Here's a technical explanation as to what happened. An analog thermometer works on the principle that different metals expand more than others when heated. There is a bi-metallic strip in the pen part of the thermometer in the shape of a spiral coil, which is attached to a piece of metal which turns the pointer. The outside of the strip expands more when heated and contracts more when cooled than the inside, so when heated the coil will twist the pointer in the direction of the spiral.

As the pen part of the thermometer heats up the coil changes shape and adjusts the temperature. As you can see from the picture the sensitive area of the thermometer is the length of the coil, that entire area needs to be heated up to the same temperature in order to read correctly. In your case what you were trying to measure was too small and had to compete against the ambient temperature of the air.

Digital thermometers work on a different principle entirely, using an electrical device called a thermocouple on the end of a probe.

The bead at the end is the actual sensor, and as it is much smaller it is therefore more precise than a bi-metal coil. However, I still think one of these wouldn't work because again the size of the meat isn't enough to heat the probe's sheath enough for the sensor to read correctly.


What is the correct way to cook thin rice noodles for Vietnamese dishes?

I never boil rice noodles. Just soak them in cold water for about an hour.


You said thawed in hot water. That is the problem. Thaw in cold water or in the fridge overnight. Using hot starts cooking the meat. I would also suggest searing the meat on both sides and then cooking at 400 until it temps 155, then pull it and let rest for 10 min. The resting will allow the temp to hit 160.


Is the induction cooktop sinking my eggs? Why are they sticking to the bottom

It is simply a different rate of heating. Your pan is getting hotter than you are accustomed to. You'll have to experiment with settings, and possibly pans, to find one that works.


How do I cook beans without having too many that are split?

Beans split because the seed coat isn't soft enough when the interior of the bean rehydrates.

Two factors that can help ease this problem:

soak your beans to make sure the seed coat is well rehydrated when the bean interior cooks.
This is the big one- heavily salt your soaking water. The salt ions will replace calcium in the bean skins and soften them. You will have magically whole beans.

Refer to the Food Lab article on chili which contains this image:


The primary reason for the parboil is to be to lighten the color of the potatoes and prevent off flavors by flushing away excess starch.  It's not strictly necessary to get a decently crispy chip.  That said, par-frying isn't likely to be as effective for this purpose, per this passage from your linked source:

  ...heating up starch granules in the presence of water causes them to
  absorb water and expand. Eventually, like little water balloons, they
  burst, expelling the starch into the water where it can be safely
  dumped down the drain.

With frying, you might wind up bursting some starch granules, but because the starch isn't getting flushed anywhere, it will remain in the potatoes.  This may actually further the development of browning and off flavors by raising the concentration of starch (though you may denature some of the enzymes that are also responsible).

I think you're also likely to see some unintended side effects from par-frying.  For example, partially cooking and doing damage to the cell walls could cause the chips to leach moisture and starch.  As it cools, that could cause the chips to stick together if you're not very careful about keeping them separated.  It might also cause some of the excess oil from the surface to seep into the interior, making your chips greasy.

If your objective is first and foremost maintaining a consistent oil temperature (which is a worthy goal) then the best solution is to fry in smaller batches and allow the oil to come back up to temp after each batch.  This will take longer, but it will still probably be a time savings over doing a whole bunch of par-frying the night before and then finishing them off at the event.

Good luck!


How to clean red tea stains from cracked glaze Japanese tea cups

For these types of cups with a cracked finish is the purpose is actually that over time, the tea fills up the cracks. This sounds a bit strange, but the same happens with porous Yixing clay teapots. The pores are filled with tea over time, which helps to improve the brew.

Given that you want to remove the strains I wouldn't use any detergent or soap. If that is sucked in the cracks it can be released when you serve tea in the future. This might negatively affect the flavor of tea.

To clean, I suggest the same method that's used to 'season' Yixing clay pots. You can cook the cup in hot water until the strains are gone.


Marshmallows are a white, fluffy candy, that easily melts and becomes sticky. They are almost all sugar (and corn syrup which is also sugar), with whipped gelatine. They're vanilla flavored, usually with clear vanillin, because the pure whiteness is the very essence of the candy.

They're sometimes colored, but not usually:

The little ones are often served in hot chocolate milk, and they're often used as ingredients in other things like fudge.

It's also very traditional to skewer them on a stick and roast them over a campfire:

Put the roasted marshmallow between graham crackers with chocolate, you have a s'more, a favorite snack of campers everywhere.

Here's a tour of a huge marshmallow factory: YouTube video with some fun trivia too.

Here's a homemade version that I have done, complete with handy video, it's kind of a fun afternoon: Alton Brown's Marshmallows


Why'd Cantonese restaurants desire 40,000 BTU for soup?

For a domestic kitchen a few thousand BTU is plenty as you will rarely need to heat more than a few liters of liquid.

In a professional kitchen you might be asked to prepare a 30-litre portion of soup or broth or make 5 kilos of dry pasta at once.

Doing that on a domestic range would take ages and that is not something you want in a kitchen. And with the pasta example it might not even work, you'd never get the water back to boiling within the cooking time, leading to soggy pasta.

Once you switch to simmering you simply dial back the burner, these ranges are usually good at finetuning. Or you could transfer the pan to a quieter area on a smaller burner if you have that in your kitchen.


What's the difference between confit and fondant potato?

Yeah, the main difference is that fondant has a different shape and the crisp top and bottom verses the evenly cooked and consistant texture to confit. Also typically confit is slightly more seasoned.


Given your options, I would go creme fraiche, you may need to thin with a small amount of milk or water to get to yogurt consistency.  Three tablespoons...you probably won't notice a difference.


Why would you flour your bread loaf pans?

The same benefit as there is for cakes-- namely that it should prevent sticking. Usually is less necessary for bread since there's usually less sugar in bread and that makes it less likely to stick. Greasing and flouring does produce a thicker crust where the pan is.


Can I use Nutralite Butter in baking Cakes and cookies?

After looking that margarine up:

It is advertised as a margarine made of mostly unsatured fats. An ingredient list is not readily found on their website (red flag ;) ) . They also claim to not hydrogenate their fats, so to make a solid margarine you are either looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interesterified_fat (will behave similar to butter when baking) or at some textural tricks that keep oil in a solid block (will likely behave like oil in baking).

If your intention is to cut saturated fats, I would suggest you look up cake recipes that use oil in the first place, and use whatever oil suits your culinary and nutritional taste.


There may be a siphon manufacturer that makes a pump model that doesn't use chargers, but I have never seen one and I can't find evidence of one online.

The most eco-friendly route would probably be to whip the cream with a mixer and use a pastry bag to pipe it onto things. You could either use a reusable bag or disposable bags which should be more easily recyclable.

Edited to add: There are countertop whipped cream dispensers that do not use chargers. You add cream to a cavity in the top and they dispense from a nozzle in the front when a button is pressed. These require counter space and electricity though, so they're not practical for everyone.


let it sit out and dehydrate a bit?

fold it into vanilla ice cream?

next time:
more egg in the filling
or
use less filling
or
lower temp/longer bake time


Beans can be reconstituted and fermented or pickled.  While there is some controversy over whether or not phytic acid in legumes is problematic or not, most agree that soaking, cooking, sprouting, and fermentation all contribute to the the reduction of phytic acid.


Considerations for prepping breaded chicken for freezing

I don't think there are special considerations for the actual breading procedure. I think the most important considering is to individually freeze the breaded chicken strips. I'd place them on parchment, on a sheet pan, and freeze them. Then after they are frozen, bag them for later use. IQF (individually quick frozen) pieces are less likely to stick together. This is particularly important with breaded chicken, where the breading will fall off if it sticks to another, leaving you with inconsistently breaded chicken strips.


How to achieve a good char on cooked and shredded chicken?

One way to get some quick charring without drying out the meat would be to use a blowtorch.

To quickly caramelise and generate an effective Maillard reaction, you can:

refrigerate the meat in an air-tight container, keep it cool so it doesn't overheat during the charring process
Mix a touch of glucose syrup with an oil that has a high smoke point (like rice bran oil,) you need a viscosity where you can brush it on to the parts you want to char
Swiftly blowtorch the areas you brushed with the glucose syrup. I'm talking a few seconds at most.

You should be able to char the meat without cooking it at all by doing this.

EDIT: I realise now that this question was asked two days ago, and this answer is pretty useless now. However, I encourage you to give it a go if there is a next time :) Or just experiment with the technique when you have some free time and curiosity. If you don't have a blowtorch, the glucose syrup layer will also quickly create caramelisation and Maillard reaction in a hot pan, also in seconds.


The brown spots can be a bruise from handling or a bruise caused by heavy soil.  We learned the hard way to avoid planting in heavy clay.  Loads of brown spots from cloves trying to swell against hard soil, or a rock or buried root etc. The bacteria get into the bruised clove and quickly discolour it.

We added lots of compost and tried to make our garlic patch soil the lightest, fluffiest texture possible.  The softest soil produced the cleanest bulbs.  Also far less bruising from harvesting since they pull so easily out of the ground.


Does blending oil (for vegan butter) make hydrogenated oil?

Oil is hydrogenated by bubbling hydrogen through it at high temperature (on the order of 400 to 500 degrees F), in the presence of a catalyst such as nickel.

Air is 0.00005% hydrogen, you are probably not using temperatures high enough, nor doing it for a significantly long period of time, nor having an appropriate catalyst present.  The amount of hydrogenation introduced via this recipe is somewhere between none and vanishingly small.

However, coconut oil itself is about 92% saturated fat--which means the fats are naturally saturated with hydrogen.   While a natural saturated fat, not a manufactured one, coconut oil is saturated.

If your recipe is delicious and you enjoy it, eat up in moderation like anything else (chocolate excepted).  :-)


Can I substitute low fat greek yogurt for light sour cream in a high speed blender?

You can substitute one to one.

Many brands of "light sour cream" (Which is an oxymoron. Cream without the cream?) have a lot of gums and starches to stabilize the liquid as the fat would have done.

Brands that don't have gums dilute the fat with skim milk and are basically just yogurt anyway.

Regular yogurt is fragile. It is a delicate mesh of proteins filled with water. When it is blended the water washes out. However, greek yogurt has already had this done! So there is less water and it stays creamy and loses relatively little extra liquid even when blended.


Flaky pie pastry works beautifully for quiche.  You can improve the texture with two techniques.  The first is "blind-baking," or a partial pre-bake to toast the crust lightly.  The other is to brush a wash of egg white onto the crust before blind-baking.


Are there any resources specifically on cooking with high-heat wok burners?

You're in luck -- there was a paper earlir this year than analyzed the physics of making fried rice by professional Chinese chefs:

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsif.2019.0622

My take away from that was that you have to flip things fast when you're dealing with high heat -- three times per second.

Almost every list that I've seen of wok cooking recommendations calls for re-seasoning at the beginning of your cooking.  Most go into wok selection and what's needed to initially season a wok. Some discuss prepping all of your food in advance, as when you're cooking with that sort of heat, taking a minute to chop up the next ingredient means you've already burned what's in the wok.

Here's a small sampling, although not all are specifically about high heat cooking (except maybe for the one that's from a manufacturer of stoves, so it seems a little spammy):

https://inquiringchef.com/how-to-cook-with-a-wok/
https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/how-to-cook-with-a-wok-article
https://www.seriouseats.com/2010/06/wok-skills-101-stir-frying-basics.html
https://firstwefeast.com/features/2016/10/how-to-cook-with-a-wok/wok-two
https://www.bluestarcooking.com/top-10-tips-for-mastering-wok-cooking-at-home/


Why does my cookbook want me to drain my tomatoes for a pasta sauce?

The main purpose is to allow you to get a thick, hearty sauce more quickly.  By pre-draining the liquid, you lose a a very small amount of flavor, but save time and energy in reducing the sauce.  Otherwise, you would simply have to boil away the excess liquid to get the desired consistency.


What is the purpose of nutritional yeast?

I use nutritional yeast for the taste.  I think comparing it to a milder form of Marmite flavour, or even miso is apropos - it has a similar tanginess - in my opinion.  When I choose something low caloric for a good flavour enhancer, this is a good thing to keep around.

A good introduction for you to try nutritional yeast might be to sprinkle it on popcorn, or add it to a tomato sauce, or even on buttery toast. Use it like a flaky spice.


Homemade double/heavy cream separates after setting in the fridge

You cannot make double cream by mixing milk and butter, this is wishful thinking. Some recipes which call for heavy cream, e.g. a cream soup, can indeed be made by adding milk and butter in such quantities that the fat ratio becomes similar to double cream, and will be successful. But for all such cases, there is no reason to mix the milk and butter before adding them to the other ingredients, you can step the step which supposedly makes cream.

A mixture of butter and milk will always be unstable, no matter the temperature at which you added them. You could in theory avoid it by using an emulsifier and a very thorough mixing method (high powered blenders are good here), but the result will have a different taste and somewhat different texture from cream and still won't whip. I've never seen a use case where doing it makes any sense.


How to get a synthetic cork back in a wine bottle?

There is no trick, it just won't work. Synthetic corks are popular as replacements to cork not only because they are cheaper, but more effective at preserving wine as they don't dry out, and they expand more in the neck keeping a tighter seal. This makes it more difficult, if not impossible, to get them back in.

The simple and easy solution is to buy re-usable bottle stoppers. There are many different types, I prefer the ones which have a lever or button you push down to expand the stopper as they are best at preventing spills and leaks. There are vacuum sealers as well, however IMHO they're gimmicks and don't improve the storage of wine.


Given the science as Kenji Alt explained it in his article, the key fact of the vodka is that it is 80 proof, or 40% alchohol.

So beer, which usually is on the order of 4 to 6 percent alcohol (yes, there are outliers) will not have the same level of inhibition of the gluten formation.

The vodka is not the only factor in the recipe leading to crispiness and good crust, so you will probably still get very good results with the beer, assuming you like the flavor profile it brings to the wings, but it won't be quite the same.

If you use another liquer that is on the order of 80 proof, again assuming you like the flavor profile, you should get quite similar results.  This would include mixing grain alcohol with water or orange juice or whatever to the appropriate ratio.

Other than some white wine for cooking, though, I don't buy spirits so I don't what would be more economical--and that might vary from region to region.


Using a Google image search for 'sweet potato disease', it looks like Streptomyces ipomoea:

  Host range and distribution:
  Sweet potatoes; Ipomoea batatas; found in all major sweet potato production regions in the U.S. and Japan.
  Streptomyces soil rot or pox is a widespread disease of sweet potato in North Carolina that results in a reduction in plant growth and severe yield losses.  It is caused by the soilborne filamentous bacterium, Steptomyces ipomoea, and is able to persist in soil for many years in the absence of sweet potatoes.   Fibrous roots and storage roots are infected in the field and symptom development varies based on the timing of root infection [...].  Disease is favored by dry soils with pH above 5.2.

If you are cultivating your own, this is what that article recommends under 'Management':

  Disease development is favored at high pH.  Have field soil tested regularly and select fields with pH 5.2 or lower.  Develop long-range crop rotation (3-4 years) in infested fields.  Treat soil with a broad spectrum soil fumigant containing chloropicrin 2-4 weeks prior to planting.


Do you leave the oven thermometer inside the oven while you are baking?

In your case it's definitely worth leaving it in, because it will help you get to the bottom of whether things are burning because the temperature keeps rising during cooking.

Oven thermometers are generally designed so that they can be left in. I prefer the type that can hang from a rack


Why does a cold saturated sugar solution melt chocolate?

If there is no heat, the chocolate is not melting; something else is going on. The closest thing I could find to an explanation was on this site about how chocolate is made:

  Cacao is a rich source of insoluble but water absorbent fibers (cellulose, primarily) which tends to cause the particles to draw in the water and swell up, further disrupting the texture. The cacao particles then tend to push away the cocoa butter.

Of course, this is in reference to pure cacao, an ingredient in chocolate making, rather than to a finished product like that egg in the video. Still, it points to a mechanism by which the liquid in the sugar solution might interact with the chocolate in the egg that is neither melting nor dissolving the chocolate, but might make it look like the egg was melting or being dissolved.

I also found some discussion of sugar bloom on chocolate that's exposed to most conditions. The problem there is that the moisture is dissolving the sugar out of the chocolate; in your scenario, the sugar solution is already saturated and the change is taking place very rapidly. I would tend to give more weight to the explanation about the cellulose in the cocoa solids.


Why are oil bubbles when cooking bacon only around the bacon?

The bacon has some moisture, while cooking the water that gets out of the bacon reacts explosively with hot oil (as it quickly turns to steam) and causes the oil to bubble. Similarly other substances when cooked change phase quickly and turn to gas forming the bubbles and splashing.

See this for more detailed explanations.


Is it safe to eat sushi with different toppings (cooked and raw) after 24h?

What matters is time in the Danger Zone. If your sashimi heated up to room temperature it should certainly not be consumed: for instance E. Coli doubles in between 15 minutes and 1 hour in warm conditions. (Sushi on the same tray is likely to get cross contamination.) Chilling it later does not help: the bacteria have already grown.

A very cautious recommendation is that any food that has spent more than 2 hours above 4C should not be consumed. This is particularly important for raw fish and meat that will be contaminated with bacteria.


Shatter resistant tea carafe/pitcher/pot

Heat-resistant glass is called for, which will be much better suited to withstand the thermal shock of boiling water than regular glass.

I'd use a Pyrex measuring cup -- which are available in one quart (4 cup) sizes, my mother owns one. (I generally just stick with two 2 cups if I need that much liquid, but that won't work for your tea steeping process.) This may require hunting through a few stores (large places dedicated to kitchen goods generally have them) or buying online. I even found a 2 quart measuring cup on Amazon, which I've never seen in a store.

You could also get a second old coffee pot, which is similarly designed to cope with hot liquid, or do the steeping in your existing old coffee pot before diluting.


How should a washed rind cheese be stored in the refrigerator?

Your best bet is probably a specialty product intended to wrap chese—that is, cheese paper.

Cook's Illustrated tested and found that (for cheese in general), wrapping the cheese first in wax or parchment paper, then over-wrapped loosely with aluminum foil performs better than either alone, and almost as well as cheese paper.

They report that the wax paper-aluminum foil wrap kept brie and cheddar almost as good as new for over a month.

They also found that plastic (either bags or wrap) developed mold before any of the other methods.

(Unfortunately, unless you have a Cook's Illustrated online subscription, you won't be able to see that link.)


Making Fudge - temperature/humidity calculation?

I think you have it backwards. They weren't measuring humidity to calculate temperature. Rather, for home cooks, temperature is used to determine humidity.

In fudge making, the goal of cooking is simply to reduce the water in the sugar syrup to a specific concentration. Sugar syrups produce different hardness of candy at different concentrations.

When cooking other things- such as meat- the temperature is important because bad bugs are killed or meat proteins denatured at specific temperatures. Sugar, on the other hand, isn't changed at the temperatures used in candy making. Water is just boiling away. It's usually a bad thing when the temps get hot enough to start changing the sugar, ie caramelization.

Sugar syrups happen to boil at higher temperatures as they become more concentrated. Therefore the temperature can be used to determine the concentration. Temperature is much easier to measure than water concentration. Unfortunately, the boiling temperature of water changes dramatically depending on elevation. I moved from sea level to the mountains and the boiling point of water changed by 9 degrees F. That is a significant difference in candy concentration and I have to reduce the cooking time for my recipes.

In a commercial setting, it is worth the cost and effort to measure the syrup humidity directly. It's more foolproof. However, for home cooks, thermometers are cheap and easy to use. Therefore, most recipes are written in terms of temperature and not sugar concentration.


What does "combine dry ingredients through cloves" mean?

It means to combine the things listed up to and including the cloves, as in "combine ingredients 4 through 11". In that recipe it's just a helpful hint to tell you where the dry ingredients stop.

The recipe is already calling for ground cloves - it mixes them into dry ingredients as-is. When using whole cloves, if you don't immediately just grind them, you generally cook them in something liquid then strain them out later. (Similar to cinnamon sticks or whole allspice.) The cinnamon and nutmeg in the recipe are also ground, not whole. If a recipe wants whole cloves, it will explicitly say, and often count them: 10 [whole] cloves.


How can I start down the path of eating less meat?

Further to my comment:

If you think of all of your meat-centric meals to be something like 60% meat, 40% (vegetables, carb filler) then just adjust the proportions.

If you have 300g steak and 200g vegetables on the side, then start by changing to a 200g steak and 300g vegetables, and keep adjusting as necessary.

Pasta with meat and vegetables, just put a bit less meat in and a bit more vegetables in. I used to do 500g dry pasta, 1kg meat, 1kg vegetables, but now I simply do unchanged 500g of pasta, with 600-800g meat, 1.2-1.4kg vegetables.

Your recipes don't actually have to change, as long as you don't go completely off the reservation. Once you cut out meat completely, or have very little of it, you may find your food lacking in flavour, and it's then that you will have to do something else to add more flavour back in. As long as you still want to have some meat in your food, you can keep doing what you've been doing, just adjusting the ratio of meat to vegetables.

Good luck!


How to properly prepare a beef escalope (from the topside)?

Topside is quite a tough cut, so I'd tend towards a longer cooking time; as 'low and slow' as possible, really. With other meats, escalopes are usually made using leaner cuts, like chicken breast or pork tenderloin, which would be cooked relatively quickly, so I'm surprised your recipes call for topside.


What are the different effects that different washes produce in baked goods?

The best resource I've seen is here at The Fresh Loaf.

Egg yolk produces a shiny and dark look but remains soft.
Egg white is still soft but less shiny.
Milk and water only darken it slightly and produce what the article calls a 'satin' look.
Butter makes it shiny, smooth, rich, and well, buttery!


Do other ingredients in brines penetrate the meat?

Good Eats describes what happens in a brine very well

Essentially, the thing that penetrates the meat is water. Because water is a solvent it can carry things with it into the meat. Salt and sugar are the two most common ingredients in a brine. Salt is required and sugar dissolves really easily in water and adds complexity to the flavor profile. But you can add anything that will be carried by the water into the meat. If your brine isn't penetrating your meat past the surface you aren't doing it right.


Does reducing the clear juice from tomatoes have a name?

You've already given the name for this process in your question. Reduction is the cooking term used for thickening and intensifying the flavor of a food by simmering or boiling away some of the liquid.


Here is a source for organic kefir grains.


You question has a short answer to it.

Barbeque - What you do on a gas or charcoal grill

BBQ - shredded, pulled or sliced pork, lamb or beef seasoned with a hot pepper and vinegar , mustard based, tomato based or mayo based sauce.

For more on BBQ the BBQ song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ubTQfr_tyY


I'd place a tray in my sink a slowly run water through it, then sit the jelly on top of the tray, such that the bottom half of the jelly mould is under water. The constant, gentle, flow of cold water will cool the jelly quickly.


Turnip greens are a very common food in Southern US cooking. The smaller baby leaves are good for salads since they have a milder flavor and are more tender. Larger leaves are best cooked.

You'll definitely want to rinse them thoroughly in a sink full of cold water. They tend to have a lot of dirt and bugs on them. Just fill the sink and dump your greens in, jostling them around with your hand. This allows the sediment to sink to the bottom.

The typical southern preparation involves boiling them for 30 minutes, dumping the green water (and much of the bitterness), and then boiling another 15 minutes with some bacon or ham hocks. They are then drained, salted to taste, and served with either tabasco, vinegar (malt is good), or butter.


What would convert this chili recipe into a Russian chili?

I'm going to go ahead and phrase my comment in the form of an answer (just so there's something to accept or up/down moderate). My vote is for some form of beet. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea and think I'll try it myself when I get a chance. (I actually feel a little chagrin at claiming the idea since @SaUce mentioned borsch first. And who really owns an idea anyway. Well, except for Paul Allen and Nathan Myhrvold.)

Anywho, lots of chili recipes use a little chocolate or even coffee in small amounts to add an earthiness and complexity to chili. I think the beet could do the same. Personally, I wouldn't leave it in big chunks. If I was using fresh beets, I'd dice or even shred them possibly. Or, another alternative would be to use beet powder, which would contribute sweetness and some beet flavor while acting as a mild thickening agent at the same time.

This could even inspire a new Russo-Latin fusion cuisine movement.  Maybe I'll patent it after all. ;)


How should I clean my metal mesh tea strainer?

Good news: I finally got 'round to cleaning the strainer, and it's clean and works well again. Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions.

I ran it through the dishwasher (twice), with no benefit; still clogged.
Next, I put dishwasher detergent (not dish soap) and the strainer into a small cup. Then I added boiling water and let it sit overnight. The residue came off easily with a toothbrush. Bingo; clean and clear.

Works well now! Thanks to all.

Pictures follow!


How can I prepare freshwater fish without completely cooking it? Can I eat freshwater fish raw?

Other than catching it deep in the ocean, probably not.

The closer to land the fish is caught, the more likely it is to be carrying parasites. You can flash freeze fish to kill the parasites, but it is virtually impossible to achieve temperatures that low with noncommercial equipment.


Why do patterns appear on tempered chocolate?

What you're seeing is called chocolate bloom. It doesn't happen because of tempering, it happens in spite of it (or sometimes due to improper tempering).

Sugar bloom is pretty straightforward - it happens due to moisture exposure (e.g. condensation) causing dissolution and re-crystalizing of the sugar on top. You can easily check if you have sugar bloom by wetting your finger (just a bit!) and wiping the grainy/streaky surface. If it becomes smooth after doing so, then you got sugar bloom.

The other type, fat bloom, is more complicated, but ultimately it boils down to having different types of crystals (and specifically crystals that are not the beta crystals you want from tempering). It can happen for a lot of different reasons, but some of the most common ones are:

Not heating enough before tempering. You might have melted most of the original chocolate but not quite all of it.
Too much heat in the 3rd stage - if you melt some of the beta crystals, they can form larger crystals and push cocoa butter to the top when they re-crystallize. This happens to me every so often when I decide to make a way larger batch of chocolate-coated whatevers than I really have time for, start rushing near the end, and heat too much/too quickly in order to keep it melted.
Fat migration, due to incompatible fats on the surface of whatever you're coating (maybe nuts, or something with oil or butter) mixing with the melted chocolate. This is more likely to happen later in the process, after you've dipped and coated a whole bunch of them, so it's probably not what happened to you here. Also, it's more likely to happen when the coated items are at a very different temperature from the chocolate.
Cooling too fast during or after molding. I don't know the scientific explanation for this one, but it's pretty easy to demonstrate by throwing enrobed chocolate into the fridge right away - it almost always blooms. This can also happen in more subtle ways, e.g. if a nearby air conditioner happened to be running while you were working.

Unfortunately it's almost impossible to tell which specific problem occurred simply from looking at the end result. If it's any consolation, though, I don't think yours really turned out so badly compared to what can happen with bad tempering.


According to the American Dove Association:

  How many eggs do doves lay?
  Most doves lay two eggs; some species only lay one. Wild doves are notorious for infertile eggs.

  Why do foreign doves abandon their eggs or young?
  Abandoning eggs may be due to biting pests (lice, mites), noises that frighten brooding birds, or overcrowding and fighting. Frightened doves will abandon young, or if the nest is disturbed in any way, parents may refuse to care for the young.

There is a chance the egg was not fertilized, and there is also a chance the bird could have had pests (whether or not that affects the egg, I do not know).

Based on this info, if it was me, I'd steer clear.


When i marinate pork with spices and vinegar , can i also add the sauted onion paste overnight with it?

The separation of the processes is about the chemical reaction between the spices and the pork first. The onions add a different set of chemicals and oils that are unwanted during the marination process. So, no, the taste will probably be different as the onions will change texture overnight, and the addition of the chemicals and flavors from the onions will change the flavors that are absorbed into the meat.


How much dry ice should be used to keep this much dough frozen in a box of this size?

Everything inside the sealed box will reach an equilibrium temperature of -78.5C for as long as there is dry ice inside. You are still missing a few assumptions such as the conductivity of the box (typically 3.3x10-3 W/m/K) and the heat capacity of your dough (assumed to be same as ice).

Once everything has reached that temperature, just to overcome "cold losses", at 10C outside, you need between 1.8 and 2.3 kg for 3 days and between 2.9 and 3.7g for 5 days. At 21C, between 1.9 and 2.5 kg at 10C, 3.3 and 4.2 kg at 21C. You will need an additional amount to chill all the contents (air included) down from -18C to -78.5C, which comes to at least 2.2 kg.

All of this is based on a simplified model and is likely an underestimate.

One problem as @keshlam pointed out is the sublimated dry ice in a sealed container and the pressure build up. Also, between 18% and 28% of your box will be filled with dry ice. 10kg of dough as a single lump will take up another 5% of your cavity, before you consider packing efficiency of spheres. All that leaves you with not a lot of room for gas expansion.

Without any dry ice, if everything is chilled to -18C first, your sealed box should just about keep the dough balls frozen for 3 days at 10C outside.


Hot rock cooking - type of rock required

For hot rock cooking, you want four properties of the stone:

A smooth, non-porous surface.
This is almost (ok, at least a bit) like a non-stick surface and means you can clean it afterwards. Neither food nor detergent should "seep into" the stone.
High thermal mass.
You want to make sure that your stone is not significantly cooled down by your food as this would interrupt your cooking process and increase the likelihood of the food sticking to the stone.
Relatively resistant to temperature change.
During its use, a hot stone will be repeatedly heated up and cool down again. This can cause small cracks or unevennesses to widen and destroy the material.
Food safety.
The absence of toxic minerals that could leech into the food. Probably a pretty self-evident point.

I can not answer this for the volcanic rocks you can get your hands on, although some like pumice are obviously out. But I'm not a geologist. Note that a standard hot rock material would be granite. If your candidate fulfills the four criteria above, go for it.


Apples are best stored at 0° C (32° F) at 90% humidity.  If you don't have a cellar, you'll have to try to recreate that environment as best you can.

The closest you can come in most small apartments is actually a plastic bag with some holes poked in for ventilation (to prevent excess moisture from building up).  Then put that in the refrigerator to get close to the correct temperature; the best location is the vegetable crisper where you have control over the humidity.  Don't overpack them, though - about 80-90% full is the densest you should go.

Also be sure to pick only the best apples you can find if you plan to store them long-term.  Over-ripe apples will obviously not last as long, and any bruising or piercing will speed up the decay significantly.

Edit: If it's a large number of apples then you can store them in a crate, which provides adequate ventilation, but good luck getting that into the refrigerator.  I would still separate them into plastic bags, put whatever I could in the crisper, the rest in the fridge "proper", and put out any that I intend to consume within a week or two in a regular fruit bowl out in the open.  If that's still not enough, then you probably need to accept that small apartments aren't very well-suited to storing very large amounts of fresh food; just because they're easy to get, doesn't mean it makes economic sense.


Do tomatoes or tomato pastes damage stainless steel cookware?

I have stainless steal pots and pans and I have never had an issue storing food in them in the refrigerator. I make all kinds of stocks for soup and often store the stock in the pot overnight in the refrigerator to remove the fat layer the next day.


The term I wanted to find is: Cookie Icing Machine domestic

According to Joe's comment I managed to find information I didn't know how to look for ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AJYc3mPvRg


The BBC is a good source for classic british food; here is a classic buttermilk scone recipe here, and here is another made with milk. (I'd say buttermilk is the better way to make them.

The correct way to eat one is in a cream tea - a pot of tea, a scone with tea, strawberry or raspberry jam, and clotted cream, served around 3 in the afternoon. Nothing much better in life ;) (Also, I had no idea there was a Cream Tea Society until now.

As a Brit, I'm also a bit in the dark about US scones, but am I right in thinking it's a savoury thing -- I think the nearest British dish would be beef cobbler.


Quantity of rapid rise yeast vs regular yeast in bread machine

Google returned this link with the following conversion:

"...1 tsp Active Dry = 2/3 tsp Instant (100% Active Dry = 66% Instant)

1 tsp Instant = 1 1/2 tsp Active Dry (100% Instant = 150% Active Dry)

You can substitute one for the other in any recipe. Remember that active dry must be dissolved in a small amount of lukewarm water before you use it...."


What difference does it make if I substitute low-fat milk for water in bread recipes?

Off the top of my head, the added sugar from the milk may cause the yeast to over-leaven the bread.  The opposite is true when substituting water for milk, you may need to add sugar.

Edit: According to this site, Glutathione in the milk must be destroyed by heating it first, otherwise it tends to inhibit yeast.  Also, allegedly lactose doesn't contribute as much to the yeast activity as I thought, as it doesn't break down as fast as raw sugars.

Other sources seem to corroborate the fact that the bread is softer with milk.

Some others may be able to add more insight ...


How do I properly cut a bell pepper into strips?

For efficiency, I cut planks off of the outside of the pepper, then slice those planks into strips.

I've seen cooking shows where they take the top & bottom off to make a tube, and then slice it on one side, and slice that up ... and you do end up with straighter sticks that way.  (no curved ends, other then when you cut up the bottom ... and maybe slice what you can off the top) ... but I find it slower overall.

The way I learned growing up was to but around the green bit on the stem end, and then pull the seeds out, and then start cutting -- but you waste way too much time dealing with the seeds that way.

update: for safety, it's better to cut the planks individually, and with the skin down.


How do I keep fruit from sinking to the bottom of my cake?

Dust the fruit with a little flour before adding to the cake. It will act like a glue and prevent the fruit from sinking.


How to make lemon powder using lemon juice like milk powder?

The problem is that you likely cannot afford it. It is done by vacuum, so the machine (rotovap) will cost you about 10 000 dollars, or you can find a few Chinese noname suppliers for maybe 6 000.

It is an amazing thing to play with in the kitchen, but it will cover the cost of buying supermarket lemons for several lifetimes.

Any conventional ways of conserving the lemons will result in something entirely different. Certainly not lemon powder which can be rehydrated to something lemon-juice like. But there are other techniques for preserving lemons, which simply create a different end product with different uses. You could ferment them, or make jam, or preserve the peel only, etc. This is the more feasible way to deal with them.


How to cook common bean in mess tin in campfire during hikers camp ? Possible?

Assuming you have access to a food dehydrator or an oven that can be trusted at a low setting, you would be better off pre-cooking and then drying the cooked beans.    When you get to camp, just add boiling water and wait 15 minutes, and they'll be done.

This would save you the fuel cost of the long cook-time that most beans require, and allow you to season them in ways that would be difficult or impossible on the trail.


How to reduce a sauce at the bottom of a baking dish?

WOW...this is a published recipe?? Are Pyrex casserole dishes safe for use on electric stovetops?  It is very dangerous to put most bakeware on most stoves. Your best option would be to either originally bake in a stove-safe implement, or to transfer from a casserole to a saucepan at that point.

Only, only use cookware labeled as safe for a stove (usually only metal) on a stove! Period! To do otherwise as asking for potentially deadly shrapnel. I am not kidding!


Is it possible to use Coffee Mill for other grain?

That's a nice picture of a spinning blade type spice grinder you have there. The good ones will even do whole nutmegs. You can also use it to make limited quantities of powdered sugar, oat flour, wheat flour, buckwheat flour etc. About any non-oily seed may be turned into a powder with that grinder.
Trying to make peanut butter is a mistake. It goos up the blades something awful.


How do you test a cake or brownie with a toothpick?

The center of the pan is usually the last part to cook.  So, test the center.


Is this video showing an exception of the common wisdom that you shouldn't cook with EVOO?

You can cook with olive oil, but there's not many reasons to actually do it (see the comments). What is more important than what oil you use, is that the oil is fresh. Some fresh oils you can heat to 450–475 F/230–250 C, but when it starts getting rancid (and oil does very quickly), you will reach the smoke point at around 350 F/175 C.

Harold McGee explains (Youtube).

Oil heated to its smoke point.

What you should consider is price. Olive oil has a subtle flavour and it will mellow out when you're cooking with it and all oils will eventually taste the same after heating.

Bonus tip: I don't remember if it's in the linked video clip McGee talks about this, but to keep oils fresh longer, he suggest wrapping them in tin foil to reflect the light. (And of course keeping them cool, but not in the fridge.)


You can use the rule of thumb method to measure the "doneness" of the steak:

You loosely touch one of your fingers with your thumb depending on how well done you want it, and the tension of the muscle of your hand below the thumb will be the same as how the meat should feel when you press it.


Making fruit syrup less viscous while retaining flavor

To thin your syrup, add more water to your syrup; it will become thinner without reducing sweetness that much.  Then add a touch of artificial sweetener to restore any lost sweetness.

To strain your syrup, you can use multiple layers of cheesecloth, a fine chinois, or a coffee filter in the bottom of a strainer or small colander.  Use a spatula, spoon, or ladle to help press the syrup through the filter. Using heated syrup will allow it to flow more readily through the filter, while still removing particles.


The slow cooking give confit meat its texture and the storage time allows further reactions and dissolutions to take place.  The traditional reason solid fats have been used for a confit is for preservation: once the fat cools it "seals" the meat. Today we can refrigerate, so many restaurants now make their confit with liquid oils.

Myhrvold has demonstrated that he can reproduce the duck confit by using a steam and air mixture to cook the duck leg and then flavor its surface with oil.

There are several processes competing when we heat meat to cook it:

The collagen needs to melt and gelatinize.  There are different types of collagen, each denaturing in different temperature ranges.  As the meat is heated, collagen starts to shrink at about 40°C/ 104°F and by 80°C/176°F all of it is gelatinized.  Different animals have different types of collagens and the right temperature could be anything between 60°C/140°F and 80°.
The elastin, which exists in smaller quantities than collagen, will shrink with temperature and make the meat tougher.
As the many molecules contract, they squeeze water from the meat, making it feel tougher.

So if you are going to develop a recipe, you will have to experiment.  As a guide, the more collagen, the higher temperatures you will need.  The amount of collagen goes up with the age of the animal and how much weight (stress) the muscle needs to support.

The reason confits are made by immersing the meat in oil may be that the oil makes it harder for the meat to loose its water, but I speculate.

Cooking for Geeks is one of the few places I found discussing the science of confit. Maybe Myhrvold's slim tome will have a section on it.


How do I substitute stevia for sorbitol?

According to stevia.net one tablespoon of stevia (in powder or liquid form) is the 'equivalent' of one cup of sugar.

Similarly, lowcarbdiets.about.com tells us that sorbitol is 60% of the 'sweetness' of sugar.

Using sugar as a common denominator, 1/2 cup of sorbitol = .83 cup of sugar and so you should use ~.83 Tablespoons of stevia to gain the relative sweetness.

  1 cup of sorbitol = 1.66 cups of sugar 'sweetness', so .83 cups of
  sugar would be 'as sweet' as 1/2 cup sorbitol

That calculated, I would mix 1 tablespoon of stevia with 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce and then use 3/4 of a cup + 1 tablespoons of the mixture, and then adjust from there.

  1 cup = 16 tablespoons, .83 cup = 13.3 tablespoons

Conversions like this are admittedly 'imprecise' but this should give you a good approximation to start from...your mileage may vary.


Wine will eventually turn into vinegar.  So, other than having a really icky taste by itself (unless you like drinking vinegar :)), it isn't bad for your health and you can cook with it.


Does the location of where an octopus was imported from determine the flavor/quality of the meat?

actually seafood's country origin does make a very relevant difference. Why? ocean floor type, water tempearture, tradewinds, upwelling and feed availability. Best octopus comes from Spain and Portugal (actually portuguese octopus is the best) Viet, China,  Indonesia or Mexican octopus live in hot water. Portuguese coast has a very mild water temp, from 10 C to 20 C and a lot of sun exposure that triggers phytoplankton blooms. I could expand on this as I am a professional fisherman. Now, any country can import any seafood from anywhere and then label it as "theirs" so one must know which species are native to a certain location. Sustainability is also very imnportant  and both Portugal and Spain are EU members where sustainability is a very serious matter.


Is it okay to wash a plate at a later point?

That quote sounds like they're assuming you fill the sink with water and leave dirty dishes sitting in the water. That seems gross. And of course you should wash your hands after doing the dishes, regardless of whether you washed your dishes immediately or let them soak first.
I frequently leave dishes to soak and wash them later, but I don't fill the sink. Just fill the dish with water and let it sit in the sink. When you come back to wash it, dump out the soaking water, and wash as normal with soap and hot water.
Some dishes work best if you rinse them right away, then let them soak after rinsing. Oats tend to dry on rock-hard, so be sure to wipe off any smears that are above the water level before leaving it to soak.


pork went over internal temperature, can I make it tender by putting the oven in a lower temperature for a couple of hours?

Your pork will not become tender for quite a while. If you plan to shred it, you'll want to aim for about 205 degrees F / 96 degrees C.

You don't have to go that high if your goal is to slice.

Either way, a cut like pork shoulder is best cooked low and slow to allow all of the marbled fat to break down. It's an incredibly resilient cut of meat, but it requires patience.

While it is technically "done" as in safe to eat, it's not reached its culinary potential.


Yeast eats sugar and makes alcohol,
Acetobacters eat alcohol and make acetic acid which is vinegar.

Both alcohol and acetic acid inhibit other microbes. Once your solution is alcoholic or acidic enough there is no risk of mold.

However- this recipe does not include any yeast or acetobacters, it relies on getting the necessary microbes from the air and the surface of the pineapple. During that initial period there will be a risk of some other microbe taking over and spoiling the batch.

Personally I would take out a little insurance and include a pinch of yeast in the initial mix.

If you have an old bottle of undistilled vinegar around you might have a colony of acetobacters (called a "mother") growing in it already. This wouldn't be necessary to prevent spoilage but would speed up your vinegar production greatly. You would add a piece of the mother after most of the sugar had been converted to alcohol. After your first batch you could use the mother in future batches.

This sounds like an awesome experiment and I'm going to have to try making some as well.


Why is DIY yogurt not as stable as sourdough starter?

First, we are talking about different microorganisms when comparing sourdough to yogurt. Generally, a sourdough starter is populated by numerous strains of yeast and bacteria, while store bought yogurt contains a small number of isolated strains of bacteria.  However, there is no reason that you can't maintain a yogurt culture that lives on. According to the linked article, the isolated strains in store bought yogurt are generally only viable for a couple of generations.  You might look into heirloom starter cultures, as they suggest. That way you can develop a yogurt starter that is as viable as your sourdough starter.


This is a modern day version of a Foley Fork. Authentic ones are very rare and collectible. My Aunt swore she could not make her (Best in the world) yeast rolls without her Foley Fork for the dough.


Is cooked fish as perishable as raw fish?

Play it safe.
It has been said:

You probably will be ok, but the safer method is just to cook it the night before and refrigerate it. Toss the whole thing in an insulated lunch container, and you should have no problems. Even if the temperature creeps up into the danger zone, it shouldn't be there more than an hour or two before lunch time, and should still be cool enough not to cause an issue. –  JSM Aug 21 at 17:44

I happen to disagree with this advice, personally. While it may be OK, is this something worth trying to find out?
Here is an excerpt from an FDA research paper about pathogenic bacteria in food handling

Growth rates of pathogens are highly temperature dependent. Ordinarily, pathogenic bacteria growth is relatively slow at temperatures below 70°F (21.1°C). In most cases, growth is very slow below 50°F (10°C), and 40°F (4.4°C) is below the minimum growth temperature of most pathogenic bacteria, although there are some exceptions. On the other hand, pathogenic bacteria grow relatively fast at temperatures above 70°F (21.1°C).

Think of a real-world example, say a soda can. You get the can out of the machine at a temperature around 35°F-40°C, which is refrigeration temperature. You set it naked (i.e., no "can cushy") on a table and just leave it there. Within 1-1.5 hours or so, it will be very close to room temperature, which on average is about 70°F to 73°F. That's when your fish will begin growing bacteria more rapidly, which it would continue to do until you are ready to eat it.
TL;DR
At the very least put and ice pack or other method of absorbing heat inside your lunchbox. Always play it safe when it comes to pathogens.


I've come across two great, and very different, types of steak. The first is typical in Argentina and is not aged at all, but from a young calf (6-10 months old), free ranging and grass fed (hence not like classic veal). This is really juicy, tender, and with a very "bright" taste. Good high-end Argentine restaurants usually serve meat like this, and in the UK you can order it from pampasplains.com, which I think is great.

The second is from an older cow and dry aged to tenderize, but the aging also gives it a deeper, more bone marrow-like flavour. The best I've had of this type was a cow from Limousin in France, served in Paris at a small restaurant called Le Sèvero (8 rue des Plantes, 14th Arrondissment, reviewed in the NY Times a while ago). It was amazing! In London, 32 Great Queen St's "Hereford beef" is a similar style and also excellent. They get it from a Hereford farmer called Tom Jones (seriously), who serves several restaurants.

Good steak should never be marinated in anything - all it needs before cooking is salt, maybe pepper if you like (though I sometimes eat it with Coleman's English mustard).

I'm fairly sure that grass-only feed is important to good meat, i.e. no cereal-based fattening-up, though it's hard to separately test this one variable. Breed also clearly matters (all Argentine beef seems to be Aberdeen Angus or Hereford). I love a nicely marbled, fatty steak like the ribeye, but my (Argentine) wife prefers leaner cuts like sirloin and filet - clearly a matter of taste.


Why does oil bubble when you fry things?

The oil is bubbling very simply because of the water inside the object (eg: potato) that is rapidly vaporized when come into contact with the very hot oil.

Incidently this is a very good thing as done right, all the water coming out of the object keeps it from taking on too much oil, which would cause you to have over-greasy food.

Edit: Also note as @SF commented below, that this can also be a very BAD thing if you put something with too much water into hot oil. Adding this in so nobody burns themselves.


Should I marinade brisket for smoking overnight, or only do a dry rub?

Marination is a surface treatment.  So, you are not getting any added benefit by marinating over night.  The only thing that generally penetrates is salt, which might happen, depending on the quantity of soy sauce you are using. So...probably doesn't matter too much.
If you want to "get into smoking brisket", I would recommend a traditional approach.  Brisket is challenging enough as it is.  Master the traditional approach, then deviate if you want to mix things up.


How much tea is ideal out of one tea bag?

This completely depends on the quality of the tea and flavor you're going for. It is common practice (especially in China) to make 2-3 or more cups/pots of tea from good quality loose leaf green tea. The flavor will change after each steeping, becoming lighter and milder, but also just different in certain ways. You can do the same thing with any lower quality tea, you just have to decide  if you like the flavor of the second, third, etc. steepings. If not, don't do it.


Adding a smoky flavour without adding spiciness

Depending on what food you are trying to imbue with a smoky flavour, you have multiple options. I here focus on methods that will just give you a smoke flavour, rather than smoked ingredients.

Actually smoking the food seems an obvious suggestion. The internet will suggest any number of ways to set up a smoker at home, although you might not want to go through the effort or have to deal with the smoke.
Cold smoking is often done with cured meats and fish. As the name suggests, this is smoking (actual smoke from actual fire), but without the heat, often accomplished by creating some distance between the fire and the food, and having the smoke travel from the former to the latter. This guide seems quite comprehensive, including some ideas for a home setup. Cold smoking has similar drawbacks to hot smoking.
Some companies make 'smoke guns' such as this one by Breville/Sage, that accomplish the idea of a cold smoker on a much smaller scale. Thus, no need for elaborate setups, nor the risk of smoking up your whole house.
Finally, you can look for ingredients or additives that give you a smoky flavour. Liquid smoke is reasonably common. I have also seen powdered versions of this.


It's adequate to clean egg shell to cook with it?

Basic food safety dictates that you always start with a clean product, no matter what you are using or how you are cooking it.  For your eggs, simply rinse with clean water, or place in a bowl of water.  A soft cloth or gentle brush could be used to remove dirt.


How to remove the bitter taste from green bell pepper?

Green peppers are green because they are unripe.  Unripe fruits and vegetables are naturally more bitter and less sweet than ripe ones.  By far the easiest/laziest path is to just use a red pepper.  It's essentially the same food, just ripe.

Sugar won't really do anything to the bitterness other than mask it. Salt will.  Khymos has written that in parts of Asia, unripe fruit is commonly eaten with salt, salty spices, or soy sauce.  These are all excellent options for peppers, as they reduce the bitterness and enhance the taste.

Finally, cook at low heat if possible.  Pan-fried peppers tend to be a fair shake bitterer than slow-grilled or oven-roasted peppers.

(P.S. Removing the skin obviously works as well - I personally prefer them unskinned, but if you want to skin them, have a look at this Chow video on it - it's simple to do, you just char the outside and shake it in a plastic bag.)

Also, the interior white part and skin (not the big obvious part, but the sort of interior skin of it) are rather bitter also. Remove it be sliding your knife carefully and parallel to your cutting board slowly and shallowly.


Protein in cooked vs. raw chicken breast filet

Proteins are complex chemical forms so it depends.  Let me elaborate by giving 2 extreme examples:

If you boil an egg, the proteins unfold, hook into one another and therefore a liquid becomes a solid that doesn't melt again when you cool it down and there is no protein loss whatsoever.
if you burn a piece of chicken breast fillet to a crisp on a barbecue overnight, a lot of protein mass will be lost.

In your particular case, I see the following possibilities:

there is an error in the label of one of the products and they probably did not send off their product for actual testing, but took their ingredient list from a database.
the cooked chicken is encased in a batter and the end product just happens to have the  same protein content as the uncooked chicken.

You should contact a local consumer protection program and have them send off both products for actual testing as these kinds of tests are quite expensive.

As your labels are German, I advise: https://www.test.de


Welcome! I think you are pretty much on track with your ideas. However, I would choose to braise with stock rather than "roast".

I would recommend seasoning to your liking and then brush with a light olive oil. Sear on the stove top in the same pan you are going to put in the oven.
(Enameled cast iron works well for this, if you have it.)

When browned, add stock to come up 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up the legs. (I use veal or beef.) Cover and place in pre-heated oven. I think the time and temp you planned on using (250°F for approx 90 mins) should work okay, although I usually go a little higher, around 300°F.

I would recommend checking the legs after an hour in the oven. Then check every 20 minutes or so until they reach your desired doneness. This method should give you falling-off-the-bone, melt-in-your-mouth-tender baby lamb.


How to get crispy vegetables chips/fries without frying?

There are lots of recipes for oven-"fried" sweet potato chips (crisps) and fries (chips) and I'll let you search that part. I've noticed a wide variation in recommended oven temperatures, from as low as 350 to as high as 450. Though I've never had great success with crispiness, my overall best results were with a temp of 425.

Crispiness with sweet potatoes is notoriously difficult due to the high water and sugar content (which will caramelize and make them appear and to some extent taste burnt, usually long before they crisp up). There's some discussion of this on Chowhound.

Key points seem to be:

remove as much surface moisture as possible prior to cooking
avoid overcrowding the pans, especially when cooking thicker cuts
use a convection oven if possible

If you have success please report back and tell us what worked!


Can white wine vinegar be used instead of white vinegar?

Generally, vinegars that aren't central to the application (e.g. Balsamic Vinegar in in a Balsamic Reduction) are interchangeable within the same acidity level. Every kind of vinegar has a different distinct flavor and color, so any substitutions will affect the final dish, but not necessarily negatively. Distilled (regular white) vinegar ranges from 5-8% acidity, is colorless and pretty flavorless. Since white wine vinegar has very little color and is mildly flavored, and your vinegar is 5% acidity, it should be a fine substitution.


One thing you could do is reduce the amount of lemon juice, and add some lemon zest. This will give you much of the lemon aroma without so much acidity. Try adding some zest to the cooking and then grate a little more on the finished plates, just before serving. Use a microplane.


Sure you can broil, however consider this:  Sous vide cooking does not render any of the fat.  So a quick broil might char the outside of the skin, but the fat could remain more rubbery. Some of this will depend on the nature of your chicken thighs.  I've noticed that, depending on the chicken (organic v. non...brand to brand), some chicken is more fatty than others.  One way to deal with this would be to do a good pre-sear, before you sous vide.  Then cook sous vide.  Then post-sear (or broil).


How long should it take to bbq half a chicken?

Way too many variables. If you knew how warm the chicken was before cooking, how hot the cooking area is (and whether that will change during the cooking time), how thick the chicken is, whether you're cooking white or dark meat, and more, you might be able to make a good guess.

I would not recommend cooking just thawed, thick pieces of chicken on an uncovered grill. Too easy to make it hard on the outside and dry on the inside.

I wouldn't estimate lower than 20 minutes, but it will almost certainly be longer.

Edit: Here's a "Good Eats" video about doing chicken on a grill. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAvy4YksJgM&feature=related It's better to go ahead and cut the chicken up the rest of the way for grilling so that each type and size of meat can be on it's own cooking schedule.


Sanitization, disinfection, sterilization of Dishwasher?

I have never heard of bleach harming stainless steel in any way. However, you may want to clean it with bleach and then run the cycle with nothing or with white vinegar afterward to rinse the bleach off. I would not run the dry cycle after either of these cycles, of course.


What could I use for this Yakisoba dish instead of cabbage?

From a purist perspective, cabbage is fairly important to the recognizability of the dish by that name (as well as the pickled matchstick-cut ginger). Additional ingredients beyond those two are far more substitutable (at least from common Japanese perspective); the cabbage actually contributes a fair amount of flavor to an otherwise unremarkable dish. In fact, the presence of a mere two leaves suggests to me this is a pretty small portion.

So here's a "how to avoid substituting" answer, followed by a how to substitute answer.

Cabbage tends to survive a good 2 weeks in the refrigerator, so I wouldn't fret about it too much. It also makes a good garnish, shredded; additionally, it was super trendy for a few years for izakaya in Japan to serve raw cabbage with miso paste (sometimes sweetened). I know many shops that will even sell a half a head (in Japan it's easy to buy even a quarter head of cabbage), or you may find a small package of pre-chopped, unseasoned coleslaw mix, which typically contains cabbage and carrots. Finally, cabbage makes an excellent foundation for a vegetarian soup stock, so it's great way of making sure any surplus doesn't go to waste.

The only substitutes somewhat consistent with the style of the dish are other variations of cabbage (bok choy, napa cabbage, possibly kimchi) or certain crispy roots like kohlrabi. But frankly, those steer the dish into a non-Japanese style of pan-fried noodles. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the texture and flavor differences are fairly pronounced. In a pinch, we've made these substitutions in my home, but in that case it was more about using up available ingredients, rather than trying to find an alternative.


Is there a trick to getting spices to fix to raw almonds?

That's the trick to getting spices to adhere to nuts. If you are worried about the messiness perhaps your method can be improved. Put your nuts into a tossing bowl and slowly drizzle the oil over them. If tossing is a technique you are skilled with you can do that, but I'm guessing it's not, in which case you can stir with a spoon. It won't take much oil, maybe two tablespoons per pound. Maybe less. Then toss nuts again while sprinkling with cayenne. Or spread on a tray and sprinkle with cayenne there.

Lastly, if you are still struggling with the oily mess. Try enclosing in a sealable container and shaking. The oil will distribute and the mess will be contained.


A lot of sourdough recipes don't call for a sponge, per se, because the starter essentially already is a sponge. The purpose of a sponge in a bread with normal yeast is to allow a longer fermentation time and extra time for enzymatic reactions to happen in the flour before adding it to the final batch. This isn't necessary with sourdough the starter is continuously fermenting and reacting.

And your guess is about right, if the proportion of starter you add is too high, the waste products and dead yeast cells in it can cause changes in the gluten that make it very slack and unusable.


Do I need to boil flax seed egg substitute?

Heating the water will speed up absorption. The question is by how much and if it’s worth the extra time?
I have made many recipes with flax as an egg substitute. I don’t ever recall boiling the water. I can’t think of any of them that didn’t turn out as intended.
Do you have any links for the recipes that recommend this?


If you add all the liquids and a big solid lump of peanut butter, you'll have a tough time getting it all smooth, as stirring the (thin) liquid parts won't affect the (solid) peanut butter lumps, and the lumps (once they're small enough) will just swim around your spoon and not break down further.

You need to gradually dilute the peanut butter with the other hot liquids, stirring each time until the mixture is smooth. That way at each stage the liquids won't be vastly thinner than the peanut butter, so stirring will properly mix the two. Once the peanut butter mixture is thinned to the consistency of, say, mayonnaise, you'll be able to add the rest of the liquids.

It's the same principle when making gravy from flour, fat and broth. If you add all the broth at once to the roux, you'll end up with lumpy gravy. But, if you add a bit of broth at a time, stirring until smooth each time, you'll never have lumps.

To fix your problem in hindsight, try running it all through a coarse sieve, or use a potato masher on it.


Do you need a pressure cooker to can home-made salsa?

You cannot preserve just any salsa recipe (unless you're just freezing it).

Tomatoes are on the border between acidic and non-acidic foods. What this means is that they can be water-bath canned if they are sufficiently high in acid; but, if they are low in acid, they need to be pressure canned.

If you want to be sure to avoid trouble, follow a tested recipe. Salsa recipes will have a careful balance of low and high acid ingredients. Do not alter the proportion of acids (tomatoes and vinegar or lime/lemon juice) and low-acids (other vegetables, peppers, etc).

The recipe you choose should specify if it requires pressure canning or water-bath canning. One of those two methods must be used, though... you can't just put it in jars and save it.

For tested recipes, see the Ball Blue Book, the Ball website, or the National Center for Home Food Preservation.


Frying fish without it falling to shambles

Fish is just so darned delicate and has so much protein. It sticks to everything and falls apart.

If I want my fish filet to stay whole I will do one of the following:

1- Use a higher fat fish that will hold together such as salmon or tuna
 2- Poach the fish instead of frying
 3- Use a teflon pan and don't try and get up to searing temps. I only use teflon pans for eggs and fish.

I suppose another alternative is to use enough oil that you are essentially deep frying the fish but I don't like it.


The recipe looks fine. I suspect that you are incorporating too much air into the batter when you are mixing. Try:

Mixing less - shorter time/slower speed and/or use a regular beater rather than a whisk
pouring the batter then giving the tin a good hard tap down on the bench - this will make large bubbles rise to the top and come out of the batter.


How to perfectly separate hemp hearts from hemp seeds

Dry? If so, rolling down an inclined plane, such as a big handheld cutting board into a washing tub should work. The rounder seeds will roll, while the husks remain stuck. Pour in a thin steady stream. Broken seeds will likely still roll, as they've still got bounce to them, while the hulls do not.

Wet? Stirred flotation is likely your best option. Hulls have a larger surface area to mass ratio, so you can stir them right over the sides of a pot with water running into it.

Neither method will give you 100%. To approach that, you need to repeat the process.


The issue with quinoa being soaked and rinsed is not a safety concern.  It is more a matter of flavor.

It is not dangerous.  Some people just find un-rinsed qinoa to be bitter.

In fact, for the most part, that bitter flavor is the majority of the interaction these saponins have with the body.

This article goes into some more detail:
Questionable Quinoa: Perfect Plant Protein or Poison?


What am I doing wrong that is making my dishes spicier when served as leftovers. Am I not simmering long enough?

"Capsaicin is soluble in alcohol, but very little in water. Because of the burning sensation caused by capsaicin when it comes in contact with mucous membranes, it is commonly used in food products to give them added spice or "heat" (piquancy)."

Time was your magic ingredient. More capsaicin became soluble. I find rich dishes have no surprise punch reheated:

"Food that's high in oil or fat dissolves the capsaicin, so it can't continue to bind heat receptors. ... Full fat sour cream or ice cream."


Looking for a specific type of pasta to go with pesto

Trofie.

Pesto originated from Liguria (the region). If you google liguria pesto potato you get recipe's like this Martha Stewart.  Though I'm by no means endorsing her recipe.

The pasta itself is durum wheat flower, the dish you describe is from Genova (in Liguria) and has potato in it.


How to reduce the moisture when making tarte tatin

The reason, I think, that most recipes don't leave a thick caramel and it all goes 'runny' is that it's designed to go into a sort of caramel-y sauce when turned out.

Since in most conventional recipes you par-cook the fruit in the caramel then top with the pastry and bake, the fruit releases a lot of moisture into the caramel and making it runnier. Therefore, if you cook the apples separately (boiling them, say) then drain, add to the caramel and cover with pastry and bake, much less juice should leak out of them.

I would keep the caramel recipe the same as in the recipe but just follow the steps above. I don't think the type of sugar will make any difference other then flavor (although soft brown sugars do have more moisture in them).

Also, since everything except the pastry is cooked, try baking the pastry conventionally (in the oven) then grill it for a few minutes to increase the heat on the pastry directly to avoid it becoming soggy.


What is the criss-cross pattern on top of peanut butter cookies used for?

Peanut butter cookies don't spread as they cook, so you have to flatten them before hand. This ensures that the middle will cook through before the outside burns.

As for the pattern created, it actually creates slightly more surface area, so you'll get more browning at the extra edges that you create. Think of it like a meringue, or the top of a shepherd's pie -- if it's too smooth, you won't get the little bits of browned crispy bits that you'd get if you rough up the surface.


Whats a good light or fat free substitution for sour cream?

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking - whether you want brands of sour cream whose reduced-fat version is as tasty as the full-fat version, or if you want to substitute something else in place of sour cream.

For the latter, it depends somewhat on what you're using it for. I find that in a lot of dips, substituting plain lowfat or fat-free yogurt works fine. It might result in a thinner consistency than if you use sour cream, but it generally works.

If you're looking for a substitute that has the consistency of sour cream, try lowfat or fat-free Greek yogurt. It's thicker than regular yogurt and much closer to sour cream's consistency. I sometimes do this is with dips or when baking (Greek yogurt works very well as a substitute for sour cream in sour cream coffee cakes, for example).

Substitutes typically work well when the sour cream flavor isn't all that important anyway. In this case, you could use the light or fat-free versions of sour cream and probably not notice much of a flavor difference.

If you're looking to replace sour cream as a condiment, however (on tacos, burritos, or as a topping for soup), you'll definitely notice a different taste if you use regular or Greek yogurt. For many things, a yogurt substitution still works; it just tastes different.

As far as brands of lowfat or fat-free sour cream that taste as good as the full-fat versions, that's an extremely subjective question and would probably be limited based on your locations. As such, it's not a very good fit for this site.


If your oven is working correctly, it sounds like the potatoes are the culprit.  Try finding another store/source for your potatoes.  Also consider how you are storing your potatoes. Are they in a particularly humid environment?


Does it only do it under higher load? Mine clicks a little bit when kneading dough, and I determined that it was actually the bowl moving a bit. I have a lift-bowl model, but it could be either that or the hinge on a tilt model.

If it is under load, try pushing on the bowl to eliminate movement. If it happens even when empty, this isn't it.


What is the purpose of nutmeg in apple zucchini bread?

Of course the apple zucchini bread will taste different with nutmeg as opposed to without. As the nutmeg is added solely to add nutmeg flavor, the bread will otherwise be fine.

It just comes down to your personal taste as to whether you choose to use it or not.


Can Apple Butter be substituted for Apple Sauce in baking?

You start with apples, cook them a bit and you have apple sauce.  Cook that sauce very slowly but for a long time and you get apple butter.

While I think the substitution would generally work, it most likely will be  sweeter. Sweeter because there's less water in apple butter vs. apple sauce thus concentrating the sugars.  Also the brown to dark brown color of apple butter is caramelization of the apple sugar.  That caramelization has to change the taste of your muffins.

Give it a try and see what happens.  Then make another batch with less sugar and see how they turn out.  If your recipe uses brown sugar try changing some or all for white sugar using the apple butter as a kind of substitute.  I suspect somewhere in those tests you'll find a batch that's great!


recipe say's to sponge on 2 cups warm milk and 1 cup warm water, what does this mean?

"A technique of mixing dough in a two stage process to produce more
  flavorful loaves. The first stage involves mixing a small amount of
  water, flour and yeast together first and giving it some time to
  ferment. The sponge is then mixed in with the rest of the ingredient.

  Loaves produced this way requires shorter fermentation time, allow for
  more flexibility in timing (the sponge can be held in the fridge for
  longer time), develops a better flavor and requires less yeast."

(http://www.foodista.com/technique/CRDDPSTF/sponge-method#)

Also:

  A sponge ferment is usually a sticky process that uses part of the
  flour, part or all of the water, and part or all of the yeast of a
  total- or straight-dough formula. Highly liquid sponges of batter
  consistencies are mixed with a whip, spoon, or fork. Lower hydration,
  stiffer sponges are lightly mixed or kneaded just until the dough
  begins to develop. The sponge is allowed to rest and ferment for a
  period of time in an environment of a desired temperature and
  humidity. When the sponge's fermentation time has elapsed or it has
  reached a desired volumetric growth characteristic, the final dough's
  ingredients are added.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponge_and_dough)


From my limited (but successful) experience, here are some answers to your subjective questions:

Choose peppers whose flavor you do want
Avoid peppers whose flavor you do not like (I'd never infuse green bell pepper, blech!)
Choose a vodka you'd want to drink (if you like cheap vodka, use it, if you like expensive vodka, use that)

As far as the mechanics of making the infused vodka:

Chop the peppers up coarsely, drop into a glass jar with the vodka, taste every 12 hours until you get the flavor/heat you want, then strain the vodka.
The longer you infuse, the stronger/spicier the result.
If you're going more for flavor (less for heat) remove the seeds and pith
The proof of the vodka (80-100) will have little difference in the end result as far as the infused flavor goes.  Everclear (190+ proof) will probably extract flavors faster, but do you want to drink it????

If, on the other hand, you are really just wanting to get the spiciest drink available, then don't bother infusing vodka, just google how to get/make capsaicin concentrate and use that directly.  Then add directly to the drink of your choice.

I've not tried dried chilies, but I imagine a Chipotle infused vodka would make an awesome Bloody Mary.


Imported Italian canned tomatoes vs. American tomatoes

Unfortunately, it's a known problem.  Much of the produce in the US has been bred for profit: size, color, amount produced per acre, and ability to survive handling (mechanized pickers, shipping long distances, etc).

It's that last one that tends to be the problem with tenderness -- a tomato that's tender when ripe will get squished when it's being picked in the field and transported to the canning facility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhu21aNUlxQ

(summary of the video : vines are cut and stripped, then tomatoes are flung into a large container where tons are collected at once, then they're washed, sorted, stripped of their skins, and possibly diced or crushed, sorted again, then canned and sterilized)

Now, canned tomatoes are better than the ones you get in the grocery store -- they don't have to be shipped cross-country (or even from South America), they only have to make it from the fields to the canning plant ... which are typically built in areas where there's lots of tomato production.  But they're still shipped in large containers, so the bottom ones need to be able to survive the weight of the ones above them, and they need to be sturdy enough to survive the dicing process.

And so there's one other trick that North American companies do -- they'll often add calcium chloride to the tomatoes to keep them firm.  But this also makes it more difficult for them to break down when cooking.

Cook's Illustrated did a review of canned diced tomatoes years ago, and they mention that different brands use different varieties of tomatoes ... but you'd have to get a subscription to see what they preferred.  They also mention different levels of citric acid used, and acidity can slow the breakdown of some vegetables (onion, potatoes, etc.).

Your best bet is to get tomatoes from a local, small farm but then you'll have to peel them yourself.  If you're making sauce, you can ask them for 'seconds' which might not be as pretty or blemish-free like the ones they put out at farmer's markets.

If it's not the right season and you need to used canned, check out the labels and look for one that doesn't mention calcium chloride.


Are hardware store themocouples food safe?

You are correct to be concerned.

In all likelihood, the hardware store thermocouple is not suitable for food use as it would contain metals you don't want to ingest. Here is a table of industrial grade thermocouple materials, note presence of some undesirable metals:

Source.

You would want a thermocouple specifically made for food use. Example. I found that one by searching NSF thermocouple, a cautious approach since NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) certification entails high standards. But most thermocouple advertised for food should suffice, such as this $16 one.


Nonstick Pans: Purpose, Cleaning and Heating

Well nonstick pans were created so that the likelihood of food sticking to the surface of the pan is reduced and the idea that they were designed to be used without oil is not true. You certainly can use it with oil.

Secondly, cleaning oily residue from the pan can be done as mentioned here. It is suggesting to do the following:

Fill the pan with water
Pour in half cup of vinegar
Bring the mixture to a boil
Allowing the oily residue to float on top the surface.
Use a paper towel to skim off the residue
Pour out all the liquid in the pan
Finally, wash the pan with soapy water and non-abrasive nylon.

Thirdly, about heating nonstick pans, its alright as long as you don't cross the limit of 470 °F/243 °C as it will cause the Teflon surface to melt and release toxic chemicals. When heating up a nonstick pan empty start with a low temperature instead of going all high at the beginning which might pose a risk. The previous facts were taken from here.


It is an asparagus chicory, or more formally known as Puntarelle. They are grown in Rome and in Italy. They are similar to endives and have that bitter taste. A famous dish that uses it is Puntarelle alla Romana, a salad with anchovies and the asparagus chicory. It is quite hard to find outside of Italy, surprised you found it in California. Enjoy it!


What is the best substitute for sugar when cooking thick jam?

The conservation issue aside: It depends heavily on what fruits you want to use. Fruits that contain a lot of fiber might not need any thickening agent to get a good, spreadable consistency. This includes for example certain variants of apples or pears, but also things like plums if you don't discard the skins. The consistency may be a bit different from traditional jam, though.

However, if you have something that contains a lot of water, such as berries, you only have two options: either add pectin or cook it until it reduces very much. The latter option may come with a loss of nutrients and taste, though, so let's concentrate on the pectin.

Normally, when you make jam, you add sugar that is already mixed with pectin to make the process easier. However, pectin can be bought in powder form, too (at least in Germany, you can find it in any better sorted supermarket). Furthermore, some fruits already contain a lot of natural pectin in their skins: black currants are a prime example [1]. If you like the taste and add enough of it, it might be enough to achieve the texture you want.

As for the amount of pectin needed: it depends heavily on what fruits you want to use. Pectin is activated by acid, so you might need to add some kind of acid to your jam to achieve the right consistency. It also needs to be cooked boiling for a few minutes. It's always a trial and error. Before I can my jam i always make a test by dropping a bit of jam into a bowl and put it in the freezer for a minute or two. If it has the right consistency when it is cold, I can it immediately.

Keep in mind though: The sugar is also a major component when it comes to a classic jam texture, so the texture without sugar will be different.

As for the sweetening without sugar: any sweetener should work fine, as long as you like the taste.

[1] side note: my mom once wanted to make black currant juice and instead it turned into jelly by accident. :D It was yummy, but a mess to get out of the bottles.

Edit:
Regarding @rumtscho's comment: There are indeed several different kinds of pectin (I was only vaguely aware of that). Some need sugar to gel. The one I use is specifically marketed for jam production, so maybe that's something to keep in mind when buying pectin powder. In any case: it's worth a try. Just experiment a bit with it and hopefully you'll find what works for you.


How to tell apart mold and flour on sourdough bread?

Scrape at it with your fingernail. Flour will come off in a... floury manner, revealing the cranny it was stuck in. Mold won't be limited to the crannies. Also, it'll appear on the cut surface before it appears on the crust. Additionally, it'll be different from the color of the flour (in the same area of the loaf).

FWIW, that's definitely flour on most of the bottom, though I do see a couple of lighter spots that could be mold.


"Banging" cookies half way through baking

Based on the recipe, it seems that the intended result here is for a denser, chewier cookie. If you were able to perform this percussive therapy maneuver in exactly the method desired by the recipe-writer, then yes, it would knock some of the air out of the cookie, and collapse its structure a bit. I think that this maneuver would be difficult to perform precisely and repeatedly. Also, you'll have lots of variation in cooking time, as you have to open the oven halfway-though which lets lots of the warm air escape from the oven.

Instead of the "bang", just introduce less air into the cookies during the initial preparation. The easiest thing to do would be to under-cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar.


How to peel, cut and prepare prickly pears without getting the thorns in your skin?

There are many ways to do it, so it is personal choice. Here is a google search if you need to know more. Here is how I do it. You are going to need two forks and a knife.

STEP 1

Place the prickly pear on a cutting board or a plate using a fork by firmly pushing the fork lengthwise into the skin of the prickly pear

STEP 2

With a sharp edge knife, cut of the two end of the prickly pear.

STEP 3

Now, cut through the skin lengthwise. The skin is quite thick, so you need to make a deep cut.

STEP 4

With the second fork, pull away the skin on one side from the inside of the fruit as far as you can

STEP 5

Now, firmly hold the fruit with the second fork by inserting the second fork into flesh of the fruit.

STEP 6

Remove the first fork and use that to peel away the rest of the skin from the flesh of the fruit.

STEP 7

The inside of the fruit is now free from the skin, so you can remove it. Place it on a clean plate

STEP 8

Discard the rests, and properly rinse all the utensils under running water before cleaning the next fruit

Other tips:

Wearing welding gloves also works well to handle the fruit To remove most of the thorns before hand, hold the fruit lengthwise between your fingers and gently rub the skin over loose sand. Rinse with water afterwards. Be careful when removing the gloves
A bottle brush or nail brush can also be used. Wearing gloves, hold the prickly pear in one hand while you scrubbing the skin of the fruit with the bottle brush/nail brush. Rinse under running water.

In both of the above cases, you still need to treat the fruit as you normally would as if it would still have thorns on.


Can I store soft serve ice cream in my regular freezer?

The standard recommended temperature for a home freezer is 0°F (-18℃). Regular ice cream keeps best at -5°F to 0°F. However, the proper storage temperature for soft serve ice cream is 18°F (-7℃).

While you could raise the temperature of your freezer to accommodate this, it really wouldn't be recommended for the rest of your frozen foods.

Short of that, your best option would be to get a tiny freezer just for your soft serve so that you can keep it at at higher temperature without risking the quality of your other food.


Why do my homemade chocolate bars start to melt as soon as I take them out of the fridge?

I think the problem is that you don't have chocolate bars, but chocolate mixed with butter, which has a lower melting point (just like buttercream cake icing).

If it's your dentist who is advising you to go slow on chocolate, you might like to try switching away from high sugar 'candy bar' chocolate and onto higher quality chocolate with a cocoa content of 70% and over. The high-quality Swiss brand Lindt, for example, lists the sugar content of their milk chocolate as 23g per serving, but their 70% dark chocolate as 12g per serving and in their 85% super-dark as only 5g of sugar per serving.


Is it ok to leave a slow cooker unattended?

That's exactly what they are designed for!

In general their electrical construction, and possible failure modes fully support being left on unattended

They should pose no more fire risk than any other electrical kitchen device being left on at the wall e.g. an automatic toaster or kettle

Some slow cookers have automatic fuses that blow if the pot runs dry, but most seem to keep going with no ill effect. There is no reason for a slow cooker to run dry unless you leave the lid off for over a day!


Try starting with the pasta in cold water. This lets you stir it to wash the starch off the surface of the pasta while it's still completely hard, so you can't possibly damage it. Then it'll stick way less as it cooks, so you shouldn't need to stir nearly so much, and hopefully it's not breaking just from cooking.

This works because the starch doesn't actually get sticky until it's heated, so this way you have all the starch dissolved before it's sticky. On the other hand, when you add pasta to hot water (even if it's boiling) the starch instantly becomes sticky, and it's only the motion of the water and your stirring that saves it from all sticking together. (And as you've seen, if there's enough starch, sometimes this isn't enough.)

If you still have trouble with sticking, I suppose you could even remove some of the starchy cold water, effectively partially rinsing it. Some brands and shapes of pasta do seem to have more starch on the surface, so I could see that being necessary. You could also simply try using more water (but still starting with cold water!) so that the starch is more diluted; this is roughly equivalent to rinsing a little.

And if all of that fails, you may want to try another brand, as suggested in various comments here. The fact that it breaks during the initial stirring, before it's had time to soften much, is not promising.

(And before someone comes along and says "no, the water has to be at a full boil when you add the pasta!" yes, I have done this many many times, it works fine, and Harold McGee says it works too.)

For one more bit of evidence, simply starting with cold water even keeps orecchiette (dry, not fresh) from sticking - and that's by far the worst-sticking pasta shape I've ever tried. They fit together so that once they're stuck, the water can't even get in to rinse off the starch.


How is basil prepared for pesto most efficiently?

The picture shows a basil harvester. The stems remain in the ground, as you can see on the right; those stems that get harvested are processed together with the leaves.


Is there a way to make falafel without deep frying?

Growing up, my mother always used to bake them. They do turn out a bit drier than if you deep-fried them, but not overmuch. They cook for about 15-20 minutes at 400°F (~200 °C), or until golden and crispy on the outside.

Alternately, you can pan-fry them, as other answers have suggested.

Or you can split the difference and oven fry them. If you're unfamiliar, Google can acquaint you with the process. Here's a good NPR article to get you started: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130673515


What temperature should "simmer" be for candying fruit?

I don't think you physically can achieve the same results with a sous vide machine. Typically, those are designed to hold a water bath at a specific (relatively low) temperature. You can't hold water above its boiling point in an open container, because it's, well, boiling and will eventually evaporate. (You could do this in a sealed container, which is the principle behind the pressure cooker, but that's very different than sous vide.)

Here's the thing: simmering is gentle boiling, and by definition it occurs at (or just under) the boiling point of water. You cannot raise the temperature higher than that without adjusting other variables like pressure. Because solutes (like sugar) raise the boiling point of a solution, syrups will often come to a simmer well above the boiling point of plain water. So even if you placed your syrup in a bag, placed it in the water bath, and raised the water bath to a boil - the syrup in the bag wouldn't be boiling. You would have to add pressure or another solute (like salt) to the water bath to get the temperature high enough to also boil the syrup, which could very well damage your sous vide heating element.

The "half-candied" recipe you've linked is an interesting one, because it's really not traditionally candied. Instead what they're doing is infusing the orange with a high sugar content in order to preserve it in a similar way. That can only really be done in a low-pressure, vacuum-sealed environment, because it's using the lack of pressure to force the orange to absorb the syrup instead of boiling out the liquid to be replaced with syrup.

tl;dr: The temperature you need for the syrup to boil is higher than the temperature you can achieve in a sous vide bath. You will have to find another way to streamline the process.


Based on your comments, you probably didn't temper the chocolate correctly the first time. Tempering chocolate can be a really delicate thing and being off by several degrees can affect whether the chocolate is tempered well.

Because your chocolate wasn't tempered correctly, it would not have harden completely. The chocolate's cocoa butter is composed of glycerides of fatty acids that needs to solidify at a certain temperature to ensure a stable formation. It is this stable formation that makes the chocolate firm(non-tacky) and shiny.

Here is a guide to tempering chocolate using a microwave and a thermometer: http://chocomap.com/chocolate-making-tempering.php

I have taken a look at the chocolate you have bought and there should be no reason why it shouldn't temper correctly. Your new Revolation will melt your chocolate at a very precise temperature so your chocolate should come out tempered. It will be shiny and firm.


Can you cook chicken breasts frozen on the George Foreman Grill?

You can cook chicken breasts from frozen and it is safe, but the quality is arguable.

It would be unsafe if the middle is not fully cooked, or if the cooking process takes over two hours. These two conditions are not hard to meet, but doing so can result that the outer part is dried out. This is no safety concert, but a quality/flavour issue.

To circumvent this, let the breasts thaw in the fridge. Then cook them fully.