Why do milk products stay fresh longer when stored in glass?

First off I want to point out the term "fresh". While some containers might keep milk from spoiling for longer, it may not taste as nice.

Several things might be why:

1.) Plastics leach flavor and odor into the milk. Cardboard cartons are also lined with plastic, not wax since about the 1940s. I would say this is likely the biggest impact-- I've always found plastic containers make drinks and food taste downright funky.

Plastic milk jugs are made of high-density polyethylene. The FDA considers this material safe, but just because something is safe doesn't mean it doesn't impart a flavor.

Study from Journal of Dairy Science showing glass having least effect on taste:

  "...overall, the development of water off-taste occurred least in
  glass containers and most often in high density polyethylene
  containers..."

2.) Glass bottles feel colder. Ice cold milk tastes better(fresher) to most people.

The thing is, it's not actually colder while in the fridge. Glass has a higher thermal conductivity than most plastics. That means heat can transfer through it faster than plastic. The second law of thermodynamics demands equilibrium, so while your hand makes the milk hotter, the glass of milk makes your hand colder. Because of glass's higher thermal conductivity, it does this faster than plastic and we sense the glass as being colder.

So while it's not -actually- colder and wouldn't keep the milk from spoiling for longer, it would affect our perception of how cold it is and therefore also the taste.

Packaging of milk varies so a thicker glass bottle might also keep the milk colder while it's sitting on the counter vs most thin plastic milk jugs. There are a lot of variables with packaging so it really depends on what you're comparing.

3.) Oxygen Permeability: Glass has no O2 permeability whereas most plastics do.

Starting in 1937  the Methylene Blue Dye Reduction Test used to be one of the main statutory tests for checking if milk was bad by checking how much oxygen is present in the milk. This lets you know how much aerobic bacteria is in the milk (bacteria that requires oxygen). This is actually a science experiment you can do yourself. While we do have newer, better tests for handling milk in bulk refrigeration these days, it's important to note for a long time this was a large part of measuring milk quality.

4.) It just takes time to process, test, and ship milk. You mentioned it yourself-- usually to get a glass bottle you have to get it from a dairy, something local and closer to home. So it hasn't traveled as far.

Also, while it's not legal everywhere, some people will sell raw milk in glass bottles so there isn't even time wasted processing or testing the milk. However, raw milk goes bad faster. Still, some people might prefer the taste while it's still good. Processing is done to kill bad bacteria(so it's not a bad thing), but it does take time that eats into shelf life. Milk delivered to you may only be a few hours old. The processing itself can effect the flavor of the milk. Processing plants can hold milk for up to 3 days.

5.) In many areas, the companies that bottle with glass are the ones that are making higher quality milk in the first place. Glass is expensive, and usually only people who are willing to pay more for higher quality milk are going to be the same ones who pay for a higher quality bottle. Glass bottles are good for the environment and so some people are willing to pay more for that. Refillable glass uses about half as much energy vs plastic counterpart. Note here that glass doesn't automatically mean "better milk".

6.) The way food looks affects our perception of taste.

  In a 1980 study, subjects were blindfolded and asked to tell whether
  the beverage they were drinking was flavored orange. Only one in five
  could. But when they were allowed to see what they were drinking, each
  of them identified the orange flavor. And when a lime-flavored drink
  was colored orange, nearly half of respondents thought it was flavored
  orange

You also see this with high-end restaurants-- they put a lot of value in how the food is plated, going as far as using a ruler to get a perfectly straight line, and wiping up small drips to make the food look perfect. Our vision influences our taste.

Since most glass is translucent and most plastic containers are not, there's a good chance this influences taste as well.


Shellfish is expected in etouffee, most commonly shrimp or crawfish. Crab meat is another option. Without shellfish it kind of isn't etouffee anymore, but it can still be great and you can still call it etouffee if you want!

For example, here's a recipe for chicken etouffee.

Where do you live that you can't find raw shrimp? I admire your gumption trying to make it with cooked shrimp, but I'm not surprised that it turned out bland and rubbery. Your best bet for raw shrimp is to look for it frozen. Many places will carry raw shrimp individually-quick-frozen and easy-peel, which means that the shrimp are already deveined, and since the shells are already cut down the back, they just pull off. An advantage of buying shrimp this way is that you can simmer the shells for a few minutes and get a nice shrimp broth to use in the etouffee sauce. Most markets that sell raw shrimp at the seafood counter are selling frozen shrimp that they have defrosted, so buying it frozen is actually a better option for freshness.

Since the seafood in etouffee is generally added last and just cooked through, you can really use whatever protein you want. Certainly whitefish would work, so would scallops. I once had a great lobster etouffee. Another great option would be to use andouille or kielbasa sausage with or without seafood too.


What temperature should I serve salami at?

Room temperature for sure!

Eating something like salami chilled detracts from its flavour. Obviously you want to be a bit careful about leaving it out for a really long time, but I usually take anything I want to eat out of the fridge well before consumption.


What is the "Kamchin" can on the photo and what can I do with its contents?

Kamchin is a mixture of herbs, used for making Persian stews such as Ghormeh Sabzi. In Farsi, Ghormeh means stew and Sabzi means herbs. A basic recipe for Ghormeh Sabzi is:

INGREDIENTS 500g of Beef or Lamb I cup kidney beans 2 onions 500g Kamchin – these are Persian herbs, a mix that is mostly parsley and spinach
METHOD Fry onions Add Kamchin Fry beef 5 – 10 minutes Add 4 cups of water Cook for 2 – 2 ½ hours over low flame. The end result is a thick stew of meat, vegetable and beans. Serve over rice. In this case it was decorated rice.

I found many variations of this basic recipe. Some had a dark green such as spinach or kale while others used potatoes. A Google search will give you a ton of results for Ghormeh Sabzi, and while some don't specify Kamchin, they do call for the same ingredients found in Kamchin.
I would think that the Kamchin could be used for other Persian or Iranian stews, or really in any hearty lamb or beef stew, as it is a nice blend of herbs.


Is there a basic, universal recipe for cupcakes?

From personal experiences, reading cookbooks, and making far too many baked goods I've learned that it can be tricky to just adding extra ingredients while maintaining a universal base cake or cupcake recipe. However, with good judgment and some basic ingredients ratios you could come close to an archetype.

Some ratios (by weight) of basic ingredients include:

Pound Cake - 1 part each flour, eggs, fat, and sugar
Butter Cake - 2 parts each flour, and sugar. 1 part each eggs and fat

Beyond that here are some basic rules

The ratio of sugar to flour should be 1 to 1 in most recipes, maybe slightly higher in the sugar side of things.
Same with eggs, they should weigh about the same as your fats, possibly slightly more.
In general liquids measurements (including eggs) should weigh the same as or more than the sugar.
Eggs are in interesting ingredient. Whites tend to dry things out while yolks tend to make a richer more velvety texture. More yolks to whites (like in a yellow cake) make for creamer textures, the inverse make for drier more crumbly textures.
Then comes leavening. A teaspoon of baking powder per cup of flour often does the trick.

Adding extra ingredients however can throw off your recipe. Bananas for example can replace some of the sugars and some of the fats. Peanut-butter some of the flours and some of the fat. Adding enough chocolate chips, though they stay pretty much contained, may not interfere with the other ingredients but will increase the density of your recipe and may require additional cooking time. Adding coco powder instead of flour usually deems the need for more egg yolks and sugars.

Really you just have to play around until you get a good feel for things.


Can I re-cook potatoes stored half-roasted in the fridge?

Theoretically roasting them more should cook them further, however after cooling and drying in the fridge they may not come out with a very nice texture. Try microwaving a few of them before you roast them, if microwaving cooks them to they are done and you still want to eat them afterwards then roasting is a good option. If microwaving them doesn't work out roasting isn't likely to either.

When roasting potatoes I prefer to par-boil them before roasting, it really gives a much better result! See my answer to this question for some more details.


Are there aged cheeses I can make which don't require a cheese fridge?

The cheeses that just plain won't work in the fridge are those that make use of bacteria or mold with "special needs". Swiss, camembert, and any blue cheese come to mind. The bacteria that produce the holes in Swiss need specific, relatively warm, temps for specific times. Likewise the molds on the rinds or through blue cheeses need warmer but still cooler than room temperature.

Most semi-firm to firm cheeses can be aged just fine in a fridge. Many generic cheese recipes such as:
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese98.htm
or
http://www.cheesemakingrecipe.com/Dutch.html
either say to age in the fridge or don't give a temperature at all and just say "age in a cool place".

In particular cheddar or gouda like cheeses age just fine in the fridge. Parmesan should also work but I personally haven't had the patience to wait the year necessary to try it.

Of course if generic-cheddar-like cheese isn't good enough and you want to recreate some particular cheddar that will be harder. Those recipes usually call for something like "Age for 6 months in this particular cave in France".

As for room temperature. I don't know. Room temperature at my house is 80F and no cheese will work with that.


How to prevent a baby scoby from forming in bottled kombucha

Pasteurisation would reduce viable cell count in your kombucha which is undesirable.

Refrigeration, as I just recently discovered, only slows the growth of the scoby but it would give you enough time to keep the liquid clear. Given enough time (>3 months in my case), you will see growth at 3C.

Whether it is a single or double ferment, there is really no difference unless your substrate is very different in the second fermentation. The yeast species are responsible for the fizz while bacteria like G.Xylinus is responsible for the formation of the cellulose mat you want to control. I have not yet looked into what makes G.Xylinus thrive, but even in a scoby there has to be some conditions that favour yeasts over bacteria, whether it is a pH threshold or nitrogen or some other micro nutrient.

You might want to experiment with it. What I do notice is that old scoby kept at low temperatures are less capable of producing gas, which suggests that the yeast population is harmed by high acidity or high acidity at low temperature.

G.Xylinus and other bacteria feed on ethanol from yeast to produce acids (primarily acetic and lactic). So, you might want to try a removing the new growth and rebottling without any further sugar addition.

Agitation also prevents mat formation but you will still find sediments and "scum" suspended in the liquid. If that is acceptable, you can just shade the bottles periodically to disrupt the mat.


What does beating eggs actually do (chemically speaking)?

The main purpose of beating an egg is to "denature" the protein within the egg.  Proteins are long chains of amino acids and they have lots of internal chemical bonds, which hold them together into tightly contained units.  When a protein is denatured, those internal bonds break and the amino acid chains unravel and become elongated.  At the same time, atoms that were previously bonded (as part of the internal bonds I mentioned) become available to bond with other molecules.

When an egg is heated to 40 degrees celsius, its protein chains become denatured and elongate, which allows chemical reactions to occur.  The egg changes from a liquid solution of protein into a solid mass.

A similar thing happens with you beat an egg.  The physical act of beating causes the protein strands to stretch, thereby causing the protein to denature (the internal bonds are broken as a result of the application of physical force).  So, rather than the protein chains being bound up into tight balls, they become long strands.  This is similar to gluten when it is developed.  These strands form structures that allow the trapping of air, which results in a lighter texture.

Beating eggs is not just about mixing.  It's about changing the structure of the eggs to produce a physical effect.  To read more about this, see "The Science of Cooking" by Peter Barham.


Why do some instructions tell you how long to preheat an oven for?

There are some ovens out there that beep after a given amount of time, if they've hit the correct temperature or not.

Most of the residential ovens I've dealt with likely aren't at 400F within 10 minutes.  It's possible that the recipe writer wants the dish going in before preheating is finished, but they have no way of knowing how long it takes your oven to heat up, so those instructions are going to give inconsistent results.


Growing peppers of the proper heat level I think will be the most important.

If you like a lot of spice and grow Jalapeno peppers, then everything is going to taste like Jalapeno because you have to use a lot to get your desired heat level.

If you have the appropriate heat level pepper, then a little goes a long way in a dish and you will feel it much more than you taste it.

Here is a page with a nice list of peppers with ratings from the Scoville Scale (also explained on the page) http://ushotstuff.com/Heat.Scale.htm


When is Slow Cooking done - time vs temperature of meat

The answer depends on the type of cut. If you have a tender cut of meat then there's no reason to cook it any longer than then desired doneness. If you are using a tough cut then there's lots of collagen that needs to be broken down, and that requires moisture and time. You want to cook it until all the collagen is broken down as that will make the meat tender. That may take 2 hours, it may take 6, it depends on the cut and the thickness.

I have a similar experience with my slow cooker, it goes way too fast. To get around this I've ended up putting in big chunks of meat and veggies because anything else is completely nuked after 8 hours! I've also thought about using a light timer to have it start 3 hours after I leave home.


Trying to improve a vegetarian wrap by adding spinach

Fresh uncooked washed baby spinach would be best. Just the leaves, no stems.

If you wanted to, you could lay the spinach out over the wrap, then put the fried ingredients on while hot, so that they partially cook the spinach, add your sauce, then roll up.


Can you bake cornbread in enameled cast iron?

Yes and no.

Corn bread doesn't necessarily require cast iron. With the style that does require cast iron, an enameled pan shouldn't be used.

There are two styles of cornbread, northern style and southern style.

Southern style is cooked in a cast iron pan. The pan is preheated with oil in the oven until very hot. The batter is then poured in and the bread baked.

This style of cornbread is oilier, crispy on the edges, and typically less sweet.

Even though this style is made in cast iron, you shouldn't make it in an enameled Dutch oven because the preheating step gets too hot and could ruin your pan. https://www.lodgemfg.com/use-and-care/enameled-cast-iron-use-and-care.asp

Northern style cornbread is fluffier and often sweeter. The batter is poured into a cold pan and baked.

As there is no preheating step, you can use any pan for this style, including your enameled pan.


Bake and then Broil instead of flipping?

The reason for turning the food when baking is so the side that is in contact with the pan can get hit by the hot air. In the case of turning on the bake and then turning on the broil, you would still have the medium of what ever your food is sitting in.

If you are willing to elevated your food above a drip pan, turn on just the bottom heating coil (if possible), and set the food directly on the rack you could eliminate the need of turning halfway through the process.


How to prepare mutton so it's not tough?

Lamb shoulder requires only one thing - time.

The marinade would work wonders I'm sure. However lamb shoulder needs a long slow cook. I would roast it in one piece then carve it for serving. I suggest two methods:

Slow roast. Perhaps a 150C heat, maybe 5 - 6 hours. It's ready when you can pinch the meat off the bone between finger and thumb. Make sure you allow it to rest for a good hour.
Part-braise. A Greek family taught me a lovely recipe which involves using your spices slackened down with enough water to cover the base of your roasting dish, then continually basting the lamb as you go along. Roast in about a 170C oven for about 2 hours, covering with foil for the first hour to build up steam.


You don't knead soda bread for long, some methods call for no kneading at all. One reason is texture, soda bread should be a bit crumbly, stretchy isn't what you are aiming for. The other reason is to get the most out of your leavening agent. Baking soda and buttermilk (or any other acid) will start to react immediately on contact, although the reaction is much slower at room temperature than oven temperature, so the longer your wait the less rise you'll get.
I like to knead my soda bread for about 60 seconds, just for a bit more structure as I like it that way, but that's as far as I go. I do it all by hand, a mixer is overkill in my opinion as you'll spend more time cleaning up than you will actually mixing anything. Others may have a different view on that, there's no right or wrong answer to that one.
You can't add the soda later in the process because you won't get an even distribution, it needs to be mixed in the flour at the beginning.


Learning how to cook again, burned cooking oil making pancakes but not sure what it produces?

From an NIH paper about cooking fumes:

  "Frying at high temperatures also produces aerosols of fat with small aerodynamic diameters of 20–500 nm which disperse in the air of the kitchen and nearby facilities."

People like me who wear glasses while cooking know all about this. Even being in the same room as someone sauteeing something undoubtedly means needing to clean the fine grease spots off of your glasses. If the air temperature outside allows it, you should run your hood/fan not only while you're cooking, but for a little while after to remove as much grease from the air as possible. Even hoods that don't vent to the outdoors have crinkly 'filters' designed to trap airborne grease droplets so they don't travel too far. Even with decent ventilation, the grease droplets will eventually accumulate on just about anything that shares airspace with your stove, including your projector lens.

As an aside, like butter, unrefined coconut oil has a very low smoke point. You should only use it at reduced temperatures, and use more refined oils for higher-temperature cooking. Though it takes a little experience to judge it precisely, putting a few droplets of water on a pan and seeing how they behave is a pretty good way to test it before you add oil. If it evaporates nearly instantly or exhibits the leidenfrost effect, it's too hot for low-smoke-point oils.


What happens to yeast in bread after it dies?

Nothing truly disappears even in thermonuclear reactions and baking bread is not even close to that.

When you bake bread, water evaporates into the atmosphere and the CO2 and other volatiles released by the yeast bacteria dissipate there as well, which means that the solids of the yeast just remain inside the bread.

So you can tell your friend that their statement is untrue. and that with each bite of bread they're eating a graveyard full of dead yeast bodies...  ;-)


Oven temperature when increase bread recipe?

You need to increase something and time is the easiest:  for 50% more weight add 50% more time is the rule of thumb for an increase up to 100%.

You can also increase both temperature and time but then you should halve each so 25% hotter and 25% longer.

Note: This works up to an increase of 100%. Larger than that, volume calculations come into place too.


What is the purpose of salt in fermented vegetables?

Purposes of salt include

To draw liquids out of cells via osmosis (beating the vegetables up first also helps with this) which creates a brine. You want a liquid as the competitors to lactic acid bacteria like oxygen, so you minimize that by keeping the fermented material submerged in the brine the salt helped create.
Salt hardens pectin, which alters the texture of the vegetables (more crunch).
Lactic acid bacteria also like a slightly salty environment, and competitors do not.
Adding salt avoids putrefaction (preservative).
Adding salt limits booze-causing yeasts; if you do want alcohol production, that's a different discussion.

The salt percent can be as low as 0.8% but is more typically higher, perhaps 1.5%; too high a percentage of salt can inhibit lactic acid bacteria (a goldilocks problem). So in your case it may help to try lower percentages, perhaps 1% or 1.5%, depending on how accurate your measurements are.

High salt ferments (preserved lemons, etc) probably should be avoided.

A soak and rinse of the fermented materials may help reduce sodium, but could also wash away nutrients.

You could also try salt-free ferments, though these may or may not work out as the lactic acid bacteria will have more competitors and there will be more putrefaction (softer mushy texture).


What all fruits/crops can be stored in natural temperature for a long time?

Nature has designed some food-stuff to last a long time.  Grains (wheat, rice, corn, oats, ...), which are the seeds of grasses, will last the longest, often more than one year.  Seeds need a long shelf-life if the plant is going to make it to the next growing season.  Next come roots (onions, potatoes, ...), which need to last from one year to the next.  Nuts, in the cooking sense, are seeds surrounded by a shell, will also last several years if they are dry.  So almonds, peanuts, pine nuts will keep, but not coconuts or chestnuts.  Other food types are going to need some help, which basically means getting rid of the water in the food-stuff (lentils, beans, peas, chick peas, soybean, ...) or slowing down bacterial growth (through dehydration, freezing, irradiation, canning, cooling, ...)

I have cooked grains and dried beans and lentils from my pantry that were over a year old.  They all made good meals.


Why some fruits are less common for making jam?

The historical purpose of jam is to preserve fruit from a time of bounty to a time when it is less plentiful.

Therefore, to be a candidate for jam making, the fruit must be reasonably plentiful in the region where it would be preserved.

Technically, in order to form a jam or a jelly, there must be sufficient pectin and sufficient acid in the fruit to thicken it.  In some regions, there are traditional combinations of high and low pectin fruits, in order to get a viable jam from the low pectin fruit.

Some fruits need acid, in the form of vinegar or lemon juice usually, added in order to help them gel; others need additional pectin.  Canning Homemade has lists of high, medium, and low pectin fruits.

Other than this, it is down to the cultural preferences in a given region.


What's the least messy way to prepare grapefruit?

I'd say your best bet is segmenting the grapefruit before trying to eat it.

Here's a good video about it. How to Peel and Segment a Grapefruit

Downside: It's a lot more work, and you still wind up with a juice-covered cutting board that needs to be washed.


I want to make my own cheese. How do I get started?

Making Mozzarella is not fantastically difficult, but certain things during the process are critical, probably the most important is temperature.

If it's your first time making cheese, you might find the buying a 'starter kit' the easiest way to get up and running. These will provide you with all the important items you needm such as rennet. If you feel brave, then you forego the kit and dive right in.

For Mozzarella try to find Buffalo milk, which is what 'proper' Mozzarella is made from. It's lower in cholesterol than cows milk, has more protein and makes a much richer cheese. If you can't get Buffalo milk use the best full fat, non-homogenized milk you can find.

Here's a recipe I've used before MOZZARELLA

Here's a link with the differences between Buffalo milk and cows milk

Cow Milk vs Buffalo Milk

Whilst it's quite possible to make virtually any variety of cheese at home, some cheeses, such as blue cheese, require a place to develop at the correct temperature and for quite long periods of time.  ideally, this would be a temperature around 10c with a humidity around 70% and a time for maturing at around 2 to 3 months.

Here's a good place to start:

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/blue_cheese/blue_cheese.htm


How to separate two jammed-together measuring cups?

Filling the lower jug with water and then putting the whole thing in the freezer worked. I checked it after a couple of hours and didn't think it had worked as I still couldn't separate them, but it mustn't have finished freezing at that point because when I looked again a bit later the ice had travelled up between the two jugs and then at some point the inner jug must have popped free.


How do I tone down biryani that is too spicy?

You can add any kind of fat that will encapsulate the capsaicin from the chili. This can be:

Dairy (full-fat milk or cream)
Butter
Rendered fat (along with creme or butter)

You can also add a sweetener to offset the impact of the capsaicin, but that's not ideal for biryani. With the fat, what happens is, the 'hot' parts of the chili get coated and sort of disappear into the dish. An acid alone is likely to just make the dish too spicy and tart.

I would add a little more vegetable oil and some heavy cream with butter to tone it down. Add it a little at a time. Then use some citrus (lime, calamansi, etc) along with some additional ground cardamom to bring out the sharper notes again. You can add more chicken stock to thin it out. But here, the acid is just to put some flavor back, not really hide the chili.

Coconut cream/milk will also work, not quite as well as full dairy cream.

Note, make small adjustments then wait for 5 - 10 minutes to taste, or you'll easily take out too much flavor with the cream.

In closing:

Use a fat to absorb some of the capsaicin from the chili, but do it in a way that won't make your dish too oily.
This will alter the taste of your dish, it can also hide notes like cardamom and clove and cinnamon/anise / etc. You have to put that flavor back in, along with the fruity taste of the chili.
Since serving over rice, you can add a little more stock just before spooning it over to help tone it down some more (as a final resort)


I would bet that the "something" your grandma said about shine was "beat it until it's not shiny anymore."  The likely reasons that your fudge isn't setting are that you're either not heating it hot enough to begin with, not waiting long enough before you start beating, or you're not beating it until it loses its shine.

Here's how I'd re-write your recipe's instructions to make them a bit more detailed.

Version 1 (you don't own a candy thermometer):
Heat the first 5 ingredients until medium soft ball stage.
Remove from heat and cool without disturbance for about 10-15 minutes.
Add vanilla and nuts beat until the candy begins to lose its shine.
When it is beginning to thicken and becomes opaque, pour/scrape it into a prepared pan.

Version 2 (you own a candy thermometer):
Heat the first 5 ingredients until 240 F.
Remove from heat and cool without disturbance until candy reaches 140 F.
Add vanilla and nuts beat until the candy begins to lose its shine.
When it is beginning to thicken and becomes opaque, pour/scrape it into a prepared pan.


How 豉椒炒蜆 (stir fry clams in black bean sauce), without black beans?

Since no one more knowledgeable has come along, I'll go ahead and put together an answer.
Based on the recipe, it looks like you're actually intended to make your own black bean sauce using fermented black beans, or douchi. It seems that Chinese douchi are made and known as "hamanatto" in Japan as well. Searching online, there are retailers that you could purchase Japanese dried hamanatto from, but I have not done so myself. It looks like that would be the best direct substitute for douchi.
As a substitution for the resulting black bean sauce, I would personally recommend Korean chunjang. Chunjang, which also translates to black bean paste, is the major flavoring component in Jjajang sauce in Korea, and you can even find Jjajang (or "chajang") sauce premade.
I have Lee Kum Kee brand Chinese black bean sauce on hand as well as Assi brand Korean chunjang, so my mother and I did a small taste test (and included some other bean sauces, like doubanjiang, akamiso, and some zhajiang I prepared a while back.) We agreed that we of the options we had on hand, Korean chunjang would be the best substitution for a Mongolian beef recipe we love that also calls for Chinese black bean sauce if we ran out.
The black bean sauces were both predominantly salty, with some pleasant bitterness to them and a little sweetness. The Lee Kum Kee reminded me a little of bitter chocolate, but it was very mild. The chunjang on the other hand was much more aggressive all around, which makes sense since it's a paste rather than a prepared sauce. The bitterness and sweetness were both stronger, and it also had more acidity. It was also saltier, being more concentrated, but the other flavors seemed stronger proportionately. I might describe it as a little smoky, rather than chocolatey, which makes sense if black caramel color is added. But other than the acidity we both detected in the chunjang, the flavors were very similar. Both are complex flavors and can't be fully described, but while certainly different, I think chunjang would work well in a pinch, potentially with some extra salt, to taste.
My only other suggestion would be to look into fermenting your own douchi. You can buy black soy beans online, and you should also be able to purchase an aspergillus starter. It seems the basic process is to inoculate the steamed black soybeans with the aspergillus spores to create koji. After a week, the koji is washed (to remove bitterness), then dried and combined with salt (I saw references to a 15% brine as well as 15% salt by weight.) and then aged for several weeks or months. Again, I have not done this myself, and would recommend doing significantly more research before attempting. But based on what I've read it should be quite doable.
Good luck!


Making tea out of grape leaves -when to pick the leaves?

The descriptions of grape leaf tea I have seen don't mention a specific age to pick the leaves at - so leaves of most any age are likely to be fine, it probably isn't necessary to only pick those of a certain age, say, the newest leaves or anything.  Grape leaves are also edible (stuffed grape leaves, or pickled ones) so you may not need to worry about toxicity, either.  However, some sites do mention medicinal value, which means you should be careful about dosages until you're sure about the effects drinking the tea will have on you.

In general, I would expect the tea to be made from mature, medium-sized leaves, since that's the type picked for cooking with (and so most likely to be on hand when someone goes, "what if we made it into tea?").  Older leaves may have less flavor, since that (along with texture) is one of the reasons they're not preferred for cooking with.  New leaves might not have enough flavor to be apparent, or might take more effort to get enough of them to make a difference, or smaller size per leaf means an equivalent volume might have an adverse effect on the vines.

Grape leaves are usually harvested late spring to early summer, though if you look at sites dedicated to the harvesting of grape leaves for other culinary purposes, you may find more specific information including harvesting dates or locations for your particular area.  The type of grape vine (green, red, wild) may also make a difference to your tea and its effects, though all of them should be nontoxic.


Your oven temp may be off - check your oven temp.  Get an oven thermometer and check your temp.


question regarding repulsion to dishes prepared with garlic in a certain way

The garlic clove contains a lot of volatile chemicals, and they get brought out when the physical clove that contains it gets cut or smashed.
Pushing the clove through a press, or grinding it brings out all the different volatile chemicals, in full force, compared to leaving the head or a clove intact, or versus a coarse chop or fine chop.
There are probably some bitter aromatics or the strength being brought to the fore that you don't care for.
It's also possible that those flavors are interacting with the ginger in a way that you don't care for. It's not easy to say, since that's a matter of personal preference.

Garlic bulbs contain a sulfuric compound just like onions, shallots, and other members of the tasty allium family. In the wild, this acts as a defense to ward away animals. In our kitchens, the same sulfur compounds transform our food into aromatic, mouthwatering dishes – though raw garlic is still a bit too potent for many of us to enjoy!
The sulfur compounds are released as soon as we cut into a bulb of garlic and expose the inside surfaces to oxygen in the air. More chopping will release more of the compounds, so it follows that minced garlic and garlic paste will have the strongest taste.
We use garlic paste and minced garlic in dishes where we want a strong garlic flavor permeating the dish. The small little pieces will also dissolve into the other ingredients over long cooking, leaving sauces smooth and evenly seasoned.
Whole garlic is at the other end of the spectrum. Since the sulfur compounds are never forcefully released, whole garlic will simply add a subtle and slightly sweet garlic flavor to dishes. Crushing the cloves releases a little of the sulfur, making the garlic flavor a little stronger. Roughly chopped garlic dials up the flavor yet again.

TheKitchn.com: Whole, Crushed, or Minced Garlic: What’s the Difference?


Why do grape-flavored foods taste different than actual grapes?

Concord grapes, which most grape jellies/jams/preserves in the US are made from, are derived from the (US-native) "fox grape" (Vitis labrusca) rather than (Europe-native) wine grape (Vitis vinifera). Common table grapes (the ones eaten as fresh fruit) such as Thompson seedless are also derived from Vitis vinifera wine grapes.

Fox grapes have a "foxy" taste character, which is a result of the presence of the naturally occurring compound methyl anthranilate. Methyl anthranilate is a rather simple compound, and is used in many situations as an "artificial grape flavor". In many cases "grape flavored" candies, drinks and medicines are flavored not with grape extracts, but with synthetically produced methyl anthranilate. As such, these artificially flavored foods taste like Concord grapes (fox grapes), rather than table or wine grapes.

While it would be possible to come up with "artificial wine grape" flavor, the flavor profile of wine and table grapes is not dominated by a single compound, as fox grapes are. Therefore, any such "artificial wine grape" flavor would be much more expensive than artificial Concord grape flavor (i.e. just methyl anthranilate). As such, when companies reach for "grape flavor", they tend to go for the more inexpensive Concord grape flavor.

This also adds to the persistent expectation (at least in the US) as to what "grape flavored" means. Even if you came out with a wine-grape-flavored Jolly Rancher, many in the US would think it wouldn't taste right, as they expect grape flavored things to taste like Concord grapes.


Why do BBQ sauce recipes specify that you must cook the sauce?

Most of the popular ingredients for BBQ sauce (vinegar/ketchup/sugar etc.) tend not to mix very well together. I know whenever I've made BBQ sauce, placing all of the ingredients into a pan together they tend to separate and are difficult to combine.

Heating up the ingredients, however, causes them to combine better, and after a short time cooking they will bind together and give a more consistent texture/taste. Otherwise the different ingredients may continue to separate even when mixed, and you may find clumps of sugar that have not dissolved into the liquid etc.

It's quite possible your BBQ sauce recipe doesn't need cooking, so long as things are substituted (like sugar for sugar syrup or honey) in order to combine better, but this may well give an incorrect texture because of the change in ingredients.

Therefore if the ingredients you use can be combined without being heated, it's likely that it doesn't need cooking, however you may end up with an uneven flavor.

As pointed out in a comment by @ToddWilcox, there may also be constituent ingredients that do require cooking, such as garlic or onion, in order to achieve the correct flavor so that they do not taste raw.

Some sauces may also specify being cooked simply to make them thicker or more concentrated, as adding thickening agents such as flour may affect the taste, particularly if it is uncooked.

So whilst there are some BBQ sauce recipes that may get away with being uncooked based on their ingredients, there are others that will definitely require cooking.


Make sure your cake fondant isn't too runny.
It might be a good idea to let the fondant on the cake set for a few hours before topping on the whipped cream, in order to harden the foundation to prevent colors from bleeding in.
Here is a thread of comments that focuses on the issue with bleeding colors from whipped cream: Keep Colors From Bleeding?


Will flavors marry in compound butter if given sufficient time to rest?

If you leave the butter uncovered in the fridge, it will eventually pick up the tastes from everything else in the fridge.  This really is why there is a special compartment for it.  The compound butter has to do less work to infuse.

Our chef school teacher said they made their compound butter ~2-days ahead of the event so the flavours would infuse properly.  The piece of butter I tried had no strawberries in it, but it sure smelled and carried the taste of strawberry.

I've even done the lazy-man's compound butter by rolling the butter stick in Thyme and stick it in the fridge.


Why does this chicken recipe result in a glutinous mess?

The reason for the flour being part of the breading process is to create a barrier between the meat and the breading, which will during the frying step allow for the formation of small steam pockets and a crisper crust. In a Wiener schnitzel this leads to the characteristic wrinkled surface. On the other hand, it’s the flour-egg mix that acts as „glue“ for the breadcrumbs or whatever you are using.

The amount of flour that is needed to achieve this is minimal. If you end up with flour in the egg, then I suspect you aren’t shaking off the excess flour.

The proper procedure starts with dry meat. This ensures that only little flour actually sticks to the meat when you then shake your meat to make sure all extra flour falls off. In this way you prevent the formation of what you describe as “glutinous mess”.

Then you proceed with the egg (again, let the extra drip off) and breadcrumbs.

Shallow-fry and serve immediately to ensure the crust is still crisp.


Can I still cook this white king hot cake without using any eggs?

Generally pancake mixes that require eggs use them as a binder, so if you try to cook them without eggs, they may not hold together.  You can decrease the liquid, but then you'll end up with something tough and probably not what you want.  You may want to have a look at suggestions in answers to this question.


That fig doesn't look ripe to me... but I'm not seeing it in person. Based on the info on the site mentioned below, it's likely the fig is not ripe as the neck is very straight.
Eating unripe figs won't hurt you, though... they just won't taste very good.
Regardless, they should be slightly soft, not firm. According to this site, they will droop on their stems with the weight of their fruit. Here are two of the several photos showing an unripe and very ripe fig:

Fig 1. (above) Not ripe: the fig is too firm and still perpendicular to the stem.

Fig 4. Gravity wins and the fig is ripe and ready, no longer able to support its weight. Note the dewy skin and slight tear in the fruit; it can barely hold its sugary contents at this point.  (Time to grab the snips and go crazy!)

Here's another site with even more info, similar to the previous one. They list three methods to knowing when a fig is ripe: sight, touch, and taste.
Sight:

Go by the color. One of the first signs your figs are becoming ripe is their change in color. Young, immature and unripe figs tend to be small and green in hue. For varieties like Brown Turkey, Chicago Hardy, Celeste, and LSU Purple, the color will change from green to brown or purple as the fruit ripens. In the case of certain fig varieties, like Kadota and LSU Gold, the fruit’s mature color is still greenish — so how do you rely on sight if the fig’s color doesn’t noticeably change? Read on!
Go by the appearance. The fruit itself will droop on the tree as it ripens. This is true for figs regardless of mature color. Young, firm figs tend to stand out perpendicular to the tree. As they ripen and soften, the fruit will bend at the stalk where it is attached to the tree.
Go by the size. As the fruit matures on the tree, it will also grow in size*. The mature size depends on the variety you are growing, but the figs will all increase in size as they begin to mature and ripen on the tree.

Touch:

A ripe fig will be soft to the touch when gently squeezed. Unripe figs are still firm. This is because the ripening process has not yet taken place, and the juices and sugars that are produced as the fruit ripens are not fully present.

Taste:

Ripe figs are delightfully rich and sweet with a soft, smooth texture when they are fresh from the tree. Unripe figs can be rubbery, dry, and lack sweetness. The most effective way to tell your figs are unripe is to eat one before its peak. Most people only eat an unripe fig once before deciding to wait and allow figs to fully ripen before harvesting.


Verjus (the non-fermented juice of unripened grapes) is going to be more acidic than wine, but I have been unable to find a number/concentration.  Probably because a lot depends on the grapes at the time of harvest.  The acidity of various vinegars also ranges, so comparing verjus to vinegar would require much more specificity of the types of products you are intending to use.  So, if you are choosing between wine and verjus, go for the latter.


How do I extract the membrane from an egg?

Probably find it easier to crack a raw egg and then peel the membrane from inside. Maybe use some tweezers to get started.


Making a 2 ramekin recipe into an 8 ramekin recipe: Do I change the cooking time?

Should be exactly the same - what you are cooking is the same size, how many you are cooking makes no difference. One cupcake or 50 would take the same amount of time to cook, if that's easier to think of. A pan of boiling water in the oven does not care how many ramekins are in it, so long as there's some space between them


Can I preserve fresh potato gnocchi by drying it?

Surprisingly, the answer seems to be a qualified yes, however the texture is not the same. The dried gnocchi turned out to be much better if fried after boiling; see below.

Here are the results of my experiment:

I dried a small amount of the fresh Gnocchi by placing them in a 150 degree (Farenheit) oven for about an hour, then turning off the oven and leaving them in all day. It is very dry here, so that did the trick.

I boiled the dried gnocchi after several days of storage. They took about ten times longer to boil than their fresh counterparts. Even after they were fully cooked, they were not as soft as the fresh gnocchi, and they never regained their original size or shape. Overall, they were denser, firmer, and less sticky. Not desirable traits necessarily, but they were quite edible.

I decided to pan-fry a small batch in about a tablespoon of oil, and these turned out wonderfully! I have pan-fried gnocchi before, and it tends to be hard to keep them intact and keep them from sticking. The previously dried gnocchi, however, did not stick and held up to vigorous frying. The result were gnocchi with a crispy exterior and soft (if somewhat dense) interior. The crispy outside and flavor reminded me of samosas. These weren't just edible, they were great. I plan to dry about half of my next batch and use the dried gnocchi exclusively for frying.


Modernist Cuisine-style BBQ brisket safety

I am not aware of any rigorous tests done on a sequence like you propose.  In the absence of data, I simply assume holding any open cooked product more than a week in the refrigerator is risky, smoke notwithstanding.

You can significantly boost your safety by soaking your brisket for at least 24 hours in an acidic salt bath -- perhaps with some brown sugar and aromatics for added flavor.  Consider, for example, a recipe like Alton Brown's corned beef, which IMHO is tasty.  (Add a dry rub of fresh-ground black pepper and, say, a little fresh-ground allspice and juniper, and you have pastrami.)

By the way, after smoking you don't have to wait for your brisket to cool: any vacuum bag suitable for immersion/sous-vide cooking can easily handle a brisket right off a 150*F smoker, no cooling/waiting needed.  Besides, if you submerge the still-hot brisket after sealing in its bag into a 150-160*F water bath for 10 minutes, you will have effectively Pasteurized your product; with the residual salt and acid, I personally would be comfortable holding the sealed bag in the refrigerator up to two weeks (if I needed longer I would freeze it).


There is no reason that they should be harmed in any way by their sojourn under refrigeration.  In fact, since the rate of chemical reactions is directly related to temperature, their shelf life may have been slightly extended.

You can move it to dry stores.

While there are some circumstances where very fresh mayonnaise should be kept at room temperature, that does not apply to the commercial product.


Is it better to refrigerate cooked chicken

Freezing will damage the texture, making it a bit wooly. It would be better refrigerated. It will taste better, too,  if allowed to come to room temperature before serving.


Egg wash is an answer.

Source: http://www.dutchovendave.com/breadbasics.html

[For a shiny crust, brush the top of the bread with an equal solution of whole egg, water and milk. If desired, sprinkle with poppy, caraway or sesame seed or rolled oats.

For a softer, deep golden brown crust, brush with softened butter or margarine.

For a crisp crust, brush or spray lightly with water.

For a soft, tender crust, brush with milk.

After glazing (brushing with one of these ingredients), slash the top of the loaf with a sharp serrated knife, cutting about 1/4 inch deep, once down the center of the loaf or across the loaf a few times.]


Can you mix white and multigrain flours?

Yes.  In fact, most bread recipes that use these flours have a base of white flour to which they are added.


Can I use cookie cutter shapes in a frying pan?

In general places that do this with pancakes do not cut-out, but indeed use a mold or the like.  The scrambled eggs would likely look fine "cut", but part of a pancake is the edge, even if it is modified by touching the edge of the mold.

So long as the mold is metal, your dollar-store purchases should be fine.

You will likely need to oil/butter them in some way so that the product - batter or egg - does not stick to the metal itself.

I have myself used clean old tuna tins to make round "self-contained" fried eggs for a home version of a McMuffin.


What counts as "hydration" when figuring Dough Hydration?

The term is not really defined that way. In the strict sense, it only has meaning for lean doughs - made of only flour, water, yeast and salt, eventually preferments or later mixins like seeds.

You can extend it to enriched doughs (those that have fat, milk, eggs, tomato juice, etc.) but then it is no longer sharply defined. Calculating the exact content of water (e.g. adding to the calculation 17 g of water for every 100 g of butter) are pretty useless, because the water bound in an emulsion or other kind of colloid doesn't behave the same way as free water when making a dough. So, a dough with 100 g water and 100 g butter will be extremely different from a dough with 117 g of water, and still pretty different from one with 117 g of water and 83 g of oil. So, there is no real formula any more to create an actual percentage.

The concept still stays somewhat useful in this case, but you have to "play it by ear". When you are trying to judge how soft a given enriched dough will be, you can start by calculating all the liquid and fat ingredients as if they were "hydration", which gives you a rough guide to compare it to other doughs, and then you have to make it and gain a tactile understanding of how it actually behaves.


How does curry shop keep their curry hot without reducing them?

Many curry shops and other varieties of fast service restaurants and take out places will indeed keep a variety of broths, soups, stocks, and sauces hot during service hours.

Other components of the dish are kept cold, and heated when the dish is ordered. Some parts may need to be quickly cooked, then the broth added. A curry shop will do exactly this.

When you order a green curry with chicken, they will take a portion of chicken and some vegetables, sautee them until the vegetables are cooked and the chicken hot, then add the sauce. The sauce might be cold or hot, depending on how busy the place is.

Now, to really get to your question...

If a sauce or soup is kept warm for hours, you are exactly correct, it will reduce and get overly salty. There is a very easy fix!!! Add water !!! In any restaurant I have worked I would add water or stock throughout the service period. I would be tasting as needed and adjusting, but it just that simple. Add water. (or heavy cream for cream soup)


Fermented onions in orange juice took a long time to show activity - are they safe to eat?

Edit: See my question here. I plan to update this answer after I get an answer to that question.

I'm a beginner when it comes to this (I've fermented a few quarts of pickles with Fermilids), but from everything I've read, you'll probably survive if you eat it. However, if you add too much salt, that can kill the bacteria needed to do lacto-fermentation, and you may end up salt-curing your vegetables instead of fermenting them.

From what I understand, a 6% salt brine solution is about 3.34 tablespoons per quart of pickles. I've read that your brine should only ever be between 1 to 3 tablespoons of salt per quart of pickles (if you're not using a starter, and you can perhaps use less salt if you use a starter), and that you should use more salt the warmer it is (but not more than 3 tablespoons).

I believe the delay is partially, if not entirely, due to the salt. I imagine that the activity is from beneficial bacteria that needed a longer time to get started, due to the salt. I don't know of any bad stuff that would survive those conditions, if you're not getting mold. I can't give you a definitive answer here, but from everything I've read, that's my opinion.

I used 2.5 to 3 tablespoons of pickling salt on a quart of rhubarb, and I didn't taste much lactic acid in it after three weeks. However, with about 2 tablespoons of pickling salt, and a probiotic (a chewable L. acidophilus and B. lactis tablet) my rhubarb tasted pickled after 6 days. Temperatures for both sets of pickles were between 69 to 73° F., I believe.

From those results and the results with my radishes, I personally would be leery about using more than 2 tablespoons of pickling salt for some vegetables. I'm not sure about cabbage, onions, oranges, etc.

Remember, though: I'm new to this. So, you probably know things I don't.

You'd think onions would ferment quickly, because they're known for their content of FOS (a pre-biotic and sweetener). However, from my experience, I know oranges can take a really long time to compost in a garbage can with a lid on it (they're still whole and visibly oranges after a couple years). So, maybe the orange juice contributed. I'm not sure how LABs respond to citric acid.


How do I get the slimy clumps out of my bisque?

One possible option might be to pick out as many of the vegetable chunks as you feel reasonable, then puree the rest.  You'll end up with a thicker soup body, and fewer vegetable chunks, but it might not be a bad tradeoff to get rid of the lumps.

Or (depending on amount and proportion of liquid to vegetable) strain the liquid out, manually add the vegetable chunks from your strainer to the soup, and either discard lumps left in the strainer or puree them with leftover vegetable chunks (depending on how much patience you have for sorting) with reserved liquid.

Last option - if the lumps are pretty visible, you can pick them out when you see them - for example, when serving from a pot into a dish, or each time you pull it out of the fridge.  If the soup is liquidy you could try scooping up spoonfuls of broth with as many lumps as you can, and ladling them into a strainer held right over the pot, so the liquid will flow right back in and only the lumps get held back.

These last are really annoying, and a lot of work, but if it's really bothering you it does help... I did something similar with a dish once, though it was for woody herb bits, since I didn't want to waste a pot-full of food.


Can you help me get my cream pie filling stiff enough?

My coconut cream pie recipe uses milk (2 cups, whole milk gives a creamier flavour), 6 eggs, 1 cup sugar, and 2 tablespoons of gelatin (and coconut of course). It doesn't go like jelly, it has more of a silky consistency.

You divide the milk thusly:

2/3 cup, sprinkled with the gelatin, whisked, and left to soften for 5 mins
1 1/3 cup to make the 'custard'

Once the custard is made (i.e. sugar whisked into egg yolks, hot milk poured in after tempering), simply whisk in the gelatinised milk. My recipe then calls for cream and the egg whites to be folded in (after cooling) to lighten the whole thing.


How am I meant to use these trays that came with my oven?

Unlike American ovens, some European ovens come with built-in baking trays.  These are designed to slide in and out using the oven rails, and take the place of sheet pans that you would put on top of a rack in an American oven.

They're actually quite convenient, except that there's only two of them.

For example, if you watch this Spanish cookie video, you'll see that Albert is using one of those pans to bake cookies.


What is the meaning of "cream of X" in a soup?

'Cream of' originally meant not only pureed, but cream added, regardless of other ingredients - most modern shop bought versions will either have cream or a product of dairy origin added, which is why there are often warnings about lactose intolerance on 'cream of' soups.


If you've found a very old recipe that calls for scalding for food safety reasons, then yes, it is probably unnecessary.  However, there are places where it is called for.

In particular, when making Béchamel (which is made by combining milk and roux), it is important to scald or at least warm the milk, otherwise you can and most likely will end up with lumps.  The reason to actually scald as oppose to simply warming the milk tends to be one of cooking time; the hotter the milk is, the less time you have to spend whisking.

In general, any recipe that calls for milk and needs to thicken tends to benefit from scalding for the latter reason - it just takes less time to thicken that way.


Preserving Nerds / Pop Rocks so they activate in the mouth and not in the food

Coat them in bee's wax or cocoa butter. You can actually buy them from MSK with the coating on.

You likely won't be able to make them yourself without a huge amount of equipment. As far as I'm aware, they require carbon-dioxide to be pumped in, as the sugar mixture cools. This is what makes them crackle, as the gas is released when the small pockets of air dissolve.


What is the function of this shallow, 19-divoted, eared cast iron piece?

They look like the Dutch "mini pancake" pans... they're used to make poffertjes.

There are nearly identical pans on sale here.

The Wikipedia article talks about them more specifically:

  Poffertjes are a traditional Dutch batter treat. Resembling small, fluffy pancakes, they are made with yeast and buckwheat flour. Unlike American pancakes, they have a light, spongy texture. Typically, poffertjes are served with powdered sugar and butter, and sometimes syrup or advocaat.

And an image from a recipe page:


Replicating commercial gluten-free/non-gebrokts matzo -- where to start?

Here's a recipe from Joy of Kosher. The flours and starches may be a bit hard to find in stores, but they'll be on Amazon. As a matter of fact, the matzo is on Amazon too, but you're right, it's pretty spendy.


How do I get softer peanut butter cup ice cream?

I believe your base has a butterfat of 11.6%, which is fairly low, at least for home recipes that're usually closer to 19%.

I agree that it seems like the fat in the peanut butter should offset that, but maybe it's not. Maybe the low butterfat content is causing the peanut butter to essentially freeze the same way it would if you just put the jar in the freezer, and you actually need more butterfat to emulsify with the peanut butter to help prevent it from freezing so hard.

Obviously, this is a guess, but otherwise the amount and type of peanut butter you're adding seems fine compared to other recipes. Also, you should be able to skip the guar gum with all that peanut butter, especially if you increase the butterfat.

You might try changing the base to be 400 ml double cream and 475 ml whole milk, which would be the same amount of liquid but with a butterfat of 18.6%.

Ice Cream Butterfat Calculator


Reverse-Engineering Trader Joe's Garden Vegetable Soup

I would sweat one of each of the vegetables (chopped) in 4tsp oil, beginning with the onion, leek, carrot, celery, and 2 sliced garlic cloves.  Then add a TBS of tomato paste. Add zucchini and sweet potato, one each, chopped, Cook for a minute or two.  Add 1/4 tsp black pepper and red pepper.  Add 1/2 tsp thyme.  Toss in one roasted red pepper, chopped, along with a 14 oz can  of chopped tomato.  Add 12 cups veg. broth and bring to a simmer.  Toss in a couple of cups of chopped mixed greens.  Cook until potato is done. Salt to taste.


What is the difference between risotto rice and paella rice?

'Paella rice' is not actually a variety of rice, but a category suitable, as the its name suggests, for making paella. Some common varieties are: Bahia, Balilla, Bomba, Senia, and Calasparra; the particular variety should be indicated on the packet that you choose.

These varieties differ from risotto rices, such as arborio and carnaroli, in not creating a creamy 'sauce' around the rice. Paella rice should stick together, but be distinct and not in a creamy 'sauce'.

Arborio rice has a creamy, chewy texture due to its higher amylopectin (one of two components in its starch) content. Paella rice absorbs more liquid than risotto rices, however it too would become 'creamy' if you stirred it like a risotto, since it also has a high starch content.


Half and half bread, too salty and no salt?

Thoroughly mix them! If you mix them, you may end up with a completely palatable (even tasty) loaf; if you have half salt and half no salt, you'll likely end up with two unapalatable loaves.


Would freezing a whole pineapple change it visually?

Assuming you are displaying the whole pineapple, then you don't need to freeze it. Pineapples will maintain their appearance for quite a long time which is why they were able to be shipped around the world during the age of sail.

To help it keep a bit longer, each day stand the pineapple up on end and drizzle water into the leaf crown. This is how this plant gets most of it water and nutrients and it will help keep the fruit hydrated for a little longer than ordinary.


How do I know when quiche is finished cooking?

Inferring that the question is, "How do I tell when the quiche is done?" The answer is to check the internal temperature, which should be between 165°F(74°C) and 185°F(85°C).


What is the white residue on pots after cooking beans or lentils?

That white stuff is usually starch residue. If you put some hot water in the pot and some baking soda in it and let it soak overnight , it should be easier to clean, failng that,you could try cider vinegar and hot water


What type of flour is "wheat flour" in the UK?

What you are looking for is called wholemeal flour.

Here's a quick US to UK baking translation guide. US on the left, UK on the right:

All-purpose flour = plain flour
bread flour  =  strong flour (both have extra gluten)
whole wheat flour = wholemeal flour
1 stick of butter is 113g (get a scale, trust me)
1 large egg = 1 medium egg


If it is instant oatmeal, just add boiling water (ratio water to oats 2/1) and let it sit for 5 minutes. If it not instant, same ratio of water to oats, boil for 5 minutes while stirring, remove from heat, cover and let sit for 5 minutes.
I googled "how to cook oatmeal" and found several  similiar ways.


If you try to re-whip the cream now, it'll likely turn into butter, not whipped cream. The initial whipping process has already caused the fat in the cream to coalesce; further whipping now will complete that process, similar to if you had over-whipped the cream in the first place.


Korean rice cakes (tteok) sold unrefrigerated

If they are completely dry, that's fine; you can buy hard dried tteok and they are shelf stable. But if they are moist, that seems very unsafe to have sitting out at room temperature for an indeterminate period of time.


How much is a “glass,” in an old English cocktail recipe (1930)?

I am not sure if "glass" in your recipe is the same as this, but in David Wondrich's book, "IMBIBE!" (about vintage cocktail recipes), he indicates that a "wineglass" measurement in vintage recipes was equal to 2 ounces.


What part to use from fresh Basil leaves?

You can roll the leaves and thinly slice them (chiffonade), that's my preferred method. I've never had an instance where I cut basil and made it sour though.

I've never heard of boiling them, but I assume you could get the essential oils out with that method and could make an infused water. You can fry the basil leaves in oil as well to make a crunchy topping!


How long can I keep sauteed onions in the fridge?

Stilltasty.com gives you 3-5 days on cooked onions in the fridge - after that, tightly wrapped and airtight into the freezer.


When comparing food processor models, why do some have additional blades?

The Robot Coupe is widely regarded as the standard food processor for professional use.  Neither it, nor the industry-leading Cuisinart or KitchenAid food processors have those middle blades.  As such, it seems unlikely that they are requirements for a quality unit.


Frozen peas don't really need 'cooking' at all.
The smaller they are the less they need, too; so anything labelled 'garden peas' or 'petit pois' really all you should do is drop them into boiling water, stir & give them maybe 1 minute maximum to heat. Drain & serve immediately.
Don't wait for the water to return to the boil, assuming you have maybe twice the volume of water as peas, just keeping the heat under them for a minute will be sufficient.

They will keep cooking as long as they remain hot, which is possibly why you thought adding the salt afterwards was the trigger. It wasn't, it was that they will simply keep cooking; so the trick is to drain them early rather than late.
I usually drop them as I'm serving the rest of the meal, so they're not waiting around at all, they're just the last thing onto the plate. If I'm adding to something like risotto, I will add right as I'm going to serve. Drop, stir, serve. They'll finish cooking on the way to the table.

If you leave them too long - 2 or 3 minutes is all you've got, maximum - then they will just get harder & harder over time. There's no rescue at this point, they're ruined. Switching off the gas isn't sufficient to stop them over-cooking, you need to get them out of the hot water straight away.

If you want them salted, salt the water first; though I never salt peas, they don't really need it. I do salt almost all other veg, just not peas.

The same, incidentally, applies to sweet corn. On the cob, 6 mins max; as individual kernels, drop them in boiling water, stir, done.


Using a Dutch Oven as a Heavy Skillet replacement

It depends on what you're doing with it, but for the most part, yes.   Things like giving it a shake/toss to move things around will be more difficult, unless it's one with a long handle on one side, but you can just stir instead.   Also, lifting to pour stuff out of it will be more difficult.


How can I adapt rice cooker steamed fish to cooking in a pot?

Easy! I steam fish about 1x per week with a bamboo steamer. You need to take advantage of the steam rising from the pot which can steam your fish in exactly the same way as the rice cooker - so you get a Bamboo Steamer like this one (available in tons of different places, including cooking-supply stores, Asian Foods stores, etc): http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Deluxe-3-Piece-Bamboo-Steamer/dp/B00005EBH8

This steamer is basically open at the bottom (with bamboo slats) so you set this on top of the boiling pot, and it fills with steam, cooking the fish. It's recommendable that you wrap the fish in wax paper (I use baking paper in a pinch) and that will keep it from sticking to the bamboo.

Hope this helps! I recommend buying a bamboo steamer like this one - it's a common kitchen item that you can use for a ton of steaming - i.e. veggies, broccoli, fish, etc. No need to even be cooking rice - you just place this over a pot of boiling water, and it works great!


What makes coffee grinds sink in a french press?

The question should really read "What makes coffee sink?" It does not matter if it is in the form of grinds or beans (though it is easier with grinds) nor does the receptacle. The issue is buoyancy.

  buoy·an·cy  (boin-s, byn-)
  n.
  1.
  a. The tendency or capacity to remain afloat in a liquid or rise in air or gas.
  b. The upward force that a fluid exerts on an object less dense than itself.

As the coffee is soaked in the hot water chemicals are extracted from the grind, mostly oils, that have an impact the buoyancy of the coffee. Once, the desirable chemicals are extracted to the surrounding water (again, moistly an oil) the buoyancy of the coffee is altered and the residue sinks to the bottom.

During my time in the U.S. Army field coffee was made quickly by getting a 15 gallon stock pot boiling and just pouring a five pound can of coffee in. Allow to boil for 5 minutes, reduce the heat and hit the side the stock pot with a ladle. Immediately all (ok, most...) of the coffee would sink to the bottom and fresh (if not altogether worthy of Starbucks) coffee could be ladled out. Why whack the pot? This would disrupt boiling of the water and allow the coffee to sink quickly.

Why are your grinds sinking? Well, the best guess is that they came deficient in the compounds that make the coffee normally buoyant. If the brand/roast is not up to your satisfaction you should be able to return it for fresh. If this a brand to which you are accustomed, but this batch isn't 'normal' then it is probably an anomaly, as you said the coffee tastes normal, so I wouldn't not worry to much about it.


Proper grind and measurement for a pour over coffee maker

To me, the best thing about the pour-over method is that you can experiment without wasting much.

A few more details about your equipment would help.  How big is your "level scoop," what shape are your filters and are you using paper filters?   I make mine with a simple plastic #2 cone filter holder and paper filters and don't have any issues with clogging with about 2 Tbsp of beans.

Are you using a proper grinder or one of the whirling blade style?  The blade-type can do a decent fine grind, but you can't get a consistent medium or coarse grind unless you have a burr grinder.

Even a fairly cheap kitchen scale should be good enough to get a consistent amount of coffee, I'd start with 2 Tbsp (~ 10g) of beans for 6oz of water and adjust from there.  Try more beans and see if a coarser grind gets rid of your clogging problem.

In general, a very fine grind combined with the extraction time you typically get in a pour-over will give you a bitter flavour.  With the beans I've been buying recently, I use a fairly fine grind, but not as fine as I'd use for Espresso.  Manufacturers of paper filters claim that they trap sediment which reduces bitterness.


What kinds of metals are good for a salt shaker?

Stainless steel is usually best, as it won't react with salt or salty water.  It's best to avoid other steels, although you may have some luck with aluminium as long as the shaker remains dry.

High-end salt grinders use ceramic grinding elements rather than steel ones to minimise the erosion caused by the salt.


I'm cooking a Romanian meatball soup for 60 people. How much of this soup do I need to feed 60 people?

After looking at many very similar recipes (in English) for Romanian sour meatball soup, or Ciorba de Perisoare, I'm inclined to think that this recipe does indeed make 5 liters.

Most all of the recipes I've looked at start with 500g of meat and have pretty much the same ingredient list. This recipe found on  CookingGlory says to :

  Add about 12 to 16 cups of water (about 4l).

Based on this, I find it easy to believe that the finished soup would easily be 5 liters. (Also, in the translation provided by another user, it shows an amount of 5 liters.)

Also, translated from the link provided in the question:

  From the ingredients below we obtained a soup pot of approx. 5 L. You can reheat without problems and it is tastier every day (kept in the refrigerator lasts for 3-5 days).

And:

  I added the rest of the roots and I dropped everything with 4 L of hot water.

The recipe on Cooking Glory states that it makes 8 - 10 servings.

So, basic math in hand, 5 L of soup, multiplied by 6 = 30 L of soup. That would give you sixty 500 ml portions.

The link above to the Cooking Glory page also gives a lot of information about the soup and its ingredients.


It sounds like you have Fleischman's Pizza Crust Yeast (or a no-doubt quite similar product if from another manufacturer).  The relevant phrase from the Fleischman marketing web site is:

  Pizza Crust Yeast is specially-formulated with dough relaxers that
  keep the dough from pulling or snapping back when shaping it.

It is intended to make it easier to stretch the pizza dough into shape.

The yeast itself is normal instant yeast, to the best of my knowledge—the additives in the packet are what make it "pizza crust yeast".

Researching the additional ingredients other than yeast:

Sorbitan monostearate—According to Sci Toys is an emulsifier with a polar and non-polar ends:

  Sorbitan monostearate is used as an emulsifying agent in cake mixes,
  icings, baked goods, puddings, imitation whipped cream, hemorrhoid
  creams, and creams to treat dry skin.

Cooking for Engineers mentions that this helps the dough absorb the water.
l-cysteine*—is an amino acid, which is naturally occurring, and often extracted from hair or feathers.  This article from LALLEMAND explains the science in bread dough, where it acts as a reducing agent:

  During mixing the gluten in the ﬂour is stretched and pulled apart so
  that it can be reformed during prooﬁng and baking to provide the
  needed strength and structure. Reducing agents act like mixing to
  reversibly break down gluten so that once they have been used up the
  gluten reforms. This mechanism is the opposite of oxidizing agents,
  which build up gluten. Reducing and oxidizing agent

ascorbic acid*—is of course Vitamin C, and a fairly strong acid.  According to Effect of Ascorbic Acid on the Rheological Properties
of Wheat Fermented Dough in Czeck Journal of Food Sciences, at concentrations under 0.6% it has little effect on wheat flour, so it is unlikely to have any practical effect in a full batch of pizza dough.  Its inclusion is probably (as mentioned in Cooking for Engineers) as an anti-oxidant and preservative in the packet, rather than as an active ingredient in the bread dough.
enzymes—no doubt the particular enzymes and their ratios are proprietary to the brand you have, but according to the Wikipedia article on flour treatment agents, they are used to increase transformation of starch into sugars to facilitate the action of the live yeast.  Common enzymes used include:

  Amylases break down the starch in flours into simple sugars, thereby
  letting yeast ferment quickly.
  Malt is a natural source of amylase.
  Proteases improve extensibility of the dough by degrading some of the
  gluten.
  Lipoxygenases oxidize the flour.

See also this Baker's Yeast article from Cooking for Engineers which discusses various commercially available forms of yeast.

My personal opinion is that I would not buy "pizza crust yeast," since recipes are not designed for the presence of its dough conditioners.  I would rather control my dough's ingredients myself.  However, since you have the product, why not try it using the vendor's recipe?  I would be fascinated to hear how it performs.


Could a non-bitter eggplant become bitter after cooking?

Hello Alexander and welcome! All of the information I've seen about eggplants say that it is less bitter with cooking. So, if it is not bitter when raw, it should not get bitter when cooked.

As you note, there are several ways to remove excess moisture and bitterness. Some of those would be salting, peeling, and removing the pith and seeds. However, most eggplants today are bred to not have the bitterness, or at least not as much.

Always be sure to use young, fresh eggplant as the more they mature the more bitterness they will have if they are prone to it.


Minced beef or lamb clumping - how to stop it

You answered your own question. Add cold water and break up the clumps with your hands. My Italian grandfather used this method for his meat sauce. I also see hot dog stands use the same technique to make their chili sauce. So long as you don't boil all of the liquid away the meat will not clump.


The stone should work just as well. And you'd presumably put the pyrex dish on a preheated oven shelf without worrying. That would give more thermal stress because some parts of the dish would be heated much more than others.

Of course there are no guarantees. And (domestic) pyrex literally isn't what it used to be at least in some countries.


chocolate substitutions in baking brownies from scratch

Chocolate - one of my favorite subjects.

The rules for naming chocolate (milk, semi-sweet, bittersweet, dark, extra dark, etc.) vary a bit depending on where you live.

However, as a general rule you may substitute semi-sweet chocolate for dark chocolate in a brownie recipe. Semi-sweet chocolate doesn't necessarily have a strict cocoa level requirement, though some companies will list the cocoa rating (in terms of percent cocoa) on it. If your recipe calls for "extra dark" chocolate, bittersweet chocolate may usually be used as a substitute.

In the US, there is no legal distinction between semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolate, so you should check the package and see if it lists a cocoa percentage. The higher the cocoa percentage, the less sweet the chocolate and the "darker" (i.e. more chocolate and bitter flavor) the chocolate. For most recipes that call for dark chocolate, I'd recommend looking for a chocolate in the 50-60% cocoa range. Ghirardelli's dark chocolate is 60% cocoa in the US, I believe.

Unsweetened chocolate cannot be used as a substitute for another other type of chocolate without the addition of sugar, and the ratios can be difficult to get right, so I do not recommend it.

The wikipedia page for "Types of Chocolate" actually has one of the best summaries that I've seen, including charts based on your region (US, Canada or EU - apparently no-one eats chocolate elsewhere). Link is below. I would provide other, more official sources, but very few of them summarize it as well. I will add some links if I can find good ones.

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


Starting the Maillard reaction on ribs without a torch or gas stove

You need high, direct heat.

Option 1 (The practical): Don't think about the candles. Even if you lit enough candles in a pile to get it hot enough- candle soot tastes terrible. Of all the tools listed among your assets only the grill shows potential. Buy some charcoal for it, get it rocket hot, and sear your ribs to perfection.

The charcoal will also add a little flavor. Not much since they won't be there long but more than a torch would.

Option 2 (The MacGyver as requested): Use your paper to make a large (3-5' diameter) paper-mache parabolic dish. Line the inside of the dish with your foil with the shiny side out. Experiment with a sheet of paper to find the focal point of your dish. Move the paper toward the dish until the focused light is a couple inches across. Take your dish outside in the sun and wave your ribs in front of it. Solar blow torch.


Is there such a thing as too much vanilla?

How much is too much is a totally subjective thing. Yes, there is such a thing as too much, but where that point is will vary among tasters. There is no objective question here to answer. No one answer to the question will be "correct".

I really like vanilla, and I like flavors to be on the rich side, so I tend to be a bit heavy-handed with vanilla. A few (very few) times I have been surprised to have that heavy-handedness criticized. Why would they not like my amazing vanilla ice cream? They experience vanilla differently than I do. What is ideal for me may be overdone, even cloying, to my neighbor.

So, when it comes to various flavorings (vanilla is just one of many), get to know your own "likes" and what your audience likes. After that, you can ignore what the recipe says and just do what feels right to you, knowing your audience and the potency of your ingredients as well.


What is the correct internal temperature for rabbit meat?

In the food safety section of Modernist Cuisine (1-138) it says that all wild rabbit must be cooked through:

  Wild rabbit must be cooked well done to kill any tularemia bacteria; for rare or medium cooked rabbit dishes, chefs can substitute farm-raised rabbits that have been kept segregated from their wild relatives by trustworthy breeders.

The section on meat (3-96) recommends bringing rabbit loin to an internal temperature of 59C (138F) and going by the section I've just quoted this is obviously only for farmed meat. The recommendation for the legs is to cook sous vide for 1 hour @ 66C (151F) which again obviously refers to farmed because that's definitely not long enough to tenderise wild rabbit meat.

I would really recommend cooking the leg meat and loin separately as I find that the loin dries out long before the legs are cooked through. The legs are much nicer braised too.


Why isn't a Sourdough starter unsanitary?

The hint is in the name, sourdough.  Per the University of Wisconsin Extension:

  Properly  prepared starters are safe because they become acidic due to
  the fermentation action of lactic  acid-forming bacteria present in
  the mixture. These bacteria and the acid environment formed  inhibit
  the growth of other bacteria, but do allow yeast, if added, to grow
  and help leaven  bread products.

Still, they point out care must be taken to get a good result.  There have been food safety incidents related to home made starters, and using starters that can be stored in the refrigerator is recommended.

Please see the linked article for more detail.


How can I use my crock pot for a stove top soup?

It depends on what kind of settings your crock pot has. A low simmer on the stove is probably equivalent to something fairly low on your slow cooker, though. If all you have is warm, low, and high, you want low - in some cases it might be too hot, though. You're aiming for just short of boiling, so a setting that gets you a few bubbles now and then is good. More than that and you're cooking a bit vigorously, and on a "warm" setting you likely aren't heating it enough to cook properly and stay safe. If you have some kind of continuous settings, you can possibly adjust to get exactly where you want!


Are there special considerations for making a pie with the express intention of freezing?

For apple, specifically, I tend to add a very thin layer of quick oats to the bottom of the pie filler to soak up any excess moisture. But nothing else really stands out in my recipe if I were to freeze it.

My big thing is to use something that can handle the temperature change from freezer to oven (such as pyrex), and help it by giving it a smooth temperature transition: I take it out and let it sit on the counter on a rack (for airflow) for an hour, then I place it in a non-preheated oven so it gently comes up to temp. Then I time it onward from the preheat successful beep to the normal baking time. I may add five minutes if it doesn't look done enough, but I generally eyeball it at the end and I cannot offer any hard advice at that point.

I may have to try your blind baking of the crust one of these days. That may be viable.
I would definitely not salt the fruit.


Here's the original:

-Ole varovainen, sanoi Muumimamma Muumille tämän lähtiessä.
-Tule pian takaisin, minä teen lettuja iltapalaksi.
Be careful, said Moominmamma to Moomintroll as he was leaving. Come back soon, I'm making lettu for an evening snack.

The Finnish lettu here is essentially the same as the French crepe.  In Finland, they're typically eaten for dessert, in which case they're sweet and served with jam (always) and whipped cream (often), although there are also savoury variants that mix in spinach, blood (!), etc.
Also note that the word iltapala (literally "evening piece") is a bit ambiguous, but usually implies a snack, not a full-sized meal.


Unfortunately, I don't think so.

Milk sugars show up in the regular pop rocks ingredients list, and I also looked at the ingredients list for the culinary grade unflavored popping crystals, but those still contain milk sugars - it isn't just in the extra flavorings, but in the base material recipe.  And as far as I know, there's no real way to make this popping candy at home.

You can look up the homemade carbonated candy recipes that use citric acid and baking soda, but those tend to be fizzing, not popping, when activated.  It may be close enough for your purposes, and the recipe doesn't have milk in it, but names aside it is not the same candy.


Yes, you can.  In fact, high-quality rennet is sold in liquid form (and I recommend this over tablets).
Just put the dissolved rennet in a bottle and store it in the fridge (it will degrade at room temperature).  It should be good for a few months.
Given your method, though, you'll want to be very sure that the tablet is completely and evenly dissolved.


Why can't you reheat pasta in a microwave, grill, or wok?

If you're going to reheat pasta, microwaving is a good way. Adding a few drops of water and covering helps the texture if it doesn't have sauce already on it.

You can actually do something close to a stir fry - heat some oil and use it to cook tasty ingredients (onions, garlic, herbs, spices) and then stir in the pasta (and things like olives or sweetcorn that might want heating but don't need cooking) over a gentle heat until hot enough to serve.

Grilling is less good, but still not impossible for some dishes. For bare pasta it will dry out it, but immerse in sauce and top with cheese and you can get something nice. Strictly speaking the grill doesn't do the reheating, the (hot) sauce does - a grill would burn the top before the bottom is hot.


What are the benefits of making butter at home?

One reason to make your own butter is that you get distinctly different flavours depending on the type of cream you use.

If you use fresh cream you get sweet butter which is popular in North America, Australia and Britain, but less easy to come by in continental Europe. If you use a cultured cream like Crème fraîche you get cultured butter, which is common throughout most of Europe.

Cultured butter is slightly soured by lactic acid. It has a fuller, more complex flavour than sweet butter. If you decide to make it, be sure that you don't use a cultured cream that includes artificial thickeners. The ingredient list should read something like "pasteurised cream, lactic-acid culture" (apologies if that's not accurate; I'm translating from Swedish).

I have a couple of other reasons why I personally want to make butter. First of all my four year old son has been asking how butter is made, and this would be a great way show him. The second reason is that I'm curious as to how real buttermilk tastes (the buttermilk in the supermarkets is fermented milk). And last of all, I noticed that my beurre noir sauce was working out much better when I lived in Australia, so I'd like to do some side-by-side comparisons with European butter.


My overnight sour dough went slack, could my 'starter' have eaten too much gluten?

There is no way to answer all you questions definitively.
I can say your conversion most probably off because cups are not a precise way to measure flour by weight.

First and foremost if you want to bake bread on a regular basis learn to use the bakers percentages and the metric system. Buy a quality kitchen scale.

bakers percentages (BP) are what professional bakers use and for good reason. Dependable, repeatable results. You can scale up or down a formula with precision.

Basically the BP system is based on the amount flour always being 100%  in the formula  and all other ingredients are a percentage of that. For example a bread dough that has a hydration level ( amount of liquid in the dough ) of 70%

1000g. of flour so a hydration level of 70% would be
700g. of water   - 1000 x .70 = 700

Every ingredients percentage is multiplied into the amount of flour.
Salt is generally around 2%

1000 x .02  = 20g

Once you learn this system you can change the amount of flour and calculate all the other ingredients with precision. double it, triple it, cut by 67% whatever you want.
Once you understand it you can develop your own formulas, you can backward engineer recipes in cups with the help of some conversion charts and math and/or your scale.
if you go crazy like me you can make an excel spread sheet so all you have to do is enter a number of loaves you want and it will calculate the whole formula for you.

  WE DO NOT KNOW THE HYDRATION OF YOUR STARTER.
  lets say it was 100% -
  150g flour to 150g of water =300g

your formula called for

flour 100%--   1 kilogram   (1000g) of flour

water  60%--   600g water  60%

salt   18%--   18g salt     (1000 x .018 = 18g )  18%

starter 30%--  300g starter (1000 x .30  = 300g ) 30%

Adding the starter changes things but because we assumed it 50%  it is not much.
starter and preferment's complicate the BP system but its all math it can be figured out, i will not go into here.
your formula shows a overall hydration level with starter at 65.2% that should be a rather firm dough not wet and slack as you described. thus my saying your conversion was off. Also changing the salt % as you did will have effects on the leavening time. ( salt is an inhibitor, slows down yeast or starters )

Sourdoughs or starters or yeast do not "eat gluten"  they feed on the sugars and enzymes in the flour.  I will let you do your homework on that. Gluten is developed partly by this process and partly by kneading.

Learning to do a "window pane" test will help you to know when gluten is developed enough. I suspect that is what you meant by "create a 'skin', a tight skin, for making this artisan type loaf". Learn what the autolyze process is.

You "mixed it at 9:30 PM, and attempted to make it into loaves at 10:30 AM" That is  long time to proof at room temps and would allow the leavening agents to exhaust themselves.  did you proof in the fridge? Sourdough breads are more temperamental and finicky then commercial yeast breads and you have to be able to recognize when to bake them, it is easy to let them to far.

A sourdough mother can be any hydration you want and it will behave and taste differently depending that hydration level. You have feed it on a regular basis, you pull some of it make a starter, sponge, preferment, always feed/replenish it. NEVER feed it more than 50% of its total weight. lets say it is a 100% hydration mother and you have 1000 grams after pulling some to build a sponge, you would then feed it 250g water and 250g flour = 500g which is 50% of its weight.

A healthy mother will be forgiving, you let it go for a while and bring back to life with a few feedings, you freeze it for a while.

Have fun and enjoy a fresh loaf of bread soon.


can I use regular green cabbage to make kimchi?

Yes, you can use any cabbage you like.  You can also make kimchi with cucumbers...bean sprouts....really, many vegetables.   It's really just fermenting/pickling.


Baking them for that long will evaporate a lot of water. This is a good thing. If they were in enough liquid to not dry out at all then they wouldn't brown and you would miss out on a lot of delicious flavor. That would be braising.

These may have been dryer than potatoes in the past if the potatoes were cut into smaller pieces (more surface area) or if the cook time was longer.

If you want your veggies to be more moist then you can cook them for a shorter length of time or toss them with some fat which will give the illusion of moisture as well as prevent some internal moisture from escaping.


Why do HK chefs let water faucets run unceasingly, when the basin overflows?

This appears to be a dipper well: a continuously running sink used to rinse utensils. The water runs continuously to remove contaminants, always leaving a clean supply of water to rinse dirty utensils and, in this case, to clean out the wok.

They are rather wasteful: the linked article states they use 30-60 gallons (110 to 230 L) of water per hour.


What's an effective method to strain liquids?

Cheese cloth is easy to find and does a great job when we make horchata.

More Details

I use a regular mesh strainer like the one below, and I line it with a few layers of cheese cloth.  Depending on your colander's design, it might work too.

The number of layers depends on what your straining, and how loose the cheesecloth is.  I use it more often to make mascarpone cheese and I typically use 3 or 4 layers.

I set the strainer over a large bowl and load the strainer and cheese cloth with as much unstrained liquid as it will take.  Something like horchata shouldn't take too long, a few minutes maybe.  When I make mascarpone I set the strainer (in its bowl) in the refrigerator overnight.


Are normal cooking thermometers suitable to use as tea thermometers?

The flexible generalist thermometer of the kitchen, the instant read thermometer, should be quite suitable measuring the temperature of the water for tea brewing.   It covers the right range, has reasonable accuracy, and responds relatively quickly.

You can get traditional ones such as the classic Taylor model very inexpensively, or high quality electronic ones such as the Thermapen, as well as a large number of mid-range models that offer excellent value, accuracy, and reasonable response time.

Many come with a clip that would allow you to set them on the side of a pot, but you would not attach them to kettle.  Instead, you hold them in, and they register the temperature in a few seconds (depending on the model)—thus the name, instant read.


How and when should I use a bread knife?

The "problem" with using your Santoku knives is that they dull fast when you use them on bread.

If you keep your knives well sharpened, you can do without the bread-knife.

Other uses for bread-knives, is cutting tomatoes, for instance. Another thing you can use a well sharpened Santoku knife for.


1.Some companies when they pack would fill it with a air form of preservatives.

2.Other reason for the bubbles could also be simple air that was trapped when it was packed or sealed in the container or packet. And maybe the container/packet was shaken up a bit when dispatched, causing the air inside to move around in the product.

should have no effect on the product. Just trust the best before date. (Unless it tastes funny) :)


Can I substitute baking soda for kansui powder?

Harold McGee tackled alkaline noodles a while back. He found that baking baking soda actually changes it from sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate. This is a reasonable substitute for the kansui called for in alkaline noodles and can be substituted 1:1 in recipes. The noodles may not get AS yellow as they would with both alkalines present in kansui but it's a small price to pay for not having to hunt down that ingredient.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/dining/15curious.html?_r=0

The key part:

  Just spread a layer of soda on a foil-covered baking sheet and bake it at 250 to 300 degrees for an hour. You’ll lose about a third of the soda’s weight in water and carbon dioxide, but you gain a stronger alkali. Keep baked soda in a tightly sealed jar to prevent it from absorbing moisture from the air. And avoid touching or spilling it. It’s not lye, but it’s strong enough to irritate.


Wheat germs are the repoductive parts of the wheat grains. Like all germs, they are rich in vitamins, nutrients and oils. The oils are the reason the germs are removed during the milling process: they can become rancid quickly and reduce the shelf life of the flour. In whole wheat, the germ remains included, hence the shorter shelf life.

But the germ is not what makes the bread "dark", that's the outer bran - also removed during milling for white flour. Your recipe uses whole wheat flour, which explains the "dark" in the name.

In your recipe, I assume the wheat germ is included to make the bread "healthier" - like in many totally different recipes that use it. It may also influence the taste with "nuttier" tones and a tiny bit the texture. But combined with whole wheat flour, the effect is limited.


Vacuum-packed (or not?) bacon, safe to use?

The existence of gas in a vacuum-sealed environment could be a sign of microbial activity.  I would assume that, since the package appears to be sealed, that the gases in it were introduced from within.  I would toss that one and feel OK using the other two.


How to cleanly cover the dough while it rise?

Spray the dough with oil, dust with a little flour, and either cover loosely with plastic wrap, or if the dough is on a tray, slide the whole thing into a food safe plastic bag.


Making Carbonara in Canada; what kind of cream should I use?

"Authentic" carbonara does not have cream.  It's made with just guanciale, egg (yolks and whites), pecorino romano, and black pepper.  Thanks to @GiuppeP for the clarification.

However, at least in the US (and, it appears, Canada) there is tremendous variation to what folks call "carbonara". What is more relevant to the question is technique.  Whether you choose to use cream or not, in either case, add egg white and cheese (or cream, or half and half...) gradually, and more importantly, off the heat and with some added pasta cooking water.  There is a bit of a knack to achieving the proper consistency.  If it breaks, no sweat.  It might not look pretty, but it is still fine to eat.


Heat transfer is via

conduction
convection
radiation

You don't have any conduction as you are not touching the heating element

The top element has direct radiant exposure to the cake so it will crust the top surface.  Can use the top element (broil) to brown meat.

From the bottom there is radiant energy to the bottom so that will crust the bottom but to a lower extent as it is shielded by the cake pan.

Convection will provide the most even heat.

On the third rack use a smaller empty pan or baking stone to shield the second from most of radiant heat from the bottom but not block circulation.  Preheat, cook on second shelf, and only use the bottom element.


Within reasonable limits, baking time is proportional to the thickness of the cake.

If you scale your recipe proportionately to the change in surface area from the standard pan to the one you are going to use, the baking time will be approximately the same.  You can continue to use the base time as a guideline, but as always in successful cooking and baking, you will want to test when the layer is done with an appropriate method, such as the toothpick test.

On the other hand, thinner layers require less time, and counter-intuitively, higher temperatures; thicker layers more time and lower temperatures.   You should not see this requirement if you are scaling based on pan surface.

When you begin to make very large layers, as for a wedding cake, changes to leavening will also be required.