Cream whippers cleaning is not difficult, but rather heavy going, as what you usually fill them with are thick liquids. But you can clean the canister with a bottle brush and then follow the tips given in this answer on cleaning flasks.

You'd also have to clean the tip and the o-ring joints, but it's easy to do so with the pressure of a normal water tap.

If you are planning to get one think that you might not use it many often but it will occupy space, and they can be expensive to get (albeit this is something relative to each person/kitchen).

They are useful for making really quick whipps or mousses. But for some non conventional foods (see below) you might not find people willing to try them.

There are many recipes that use pressurized whippers, not just for sweet whipped creams. Some of them can be as innovative and surprising as the deconstructed tortilla de patatas. It's one of the utensils introduced in modernist/deconstructive cuisine, such as Ferran Adrià's espumas. You can get many recipes in this page from one manufacturer.


Is there a significant difference in flavour between real Mirin and Mirin-like products?

I used hon-mirin exclusively when I lived in Japan, simply because it tasted better.

My Japanese neighbor was surprised that I could tell the difference, and confessed (somewhat embarrassedly) that she used aji-mirin since her family couldn't tell the difference.

However, I cannot buy hon-mirin in the US (I'm not 21, and hon-mirin is sold as wine while aji-mirin is cooking wine) so I've been using aji-mirin without detrimental effect.


Study linked below states that pears are made up of 84% water. So 84% of the weight of the pear in grams would be a close estimate to the weight of water of the pear, in grams. Water weighs 1 ml per gram, so you could then convert the weight in grams of the water to ml of water in the pear.

Water Content of Fruits and Vegetables


The yellow color comes (primarily) from vitamin A in the eggs. The eggs are high in vitamin A when the chickens are fed a natural diet of seeds, vegitation and insects.

Most of the eggs that you buy in the states are factory farmed and pale because the chickens are fed a special protein mix that has a lot of corn. This makes them lay faster and more economicly, but the mix is somewhat nutrient poor, so the eggs are less colorful. This also used to happen in cows: the milk was yellow in the summer when they ate grass, but white in the winter when they ate hay and grains.

If you find good yellow eggs, that is a good sign that the chickens led a good life on a natural diet. Of course, the feed could just be doped with vitamin A to make the eggs look more yellow.


The flavor is described as being very mild and unless the recipe calls for a ton of the stuff it is probably being used mostly for color.

The color it gives is a yellow-orange. Substitutions used are turmeric, paprika, or a mixture of the two. It was often used itself as a substitution for saffron but of course saffron would be too expensive to make the substitution back.

If your recipe does use a lot of annatto (or you are serving it to people who claim to be able to detect the difference) then your best bet would probably be to just buy it online. It is a seed so it isn't fragile and ships well.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=annatto


Is it ok to eat kimchi that is causing its package to expand?

Fresh kimchi will continuously release gas as it continues to ferment; unlike some other fermented foods, it contains active cultures. Commercial kimchi is often packaged with a "gas absorber", but that can only do so much. So yes, it should be fine.


I always submerged mine in warm water and, bare handed, worked the cap until it came free. The water should dissolve the salt with the help of the mechanical action. That was with glass bottoms and metal tops. You should be able to brute force your full metal shaker with no ill effect as the metal will have a much higher shear strength than the salt that is binding it.


Turning a sweet cake into a savoury one: What should I swap in place of sugar?

On King Arthur's site, they talk about liquid sweeteners.
One of their comparisons between the different forms is water content/acidity.
Maple syrup's water content/acidity: 34%, mildly acidic (less acidic than honey).
This led me to look up water content and acidity impacts on baking.
The Cake blog did a comparison of cakes based on level of acid used. The no acid cake (what I would assume would happen if you removed the maple syrup because it contains malic acid) still worked, it just wasn't as tall or fluffy as the ones with acid.
My suggestion is that if you want a loaf that is more cake-like, you should add a bit of acid (e.g., lemon juice or vinegar) if you remove the maple syrup. If you want a loaf that's denser, you can leave out the maple syrup and don't add in anything else.


How come mere water buffalo milk and lemon juice mixture turn into yogurt?

This is not yogurt per definition, you are making a fresh cheese. You can actually use other types of milk for such a cheese, but the mouthfeel and taste will be very different and won't be as similar to yogurt.

There is a large class of acid-curdled cheeses, including paneer, tvorog, quark and many others. I don't know if yours has a specific name. I know that there are people who for some reason can't tell the difference in taste betwen quark and yogurt. But it is still cheese, even if it tastes similar to yogurt.


Stewing tough or thoroughly connective-tissued meats is, by design, something you do for a long time at pretty decent temperatures. Since your meat has already been cooked once, if anything you are going to be cooking it slightly less than what is described in whatever stew you decide on. Your food safety concern is admirable, but as long as you observe good food handling safety and cook the meat thoroughly, you should be good to go.

I will reiterate the chat's suggestion for a stew as a good one. However, a stroganoff (which is an American version of an Eastern European dish, I believe) would also be a good option. Basically any beef dish where the beef is diced up evenly in size and stewed in a sauce for a long while will work in helping you to use up this meat.


Is cast iron skillet suitable for vegans?

A vegan is not going to eat your pan, just the food that was made on it. As no animals were harmed in the making of your pan (well, probably but how would you know) the pan itself wouldn't be an issue. Of course if a tiny bit of pan seasoning could go into the food, however anything else used in the preparation of the meal like cutting boards could cause a small amount of meat product to go into the food as well. Your kitchen is not vegan, and if a vegan has a problem with that they should not come over for a meal.

I'd be extremely surprised if the subject of your pots and pans came up to be honest, vegans I know appreciate people going to the effort of making a vegan meal for them.


What is the type of cheese in "chips and cheese" UK fast-food? (with photos)

The cheese you saw was, if it was real cheese at all, probably cheddar or just plain white cheese. Whatever they put on was not high-quality stuff - takeaways are not known for lavishing money on ingredients.

Whether you will be able to get anything similar depends on where you are. American and British cheddars have different flavors, so if I was in the US I'd try Monterey Jack, or maybe Provelone.


I would go with 'yang' for seared lamb.

I come from a Chinese family that owned a restaurant for some time. Yin has always been characterized as gentle or moist cooking techniques such as steaming, braising or simmering (gau yuk aka kau yuk). Yang has always been characterized as abrupt or dry cooking techniques such as searing, frying or roasting (stir fry, crispy duck). Crispy duck is actually a combination of yin and yang, as it is first braised then seared. Don't listen to me, I've been brain washed.

Edit: In cooking I would consider 'yang' as intense or harsh and 'yin' as gentle, rather than hot and cold.


How do I make a cheese, sausage, cracker spread?

Ironically, the kind of sausage you want is called a summer sausage. There are many varieties as the term really just refers to a sausage that doesn't need to be refrigerated. You might be able to find a few different kinds to give you some variety.

As for cheeses, you can sort of go with whatever you'd like. Generally with sausage you'll see stuff like jack, cheddar, havarti or swiss. With crackers you might see a cheeseball which is usually a blend of cream cheese and a cheese like cheddar.


This website: http://www.eatbydate.com/grains/rice-shelf-life-expiration-date/ has the following table.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
| Dry                    | Pantry      | Refrigerator | Freezer    |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
| White Rice             | 4-5 Years   |       -      |     -      |
| Oxygen Free White Rice | 25-30 Years |       -      | 30* Years  |
| Brown Rice             | 6-8 Months  | 8-12 Months  |     -      |
| Wild Rice              | 6-8 Months  |       -      |     -      |
| Minute Rice            | 4-5 years   |       -      |     -      |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
| Cooked                 | Pantry      | Refrigerator | Freezer    |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
| White Rice             |     -       | 5-7 Days     | 6-8 Months |
| Brown Rice             |     -       | 4-5 Days     | 6-8 Months |
| Wild Rice              |     -       | 5-7 Days     | 6-8 Months |
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From personal experience, rice that has been picked recently has a much better taste. I normally buy rice from the Asian market that has a harvested date on it. Often this date is within the last month. After about 6 months the rice tends to start losing its aromatic flavors.

Brown rice has a much shorter shelf life than white rice, and will go bad if kept in a humid or hot environment. If you aren't going to use rice within 1-2 years I would say maybe freeze it so it will keep the aromatic flavors longer.


What's a good vegan substitute for sour cream?

You can thin vegan mayo with lemon juice -- it gives you the blend of creamy and sour that you expect from sour cream.

I don't know how it behaves if you heat it too much, but it works well for sauces that are added at the end.


How do I sweeten a mulled or spiced wine that is too tart?

I've used both sugar and orange juice to sweeten mulled wine in the past, but obviously orange juice would change the flavour significantly. Add more sugar slowly, tasting as you go.


What ingredients can be used to make fried rice slightly sweet?

Often there's no secret sauce that restaurants use, but plain old bog-standard sugar. I know it's boring, but there you go. They also may be using bottled sweet and sour sauce, which is also boring, but readily available in many supermarkets.

All is not lost, however, as if you want some more authentic ingredients then there are plenty of options. In my kitchen (which isn't big enough to satisfy my capacity requirements for exotic ingredients otherwise this list would be bigger) I have several ingredients which impart sweetness to Asian dishes:

Palm sugar: more of a Thai than a Chinese ingredient, but I use it for many different cuisines. It imparts a slightly syrupy flavor. In the UK this can be found in any big grocery store in the Asian section.
Sweet soy syrup: Also can be found under the name Kecap Manis, this is an Indonesian ingredient. It is basically teriyaki concentrate, it's salty, very sweet, and has some spices in it. I use it in all sorts of Asian cooking (and I sometimes add it to gravy to darken and sweeten it), and it would be my choice for the dish you want to make. I would add it instead of soy sauce until I have the sweetness I'm looking for, then add regular soy to bring the saltiness to the right level. Adding a little bit of water helps loosen it up
Honey: not a purely Asian ingredient of course, but honey can be magic anyway. The floral notes may be just what you need

Now for the sour:

Tamarind: you mentioned tamarind in your post as something to sweeten, but tamarind is actually quite sour. I use paste at home, it lasts forever in the fridge
Lime or lemon juice: of the two I prefer lime juice when making Asian cooking sour. I can't quite say why.
Rice vinegar: This is a very commonly used souring agent, I use it most often in Chinese cooking, and it would be my choice for a fried rice dish

Also worth mentioning is Mirin - a reduced-alcohol Sake, usually with a bit of salt added. It's used widely in Japanese cuisine. I personally don't use it much, but it's worth having in the flavor arsenal.


What are some of the benefits of electric stoves versus gas stoves?

Can I convince you that electric is better? No, I can't, because I don't think it is. The issue I have is related to how long it takes to warm up (and cool down). Electric cook tops just don't respond quickly. Little too hot? Too bad, nothing you can do about it (in time to save a dish that's starting to burn anyway). Not hot enough? Check back in 2 or 3 minutes. I find this particularly irritating when a recipe requires varying heats while cooking. Sorry I don't have better news for you.


What is the best way to turn the chunks of jaggery into fine powder?

I usually grate my jaggery block on a microplane grater although your standard cheese grater will work too. I haven't tried a food processor yet, although that would probably work.

Next time I'm going to get granulated palm sugar as I've found working with a jaggery block too much hassle.


On what temperature should I leave my sauce to cook?

Once it's reached a boil, then drop it to the lowest your burner will go.

With the lid on, the idea is to have just noticeable movement, with as few bubbles as you can get.

Many burners won't go that low; but a tomato sauce should be OK at a low simmer for an hour, so long as you stir it every 10 mins & make sure it doesn't start to stick. If you take the lid off the temperature will drop, but the sauce will reduce quicker.

Alternatively, get one of these simmer rings - a few $£€ on eBay from China. That will let you drop the temperature to lower than bubbling, almost slow-cooker style.
I use one on gas. I don't know what else it's compatible with.


I would imagine that one would use the cheese local to the dish being made.

For example, for pizza, one would use (fresh) mozzarella; or for the traditional Tartiflette, one will use Reblochon cheese or use Cheddar for a Welsh Rarebit.

You could substitute cheeses in recipes, but the final taste or texture might not be the same as you would have if using the "proper" cheese, or worse could ruin a dish.

For example, I would never use Camembert for a Cacio e Pepe pasta dish.

Cheeses have different characteristics, some will melt, other will not, some must be eaten fresh, some can be aged.

Normally, you should use a similar cheese when trying to substitute (Grana Padano vs. Parmesan vs. Romamo)

But feel free to experiment and try different cheeses in different dishes.

Max


Is it necessary to cook porridge (oatmeal)?

Yes, there is a chemical difference.

When you cook the porridge, the starch from the oats thickens the milk like a pudding. You don't get the effect (propper name, anyone?) by just soaking them. Just as you will never get a firm pudding without cooking.

What you prefer taste-wise is a completely different question.


What can I do with dried chipotle chillies?

I'm not sure I've ever seen chipotle paste called for in recipes; I searched around a bit and what I found was consistent with my experience. I saw chipotle en adobo, ground chipotle, and even whole dried chipotle. I also easily found recipes for chipotle en adobo. I don't think you'll have any trouble figuring out what to do with them.

The most common way I've seen chipotles, both in grocery stores and in recipes, is chipotle en adobo. You can make your own by simmering dried chipotles in tomato paste with vinegar, garlic, onion (search for recipes if that's not specific enough). I suspect that most chipotle pastes you might find are something like this, but pureed, and possibly cooked until thicker.

The other common way to use chipotles is as a powder; that's as easy as grinding them in a spice grinder. If you're using them in something that gets cooked for a decent amount of time, I'd just do this and add them, instead of making chipotle en adobo or a paste out of them. Just think of them as a spice.


You can of course use a chicken.  While you won't know if it is a hen or a rooster, it should perform fine in the dish.

As a braised dish, you may do well with an older bird, although these are hard to find in the modern shopping environment.  You might use  a roaster (which will be quite large, but older), or a stewing hen if you can get special order one.


Dried basil leaves instead of bay leaves

No, this would be a bad substitution. Instead use cinnamon, in a smaller quantity, and preferably whole. Or leave it out entirely and rely on the other spices in your dish.
In my opinion at least, dried basil leaves are mostly flavorless. They certainly lack the sweet, fresh, minty flavors of fresh basil. They might lend your dish some complexity or slight woodiness like a Mediterranean bay laurel leaf from the plant Laurus nobilis. But even in European dishes, this seems like a poor substitute.
But in any case, the "Indian bay leaf" or Cinnamomum tamala is a whole different species, and probably what your curry recipe is looking for. Unlike the subtle menthol and tea-like qualities of a bay laurel, this leaf has a mild cinnamon scent. Thus a better substitute is cinnamon or cassia.
More generally, both these leaves have quite subtle flavors. In a dish with many different flavorful components, it plays a relatively minor role. It can often be omitted without a huge loss in flavor.


Open Fire Paella - do I need to fry rice?

Do you think you get as good a result

There are lots of different techniques for preparing rice, and all are equally valid. They do lead to different results, but it is up to you do decide which one you prefer. There is not one "right" way we can recommend over the other.

does frying the rice like this make much difference

Yes, there is a noticeable difference. Rice pre-fried in fat has a different texture. It is less fluffy, and can be even slightly slimy if cooked in too much water. It does not dry out as quickly as rice cooked in watery liquid only. It also has a slightly different taste, especially if you use a non-neutral oil. But this difference in aroma may be too subtle to notice if your paella is heavily seasoned, it is most pronounced when the rice is cooked on its own and served as a side.


Do spice containers need to be hermetic?

Based on my understanding of physics I would say: Opaque over airtight.

Things you don't want in a spice container are:

convection. An open container is essentially an invitation for the spices to diffuse into the whole room. Even a simple cap will already greatly reduce this effect. The amount of air that's going to be exchanged through a not so airtight cap over a hermetic seal probably pales in comparison to the amount of air that is exchanged whenever you use the spice.
sunlight. Amber glass is going to be clearly better at this than clear glass. It's unclear whether the problem is the light itself or simply the light's ability to transfer heat to the spices. I'd say the latter will probably weigh more heavily. Regardless though the amber glass will be better at both blocking light from getting to the spices and at radiating heat away from the container.
heat. Both containers being glass they'll be about equal when it comes to dealing with heat directly transferred onto the container.

Technically, if your container had very little spice in it then there might be some constellation where a the clear container could beat the amber one based in its ability to let light energy pass through it without affecting either the container or the spice.


What do I need to do to use my current recipe for thin-crust pizza?

Tl;Dr Yes, let it rest

It is going to be difficult to give you a perfectly canonical answer to this question because, as moscafj commented, there is a lot of variation in pizza recipes.

Dough Recipes

Thin crust pizza dough, such as the popular Neapolitan style, is typically made with high protein dough. Your recipe, before your modifications, called for 100% bread flour and would definitely fall in this category. If there isn't enough protein thin crusts will not have the structure to stay together when sliced.

Thick crust dough can get away with a little less protein because they have more space for structure. The less protein the more the crust will be bready instead of chewy.

There are, of course, many other variables that make the difference between thin and thick, for example; thin crusts are often baked at higher temps. In general a good pizza dough recipe can be used for either.

Your recipe, including your modifications, is very similar to the recipe I use and I have had good success with both thin and thicker (I never go thicker than .5") pizzas.

Getting it thin

With all bread dough- especially high protein doughs- as you work the dough the gluten gets very tight. All bread recipes have resting periods for the dough to relax before it is shaped.

If you are using that much bread flour, you should be able to get your dough so thin that light will shine through.

If you can't get there because the dough isn't smooth and just comes apart then you don't have good gluten development.
See one of the many questions here on that subject.

If you can't because the dough is too stiff then you might be working in too much flour and you should learn to work with wetter dough.

If you can't because the proteins are too tight and snap back then let the dough rest a little longer.


Drain as much of the "cooking" solution (lime etc) off as possible, and store separately

Both parts will keep a day or two

After draining you can briefly rinse the fish to stop the "cooking" process, otherwise it may go a little mushy, but not unappetising


Can I cook my tandoori chicken in the marinade for a sauce?

Since the original question was edited ...

If the chicken is cooked with the marinade, then yes you  can use it as a sauce.

-----  old answer

Probably not.

You will need to cook down the yogurt based marinade to remove risk of contamination and I'm not certain how well the marinade will hold when cooked.

I'd try it.

If it fails, you could just make a fresh batch of "marinade" and use it as a sauce.


How to stop a sponge cake (chiffon cake) from deflating/sinking?

Many sponge cake forms are made with removable bottoms and tabs that stick up on the sides.

The purpose of the removable bottom is obvious, run a knife around the side and push the cake out. However, the tabs allow for a marvoulous technique when cooling your sponge cake.

When your cake is done cooking and ready to let cool, you invert it without running your knife around the edge.  The tabs keep the pan above the table/rack and allow for the air to circulate.  Gravity helps to maintain the height of the cake because the cake is still stuck to the bottom and sides of the pan.  As it cools, the little stretching action from gravity gives you a higher/fluffier product.

It doesn't completely solve your shrinkage issue but it helps out allot.


Tofu - Cooking technique for firm/chewy edges?

Often they'll freeze the tofu before cooking it to give it a much meatier texture. That may be what you're describing.

"Crispy" tofu I usually think of as quite literally fried tofu.


Is the white hemolymph that comes out of a lobster (when boiling) edible?

Yes. I'm sure I have eaten some, on multiple occasions. Frankly there aren't many animal parts that we can't digest.


Restaurant kitchen supplies that are also really useful in a home kitchen?

While there isn't one specific brand that is common to the cooking tools and supplies you might normally see in a restaurant kitchen, the items will undoubtedly be certified by NSF International (NSF stands for 'National Sanitation Foundation' - NOT 'National Science Foundation' here).  It is probably a good idea to get in the habit of looking for that certification when you shop:  sometimes the letters are stamped into metal supplies or the logo will be clearly printed on the packaging of other tools and equipment.

http://www.nsf.org/consumer-resources/what-is-nsf-certification/home-products-appliances/home-product-appliance-certification/

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/84/NSF-Certification

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


I am going to risk pinning the problem on the measuring method. Cacao powder density can vary. The only way to measure powdery ingredients is by weight, not volume. Even for the same batch of powder, every cup could be loaded differently. Weigh what your father is using.


The American English term 'molasses' translates to 'dark treacle' in British English. Dried molasses, at least that which I am familiar with, is sulphered blackstrap molasses (the darkest, most bitter variety) and typically used as animal feed or as a soil amendment.

If you can't find dark treacle and your recipe calls for white sugar substitute golden syrup (similar to a very light molasses) or honey for the molasses and substitute brown sugar (which is a mixture of white refined sugar and molasses) for white sugar to up the molasses flavor with dark brown sugar preferred as it has more molasses added. Pack the brown sugar and substitute 1:1 on a volumetric basis.


How do you prepare and grill blackened salmon?

That's all there is to it. It seems you already know this, but just to be sure, be aware that "blackened" refers to the spice and not any burning or charring that is done. Burnt spices taste horrendous.


What am I missing in my dishes (Indian Cuisine)

The main reason why you are not getting the flavorful spicy flavors you expect from Indian Cuisines is not because of the quantity of your spices but rather the variety and quality.

Most Indian dishes will have much more than just chili powder and turmeric powder. Many dishes from this cuisine will contains different mixtures of: cardamom, ground peppercorn, chili powder, turmeric, coriander, cumin, fennel, mustard, nutmeg, allspice, tamarind, cinnamon, cassia, garlic, star anise, and cloves just to name a few.

Often times all of these ingredients are whole and ground into powder at the time of cooking to retain the maximum flavor. After the spice has been ground into a powder it loses its flavor as time passes.

A common technique to help release the aromatics from these spices is to heat up and toast the spices in the pan beforehand.

If you don't have the time or the money to deal with all these fresh spices, at the very minimum you should try to buy curry powder rather than turmeric powder at the store. Curry powder typically contains a spice blend that includes turmeric and few of the other spices I listed above. Ingredients of curry powder will differ from brand to brand.

I am unable to help you with how much spice to add to a dish because it varies way too much upon what type of dish you are making and personal preferences.


Is it safe to eat veggies that were chopped on bloody cutting board and then cooked?

Your girlfriend is right (lucky you). As long as food is going to be cooked thoroughly after coming into contact with the blood on the cutting board there is no risk as the heat of the oven will kill off any microbes that can cause foodborne illness.

The concern would be cross contamination of food that will not be cooked, for instance salads, breads, etc. This is why good professional kitchens are strict about washing boards after being used - in a busy kitchen it would be easy for mistakes to be made. In a home kitchen when there's good communication or just one person cooking you have much less chance of that happening. However, it would be all too easy to forget and crunch down on a piece of raw broccoli or for a small child to get exposed by raiding the uncooked vegetables, which is why it's good practice to wash boards after cutting meat even in a home kitchen.


What temperature is 'High' in a 950 watt microwave?

It is impossible to convert Microwaves into Celsius or Fahrenheit.

Temperature(Celsius):

  Temperature is a measure of the average translational kinetic energy of the molecules of a system. Heat is commonly expressed in either of two units: the calorie, an older metric unit, and the British thermal unit (Btu), an English unit commonly used in the United States.

Energy(Watt):

  Power is the rate at which energy is generated or consumed and hence is measured in units (e.g. watts) that represent 'energy per unit time'. For example, when a light bulb with a power rating of 100W is turned on for one hour, the energy used is 100 watt hours (W.

Microwaves are essentially radiation bombarding your food and causing the water molecules inside to get excited/vibrate, this in turn causes heat (Think rubbing your hands together).

If you are told to put something in a Microwave oven for 70 seconds, it is just a tried and tested method of getting the food to the correct internal temperature. You can't compare it to a standard oven.


Can I salvage cookie dough made with whole eggs instead of yolks?

If nothing else, the egg whites have added additional liquid to your dough, so maybe you can compensate by adding more flour.

Try taking a small portion of your "batter" and add a little flour to it. See if that brings it closer to the consistency you expected. If you can determine how much flour is needed to fix just a small amount of the mix, then you can apply it to the whole thing.

If it doesn't work, you'll still have your Plan-B to fall back on.


Ceviche is not exactly "cooked", but the acid causes the proteins to become denatured in a similar way. It may not kill all bacteria and parasites as effectively as cooking (with heat), so like sdg said, it's safest to use food that you would eat raw.

"Sushi grade" can refer to the fat content of the fish (like the USDA grades for beef marbling) rather than an assurance of its safety, so don't rely on that to pick out ingredients. Saltwater fish should be frozen at sea both for freshness and to kill parasites, and I prefer to get individually quick frozen (IQF) shrimp both for their freshness and convenience. Saltwater fish at your local supermarket has been previously frozen, so you're usually better off just buying frozen fish and thawing it yourself, unless you're really pressed for time.

Freshwater fish should not be used in a raw preparation, including ceviche.


I've seen bread recipes like the one that you described.

When bread is baked in an oven with steam- the starch in the crust is able to gelatinize before it all dries out and becomes crispy. This is what makes the crust crisp, shiny, and delicious- characteristic of "artisan" breads.

Most people don't have steam enhanced ovens (or the ability to hack their oven to add steam: How can I create steam in a normal oven to promote bread oven spring?)

The recipe you linked has water added for steam but then takes out extra insurance (they cheat) by adding the cornstarch glaze to mimic the effect. By adding extra, pure, starch on the surface of the loaf more gelatinization occurs. Additionally, cornstarch gelatinizes at a lower temperature that wheat starch. Conceivably, you should be able to use any starch and see similar results but, in the US at least, cornstarch is by far the most common.

It shouldn't be necessary if you are able to produce enough steam in your oven.


How to get my croissant flakier and bigger? Is it possible to get a hollow inside?

Croissant purists state 32 is the "perfect" number of layers a croissant should have.

In this link seeking the croissant perfection, you can find:

  NOTE11, I had the misconception that the more folds, the more layers, the flakier it will be. Wrong. With too many folds, butter layers would be thinner and thinner, and it will be more likely for the butter to melt and leak. Even with perfect rolling, too may layers would mean smaller honeycomb "holes" in the crumb. With no sheeter and TX weather, I find 3 folds sufficient, any more it's risky.

You can get up to 27 layers if you make 3 3-folds. Doing one more folding would make 3^4=81, too many layers.

It's not compulsory, but you can get those 32 layers doing 1 normal-folding and 2 book-foldings:

(image source)

Another reason your flakes are not large enough is the flour used.

Croissant dough usually has butter in it, and long fermentation time; so a strong flour (high W value) should be used.
In order the dough doesn't stretch back, and the layers of dough won't beak (letting butter from 2 layers get toghether), a value of p/l≈0.5.

That's something in common with pizza dough, as I wrote in this answer, so if you don't find flour specific for croissant, you can try with pizza one.


Sourdough starter with milk vs just using regular starter and adding milk separately?

If it can be done, it will make lots of difference. Different sourdough recipes are geared towards breeding different bacterial species, which give their own taste to the final product.

There is no answer to "what will be a better choice". If you have a known good recipe for a starter using milk, then it is up to the eater to decide which result tastes better to them. It's literally a matter of taste.

Note that, if you just thought to pour some milk and flour together, this is a terrible idea. Fermented foods are only safe when following the recipe to the letter. A small change in the initial conditions can breed a completely different strain of bacteria - which can be simply yucky, but can also be seriously dangerous for your health. So if you don't have a trusted source which describes the exact way to produce a safe sourdough starter by using milk, don't experiment on your own.


Why adding soda without vinegar to the cake batter?

Both cocoa powder and milk are acidic, and will be reacting with the soda here. Bicarbonate of soda will react with any acid, not only vinegar.
There is also a process called thermal decomposition, where the soda releases CO2 under high temperature without needing an acid, although less than it would in a reaction with an acid and leaving a compound with an unpleasant flavour. See Wikipedia for more detail:

Heat can also by itself cause sodium bicarbonate to act as a raising
agent in baking because of thermal decomposition, releasing carbon
dioxide at temperatures above 80 °C (180 °F), as follows:[16]
2 NaHCO3 → Na2CO3 + H2O + CO2
When used this way on its own, without
the presence of an acidic component (whether in the batter or by the
use of a baking powder containing acid), only half the available CO2
is released (one CO2 molecule is formed for every two equivalents of
NaHCO3). Additionally, in the absence of acid, thermal decomposition
of sodium bicarbonate also produces sodium carbonate, which is
strongly alkaline and gives the baked product a bitter, "soapy" taste
and a yellow color.

In your recipe, I imagine the soda reacts with the acidic ingredients to avoid this important taste.


What does 'white' alone mean in cocktail recipes?

As mentioned in a couple of comments, this almost certainly means egg white, which is used in some shaken drinks to create a stable foam on top of the finished cocktail. It can also "round out" the flavor of a drink and prevent them from seeming overly sweet or tart. Neither of these is explicitly identified as a shaken cocktail, but that's the usual technique for drinks that include both sugar and citrus, as both of these do.

Some recipes use as much as an entire egg white, but much smaller quantities can be used if you crack and separate eggs before service, storing the whites chilled in a squeeze bottle, or mixed directly into a syrup you're making in bulk for one specific drink, a technique sometimes used to speed up service in high-volume bars. (For the "English Writer", you'd combine and keep chilled the non-alcoholic ingredients: grapefruit, lime, honey, and egg white. This allows your bartender to measure only 3 ingredients when making the drink rather than 6, which speeds the process and increases consistency.)

The abbreviation to simply "white" could mean any number of things: it could be they're using an egg substitute instead, or don't want to raise health concerns about the egg (which are minimal, but guests occasionally get squeamish) or the recipe simply got cut off (bartenders tend to list recipes from largest quantity to smallest). Without the exact context, it's difficult to say why the "egg" was left off here, but it wouldn't surprise me to see egg along with the other ingredients in both of these drink recipes. It's commonly used in cocktails and I can't imagine what else they might mean.


Is it feasible to smoke meat with spruce needles?

It's feasible, but then you'd better really like the taste of turpentine and have the courage to take a chance on ingesting it. Turpentine comes from the oils of pine and -- you guessed it -- spruce. I wouldn't recommend taking a chance on smoking anything using coniferous materials. If you're in an area with spruce, then you probably have alder as well. There's your viable alternative.

Additional info: If you don't have alder handy or you just dislike alder smoke, then wild hazelnut or wild applewood will work just as well. (I use the applewood.) If you don't live where the trees are, most hardware stores that sell wood stove or pellet stove fuel will have wood chips made from hardwood trees. If you live anywhere near an orchard, take a drive to the country and ask a grower if you can buy or reserve some apple, cherry, or nut tree prunings. And finally, if you live in eastern North America, maple and butternut woods make excellent smoking materials.


What are the advantages and disadvantages of various sugars/substitutes?

I can tell you a few things about artificial sweeteners!

Alot of artificial sweeteners look nothing like sugar (in terms of their chemical makeup) and have very different properties. Most are also sweeter than sugar (sometimes by a factor of hundreds) so in the packets, you will find that they come along with alot of other, inert ingredients.

I found this link for you that lists various artificial sweeteners and their properties. Since most of them are nothing like sugar, you can't do certain things to them: such as heating to high temperatures or for example caramelizing.

The link I gave you mentions which artificial sweeteners are safe for eg. baking and includes some natural subsitutes as well.

I'm not really familiar with their health aspects, but I found this link that discusses health issues with artificial sweeteners.

Hope this is useful to you!


Fish bone broth separating after long long boil

I'm not sure what might have separated in your stock, but I do know that 8-9 hours is way too long for a fish stock.

While its common to simmer beef, chicken, and other meat stocks for that length of time, it's much too long for fish stock.  Because fish bones are so thin, they cook and soften much quicker than harder bones from land animals.  This means that a delicious and flavorful fish stock can be made in as little as half an hour and rarely takes much more than that.  Overcooking fish bones can lead to a bitter and unpleasant flavor, so your stock was likely ruined to begin with even before it separated.

The leathery bits you describe are likely proteins released by the fish parts used and re-coagulated by extended cooking time.  I would guess that the oily part is at least full of fat/fish oils, if not completely made up of it-- you don't say how much you have, so I suppose it is possible that if you've been simmering it all day you've managed to cook all the water out.  If that's the case, then you may have accidentally made fish oil, which many people take in capsule form as a health supplement.


Honestly, it looks like it's just too high a percentage of egg... and maybe not enough cheese. I don't know that it can't work with that much egg but most of the recipes I've found just now use much more dairy to egg and have other ingredients to make them creamy.

For comparison purposes, you're using less than a quarter cup of liquid to two eggs or 1.5 tbsp/egg.

For example, this one on Food & Wine, uses 3 eggs and 1 cup half and half.  It also has a cup of cheese and lots of other ingredients. The egg is clearly just a binder to hold things together. So, that's over 5 tbsp half and half per egg.

This one on allrecipes has 4 eggs and 1-1/2 cups of milk... and lots of cheese. That's 6 tbsp milk per egg.

This one from food.com is closer to yours in ratio, with 5 eggs and only 3/4 cup milk but that's still over a quarter cup more liquid (12 tbsp instead of 7.5 tbsp per five eggs)... and it has you add two cups of other stuff, first suggestion being cheese.

I've found other recipes that use 6 eggs to 3/4 cup cream, too... which, again, is closer but still about 1/4 cup short.

I recommend adding more wet to your mixture to cut the egg.

Also, if you were baking at the traditional 350 F (175 C), you might lower your temperature a bit. Smaller things often do better with a slightly lower oven. This gives you more room for error. I bake mini-cupcakes at 325 F instead of 350 F for this very reason.

So, try raising your cream to 4-5 tbsp (or maybe try a more watery dairy like half and half), add some cheese (cheese is creamy, remember?), lower the temp to 325 F (160 C) and try again.

Sorry, that's a lot of different things to try... but since I don't know your oven temperature, that part is more of a guess.


how to store rice for 12 hours so it doesn't dry out

For eating rice cold, I find it best to cool it by rinsing with cold water as soon as it's cooked. Then drain well, pack into a close fitting container, and refrigerate. It also works well if you plan to reheat the rice.

You may find that you want it a little softer than at dinner the previous night. In that case let it sit hot and wet while you eat dinner, then drain before the cold rinse.

This rapid cooling, apart from preventing the rice from steaming in the box, is also good from the point of view of food safety.


Best? Potted plant.

Not just always absolutely fresh, it's also self-replenishing!
There may exist tricks like moist towels, keeping them in cold (refrigerated), or preserving them in ways that keep most flavor (in oil), and combinations thereof, but they all are a trade-off between freshness time and quality and all make the leaves degrade in order of at best weeks. Considering that as potted plant basil remains fresh nearly indefinitely, they are all far inferior.

The information about proper care of the plant is abundant on the Internet; here's one comprehensive guide, but in fact the plant is quite durable and grows lush; just give it some sun and water and don't pick it bare and it will keep growing for a long time.


When slow cooking a whole chicken for curry, should I put the vegetables in at the same time or wait?

If you're making, for example, chicken soup, you add the "flavoring vegetables" (onions and celery, in my experience) right at the outset, with the understanding that you'll fish them out and discard them at some point, after they've given up their flavors to the broth. The actual vegetables you want to eat go in quite a bit later. I'm pretty sure the same procedure should work for your slow-cooked curry, but I've never made curry, so temper this advice with your own good common sense.


Is it safe to roast marshmallows over a sterno flame?

After contacting Sterno with the same question, they indicated that the only safe gel product for direct food heating is marked “ethanol” on the canister. Those marked “methanol” are not meant for direct food heating.


There are two differences, taste and texture.

First, texture. Some margarines behave very similarly to butter in a sauce. But others, especially the reduced fat varieties, can contain gums. They tend to separate when heated, and if this happens, your sauce will probably break. This is a good reason to stay away from margarine in cooking and use it as a cold spread only.

Second, taste. The taste is different, and most people find that butter tastes better. Margarine is a substitute which can't quite reach it. Classical recipes are always made with butter, most of them predate the margarine era.

In your case, we can hope that the author tested margarine in the recipe and found that it won't split in that particular process. Or maybe they were lucky to use a margarine brand not prone to splitting. Also, this is a recipe which tries to emulate an existing thing. If Pizza Hut are not using butter in their original recipe, but margarine or vegetable oil, then the margarine will get you closer to the original taste. So, this is a case where margarine and not butter will give you the taste you are after.

You can probably substitute without much trouble, but if the recipe specifies margarine, I'd try the margarine first and only switch to butter if there are problems.


What is the best way to bake potatoes in embers?

It's actually pretty straight forward and fairly easy to do.

Build a fire. You are building a cooking fire, not a warm hands and look pretty fire. I use a log cabin style fire for this.
Wait for it to burn down so there are plenty of white coals. You don't want lots of "fire". Fire is pretty to look at, but more unpredictable to cook in then hot white coals.
While the fire is burning down, wash and prep your potatoes to bake as you would normally.
Wrap them tightly in tin foil.
Once the fire is burned down to hot, white coals, toss the potatoes directly onto the coals.
Wait until cooked (roughly 40 minutes for an average sized potato, on an average fire, adjust accordingly).
If you have a shovel or something, put some coals on to the actual potato as well, so you're completely surrounding it. It'll speed it up. If you don't have anything handy to handle coals, make sure you flip them half way.
Remove carefully and enjoy.

The moisture of a potato, will allow it to cook without burning. Just make sure you wrap them with no exposed areas, in order to trap the steam.


I think some fats may help better than just sugar? I have never tried this but it is worth the experimentation. If you add heavy cream (dairy) it may help. Coconut cream is high in fat and could also help in keeping it soft at lower temperatures. It is the ice crystals that make it hard, so the key is to separate the ice crystals at the microscopic level. Fat droplets can help in that if they are mixed well.

If not, just work with some scentless cooking oil in small quantities. As @Ecnerwal mentioned, read through the ingredients of the store bought ice cream and see what other ingredients are present that you may not have in your recipe. Based on some mung bean recipes online, it appears that egg  yolks also help with the texture. Good luck!


Cooking meat and potato dish at same time & temp, I want to cook stuffed chicken breasts that require 375 degrees for 55 minutes

Your hash brown potato casserole should be just fine at 375F (191C). Just cover it with foil if it starts to brown too much, and figure it may be done perhaps 5 minutes sooner than specified in the recipe.


Why have chopsticks been adapted as the primary utensil of choice:

The answer I've been taught my whole life (and I'm Chinese) was that Confucius believed that forks and knives promoted a sort of violence when eating and that it was best to keep weapons off of the dinner table and promote a gentleness when eating. This would follow his philosophical teachings.

Where do chopsticks come from:

The origin of the chopstick itself is fairly unknown, but believed to be an evolution of the ancient chinese who would roast meats over/in coals and use long sticks to fish them out. As food and fuel became more scarce food was cut into smaller pieces to cook more quickly and smaller sticks were needed to pick up the food.

History of chopsticks: http://www.asianartmall.com/chopstickshistory.htm
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2009/08/the-history-of-chopsticks/

Confucius and Chopsticks: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-01/09/content_297513.htm


Does liquid smoke differ in intensity from brand to brand and if yes, how to compensate?

Yes, I have seen gigantic differences in potency. There’s not much you can do about this; if possible, try to use the same brand as the recipe refers to. A saving grace is that liquid smoke doesn’t need to be cooked to release its flavor, so you can be conservative when adding it initially and then add more near the end if you think more smokiness is needed.


Where can I find or make Irish cream soda?

In the old days of soda fountains, soda was made with two ingredients: syrup and soda water. Soda water is just carbonated water, and the syrup can now be purchased for flavoring coffee and making sno cones.

You need to experiment with the proportions to get the flavor you want, but the recipe is simple.


Pasta edges break when being rolled in pasta machine

I'll added this as a comment, but it's probably close enough to a full answer, so I'll post it as one. My homemade pasta recipe is a little different. I initially got it from America's Test Kitchen TV show. I think they have a couple of different ones, but if I remember correctly off the top of my head, it's 2 cups of flour and 3 whole eggs. It's always a little on the dry side and I usually need to add a touch of water or oil to get it a little softer than theirs appears to be.

I knead it as you do and let it rest in the fridge for 15-30 minutes. This allows gluten to develop and the dough to relax some. If you put the fresh dough through the machine, it's going to be tight and won't run through properly. You seed this effect in pretty much every kneaded dough.

Once its set, my recipe calls for dividing it into 6 equal sections. It seems like a small amount of dough, but gets long once you start thinning it. This is where I run into issues like you're having. I take a ball of dough and cover the others. They demonstrate on the pasta episode by leaving one uncovered and it cracks horribly by the time she's rolled out the others. Anyway, I smoosh it down a little with my hand so it'll get started in the machine and run it through a couple of times to get a rough sheet.

At this point, it looks a lot like yours. The edges are all cracked up. Whether this is do to a lack of liquid or something else, I don't know. What they call for on the show to fix this is to roll it though, then fold it in 3rds. Then rotate it 90 degrees and run it back through the machine a couple of times. Because you folded it over and turned it, you have the smooth sides. The cracked sides are now at the ends of the pasta. If you repeat the process, the cracked ends are then folded into the pasta. Again, I don't know if it's doing anything scientific or just pressing the drier parts into the moister areas and normalizing the hydration levels, but it leaves me with a square of pasta that has smooth sides. It usually only takes 3-4 repetitions to get this.

At this point I begin thinning it a click at a time. One other trick I saw on a different video, that works for me, is once you get enough length to the pasta, roll it through till the end is a couple of inches from going through the rollers, then take the beginning and press it firmly onto the end, creating a loop. You can roll it through, sealing it and use your other hand to flip the pasta enough to give it slack. It takes a little dexterity, but I find that once I get the motion down, it's much easier than making sure the pasta doesn't wad up and stick to itself under the machine and then getting the end started again. Once it's the thickness you desire, simply run a butter knife or plastic spatula across the pasta before the rollers, then roll the end through.

Give this a try with your recipe and see if it helps your cracked edges. Good luck.


Can "low fat" eggs have an impact on meringue formation?

I would look at the age of the eggs - take a look at the sell by date on the carton.

If the eggs are fresh it takes more whisking to get it to stiffen up, but once there it will hold longer.

If the eggs are older it doesn't take much whisking to get stiff, but you need to not let it sit out for too long or it will get runny and collapse.

You might also look at the temperature. If the eggs were room temp they would act more like older eggs. If the eggs were cold from the fridge they would act more like newer eggs.

Sounds like you did a good job of checking for a clean bowl and no yolks. Buying new eggs that are fresh, cold and not served a special low fat diet will probably do the trick.

Hope that is helpful.


How can I make my tomato-herb pasta sauce a lighter color?

Maybe too much basil, depending on how much you are using.  It really only takes a couple of leaves to add flavor, if you are using fresh.  I would not recommend dried.  You are probably also getting color from the dried pasilla pepper.  You could leave that out.  If you want a hit of pepper, add some to your final presentation. Cooking time will also effect the color of a tomato sauce.  Try cooking for a shorter time.  My basic tomato sauce cooks for 20 - 30 minutes.


The FDA recommends below, which is how every restuarant I have ever heard of does it as well.

A recent survey of U.S. gastroenterologists has confirmed that seafood-borne parasitic infections occur in the U.S. with sufficient frequency to make preventive controls necessary during the processing of parasite-containing species of fish that are intended for raw consumption...[]..Freezing and storing at -4°F (-20°C) or below for 7 days (total time), or freezing at -31°F (-35°C) or below until solid and storing at -31°F (-35°C) or below for 15 hours, or freezing at -31°F (-35°C) or below until solid and storing at -4°F (-20°C) or below for 24 hours is sufficient to kill parasites. FDA's Food Code recommends these freezing conditions to retailers who provide fish intended for raw consumpution


How can you make "All Purpose Flour" using home ground wheat?

Typical all purpose flour does not include the germ of the wheat, so if you would like to mimic the stuff from the store, you need to grind wheat without the germ (source).

By using hard white wheat and a very fine grind, I have for years made a flour that operates very like whole wheat pastry flour, which can often be substituted for all purpose flour in recipes.  To make this same flour suitable for bread I add vital wheat gluten.


Many chefs in the USA recommend pressing a large dimple in one side of the meat patty before cooking it on the nondimpled side first, to prevent the problem you are experiencing


How do I know when my sauce is reduced enough?

The whole thing should've been done with the lid off.  Any time you're reducing a sauce, you want the steam (moisture) to escape.

As for 'how thick', the standard test is 'coats the back of a spoon'.  If you stir with a spoon, you should be able to lift the spoon out vertically, and the sauce doesn't immediately drip off of it.

This test also lets you judge just how thick the sauce is, as you can look at how much is coating the spoon.  If it's too opaque to be sure, you can run your finger across the back, and judge the clean strip vs. the coated part.


How long will uncooked chicken keep in the fridge?

Sorry, USDA recommends 1-2 days of refrigerated storage (40°F). Beyond that and you're tempting fate a bit. You're gonna have to eat some humble pie for your wife on this one (just don't ask here for the recipe).

Source


All else held equal, does a pot of tea have more total caffeine than a mug?

The pot will have more caffeine.

You are right that the concentration of the final solution is determined not only by steeping time, temperature, etc., but also by the amount of water available to dilute the stuff coming out of the tea, including caffeine. It will reach balance earlier with less water. So more water will get more of the different compounds in tea dissolved.

For an empirical observation by somebody surprised by the result, see also this question.


How to get chocolate of chocolate covered strawberries shiny?

Chocolate which has been melted will look dull when cooled down again. Cocoa butter contains crystals, and when heating and cooling chocolate, there will form crystals of different sizes.  Because of this, your chocolate look matt. You can use the technique of tempering chocolate to get great shiny chocolate. There will only form 'right' crystals with this technique. If you google 'tempering chocolate' you get lots of good results, which give you a better description of what to do then I can.  For example you can use this sites description:
http://candy.about.com/od/candybasics/ht/temperchoc.htm
Or this site which give the description using both Celcius and Fahrenheit:  http://allrecipes.com/howto/tempering-chocolate/


More likely is that he used the syrup that maraschino "cherries" are stored in.  It's sometimes used by those who don't know better in things like Shirley Temples.  It is bright, bright red, very sweet, very strongly flavored of cherries (or more properly a sort of sickly, artificial interpretation of the flavor).  I hope it's obvious that I'm not a fan of this stuff.

If this was his first time making the drink, it seems likely that he misinterpreted the term maraschino liqueur, which is altogether different.  It's distilled from marasca cherries (which are actually quite sour and bitter, not sweet) and has a much more subtle, complex flavor.

Quite frankly, I'd consider this a pretty dumb error - it's like using orange juice instead of orange liqueur.  If the bar doesn't carry maraschino liqueur, then they can't make a proper Last Word.  Brands like Luxardo are pretty ubiquitous at good cocktail bars in the US these days, so there's not much excuse for lacking it.

My advice is either to buy this fellow a good craft cocktail book, or stick to ordering beer and wine from him from now on.


Recommendations on how to have a hog butchered?

Lucky you.  I usually have all the shoulders split in two, cured and smoked, hocks and shanks smoked, belly smoked (bacon).  Some roasts and the rest into chops and steaks.

Your cut and wrap (butcher) will put things up the way you ask, so have him put up meal size bits.  The usual way to receive custom cut and wraped meat is frozen, haven't heard of anyone getting it fresh..there's just too much of it.

I like my pigs between 105 - 110 kilos/230 -240 pounds on the hoof; seems to give the right lean/fat ratio.  They grow them much fatter in some places, China is one.

You can have the shoulders left whole, that is a fairly large cut of meat though, better to have them cut into hams and picnics. Have them cut your shanks and hocks up a bit too.

Custom cut and wrap outfits that are good are very good, some of them make excellent sausage, which brings this consideration into the mix, I would recommend trying the sausage you are thinking of having made first.

Finally, the smoke on your very own pig parts will totally blow any other smoked pork product flavors out of the water, there is just no comparison.

enjoy :)


Expiration date for block cheese (mozzarella, Monterey Jack)

It is easy to see if mold is forming on block cheese.  I have, many times over the years, simply excised moldy portions from blocks of cheese, rinsed the remainder with cold water and if it looked and smelled okay, tried a nibble.  If I was satisfied that it still tasted good, I've gone right ahead and eaten it, with no ill effects.

Shredded cheese, on the other hand, can be difficult to evaluate.  Usually, once shredded cheese starts to go bad, the whole bag picks up the smell and off flavor, rendering it garbage.

Of course, I am NOT recommending that anyone (including you) eat foods beyond their expiration dates and I would NOT risk anyone else' health with such gambles.  I'm just sharing what seemingly silly, reckless behavior I've managed to get away with, unharmed.  Your mileage may vary.  Beware.


Do all varieties of cocoa naturally taste bitter?

The fleshy party of the fruit of theobroma cacao is is supposed to be sweet and pleasant.  However, it does not taste like chocolate.

Chocolate is made from the nibs or seeds within the fruit of theobroma cacao, after it is fermented ground, and processed, and is in no way sweet.

The nibs themselves are very low in sugar, and contain alkaloids (such as caffeine or theobromine) which are bitter.  This probably evolved to discourage predation or disease to the seeds themselves.

This is very similar to the way peach kernels (the seed within the pits) are not terribly sweet, although they certainly grow within a fruit that is.

So no—there is no such thing as naturally sweet chocolate.

A related tree, Cupuaçu (theobroma grandiflorum) is cultivated more specifically for its fruits, which are sweet and said to taste something like pineapple.  Again, the fleshy fruit is not analogous to the seed which eventually becomes chocolate.


Thermal Properties of Seasoned vs Anodized Aluminum?

A surface insulating layer (whether deliberate anodising, natural oxidation, or seasoning) will only really affect the heat flow through that layer from the bulk metal into the food on top.  It won't affect the heat-spreading effect used for even cooking, and it won't affect the heat capacity.
So now we're considering the difference between various surface layers.  These will probably have a similar thermal conductivity to a ceramic pizza stone (to order-of-magnitude precision), but being thin layers between the food and the aluminium sheet heat reservoir will have a small effect compared to the temperature drop between the core of a pizza stone and the food on its surface.  This means whatever has happened to the surface you'll couple the heat from the sheet to the food  better than with a pizza stone, which would appear to be your goal.
The thermal conductivity of most foods that you'd cook on a stone/steel will be far lower - most consist of dough with gas bubbles in, basically insulating foam.  That's what will limit the time for the middle to cook through.  Perhaps a smoother layer will give better contact, but clean seasoning and anodising are both quite smooth.
More of an issue than thermal effects will be sticking.  This is an application where you really don't want the food to stick, as it will carry on cooking while you free it up.  It will also be a pain to deal with as I find with my home made aluminium pizza peel on thin bases.  Hopefully the thorough, fast cooking will avoid sticking in the first place, but spills of sauce etc. will still need to be cleaned up, so a bigger question than heat flow would be ease of cleaning.


What aspects of a fridge most affect the quality/taste of food?

There are a number of other threads here with some bearing on this question, including:

What is the ideal fridge temperature

Can food spoil at cold temperatures?

How important is isolating food in a fridge?

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

What we can glean from all of these is that temperature control is critical, and can vary between different models.  You want a refrigerator that can reliably maintain a consistent temperature without wide temperature spikes, and you probably want a relatively low differential between different parts of the box (so that, for instance, items in the bottom compartment don't freeze while items on the top shelf spoil).  Different compartments can help in isolating foods from one another, but they would be especially valuable if their temperature and humidity could can be independently adjusted to allow for minute control.

Also, keeping your fridge clean is important, so that mold, bacteria, and so on can't collect and spoil your fresh new produce; thus you want a model that can be readily disassembled and scrubbed. Easily removable shelves, compartments, and so on would be beneficial, and they should be made from easy-to-clean plastics or glass with minimal texture.  At the same time, these need to be sturdy and adjustable, so that you can thaw that 20-pound turkey without having to sacrifice too much other space or breaking a shelf.

Speaking as not just a chef, but as a home bartender, I also want adjustable space inside the door(s) so that I can store a variety of differently-sized bottles upright.  But that's more for convenience and efficient storage than it is about taste or quality.


When making french press coffee, what is the purpose of blooming the grounds?

I found a quote from this article

  One thing you may not want to do with a press pot, especially a larger model, is use beans roasted less than 2 or 3 days before. What, am I crazy? Nope. There's a problem with ultra fresh beans and it is called "bloom". When beans are only a day or two off the roast, they contain heaps of Co2. Heaps of it, I tell you. That Co2 will translate into a massive bloom of brown suds on top of your press pot, possibly overflowing, but also making it easier for big particulate matter (your ground coffee) to hop and skip over the top of the filter portion when you first apply it. Bloom looks cool, but can make using a press pot more difficult.

The poor filtering part sounds questionable to me, so I googled it and found a few bloom-related comments on this blog post.  It seems like some people start timing their soak time only after they see bloom.

This seems like the real reason to me.  I know for sure that the air content in ground substances can vary significantly:  one cup of flour can contain double the volume of another if one is loosely sifted and the other is compacted.  The above quote is accurate about that in my opinion.

Apply this logic to coffee and in order to produce an accurate, general recipe for how long some compounds take to come out of coffee grounds, you need to factor out a variable between coffee grounds: how much air is in the grindings.  Maybe the first small pour will saturate with coffee compounds, or drop in temperature quickly, reducing how much it can extract from the grounds.  Once it squeezes out all the air, the rest of the water is poured in to do the real extraction work.


Is using a French press to strain plant milk (almond, soy, etc.) easier than straining through cheesecloth?

I've never made nutmilk, but I'd guess the fine-ness of the nut puree could cause problems. You can put a coffee filter over the metal strainer (so that you push it down into the liquid) to keep particles out, but then you'll still have liquid trapped with the puree under the metal strainer. It'll also be kind of a pain to press down with the paper in there.

If you're okay with losing some of the nutmilk then it may well be easier. But then if you were okay with it, I'd think you wouldn't be so annoyed by the traditional method.

I guess if you use a LOT of puree relative to the amount of water, you could press it directly with the strainer, but even so there's simply a limit to how much you can press in a French press. If you're like me, you'd end up eyeing the puree at the bottom suspiciously, decide to throw it out, then find yourself scraping it into the nutmilk bag anyway and cursing the father of all nuts for making you do this.

Again, I really don't know on this one, but I'm guessing it's 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. If you're willing to let the French press tell you "that's enough!" then that method would be easier. If you're thinking you're going to get every last drop, you won't escape the nutmilk bag, and you basically need to decide if you want to wash your French press too.

ALSO, if you use the French press, you'll want to disassemble it and wash it thoroughly in the first place in case it's new for obvious reasons, and in case there is any coffee oil residue if it's been used for coffee. That coffee aroma is hard to escape.


Pressure canner vs water bath at altitude

Nothing opinion-based about it. If you are canning anything that's "low-acid" you need a pressure canner, regardless of altitude.

That's "higher pressure than at sea level."

Boiling water bath does not kill botulism spores, so you either need an acidic environment or you need to process under pressure to get sufficient temperature to kill the spores.

For "acid" products you can go either way, but you'll definitely see an advantage at altitude with a pressure canner.

Example for an acid food: 30-40 minutes .vs. 10 minutes http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/general/selecting_correct_process_time.html

Temperature ranges:

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/general/food_pres_temps.html


Baking in electric oven with only top heating element and no fan

You should be able to bake for longer, at lower heat - that will likely solve the problem, overcooking on the outside and undercooking on the inside is typically solved this way.  How much the heat needs to be adjusted will depend on what you're baking - so I can't offer anything more precise than trial and error.

One thing I've found pretty useful when the difference is only a bit off, is checking the food early (it needs to be a bit undercooked on the surface for this), and turning the heating element off - letting the food finish cooking in residual heat.  It takes a lot more time for the top to finish browning, since the heat is no longer radiating down, while the inside keeps cooking at nearly the same rate (since the oven was already hot, so the temp isn't much affected).

I find that using a pizza stone, or baking stone, really helps - it keeps the oven temperature even, and as you mentioned, it can act as a secondary source of heat.  Make sure to preheat the oven really well, give plenty of extra time, since the longer time to cool is balanced by the longer time to heat.  I think it will be more useful to use with the residual heat method, since it really stabilizes the temp more so than acts as a second heating element (unless you're putting the food literally on top of it), since it is limited to the temperature it absorbs from the oven, not the higher temp of the heating coil.

Also, you might find it really helpful to get a thermometer and check your oven temp - having only the top heated might make a little difference to the way the food is browning in an otherwise well calibrated oven, but it shouldn't be very dramatic, ovens are supposed to hold at their temperature - fairly stably.  Your oven might be running hotter than it should, or not keeping temperature well, or else it takes longer to heat - if so you might be putting the food in while it is still running full blast to get up to temperature, rather than when it is already heated, or some other problem.


You would probably want to create something like an ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), similar to the home pregnancy tests you can buy at the pharmacy. The machine you linked to is to test large quantities of gluten in wheat flour, much more than what it would take to cause illness in someone who is gluten-sensitive.

Doing this at home would probably be rather challenging without a "kitchen lab" that is better equipped than that of the Modernist Cuisine folks as you need to do the following:

1) Create an antibody to gluten. Bind the antibody to your test substrate.

2) Create an antibody to the antibody-gluten complex. Add a marker to this antibody.

3) Put the sample through your test substrate, add the antibody-marker to develop.

It's expensive to do the first time but once you do it you can start to see economies of scale when you ramp it to mass-production.


Do "Best by: XX-XX-XX" foods have an expiration date?

As I have noted in a couple of other answers, I have worked in the CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) industry for almost 30 years. It is safe to say that there is not a simple answer to this question. There are so many variables that it would be difficult to even go into all of them. Before I go further, let me say that common sense goes a long way.

Most food dating falls into three areas: Sell by, best if used by, and an actual expiration date. The one asked about, best if used by, probably has more variables than the others and is much more subjective.

First, it depends on the type of product. Is it a dry product, canned/bottled/jarred, or perishable?

Here is a little about each:

Dry products such as cereals, grains, crackers - These products vary in how long they will remain good. Keeping them well sealed and stored in a dark, cool environment will extend the time in which they would be considered good. Items such as cereals and crackers tend to get stale and unappetizing in a relatively short time. With those, common sense prevails and if it doesn't have the right taste or texture you naturally wouldn't eat it.
Can, jar, and bottle items - Items canned in actual cans can remain good after the best if used by date. However if you see a bulge, leak, etc. the item should be discarded regardless of the date. Food in dented cans should be looked at closely as the dent can cause a break in the seal. Other items such as bottled salad dressing will remain good after the best by date if they are unopened. (Given the choice of using an unopened bottle past the best by date and one that has been open in the fridge for 6 months, I would go with the unopened bottle.) For items canned in jars, look at how the food appears, be sure there is a good seal, and smell.
Perishable items - Storage conditions are extremely important. Be sure that your refrigerator and freezer are operating at optimum temperatures for keeping items fresh longer.
With most dairy products, if stored properly, common sense prevails. If it's molded, sour, etc. it's not going to look, smell, or taste good. An exception would be an aged, hard cheese, such as cheddar or parmigiana. You can cut past the mold and use the cheese safely. Many everyday dairy products can remain good well after their best by date.
Items dated in-store - Many items are shipped to stores frozen such as heat & eat items found in the deli bunker, branded meat items found in the regular meat case, etc. In this case, you want to look for the longest dated items. This is because the items come in frozen. When ready to place in a case, the store will take out of the freezer, date it per the manufacturer's criteria, and place in the case. Dating varies depending on the mfr. It may be one week, two, three, or even longer. (I have seen dating out up to 35 days on a heat & eat item. If most consumers saw that item in the case and the best by date was a week away, they would assume that it was pretty fresh. When I look at that item I know it has been thawed and sitting there for 4 weeks already!)

Most of the time "best if used by" dates are of a courtesy or guideline nature rather than a legality. The above information is only a slight overview and demonstrates how subjective this is. In closing, here are a few thing to keep in mind:

Use your head. Common sense goes a long way.
Remember that all food will deteriorate to an unsafe or undesirable point given enough time.
Once product packaging has been opened, deterioration occurs more quickly.
For various reasons, food can spoil before the best by date.
Proper storage is important for all foods, not only for safety, but for the best quality and flavor.
It's very important to be diligent with all canned items, regardless of whether in a can or jar. Dangerous toxins can develop which can't be seen, smelled, or tasted.


Left my cast iron on the hot burner, now what?

Personally, I'd just season the pan a couple times to cover the spot; it seems excessive to strip off all the other seasoning and start from scratch unless the pan is really deeply rusted.

Other people may feel differently, of course; there are as many opinions about caring for cast-iron as there are people that own it.


That's often referred to as weeping. A few things might help. Is your pie filling hot when you spread the meringue? If the filling is cool, the meringue will cook unevenly (the top before the bottom), causing weeping. If your filling is cool, put the pie in the oven for a few minutes before applying the meringue. Another thing that might help is equal amounts of cornstarch and sugar mixed with water (about twice as much water as solids) brought to a rolling boil and allowed to cool to just warm. Drop a couple of teaspoons of the resulting paste into the meringue when you're almost done whipping it. That will help to stabilize the meringue. Also, try not to cook meringue pies on humid days.

Weeping can also be caused by over (or under) cooking. Confused yet?

Oh, and one more thing. Try warming the whites before whipping. That's counter-intuitive for fluffy whites, but it does help it to cook evenly and keep it stable, especially if humidity is part of the problem. Heat gently and go for about the temp of hot tap water.

EDIT: Looking for more precise instructions for the warm meringue I found another similar option that might work better. Here are better instructions for cooked, or "Italian" meringue. http://www.ochef.com/727.htm

From that site:

  Italian Meringue
  From The Way to Cook, by Julia Child

  Ingredients:

  For the Egg Whites:

  2/3 cup egg whites (4 to 5 whites)
  A pinch of salt
  1/4 tsp cream of tartar

  For the Sugar Syrup:

  1-1/3 cups sugar
  1/2 cup water

  Instructions:

  Beat the egg whites at slow speed until the foam throughout, add the salt and cream of tartar, gradually increase the speed to fast, and beat to soft peaks. Turn the machine to slow as you complete the sugar syrup.

  Bring the sugar and water to the simmer, swirl the pan to dissolve the sugar completely, cover tightly and boil to the soft-ball stage (234°F to 240°F; 112°C to 116°C on a candy thermometer).

  Beating the egg whites at moderately slow speed, dribble into them the boiling syrup — trying to avoid the wires of the whip. Increase speed to moderately fast and beat until cool and the egg whites form stiff, shining, upstanding peaks. The meringue is now ready to use as your recipe directs.

OR

One-Step Italian Meringue
From Brilliant Food Tips & Cooking Tricks, by David Joachim

  Also known as boiled icing, this type of meringue is traditionally made by beating hot sugar syrup into beaten egg whites. This version combines all of the ingredients in one bowl to save time. It should be made over a saucepan of simmering water so that the egg whites reach a temperature of at least 160°F (70°C) to kill any harmful bacteria.

  Ingredients:

  3 egg whites, at room temperature
  1 cup, plus 2 Tbsp sugar
  3 Tbsp cold water
  1/4 tsp cream of tartar

  Instructions:

  Combine the ingredients in a metal bowl. Place over a saucepan of gently simmering water and beat with an electric mixer on low speed, 4 to 5 minutes. Increase speed to high and beat until very thick, about 4 minutes more. Remove bowl from saucepan and beat off the heat until light and fluffy, another 4 minutes.

  Yield: Makes about 4 cups


My first reaction was to think that grapefruit seeds have cyanide, don't they? Nope, that's apples, apricots and peaches.

I did find an application you might find interesting: Grapefruit Seed Extract

  Self-made pure GSE processed without solvents is prepared by grinding the grapefruit seed and juiceless pulp, then mixing with glycerin.

A few sites suggest that it's not quite that simple, but a Google Search for "grapefruit seed extract homemade" will give you quite a bit of reading material.

If you try this, I hope you let us know how it goes!


Is there a technique for making larger batches of roux?

There is no problem at all doing this. At a restaurant where I worked, we would make up a couple pounds of butter worth of roux at a time. The main thing you want to do is use a pan with a lot of surface area, so it cooks evenly. A whisk will work fine. You don't have to stir constantly, just frequently.


Brining is a process that hydrates...or forces liquid into the cell structure of the product...to slow or prevent dehydration. This would certainly slow your dehydration step, perhaps dramatically. Adding extra water and then eliminating as much as possible doesn't seem to make sense. Why not just dehydrate less in the first place?

Basing my thinking on the quick method for rehydrating dried beans, I would suggest using boiling water...or stock (maybe hard to come by on the trail)...to speed rehydration.


I think the primary considerations are convenience (how much effort is it to set up and use the system?) and time spent (how long does the system take to heat the water?).

A standard electric stove can have 2500W elements, and most of this energy will go into a kettle sitting on the element and thus heat the water. Even a big built-in microwave won't be rated at much more than 1000W, and a fair percentage of that is wasted in heating the magnetron (I've found citations of 30% to 50% wasted power). So, all else being equal, a kettle on a stove will heat a body of water 2-4 times as fast as a microwave oven.

If you're instead talking about electric kettles, then in the US (120VAC) they're 1000W to 1750W with very high efficiency, so they'll still be faster than anything but a stove or a commercial microwave. In the lands with 220VAC power, electric kettles can be up to 3000W, which would be even faster than a stove-top kettle.

With a mug of water the convenience of a microwave may outweigh the lost time, but if you're heating a liter or more of water then you probably want to pull out that kettle.


how much sugar is required to be added to fruit for jam making

Base ratio is equal weights of sugar and fruit.

Using less sugar is possible but requires considering the following points:

Sugar is a main aspect of preservation. Using less requires adding alternative substances such as sorbic acid to compensate.
Sugar is required for pectin to bond. This can be compensated with more pectin and/or longer cooking time while ensuring there is enough acidity (another factor for pectin bonding)
Canning protects the result better than simply jarring.

The sealing determines how difficult it is for germs to get in. The chemicals determine how well it resists to germs once they do get in.


I believe you're talking about the breaking of emulsion. The solution is to simply whip it again, a food processor should also be fine for Kaymak.


Culinary use for the green parts of lemongrass?

The outer green leaves are a bit tough, and not a lot of flavor, but the upper section of the inner green stalk you can use for infusing in soups, curries, broths, etc.

Rough it up a bit, so to speak, bruise it and make a few slits with a paring knife, then let it sit in your broth or curry until you've zapped the last bit of flavor from it. Just remember to remove it before serving to your guests since it isn't exactly edible on its own.


Difference between Pan-Frying and Searing

Pan-Frying is a complete cooking technique. When something has been 'pan-fried' it is done and ready to serve.

Searing is an incomplete process, a step in a larger process. Searing can happen before roasting, braising or other finishing method. It is even good to sear before marinading.


How can I tell when red bananas are ripe?

They do change color, just not so obviously as normal bananas. There's a slight greenish tint that disappears as they ripen, and the red becomes a bit deeper (some people say purplish).

They also get softer - including the skin getting more tender, just like yellow banana skin. Just think about how bananas feel when ripe, feel your red bananas, and (perhaps with a tiny bit of trial and error) you can figure it out.


How do I use Cacao Nibs in the chocolate making recipe

Cocoa nibs are actually one step upstream in the chocolate making process from both cocoa powder and cocoa butter.  They are fragments of the fermented and roasted cocoa bean, before any other processing can occur.

Usually, to get chocolate from nibs - the nibs are ground to a powder, then a fine paste, then keep grinding until it is a liquid (known as chocolate liqueur) which can be pressed to separate the cocoa butter from the solids that become cocoa powder - which are stored more easily, used for different purposes, or combined in different proportions.  Add some sugar to the paste for dark chocolate, add some milk powder for milk chocolate - and you have chocolate!  In a crude and basic form, of course.  There's an article on the overall process, here, though this website here is aimed at serious home chocolate makers and has more information with detailed steps and resources.

This page has some ideas for substituting home-made chocolate liqueur (your nibs ground to liquid paste, recall) into other recipes if that, rather than chocolate bars, was your ultimate goal.  Your nib paste (or powder, fragments, even chunks) can be used to add texture to your recipe, depending on how fine you ground them - but you would be substituting for an equal weight of unsweetened baker's chocolate.  Add sugar for the right percentage of dark chocolate, and additional milk powder (~6oz per pound from that page, or to taste) if substituting for milk chocolate.  Remember to calculate the percentage of cocoa in milk chocolate against the combined measurement of milk powder and sugar.  That is pretty much the bulk of ingredients for chocolate, missing only stabilizers (like soy lecithin) or minor flavoring agents (a drop of vanilla, some soured milk, a dash of salt) which some companies might add to make their chocolate stand out.

Trying to substitute for either cocoa powder or cocoa butter specifically would be exceedingly difficult, since they are both included in your nibs, and substituting for the combined mass might not work if your nibs have a different percentage (which depends on the beans themselves, so, tricky).

Of course, commercial chocolate meant for bars is usually also conched (finely ground for silky texture) and tempered (heated for stability).  These might be a little trickier to do on a home-made or hobbyist scale - conching in particular takes hours of or even days of fine grinding - but something like an electric wet grinder used in Indian cooking might do the trick, if you already have one or are willing to shell out the cash for just this recipe.

But without that conching, your homemade chocolate will tend to be gritty and rough - which is fine if that's what you're going for, "Mexican-style" chocolate is a thing and you can add coarse sugar crystals to accentuate the texture - just be aware of the difference.  Tempering involves bringing your chocolate to specific temperatures to make it more heat stable,and give it a professional sheen and snap - it can be done at home (it is tricky, but doable), or even done without depending on what you're using it for, but again be aware of the difference.


Can avocado substitute the 'fat' in cake baking?

The simple answer is not really.

Avocados have a high fat content relative to other fruit, but they're only about 20% fat, which is much less than any other cooking fats.

If you add enough avocado to provide the fat content for a cake, you'll also be adding too much water and all the other flavours of avocado, which I assume you don't want.


How to keep dumplings from quickly drying out

Dumpling wrappers are by nature prone to drying out. A wet towel will only work to a degree. If the filled dumplings dry out slightly, it’s not too critical (note that I wrote slightly), so temporarily covering them with a humid towel or putting them in a sealed container should suffice, but the wrappers alone will become brittle and unusable.

If you don’t have a bunch of friends or family so that you can work in an assembly-line, rolling just a few wrappers at time is the best way. How many will depend on your how nimble your fingers are and what kind of pleat you are doing. Maybe start with around five to ten and adjust accordingly.

Then either cook all dumplings after you are done wrapping, or cook batches while rolling, filling and pleating the next. This will need some more time management and multitasking and it’s your choice which one fits your needs and general preferences.


Never having been to India, I've only had naan from Indian restaurants and frozen from the supermarket. That said, I have made it with some success before.

The best method I've used is to grill (American) it. You can do it with a gas grill (barbecue) set to high, or with the hottest of hot charcoal. It doesn't quite approach the 900 F (480 C) typical of a tandoor, but it's close, especially with charcoal. Simply oil the grill and do 2-3 minutes per side.

The next best method I've tried is using a pizza stone in a blazing hot oven. The cook times are similar.


From a food safety perspective, it’s perfectly fine (no pun intended) to eat them.

They are mostly fat, skin and a few fine ducts, so no real difference from the surrounding pork belly. Like with all mammals, if the female they came from never had babies or they came from a (usually castrated) male, the milk glands etc. deep under the skin won’t even be fully developed.

If the skin of the pork belly is removed for cooking or other preparation, the nipples will come off as well, sometimes you can see a faint circular trace of where they were, but most people won’t explicitly look for them.

The attitude of what’s “ewwww” and what’s “normal” has a huge cultural aspect - do you buy a whole chicken with head and feet and possibly even feathers or is the default nicely cleaned up and reduced to the rump with part of the legs and wings? Or do you opt for the clean chicken breast? And not all people like to be reminded that the neat slice of meat on their table is simply a part of what was previously a living, breathing creature. If the nipples bother you, cut them off, if not, you can simply let them be.

Side note:
As with everything that’s rare (a pig has only twelve or fourteen tiny nipples on an almost 200 pounds body), they were once considered a delicacy and special treat. Heston Blumenthal used them for his Roman Feast: Pork nipple scratchings


Will a Dutch oven be a good investment in a motor home with a butane gas burner?

I don't think that it is a good investment. Without a real oven, you won't be able to bake or roast in the Dutch oven. Unlike historic applications, where the Dutch oven was buried in embers and could warm the food inside from all directions, a Dutch oven on a gas burner functions pretty much like a thick-walled pot.

Using it will let you make stews, soups, and some sauces. If you want to make sweet things, you will able to make cremes and syrups in it, but without an oven, you are limited to only combining these with fried dough and griddle/flatpan items like crepes. Many classic types of pastry require baking in an oven. And for both sweet and savory, there is not that much difference between a Dutch oven and a normal pot. It will give you a more even heating, but it will respond sluggishly to temperature changes in the burner. An advanced cook can use this property well, but if you are limited to a very small selection of cookware, there is no need to get both a pot and a Dutch oven, and out of the two, the pot is cheaper and easier to handle. So, my recommendation: get a pot instead.

If you want to cook more and your budget allows it, consider buying a toaster oven with a 30x30cm cavity. These take up very little space, and are cheap (mine was 50 Eur). They are good for baking practically everything - pizza, cakes, roasts, etc. I have never had a regular oven since I left my parents' home 11 years ago, and have made some pretty advanced stuff in the toaster oven. It is definitely a good investment.


Is this mold on my jack links beef steak?

That isn't mold, that's fat. There's a good picture of mold on beef in this page. Beef steaks have lots of fat, what's happened is that the fat on the surface of the meat has gotten squished into the plastic and adhered. It doesn't mean your steak isn't safe to eat, if it smells ok you should be fine.


Is there a difference between US Worcestershire sauce and UK Worcestershire sauce?

There is some difference between the flavor, but seeing as there are so many other predominant flavors in Worcestershire sauce and that fact that you're (hopefully) not drinking it straight, it's fairly insignificant. It's very common for one product produced in different countries to have a range of manufacturing differences, sometimes arbitrary, sometimes to suit the local palate, and sometimes because of costs, hence people calling American Lea & Perrins a "knockoff."

I've had both, and can assure you that once you've mixed it into a casserole or marinade you won't really miss anything. If you're striving for needlessly authentic British flavor you could always add a little malt vinegar to whatever you're cooking!


Throw it away, it's spoiled and probably contains several colonies of foodborne illnesses. Sealing food isn't sufficient to stop it going off, you need to refrigerate it or freeze it.


Is a Pyrex bowl suitable for a double boiler?

The funny thing about pyrex is that it isn't the same everywhere.  European pyrex would undoubtedly be fine (you can put a cold dish in a hot oven), while American pyrex is less heat-proof.

Having said that, a proper double boiler, in which only steam heats the upper container, would be absolutely fine with any pyrex.  The thing to be worried about is rapid, uneven heating or cooling.

In fact (and this isn't a suggestion though I've done it myself) even a normal glass bowl should be fine, as the heating should be even enough to avoid thermal stress -- unless the boiling water underneath splashes too much.

As for the microwave, you can often melt things in it, but it's often harder than a double boiler. It depends what the ingredients are, to the extent that it's easier to melt dark chocolate reliably in microwave than white chocolate.


How can i convert all purpose flour to bread flour?

The difference between bread flour and all purpose flour is that bread flour has a higher protein content. While bread flour has 12 to 14 percent protein, all purpose has 8 to 11 percent protein.  The reality is that you probably won't notice the difference without a side by side comparison, so, if all you have is all purpose, just use that.  If you want to increase the protein level of your flour, you can do that by adding vital wheat gluten.  However, I am guessing that if you don't have access to bread flour, you will probably not have access to vital wheat gluten.  In the event that you do, I found the following conversion: Measure out 1 cup all-purpose flour (4 1/2 ounces or 129 grams).  Remove 1 1/2 teaspoons (1/8 ounce or 4 grams). Add 1 1/2 teaspoons vital wheat gluten (1/8 ounce or 5 grams).  Whisk or sift to combine.


It's personal preference.

However, it's easier to cover the base of the pan in grease-proof paper when the lip is downward.  When the lip is upwards, it can be difficult to get the lining paper into the edges at the bottom without it crinkling a lot.

You get slightly less mix into the pan, but it's not really noticeable.  For me, it's easier to handle a downward lip.


I have not made explicitly what you're asking for, but I regularly freeze ganache, with no ill effects. Just be careful when you thaw them. Don't leave them out 'naked' in room temperature air, or you will get condensation on them.


Maintaining Sourdough Starter - Are potato flakes/water necessary?

I feed sourdough starter with strong white bread flour mixed with water to make a sloppy dough. This is a common method in the UK and it seems to work well.


What tempering process do you use when moulding chocolates

Either use both methods or just use the second step to maintain the temper/work-ability of your chocolate:

A) Use the double boiler method to start tempering your chocolate.

A bowl/pan of chocolate sitting above a pot of hot water - the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl/pan.

B) Dip the bottom of your tempered chocolate in hot water for a few seconds, scraping the base (and sides) of the bowl/pan, mixing it into the rest of the chocolate.
You can repeat this step if the chocolate is not warm enough/cools down.

Of course you could look at investing in a chocolate melter.