Commercial yeast ( Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in a sourdough culture

I think the question could refer to two somewhat different practices: (1) adding some commercial yeast to a particular sourdough recipe during the initial mix, or (2) adding commercial yeast to the sourdough culture itself, intending it to propagate from batch to batch.

The first -- mixing in commercial yeast along with sourdough starter in a recipe -- is commonly used by bakers for a few different reasons:

Enhance rising, particularly in heavy doughs (e.g., with lots of non-wheat whole grains or seeds, or with a lot of other added "stuff" like fruit, vegetables, nuts, meats, etc. to weigh it down).  It also tends to be used in very rich doughs where sourdough yeast may not be as "happy" as commercial yeast.
Provide a more reliable fermentation timetable: sourdough can sometimes be finicky and unpredictable, but commercial bakers often need to bake on an exact schedule.  Commercial yeast is pretty dependable.
Avoid an overly sour taste: natural (sourdough) yeast can be used for basically any type of bread, and for sweeter breads or standard (non-"sour") white breads, a pungent taste may be undesirable.  In some cases, though, it may be difficult to achieve adequate rising before the dough turns too sour, so commercial yeast can give the dough a boost.

The second possibility -- adding commercial yeast to the sourdough culture directly -- is pretty rare and ultimately not very helpful in the long run.  Some sourdough recipes suggest adding commercial yeast to "get a starter going" initially, but this is NOT a good practice, since it tends to delay the establishment of the natural yeast you actually want and need to propagate the starter longterm.  When added to an established starter, commercial yeast will generally die off within a few feeding cycles.  The acidic environment is not conducive to yeast growth in general, and commercial yeast will have a much harder time with it than the natural yeasts of established starters -- so the commercial yeast will decrease population significantly with each feeding.

All of that said, actual studies of sourdough cultures from commercial bakeries often show some baker's yeast as a minor component.  This is likely due to contamination from bakers' hands and equipment where commercial yeast-based doughs are also handled and mixed.  In controlled lab environments, the commercial yeast populations in those starters have been shown to die off pretty quickly after the starters were removed from their "native" bakery environment.


Penelope Casas is the queso grande of Spanish cookbook authors. Her seminal 1982 book 'The Foods and Wines of Spain' is still a treasure trove of authentic, well-researched dishes from the many distinct culinary regions of Spain. She's done many other books on Spanish cooking since then, including the newly revised edition of 'Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain', available on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Tapas-Revised-Little-Dishes-Spain/dp/0307265528/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1303850450&sr=1-3). In addition to her depth and breadth of knowledge, Ms. Casas is also a transporting writer who'll fill your imagination with the tastes and aromas she so engagingly describes.


This recipe uses a substitution for a key structural ingredient (gluten), which is always likely to lead to compromises. If you omit the xanthan, it is even less likely to work, basically it has nothing to hold the structure. Some bakers are happy with the results of such substitutions, but for you the final structure seems to be quite important.

The first thing you should do is to use the xanthan. If that doesn't help, there isn't much else you can do except try to be perfect in your temperature at every step (while still using the xanthan).


How to time the blanching of potatoes for freezing

If the temperature drops, you are doing it wrong. The whole point of blanching is to bring up the temperature of the vegetables up very quickly. This means

slice your vegetables small
use a very large pot
blanch in small portions

A 1:10 ratio is typical, so if you use a 5 liter pot, you can blanch in 500 g portions. Put your vegetables into a strainer. Submerge the strainer in the water (which should be at a roiling boil), start the clock immediately (the water should only need several seconds to get back to full boil) and when ready, plunge into iced water to stop cooking immediately.


I'm Making Chicken stock. How can I keep the chicken meat/bones from rising above the water line?

I never worry about this. As your stock simmers, the joints, muscle and connective tissue break down and eventually they'll sink in. Sometimes adding a bit of vinegar to your stock first helps with this. Until then, just stir the stock and move the bones around occasionally.


You can't really substitute marshmallows in that recipe. I have had some luck with the following procedure:

Get a good quality chocolate of the flavour you would like to use. Do not try chocolates with 70% cocoa solids or more. They are good for some things, but not for this.
Melt it in a double boiler. Do not make the chocolate boil or heat it directly (some can do that but most people end up with burned chocolate). Remove it from the heat.
Fold in 2 spoons of glycose syrup (for regular nonmilky chocolate) and mix fast. Let it cool and when it gets close to room temperature, put it in the fridge. For darker chocolates, use a bit more glucose and less for lighter chocolates.


There are many variables in bread-baking: ingredient ratios, kneading, bulk rise time and temperature, shaping, final rise, baking vessel/surface, and oven temperature. All of these things significantly impact the quality of your loaf. You've specified some of these in your question, but not all of them, so it is hard to get a full picture of your process.
The biggest red flag with your procedure is the "starter" you describe. The flat results and need for extremely long rises suggests that you just are not getting enough leavening. Sourdough starters have a reputation for being finicky; you cannot make a true starter by haphazardly mixing water, flour, yeast, and sugar. If you want to go down the sourdough path, you should carefully follow a tutorial, like this one. But be forwarned, it is an involved process.
However, since you seem to have commercial yeast, the most straightforward approach is just to use it. "Straight doughs" where you mix the yeast with the rest of the ingredients immediately prior to the bulk rise are the easiest and most consistent way to bake. You should probably stick with this process until you achieve good shape and texture; only then move on preferments or sourdoughs.
I think you would find more success starting fresh with a reliable recipe than tweaking your existing procedure. This Hearth Bread recipe from King Arthur Flour would be a great place to start, and seems to be similar in style to the loaf you are attempting. Try to follow all the steps carefully, as bread making is hard! Try to master a basic recipe before attempting your own variations.


How can I get crispy skin when pan frying fish?

You need a hot pan. Use either clarified butter or an oil that can withstand high temperatures without burning. The oil should be quite hot but not at smoking point otherwise the fish closest to the skin will be overcooked and the skin will be charred as well as crispy.

The pan shouldn't be quite as hot when it comes time to cook the fish skin-up.


What's this green vegetable with no leaves used in Cantonese cuisine?

That appears to be gai lan, or a closely related Chinese brassica like yu choy, with the leaves removed.  So just the stems.

I haven't seen (or found) a recipe for just the stems in broth, but it makes a certain amount of sense; the leaves cook much faster than the thick stems, so sometimes just the leaves are used for stir-fry.  Then you can do this with the stems.


We also faced the same problem and found that when the quantity of water is more, the problem persits. The solution is very simple. Boil the milk as long as you wish. (Make sure you dont evaporate the liquid part).  Depending on the consistency of the thickness of the milk, stop the heating and proceed with subsequent steps.

Also, make sure that the extracts that you add, should have low water content.


Yes, the sugar will temporarily draw some moisture from the meat.  However, that sugar/water solution will also gradually diffuse into the meat, and the sugar will end up pulling in more water in the long-term.

In any case, the effect is usually small, and any (probably temporary) moisture loss will only be from the outermost 1/8" or so of meat, which will likely dry out in the cooking process anyway.  (To see how the marinade mostly works on only the outermost layer of meat, see some of the photographs at this link.)  The interior of the meat will likely not lose any moisture at all, particularly in a wet marinade.

Over many hours or days, small molecules like salt and sugar in a marinade will be able to penetrate beyond the surface layer and flavor the meat, but the process of moving beyond the surface is quite slow.

Mostly, one includes sugar in a marinade to thoroughly coat the surface of the meat with sugar, which will aid in browning reactions that enhance the flavor of cooked meat.  Too much sugar can cause the surface to brown excessively or char, but a little will significantly enhance the flavor of the outer layer.


Why is some frozen breaded chicken pre-fried?

To simply facilitate the end-user cooking.

You get all the "benefit" of fried food without the hassle of having to actual fry the food (hot oil handling, odors, ... )

Most people do not have fryers at home and rely on par-fried food (for example oven fries).


What are the impacts of a worn pizza stone?

Pizza stones are typically either:

Refractory ceramic with a high thermal conductivity, moulded into a useful shapes. Fired, but unglazed
Diamond saw cut slabs of suitable natural stone

Either type will respond well to heating and cooling in a normal oven. And take reasonable amounts of general wear and tear

Both types will chip on the edges if whacked, and will develop cracks over time that will cause it to split, normally only into two pieces

If they crack during normal use, and are fully supported by a metal oven rack, they will still perform fine, and may even continue to be used in the future

Warning: Natural stone that has been submerged in water for a long time may explode when next heated in the oven. But normal washing and care should not cause this situation

Note: According to many recent studies and famous books like "Modernist Cuisine", a pizza stone is not enough, you really need a large slab. e.g. a 10 kg steel sheet


This looks like a variation of a tater tot casserole, of which there are many variations.


There's not really anything easy you can do. Even adding lemon zest or essence isn't really going to help; it'll just give you a lemony but still sweet cake. I suppose theoretically you could add sour things, since that does tend to balance out sweetness, but it's tricky since acid will interact with the leavening. A sour icing, or a sour sauce to serve it with, might be a better bet in that vein.

So unfortunately, you'd be best off shopping around for cake mixes that are more the level of sweetness you want. You might be able to use the nutrition facts to help get a sense of how sweet they are before you buy them.


With few items, it easier/safer to use the fridge for everything, are there trade offs?

Besides the issues already mentioned, you should also beware of storing some dry goods in the fridge, especially if you live in a high-humidity area.
Basically, every time you open the container outside of the fridge, you will exchange it for more humid air.  In the fridge, the moisture will condense.
If you're storing something in amounts similar to the amount that you'd use at once, this usually isn't a problem.  It's more of an issue with items that are used just a little bit at a time, especially if they might clump up or have reactions to moisture (such as baking powder)
There are also a number of fruits and vegetables that may do strange things when in the fridge.  (tomatoes lose flavor, potatoes get sweet, etc.  See Which fruits and vegetables should be kept in a fridge, and which outside? ).  Also, it traps ethylene gas, so you may have issues if you have both ethylene producing and ethylene sensitive foods in your fridge.


Ditto to eggs.  Otherwise, I would add water, not butter.


What temperature does "keep refrigerated" mean?

I think there's a bit of linguistic confusion here. Although combination fridge-freezers (i.e. two compartments, one above freezing and one below) are common and we often call the entire appliance a refrigerator, that's more just a simplification. We'd never refer to the freezer compartment (or a standalone freezer) as refrigerating things; it freezes them.

So if someone says "put it in the fridge" or "refrigerate that" or "keep refrigerated", they mean the fridge, not the freezer.

It's rare for things to have more specific refrigeration temperature requirements than that. You can't really adjust your fridge much; it needs to be 40F/4C or lower to be safe. In practice that means you aim for more like 35F/2C so that if some parts of the fridge are a bit warmer it's still safe. That means that even if you wanted to keep something slightly warmer, the warmest you could really keep it is 40F/4C. If you really want to store a food at a higher temperature, you need a different solution; this is why people store potatoes in cellars, for example.

As for what things can be frozen if desired... it's hard to generalize a ton. The main issue with freezing is that it can mess with the texture of food. Fresh fruit and vegetables will generally lose their structure when frozen, so if they're subsequently thawed they'll end up mushy and leaking juice, making them only good for cooking. Things with less structure like meat, dairy/cheese, and a lot of cooked food tend to freeze well.

So your cheese and hot dogs will be fine frozen, but if you have a lot of other things you're interested in freezing and you don't have an intuition for what will and won't work, you're probably best off googling each one.


Is there any botulism risk in homemade cold brew coffee?

There's probably a near zero probability to get botulism from home brewed cold coffee if done properly (clean containers/vessels, clean fridge, cold fridge temperature...  )
As long as you keep it cold, it should be ok.
(I've not made a thorough google search)
There at least one report from 2017 of a recall for nitro cold brew; it's pretty much the only report I've seen.
Here's a report of the findings, taken from this reddit thread.
I might have missed it, but it was probably an issue with their processing.


How do I tell if a metal can is safe to bake in?

I normally use tin bread molds for baking. They are 'unlined', and so far, they seem to be safe enough. I suppose lining also refers to teflon coating, which is also safe for baking.

Try your luck with tin, the link below has a image for a bread mold similar to those I use.

http://www.elmaral.com/images/moldebudiningles%20graneado..jpg


Urad dal used whole in thoran/rasam - how to correctly prepare?

I believe raw urad dal is meant to be split urad dal as mentioned by @Athanasius .
Any dal you use make sure it is split and not whole otherwise i will not temper properly.
Whole dal becomes too hard or burnt in oil.
For me the dal becomes crunchy and it is supposed to be a bit hard(not teeth breaking hard but like bits of corn seeds in pop corn).
It would never become completely soft as you are tempering it. Rather than soaking in water i would suggest roasting them in oven or low gas heat before you use it to temper if your dal stays to hard for you.
Like Daliya (Roasted chana dal) that we use in Idli chatney, gives nice crunch to your chutney. I hope this helps.


Shallots certainly aren't more popular than onions, otherwise they'd be far more abundant and less expensive.

I do cook with shallots from time to time and would describe them as most people describe them - as somewhere between the flavour of garlic and onion, but also a good deal milder/sweeter.

I prefer to use them simply when I do not want the strong taste of onions.  In fact, many of us are so accustomed to the harsh taste of onions that it's actually quite a surprise to find out how much better a certain dish might taste by substituting shallots.

They're especially common in Asian cooking, I find.  Very often you're providing a lot of spice or heat from other ingredients - chilies, five spice, curry powder, etc. - and don't want the overwhelming pungency of onions mixed in.  Shallots give just a little bit of "sharpness" without much of the sulfur taste.

Would I substitute them everywhere?  Absolutely not.  Some recipes really do call for the pungency of onions, for example almost anything involving ground beef.  But try it at least once - get yourself a bag of shallots and try substituting them for onions in a few recipes.  You may be pleasantly surprised.

I would say that ideal recipes to try this on, if you're unfamiliar with shallots, are stovetop recipes calling for a relatively small amount of chopped or sliced (not minced) onion; stir fries are ideal, which perhaps is why they seem to be so common in Asian cuisine.

Also, as far as pricing is concerned: Locally, where a 2 lb bag of onions might cost $1.99, a 1 lb bag of shallots would cost $1.49, which makes them roughly 50% more expensive, very far from an "order of magnitude."  If you meant that literally and are finding them close to 10x more expensive than onions, then you are either shopping at the wrong stores or living in an area where they are hard to find.  Try an Asian grocery store if you have one; they can usually be found for dirt cheap in those.


Nutritional yeast is not something you can make at home. Nutritional yeast is produced by culturing a yeast in a nutrient medium for several days. The primary ingredient in the growth medium is glucose, often from either sugarcane or beet molasses.

You can make it yourself but you will need an industrial setup and large investment.

It is cheaply available on chinese sites like Ali Baba and DHGate etc from where you can get affordable rates.

You can also track down your country's importer of this product and buy it directly from him thus cutting out the middle men. This is exactly what I do in India and the importer from whom I'm buying originally imports it from China.


What was the original "Lea & Perrins" recipe from Bengal?

The trouble with the Lea & Perrin's story & Lord Sandys' "original recipe" is that it is mainly myth/fable/advertising copy (I'd hate to outright call it a lie…)
Worcestershire Sauce originally was basically curry powder and water, with anchovy sauce. It didn't start from a Bengali sauce at all, it started from curry powder, which someone decided to mix with water.
The rest is kind of true; it was too strong when freshly-made but after having been abandoned in a cellar for some time, turned out more palatable.
It's never been impossible to copy, though perhaps difficult to get exactly the same. HP Sauce did a similar thing with a thick sauce - they went the fruit route; somebody was thinking of chutneys when they modified to arrive at that. Some companies make both, thick and thin. A million others make generic 'brown sauce' all tasting just about the same.
Interestingly, a later Lord Sandys himself later tried to cash in on the story - http://lordsandys.com/product-info/ though never really gained the worldwide reputation Lea & Perrin managed to solidify.
From the lovely, if rather dated in its HTML skills, Science of Cooking - Worcestershire Sauce

at the date of the legend, "Lord" Sandys was actually a Lady. No identifiable reference to her could possibly appear on a commercial bottled sauce without a serious breach of decorum. It is likely her heir who agreed to sell the recipe.
To abandon the unrevised legend and substitute a more accurate version that was published by Thomas Smith, Successful Advertising, (7th edition, 1885):
we quote the following history of the well-known Worcester Sauce, as given in the World. The label shows it is prepared "from the recipe of a nobleman in the country." The nobleman is Lord Sandys. Many years ago, Mrs. Grey, author of The Gambler's Wife and other novels, was on a visit at Ombersley Court, when Lady Sandys chanced to remark that she wished she could get some very good curry-powder, which elicited from Mrs. Grey that she had in her desk an excellent recipe, which her uncle, Sir Charles, Chief Justice of India, had brought thence, and given her. Lady Sandys said that there were some clever chemists in Worcester, who perhaps might be able to make up the powder. Messrs. Lea and Perrins looked at the recipe, doubted if they could procure all the ingredients, but said they would do their best, and in due time forwarded a packet of the powder. Subsequently the happy thought struck someone in the business that the powder might, in solution, make a good sauce. The profits now amount to thousands of pounds a year.

There's a second confirmation of this being the potentially "true story" at https://www.foodbeast.com/news/worcestershire-sauce-history/
There's also a BBC News story about a potential discovery of the original recipe - Recipes for secret sauce emerge which gives this as the ingredients list, but no detail on how they transformed that into the famous brown stuff…
Sauce ingredients:
water - 20 1/2 lbs
cloves - 2 lbs
salt - 10 lbs
sugar - 34 lbs
soy - 8 gallons
fish - 24 lbs
vinegar - 18 gallons
acetic acid - 2 gallons
essence of lemons - 8 oz
peppers - 5 lbs
tamoraide - 14 lbs
pickles - 40 lbs

I don't think there's really any doubt that Messrs Lea & Perrin took the beginnings of an idea and turned it into something rather spectacular, just that the 'origin story' is perhaps best left to the mists of time.


How to convert a chocolate fudge frosting recipe to white chocolate?

I'm afraid this is not possible at all. Dark chocolate flavor comes from aromatics in the cocoa bean, which give flavor already in low amounts. The flavor of white chocolate is very subtle, it's a combination of the aroma of the cocoa fat and the concentrated dairy solids. You cannot add it to anything as a flavoring, because practically anything else will have a stronger flavor of its own and mask the white chocolate taste.

The only way to have a cake which is covered in something which tastes like white chocolate is to make a white chocolate ganache. But then the texture will be a ganache and not a frosting. You will not be able to use your original recipe.

See this question for the correct ratio on white ganache, many people just try it like dark (that's what I did the first time too) and it ends up liquid.


You don't want to boil them, you want to blanch them. This means you bring the water to a boil, cut a shallow cross into each tomato (scoring the peel), add the tomatoes (few enough compared to the amount of water that the water doesn't stop boiling) and let them boil for ~1 minute. Remove the tomatoes and dump them straight into ice water. Once cooled the peel should come right off.


What is the flavor quality that makes cheese "sharp"? Are there other seasonings or foods with this "sharp flavor?

The term/process you are looking for is acidity or acidification.  During the cheese making process lactose is broken down into lactic acid.  This lowers the pH and creates the tart, sour, or acidic taste you are referring to. Higher acid cheeses (lower pH) present as "sharper", an old cheddar, for example.  Ever have a salt and vinegar potato chip?  I get a similar flavor perception (minus the lactic, cheese flavors of course).  So, other acidic ingredients (vinegar, lemon) can easily get you in the same flavor perception ball park.


Chocolate chips are a convenience product meant to simulate chopped up chocolate.  Your best bet is to find the chocolate that you like, and chop it.

If you really want the droplet shape, you would need to temper the chocolate, and then pipe it into little droplets which would be incredibly tedious, and almost certainly not worth the effort.


Air fried sweet potatoes have black dots on them

Those are just burnt or almost-burnt spots where the sugars in the sweet potatoes caramelized a bit too much. It's possible the potatoes are still palatable - taste them.


Butter, even a compound butter like this, shouldn't have enough moisture to get moldy easily. I think the issue is that you are clarifying the butter in boiling water, which could be causing pockets of moisture in the finished product. You could try melting the butter in a pan without water, adding the herbs, and then allowing the water based part at the bottom to cook off. Once that has happened, you can strain and chill the butter as usual.


Octern,

It's a realative thing.  What you're trying to determine is: where these gas bubbles generated out of something inside liquid portion of the can?

The reason that can be hard to determine is that many cans have a little air trapped in them.  If the can has been agitated at all (doesn't need to be extensively), then you can get what look like bubbles coming from the tomatoes themselves, and it can be pretty hard to tell.

I generally look at it from a quantity/location standpoint: are the bubbles throughout the liquid, or are there only a few along one edge?  In the end though, with tomatoes, I'd do what SAJ said.  While they're probably OK, the penalty if they're not is pretty darned severe, and canned tomatoes are cheap.


How to set yogurt so that it doesn't get watery?

Many of the commercial yoghurts use stabilizers like pectin to prevent the yoghurt from separating during transport.  All fruits naturally contain pectin (some more than others), so one option, if you are making your own yoghurt at home, is to add some fruit to it.  Here in the US, supermarkets carry small bags of dry pectin powder; if you can get some of that, you could try adding it to your yoghurt.

Another option is to initially heat your milk to 85°C for a half hour before cooling it and adding your yoghurt starter.  This heating serves two purposes: (1) it gets rid of some of the excess moisture through evaporation, and (2) the heating will denature (i.e., stretch out and relax) some of the milk's proteins.  Denatured proteins will be able retain more of the liquid that is in the final product.

Finally, you can add powdered milk to the mix (about 125ml of powdered milk per liter of milk).  Powdered milk is basically just milk protein, so the added protein will help contain some of the final liquid.


What other vegetables can I roast with asparagus?

Vegetable roasting times are somewhat depending on what kind of vegetable it is--broccoli is always going to take longer than spring peas.  But mostly, it is dependent on the size to which you cut them.

So cutting your other vegetables in smaller pieces will help.

Also, you can start, for example, carrots and broccoli, and give them a ten minute head start, then add the asparagus.


What purpose does adding oil/butter to thin pancake batter serve?

it's used mainly for 2 purposes the first being flavour (if u're making sweet crepes,as we call them in europe, better to use butter: if u're making savoury u can replace the butter with olive oil to give an aromatic note) and the second being elasticity and "bounciness".


What does it mean for a menu to be a "set menu"?

Collins dictionary gives a nice definition for a set menu:

  A complete meal in a restaurant or café for a stated price with a limited number of options to choose from for each course [...]

The different serving options are

family style:
Like you would probably serve food at the family dinner table: every component in its own serving bowl or platter, to be passed round amongst the diners. In a restaurant, often a nice platter of various dishes to be shared.
individually plated:
This is what you are probably expect first when dining in a restaurant - each diner gets his or her choosen dish on his or her own plate.

So for your case:
For n diners you build a menu out of n appetizers or starters that get served on one (or a few) platter(s) and is then shared. Of course you can choose n different options or stick to larger quantities of fewer choices.
The main dish comes on n individual plates according to each participant's order and the dessert is again n servings of whatever you pick, like for starters.

And yes, if that is described a set menu, you'll pay a fixed price per person, unless some options are marked with an extra charge, but that would have to be stated clearly on the menu.

You can of course build a menu à la carte instead, then you pick the individual dishes from the à la carte menu - these have individual prices that make up the total cost of the meal.


Can I hang cast iron pots and pans to air dry?

The way you have worded it, the risk can never be reduced to absolute zero, so there is some potential risk. But the probability of rust happening is very, very low, so in practice, you can do this for ages and not experience any problems. Also, if you do, you can just strip and reseason.
Also there is an option you didn't mention: usually you still have a hot hob when you have just finished cooking, so you can wash immediately and place the slightly wet pan on the hot hob, where it will air dry in seconds. It doesn't work every time (e.g. if you served your food in the cast iron vessel in which it was prepared), but when it is available, it is best practice to make use of it.


I want to halve a cream cheese cake recipe, how do I adjust the pan size, so I can keep the same cake height?

Assuming you're baking in a round pan: The volume of a cylinder is pi * r^2 * h. You halve the volume and want to keep the height the same. That means you want to scale the radius of the pan by a factor of 1/sqrt(2). So for example, if the recipe is intended for a pan of diameter 25 cm it has radius 12.5 cm and you want to use a pan with radius 12.5*(1/sqrt(2))=8.8 cm, or diameter approximately 17.6 cm.
Adjusting the baking temperature and time is a bit trickier. I would start by lowering the temperature by about 25 degrees Celsius and start checking the cake with a pick about 15 minutes before the stated time in the recipe.


Is there a single source for the basics of cooking (sauces, herbs, oil usage, etc)?

I find that anything Cooks Illustrated puts out usually has a decent list of "whys" and have been garnering them up over the years.  Unfortunately this can leave you something of a specialist with deep knowledge on whatever their articles cover, but if you want to learn the why of something, they are a great source.

For baking in particular Ratio is an excellent book.


At least in the U.S., there is no legal requirement to list "live cultures" or whatever on food labels.  Short of contacting the manufacturer, there's no way to know for certain whether or not it may contain live cultures.

Kimchi, like sauerkraut and similar cultured foods, will continue to ferment and change flavor and texture if it has live cultures.  Thus, if a manufacturer wants to ensure a more stable product and longer shelf life, they may heat treat (or otherwise process) the food to destroy active bacteria before shipping the product to consumers.

On the other hand, since many people have become interested in "live culture" fermented foods in recent years, manufacturers usually go out of their way to point out when they do maintain live cultures.  I'd therefore say it's likely that at least large manufacturers will advertise their "live cultures" if present.  If there's no such description on the product or on the manufacturer's website, it's more likely (though not certain) that the product has been treated in some way to extend shelf life and does not contain live bacteria.  For smaller and/or local producers, you probably will need to ask directly about their processing.


What can i use as a corn syrup substitute in icing?

Making your own sugar syrup should work.

Corn syrup can be replaced by a sugar syrup. Combine one cup of pure cane sugar with 1/4 cup of water and heat over a low flame. Cool and use directly in a recipe. If preferred, cover the pan for three minutes to help remove sugar crystals, then add 1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice or cream of tartar to the pan and stir frequently until it reaches the soft ball stage (a drop of the syrup will form a ball when immersed in cold water). Cool and store in a sealed container at room temperature. It should keep for up to two months.
Alternatively, add granulated or brown sugar to a recipe that calls for corn syrup, cup for cup, then increase the amount of liquids used in the recipe by 1/4 of the amount of sugar added.

For your use, you'll probably want the liquid version.


How do I optimize my chicken stock for the best flavor at the lowest cost?

Chicken stock (or any stock) is made from bones; that generally means backs, necks, and carcasses - which are generally the cheapest "cuts" because they have almost no meat and aren't useful for much else. Sometimes, if you approach a butcher with high turnaround, you can get them at a steep discount, well under $0.50/kg, because they just end up throwing most of it out.

If you add any meat whatsoever then you are essentially making a broth, not a stock. I repeat, stock is just bones, simmered long enough to denature all or most of the collagen, usually no less than 8 hours.

I find that most people (myself included) prefer brown stocks, so roast them first. You can sauté, but it's not as effective as a slower roast because the heat doesn't really penetrate far inside the bones. It also helps to cleave the bones before simmering (after roasting) to expose the marrow; it makes for easier extraction, although some people don't like the marrow flavour as much.

The least expensive way to add more flavour is probably to add the dry stock mix or bouillon cubes filled with salt, MSG, and other flavour enhancers. Of course it won't really taste like a homemade stock if you do that. If you want a good stock then the traditional way to flavour it, which is also very inexpensive, is to use a mirepoix, which is just a 2:1:1 ratio of chopped onions, carrots, and celery. You add this about 1-2 hours before the stock is done and remove it before clarifying.

Going up the cost/taste scale is a bouquet garni, which, although the herbs that go into it can get fairly pricey, the amount you use is minuscule, so it costs practically nothing if you have other uses for the remainder of the herbs.

Don't even think about trying to put "expensive cuts" of meat into a stock to improve its flavour. You'll just be wasting the meat, which loses most of its flavour when boiled/simmered, and turning your stock into an unsalted broth, which makes it less versatile and generally perceived as blander.

Now if you want to make a soup with better cuts of meat, that's great; in that case, the texture matters, and I'll occasionally poach some boneless thigh or breast meat to use in a chicken soup (made from the aforementioned stock) for the sake of convenience. But I emphasize that this is done after the stock is made. The soup will also have other ingredients added such as chopped vegetables and of course plenty of salt.

Stock isn't supposed to have an exceptionally complex flavour, that's why it's called "stock" - it forms the base of other dishes such as soups, broths, or anything that calls for flavourful liquid (like a risotto). Focus on making a good clear stock from just bones and mirepoix; it gives the best result because you tweak it later according to how you use it, and it costs you almost nothing besides the energy it takes to keep the pot heated.


As long as the turkey stayed reasonably cold throughout its hour outside the fridge, you should be fine. Safety regs usually state that meat should not be at room temperature for more than 2 hours throughout its 'lifetime'. As you defrosted in the fridge and then under cold running water for an hour, and assuming you placed it straight back in the fridge, you should be pretty safe.

Be wary of any sliminess or bad smells prior to cooking, and use a meat thermometer to ensure the meat has reached 170F/75C in the thickest part before eating.


Do it...taste it..if you like it go on doing it...there is no normal and abnormal in the kitchen as in life, it is subjective not objective. I do it sometimes. And I mix also the dry herbs worth dry bread for schnitzel or to sprinkle on oven cooked vegetables


Cooking time for two identical pieces of beef

If they are generally the same shape and size, be sure there is room between them for air to circulate and base your initial cook time on one piece.  Of course, time is not a very accurate measure when roasting in an oven.  So, your best bet is to use a thermometer to achieve your desired level of doneness.


There are a few factors that could effect this:

1) How the meat is cooked and how lean or fatty it is. If you overcook the meat (although I doubt that you would!) or if it's leaner or fattier. If its a fattier meat add say an extra 2 tbsps or so of sauce and if it's leaner (or overcooked) I would add a tbsp or so less of sauce.

2) The viscosity and composition of the sauce. If it's a white wine sauce (thinner, less rich) you would want to add more, however if it's a hollondaise sauce (thicker, richer) you may want less.

3) Opinion, some people like more sauce, some people like less. It may depend on the type of sauce which you may want more or less of.

Saying this I would say around 4 tbsp of sauce, then account for the additions and your own personal preference. Any more sauce and it may become swamped, any less and you will not have enough sauce to taste or keep the meat moist. It is a very subjective subject so do keep that in mind.


How do you 'notice' when the brine hasn't reached certain areas?

Its easy to see if the brine is working and you're possibly just overcooking - weigh the bird pre and post brine, before cooking.  If it weighs more, you've got the liquid.

A properly brined bird shouldn't taste like 'omg, thats salty!'.  I think two things are going on here:

Your expectations may be off.  Brining isn't magic.  It just gives you more liquid in the bird so that when you cook some out there's more at the end.  (It can enhance flavor if you add herbs & spices to the brine also).
You may just be overcooking the chicken.  If you overcook it enough, the brine will appear to have done nothing - you've just cooked out all the juiciness you put it.  Use a meat thermometer and make sure its 'just right'.

Brining definitely works though, and it shouldn't be overly bird specific.


Why did my roasted butternut squash ferment?

Assuming you cooked thoroughly, your squash got innoculated after you took it out of the oven. Was your counter clean? Had you just made bread? What's the history of the storage bag? Did you recently spill yogurt in the fridge?
You've got a source of contamination, and need to think carefully about everything that came in contact with the squash after you pulled it from the oven.


Yes.  You can either use aluminum foil that has been lightly sprayed with some Pam or rubbed with butter OR a piece of parchment paper cut into a larger circle than the pie.  It will create an overhang that you can use to pull out the weights or beans.

If you try to bake it with the beans on the surface it will cook directly into the dough and your shell will be ruined.

I still prick the bottom of the crust because steam and air will still be trapped underneath the pie weights.  When you remove the weights to finish the baking of the crust, if it has not been pricked you could still end up with pockets and air bubbles as that part of the crust is still a bit raw.


Blowtorch - hardware store vs kitchen store. Is there a difference?

Yes, there is no real difference.

Be aware that if you one from the hardware store, it should be one where the flame does not fluctuate when you tilt the torch. This usually happens with the very cheap ones. This becomes a big problem when you try to uniformly brown something.

Aside from that and maybe "esthetically" I see no reason not to use one from the hardware store.


Is there a definitive way to know if a tin can is lined with BPA?

Probably not. Cans are generally marked at point of filling, not at point of manufacturing

The plastic liner looks plastic'y in all cases, it's very hard to tell. Epoxy is harder than other plastics, but there are epoxies that are BPA free anyway

Aluminium cans are more likely have a epoxy liner that will give off a trace of BPA

Many steel cans do not use epoxy or other BPA plastics

Having said that the tested BPA release from a can is 100's of times lower than the recommended maximum daily dose. So in theory there is nothing to really worry about

The common sense answer is, if epoxy dissolved into the cans contents they wouldn't use it would they. The whole reason it's there is to stop the contents 'eating' the can


How to stop steel cut oats from burning?

There are three factors when cooking oats or similar like cooked pudding or flan:

Stirring
You have to be fairly diligent because if you do not stir constantly or at least in quite short intervals, the starchy mix near the bottom will stick. You need to "scrape" the entire bottom, not forgetting the outer areas or some streaks in the middle. This is somewhat connected to:
Heat
The lower your heat, the lesser the risk of burning - simply because you have a bit more time until you need to stir up the layer closest to the pot's bottom. Less splatter is a nice side effect, too. If you initially bring your milk to a vigourous boil, you might still have too much residual heat even if you turn down your stove.
Sugar
Yes, you didn't mention it, but in my observation adding sugar early during the cooking process might sweeten "the inner parts" of your oats better, but it heightens the risk of burning. Adding sugar at the end allows me to use less sugar for the same percieved sweetness as well.

You could also consider a non-stove technique like cooking them in a microwave, but you need to watch it closely the first few times to figure out the ideal power / timing combination for your serving sizes and microwave power, otherwise the oats have a tendency to "creep out" of your bowl and we're back at the "a pain to clean" stage. Soaking the oats overnight (-> overnight oats) can reduce the cooking time, because they are already soft.


Difference between Rajasthani "sev tamatar nu shak" and Gujrati "sev tamatar nu shak"

Rajasthani is typically spicier (red and green chillies), and/or sour with green tomatoes

Gujarati is typically sweeter (Look for jaggery in recipe)

Otherwise it's a very generic Indian reciepe


When both are used, the fresh yeast is for "added flavor", the dry for leavening power.

Another author who does this is Nancy Silverton.

-

Some bakers believe that fresh yeast (a.k.a. cake yeast or wet yeast) gives a more yeasty flavor to the final product. I don't think it does.

It's also more perishable, (sometimes) more expensive, more difficult to find (and when you do, it may be near its expiration), more challenging to use, and less reliable (re: reproducible outcome).

When I encounter a recipe that calls for it, I convert to instant yeast using this old, but reliable chart: http://www.theartisan.net/convert_yeast_two.htm

If you search The Fresh Loaf for instant yeast, you'll find more information (that may or may not be reliable).


Pizza dough changed from usable to sticky

Thanks for the replies. I have experimented a bit with hydration with a 2 kilo of flour batch. I found reducing the water by 25 grams to have 1100 gram of water gave better dough. That was at shade temperature 29.5C and 90% relative humidity. The reason I started the question is a friend’s son worked for a large pizza franchise and they had correction tables for temperature and humidity changes.
Yes it is possible the flour mix has changed but they are the only supplier available so I cannot try another brand yet. I have not measured the water PH. I do know it is high in calcium and magnesium salts. It’s from a bore 33 metres deep. It’s been used for pizza dough for 2 years but a change in its make up is possible.
I will try the longer kneading, maybe that will work. Our present system is ‘just in time’ dough making as we are running out of fridge space. Water at 40C is weighed out part is used to activate the yeast which takes minutes. When mixing of the dough is done it is proofed in covered stainless steel bowls. First rise takes about 40 minutes. It is turned over and punched down. Then it stays in a refrigerator up to 2 days. Using cold water is not an option as we sell thousands of pizza a year.


Is a (British) wedding cake just a tiered fruit cake

These days, wedding cakes can be pretty much any kind of cake. A traditional wedding cake is certainly more or less a Christmas cake - a dense, dark, 'matured' fruit cake with marzipan and royal icing.

However, nowadays you will find that anything goes - flavoured sponges are extremely popular. The main criteria is that the cake should be sufficiently dense to hold the weight of a tier or two. This means your standard light-as-air Victoria Sponge won't cut it - it will just collapse. You need to be looking at denser, moister cakes.

Basically, a wedding cake is whatever the happy couple want it to be!


How to convert cook time and temp from 9" round cake pans to standard cupcakes?

Since I don't know exactly your receipe, the receipe I convert time to time makes 22 cupcakes.  You line muffin pans with with paper liners, scoop the batter about 3/4 full in the cupcake cups, and if your receipe does not have crushed pineapple in the batter, I really suggest you add about 1/2 can of crushed pineapples, without the juice, into the batter when you are mixing the batter. This makes  the cupcakes super moist as well as the cake. Don't mix the batter too much.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees  and bake 10 minutes and then reduce oven to 350 degrees and cook 30 to 35 more minutes.  At the 25-30 minute point check one cupcake with a toothpick to see is comes out dry and if dry they are are ready, or if just a touch wet you need a few more minutes.  Remember that they still cook in the cupcake pan AND I ALWAYS USE THE BIG MUFFIN PAN.  If you choose to use the regular sized cupcake pans I feel you should check at 15-20 minutes with the toothpick test. If the cupcake is wet then cook 5-10 minutes more.  Remember, IF YOU LEAVE IN THE CUPCAKE PAN AFTER TAKING OUT OF THE OVEN, THEY ARE STILL COOKING, SO IF READY TAKE OUT FAST.  Also another tip I learned years ago, if you have empty cupcake holes, fill with a little water, I don't remember why, but in some way it helps your cupcakes.  Enjoy!


What ingredients can I add to no-knead bread to extend its life?

Ken Forkish's Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast has a brief note on storing baked bread (page 77).

  I got over my aversion to storing bread in plastic bags many years ago, after trying all the alternatives and realizing nothing else keeps the bread as well. The crust will soften, but the bread won't dry out. The straight dough breads will keep for two or three days. The breads made with pre-ferments will keep a day longer than that, and the levain [meaning sourdough] breads from this book will keep for five to six days, if you don't eat it all before then!

I propose sourdough starter as an additive that should almost double the life of your bread. Unlike the fatty enriching agents you suggest, using a sourdough starter should minimally impact the type of loaf you are baking. The process for making sourdough bread is quite similar to the "no-knead" method you are familiar with, and the result is similar, albeit with a more complex flavor. The downside, of course, is the work involved in maintaining a starter.

With respect to using a plastic bag, I usually split the difference: I store the bread uncovered for the first day to enjoy the crunch of the crust, and move it to plastic after to keep it moist. Do make sure the bread is completely cool before putting it in plastic.

I would also encourage you to embrace stale bread as a wonderful ingredient. When I bake, I count on a portion of the bread going stale, and use it for toast, croutons, french toast, stuffing, panzanella, or bread pudding.


Do eggs have to be very fresh for baking?

Fresh eggs are best when...well, when you want to eat eggs.  However, there has been some dispute about the impact of age in baking situations.  As eggs age, the whites thin.  Some people think that this leads to better elasticity in baked goods...as in, you will achieve a better rise.  However these folks disproved that theory, as cake made with older vs. fresh eggs rose to the same height.
Now, when it comes to meringues, older might be better, as thinner whites lead to better air incorporation, but plenty of people make successful meringue with fresh eggs, and simply allowing the whites to come to room temperature helps a great deal.
Related, and in the case of macarons, I have found nothing definitive.  Is it tradition...is it science?  Many recipes call for separating the eggs and leaving them in the refrigerator for 24 hours before use (some call for leaving on the counter, but I would not recommend this for safety reasons). However, plenty of folks (me included) have made macaron with supermarket eggs, same day, with no problem.  Obviously, those are not "farm fresh" from the chicken.  However, you can find evidence on the internets of people using "farm fresh" eggs.  The issue is related to the point about meringue above.  The difference doesn't appear to be so dramatic, that there is an accepted practice here. One needs to begin with a stable meringue.  There are ways to get there with any egg.
Another consideration is that the flavor of eggs changes with age, and not necessarily in a good way.  So, especially in delicate applications, I would want my eggs to be relatively fresh.


How do you avoid getting burnt by hot oil?

In a hot pan, the oil droplets jump off for three reasons usually:

When you add oil to a hot pan that is not completely dry yet (i.e some water present in the pan). This residue water will boil, turn into steam and splatter oil.
When you are adding wet food to the hot oil. The water turns into steam and splatters oil. Solution: Making sure the food is fairly dry before putting in oil. E.g. drying vegetables with a paper towel.
When you are turning food. Solution: as @Wayfaring Stranger said, flip to food towards the opposite end, not towards you.

Another thing might be that you are using a very shallow walled-pan, but mostly, splattering oil is due to water being present.


Could someone please clarify whether the following things make sense while cooking chicken biryani?

As someone pointed out in your last question about biryani, there is a great deal of variation in how the dish is prepared.  However, I will attempt to address your points based on my experience.

Par-cooking the rice is not for the purpose of flavor absorption, but rather so that the rice is fully cooked after the dish is constructed and (in my case) baked in the oven.  I use water only, and add the rice to boiling water, cooking for about 5 minutes, then draining.
In the procedure I use, the chicken pieces are marinated with the spices and yogurt.  Spices are not introduced anywhere else.  When the dish is constructed, the chicken, marinade and all, is added to the layering in the cooking pot.
The spices, herbs, and alliums in my recipe include, garlic, ginger, ground coriander, cayanne, tumeric, a small amount of garam masala, and salt.   These ingredients are added to the chicken, with about 1/2 cup of yogurt.  There is no saffron, rose water, or milk in my recipe.  The chicken marinates for at least an hour, but can sit longer. In constructing the dish before baking I layer, chicken, rice, cilantro, and onions...ending with rice on top and a drizzle of oil.
Correct, as I stated in your previous question.  The oil carries flavor.  It also produces a crust of cooked rice and chicken at the bottom of the pot, which is delicious.
Oil is used once, to cook the onions (in my recipe).  There is no oil in the chicken marinade.  After the onions are lifted out of the oil, I make sure that about 1/4 cup remains in the pot.  After layering I drizzle on an additional 1/4 cup, which was drained from the onions.
My enameled cast iron pot has a heavy cover.  I place a sheet of foil over the pot, then the cover.  It works just fine without having to make a dough to seal the pot. This is then placed in the oven to cook for about an hour. A pressure cooker is unnecessary.


1) How thick should Baking Steel be?

Opinions vary.  Standard thicknesses for these seem to be in the 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch range.

Advantages for thicker:

Heat at faster rate for the initial burst of baking, if you're trying to reduce bake time as much as possible and approach Neapolitan style pizza (generally better ability to get some charring on the bottom, if that's your thing)
Significantly improved ability to bake multiple pizzas with little recovery time in between

Advantages for thinner:

Weighs less: this is a significant issue with larger steels -- my 1/2" steel weighs more than 30 pounds and is a bit awkward to move around, not to mention making thin oven racks sag a bit
Faster pre-heat time

To me, the improvements of the thicker steel are worth the weight.  I can do 3 or 4 pizzas in quick succession before I start to see the steel cool enough that I want to give it substantial recovery time.  But it might be difficult to move around if you are concerned about heavy things.  And if you only tend to bake one or two pizzas at a time, the thickness may not give you a huge advantage.

I've never heard of noticeable warping with steel plates this thick.  If you go thinner than 1/4", maybe it could happen, but then you'd begin to lose advantages of the steel over a decent stone in terms of heat retention and "burst."

The only advantage of a lip, in my view, would be for the rare occasion when I miscalculate and have sauce that significantly overflows the pie, or a pizza gets stuck to the peel and ends up partly right on the edge of the steel with stuff bubbling over.  More likely, it would just be in the way most of the time.  But I have heard of people using steels as griddles on flat-top stoves -- in that case, having a groove (not really a "lip") near the edge could be helpful to catch grease, depending on what you're cooking.

2) How much if any area do I need to leave open around the sides for the oven to function?

Depends a bit on the type of oven, but you need some room for air circulation.  The standard recommendation is at least about an inch on all sides in your oven, but you might be able to get away with less on some sides if you have adequate circulation on others.  (For example, most ovens are wider than they are deep, so you might be able to get something closer to a square steel that has less clearance in front and back, as long as air can easily move around the sides.)  And again, type of oven matters a lot: for example, if you want to run convection, you want to ensure proper clearance for air circulation.  And gas ovens often assume more air circulation for proper operation than electric.

But from a practical standpoint, you may want to consider size vs. weight.  I wouldn't really want a 1/2" steel that went edge to edge on my oven racks, as it would be even more heavy and awkward.  (Tip: if you really want a very thick steel and want it to cover most of your oven, and you're having it custom-made, just have it sliced in half to make two smaller pieces that are easier to handle.)  But with a thinner steel, I'd probably go as large as would be practical (with the 1" clearance or so).  That's what I have with my thick baking stone.

3) How much energy am I wasting by running the oven for longer? How much If I do not have a chain of items to cook after the pizza that require less and less heat (bread, cookies, etc)?

The general philosophy is that cooking energy use (including baking) is generally quite small compared to all the other uses for electric and/or gas in your home (like heating/cooling, other appliances, etc.).  I've seen stats that electric ovens are generally less than 2% of electricity use in homes (on average).  For those who cook regularly (probably not most folks), the percentage is likely higher.  Even if you double your oven use by preheating your oven for longer periods, it's probably not going to make a huge difference in your utility bill.  But of course your situation may vary -- if you're baking pizzas at super-high temperature every day, and you're doing it in the middle of the summer with the A/C fighting the oven, that might be significant.

Lastly, the question asks in general if there are potential drawbacks, and I can say that I haven't noticed any for pizza.  For years before buying a steel, I was known among family and friends for excellent pizza, so I had my doubts about the improvement.  But the noticeably greater oven spring, the improved texture throughout, the faster bakes, the speckled charring on the bottom, the possibility to easily cook a "well-done" crispy pizza for those with such tastes (while using a dough that generally produces soft, thin crust) -- the steel to me is a much more efficient and flexible cooking tool for pizza than a stone.

For other baked goods, the choice is more up to the specific application.  Large bread loaves can more easily char on the bottom at higher temperatures with the steel.  But with lean breads I've seen improved oven spring and crust in some recipes.  The only other minor disadvantage I can think of over a stone is that rust may be possible if you don't use it frequently and don't store it properly.  But it's not a huge issue, and compared to the greater fragility of stones, I'd say it's a toss-up in terms of maintenance/durability issues.


How effective is the George Foreman grill in draining fat from cooking meat?

There are a couple of fluff pieces on the web that appear to indicate the George Forman Grills remove fat from foods, due to the tiled bed allowing draining:

Chron.Com
Disabled World

In my opinion, both have the feel of echoing press releases from the manufacturer.

Neither compares the effectiveness of the tilted bed grill to a more traditional grilling method.

Consider griddling a hamburger on a flat griddle or in a flat style panini press, with or without raised grooves.   Even without the grooves, as the hamburger cooks, it expresses fat and other liquid as the proteins in the meat tighten.  With a fatty hamburger, this can be a considerable amount, even though it is not draining away.

The issue in expressed fat is not the tilt, but rather the squeezing effect the cooked proteins have, forcing the fat out of the food.  This happens regardless of the angle of the bed.

Consider also that it is the contraction of the meat that is important in expressing the fat.  If the fat were simply liquefied but the proteins not fully tightened, less or no fat is expressed.  This can be seen in low temperature sous-vide cooking.   Adhesion and capillary action would keep the fat in the meat otherwise.

The logical conclusion is that the tilt of the bed is irreverent in expressing the fat, but does help clear it away and collect it.  This may have some minor effect on the amount of fat adhering to the outside of the food item, but is not the major effect.

You can argue whether the clearing of the fat away during cooking is a positive or negative for culinary quality, but it doesn't affect the amount of fat.


Still Tasty recommends 1-2 days fridged, 2-3 months frozen.

The main problem with storing yeast dough in the fridge is that it will continue to rise ... possibly escaping whtever container you may put it into.  If I try to refrigerate a normal bread dough, I'll put it in an oiled container at least 3 times the size of the dough, oil the top of the dough, then press on a sheet of waxed paper to keep it from drying out (but so it can still rise), then place the lid on the container, slightly ajar, and then something heavy to keep the lid from lifting up.

If the bread dough is high moisture, low yeast (such as many 'no-knead' doughs that are intended to be refrigerated overnight), they're typically formulated such that they don't have enough strength to escape their container as it'll collapse upon itself first.  Many of them you can store for more than a week, but it'll start to take on a more sourdough-like flavor.  By about two weeks, they'll start to turn grey.

For freezing pizza crust dough, I've had good luck rolling small balls (maybe 2" / 5cm across)of dough, then placing them into a zip-top container, and then squeezeing out most of the air, and freezing it ... however I do not let it have a first rise; I then move it to the fridge to thaw the morning that I'll be baking it.  I leave enough space in the bag so the dough can more than double before the bag pops open.  If I need to thaw it faster, the balls mean that I can break it apart to increase the surface area.


It's almost certainly a type of pogacha, or possibly kruh.
Originally, "pogacha" basically meant "bread baked on a hearth", or in other words, "bread" (when the word was invented, almost all bread was baked on a hearth).  Thus, there are as many different kinds of pogacha as there are of bread.

The word derives ultimately from the Latin panis focacius, i.e. bread (panis) baked on the hearth or fireplace (focus), via the Italian focaccia and, more directly, south Slavic languages (cf. pogača / погача).

However, the true Balkan/Turkish pogacha is said to be quite similar to focaccia:

The Pogača or Pogacha (Hungarian: Pogácsa, Greek: Μπουγάτσα, Cyrillic: погача, Turkish: poğaça, Albanian: pogaçe) is a type of bread baked in the ashes of the fireplace, and later on in the oven, similar to focaccia, with which it shares the name (through Byzantine Greek: Πογάτσα), found in the cuisines of the Balkans, Hungary and Turkey.

Pogacha (Balkan/Turkish traditional bread)

Pogacha topped with rosemary

Video (thumbnail above) of a focaccia-like pogacha recipe

Belokranjska Pogača (Slovenia's answer to focaccia)

Kruh (Traditional Croatian bread, baked in a “peke”)
Again, "kruh" just means "bread", so the term itself is very broad - you'll need to search through different kinds of kruh (and pogacha) to find the one that looks like what you have in mind.  A "peke" is a cooking vessel, somewhat like a dutch oven, usually made from cast iron.


According to this page:

Whole fruits can be stored for a month in a cool, dry area, or refrigerated up to two months. The seed pips can be frozen in an airtight bag up to one year. Fresh juice should be refrigerated and used within two to three days.

In my experience in a very dry climate (Colorado) after a couple weeks the skins become desiccated and very hard—you need to saw through them with a serrated knife—but the seeds are still mostly unaffected. They will shrink somewhat, but still remain unspoiled and flavorful.
However, if you refrigerate them, ensure that you do not let them get too cold. According to this page:

[…] exposure to temperatures below 5°C (41°F) during storage and transport for longer than 4 weeks is a major cause of deterioration […]
The minimum safe storage temperature is 5°C (41°F) for up to 8 weeks, if decay is not a problem. For longer storage, the temperature should be at 7°C (45°F) to avoid chilling injury, but decay […] and weight loss may become a limitation.

Sorry that the photo is not better quality.


Which tools can be used to safely cut bone?

Well, if you don't want to spend a fortune on a Commercial Butcher Shop Band Saw, your best bet is a bone saw.

Image from Philly.com

Here's one on Amazon.

Here's a less expensive one from Cabela's.

Here's a fairly reasonably priced Band Saw with Grinder. If I was going to do a lot of butchery, I'd consider that.


The method on the link talks about how it is more consistent, but really it has as much potential for going wrong as any other. That doesn't mean it's not a good method, just that there are some gotchas. To answer your questions:

Good steaks are juicy, there's nothing bad about having juice come out when you cut it! If juice doesn't come out when you cut it then it's probably too dry
With this method you can't get too hot, the idea is a quick sear at the end of the bake. However, you have to get the temperature right when it comes out of the oven or you must cook it for longer than a quick sear to get it up to temperature. The right temperature depends on the thickness of steak, a thin steak cooks much faster than a thin one, so you pull it from the oven at a lower temperature or the heat from the pan frying will overcook it. The method on the article says for medium to take it out of the oven at 105°F and then sear it to 130°F. That means your sear is supposed to add 25°F. This may work with a thinner steak but a thick one it means a lot more time searing. I'd bake a really thick steak up to 120°F before searing it to get to medium
There may be a difference in heating between the conduction of the air on the top and the metal on the bottom which is causing uneven cooking, it all depends on your oven and the pans you use. I'd be tempted to try a baking tray rather than a cast iron pan in the oven as it should be more even, but flipping it is a good idea as well and may be all you need

So, a couple of tweaks should get you there. One thing more, with a thick steak I'd let it rest for 10 minutes rather than 5, don't forget to cover it to keep it warm.


How to keep sausage cases from splitting?

Collagen casings are quite fragile, unfortunately, and can’t easily be twisted off. You can try filling them less and pinching the meat away in the area you’ll twist, or tying them off with kitchen twine, or use natural casings instead.


The Maillard reaction occurs about 280 to 330 °F depending on the food. For meats this denaturing of the proteins also results in the release of water, so the meat gets hard and dry.

By cooking at a "low" temperature, you cook at temperatures below which the Maillard reaction occurs. Well done beef has a resting temperature of 155 to 160 °F. So cooking at 300 °F isn't low temperature cooking.

You can search for other sites but the site Barbecue Bible defines low and slow cooking and smoking to ideally be  between 225 and 250 °F.


Can you make a porridge from wheat flour?

Flour is much more finely ground than oatmeal. You can make 'porridge' with it, but it'll just be a smooth whitish goo. You might have slightly better results with whole wheat flour... It'll be more of a slightly grainy tan goo. Mmmmm.


Just put them in the oven at 100 °C (212 °F, the boiling point of water) and all the humidity will dry out naturally.

The time depends on the size and amount of water in the biscuits:

smaller and damp: 5 minutes
large and very wet: up to 20 minutes.


Traditionally, why are 'pasta bowls' wide and shallow?

My hypothesis is that there is no functional reason for having a wide rim on a pasta bowl.  I contend that this is simply marketing, and the choice of the person presenting the meal. It is just a name for a bowl.  Pasta is served in all sorts of vessels; plates, deep bowls, shallow bowls.  Saucing, in part, determines the vessel.  For example, you can't serve tortellini in brodo on a plate.  Plates, bowls, and dishes are often designed and chosen for the way they compliment a final dish's visual appeal.  The Chinese (and other noodle eating cultures) don't necessarily eat noodles from wide-rimmed bowls, and I would confidently guess that you wouldn't have to look that far back to find a time that there was really was no such thing presented as a wide-rimmed, pasta bowl.  So, I would say that this is not a tradition at all.  This is a product of restaurants, ceramic makers, and the media (magazines and food TV).


Marinating beef with lime juice for someone with dietary restrictions

As a general rule when cooking for other people, if an ingredient is not allowed, or off the list, it should simply not be used.  There should be no consideration given to whether or not the impact of the ingredient remains after preparation.  It should just be avoided.  Taken to the extreme, the potential is death to the consumer.  I emphasize the extreme simply to make the point.  There are plenty of ways to overcome the restriction of ingredients.  In fact, these restrictions often provide the motivation for new and interesting techniques and flavors.  So, skip the citrus, and any other ingredient your guest can't consumer, and find a work-around.


If you brine a chicken and then boil it in soup, how much salt, if any, will come out and go into the liquid?

I'm not exactly sure why you're trying to brine then boil; you should be able to simply boil your chicken in salty stock and get plenty of salt into it. It won't take nearly as long as brining, because things happen faster in boiling water.

Assuming you boil for any significant length of time, much of the salt will indeed come out into the cooking liquid, and you'll end up with your soup approximately as salty as the chicken. (If the chicken is in large pieces, this of course only applies to the part the brining and cooking liquids can actually reach.)


butter fat on top of frozen roux. Is it still good to use?

No problem, just melt it gently over low heat, stirring, and go ahead with whatever you were going to do.


When is it better to fry with oil and when is it better to fry with butter?

Basically it all depends on temperature:

Every fat or oil has a specific smoke point (see here for a list), at which temperature it starts to degrade. That means, not all oils are suitable for every heat, or all types of frying. Some types of oil should remain "cold", like extra-virgin olive oil.

Butter  has a rather low smoke point (325-375 °F or 163-190 °C) due to milk solids. So, frying with butter is a bit tricky temperature-wise, but often butter is choosen for taste. (Clarified butter, on the other hand, has a smoke point of ca. 485 °F or 252 °C, which makes it usable for pan- or deep-frying. The taste is somewhat similar to butter, but not equal.)

As eggs are typically fried at a "low" temperature, using butter is fine. An example from the opposite end of the heat range would be asian cuisine, where food is prepared in a wok at very high heat. (I won't give recommendations what to use & when, as there are subtle differences, even between brands. If in doubt, read the label.)

So, to cut a long story short: Decide what you want to do, how hot your pan is going to be and pick the matching oil.


Live parasitic worms are to be expected in raw fresh fish, and need to be dealt with in one of three ways:

Cooking: If the fish is thoroughly cooked, the worms will be dead and safe to eat.
Removal/avoidance: A skilled sashimi chef has an eye for parasites, and will either discard contaminated pieces, or remove the parasites.
Freezing: So called "sushi grade" fish is fish that has been frozen at a temperature/duration recommended by the US FDA. That's 7 days at -20°C, or colder for shorter treatments. Note that this is much colder than domestic freezers. It is said to provide a "parasite destruction guarantee".

There may be other ways to neutralise parasites, such as Eskimo-style fermented fish - but these are unlikely to be of use to you.

There is a difference between safety and palatability, though, and your customers might reasonably expect to be served fish without visible parasites.


What is the purpose of bitters in cocktails?

Bitters originally were supposed to have medicinal properties, which is why some still have "tonic" in their names.  Now they're just a flavoring agent, a concentrated way to enrich the cocktail and bring out more subtle flavor notes.

Given how little bitters you put in most drinks, it's unlikely they alter mouthfeel or other qualities much.


What is the origin of fish sauce in asia?

It was called garum, and indeed the ancient Romans used it, as did the ancient Greeks:

Garum was prepared from the intestines of small fishes through the process of bacterial fermentation. Fishermen would lay out their catch according to the type and part of the fish, allowing makers to pick the exact ingredients they wanted. The fish parts were then macerated in salt, and cured in the sun for one to three months. The mixture fermented and liquified in the dry warmth, with the salt inhibiting the common agents of decay. Garum was the clear liquid that formed on the top, drawn off by means of a fine strainer inserted into the fermenting vessel. The sediment or sludge that remained was allec. Concentrated decoctions of aromatic herbs might be added. Flavors would vary according to the locale, with ingredients sometimes from in-house gardens.

Like the fish sauce of today, it was extremely high in glutamic acid, AKA umami.
In Eurasian Sensation the author says:

There appears to be no historical mention of fish sauce being used in Asia before the Early Middle Ages in Europe, which oddly enough is around the same time its use was dwindling in the remnants of the Roman Empire.

That begs a question, right? Did the concept travel, or did Asians develop it independently? Greater minds than mine are working to definitively answer that question:

...flowed from west to east and was eagerly adopted by Asians on the Silk Road. The recipes for garum changed and adapted as they moved east and became nuoc mam and nam pla according to cultural preferences and what gifts the Asian seas had to offer. Archaeologists and food scientists are working to confirm these flows and linkages...
The production of garum and Asian fish sauce is virtually the same as well. Fresh fish and salt in some proportion (recipes vary widely from 5:1 to 2:1) are layered in barrels, clay pits or earthenware crocks. Because of their large size, tuna were cut up before fermenting to prevent putrefaction, but most fish – especially the small species are processed whole and intact. In Rome, oregano and other herbs were added at the production phase for both flavor and to suppress bacterial overgrowth, but this step is largely omitted in the production of Asian sauces. The vats are then left to ferment – sometimes covered or sometimes uncovered (Carthaginian and Roman) in the heat and stirred every few days to a week to ensure even enzymatic digestion of the fish.

From The Silk Road Gourmet


Cows, goat, soy, almond, and coconut milk have around the same carbohydrate levels, so there is not enough difference to make the effort to rework recipes etc.

Also coconut milk has more than 20% fat compared to milk having 1% to 5%. A normal human body can use fats as efficiently as sugars, so total energy of coconut milk will be very high

Approximate carbohydrate %, and kJ per 100 g of milk

Skim Cow ..... 5%, 150
Full Cow ....... 7%, 260
Almond ........ 4%, 275
Coconut ....... 5%, 880
Goat .............4%, 290
Human ......... 7%, 290
Soy .............. 6%, 190

Each country, recipe, and supplier will have different figures, these are standardised with Wolfram Alpha, a recognised accurate source, and a neutral source, as they are not involved in the food or dietary industry

In many countries, "standard" milk is homogenised half fat milk, so about half way between skim and full cow milk figures


How to make perfect pearl rice in a rice cooker

I absolutely LOVE my Zojirushi Rice Cooker. I found it important to use the plastic cups that it comes with to measure the rice. As one conventional cup puts too much rice in there in relation to the water line for white or jasmine rice. 3/4 of a conventional cup of rice is what my son uses in his as he missplaced the plastic ones it came with. I don't wash my rice at all. It is about convenience and they have it all figured out for you. I do add just a smidgen less water (just below water line) if I want an extra firm rice. Also use the spatula it comes with so you don't break up and mush the rice.


What is the liquid ingredient in a korma?

Authenticity is often in question when it comes to curry.

Korma covers a fairly broad range of South/Central Asian curries, their common feature being their creaminess.

The creaminess can come from cream, coconut cream, yoghurt, or ground nuts - or a mixture of these.

In the case of ground nuts, water might be added to add liquidity, although you may be surprised at how much liquid nuts contain. Just think how gloopy peanut butter can be.


High altitude pizza crust - how to adjust yeast?

Sugar fermentation occurs more quickly at high altitude so you need to cut back on the time that you're allowing the dough to rise.

Salt controls the action of the yeast so you might be able to increase it slightly since you're talking about pizza crust and not a sweet yeast dough.

Are you using all-purpose flour?  If so, try bread flour.  The higher gluten content of bread flour typically requires a longer amount of time for rising due to the extra gluten that needs to stretch and expand.  Additionally, it will be a stronger dough even when it is expanded.


Food safety of sauerkraut whose brine evaporated below surface?

Unfortunately nobody can give you a definitive answer about your batch without testing. But I can give you more information to help you make a more informed decision.

As you are, I'm concerned about botulism. You mention that "botulism can't survive with that amount of salt". I'm not sure whether that's true. If an environment is salty enough, or if it's less salty but acidic enough, you're all set. But the question is what's enough; at some point it's far less likely, but not impossible, for clostridium botulinum to survive.

Your primary defenses were (1) a salty, acidic environment below the surface, and (2) oxygen at the surface. It's hard to know whether the cabbage tissue at the surface was anaerobic enough; maybe so. As for acidity at and near the surface, if mold was involved somehow that could lead to a drop in acidity. From Sandor Katz's excellent The Art of Fermentation, p. 50:

  Molds can also digest lactic acid, lowering the acidity of the ferment that enables it to be effectively preserved.

So...

if the surface environment became tolerable for c. botulinum, and
if it grew in that environment, and
if it produced botulinum toxin, which then got into the submerged kraut

then as I understand it, boiling and canning won't change the presence of that toxin unless you boil it for at least 10 minutes. (Thanks to Josh Caswell for pointing this out in the comments).

On the other hand... that is a whole lot of ifs.

I'm just an informed layperson, so you'll need to make your own food safety call based on this and information from others. My guess: your kraut is just fine.

But because I always err on the side of caution, in the same situation I'd probably chuck the batch (with tears in my eyes). Though not in this exact situation, I've done it many times, and it hurts, but I sleep better, especially since I share my ferments with others.

Or if your "hot pack" will heat the kraut long enough to address both botulinum spores and toxin—I know nothing about canning—you're probably fine too. I'm not sure what that does to the kraut's texture, and you lose probiotic benefits, but it sounds like addresses the safety concern, at least for botulism.

Some more sources:

The CDC has lots of info on botulism, as does Seasoned Advice.
The Three Biggest Fermenting Mistakes You're Already Making has a concise list of fermentation warning signs.
NC State University has a safety sheet on fermenting vegetables.


What is the most efficient way to prepare (very small) fresh oregano leaves?

If you're using it in something long-simmering, like soup or spaghetti sauce, you can tie a bundle together (with cooking twine or unflavored dental floss) stems and all and toss it into the pot. As it cooks, most of the oregano leaves will fall off into the food and even those that don't will impart a lot of flavor into the dish. At the end, just pull out the bundle like you would bay leaves. I've never had trouble with the stems leaching bitter flavor when using this method.


Too long for comment so:
I should think fresh would work. It's just dried that comes prehydrated. I'd cut down on boiling time. Say 5 cup corn, 1.5 gallon water, 1/4 cup CaOH (Cal, slaked lime, pickling lime). Boil gently 30 min (instead of hour). Let sit overnight. Rinse 4-5 times to remove excess CaOH, put thru your corn grinder to make massa. add a tablespoon or two of salt, about 2 cups water to get texture right, mix well. Should make about 2400 g masa -> enough for 40 tortillas. If unlucky, your prehydrated corn will turn to useless mush, but I don't think that's what happens. Don't rinse the nixtamalized stuff too many times. That removes CaOH, but also the corn coating that holds the tortilla together while cooking. CaOH is bitter. Crumbly tortillas are no fun.

I made my press out of maple wood, with sheets of flexible storm window plastic to keep massa from sticking. No need for that expensive metal contraption to make 5" tortillas Cooking goes smoothest if you have two 2 tortilla size griddles. That way you can cook 4 at a time. The timing works out to keep you busy, not waiting. If you have vertigo though it will make you dizzy.


Would freezing ruin an emulsified broth like tonkotsu?

Freezing broth has no ill effects. I would think that you could just emulsify the fat by boiling the broth when you take it out of the freezer. Boiling it again will lose some liquid, though. Or an immersion blender could be useful for resetting the emulsion, if needed.

Your biggest worry is making sure the broth doesn't dry out in the freezer.
Make sure that the liquid temperature is around 35-40 degrees (room temp will do). To make it air-tight I'd recommend going with some sort vacuum sealer. This will keep it from getting freezer burned and losing its shelf-life/flavor profile. Also a good thing to remember is that glass doesn't do well in the freezer as it cannot expand.

I would recommend keeping your broth as simple as possible to allow for the greatest flexibility; Unless you're going to strain it, leave the aromatics out of the euqation until it's time to make your ramen because the more aromatics are exposed to heat the less you can taste them.

You can also cook it down and add water later to take up less fridge space.


I use two forks to shred the jackfruit - core and all. The core pieces have a bit more firm texture so it's a nice mix with the rest of it.


Is 'honey in crystallized form' the same as 'raw honey'?

Short answer? Maybe. Crystallized honey and raw honey are not mutually exclusive, so you may have a honey that is one or the other, or you may have a honey that is both.

Raw honey is simply honey that has not been over-heated (heated more than necessary to allow the honey to flow for easier bottling) or pasteurized.

All honey will eventually crystallize; however, raw honey will crystallize faster than pasteurized or heat-treated honey, which is often of lower quality as the heat required for pasteurization destroys some characteristics of the honey.


Can I use both racks at the same time to bake chicken wings?

Yes, you can! Make sure to check the wings occasionally to see if the pans need to be switched to ensure even cooking. One of the racks may get hotter than the other.
You can also make sure that both of the pans are placed as close to the center of the oven as possible by adjusting the rack positions.


Is hot water bath canning really necessary?

I'll leave the question of food safety and mandatory canning or not with regard to ingredients to others, but frankly, if you have a large pot in your kitchen you have a canner. For small batches and only very occasional use, there is no need to buy a separate canner.

Place a small metal rack (if you have one small enough) or a folded towel on the bottom of the pot (I like to use my pasta pot with the insert), put jars on top and fill with water until almost to the top of the tallest jar.  Yes, you can process jars of different sizes in one batch. Rule of thumb: cold jars go in cold water, hot jars in hot water. This setup is equivalent to a separate canner minus the extra gadgets like timer, thermometer / thermostat and other features that are for your comfort and ease of use, not essential for the physical process of heating and sealing the jars.

So if you want to play it safe, put your sauce in the jars1, add lids and screw them on with the bands "fingertip tight". Place them in the water bath and slowly bring to a boil. Once your water is simmering, "canning time" starts. Off the cuff, ten to fifteen minutes should be fine for a cooked BBQ sauce, longer isn't a problem either. After that, lift the jars out and cool slowly in a drought-free area. If done correctly the lid will stick to the jar even without the bands, so you get an extra safety mechanism: If your sauce should spoil, the lid will come off, being a clear indication of trouble.

But my main reason why I suggest canning the jars is this:
If you ship your sauce, you have no control over the storage conditions of your jars during transit and - depending on the destination - constant refrigeration or similar might not be possible everywhere on this world. That alone would be reason enough to do the extra step, which is surprisingly easy once you give it a try. I suggest leaving the rings on during shipping and instructing the recipient to remove them on arrival to notice any signs of spoilage.

1 This includes the usual steps done even without canning, e.g. cleaning the jars and lids, "sterilizing" them in your oven or in boiling water, keeping the rims of the jars clean and filling the hot food immediately into the jars. In short, what you would normally do to ensure general cleanliness and food safety.


How to pan sear salmon without burning the skin?

Salmon's a big deal in my neck of the woods too. Lay the fish skin-side-down (pre-oiled) on a thin piece of foam and poke toothpicks straight through the fillets at regular intervals, (use your judgment), so that each of them comes just barely through the skin. Carefully pick up the fish and lay it into your preheated oil. The points of the toothpicks will separate the skin from the surface of the pan. After a few minutes the skin will have crisped well enough to no longer be at risk of sticking and burning. So for each toothpick press the tines of a fork flat against the fish (with the toothpick in between a pair of tines) and pull the toothpick straight up and out.


what size foil squares to wrap chocolate truffles?

Some basic math, assuming spherical candy and the type of foil that fits snugly w.o. twisting the ends (like thin aluminum foil):

3" foil -> covers 0.95" candy w.o. overlap -> aim for scant 3/4" balls
4" foil -> covers 1.27" candy w.o. overlap -> aim for 1" balls
6" foil -> covers 1.91" candy w.o. overlap -> aim for 1.5" balls

I figured 3.14 for Pi would be precise enough, and the formula is:

  circumference = diameter * Pi

For cubic candy:

  circumference = 4 * side

For other blocks (or close enough, e.g. egg-shaped):

  circumference 1 = 2* (height + lenght)
  circumference 2 = 2* (height + width) -> use the bigger value for square foil

Of course, you'll want to have a foil slightly larger that the circumference, as you need some overlap - just add 1/4" - 1/2", depending on how precise you wrap.

If you are using the plasticy type of stiff foil that is to be twisted, add at least 1-2" per twist, up to 3" for a more "flashy" effect.


I think gnocchi should work best with varieties of potatoes that you think of as mealy, dry, and fluffy when cooked. The most common mealy potato is russet. From On Food and Cooking:

  Mealy types (russets, blue and purple varieties, Russian and banana fingerlings) concentrate more dry starch in their cells, so they're denser than waxy types. When cooked, the cells tend to swell and separate from each other, producing a fine, dry, fluffy texture that works well in fried potatoes and in baked and mashed potatoes..."

You want those that dry texture to make gnocchi, so that you can manage to wrangle it into a dough. If you live somewhere without russets, just use whatever you'd normally use for baked or mashed potatoes.

The other category of potato is waxy. They'll tend to be too solid and moist to easily make gnocchi from; they're better suited for things where you want chunks/slices to stay intact. In the US, most red, yellow, and white potatoes are waxy. Stay away from those for gnocchi.


How to remove bad smell from fridge and refrigerator?

Can you access the evaporator coils of the fridge, and where the condensate goes?  A frequent problem is that these are covered up or difficult to access.  If stuff gets spilled or otherwise get into these inaccessible areas, it can take a very long time to dissipate.  Get out your screwdriver.


After some more research, I stumbled onto this post. The "standard ice cream" recipe linked from there uses 0.4% of a "stabilizer blend" (8g out of 1950g of ingredients).
GMS and CMC would fall into the stabilizers and emulsifiers category.  I used 7g of GMS and 1g of CMC, which seems to be a fairly common ratio in recipes using these ingredients.
The post itself says "standard" ice cream has 0 to 1% stabilizers and emulsifiers, which at least provides an upper bound:

One can very generally place ice cream formulas and their constituent components within the following ranges:
Milk Fat: 10–16%
Egg Yolk Solids: 0–2%
Nonfat Milk Solids: 9–12%
Sweeteners: 12–16%
Stabilizers and Emulsifiers: 0–1%
Water: 55–64%

The challenge is calculating the amounts of various components in the ingredients that are added.  I can say that I made delicious French Vanilla Ice Cream (with GMS and CMC) using that basic recipe  and the Kitchen Aid Ice Cream accessory.


Why is salt sprinkled on top of soft pretzels?

IMO the distinctive flavor of a soft pretzel isn't a bland lack of flavor, but rather a slightly bitter, slightly chemical flavor that comes from the lye (or sometimes baking soda) solution in which pretzels are briefly cooked before baking. The lye solution does at least two things for pretzels:

It raises the pH of the pretzel's skin, which in turn makes the pretzel brown nicely as it bakes.
Imparts that slightly bitter flavor.

I don't think the salt used on pretzels is there to make up for a lack of salt in the dough. You can make pretzels that have plenty of flavor even without salt. I think the salt is there mainly because people like salt, because it adds a pleasing crunch, and because it's traditional -- it's part of what people (or at least Americans) expect from the pretzel experience.

It's worth mentioning that the proper salt for topping a soft pretzel is not kosher salt or rock salt, but a white, soft salt like Cargill Pretzel M Salt. Kosher salt will work if it's all you've got, but it's not what you'll find on a soft pretzel bought at a ball park or from a street vendor.


How to preserve vitamin of fruit juice when making fruit jelly?

Take either some of the juice or some water (or other liquid), heat it up and dissolve the gelatin in it, cool to lukewarm and then add the rest of the juice, pour into the mold, etc.

I'm recommending this based on a method I used to use for making probiotic gummies with water kefir. The heat would kill the probiotics in the kefir if you melted the gelatin directly in the kefir, so using water/juice to melt the gelatin and then afterwards stirring the kefir into the dissolved gelatin mixture preserved some of the probiotic benefits.

To be more precise, you'd need to check the heat-stability of the particular vitamins you are concerned about and then ensure that the temperature of the gelatin mixture is lower than that temperature when you add in the juice.


Butter substitute for 1 cup of butter for baking

In muffins and quick breads, I have found that you can actually substitute apple sauce for oil or melted butter. This has worked very well for me!

Use the same amount of apple sauce that you would oil/butter, if not a bit extra.


How best to use gluten free all purpose flour?

You don't need xanthan gum or other thickeners; they are already in the mix you bought.

These mixes don't behave much like standard, gluten-containing flour. Don't bake bread with them on their own, the results are very disappointing. Also don't use it for standard cake recipes, or for most pastries or cookies.

After all these don'ts, here are the things you can actually do with it.

If you want to keep using your existing recipes without change, I suggest pancakes and crepes. There, gluten free mixes seem to perform as good as flour with gluten. There is a slight noticeable difference in texture, but it's not unpleasant.
Use it in applications where the flour is not needed for the bulk of the texture. For example, if you use stew recipes which are thickened with a spoonful of flour before adding the liquid, it will work quite well there. Or use it for flouring pizza stones, cake tins, etc.
Find recipes intended for gluten free mixes, especially from the brand you bought. They are specifically engineered to work.
If you want to mix it with normal flour, that's also OK. But then mix it in cases where you want to lower the gluten content. So not in bread baking, more in places like cakes or pie crusts, especially if the recipe directs you to use pastry flour, or to mix flour and starch.


Generally speaking, I think experimentation is the way to go. There are a lot of recipes for Italian meringue (and Italian meringue frostings) you can try to see what effect the different sugar content has. Reducing the sugar can definitely reduce the stability, but stability is a somewhat subjective term. That's why I recommend experimentation. It's hard to say what would be an acceptable reduction for your personal preference/needs.

That said, the amount of water you use to initially make the syrup should make no real difference. By the time you add it to the egg whites, the sugar's at softball stage, which means that all the water you added is gone. The vapor you still see is actually evaporating from within the sugar itself. So don't measure the water. You just need to pay attention to the amount of sugar and egg whites, same as with another meringue. The only complicating factor here is the heat from the sugar syrup. If you reduce the amount of the sugar syrup, you will reduce the overall temperature your egg whites get heated to, and that could reduce the stability.

I have not experimented extensively with pure meringues, but rather with meringue-based buttercreams, and that is a different situation. However, I have managed to make a successful meringue base using sugar syrup heated up to hardball stage (it was an accident, but it worked.) If you did make less sugar syrup but heated it to a higher temperature, that might help maintain stability, but you could risk some sugar crystals, depending on how quickly the syrup tries to cool as you pour it into your mixer. You could also risk some scrambled eggs. I doubt that, but it could happen.

Another option would be to make the same amount of a caramel syrup. Cook your sugar until it's taken on a nice deep caramel color, remove from the heat, and avoid the giant cloud of steam as you pour in some new water. Then cook that less-sweet caramel syrup until it's softball stage and proceed as usual. Obviously, that will impart a caramel flavor and color. It's up to you whether that's a bad thing. On the plus-side, that caramel syrup is great for coffee. And ice cream. Seriously, you should do that even if you don't want to make a meringue with it.


Do slow cookers require liquid to operate?

It's really no different from cooking something on a stove: if you have no liquid at all, things are probably going to start getting too hot, sticking on the bottom, and maybe burning. As long as there's some liquid, you'll be fine. The important thing is to add enough; if you keep having to open it to add more, it won't stay hot. This is basically the minimum level: enough that it won't boil dry in an hour or so. If you're cooking something really simple like a piece of meat, using too much water just provides more water for the flavor to get diluted into.

This is precisely what the first page you linked to says: if it's not full enough, it might all boil off. The writer is just way off about quantities. I suspect his cooker's lid doesn't fit well, or he's unnecessarily cooking on high. I don't think my slow cooker would boil dry from half full in 8 hours on low, and there's no reason to put it on high if I'm cooking that long.

The recipe at the second link isn't exactly empty - a can of cranberry sauce will provide a good amount of liquid. It also might not be a great recipe. On that note, I might suggest you look for more authoritative recipes. Perhaps check out a slow cooker cookbook from your library (these tend to be pretty common) to get an idea of the kinds of things you can do. (Of course, if all you want is a plain piece of meat, I guess you don't need much.)


A well-established starter will be fine in the refrigerator, even (in my experience) if you go well beyond weekly feedings. You could also freeze it, though I have not done that myself. No matter what my feeding schedule, or length of storage, I usually plan for a few days of counter-top feeding and revival before baking, just to ensure peak activity.  I've used all sorts of flour combinations.  For the home baker, it makes little difference, so yes...you can use all rye or a combination of rye and wheat.


How do they commercially coat gummies in wax?

The tumbler does a really good job of making sure the gummies get coated.

It will mist in the wax and definitely get it everywhere.
You can see on the gummies where they were sorta stuck together, some still come stuck together.

So the waxing isn't quite perfect but most of them come free.