white wine glasses?

As baka has said, more volatile components of the wine will be released with more wine surface exposed.

Also, this not only releases aroma but also helps the wine to "breathe" and oxidize, which is why you open the red wine bottle half an hour before serving it (so that this process starts), and why you might pour the wine into a decanter.

This process accentuates the flavors and aromas of the wine. It is not very much necessary with younger, colder served wines (e.g. vinho verde).

In young, sparkling wine, a larger glass will disperse the bubbles faster, as well as warming it. This is undesireable, hence the smaller, narrower glasses.

Aged white wine should behave similarly to aged red wine, although it doesn't need to breathe as much.


Can Freshly Caught Fish Remain "Fresh" for 2 to 3 Days in Refrigerator?

In my opinion 2-3 days is really just a guide to remind people that fish is highly perishable, more so than most animal proteins.  Do not toss it in the refrigerator and expect to wait a week to get around to cooking it and expect it to still be edible.

From time out of water to cooking, it will greatly depend on variety, size, etc., but if it is properly cared for you will normally have longer than 2-3 days from catch.  But, the longer it is from catch to cleaning, time is reduced, that is offal will deteriorate faster than flesh but damage the flesh if not promptly removed.  Poor cleaning deteriorates the flesh.  Any time out of optimal temperature storage, reduces useful time.  You have no idea really how long any of these periods are, unless you harvested the fish yourself, so you assume reasonable handling and that from the time the merchant makes it available, you probably have 2-3 days before you risk spoilage and try to be familiar enough with your merchant that they have not already had it sitting for 2-3 days.

All of this though is non-optimal.  Fish, and all seafood deteriorates fast.  It is not like beef that often benefits from aging.  Seafood quality goes down by the hour after harvest.  If any seafood that begins to smell like anything other that fresh is past its prime at best.  Sliminess, dullness of the surface, any loss of firmness, weeping of fluids, these are almost always signs that the fish is either past its prime or simply beyond usefulness.  Some fish are soft to begin with such as salmon, but comparing two fish of the same variety, the firmer fish will almost always be get fresher or better handled fish.


What's the proper order to add ingredients for an Indian curry?

there's aload of variations, by chefs preference, geographical origin etc etc

"no best way" (taste being subjective) but the fresher/tastier the ingredients the better.

chilli powder vs. fresh chillis is non comparible etc, as with ginger tumeric etc.

some curries are "stewed" for hours, others quick pan fried in minutes.

if i were you, in a pan/wok brown your whole spice ("roast") to bring out flavour, then set aside and grind / pulverize.

next brown onions in oil to prefrence, then add meat and browned spice / garlic (all "base ingredients").

then your garnish vegetables (tomato / onion / chilli (whatever)) towards the end of cooking (meat).

can't have a curry without fresh coriander! (big handfull right at the end) imho....


Are chestnut mushrooms and baby portabella mushrooms the same thing?

Agaricus bisporus is commonly found in two varieties a brown and a white variety both of them have a variety of aliases as you have already found out ... and the name portobella is used for mature fruiting bodies of both varieties. So you can find the brown variety in all sizes from tiny "button" mushrooms over closed and open small and big non-mature fruiting bodies to the big open mature portobellos.

The brown-capped variety will be (at least somewhat) brown through all stages and the white-capped one will have a white cap through all stages. While maturing the gills will turn from white to brown in all varieties, as brown is the color of mature spores in this mushroom species.

Anyway, your assumption is correct - that the chestnut mushroom is in fact a baby (=immature fruiting body) brown-capped portobello mushroom.