Disagree with the umami analysis from @Carmi, even if it was a good attempt.  You have some basic facts wrong though.

Cooked tomato sauce is high in umami, and is often combined with mushrooms, however, a sauce with mushrooms would not take parmigiano (also extremely high in umami)
Mozarella is high in umami, like most fresh young cheeses.  So is tuna.
Caesar salad has both anchovies and parmigiano (both high in umami).

But you are sort of on the right track.  Baked fish in Italy is not strong in flavor. It's delicate and calls for the following: fresh lemon.  That's it. Maybe some fresh parsley.  Usually cooked with no herbs and served with no sauce.  The fish should be extremely fresh and appreciated for it's delicate flavor.  Something like parmigiano would easily overpower the taste of the fresh fish and by putting it on fish you are telling the cook "this is fish gone bad and I need to cover the taste with something". Or if it was served that way, maybe better to avoid it because what is the cook trying to hide?  While there I never encountered a fish dish served with cheese.

Being a curious foodie and having lived in Italy for 5 years, I can also add the following:

There are a LOT of rules that might seem strange to an outsider. No cappuccino after 10am.  You don't mix salty and sweet in the same dish, or even during the same course.  Beer with pizza, not wine. You would never drink coffee before or during desert, it's served after.
While I was there I did a lot of thinking about the basis of some of these rules and concluded it's usually either 1) health, 2) taste, or 3) regional cultural rules.
I asked the fish and cheese question a few times.  The answer was always "That's gross, you just don't put cheese on fish".  My guess is this one falls under 2 and 3.

The health angle from @Walter I think has a lot of validity in general.  Italians often complain of their liver hurting after eating especially 'heavy' meals. Heavy meaning something very specific in Italian: difficult to digest.  So a fresh salad with too much raw garlic could be considered heavy because garlic sometimes causes indigestion.  A huge chunk of parmigiano is not considered heavy because parmigiano is very digestable.  My guess is some of the rules come out of the particulars of the Italian digestive system.  Much like you will not find many Asians joining me when I chug my glass of milk.


How do I make my food taste like leftovers

I think that your thinking in terms of "leftovers" is what is tripping you up here. Cooking food involves tons of chemical changes, and some of them happen best on the stove, and others need a long period of resting time.
If you have a recipe which tastes better on the second day, then all you have to do is to plan to serve it on the second day. See it as a recipe whose last stage needs 24 hours and happens at fridge tempearature. You wouldn't serve yogurt before it has spent 8 hours at 46 C, because the mixture doesn't taste like yogurt yet. Similarly, you shouldn't serve your "perfect beef stew" before it has spent 24 hours at 4 C, because it doesn't taste like "perfect beef stew" yet.
If you are looking for ways to speed up the process, I don't think these exist. Maturing of foods involves complex chemical reactions, which need their time. This is why many luxury food items let you know how long they were aged.
For a bit of background, see also this question on the process of flavors "marrying".


How to separate peanut oil from roasted peanuts at home?

Disclaimer: I did not try it, but it should work from a chemical point of view.

Put the ground peanuts or peanut butter into a pot and add the same amount of water*, stir well and bring to a boil.
Pour it in a Fat Separator to separate oil and peanuts. Pour the peanut water mix into a heat resistant form and put in the oven to dry at low temperature.

If you want to use the peanuts minus oil for baking you could use milk instead of water, that way you don't have to dry it after separation.

*if the mixture is too thick for the fat separator use more water.

As an alternative you can use the method used when making paneer or potato dumplings: Put the ground peanuts or peanut butter in a dry cloth. Take the four corners together and spin to squeeze oil out. This is much easier but less efficient as well.


What is the purpose of wrapping fish with aluminum foil?

Cooking fish or other items in paper, "en papillote" is a technique used to lock in moisture and basically steam the fish in its own moisture and any aromatics you add.  Using foil is often done in the same way and to remove the fish or other items from more direct drying and scorching effects of heat while cooking, much as you might use foil on poultry breast to try to prevent burning while getting the slower cooking thigh up to temp.

If by covering with salt, you mean directly to the fish or other item and either using a bed of salt or burying them in it, one point is to flavor of course, but also to draw out some moisture.  Both in this case, and if the item has been wrapped so the salt does not actually contact the food, the idea I have always learned is to even out the temperature and turn it into more of an indirect heating.  The goal in this case is to try to get to temperature again without scorching or open drying of the item and get a more even heating in theory.


What is this tea stalk that almost every cup of tea in anime has?

One type of tea style popular in Japan is Karigane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karigane_(tea)#Karigane) Karigane tea is made from the stalks, not the leaves. This means anything that slips out of the teapot's strainer will be a stalk. This could be one of many types of Japanese tea: you can find Gyokuro Karigane (the stems and veins of Gyokuro tea leaves) or Hojicha/Houjicha Karigane (stems of tea leaves roasted in the same way as standard Houjicha.)

Stem teas tend to be a lighter, more delicate version of their heavier-hitting leafy counterparts.

You can also find blended teas, where there will be leaves as well as stems in the mix.

P.S. I like the "natural habitat" line :)


Can I use the same board for meat and vegetables?

I understand the intent of the advice to always keep meat and vegetable preparation tools and areas separate is to establish a habit, to avoid the possibility of cross contamination in cases where you are not going to be cooking the vegetables as much or at all; and similarly in a catering environment to be able to visibly demonstrate that working practices are such that cross contamination cannot occur.


How much jaggery can replace 1 tablespoon of white sugar?

According to Cook's Info:

  Jaggery is not as sweet as white sugar, so when substituting white sugar for Jaggery use about 1/3 less. When swapping Jaggery in for sugar, use anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 more Jaggery than was called for of sugar (if you want to keep the recipe as sweet as it was.)

That meshes with my limited experience too, so if the jaggery is ground in such a way that it will measure like the sugar you are replacing, and you are replacing 1TBS of sugar, then you would want to use somewhere in the neighborhood of 1TBS plus 1tsp of jaggery. If precision is needed (which of course doesn't really apply here, but bear with me) consider that the way jaggery and sugar measures volumetrically are unlikely to really be identical. It would be better to measure by weight, or if there is liquid in the recipe, by water displacement.


Bundt pans (and cake pans in general) are not normally seasoned in any way.

Instead, they are greased and floured each time you make a cake.  The traditional method is to apply butter or oil to the interior (the easiest way is melted butter and a pastry brush, but you can also use wax paper or even clean fingers to apply solid butter).

Then you flour it by putting several tablespoons of flour inside the bundt pan, turning and shaking until it is well floured, then shaking out the excess.

Oil or solid vegetable shortening may be substituted for the butter.

In my experience, 99% of the time, using a simple spray oil will do the job just as well, with much less fuss and mess.


Will artificial sweeteners work in a coffee syrup recipe?

So, according to a website called A Bar Above, you can make a simple syrup (or "rich simple" apparently) using artificial sweetener, but you won't get the same end result. They tested 3 sweeteners they found, and would recommend sweet'n'low over splenda or equal sweeteners. The taste and aftertaste will be different, and it will depend on the sweetener.

That said, I would NOT expect an artificial sweetener based syrup to thicken like sugar would. You would just need to boil it for a set time and make sure it doesn't boil off or burn. Speaking of burning-- If it's an option, I would recommend getting a jar of instant coffee and mixing that in with the finished syrup instead of making it with actual brewed coffee. Boiling brewed coffee may well give you a bitter, scorched flavor.

My other big concern would just be shelf-life. Sugar actually acts as a preservative in high enough concentrations. (Have you ever accidentally eater years-old hard candy with no ill effect? Thank sugar, lol.) Looking around I don't see any information on how long a simple syrup made with artificial sweetener would last. Although if you use it everyday, you'd go through it pretty quickly...


Fissler frying pans. Are they worth the price?

That price is absolutely ridiculous, and there is no way the frying pans are worth it.  To Americans: that's $250 for 2 frying pans!  Even All-Clad retails for $100 for a frying pan, and it is among the most expensive cookware.  Now, in this case, many people can justify that price for All-Clad, because they heat fast and evenly and will last for several lifetimes with proper care.

While the Fissler pans may be well-made, I would have a very hard time justifying that kind of money.  In particular, the Protect model is nonstick, and nonstick surfaces wear out.  There is no way around this.  The better ones will last longer, but still you get a couple years of good use before the surface degrades.  You're far better off buying a series of cheap restaurant-supply nonstick pans, and replacing them regularly.  I can find decent ones for about $20-25, which means you can get one for probably €20.  See my answer to What is a good brand for teflon pans? for where to get the best value... and why you shouldn't be spending big money on teflon-coated stuff.

I do not feel the "crispy" model is a safe buy, because it emphasizes a gimmicky crisping surface over versatile everyday use. It also does not describe what, if any, sort of copper/aluminum core it uses to ensure fast, even heating.  For a pan at this price range, I would expect a multi-ply construction, with aluminum or copper core. To my mind, this does not bespeak money well spent.  At a lower price, it might be an entertaining gimmick, but for that much money you will want a solid, versatile all-around pan.

In fact, with good deals, you could fully equip a kitchen with cookware for that price. I have a 7-piece multi-ply set that I'm quite happy with, and it only cost about $160. Throw in a cheap nonstick pan and a cast-iron skillet, and you're set.


Lack of sour indicates more yeast activity over the souring lactic acid bacteria (LAB), and using a firm starter from that link favors yeast and not LAB. For more sour, increase the water content. There's a bunch of other dials you can fiddle with, Ken Forkish in "Flour Water Salt Yeast" indicates that a "warmer levain cultures encourage lactic acid production", your 16 °C favors acetic acid production. Keep the temperature around 26C to 32C to favor LAB. (Perhaps use an insulated box to help avoid the nighttime temperature swings?) Another point would be what temperature water are you hitting it with; tap water during winter could be quite cold (I use room temperature water that has stood to evaporate off the municipal chlorine). Other things to experiment with might be adding small amounts of salt (though this will slow down the ferment) or changing the flour or mix of flours used; whole grain vs. not, rye vs. wheat, etc.

A notebook may help; track ambient temperatures (min/max), temperature of the water used, amount, type of flour, plus any notes on what the starter looks and smells like.


Unfortunately, the above answers would probably be good for fresh tortellini, or frozen or something like that. Following the advice, I had the dried tortellini floating on the surface within a minute or two, puffed a little too. I fished one out, and it was definitely hard. I let them boil for another five minutes and they were barely edible, some even a little crunchy in places.

Last week I managed to hunt down the bulk package at the market (used to fill the bin), and there were directions on it: Boiling time: 15-18 minutes. And yes, since the boiling water cooled down to simmer as I added them. In 15 minutes they were still a little al dente but after another 4 minutes they were entirely soft, and just right.


How can I make whole grains stick to the top of bread?

Use a boiled cornstarch wash for an in oven glue

Egg wash is a great glue, but generally lets go again when heated in the oven. Best used after baking not before


how to not get burned keto flour pancakes?

Your pan is getting too hot.
Cast iron has a lot of" thermal mass", which means that it takes a good bit of energy (and time) to heat up, then it holds on to that heat and takes time to cool down.
Most likely, your pan is still heating up when you cook your first pancake. It's at the right temperature, but still on the upswing and getting hotter. By the time you get to the other pancakes, the pan is too hot.
There are two easy solutions to try:

turn the heat down a bit, and also wait longer to cook the first pancake. At a lower temperature, it'll take even longer to reach maximum/equilibrium temperature, with the goal to max out at the temperature of your first pancake.
use the same procedure for your first pancake, but once it's in the pan, turn down the heat, just a little. You've hit the ideal temperature, but you need to reduce the heat to maintain it at this temperature, rather than continuing to get hotter.

It'll take a little experimenting on your cooktop to find just the right adjustment of heat, but it should just be a matter of finding a slightly lower temperature.


Apparently a lot has changed since this question was first posted exactly five years ago today.

Today a simple Google search yields many recipes, a lot of lore, and lots of pictures.

Here's one picture I like from DamnFineLife:

But, I suspect that one has been very much prettied up for the camera.

This one is from the blog Fit Foodie Megha, which does restaurant reviews. The chicken was prepared by a well known and apparently very highly regarded restaurant called Punjab Grill in Phoenix Market City, Pune, Maharashtra, India.

Here is an example from the blog Chandigarh Chaat showing perhaps the original variation from Kotkapura, near the Indian border with Pakistan.

Finally, here is one from the entertainment blog alvinology:

That one was prepared one year ago by the world class chef Hemant Oberoi, who the blogger credits with making Atta Chicken famous beyond Kotkapura. Not coincidentally, it is Chef Oberoi who the OP learned about on NPR and inspired the question here.

For more images, click here

For recipes, click here

I watched the videos and read the recipes. The original Kotkapura recipe is still a closely guarded secret, but a number of foodies have published their take on it.

To paraphrase: Take a clean chicken and score it (or not) on the breast and thigh. Other recipes say prick the chicken with a fork. Marinate it in a heavily spiced (usually yogurt based) marinade for hours. Some recipes do that in two steps, one in a dairy based marinade, the other in an oil based one.

Stuff the chicken cavity with some combination of almonds and/or pistachios and whole garlic cloves.

Wrap the chicken tightly in muslin, cheesecloth, or in at least one recipe, banana leaves. Although in the banana leaf recipe, the cooking method is quite a departure from the others.

Make a simple dough with just whole wheat (atta) flour and water, perhaps salt.

Completely encase the chicken with at least a 2 centimeter layer of the dough, carefully sealing (that's critical).

Now cook it in a tandoor (which is the Kotkapura method) for at least two hours or until the dough is completely charred. You can also do it in a barbecue or a very hot oven for approximately three hours, again until the dough is completely charred. Three hours seems like a long time at such high heat, but if you watch the videos or read the blogs, they all seem to agree that long and hot is the way to go.

When it is done, don't break it until you are ready to eat it. Supposedly it can be kept at room temperature for three days if it hasn't been broken into. I am more than a bit skeptical about that, but I'm just repeating what I've read. Refrigerated and unbroken, the chicken is supposed to be good for up to two weeks. Just rewarm it, then break into it. Discard the cooked dough.

The chicken supposedly divine, and very, very juicy.

If you found this information interesting, you might also enjoy watching this video, which is very coy about the super-secret Kotkapura recipe, but shows a lot of the fun stuff including breaking into the chicken.


Plantain were not ready to puree, can they be saved?

Assuming that you're making Empanadas de Plátano Maduro, You can't really "save" them.

In the course of ripening, plantains convert starches to sugars.  This change also changes the structure of the plantain flesh, from firm to soft & sticky.  This isn't a small conversion, it's a change in like 20% of the plantain flesh.  Nothing you can do is going to substitute for that sticky, ripe-plantain texture, and I can't find any verified way to make them ripen once you've peeled and cooked them.  Sorry!


The likely culprit, so to speak, is not just the freezer but rather the mill of the bag within which the bread now comes. Any relatively thin sheet of plastic is actually porous at the microscopic level. That's why you can smell right through some of these bags and detect what's in them, or detect the poor or better condition that their contents are in. Who for example cannot identify raisin bread with nothing more than a whiff of the bag? So even the slightest reduction in the mill [of a plastic] can yield an exponential increase in its permeability.

Now it may be, yes, that you noticed this change at or around the time you replaced your freezer. This concomitance is probably not irrelevant. Nonetheless, the marketplace is always looking for ways to cut costs, especially in the United States. And when you think about the sheer number of plastic bags that are involved nationwide for annual bread sales, the slightest change in the mill of the bag equates to some very real dollars.

I noticed quite recently here a change in the packaging of my milk cartons, (half-and-half actually), obvious because of the dramatically different color. But the carton is now so thin you can feel it caving in as you pick it up. I also noticed that the screw-on lid was lighter in weight as well as thinner in its construction, (bendier and more translucent), and that the amount of turn required (and therefore allowed) was reduced. In short, it was a complete overhaul.

Okay, that synchronized cluster of changes didn't just happen for no reason. There are always motivations at play, especially when multiple changes have to be authorized by multiple layers of individuals at multiple levels of responsibility. What were those motivations? Was my grocer's provider (dairy) just feeling generous? Did they mistakenly ascertain that I as a consumer (speaking generally) would pick up this flimsier version of a container and respond in something of a positive manner?

Of course not. They didn't do it for me (us). They did it for themselves (profit). That's the pattern. That's the die that is cast. And that's more probably what accounts, at least in part, for the difference you've noted and shared. In my example, the carton supplier [to the dairy] could increase its profit margin over time and still manage to offer the dairy a slight reduction in cost for, say, every gross of cartons. Not complicated. Everybody wins but the consumer. Same deal for the mill of your plastic.

Certainly I don't mean to force this as an only explanans. The freezer too is bound to play an important role as follows. You did say it's a newer model frost-free, meaning newer than the frost-free you said you had before. On that note alone, here's what seems a likely scenario.

A frost-free works, obviously, by drawing not only the heat but the moisture out of the freezer. It does so nearly constantly, and on a very low level. That's all that's needed. So heat's being drawn out by the compressor (cold is just the absence of heat). And moisture's being drawn out by way of an evaporator and one or more fans.

The use of an outward drawing fan action creates a slight negative pressure. This pressure builds over time and then peaks, because the fans are only just so strong. By dint of this, note that the freezer door can at times be surprisingly difficult to open. A pressure differential has formed between the two sides. So anything in the freezer from which water can be drawn is going to be subject to these forces and will, of course, capitulate ...or as the Wikipedia article on the subject states,

  water can evaporate out of containers that do not have a very tight seal,..

This fact in combination with the risk of too thin a mill in plastic, (where too great a porosity is synonymous with a poor seal), would serve to perhaps best explain the results you've experienced. The solution as you've suggested is to contain the loaves of bread yet further, probably placing them in large freezer bags. Beyond this, no doubt there remains something to be said for the kind of refrigeration which does not worry itself over the matter of frost build-up. Anathema!, I know.

Another consideration is the possibility the bread is being quickly transitioned from a decidedly warm environment (such as the trunk of a hot car), straight into the freezer. This itself would cause slight condensation, (difficult to notice as it's absorbed by the bread), as here the permeability if the package works in reverse, initially drawing in water from the freezer. (There's always evaporated water in the air, air which can enter the freezer whenever the door is open, including for example water from our own respiration.) In short the noticeable brittleness of the bread crust would follow not only from having the moisture pulled out by the freezer, but from the fact that it was actually pre-moistened one step prior.


How long will homemade salad dressing stay good in the fridge?

There is no rule of thumb encompassing all salad dressings.

One "rule of thumb" which sometimes gets used is to look at the shelf life of the most perishable component. Frequently it works; sometimes, it is dangerously misleading. A mixture of the things you listed can have a longer or shorter shelf life of that of the most perishable component. An example of lengthened shelf life is mayo; it stays good for longer time than a cracked fresh egg, because the yolk gets pasteurized and the pH is lower. But there can be examples of the other thing happening. The classic is the homemade garlic oil: you can keep pure garlic and pure oil for months in the pantry, but once you combine them, you get a botulism risk.

I don't usually keep salad dressings in the fridge, but if I did, I would look at why the most problematic component has the shelf life it has, and decide whether mixing it will change the condition. For example, if I had a mixture of oil, vinegar and pure emulsifier: Oil keeps for months because it has no carbs, so nothing for bacteria to eat. Vinegar can have a few carbs, but not a lot, and it also has a very low pH, so bacteria die in it. The combination still won't have enough carbs for bacteria, and will still have a low pH. So the mixture will keep for very long time, just like pure vinegar or oil.

On the other hand, imagine mixing vinegar with honey and water. Honey doesn't go bad by itself, because the carbs are too concentrated for bacteria. The vinegar and water will dilute them, so this mechanism of bacteria prevention vanishes. The pH of the mixture will probably rise a lot too, because the vinegar gets diluted, so no protection on that front either. Thus, this mixture is apt to go bad much earlier than pure vinegar or pure honey.

This method requires that you make a new decision for each new dressing you make, and that you acquire enough knowledge to be able to make such decisions. If you feel this is too much effort or too risky, you can either start adding conservants to your homemade dressings, or just start preparing a fresh dressing for each batch of salad.


I've been told that the shiny side should go on the inside for cooking, and the outside for freezing.  In other words, do you want to reflect the heat into the food, or away from the food?

However, common sense (which fails very often) tells me that with the temperature ranges involved, any benefit is marginal, if it exists at all.

The only time it might matter, is if you were trying to warm something up in the sun.  Then it might make a difference.

EDIT:  From The Straight Dope:

  The truth is that the shiny side is
  not treated with a dangerous chemical.
  Mineral oil is used as a lubricant
  during the rolling process, some trace
  of which may remain on the finished
  foil--but it's not dangerous. The
  shiny side is shiny because of the way
  foil is made. During the last pass
  through the rolling mill, a double
  thickness of foil is run between the
  rollers. The side of each sheet that
  comes in contact with the polished
  steel rollers comes out shiny. The
  other side has a matte finish.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1135/should-a-baking-potato-be-wrapped-in-foil-shiny-side-in-or-shiny-side-out

ALSO

  The official word from the Reynolds
  aluminum people is as follows: "It
  makes little difference which side of
  the Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil you
  use--both sides do the same fine job
  of cooking, freezing, and storing
  food. There is a slight difference in
  the reflectivity of the two sides, but
  it is so slight that laboratory
  instruments are required to measure
  it."


Interesting question. I would certainly say that it's worth a try, because there is a high chance it will work. Of course, you do need to add more culture after cooling, but you already mentioned this in the question.

If this fails, the most likely failure mode will be that the acid in the culturing yogurt is sufficient, and your milk old enough, that it curdles when heated together. This means that you can either throw it away now, or give it a cook and see if it stays liquid, and if yes, continuing as usual. If it curdles, you can use it as quark. So continuing instead of dumping it is the winning strategy, your worst possible loss is a bit of electricity.


The visible mold that you can see is the fruiting body of the mold, that is the moldy-equivalent to the apple; much of the mold penetrates into its food substrate like the roots of a tree.

Since strawberries are fairly porous, the entire fruit is almost certainly full of the mold, even though it is not visible.

You should discard the strawberries.


Why does pistachio ice cream not taste like pistachio nuts?

Firstly, let me disagree and say that I have tasted some (amazing) pistachio ice creams that tasted very much like the actual nuts. That said, I can think of several reasons why the ice cream might taste differently from the nuts:

Artificial flavours, like you suggest. You might be able to figure out from the ingredients list if these are used.
Salt. If you have only eaten salted pistachio nuts, you might have a different benchmark for pistachio flavour. Salt is a flavour enhancer, after all.
Temperature. The temperature of food and drinks radically changes how it is perceived when tasting. This is why (bad) coffee is OK when hot, but terrible when at room temperature, and why melted ice cream tastes much sweeter than the frozen stuff.

A final side note, which I include mostly because I find it interesting: I used to think 'banana flavour' was based on a different type of banana than commonly found in stores. Doing some searching for this question, it turns out I was wrong.


What would be an alternative cooking technique for the Orion Cooker to get more tender ribs?

I haven't used an Orion, but I watched their video and I feel like I've got a pretty good handle on the concept. I'm like you, I like ribs super-fall apart, and usually a bit saucy. I would try braising them in a big roasting pan in the oven a couple of inches deep in liquid for two hours or so (just at a simmer, don't let the liquid boil), before putting the racks in the smoker. For the liquid you can get as experimental as you care to.


How long can leftover pizza be stored in the freezer?

I don't know if you can keep quality the "same", but yes, it's possible to freeze.  Plain cheese actually freezes better than one with lots of toppings.

For the absolute best quality, you need to limit freezer burn, which means wrapping it in something that will prevent moisture from escaping into the container surrounding it.  This typically means tightly wrapping it in a water-tight material.

I'd recommend first chilling the pizza in the fridge.  I would specifically not freeze an amount that you think you'd be able/willing to eat over the next few days.  (willing because you might get sick of pizza if you have it multiple days in a row)

Once it's chilled down, you have to decide on portions -- if you're going to be the only one eating it, you might want to only wrap it up in bundles of two or three slices, depending on the size of the slices and how much you typically eat.  If you have a family, you may want to go with larger amounts.

For wrapping, I suggest stacking up slices of a similar size and toppings, and then either:

Wrap each stack tightly in freezer paper, then tape shut any seams.
Wrap each stack in plastic wrap, then in a layer of aluminum foil.  (plastic wrap alone is too thin; aluminum foil may react w/ the acidic tomato sauce)
Arrange a couple of stacks in a large zip-top freezer bag, and suck out the air before fully sealing.

And you should label them before they go into the freezer with what they are, and when you originally purchased it (so if you find one months later, you know that you need to either eat it soon or dispose of it).

For thawing/reheating ... if it's still tightly wrapped, you can get away with thawing it in the fridge first.  If it's not, you'll end up with condensation on the outside, so you might be better going straight from the freezer to the oven.  (or a microwave on low power, then the oven).

Exact time and temperature in the oven depends on the thickness of the crust, the amount and water content of the toppings, and if you're going from thawed or frozen.  As a general recommendation, I recommend starting with a moderately hot oven (350°F / 180°C) if thawed; a bit lower if frozen, and cook until it's warmed through.

Other things that you can do to improve the quality of the pizza:

Turn up the heat towards the end if you like your cheese melted / gooey
Once it's warmed up a bit, add pre-cooked toppings and an additional sprinkling of cheese on top.
Put it under the broiler / grill (top heat only) to get the top extra browned.  (also useful when adding toppings)
Pre-heat a sheet pan or baking stone, and place the pizza on that to get a crisper crust.  (but don't pre-heat to extreme heat like you would if cooking it from raw dough)
Adjust the oven shelf depending on how you like you pizza and/or how brown it already is.  Lower to reduce the amount of extra browning on top and cook the crust more; higher for the opposite.


Amounts of Potassium Sorbate, Calcium Propinate or Ascorbic Acid as preservative in dough

No to the potassium sorbate, because it will inhibit yeast growth.  (Use potassium sorbate as a preservative in chemically-leavened goods such as cakes, cookies... even non-leavened things such as pie crusts.  Just don't use it with yeast.)

As for the calcium propionate, check my answer for details on the page to which you provided a link.

Yes, you can use ascorbic acid along with calcium propionate -- but be sure you want the effects it will have on your dough -- such as finer, softer crumb structure and shorter rise/proof times.  If you're after a sturdier, more open crumb, ascorbic acid might not be for you.  If you want to try it anyway, start with the bare minimum amount.  I have read suggested amounts of anywhere from 15 to 80 ppm (0.0015 to 0.0080%) of the flour weight.  I've had good luck with about 70 ppm (0.007 baker's percent) -- or roughly 1/16 of a teaspoon of the particular ascorbic acid per pound of flour that I have on hand.  That would work out to just a shade over 1½ teaspoons per 25-pound bag of flour!  I recommend weighing (especially when working with large batches that can become expensive mistakes -- and be careful; a little goes a very long way!


Can vinegar be used instead of alcohol in keeping sorbet soft/scoopable?

Vinegar freezes at about -2C, so it will have a minimal effect on the freezing of ice cream; certainly not the major effect of alcohol.

If you want to make a sorbet smoother without adding too much extra sugar, replace some of the sugar with dextrose--it suppresses freezing a little better than sugar, and is less sweet. You might also try stabilizers like locust bean gum or guar gum.

You might also consider skipping the syrup and just dissolve the sugar directly into the juice without the extra water (although this will affect the flavor--some fruits benefit from being diluted a bit).


You should pour a little heap of sugar on top of the dessert, then swirl the dish around so that the surface is evenly covered with sugar.  anything that's left over, dump on to the next one (or into an 'extra sugar' dish).  This is important - there shouldn't be any loose sugar on top.

Now use the torch as long as you need to, although in my experience it shouldn't have an absolutely 'smooth' finish - there should be some texture.  Also, too much torch and the sugar will go past caramelization and just be burnt.

Source: worked in a fine dining restaurant for ~5 years and did this quite often.


A stock made from roasted chicken is never going to be clear like a consomme.

You will note in the the video you reference, the stock is also moderately cloudy with some particles floating around in it.

This is normal, and nothing to worry about.

If you do desire a more clear stock next time:

Bring the stock only to the most gentle of simmers to reduce the amount of sediment stirred up from the boiling action.   It may be easiest to do so by putting the stockpot in the oven rather than doing it stove top.
Strain the stock with a very fine strainer or chinois, lined with several layers of cheese cloth.

In truth, I would suggest this is not worth it for most applications, unless you feel the appearance of the final dish being created is marred.  Since aspics are no longer terribly popular, where a clear gel really is needed for appearance, normally getting a very clear stock is not needed.


I don't care about the non stick property of a non stick pot. Is there any harm in washing it in a dishwasher?

It already looks like the coating has worn off significantly.  Without making any health claims (as I don't know what the impact of ingesting particles of T-fal coating), I don't think the dishwasher is going to do more damage, or release any more coating, than your use of inappropriate non-stick utensils already has.  ...maybe, just time for a new pot.


Is there a simple rule of thumb for time when pressure cooking?

As found on Chowhound:

  some "rule of thumb" are available but there are always exceptions!
  As usual things at high pressure cook three times faster -
  The thing is, that the rules aren't always cut and dry. Chickpeas, for example, cook 90% faster in the pressure cooker (13 minutes instead of 2-3 hours). Your chicken stock, only 30-45 minutes at high pressure!
  These "rules" should be a starting point for figuring out the cooking time.
  Your main resource should be your own cooker's manual. It should include a good list of cooking times as they relate to your pressure cooker. The online chart that smtucker linked to is culled from pressure cooker manufacturer instructions books. There are other, more reliable versions online that have been updated with first-hand experience.
  For example, the chart in the link lists asparagus thick and thin pressure cooking time as the same - actually, you should ONLY pressure cook thick asparagus lest your expensive purchase of thin asparagus turn into soggy mush - a reputable timing chart will make this distinction.
  the given link can help you alot...
  http://www.hippressurecooking.com/p/p...


I make kimchi regularly. It sits on a shelf at room temperature for a week or more, and slowly ferments. Some people ferment it for months. Sure, it likes a low oxygen partial pressure, but a few hours on a bus isn't going to hurt it.


What does tin foil do when baking a pot pie?

There are three modes of transfer of heat, as you already mentioned: convection, conduction and radiation. In everyday life, practically all heat sources employ all three of them, although the ratios differ. You certainly have all three of them in an oven.

The foil slows down all three modes of heat transfer, but not equally. First, it is intransparent (or nearly so) for infrared. So, the whole infrared component is practically eliminated. This comes in very handy when you happen to have food whose surface is already well browned but the inside is not yet ready: you cover with foil on top and continue baking.

The convection is also made much less efficient. Normally, the oven heats the air near the top and the bottom, the air in the oven moves around due to a heat gradient and frequently a ventilator, and so you get hotter air surrounding your food, ready to conduct heat to it. When you cover your food in foil, the hottest air cannot reach the food while it moves around. The only air touching the food is the one trapped under the foil, and that never goes to the heater.

Third, there is conduction. Conduction is never perfectly efficient. So instead of having the air conduct heat to your food, you have the air conduct heat to the foil, and then the foil conduct heat partly to the food itself (where it's touching it) and partly to the air trapped inside, which then conducts to the food. Now, instead of one energy-loss step, you have two or three of them. "Good conductor" means that this loss is less than with other materials, but it is not zero.

Then you get a ton of other, more complicated effects. When you bake food, moisture evaporates from the surface. If it gets trapped below a foil, you have a much moister environment, and get a different baking result than without the trapping (although that one is mostly noticeable in the baked surface and less in the centre of the baked or roasted food).

So, physics easily explain that indeed, adding a sheet of foil (or other material) will give you very different results from "naked" baking.


I wonder, if you don't like the effects of dusting the top of the dough with flour, if you might not get better results with oil.

Pastry dough tends to be rich to begin with so the added oil might not be obvious, and a little brush shouldn't hurt the dough, and can be controlled fairly easily - nothing in the air or running off the sides.  You might apply a thin layer to the top of your dough, or to the knife itself (either as a brush every now and then, or something like the mist idea).  You probably won't need much extra (for cost purposes), and you will also avoid the dough drying too much around the edges.  I think it might work.

Otherwise, I second Muriel Katz's answer - you should check the temperature.  Cooler dough (and a cooler blade) will probably cut more cleanly than warm and soft dough.  Depending on your process, you might get some improvement if you are able to change the temperature of the room, the dough, or the knife - whatever suits your setup.

Using water - may or may not be a good idea.  It will depend on how wet your dough is, the temperature, and host of other factors.  I have had dough which could be separated and moved quite cleanly, using water instead of flour to prevent sticking - I have also had dough all but melt because it became too wet with puddled water.  With misters to keep adding moisture, it makes me feel like you would sometimes get the latter result, once the layer of water has a chance to soak into the dough.

Also, I have no idea how compressed air would or would not work.  It depends on what you want to achieve with it, I guess - it might briefly chill the blade or the dough to cut more cleanly, but I don't think it would clean the blade or form a layer against sticking.  Maybe someone with more experience with compressed air can answer.


Probably not; I wouldn't chance it. So: NO.

Something is producing gas, thus there is unexpected fermentation (by microbe action).  It is more likely to be bad than good.  Guacamole should not be fermenting.


Absolutely, as Robert said. Just be forwarned of condensation forming at the bottom when you thaw which will ruin the wrappers. So support with three or four layers of paper towels.


How do I make a fried egg with completely cooked white but completely runny yolk?

Tips for perfect fried egg:

Temperature of your pan is the key.  (low - medium)
Do not flip the egg (this will cook the top too fast and bye bye to runny golden yolk)
Halfway through the cooking take a lid for the pan put a small bit of water in it and close the lid on it for a few minutes.  (Too much water and your eggs are wet when you pull them, too little and the effect is not noticed.)

The end result, if you do it right is the white cooked, the outer yellow cooked but inside runny golden and good.  If you do it too short the white will not cook through, too long and you over cook but I have been doing it this way for awhile.


Can you make porridge out of P.A.N. harina?

You cannot make grits, because by definition, true hominy grits are treated with alkali which is what makes them different than plain cornmeal or polenta.

Searching for harina pan polenta indicates a variety of recipes are possible (most are in Spanish, so I cannot read them).  However, it doesn't appear that a porridge type dish is the usual application for this product.

Still, the nature of the product indicates it should work, although the result may be slightly different in texture and flavor from more traditional Italian style polenta, since the harina PAN is precooked before being dried and ground.   It should therefore cook up much faster than one made with regular corn meal, analogous to the difference between instant oatmeal and traditional outmeal.

There would be no single ratio of water to grain, however, as polenta can range from a thin porridge to a thick enough to cut into slices and fry.  You will have to experiment to find the ratio that you like the best.  I would suggest starting out at about 2:1 liquid to harina pan by volume.


Why is there a difference between softened and melted butter when baking?

Basically, when recipies call for softened butter, they use the creaming method; the sugar and butter are mixed together in such a way that the sugar cuts little air bubbles into the butter.  These little bubbles can add some extra puff to the cookies.

If you melt the butter first, not only do you not have those air bubbles, but there's water in butter, so you'll end up getting some gluten development when you mix in the flour and make a chewy cookie ... but more importatly, without the fat being (near) solid, the cookie will slump a lot more, and spread out before it cooks (assuming you haven't otherwise adjusted the recipe to compensate).

There are cookie recipes that call for melted butter; compare the three recipies from the "Three Chips for Sister Martha" episode of Good Eats; the "chewy" cookie uses melted butter.


How to preserve herbal syrup or herbs that will be used to make syrup?

Remember that whatever method of preservation you use you will always lose some flavor, there's no way to keep it all.

If you want to make a syrup for long term preservation then freezing them is your best bet unless you want to add preservatives which you don't really need to do if you have a freezer. A smart way to do it would be to pour the syrups into ice cube trays, then once frozen pop them out into zip lock freezer bags so you can use the trays for other things, and keep the ice from sublimating. I'm in favor of straining the syrup first, that way the cubes are ready as soon as they come out of the freezer.

Depending on the herb it may be more efficient to simply freeze the herbs directly. Thick herbs like sage, rosemary and thyme will do just fine while others like basil and parsley will turn to mush and you'll lose flavor.

Have you considered drying them? It's not hard to do, and there's plenty of how-tos out there, may be the best solution for thin herbs.


How do you make cheap asian instant noodles without noodles?

Trying not to interpret this as a recipe request, but a question about how to approach recipe mimicry.

Look at the ingredient list of flavourings you like. Try and sort them by function: six basic tastes (umami/sweet/sour/bitter/salty/fat), aromatics (spices, alliums of any kind, and other vegetables and vegetable extracts), textural modifiers (eg starches, emulsifiers), and stuff you do not need in a fresh recipe (preservatives etc.). Develop a recipe from there. Pay attention to oil vs water vs alcohol solubility of aromatic compounds.

or/and/also

Look at what dishes the seasoning is based on (eg japanese ramen broth+tare combinations, thai curry, chinese soups) - then look at recipes for these dishes, optionally cook some of them from scratch (you will be working with about a half to three dozen flavour defining ingredients, and get to know all shelves at your asian grocer's), to get an understand for the seasoning profiles.

Also learn about stock making - bone broths etc. if you want it meat based. If vegetarian, experiment with shiitake/kombu dashi, and fermented ingredients like all the varieties of soy sauce (hint: you want some thai/chinese light
 and/or gukganjang), gochujang, douchi, sufu, chinese pickles, kimchi....

BTW, you will arrive at a point where you make broths that are just too intense without noodles...


What vessel should I choose for Lactofermentation?

Any water-tight container can be used for lactic fermentation. The main thing you want is a way to keep the vegetables submerged in the brine, usually a wide weight placed over the vegetables, so a jar which narrows a lot at the top will be trickier to work with. (Using a plastic container may give a bad flavor.)

You should not seal a container being used for fermentation. Gas pressure will build up, and possibly make the jar explode.


How can I improve the presentation of the food I serve?

Try to get some verticality in your dish. Everything just laid on a plate is boring. Instead stack your meat on top of your potatoes, stand a large asparagus spear upright, put some onion straws on top of your dish. Anything that gets some differing heights to your dish will make it more visually appealing.

Use your colors. Avoid dishes that come out with nasty colors, or do something to correct them. My wife likes to select vegetables that have complimentary colors. It makes the dish look more interesting than if it is mono-tone. You can sprinkle fresh herbs over the top to add some more color and flavor.

Add some flair. You see this all the time with desserts in restaurants but can do it with thick sauces on a main dish too. Put sauce on your dish in a nice pattern and then run a tine of a fork through it at a perpendicular angle to make sharp streaks through it. Dollop a sauce in a spiral pattern in ever smaller amounts so that you get smaller circles around the edge.

Watch Grant Achatz at Alinea preparing a dessert straight on the table. If this won't inspire you, nothing will.  He uses all three things I mentioned to make this interesting. Not to mention that he's doing it straight on to a silpat table cloth. And one of America's greatest chefs makes dessert for you table side, there's more than a little "presentation" in that alone. We ate there for our anniversary, and he signed a copy of his book for us, even his signature uses the circles and lines so common in dessert prep.


Yes, you can freeze parmesan cheese. Even without freezing, Parmesan is very durable since the low water and high salt content prevents mould from growing. The younger varieties may be more prone to mould growth (having a higher water content), but I've kept ripe Parmesan (30-36 months) for at least a year in the fridge without problems (and it would probably have stayed good much longer). Just remember to keep it wrapped in paper, not in a sealed plastic container to prevent a buildup of condensation.


From Googling Nutritional Claims Excellent:

YES! These terms are highly regulated in the United States.

In the US, the FDA sets the following standards for food products:

  "High," "Rich In," or "Excellent Source Of" - Contains 20% or more of the DV per RACC. May be used on meals or main dishes to indicate that the product contains a food that meets the definition, but may not be used to describe the meal.
  "Good Source," "Contains," or "Provides" - 10%-19% of the DV per RACC. These terms may be used on meals or main dishes to indicate that the product contains a food that meets the definition but may not be used to describe the meal.
  "More," "Fortified," "Enriched," "Added," "Extra," or "Plus" - 10% or more of the DV per RACC than an appropriate reference food. May only be used for vitamins, minerals, protein, dietary fiber, and potassium.

Note: DV = Daily Value, RACC = Reference Amount Customarily Consumed

This is a really helpful page!


If you're going to use a rub, i'd recommend rubbing it a day or two before cooking and leave it in the fridge. That lets the flavor set in properly. Also brining as mentioned in the previous answer is a great method of getting flavor into the meat. With chicken, however, I find it's best to create a sauce or gravy to serve it with. Getting flavor actually IN to chicken meat as you're asking is pretty hard, so sauce / gravy is the way to go.


What is silken tofu compared to regular tofu and how do you use it?

Non-textured, or 'Silken' tofu (which comes in extra soft, soft, firm and extra firm varieties, just to be confusing), is typically used in sauces that would otherwise call for cream (I have used it in vegan mornay- and bechamel- style sauces), or in making cheeses (i.e. ricotta), and things requiring softer cheese (i.e. cheesecake) as a component. It is also used in dips and smoothies.

I use it in cooking for my vegan half and half (1 part soy milk to 1 part silken) as vegan half and half is more pricey. My girlfriend frequently uses it in vegan egg-salad (the secret is in using turmeric for color and black salt for the sulfurous egg-y taste), I have used it as a dressing for cucumber salad in place of mayonnaise.

It is a versatile component in both vegan desserts, and sauces, but textured tofu is typically the fore-runnner in terms of entrees due to it's flexibility (and compatibility with meat in most preparations) in frying and baking.

  Typical recipes involve prepping it as a raw ingredient or a component of another element (i.e. sauces), and not a finished product like textured or sprouted or fermented tofus.

In assessing whether, or how, you would want to use it, I would recommend that you taste it raw. It has a nutty flavor that many people find either bland or too-much-like-tofu. Although I cannot account for the reaction your will palate will shoot to your brain, I can say it is easily flavored and the soy bean flavor overwhelmed. In making some desserts, for better or worse, it will feature more prominently if there are no other flavors to crowd it out.


What's the best/easiest way to de-vein king prawns?

Have you tried the basic cheapo shrimp deveiner? A little practice, and it's actually quite effective.


How do I separate crackers stuck to parchment paper?

If you mean that the parchment is stuck to the bottom of the crackers, try putting the whole thing in the freezer for a while.


How can I get salt to stick better to buttered or oiled popcorn?

The key is to have the finest possible salt. One way to do this is to take any salt you like, and grind it fine in a mortar and pestle. This just takes a few seconds, and then you can customize to a particular sea salt you enjoy and avoid the need to buy a special popcorn salt. A rotating action in the mortar and pestle (as opposed to pounding) is most efficient for grinding salt.


Tomato soup is thicker and richer than carrot juice. Using carrot juice will change the moisture content of the cake, and it will not rise or bake properly.


How can I turn my pasta salad into a pickle?

You should use pickling when you want something to last months not days.

In regards to your second question: it certainly wouldn't be pasta salad any more.

If you want to experiment with pasta pickle then sure it sounds like a good idea, if you want to preserve pasta for a week split it into several air tight containers and stick it in the fridge.


Ribs in Slow Cooker, then finished on BBQ?

While you could do this. A better method(Provided you have an enclosed grill) would be to set your grill up for indirect heat and slow cook them on your grill. This is how I do ribs and it works amazingly.

You'll have to do things slightly differently if you have a square or round grill. For a round grill try the following:

Place unlit briquettes around the outside of the grill about 3/4 of the way around.
Start about 12 briquettes until they have ashed over, place them at one end of the circle, put a few (2-3) pieces of smoking wood chunks on top of your coals.
Get your grill temp to about 225-275 degrees F and adjust your vents to keep it there (Start adjusting before you get to your desired temp, it's easy to shoot past it).
Put your dry rubbed meat on the grill opposite your set of lit coals (do not sauce, if you want sauce put some on at the end).
Cook 4-6 hours until the meat bends easily at about the third bone when picked up from the end.
If your coals burn too far under your meat, rotate your rack to keep the meat opposite the lit coals.

If you've got a square grill than you probably cannot do the ring method I've described above, instead you will have to figure out how to do indirect heat a different way. A set of banked coals on each side with the meat in the middle or some lit coals placed in the center of some unlit ones on just one side. You need something that can keep a constant low temperature and burn for 4-6 hours. Experiment and see what works for you.


Baking chicken in oven, but keeping it moist

The technique you describe is pretty much just the standard way of roasting a chicken.  A V-shaped roasting rack is excellent for this purpose.  As for keeping it moist, the standard technique is to brine the chicken first.  Done properly, brining a chicken results in a moist, tender bird with crisp skin, and doesn't involve adding any additional fat.  I normally brine by putting the chicken in a stew pot, covering it with cold water, adding about a cup of kosher salt, and letting it sit for 90 minutes.


Will brownies remain fresh if sent by post?

Brownies should stay excellent for several days at room temperature. For several more days they will have diminishing quality, but still remain tasty enough to be worth eating. After about a week to ten days, they're usually more stale than most people will consider worth eating. Of course the difference between "worth eating" and "not worth eating" is subject to personal preference. Any brownies that you won't consume within the "still worth eating" window, you can store in the freezer for several months. Thaw at room temperature, or by gently heating in the microwave.
Usually you can get one day or two day shipping, which would arrive within that "still delicious" window. In COVID times, shipping services are having lots of delays, even if you pay a premium for fast shipping. So it's difficult to predict whether your brownies would arrive while still delicious, or even still good to eat. I suggest having your friend weigh a batch of brownies (don't forget to add the weight of the packaging). Use the shipping calculator on the website for Canada Post (or whatever shipping service you want to use) to calculate how much that package will cost to ship. Then decide whether you're willing to gamble that amount of money. You could have her send you just a couple of brownies as a test.
To ship them, your friend should make sure the brownies are completely cool before packing them. (If they're still warm, they will release steam inside the packaging, which will make them soggy.) Wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and place inside a plastic bag with a zipper. Put the bag in a box. If there's loose space in the box, fill it with crumpled paper or other packing material to stop the brownies from moving around and getting crumbled during transit. Particularly dense brownies might do alright in a padded envelope, if you want to save costs and are willing to risk them getting a bit smooshed.


The easiest way to decide which starter works best for you and which one you like more is to bake a bread with each of them.

I would suggest to make them at the same time (or one after the other if you don't have the oven capacity), so you can have a direct taste comparison. Don't worry about having too much bread, you can freeze part of each loaf if you don't think you can eat it all while still fresh.


I can't find anything on it but this paper on The Archaic Diet in Mesoamerica (page 334, Table 1) suggests that drying is a traditional method used to preserve Tagetes Filifolia flower and leaves.


Why should I boil pretzels in baking soda water before baking?

The pretzel originates in Germany, where it is called Laugenbrezel. It was originally prepared in a alkali solution, which is where the "Laugen" part of the word comes from; typically, lye was used, but baking soda gets you most of the way there without a trip to the pharmacy (a Mexican or Asian market may do the trick if you want culinary lye).

The alkali solution is what causes the crust to brown so deeply, and it's most of the difference between a pretzel and a bagel. A bagel would typically be boiled in a malted sugar solution instead. The flavor is also affected, but I don't know how to describe the difference; there's a very pronounced aroma difference if you skip this step. To me, you end up with nothing more than a pretty breadstick unless the dough gets that alkali bath.

If you do use culinary lye, use gloves and don't rush anything. Traditional Laugen aren't boiled, so you just need a cool 3% lye solution; no boiling step.

In Germany, the pretzel shape isn't the only option for Laugen. Little rolls calls Laugenbrötchen and longer, roughly baguette-width sticks called Laugenstangen are also popular. On my most recent trip last year, the Laugenstangen were frequently sold in the form of sandwiches, though I don't remember seeing many of those when I was first living there in the mid-90s.

ETA: Having done this a few more times since originally posting, I'd also add that the utensils you use in lye-based pretzels need to be wood, glass or plastic. Eye protection is important too. Metal will likely corrode or oxidize when it contacts food put in contact with lye, even if it's after the wash. I'd recommend setting the washed pretzels on a wooden surface after dipping if you want to minimize damage/discoloration on your baking sheet.


The question starts with an inaccurate assumption.  Salt does NOT necessarily result in "drier steak."  Salting a steak will draw some moisture out of the outermost layer of meat initially.  That's true.  However, salt also helps to break down the outer muscle structure of the meat.  Thus, within 10-15 minutes after meat is salted, water will actually start moving back into the meat, and after somewhere around 45 minutes to an hour, all of that "lost moisture" will be reabsorbed.  (I covered all this in more detail, with some links, in an answer to a previous question.)

If you use a rub and allow the salt to penetrate at least an hour or so, you won't lose moisture and will actually end up with a more flavorful outer layer of meat.

And yes, salt used long-term, like in dry-curing, will eventually dry out meat more.  Salt attracts water, so it will gradually draw water out of meat, but then the water on the surface will evaporate.  Thus, the salt will draw out even more moisture to the surface, eventually drying and curing the meat.  But this is a process that happens over days, weeks, and months, as water migrates much more slowly internally within meat.

As for brining, the reason why it increases moisture is because physical and chemical systems like to come to equilibrium.  Higher salt content outside the meat means that the salt will gradually flow ("diffuse") inside  the meat to equalize the concentration.  But salt is attracted to the water molecules it is dissolved in (the same reason it draws out moisture in dry curing), so water comes along with it, thus carrying in moisture.  In the case of curing, there's no water for the salt to carry in with it, so you just end up eventually with a dry, salted hunk of preserved meat.  But in brining, there's excess water, so it's attracted and follows the salt inward.  The process is largely diffusion, but osmosis plays a role too.  (And I've also said way more about this in another answer.)


How can I smoke something without a smoker

I have successfully smoked with apple wood chunks wrapped in foil in my outdoor grill. The trick is to find a setting that will maintain ~300 F using 1/2 of the burners. Then place the foil-wrapped chunks on the hot side and the meat on the cool side. The wood will begin to smoke after 10 minutes or so.
Keep checking periodically to maintain 300 F.
I do this with already cooked sous-vide pork. It may need adjustment to cook raw meat while smoking - maybe up the temp to 350 F or so.
I adapted this technique from Kenji: http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/08/food-lab-complete-guide-sous-vide-barbecue-smoked-bbq-brisket.html:

Method 2: Using Live Smoke
If you've got yourself a kettle grill or smoker, then you can enhance your sous vide brisket through a bit of honest-to-goodness smoking. I find that by letting my brisket cool a bit (or even refrigerating it for up to a week), I can place it on the cooler side of a kettle grill that I've heated to around 300°F with charcoal and wood chunks and let it smoke for a good three hours or so before it starts to dry out at all. This is ample time to develop a deep, dark crust and to get some smoky flavor in there.
Is it better to apply that smoke before or after cooking sous vide? Well, according to folks like Meathead Goldwyn, author of the eponymous book on the science of barbecue, the flavorful compounds in smoke will adhere to and penetrate raw meat much better than they will with cooked meat. This is true, but I find that the amount of smoke flavor I get out of a post–sous vide session in the smoker is plenty for my taste buds, and smoking at the end makes the process so much more efficient. I'll stick to the post–sous vide smoke.


I haven't had it. As to making it at home: that would be a recipe, which normally is outside of this site's scope. I'll give you 2 links, though, from which I'll try to distill a general description of 'Ashta type cream'.

This type of cream contains:

Milk, Milk-and-cream or powdered milk
(corn)starch
orange blossom or rose water
sugar.

Source links:

http://arabicbites.blogspot.com/2007/06/ataif-bil-ashta.html
http://www.tasteofbeirut.com/2010/05/lebanese-cream-ashta/


What is the difference between a wild yeast starter and a sourdough starter?

There are many ways to achieve a “pure” strain of yeast or other microorganisms. Modern technology with sterile environments are today’s method of choice, but another is to create an environment that is especially favorable for one kind and allow this to outcompete all others. The principle is not limited to yeast, another important field is cheese making when the raw cheese is aged in an environment with a specific mold - Roquefort being the classic example. In this case, humans use the already existing colonies in a specific environment or ecological niche.

Even sourdough today works in a similar way, but for sourdough the baker creates a stable mix of yeast(s) and lactobacillae - and by adjusting hydration and temperatures can even regulate acidity and yeast activity.

The earliest bread yeast was a by-product of brewing (hence the name Saccharomyces cerevisiae). And brewers, especially those that brewed on a large scale like monasteries and commercial brewers, carefully guarded and cultivated their yeast strains that had developed over time. The yeast was and is a huge factor for the flavor of the beer. This lead to the first “just yeast” leaveners. You could still obtain some barm from a hobby brewer and give it a try. Ensure that they are brewing with a top-cropping yeast like S. cervisiae, not a bottom-cropping yeast like S. pastorianus.

The main difference between “wild yeast” and sourdough is ratios: you can use for example raisins soaked in water to get a yeast-rich liquid as opposed to a classic sourdough. Elderflower is also rich in wild yeasts. In short, all plants that ferment easily are suitable sources for wild yeast. I doubt that setting up near a tree will have much of an effect.


How to store/what to do with leftovers from Ayurvedic ginger & turmeric cold/flu drink?

It sounds like you have made what is essentially an oddly flavored vegetable broth.   According to Still Tasty, that should last about 4-5 days refrigerated.

The leftover ginger and tumeric is going to have given most of its flavor into the broth.   I don't think you would want to use it for anything, although it would be safe to eat.


The main issue you will see with ceramic pans is crazing (a network of small cracks) of the enamel layer from  thermal expansion and contraction.

This may reduce the non-stick properties of the enamel layer and is not terribly attractive, but otherwise the pan will continue to be usable.


I'm not sure why the rush.  Pecans are not a cheap ingredient where I am, and I actually have to slow myself down from using too many.

A perhaps unusual preparation is to grind your pecans and coat whatever your main is with them as if the pecans were bread crumbs.  This could be done with egg plant, for example.
As an omnivore I really enjoy fish coated with ground nuts.

One of my favorite ways to do green beans is to roast them under a broiler with onions and pecans until all ingredients are toasty and golden.

Pecan pie is one of my favorite desserts, and with a replacement for heavy cream my recipe could be made vegan.  Google appears to agree that this is a definite option for vegans.  Another excellent recipe if you can save your pecans for fall is a pumpkin pie base with a pecan pie topping.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  So decadent.  There are many options out there.

I rarely make cookies without pecans.  In fact, my ideal cookie is pecans held together by cookie dough.  I love pecans in muffins.  They also taste good in quick breads - zucchini, banana, and many others.  You can also grind the pecans and use them with white or whole wheat flour in a bread recipe.


How clean should the outside of pots and pans be scrubbed?

I think this is purely aesthetic. The outside of my stainless cookware looks terrible. The oils polymerize and are really difficult to clean after that point.  I don't worry about it too much, though I have a friend who takes great care to keep his stainless shiny.  I doubt the buildup is enough to impact heat transfer.


How to organize a walk-in fridge for a mid-size kitchen?

It really depends on what you're keeping in the fridge.
In my Navy days, we basically had areas for different type of products, which were organized differently.

What we used to do was more or less this:

Vegetables: This is more or less per vegetable, but worked for us. For instance the carton of tomatoes or cucumbers next in line was on a middle shelf, next to all the other vegetables next in line for their type. The other cartons were stored right at the bottom of the rack, basically on the floor. Once a carton was finished a new one was moved up in its place.
Peeled vegetables: We occasionally peeled enough potatoes (or carrots, or onions) for 2-3 days. In this case, the potatoes were stored in a kind of bin with water. Unpeeled potatoes were in sacks in the back of the fridge. Once the peeled bin was empty, we'd change the water and peel more potatoes.
Meat: Most meat was in the freezer for reasons which are obvious once you're carrying supplies for more than a few days. However, every afternoon the next day's meat was moved into the fridge for defrosting. It had it's own cabinet in the fridge on one side.
Dairy: Dairy products usually came in trays for us, and there were never too many of them as we were a 100 person galley. These are generally light enough so that when a new shipment arrives, you can just lift the old things and place the new ones under them. At worst, you take the old stuff out, put the new in, and then put the old back in on top.
Prepared dishes: Sometimes we'd make a coleslaw or something in the morning to serve for lunch. Obviously, it needs to be refrigerated during the wait. These things had their own shelf, and were put there until needed. We'd only ever have those for the next meal, though, so not much of a queueing issue.
Special items: Anything that was particularly special (rare or expensive) was kept in a 3foot cubed locked cabinet in the fridge, where prying hands couldn't reach. Hopefully, that's not a concern for you.

That's it. The only other adivce I have is to use big (gallon, half-gallon) modular boxes that stack well, if you need to keep a lot of prepared things.


When making lactose free milk, the lactose isn't actually removed. Instead, lactase is added to the milk. This breaks down the lactose into its component sugars, glucose and galactose. Lactose is one of the least sweet sugars, relative to sucrose (table sugar). Both glucose and galactose are significantly sweeter than the original lactose, hence why lactose free milk tastes much sweeter.

Here is a chart showing the sweetness of different sugars.
Video and description of process of making lactose-free milk.


When making a sauce, at what point should you add the wine?

In sauce making, you would add liquid (wine, water, broth, etc.) to release the fond (browned bits) that adhere to the bottom of your pan.  Therefore, as related to your question, after sauteing.  The purpose is not to soak into anything, but to incorporate the flavor from the fond and the liquid into your sauce.


How do I add guar gum when making ice cream?

Where are people getting the idea that Xanthan gum comes from corn?It does not.  It is harvested from bacteria (Xanthomonas campestris).

If you are using a cook-up custard to start with, your custard will thicken but will also get ropy or the term is snotty when you pour a spoonful out as you stir.  That is definitely a good way to tell if you are using too much Xanthan gum so you need to cut your amount down.    You sometimes see that effect in cheap, fat free salad dressings.

It takes less gum than a starch because a gum holds much, much more water than a starch. Where you might use a tablespoonful of cornstarch, you would only use maybe 1/8 teaspoon of gum and that might be a little too much. Gums go into liquid if they are mixed with other dry ingredients or they have heat treated to dissolve instantly.  Those are usually only sold commercially so you would not be able to buy them on the internet.

My husband makes a "to die for" cooked vanilla and chocolate custard and freezes it.  But it is as hard as a rock after freezing.  I am still working on him to let me modify the formula to give us softer (not soft-serve) ice cream.  I have a masters in food science but I am going to have to make a separate batch to prove it to him.  To most people, anything other than flour or corn starch to thicken must be a chemical.  Hope that helps.


Do I use the Air Fry fan when baking with the Emeril 360 Air Fryer/Oven?

The fan isn't for frying only: it helps to regulate the heat more consistently and hastens the cooking/baking process. Turning off the fan doesn't turn off the element, however, so it will only slow down the baking process. If the instructions indicate that you turn the fan off, it could be because the item you're baking should bake at a very slow rate. This, however, means that the heat will come from above only, so just keep an eye on your food, just to be safe.


How firm a bite should Ptitim (pearl couscous) have?

I'm used (since childhood) to eat ptitim that are only a little firmer than al dente. I've never had 5mm ones, though.


How Sanitary are Counter-Style Baked Goods versus Packaged Goods?

A "chance"? yes...not "as sanitary"? yes...However, given that these markets are in business to stay in business and potentially subject to severe litigation at each possible instance of food borne illness that could have maybe-possibly-conceivably be laid at their doorstep by an over anxious [expletive-deleted] lawyer I would gauge the 'risk' as very low. Your mileage may vary.


It sounds to me like the washing process (and subsequent attempt to re-season) broke down the pre-seasoning and you are losing the oil coating on the pan. When you see the "ashy grey" color, what you are seeing is unseasoned cast iron.

The good news is that it's certainly not unsafe to cook with, even in this state. The black coating is just oil that has been baked onto the surface of the pan, giving it a low/nonstick surface. Totally safe for consumption.

To get your pan back to its best state, you'll need to re-season it. There are a number of good tutorials on the process (such as http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-season-a-cast-iron-skillet-cleaning-lessons-from-the-kitchn-107614), but it is really quite simple:

1.) Clean your pan well

2.) Apply a coating of fat to your pan - I prefer lard, flaxseed oil, crisco, or vegetable oil (in that order)

3.) Place your pan upside down on the top rack in a 350 degree oven, and bake it for at least 1 hr. I suggest putting a roasting pan or foil on the bottom rack to catch any oil that drips out of the pan during the process

4.) Let cool in the oven, and wipe down gently when done. Your pan is seasoned and ready to use!

After you've seasoned your pan, it's important to make sure you are using the proper cleaning approach to preserve your pan's surface. The ideal way to clean your cast iron is immediately after cooking in it, while it is still hot. Use warm water and a sponge, and then immediately dry it. If you need an abrasive to get stuck-on food off, use some salt and scrub gently.

Never use soap, or highly abrasive cleaning pads (brillo, metal scrubbers, etc). These will strip that non-stick, baked on oil surface and make your pan much less enjoyable to cook with. The good news is that if you ever slip up and notice that the surface has been stripped, you just need to repeat the seasoning process and you should be good to go again.

Hope that helps!


How can I make my own small pie dishes and still cook pies effectively?

If you have oven safe noodle bowls (ceramic, not plastic) then line them, as you describe with the foil, but do not remove them from the bowls.  Bake your pie in the lined bowls, then remove the finished pies, with their aluminum "pan" intact.
Or just make pasties...no pan required.

As you indicate you don't have oven safe bowls and it must be a pie, I decided to experiment, using the double foil idea.  I have heavy duty foil.  I used a double layer and lined a noodle bowl making sure that there was plenty of foil out past the edge.  I then pressed another noodle bowl on top of the two sheets of foil to make sure all is acting as a unit.  While the top bowl is still in place, crumple up the excess foil, making a rim.  This is what will give you the strength you need.  I would then take the top bowl out, and line the now stable foil pie tin with your pie pastry.  Fill the pie and if there is a top crust, finish the pie.  You can now take the pie out of the noodle bowl and bake it as usual, although I would certainly do it on a baking sheet.

The double foil is much stronger than you'd expect, but the stability comes from the rim you build with the excess foil hanging over the edge.

Here's the finished bowl with the two molding bowls.


This is a very normal thing to do. The result is not called yogurt, but sour cream. You can use yogurt, especially lactobacillus yogurt, as a starter for full-fat sour cream of the Eastern European type. The fermentation process is the same as for yogurt. It gets a very nice characteristic smell which is different from that of yogurt. It might stay slightly soupier than yogurt, even after sitting in the fridge, that's normal.

There is nothing special you need to consider, just go ahead and make it.


what weight to use when weighing pasta for dieting purposes?

There is no standard. (Btw. this also applies to rice)

Any source (calorie table, diet plan, recipe..) should specify what they are talking about when giving values.

That said, for recipes, the context should clarify. If it includes a full cooking step, assume dried. If it calls for precooked, is usually mentioned.


Why do gazpacho recipes have you put garlic and salt together, then mash with an egg?

Salt acts as a mechanical agent to help you make a paste out of the garlic. It prevents the garlic cloves from slipping against the mortar walls, and helps with the grinding and mashing. Salt+garlic is a common start for a number of mortar/pestle recpies in Spain.


What salt should I use in a bread machine recipe?

In general, unless the book or recipe specifically states something different, "salt" is assumed to mean "table salt".

If a recipe were to call for kosher salt or pretzel salt (like as a topping for the loaves) it would specifically call that out especially.


I feel your pain. If only I liked summer squash better...

You definitely can freeze squash -- thick slice it, blanch it in salty water briefly until almost tender, transfer to an ice bath until it's chilled, bag it, and put in the freezer.

Later, thaw and use with recipes that don't require ultra-crisp squash.


How can I judge if vacuum-packed mussels are fresh, when they're invisible behind the seal?

Unfortunately I don't think you have a good option. You can try to determine what you can through the small tight section at the top. You should also be prepared to take them back and ask for your money back if you get them home and the freshness isn't acceptable.


Skyr is a milk-based product that is thickened with lactobacillae and similar bacteria and sometimes rennet. It falls in the same category as yogurt and quark.

For thinning, use either water or milk (possbly cream for a richer taste), the latter keeping a more "milky" taste. Wikipedia states:

  In its traditional use, it was diluted with water when used as a beverage, or mixed with milk and crumbs of flat-bread as a quick meal.

If you want to use skyr for hot foods or sauces, be careful. Like yogurt it won't take heating too well and is likely to separate or curdle.


Soft caramel fudge sounds totally edible to me. Enjoy it and try again another time. When you do, test the thermometer in boiling water to make sure that it's still accurate. And, double check the fudge using the "soft ball" test. Set up a juice glass of ice water. Dip your spoon in the heated chocolate, let a drop fall into the ice water and examine it. If the chocolate has reached "soft ball stage", the drop of chocolate will be sitting at the bottom like a little chocolate ball. If the chocolate has a teardrop shape, or seems "loose", then the chocolate is not hot enough yet.
Don't give up. Fudge can be finicky. Something as simple as the wrong pan can make things go awry. (note: My Father always used a heavy thick pan, like a porcelain coated cast iron, when he made fudge.)


Is canned or jarred minced garlic substantially different from fresh garlic?

Yes, it is different. Does it matter? It depends.

If you're going to use garlic in a stew or anything else that would 'dissolve' the regular garlic anyway, it doesn't really matter all that much in my opinion.

If you want to preserve the texture and/or create a more 'urgent' garlic flavour in short-cooked food, I'd go with fresh.

Sidenote: most of the prepared garlic comes with additives, consider if you want to have those as a part of your diet.

As for keeping time once opened: no worries really - bacteria really don't like garlic all that much, so refrigerated you should have no problems hitting 6+ months.


Two temperatures for making caramel candy

When caramelizing sugar in a recipe that uses water your first job is to get the sugar to completely dissolve. That is the first temperature you are using. They are probably making you pause at this temperature long enough to make sure you do this tep correctly. If they didn't have the step most folks would blow past it, add more ingredients and run the risk of not dissolving the sugar correctly.

Make sure no sugar crystals remains at the first stage, even on the side of the pot. If any crystals remain or fall in later your recipe will fail because the sugar will recrystallize leaving a grainy taste.


Can tomato paste be substituted for tomato purée?

I'll weigh in on this one, having extensive cooking experience on both sides of the pond. The terminology is indeed confusing when it comes to tomato products. By tomato sauce they don't mean canned tomato sauce like you get in the states, they actually mean ketchup! As for puree there's two types, one is just what it means, pureed tomatoes in a can, and the other is super-concentrated like what in the US is called tomato paste and comes in a tube.

Given it's this recipe is asking for 250ml of puree they must mean the canned stuff, as adding that much concentrate would be hideous. To replicate UK/AU style tomato puree I'd use a can of tomato sauce with a half mini-can of tomato paste to thicken it up a bit. That still sounds like a bit too much liquid for my taste.

Alternatively you can use my mom's technique and add a can of concentrated tomato soup to the mix, it makes a great meat-loaf!


You're probably better off going with the bigger pans. A more influential factor than "how evenly the pan cooks the muffins" will probably be the time you're taking things in and out of the oven. So, if you have to remove ten, rather than just five pans (and/or to rotate them), you may get some unevenness.


If you put them in a humid environment they'll absorb moisture.

If you have a deep enough bowl with a lid, put a glass of water in the middle and surround the glass with the candies.  Keep the lidded bowl in a room-temperature place for a few days where it won't be bumped (you don't want the water to spill...).  Stir the candies a few times to keep the moisture evenly distributed and to prevent them from sticking together.


Do all cheeses change their taste during their shelf life, like Brie or Camembert?

All traditionally made cheeses (not "cheese food" or pasteurized processed cheeses like American slices or American cheddar that you find in the grocery store) contain enzymes and bacteria that impact the texture and flavor over time. Cheese makers call this "ripening".  The amount of impact that you notice depends on a number of variables...type of cheese, age, storage conditions (temperature, humidity...), and packaging, to name a few. It's more obvious, and a quicker process in softer cheeses, but it also happens in hard cheeses. Storing cheese in a typical refrigerator drastically slows the ripening process, as it is typically too cold, and much too dry to promote ripening. However, with a few modifications, you can fairly easily create the correct conditions at home if you want to build a ripening "cellar".  Most cheese makers will have a perfect ripeness in mind for a given cheese, but most are edible well before and well after this ideal state.  Aromas of ammonia, or a rotting rind are signs that a cheese is well past its prime.


Can you use baking powder in a breading?

When I add a bit of baking powder to the flour breading I use for eggplant, the fried result is a little puffier than without. Frying forces water out of the eggplant into the breading. That along w heat sets off the production of CO2. The same should happen with your chicken breading.


I'm pretty sure that what the recipe means by "granulated sweetener of choice" is the choice between Sugar, raw cane sugar, or light or dark brown sugars.  All these can be used to create delicious caramels.


This site recommends washing, slicing in half, removing seeds, slicing into 1 inch slices, peeling the skin, then chunking, and giving each chunk a brief boil for 2 minutes. Then going on to pressure can the product. It cannot be safely preserved with out pressure.

http://nchfp.uga.edu/tips/fall/pumpkins.html

And I hope you save the seeds and roast them! One of my favorite fall treats.


To sear or not to sear - slow cooking beef dishes

Will it work without searing it first?  Yes.

Will it have as much flavor?  No.

Searing does two things:  Create flavor through the browning process and jump-start cooking.  Searing does not "lock in juices".  The mere sound of the sizzling that goes on is indication that juices are exuding and sizzling against the hot cooking surface.

Benefit of Searing for a Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker recipe:
In the case of preparing meat in a slow cooker or in a pressure cooker, the purpose of first searing the meat is to brown the meat for better flavor.

If you have the time and don't mind having another pan to clean, then sear the meat before adding it to your slow cooker.  If time does not permit then it will still work to put the meat in without first searing, the flavor of the finished dish will just be a bit more subtle and not as "meaty".


Mixing mushroom-potato-carrot soup and warming later (Should I?)

You're fine making those packets well in advance. You could even put them together the night before and leave them in the refrigerator until you're ready to bake (expect them to take five minutes longer to cook). The only possible negative to doing it that way is that the potatoes could get a little brown. You can keep that from happening too badly by making sure that they are completely covered by a thin coating of the soup mixture.

You don't want to serve soup made out of the same ingredients as your entree. That recipe is totally scalable, meaning you don't have to make any more than you will actually eat. At worst you're going to have some of the can of soup and part of a potato left over.

I wish the recipe described the making of the foil packets a little better. If you're at all unsure about how to fold those, come back and ask. We'll help you out.

BTW, that begs for a green salad to go with it. You could put a salad together a few hours before your girlfriend is expected and keep it in the fridge. Just don't add the dressing or any croutons until you're ready to serve.


Given the very-specific times and temperatures given in the recipe, I'd bet that deviating at all would probably cause this result.  Step #7 specifically states that you want to slow and limit the yeast's growth, which I would guess is to form very fine gas bubbles in the dough and provide a final burst as the waffle cooks.  Letting it proof for so much longer probably let some of those bubbles merge and escape from the final dough.  In short, don't do that, even if it doesn't rise very much.

If you follow this recipe to the letter and it still doesn't work, check your yeast for freshness.  They may be expired (in more ways than one) and less effective than normal.

Finally, don't beat yourself up if it takes a few tries to get this right.  This is a very finicky recipe - I've never seen so many temps and times in a waffle recipe.  There's probably a reason why the author states that they aren't seen much even in Belgium.


Are you sure that the "non-stick" properties of your square pan are still OK. The pan in the picture looks pretty tired.

I also note that the pan in the "successful video" has a ridged bottom. This gives more surface area to the bottom of the pan and gets more heat up into the egg mixture to cook it.


The easiest solution would be to add a thickening agent to your sauce.  Which agent will depend on how much you are willing to have the texture of the sauce change in order to achieve a good suspension.  One of the easiest methods, if you are also willing to alter the flavor profile in the direction of South Carolina or Germany, would be to add mustard.  Natural emulsifiers in the mustard will help keep the butter from separating and also provide a bit of thickness to keep the spices in suspension.  If you don't want to change the flavor profile, many recipes intended for the home kitchen suggest thickening the sauce with cornstarch.  Most commercial sauces will use a combination of modified food starch (which isn't readily available to the home cook) and xanthan gum (which is becoming increasingly available at most mega-marts), the usage of which has been discussed on this site previously [here and here].


Low and slow is the only way to go, I'm afraid. You can add some broth and simmer them down (as opposed to just cooking them in oil) but make sure you add little enough that it will all evaporate...Don't want to be pouring off flavor.


Shule, I read over a lot on that site plus checked a number of other sites. It seems that the company that makes Ball® lids and glass jars for canning has coined the term 'fresh preserving' to refer to canning done either by boiling water bath immersion and by pressure canning. Included in these two methods are jams, chutneys and relishes, and pickles along with canned fruits and vegetables (and even meat and fish using pressure canning). Freezer jams are also included since Ball's jars and lids are used. They don't include lacto-fermenting but seem to refer only to fruits and vegetables, other than dehydrating.

I find it amusing that so many methods relating to foods - such as growing your own produce (plant or animal based), baking and cooking, as well as various methods of preserving food - has become 'fashionable. People who can see profit in this are jumping on the bandwagon. I used all these methods, except for cheese-making, so I could provide good tasting nutritious food for my family at far less cost than buying from a store. It's spoiled me as I now find commercially prepared foods (even the costly 'good tasting' stuff) bland and boring. So all the more power to younger ones setting out to learn how!


How to make pizza crust thin and elastic at the same time?

I generally use a fairly wet dough and add oil as well. One of the keys is to keep kneading to a bare minimum. This makes for a lighter dough because it has more air bubbles - kneading kills them. As for flour type, I like '00' type, but there are advantages to other types of flours - as 00 absorbs less water.

If you want to read a completely comprehensive guide to a lot of the factors, this is worth a read...

http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm


What advantages does a brasing pan have over a full Dutch/French oven?

I have this shape (without lid) as a cast iron pan, not enameled. I mainly use it in the oven, not on stovetop.

It's a great pan for gyvetch, moussaka and generally Middle eastern oven dishes. You can brown the meat and sweat the onions in it on stovetop, then add the other ingredients and put it in the oven. All the juices stay in the pan - if you brown in a frying pan and then transfer to a ceramic pan for the oven, you lose some juices even with good deglazing, and it's logistically simpler to continue in the same pan. Also, the stovetop browning preheats the pan, saving time and energy.

When it is in the oven, it has the advantage  that the hot air moves freely over the surface of the food, so you get the benefits of convection. The Dutch oven's high walls prevent that. Also, as Joe said, you could theoretically fit two of them in the oven at once.

I also find it great for baking bread, its thermal mass gives it a function similar to a bread stone. When it is used open, it doesn't give you the pseudo-steaming advantage of baking in a closed Dutch oven, but on the other hand, it produces a nicer shape than a Dutch oven.

For stovetop, it can double as a paella pan. It can also be used as a substitute for other pans - especially if unenameled, because it's nice to have something which can withstand scorching temperatures but is larger than a steak pan. It can even double as a wok in a pinch. But these are side benefits. You can probably use a large Dutch oven for the same purposes anyway.

If you don't do much of Balkan or Middle Eastern cooking, it's not so important to have one of those. Especially as a cooking beginner you can find other equipment with higher ROI. If you are looking at those just because you noticed them in the shop, have the money, and want to enjoy your new hobby - I understand you, because I used to be in the same position. My advice: don't start with the gear. Start with a few simple, cheap items, and dive headfirst into cooking. When you find that your success with a recipe is hobbled by missing gear (as opposed to your skill, bad ingredients, etc.) and that you make this food style frequently enough, that's the time to invest in high quality items.


What do the numbers used to differentiate Chinese slicer knives mean?

3 Rams is the brand. Pretty popular Chinese Cleaver manufacture. The number 2 is the weight of the knife. I think the numbers range from a #1(heaviest; bone chopping) down to a #5 (lightest; vegetable knife). If you're looking for a vegetable knife yours is probably on the heavy side. It's more suited to chopping up poultry/fish.

A couple articles/forums, which seem to confirm my guess that lower is heavier:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-01-26/entertainment/8902280958_1_cleaver-chopping-high-carbon
https://forums.egullet.org/topic/143953-is-this-chinese-knife-sufficient-for-chopping-poultry/

Edit and Disclaimer: The numbering system is also manufacture dependent; some go from a 1-3, some from a 1-5. I am sure there are others as well. Best place to verify, would be if you could scope out a chinese market/store that sells the knives to compare what you have.


How to package fresh pasta and fresh pasta sauce

In Italy fresh pasta (gnocchi, tortellini etc) are usually sold vacuum sealed in department stores... If you see rana fresh pasta (the most famous fresh pasta maker here in Italy, you can get some good ideas).
For what concerns sauce... the best way to sell it is in glass jars.


White pre-cooked corn flour, water, pinch of salt and cooked in the pan is the traditional way of making and cooking arepas.

However, cookery is a living and evolving subject and very much a matter of personal taste.

I strongly recommend you experiment with the different flours, milk or water or half and half, cooked in the pan and in the oven and decide for yourself which you prefer and which comes closest to the ones you've tried and liked.


By far the easiest method is to use a pan of hot water and a bowl of ice water. Essentially, bring a pan of water (enough water to cover the peach to a boil. Meanwhile, with a sharp knife, make a small 'X' shaped incision in the top and bottom of each peach.

When the water is boiling gently place a few of the peaches into the water and simmer for around 20 seconds, just until the skin can be seen coming away. At this point use a slotted spoon to remove the fruit from the boiling water and place them in the ice water. After 20 or 30 seconds you should be able to remove the skin with your fingers.

The same technique is used with tomatoes


Make sure you use a pan with high enough sides so that fat doesn't overflow. If it's a thin baking sheet with only short edges, especially one that tends to curve/warp in the oven, you could easily dump fat all over the bottom of the oven. But as long as it's a sturdy pan, the fat isn't going to get any higher than the beef itself started out (except for splattering), so if the beef itself all fits in with a bit of space at the top, you'll be fine. If it seems like you're cutting it close, split it into two batches.

Make sure also not to cover too tightly; you want steam to be able to escape. You want it to be covered well enough to keep fat from splattering everywhere, and to keep it from drying out fast and burning on the top or bottom, but you also don't want all the water to get stuck in there until it boils over.

Letting it cook in the fat is really just a personal preference. If you want the final result to be super lean and maybe a bit dry, don't do it; if you want to keep it moist and juicy and don't mind some fat, cooking it in the fat is good for it.

For food safety issues...

All that matters is what temperature the beef reaches. The FDA recommends that it reach 160F. You don't really need a thermometer to check in this case, though: if it's all obviously brown it's fine.

So, yes, that general idea is probably safe, but I wouldn't try to pin the time down now. Just put it in the oven and check periodically until it's done. Exactly how long it takes will depend on how thick the beef is in the pan (i.e. how big the pan is).


What is a lean cut of beef (steak) to use in low calorie recipes?

According to the Mayo Clinic, the leanest cuts are:

Eye of round roast or steak
Sirloin tip side steak
Top round roast and steak
Bottom round roast and steak
Top sirloin steak

However, grain/corn fed beef may have more marbling (more fat embedded) so if you're going for low-cal, you might want to consider buying naturally raised/grass fed beef.

Personally, I prefer to find a meat source that has leaner beef in general and buy Skirt Steak or Clodhammer (rotator cuff) for their taste, tenderness, and reasonable price.