I don't think it really matters exactly what happened. Unless you've left out something important, it's not working right, and you need to get it repaired. The best case is that it keeps burning your food, and the worst case is that you set your place on fire.

If you want to confirm that it's doing something wrong, you could put a thermometer in it and turn it on (no food) and confirm that it's getting way too hot. (Edit: but please be careful, as Aaronut said. If there's any sign things are going wrong, turn it off, and leave the door closed.)


Pressure cooking gadget that is heated with a torch (looks like a Afghan Kazan Pressure Cooker)

The description sounds like a "popcorn hammer" sometimes also called a "popcorn cannon":
popcorn hammer

The US TV show Mythbusters did an episode on this gadget a few years back.

Essentially, it is a cast metal pressure vessel that is used to make popcorn/puffed grains. It can be used over an open flame, allowing street vendors to use them to create both an attention getting show and a salable snack (when caught into a bag).

With a popcorn hammer, pressure is built up inside the vessel during heating. When it is released, the explosive decompression causes all of the kernels to pop simultaneously. The popping plus the vessel decompression sends them flying.

High pressure devices that rely on explosive decompression can be dangerous. Pressure cooked popcorn / puffed grains do have a unique texture, but safety is the main reason you don't see home versions of these devices on sale at your local department store.

With most seemingly impossible videos from the internet, it's either fake or best left to professionals. This one is real, but not something anyone should try at home.


What's a good choice of steak to use for a steak pizza?

Any meat that is good for fast cooking (BBQ, frying, grilling etc.) will be suitable for this. Do not use meat that is normally casseroled or slow cooked. For beef this is the non-exercised top parts of the cow. Typical western cuts are called sirloin, rump, and fillet

You need very thin slices of meat more than cubes if you want any level of browning and cooking to be achieved

The easiest way to do this is to partially freeze you meat for one to two hours in a normal domestic freezer. A slab of meat with a profile of around 30 x 80 mm (±50%) is the easiest to handle. Use a sharp chef's knife or meat cleaver and slice it into 2 to 3 mm thin slices which will cook very nicely on a pizza

A well marbled (mixed fat content) cut would work better, like in this picture


What are the consequences of dishwashering a cast iron skillet?

A cast iron skillet which is regularly washed in the dishwasher will be progressively stripped down to bare metal, which will quickly and consistently rust. It will not be usable for cooking until you clean it of the rust and re-season it.
Incidentally, I think you might be confused by the term "seasoning". Seasoning consists of polymerized oil, not "bits of food", and its purpose is to protect the skillet and reduce sticking, not to produce better tasting food. If you don't want to use a seasoned pan, for whatever reason, you should not use cast iron.


How can I grind coffee without a coffee grinder?

In my opinion, the best option is to have someone grind them for you. Ask your friends--someone may have a grinder you can borrow, or would be happy to grind them for you in exchange for some cookies or part of the bag of coffee.

If you have a local coffee shop, talk to the barista (over the latte' you just bought) and ask if he/she will grind your beans for you. I've heard even the mighty Starbucks will grind your beans for you if you ask nicely enough.

If you want to do it yourself, you need to find a way to get the beans down to grinds. Some ideas:

Mortar and pestle. Be careful not to make Turkish coffee powder instead of the more chunky grinds you want.

Rolling pin. Put the beans in a heavy Ziploc bag or similar, and have a go at them. Roll, whack, smash.

Have a nice, heavy frying pan? Ziploc bag again, hammer away.

And speaking of hammers...

No, not that Hammer.  This hammer.


Roasting more than 1 meat in using one oven

If you have room to place the Wellingtons on the same shelf, you simply cook them in the same way as you would a single one. Conventional ovens do not work like microwaves - the amount of stuff in the oven makes no difference, providing air flow is maintained and you don't have something large right up at the top or bottom blocking an element.

Fan ovens are especially useful as they actively circulate the heat around the oven cavity, so you can cook things on two different levels with fairly good consistency.


Should you chop up the white chocolate baking bar and fold it into the batter, it will behave like any chip in a batter, melting slightly and leaving little surprises throughout. If you wish to incorporate into the cake, melt it either over a double boiler or very carefully in the microwave (checking every 10 seconds), and let it cool. After following your vanilla cake recipe (creaming butter and sugar, adding eggs, flour, milk), stir in the cooled white chocolate and mix completely. You could amp up the white chocolate effect by adding melted white chocolate to the frosting and topping with white chocolate shards or curls.


How to make a stable culinary Parmesan foam

First of all you are better off with Xanthan Gum instead of gelatin. Xanthan gum is relatively heat stable whereas gelatin is renowned for its inability to withstand any heat above 35 °C.

200g parmesan grated (including rind).
400ml full fat milk.
1 tbsp
soy lecithin.

Bring to simmer 5 min, then blend and pass through fine sieve. Taste for seasoning now, bare in mind you want it to be over powering at this stage.

Allow to cool and then blend in:

another tbsp soy lecithin
one tsp Xanthan gum.

If warming for serving do not boil or even simmer as this will make the foam weak.

Personally I blend and scoop the foam off the top. However I see no reason why this couldn't work in a siphon.

Regarding egg white and Hy-foamer (the molecular cuisine equivalent to egg white, where soy lecithin is the substitute for egg yolk). These are used/useful in fat free foams such as raspberry coulis. They don't work well in fat based ones like the Parmesan foam you are attempting.


How to change a vanilla cake recipe to make a chocolate cake?

I did this as an experiment last month, because I wanted a marble cake. The part that I wanted chocolate, I just swapped out a half-cup of the flour for cocoa. I should note, however, that while it tasted great, it made a denser, slightly drier cake than did the white cake batter. Next time, I plan to add a couple of teaspoons of grapeseed oil and some extra baking powder to counteract that problem.


With stovetop cooking, is there a way to retain heat but let moisture escape?

You don't really have much control, at least not very directly like turning a knob. You can control it a bit by your choice of cookware - a thin-walled pot which is relatively high in comparison to its width will dissipate heat more than a squat, thick-walled one of some non-conductive material like cast iron or ceramics. If you want more moisture escaping, go for wide vessels and don't heap your food in them, place it in a single layer.

Another option is to cook food in an oven, which allows it to be heated slowly, but the moisture is not as trapped as it would be in a closed pot, so the food doesn't become soggy.

Your examples here are not generally tackled by separate moisture/heat control, though. For the mulled wine, anything that escapes with the lid off will also escape with the lid on. People usually simply reduce the temperature and keep the lid on, to save energy, but keeping it with the lid off doesn't make a difference. For the onions, if you want them done quickly, you shouldn't be making them in the slow cooker at all, but shallow frying them in a pan. I know you said these are examples for illustration, but I suppose that for any other examples you might come up with, there are already established ways to do them and your problem might be arising from not following those.


How do I thicken Advocaat without evaporating any alcohol?

Use more of the thickener that is already in the advocaat: egg yolks.

Make a custard with egg yolks and advocaat, heating gently until it thickens, but not beyond 60 C / 140 F or you risk curdling. A water bath is safer than working directly on the burner. At that temperature, the loss of alcohol due to evaporation is limited.

You can add brandy (to boost alcohol content and liquify the yolks) and sugar to adjust the taste as desired. -> those are the base ingredients for advocaat, so you can toy with the ratios and consistency without changing the flavour profile.

If you want to use corn starch, use some starch to thicken either a portion of the advocaat or some milk or cream to a consistency way thicker than desired, let cool and dilute with advocaat until the desired consistency. (Or stir the "pudding" into the advocaat.)

In this case, you shouldn't let the corn starch mix get fully cold, or you'd destroy the binding by stirting too much - as this poster learned when making pudding.


How can I tell if soy sauce is of good quality?

The simplest rule of thumb is to read the ingredients: Water, soybeans, wheat, salt (and maybe something to preserve it). Other brands, may list wheat before soybeans.

"Good quality" and taste may be two different things (like wine). So, it gets a bit tricky to answer. And then there's reduced sodium and light soy which may have other ingredients.

This link may be useful. It covers Japanese soy sauce and touches on the "Grades of Soy Sauce": http://justhungry.com/handbook/just-hungry-handbooks/basics-japanese-soy-sauce-all-you-need-know .


Does searing cause more or less oil to be absorbed than frying?

Higher temperatures, as a rule, mean less absorption of oil because the force of the steam trying to escape from the food pushes against the oil.  Here is a link to a scholarly article discussing the mechanics of fat absorption in the production of french fries (complete with a table of results and diagrams).  Interestingly, the author says that potatoes deep fried at more than ten degrees Celsius below the recommended temperature of 180-185C leads to 40% higher fat uptake.  I expect pan-frying leads to a much lower total uptake of fat, but I am sure the principle is the same.

(For a fun explanation of the mechanics, here's Alton Brown in part II of the "Man Food" episode of Good Eats.  Enjoy.)

Now, your question was aimed at tofu (or some spongy equivalent), and you asked about the effects of flour vs no flour.  I could not find any articles with data on those exact elements of your question, but I suspect the answers will all derive from the same underlying principles.  In other words, as a rule, cooking at low or medium heat means that the spongy and/or dredged product will tend to absorb more fat than at high heat.

So, then, why do the recipes you have seen typically call for cooking tofu on "medium" heat?  My guess is that the recipe authors found that high heat makes the outside brown too much by the time the inside is "done" to the authors' preferences -- and perhaps a little extra oil in the tofu makes it taste better.  I am not sure, however, because most of the recipes I've seen call for searing a crust onto the tofu using medium-high heat.


Safe to freeze boiled/ blanched pork bones/ meat for future use to cook soup?

This is perfectly safe as long as the raw meat remains refrigerated until use, is boiled or blanched, chilled quickly, and then frozen.


How is unsweetened plant-based yogurt possible?

Actually, the yogurt cultures, usually some strain of the group N Streptococcus and Leuconostoc species, mesophilic cultures, converts the lactose into lactic acid, which gives the diary product it's tart taste.
Furthermore, bacterial enzymes transform the milk carbohydrates into oligosaccharides, some of which have prebiotic properties.
Different LAB (Lactic Acid Bacteria) produce different fermentation products, although they have in common that they are alive in the product and can interact with microbiota during intestinal transit and the cells of the intestinal wall.
Fermentation of soy milk with lactic acid bacteria offers a means of
preserving soy milk and the possibility of modifying the characteristic
flavor and texture to make it more acceptable to Western taste.
It is possible to make soy milk yogurt-like products with acceptable texture
and clean acid flavor. The choice of fermenting organisms is limited to
those that can ferment the sugars typical of soy milk. i.e. stachyose.
raffinose or sucrose. unless sugars fermented by the desired cultures
are added to the soy milk.
SOURCE
SOURCE


Is it bad to use lids that do not fit on pot?

In general (wrong size lid) isn't an issue ... the glass lids, however, could be.

The main issue is when you're boiling stuff, the lid jiggles as the pressure builds up and releases.  This results in the lid getting hit over and over again.  At the edge of most glass lids, there's a metal ring, so the metal can help to absorb some of the hit and spread it out; also at the edge, the shape of most glass lids will help it to take the force.

With it on a smaller pot, the hit's not on the edge where it could be more easily absorbed, and you have uneven heating (the stuff outside the pot not heating up) which would cause additional stresses in the lid ... and with enough repeated strikes could cause it to fail.  Depending on the type of glass it's made of, it could simply crack, or if could completely shatter if it's tempered.  And shattering is just a mess -- you basically have to scrap all exposed food, for fear that some glass bits might've gotten in there.

That's not to say that a glass lid can't shatter under normal usage, but most companies test them, and wouldn't sell them if there was a high risk of breakage under normal use.  I don't know how much testing goes into mis-use, but they can always claim that's not their fault, and have a possible defense against lawsuits should anyone get injured from using the lid on the wrong sized pot.

.... all of that being said, I do have a pot with a glass lid ... and I have used it on the wrong sized pan before ... but it was an oversized pan.  (if you're wondering how, it was steaming stuff in a wok), so the issues aren't the same as in using it on an undersized pot.


Sprouting fenugreek seeds? Are seeds for sprouting different than the ones in the spice aisle?

I have had always success with sprouting fenugreek seeds that were bought as a spice. And an Indian friend of mine regularly grows fenugreek for leaves from the seeds bought for cooking. The seeds sold for cooking are whole (intact) seeds - they are quite hard and therefore difficult to break and damage. But I can not really say what percentage of the seeds sprouted - it probably would have been higher if I had bought seeds that were labeled for sprouting - but for me it was satisfactory.

With most plant species the germination success gets lower with time. The seeds meant for sprouting have therefore often a germination success rate estimation on the label. And the manufacturers might  therefore put more care into supplying fresher seeds and seeds of the same "age" to be able to guarantee that success.

I have never heard of anyone selling toasted fenugreek seeds (accept maybe if it has been some spice mix that already underwent some kind of tempering).

I think sprouts in general are not very traditional elements of North African or Middle Eastern cuisine, where fenugreek is used as seed or less commonly as leaves. Fenugreek sprouts might be found more in Indian cooking (where sprouts, micro greens and fenugreek leaves are used), or in more "hippy" / healthy-bowls styles of cooking.

And of course the seeds sold for sprouting can naturally be also used as a spice, but they might be sometimes a bit more expensive (and I guess that differences in strength of the flavor could also be found - so that the sprouting ones could maybe sometimes be milder / less flavorful).

Anyway ... you can use them definitely as a spice, as sprouts, micro greens, or grow them into bigger plants and use the leaves.

I would be a bit suspicious of the quality of the seeds in the big package if they are sold for super cheap ... but they might be totally fine.


What can I do with shredded wheat shreds?

There's a middle-eastern dish called Kataife that uses loose shredded wheat rehydrated with sugar, walnuts, cinnamon and a few other things. My grandma makes it and it is fantastic.


What oil/fat is best for basting sunny-side-up eggs?

My favourite oil for basting is none: I just put a glass lid on the pan, add a teaspon of water and let the top of the eggs cook in the steam.  The few times I have basted, the olive oil I've used for cooking the eggs has not seemed to run off very well.


How will baking chicken at a high heat differ from a lower heat?

It is possible to cook chicken at 450 degrees. I have a recipe that cooks 1/2 inch thick chicken cutlets at 500 degrees for 8 minutes , so at 450 I would cook them for 10-12 minutes, or 15-20 for full-thickness chicken breast. This high-heat method can actually keep your chicken moister than a lower-heat method, and will work with your French fries, so maybe find a recipe that cooks at 450 degrees. There are many available if you google "chicken breast 450."


How do I effectively rub spices into fish?

First of all, if you're seasoning tilapia, you'll want to add some oil to it, since tilapia has almost no fat.  So, here's the steps:

Drizzle oil over the tilapia (both sides).
Sprinkle it lightly with the spice mixture, all over
Let sit 10-15 minutes.
Sprinkle with starch (e.g. flour) at this point if you're frying them.

Optionally, you can also add some lemon or lime juice (just a little) in step 1.  You also want the tilapia sitting on something flat, with the filets in one layer, like a large plate or baking sheet, not heaped up in a bowl.

For spicing small filets, you want a finely ground, moderate-flavor spice mixture.  Unlike beef or pork, you're not marinating the fish for a long time, and you're not cooking it for  along time.  So the spicing on the fish isn't really a "rub"; it's spicing to eat.  I recommend against using rubs designed for meat on light fish like tilapia.


In general, would I need to season a meat when making a sauce?

Learning how to season with salt (especially) when cooking is what separates good cooks from those who are not as accomplished.  Yes, you should season the chicken, whether or not is has an accompanying sauce.  With attention and experience you will learn how to adjust that seasoning depending on the seasoning of other ingredients in the final dish.  However, you should season each component to some degree (again, salt specifically...other spices as needed).


Use a food processor to aerate the flour and mix other dry ingredients in.

As a bonus for me, the food processor bowl can go in the dishwasher.  I have to hand-wash my sifter.


Yes, the problem will be the vinegar.
Vinegar is acidic and you'll end up with mushy meat. 48 hours is almost certainly too long.  For a vinegar base, I try not to push it over 8 hours and that's only if really necessary. A few hours is typically fine.

Right now, you've got to consider how to save the meat. I'd freeze the meat right now.  Freeze the meat with the marinade (which seems like such a waste for 40'ish hours, but better that than mushy steak). When ready to cook, take it out and let the marinade do its business as it thaws. I'd thaw it in ziplock under running water (quicker than the fridge) and let it marinade a short time and go on the grill. If you let it sit in any unfrozen stage too long, you'll get mushy steak with a vinegar marinade.


What are the impacts of common pizza dough errors?

I don't see anything in the question that is peculiar to pizza dough. Anything I answer will apply to any kind of yeast-risen, glutenous dough.

The goal with any such dough is a well hydrated protein matrix that has been arranged in sheets that will trap the gas produced by yeast.

If the yeast is dead it won't be able to produce gas and your bread will be somewhere between a cracker and shoe leather- depending on how thick you roll it out.
Using too little yeast is not the same as dead yeast. If you use too little yeast (within reason) they will take a long time to reproduce, eat, and blow up your stretchy proteins. They will be producing a lot of flavor during this period. This will generally taste good.
If you use too much yeast (within reason) the yeast will act very quickly. This is nice for speed but it will result in a much less developed flavor. Neither is a problem so you can choose for yourself.
Using too little water will result in not enough gluten development and a dry, or crumbly dough. The dough won't hold gases and there will also not be enough steam when baking so the dough will be more dense.
Too much water and you have a batter that can't be worked with.
Over working a dough isn't so much of a concern. It is possible to over knead but it is hard to do. See: Possible to over-knead dough?.
Under working the dough will result in less gluten development and very similar results as using too little water- basically you will have unleavened biscuit dough. The exception is if you are following a "no-knead" recipe. In this case the dough is allowed to rest for days which lets the protein sheets form on their own.
Resting the dough is necessary both to relax the protein mesh that you created as well as to allow the yeast a chance to blow it up with some CO2. Not long enough and you won't be able to roll out the dough because it will be too tight and it won't be risen because the yeast haven't eaten. Too long and the bubbles will coalesce into large open cavities. A good rule of thumb is "doubled in volume". Usually about an hour but this is highly dependent on how much yeast you use, how much water, and the ambient temperature.

The end result is that you don't need to worry about most of these things.
The biggest mistakes I see people make is making a dough too dry or simply not kneading enough. It is easier to add flour than water so put in less than the full amount of flour, knead for a while, if the dough stays too sticky then add a bit more flour and knead in.

As answers to other questions have said- you want a dough that is "smooth and elastic" it isn't sticky and looks homogeneous. After just a couple tries you will get a feel for how wet that means and you'll be an expert.

For pizza dough in particular- almost as important as the dough construction is the baking temperature. You want to cook it as hot as you can. 500F in an oven or on a grill. It will only take 5-10 minutes. The fast hot cooking will do a lot for your crust texture. It makes the difference between a crispy, chewy pizza crust and a soft, bready (and soggy under the toppings) crust.


What is the best chemical cleaning agent clean tough stains out of a microwave other than vinegar, baking soda and lemon juice?

Bar Keepers friend is a powdered cleaning agent that contains oxalic acid as its main active ingredient, along with abrasives. It's great for removing many kitchen stains, including the polymerized oils that get baked onto pots and stovetops.

Acetone (the nail polish remover you have been using) is highly flammable, and toxic, so should never be used anywhere near food.


Why does Chinese food reheats better on stove than in microwave?

There are probably several factors which lead to the perception that chinese food heats less evenly in a microwave than on the stove top.

There are lots of types of Chinese food, but due to the mention of sauce on the original question, I am going to assume its a dish with meat and vegetables in a sauce, like (as often available in US Chinese restaurants), Kung Pao chicken or beef with broccoli.  Since the liquid is thickened, and only part of the dish, little convection can occur--transfer of heat within the food itself will be by conduction unless the dish is stirred.

Contributing factors probably include:

Microwaves excite polar (usually water, sugar, and fat) molecules directly, creating heat.  However, the pattern of microwaves inside the oven cavity is not uniform due to wave interference, so different parts of the dish will be heated somewhat unevenly.  This is why modern microwave ovens have rotating platforms.
Fats seem to heat much more quickly than say, plain water, so parts of the dish with more fat (like meat pieces) may seem to heat faster.
Microwaves only penetrate a few centimeters into the dish, heating the food at the outside of the food volume.   The interior of the food, is heated through conduction or convection of heat from the outside of the food.

All of this leads to the main probable cause:  less stirring.  You are probably more likely to be actively stirring the food on the stovetop, where the heat only happens at the bottom, and may burn on the pan, thus distributing the heat throughout the dish.

With the microwave, stirring still is important due to all of the factors listed above, but you have to stop the cooking and open the oven to do it so it possibly doesnt' happen as much.

Truthfully, I find the microwave the superior method for reheating Chinese food.  Try these suggestions to make it successful:

Don't do it at full power for longer.  By lowering the power (which really just does full power a proportion of the time, in very short intervals), you slow down the heating, which gives more time for conduction and convection to move heat through the dish, evening out the cooking.
Reheat the food in a shallow, thin layer (like a wide soup or pasta bowl), rather than a more compact volume.  This will let more of the food be exposed to the microwaves, heating more evenly.
Stir a few times.


Assuming your sugar cookie dough is roughly like the one I make for cutting out cookies the be ideal and decorated: not very long.

A few minutes at room temperature should make it malleable enough to roll out this enough for cutting, and the process of working the dough with a rolling pin will warm it a bit more. The warmer the dough, the easier it is for the shapes to deform when moving to a baking sheet -- so you don't want to let it warm too much before you start to work with it.


Cast iron, stainless steel, or anodized non-stick: which makes the resulting product taste best?

I  give you my opinion

Cast iron pans give you exceptional results when you have to cook, because they are facilitating a chemical reaction with the sugar contained naturally in food. However, I find them heavy and for my way of cooking I prefer an iron frying pan (de buyer does fantastic pans. I suggest carbone plus).
I have three of them, one for fish, one for meat and one for vegetables. It requires a bit of effort to clean them and take care of them. If you're not planning to use them often be sure you keep them oiled to avoid rust. After a while the pan will be naturally non stick, just keep use them, avoid water and enjoy your cooking. I use them almost daily.
Aluminium (non anodized) is great for boiling, it has an exceptional heat transfer and you can cook keeping your flame lower. Do not use these pans for anything acid, the aluminium will enter in your food and is very dangerous for your body.
Aluminiun (anodized): brilliant pans! Resistant, easy to clean, the best ones are even dishwasher safe, despite I don't really feel the need to put them in a dishwasher, it takes me less then a minute to clean them with a sponge, the food doesn't stick.
Copper: requires a bit of maintenance. You have the best thermal diffusion, it has to be covered with a layer of stainless steel, or tin. Tin is not as sturdy as stainless steel.

-stainless steel: very good. You can cook everything in here, sturdy pans, food will stick a bit.

I have all these pans at home and I use them in base of my needs.
In any case, never leave the food in any of these pans, take it off as soon as you can, for the best result, and use the right size. It's incredible how food will improve with these two simple tricks :)


Alton Brown and an Elvis impersonator called it a custard pie.


How can I portion out frozen cookie dough?

Thaw in refrigerator until soft enough to portion.  Portion total batch, then re-freeze. Ideally, it should have been portioned before initial freeze. At this point, unless you want to bake them all, you will be fine with a refrigerated thaw, portion, and re-freeze.  Store portioned, frozen, cookie dough with as little air in the container as possible.


Quite surprising, but cooked eggs (hard boiled, scrambled and omelets) freeze particularly well. I keep large thin omelets for shredding over fried rice. Cheese and egg are mostly composed of fats and proteins that freeze well. I would think that most omelets composed of cheese would work well. I can also see a spinach omelet made with frozen spinach working well as well.

I would avoid trying to freeze an omelet that contained crispy/crunchy vegetables. Or maybe omelets with a saucy filling that may split during reheating.


How can I get a thicker coating when enrobing something in chocolate?

The first suggestion is to let the chocolate get cooler - which will help in two ways:
Less runny material from the start and less time until the chocolate starts to set, resulting in less runoff overall.
Yes, it means you will be walking that fine line between just right and too firm, but my favorite trick for that is to prepare a comparatively large amount of dipping chocolate and rely on thermal mass to help me get through as many pieces as possible.
Holes at the bottom can be avoided by using a wire rack instead of a mat, although this can come with its own pitfalls.
And ultimately, you can always double-coat your marzipan to get a thicker coating.


How to adjust baking time and temperature for volume?

Use the same temperature for the same recipe, even if you've changed the pan size.  You'd have to do something really drastic to need to change the temperature.

Bake time is almost entirely dependent on depth of batter rather than size of pan.  As long as batter depth is essentially the same, so is the bake time.  For example, I have baked a cake recipe for a 9 inch round in two 6 inch rounds with the same bake time.

If you double a recipe originally for a 8x4 loaf pan and bake it in a 9 inch round, then you'll have pretty much the exact same depth of batter.  (who says basic geometry isn't useful in our adult lives?)  In this case, I'd recommend starting checking the cake for doneness at exactly the same bake time for the original cake.  If you half a recipe originally for a 9 inch round and bake it in an 8x4 loaf pan, I might start checking it a few minutes early just to be careful.

More generally, if you are halving a recipe, find out the surface area of the recipe's pan and halve it.  If you are doubling a recipe, find out the surface area of the recipe's pan and double it.  How does this value compare to the surface area of the new pan you want to bake in?  If it's a bit higher, you might need to add a few minutes to bake time.  If it's a bit lower, you might need to subtract a few minutes from bake time.  If it's wildly different, maybe consider using a different pan.

Also remember that a cake isn't done at a specific time.  The time on the recipe is to get you in the ballpark to start checking for doneness, and a recipe that says 35 minutes is not going to be hurt by quickly opening the door at 25 minutes to see if the top still looks wet.  If you're moving to a smaller pan or lower depth of batter, it probably makes sense to start checking things on the early side.  I usually start checking any cake 5 minutes before the time on the recipe, so if I'm messing with pan sizes or something like that, I'll start checking 10 minutes early.

There are a lot of other clues about doneness than just time - for a butter cake these are usually if the top springs back when pressed, if it's pulling away from the sides of the pan, and if a toothpick inserted into the center comes back with just a few crumbs.  Reports of butter type cakes falling because the oven door is opened too frequently are greatly exaggerated.


how long do you have to cook lemon curd for?

Lemon curd is not cooked so much for a time—in general times are only guidelines to help cooks not yet familiar with a recipe do planning—as they are to a specific outcome.

The traditional test for lemon curd (and all custards, really) is the nappe, or coating the back of a spoon.  If you dip a spoon into the curd, and then run your finger through it, the little "mound" or "ridge" of curd that builds up on either side should not immediately flow back into the path of your finger.  The clear path should remain.  This tells you the curd is thickened.

(Image credit:  Baking Vintage)

A more modern method would be to take the temperature with a high quality instant read thermometer (the curd should be well stirred, so the temperature is a good representation).  It should be approximately 180 F /  82 C when fully thickened.

The amount of time it takes to get to this stage depends on your volume and your heating method.

I have never heard of a lemon curd being supplemented with additional pectin (there may be some natural pectin from lemon zest already in the recipe); the thickening agent is the proteins in the eggs, which is why it is a custard variant.


Every professional kitchen I've been in uses the simple Japanese Benriner brand mandolines. They are sharp, efficient, and reasonably priced. It is indeed good advice to use a kevlar glove. Microplane sells this one: Microplane 34007 Kitchen Cut-Protection Glove, which I've found works fine.


What is the difference between a biscuit and a roll?

In the U.S. biscuits are made with chemical leavening, they use baking powder to cause them to rise.

Rolls (or dinner rolls) are yeast bread.

There are obviously other differences in the recipe(s) but baking powder vs. yeast is the essential difference.


I am not familiar with your specific recipe, but I usually use yeast in bread or pizza dough.

You can use dried and fresh yeast, either works for me. You need to let it rise for an hour or so when you prepared the dough. You could put it all mixed together in a bowl and put that in warm water. That will speed up the rising process.


What is the diference between a quinoa burger, a quorn burger, and a soya burger?

The differences are as follows:

Quinoa is a pseudocerial coming from goosefoot wikipedia. It is one of the trendy "superfoods" because it has a very high nutritional value ánd is gluten free. I have always used it as a grain substitute and do not know if it's any good as the main ingredient for a burger.

Quorn is a meat substitute made of mycoprotein from fungus. wikipedia. In my personal experience quorn is a very acceptable substitute for ground beef, so a burger made of this material is likely to taste pretty decent.

Soy is a plant material traditionally used for instance in tofu. It has long been used as a meat substitute due to the high protein content. In my humble opinion it has been surpassed by other meat alternatives, mainly because soy based meat alternatives lack in texture.

All very different products then, where most likely the only common factor is the spicing.


I think there is a place for both. Without being aware of the particulars of this received wisdom/commandments from on high, it is a little hard to say. Seasoning of meat is often performed before searing (think steaks), but this is commonly only in the form of a thin layer of salt and pepper and maybe herbs too, not a thick complete covering. I have also seared roasts and then placed on a bed of herbs and garlic to roast - though not rubbed as such.

If you used seasoning as above and not a thick layer, then it would be reasonable to sear after rubbing. However, if you applied a thick layer so as to form a crust, these will have to heat up to searing temp before the meat could even approach a temperature at which the maillard reaction could occur. This would also be at or above the temperature at which the sugars in the herbs would also caramelize and start to burn, as happened in your case. In such a case I would not sear, unless in a very hot oven for maybe 5-10 min, before turning down to cooking temp.

It could also be that the family recipe only applies the rub to a portion of the meat, perhaps just the top/skin side, and only sears the bottom (or vice-versa I suppose).

Perhaps your girlfriend's family only use a thin layer of seasoning rub before searing.  It may be best to get an invite to her next family roast and ask to help in the kitchen while preparations are on-going. If you are looking long-term, incidentally this, and helping with the dishes, are a  way to get into the good books with her family too. Another option is to simply ask her how she does it!


How to make sorbet have a snowy texture?

A variety of factors can change the texture of a sorbet:

The amount of sugar or other large quantity solutes (less dissolved solids, harder texture).

The rate of freezing (slower freezing, larger crystals).

The use of any "stabilizers" (guar/xanthan gum, gelatin, etc.). These interfere with the formation of large crystals. I believe the stabilizer I use is xanthan and guar gums, cold-soluble gelatin, and glucose but I can't remember the ratios I used.

I have started to use liquid nitrogen to freeze my ice cream and sorbet in my standard kitchen mixer. Once I did that I noticed that the texture was much finer, likely due to the stabilizer and the rapid freezing.

Related question: Creating a creamy sorbet


Why would I want to use the creaming method in waffles?

Butter in liquid state is more easy to mix and get an homogeneous batter.
Given enough effort, creamed butter does the same thing.

By effort, I mean making sure not to overlook tiny lumps of heterogeneous batter; otherwise the texture will be different. Also, if you are mixing the eggs with some lukewarm butter, it may be a health concern if you don't use the batter right away.

If you had a crumbly cookie-like texture, then my first thought is that the ratio was not correct or something was missing.


One of my favorite recipes is Giada De Laurentis' Wild Mushroom with Peas. It's rather simple, but amazingly delicious.

The most common flubs when making a risotto are overcooking or dumping in all the liquid at once. I always use the wooden spoon test to determine when the risotto is finished.

First, stir often!

Periodically drag your spoon down the center of the pan as to part the risotto. If the path the spoon makes closes quickly then it isn't finished yet. If the part stays open, then you've overcooked it. Ideally it slowly oozes back together.

You're looking for two important things in a perfect risotto:

Creamy

The finished risotto should be creamy, not runny, and not gummy. The spoon test takes care of this.

Tender

The rice grains should be tender, not crunchy, and not mushy. You should taste frequently as you approach the end of the cooking time. You want the grains slightly al dente. You should know that you have rice in your mouth and not just a good tasting mystery-paste.


It seems that oil has been driven out of the bearings.

For getting rid of oil contamination, soap is actually very useful. One or two empty runs should certainly get rid of what is left in the dishwasher itself, even if the oil is not food grade - otherwise, everyone running a dishwasher professionally would have to be worried about someone having eg touched a cup or plate with motor oil on his fingers.

Check if the bearing still runs decently; it might be best to take the bearing apart and re-grease it (this one looks like it is designed to be taken apart) - check whether you can find a repair manual and/or advice from the manufacturer on what grease should be used here.

If you use any non-approved type of grease, pay heightened attention when using the blender - any strange noises, smoke, slowing down... mean turn it off now.


I have to admit that I have never heard of boiling shelled peanuts, but apparently it's not uncommon.  From ZimboKitchen.com :

Quick Instructions

Get your main ingredient ready – 400 g shelled peanuts. Run them quickly through some water to remove dust and other particles.

Put your peanuts in a medium size pot and add your first 1 ltr of water. Add 1 tsp salt and partially cover your pot and bring to the boil. Add another 1 ltr of water when your initial water is finished.

After an average of 1 1/2 hrs (90min) your peanuts should be boiled and tender to enjoy. If not continue boiling until desired tenderness is achieved.

You may serve your snack and go work or play!

Notes:

You do need raw peanuts.

Other sites use pretty much the same recipe (salt & water), but called for longer cooking time. Some said several hours. I would suggest tasting as you go along and adjust salt and cooking time to your liking.


(How) can I keep cheddar in a car in summer for 2 weeks

Maybe a small, six-pack sized cooler, refresh with ice every morning and periodically rotate in cold beverages as you use and replenish those during the day?

Or, possibly, get a lunch thermos, put the cheddar in a baggie, in the middle, and add ice around.  Thermoses insulate, so they keep your food hot, but will also keep cold food cold.

Amazon.com: Thermos 12.oz. food jar

Or, maybe, buy small quantities of cheddar on the road and eat them instead of trying to preserve a two-week supply?  I'm assuming you're talking a fairly standard cheddar, and not something that can't be picked up on the road.....

Hook's to release 20-year cheddar for $209/lb

(I've had their 15-year cheddar, at about $55/lb at the time.  Fantastic!)


how long before a fresh chilli pepper is cooked?

You can certainly eat fresh chili raw, so no need to worry about killing anything (give it a rinse first).  It depends on the effect you are after.  Typically, "at the end of cooking" means to turn off the heat and add the ingredient.


It's all edible, of course.  So, much if your treatment is personal preference.  I find that the outer stalks are typically more stringy than the inner ones.  You can use a vegetable peeler to remove a layer of strings from the stalks.  That can help.


This issue has come up in our home.
 We did an experiment with a frozen homemade and a frozen store bought lasagna.  We defrosted both of them for 3 days in the refridgerator.  We did this to make the process of heating them easier, as it takes a much longer time to heat them up frozen.  They were both approximately 10 pounds each and took an oven each.  We heated them covered up at 325 degrees for about 90 minutes, and the last 15 minutes cranked up the heat to 400 degrees uncovered to give it a bit of a crust and also added more fresh cheese on the top.

Under no circumstances freeze it again just to cook it frozen, because it just ruins the texture of the cheese, the sauce gets watery and it's just not a good thing.

If you have leftovers, eat it the next day or two.  Remember, all components of the lasagna have been cooked already (unless you made it fresh and used the dry cooked lasagna layers) but a store bought one, most likely has been cooked already.

Now if you have smaller 1 or 3 pound ones, you can put them in the microwave and they will be just fine, and no, a few days defrosted is also okay, and most likely 5 to 15 minutes on high heat, rotating the lasagna will be all right.


Does soaking in saltwater for 20 mins help cleanse mussels?

Where I come from (Portugal) it is quite common to see in most restaurants and establishments shellfish being soaked several hours to even days long before consumption, especially sand dwelling shellfish, which is not the particular case of mussels.

The reason for this is that it keeps them alive and fresh for longer, while also purging any remaining sand or debris naturally found inside them, which is very common in burrowing shellfish, quite unpleasant to find when eating and can virtually ruin the dish.

These are however always soaked in either salted tap water at worse, or at preferably clean natural sea water from where they came from at best. Never just unsalted tap water, because this would obviously kill them quickly, and remove any natural salt that acts as flavor enhancer. Chlorine based disinfectants commonly present in tap water will also slowly affect quality of any living creatures (including aquarium fish) and may eventually be fatal them in the long run.

From your provided examples, most against soaking either state that tap water will kill them quickly, or considerably affect quality (which are both true); or is not needed for farmed shellfish.

I can't speak much for farmed shellfish, they are not as common here and quality may vary with providers and techniques, but even farmed one can some times be quite sandy.

So I'd say that soaking with either salted water or ideally sea water is at at worst redundant or not needed, but can be quite beneficial in some situations.

For farmed shellfish, if you find them clean and edible it is probably not needed, for "free range" ones you probably have more to gain by soaking than not.


Which cuts of beef are suitable for slow cooking methods?

Beef for Slow cooking methods:

When shopping for beef that will be cooked long and slow, price per pound within a grade will be a helpful guide. Less tender cuts that will be best cooked long with liquid will be much less expensive than the naturally tender cuts that require less cooking i.e. filet mignon.

From http://life.familyeducation.com/

  When shopping in the supermarket for meat destined for your slow cooker, here are the cuts to look for:

  Shanks - Shoulder - Round - Rump

  Even if they are not labeled as such, you'll know you've selected the
  proper slow cooker cuts when you compare the price of these cuts with
  cuts such as tenderloin, sirloin, and rib. And there is no need to go
  for the high-priced Prime grade meats. Choice and Standard quality are
  just fine.

To visually find the right cuts of beef for slow cooking look for:

Multiple muscle groups within the cut. In between each muscle is where you find the connective tissue that will break down. This shank has several.

Course grain is found in the working muscles of the animal. You can see the long fibers in this flank steak.

Fat - good marbling within the cut, but not too much on the exterior, like this pot roast.

A great guide to beef cuts can be found at chefsteps.com


Substituting red beans for adzuki beans?

My experience is that adzuki have a very different taste and texture than red beans and I wouldn't substitute one for the other.  If you've really gotten into mochi, it will be worth the effort to find adzuki  - I've bought them in natural food stores, Whole Foods and on line  And I buy in bulk so I never run out.  Beans seem to last forever.


Is It Possible to Make Elbow Pasta At Home?

You should be able to buy a pasta plate that will get you what you need.
The link is not a recommendation, just am example of what you are looking for.

Pasta plate for KitchenAid mixer


Deconstructed food; simple, complex or both?

Does the term deconstructed food really mean separated constituents or does it mean improved or simplified by inspecting the constituents and recombining them differently?

Yes. (As in either can be correct)

It's about taking the various components of a dish and perhaps just separating them, or it may mean putting them back together in an unusual or novel way.

More than anything, "deconstructed" is a current, hip and trendy buzzword.


How do baking supply companies blanch their hazelnuts?

I can't say which things are actually used, but this would seem to confirm my above guess, along with the other one - you can use more chemicals in industry than you would in a home.

Product and process of blanching nuts

  A product and process of removing the skins from nuts involves wetting the nut kernels with an alkaline solution and then with a peroxygen solution. The two substances react underneath the skin to liberate gas between the nut meat and the skin. The gas bubbles blister the skin, causing it to become loosened. Slight mechanical brushing is used to dislodge the blistered skins from the nut meats.

Method and apparatus for blanching nuts

  Two counter rotating rollers are provided having elastomeric exterior coatings into which ribs and grooves are formed for intermeshing to blanch nuts at a pinch point therebetween. Grooves in the lower roller hold nuts as ribs on the upper roller pass across the nuts to break skins on the nuts. The elastomeric exterior coatings have surface hardness values which measure around 30 durometer. The squeeze at the pinch point between the two rollers can be repeatably adjusted for running different sizes of nuts.

Not really helpful for doing it at home. Hard to say which ones are commonly used in industry, of course. You can find a lot more patents along these lines.


Is my pork Safe to eat after 3 hours sitting out??

Short answer:  "warm" is not guaranteed to be a temperature where pathogens will not grow--it is just intended to keep food warm for a short period of time as you eat dinner or similar.   It may even be creating conditions that will incubate any pathogens present and help them to grow.

Additionally, you had this food in a completely uncontrolled temperature environment for at least three hours.

You should discard this pork.

See also:  How long can cooked food be safely stored at room/warm temperature?


What type of cheesecake is the most common in southern US SuperMarkets?

Google search for various grocery store cheesecakes reveals:

http://www.gianteagle.com/entertain/entertaining-guide/dazzling-desserts (Scroll down a little)
http://www.grocerycouponnetwork.com/images/food-products/Safeway_Select_New_York_Cheesecake.jpg
http://s3-media2.ak.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/wN7AQw4j1DrckCZWxyMgYw/l.jpg
http://images.mysupermarket.co.uk/ProductsDetailed/77/177077.jpg
http://newyork.seriouseats.com/images/20091016cheesecake-sleebox.jpg

Is that what is meant? If so, it appears to be a fairly generic baked New York style cheesecake. Wiki says frozen ones often include sour cream instead of heavy cream, so they'll freeze better.


How much does a 2 1/2 square of graham crackers weigh

It would help if you provide the recipe.  Generally, there are two treatments for graham cracker in baking/cooking: layering or crushing.

If this is a recipe where the crackers are layered, it certainly won't matter, as you can estimate.

If you need to crush them, you might need to be more precise.  I can't provide the weight, but I think I can offer another way to consider the problem.

I am assuming (perhaps erroneously, but it probably wouldn't matter all that much) that the thickness has not changed.

Thanks to @Chris H for correcting my first attempt (is there a way to change this answer to his? I'm happy to hand it off...)

8 dozen 2.5 inch cookies = 600 square inches

8 dozen 2.25 inch cookies = 486 square inches

You will need about 25% more, or another 22 of the smaller cookie.

I think that should get you in the ballpark.


Should I read  ingredient weight as prepared or unprepared weight?

In your example, it means 500g pumpkin before preparing.

In general, you might see this two ways:

500g pumpkin. Dice the pumpkin.
500g diced pumpkin.

The first option refers to the weight before prepping while the second refers to the weight after prepping. In general, the second one is far more exact for the actual recipe while the first one is more exact for shopping. I assume ease of shopping plus presumption of yield is why the first one is so often used, although in high end cook books (Grant Achatz, Thomas Kellar, etc) the weights are often given post prep for precision.

You will see the same thing for volume measurements (i.e. one cup of nuts chopped vs one cup of chopped nuts).


How do you coat perfectly round truffles with melted chocolate?

I don't know about perfectly round, but you can do better.

Stick toothpicks in the truffles before dipping. Dip them using the toothpick, let it drip enough to make sure there's not a ton of excess, probably while spinning it a bit to let it cool slightly and make sure it doesn't all accumulate in one place. Then stab the other end of the toothpick into something to hold it with the truffle at the top. (A block of foam works, as does cardboard, though you might need to pre-poke holes.)

This avoids having a lot of excess coating chocolate, which it looks like you're getting a lot of when scooping out with a spoon. There can still be a little excess, but it'll drip down the toothpick, not get smeared all over. It also avoids having to mess up any of the surface by touching it with the spoon.

Beyond that, they'll be as perfectly round as you managed to roll the centers, which is mostly just a matter of a bit of practice and obsessiveness. So they won't be perfectly round, but they'll be a lot smoother and rounder, definitely enough to impress people. You do get a small hole on one side of the truffle, possibly with a tiny bit of excess chocolate around it where it collected against the toothpick, but I don't think that's terribly ugly. Plus as long as a decent fraction are pretty, you can just eat your mistakes.

Here's what a friend and I managed on our first try:

As you can see, they're definitely not perfect. But we got better at it as we went along. A lot of the irregularities are from initial inexperience, variation in chocolate temperature (we didn't have a great water bath or hot plate setup), and simply not having terribly round centers.

Finally, you might want to practice tempering the chocolate a bit better. Having nice glossy smooth surface makes them look a lot cleaner even if they aren't perfect.


We brew beer at home, so we have a product that does a really good job of this, called PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash). Our stainless steel coffee thermoses come out like new. The product description from a site that offers it reads:

  PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash) is a patented alkali cleaner originally developed for Coors, now widely used in commercial breweries across North America. Use 1 to 2 ounces per gallon for cleaning kettles, 3/4 ounce per gallon for fermenters, kegs, tanks, and other equipment. Soak equipment overnight in PBW solution; rinse the following morning - no scrubbing required! Will not damage rubber gaskets, soft metals, or your skin. PBW can effectively clean items that can't be reached with a brush or sponge, and is strong enough to remove thick, difficult, caked-on organic soils.

That said, we already have this product. I've been doing some research and it sounds like Oxiclean actually works about as well and you may already have some at home - and if not, you can likely find it more easily.


May I add whole wheat flour/Chickpea flour to garlic chicken soup?

This gets simple when you consider what the flour is used for:

You create a roux, which then thickens the soup. The starch in the flour is altered during the cooking process and then binds the liquid.

You can use any kind of flour that contains starch, but depending on the starch-to-other-components ratio, you might have to use a bit more for the same thickness. Unlike for baking (gluten!), chickpea flour will work fine in a roux. Also, a non-white flour might be visually less appealing because the external parts of the grain may give the soup a greyish or speckled appearance. Note that the less refined your flour is, the more it might influence the taste of the soup. But whether this matters obviously is a question of personal taste.

The choice is yours:
A few tablespoons of white flour in a pot of soup probably won't compromise your dietary regimen, but it's probably not worth going out to buy a whole bag for a single use.


I assume you are talking about something like : https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/Frigidaire-5304442087-Range-Stove-Oven-Broiler-Pan-1-Blue/PRD2Z84UNVIFLYX
Yeah, you could do it.
If you have parchment paper or silpat silicon baking mat, it would be even better


Can I still eat my bean sprouts that I left unrefrigerated?

Raw bean sprouts are considered to be a potentially hazardous food item or a TCS  food (time-temperature control for safety). Bean sprouts are likely to become unsafe due to bacterial growth if left un-refrigerated for more than four hours, as a warm, moist environment promotes bacterial growth. To err on the side of caution, you should throw your bean sprouts away.


Can I store raw meat in the fridge after defrosting in the microwave?

You can use it in a few days, that will be fine. Issues with food safety come into play largely when food is kept in the danger zone, around 40-140F for an extended time.

The texture of the bacon might not be quite as good since it's kind of like the second time you'll be cooking it.


The role of fat (butter, oil) in caramel-required recipes?

Well, I'd say it has mostly to do with texture, but also with taste.

To my knowledge there are three basic methods to making caramel:

dry:  without anything but sugar. In my opinion the most difficult method, as it tends to burn easily.
wet: with water added to make sugar syrup, which is then turned into caramel. The water evaporates during the process. It takes a bit longer, but in my opinion definitely easier to handle than the dry method. Also, as i recall, has a slightly different texture than the dry method caramel.
fatty: with fat, obviously. Fat doesn't evaporate and can get very hot, even though, not as hot as sugar alone. For me the easiest method. However, it should under no circumstances come in contact with water, or it get's very, very dangerous.

So in the first two cases you end up with mostly caramelized sugar and maybe water (depends on whether you let the water evaporate completely or if you try to end up with caramel sauce). With the third method, however, you end up with a caramel-fat mixture, which has of course different properties. For example, if it has enough fat, it turns soft again if it gets warm.

I think, for most of my applications, the fatty version gives a smoother, softer texture, which could indeed aid with the coating of nuts for example. This is probably, because most fats are soft or liquid when room temp. I think, it also affects taste, because fat is a natural flavor enhancer, which brings out the caramel flavor even more. Just like the salt in salted caramel. (On a side note, i think it also looks shinier, but that could just be my imagination. ;) )

As always with caramel: Be extra careful whichever method you're using. It is soooo fricking hot and you can burn yourself very, very easily. Stay safe!

Edit: for some extra science take a look at this paper I just found. It examines the effect of fat on caramel texture attributes. Might be interesting!


Potato and onion used in cheese & onion pasties

The raw potato will definitely cook through.  If you cooked the potatoes first, they would be almost devoid of texture by the time they cooked a second time in the oven - you'd have something more akin to mashed-potato pastries on your hands.

You might want to think about sweating the onions first, though.  Sweating them would drive-off some of their moisture and would mellow the taste of your pastry filling.  Definitely not a requirement, but I think you'd prevent soggy pastry bottoms and serve-up a better tasting treat.

Also, your recipe throws-out the notion of brushing the pastry tops with milk or egg like they are interchangeable.  Milk is traditionally used to soften the the crusts of breads - an egg wash will give your pastries a rich brown top.  I have never seen a puff pastry recipe that called for a milk wash.  Stick with the egg wash - beat a large egg with 1 Tbsp. water and brush the tops of your pastries lightly before parking them in the oven.


A pot of whipping cream is 270-290ml whipping cream.

Whipping cream is somewhere between single and double cream.

I'd love to get scientific with you but it's Christmas eve and the alcohol is flowing.


what does watt specify in induction stove

Watt specifies the power of the device.
Power is defined as energy per unit time. So watt is how quickly your device consumes energy.

If it is an efficient device it will convert more of consumed electricity into heat. So given two equally efficient devices the higher watt one will produce more heat faster and can therefore cook faster than the less watt one.

And the third part of your question has already been answered above. Yes, higher watt device will consume more electric power.


My experience with gas ovens is that they are much more susceptible to heat 'zones'. The top of the oven is markedly hotter than the bottom, and the back, nearer the flame, is hotter than the front. Other than that they are pretty similar to electric ovens.

Gas ovens may use gas mark settings rather than a temperature scale - converters abound online if so.


Where to buy a Scandinavian birch twig whisk?

I remember my mom used to have one, found this site: http://jas-townsend.com/birch-twig-whisk-p-1279.html


"1 cup, drained" - does that mean measure before or after draining?

Drain them first.  Your concerns are spot-on, and if you measured and then drained them, you would end up with less than 1 cup of yams.  Generally, you can tell be cause the recipe called for 1 cup of drained yams, not 1 cup of yams in their sauce.

Drain them, but double check that you won't need the liquid for anything later on in the recipe... That's a mistake I've made too many times with canned foods.


Substitute agar-agar for gelatine in no bake cheesecake

Whole recipe would be useful.
Going by various popular vegan no-bake cheesecake recipes,  I see 1 to 3 tsp of agar powder.
Higher ratios of fat will need the higher amount of agar.
Lemon juice as a flavoring in this case shouldn't be an issue. Even half of the liquid being lemon sets up fine as in these bars:
https://thehiddenveggies.com/vegan-lemon-bars/
Personally, I prefer kappa carrageenan over agar in stove top dishes as there is less boil time and partially sets while hot allowing for last minute tweaking.
ie test amount removed to cool surface.


Is it safe to eat yougurt after the expiration date that smells alright?

Of course!

The expiration date is merely a suggestion. It might well be good for months to come-- as long as green moss doesn't start growing on it, it will be fine.


Why do my nonstick fry pans 'bow up' and not make good contact with my flat top stove

The reason that cookware warps is that it is has too thin of a base.  When it has been heated to a high temperature, it warps upon cooldown.  The only way to avoid this is to buy very sturdy, heavy duty cookware.  You need to look for something with a very thick and heavy base, then you will have no issue.

And don't think that it will put you in the poor-house.  I bought new pans 6 years ago, and they are still fine.  The most I paid was $30 for my 14 inch pan.  Every other pan I bought on sale for 10-15 dollars.

As for pots, you should be able to get a good set of Lagostina (or comparable brand) which are certainly not professional, but they will do the job.  They will not run too much money.

Just reread your post, originally missed the bit on the end.  You absolutely do not need to spend 200 dollars on a pan.  Just do your homework on the brand you are buying.  Where do you live (country, I mean.  Not trying to be too personal)? I may be able to suggest some places if you live in North America.


All Clad Copper Core - everything sticks, why?

Pans made from different materials will heat your food at different speeds and to different temperatures.

Getting a perfect crust without sticking is a matter of very fine tuning. You have to set your stove just right, preheat the pan just right, and keep your food inside for just the right time.

If you spent 35 years cooking in a certain set of pans, you have unnoticeably fit your skills to them. You have a stove setting which you know works for you. You intuitively know just how long to preheat, when to start stirring, how much to stir... and this is all based on a certain heat transfer rate from the pan to the food, which has been constant for you over the years. Now, with a new pan, you are dealing with a completely different heat transfer rate. Also, you have chosen stainless steel, which is not a good surface for eggs (but should work well for bacon).

There is nothing wrong with the pan, but you'll have to go through a learning phase, experimenting a lot with temperature and timing, until you know the way to cook in your new pan until everything is just right. Observe your food carefully in the old and new pan and try to catch the moment at which the same change happens in both, this should help.


For Boiling Water Canning (not pressure canning) can you use other glass jar other than Mason Jar?

Most commercial pint- and quart-size mayonnaise or salad dressing jars may be used with new two-piece lids for canning acid foods. However, you should expect more seal failures and jar breakage. These jars have a narrower sealing surface and are tempered less than Mason jars, and may be weakened by repeated contact with metal spoons or knives used in dispensing mayonnaise or salad dressing. Seemingly insignificant scratches in glass may cause cracking and breakage while processing jars in a canner. Mayonnaise-type jars are not recommended for use with foods to be processed in a pressure canner because of excessive jar breakage. Other commercial jars with mouths that cannot be sealed with two-piece canning lids are not recommended for use in canning any food at home.

That is from the National Center for Home Food Preservation which is  basically a clearing house for USDA rules.  They have a lot of good, tested, authoritative info and are well worth bookmarking.

As a practical guide, you can use most any jar that the two piece canning lids will fit correctly.  The rubber sealant and canning lids, both one piece and two are no longer made with a film that is at all reliable for more than one usage.  Attempting to reuse them, especially the commercial one piece shown in the question is not safe and will lead to high numbers of seal failure.  But if the jar is the correct size for a 2-piece, even, and undamaged, it can be used.

Know though that these recycled jars are not the same as years ago.  The thickness and quality of the glass is less to save the packers money and weight and since most will be trashed anyway.  They are far more prone to breakage even with tiny scratches you may not even notice.  They even can be used in pressure canning, but only if you are prepared to lose some and you will get breakage and failures.  It will happen with hot water bath too, just not as often.  Use caution though, because sometimes the sizes are not exactly the same as mason type and the slight difference will cause a higher seal failure rate.


As outlined in the accepted answer of this Seasoned Advice question (Are these worms in my black eyed peas/beans?):

  Beans and related plants have an embryo in their seeds. In white legumes, the embryo is a light pink color and looks indeed like a larva.

That's likely what you're seeing. I know I've used white beans that were pink-ish before, and nothing bad has ever happened (though I'm hardly an authoritative source). Biggest thing to check for in canned beans, as far as I know, is whether the can itself is swollen at all, and whether the beans/juice have an unusual smell.


Carefully! You can always add more, but you can't really remove spices once they are added.

If your spices are ground, you can just add them to the gravy and stir them in. Salt, you can add any time.

If your spices are whole, you can simmer them for a while in the gravy and them remove them. You can also toast them in a separate dry pan, grind them (see here), and then add them to your gravy. Again, carefully!


What are the consequences of leaving the fridge door cracked open overnight?

If the food had reached a temperature of 21 C for an unknown amount of time, you should definitely discard it.

See:
How do I know if food left at room temperature is still safe to eat?

As a more general rule, there really is no way to provide a definitive answer; it depends on your specific refrigerator, the cooling power it has, how much air was able to move through the gap, and how much mass was inside the refrigerator to provide a thermal buffer

If you had a refrigerator thermometer and looked at what temperature the interior rose to, if it was below 40 F you are good.

If you don't have a thermometer, you don't know exactly what happened inside.

You must assess how much tolerance for risk you have.


There is no simple conversion, as you are looking for outcomes.

Typically what can be done in a pressure cooker for stock or braise type applications in 15-30 minutes might take 3 hours on stove top.  An hour and a half in a pressure cokoer might be analogous to a full day (call it eight to ten hours) of more traditional cooking.  Doing so in an oven (300 F, 180 C) is even better than a stove top, as there is less risk of scorching.

A good quality recipe will give you a test to know when an item is done.  For example, meat falling off the bones in a braise.  Stock is one of the few things where its hard to give a specific test, but you should at least have good flavor development, and thinner bones will become flexible.

90 hours is simply unreasonable for almost any type of cooking whatsoever.  Perhaps they meant 9 hours, which is in the ballpark.

I suggest finding a better source recipe; if this recipe is far off on cooking time, how many other problems does it have?


How do I "save" my Christmas Cookies (Venetians)?

Well, here is what I did to "save the cookies" --

With one batch I put them together with the jam, pressed them overnight, cut them in squares, put them in a pan with EggNog, let them soak overnight,turned them over and soaked them a little more.

With a second batch I did the same as above-- but I also added some Amaretto during the soaking process.

I served them with a sprig of mint. and a drizzle of dark chocolate.
They were a hit. The overcooking created a biscotti-ness prior to the soaking-- and left the final desert, yummy, and of a firm enough texture to still hold together as a dessert!

So, that is how I ended up saving the over-cooked Venetians.


The most common data point seems to be that any moisture level below 35% will inhibit growth of the C. Botulinum spores that cause botulism.  It's hard to point to true scientific sources because they tend to be protected, but if you spend a few minutes on Google (try this query) you'll see that it is in fact confirmed in several of the scientific journals.

I seem to be seeing snippets of references (which I can't view the full text of) that suggest possible growth at moisture levels  as low as 16%, but most garlic flakes have 6% moisture or lower, which is way too low for botulism.

If you are seriously concerned - perhaps you live in a very humid climate and don't have air conditioning - then toss a desiccant into the container to be sure that the moisture level stays down.  The most popular are those little packets of silica gel (don't open them!), but there are many more - see Wikipedia's list of desiccants.

Honestly though, chances are your flaked garlic is already free of C. Botulinum spores after the dehydrating process, and nothing's going to grow no matter how you store the dried stuff.  The above paragraph is only included for the hyper-paranoid.  Powdered/flaked garlic is safe to store at room temperature.

If you're actually storing this garlic in the oil (it's not entirely clear from your question) then that's another story, and theoretically you're making it possible for the spores to grow again.  So it comes down to a question of whether or not the garlic flakes are already clean.  That's extremely likely to be the case, but not a sure thing, and personally, I don't know if I'd chance it; best to follow the same precautions as those for fresh garlic and soak them in vinegar for 24 hours to kill any spores (although you might as well use fresh garlic in this case).


Eggs are added to a cake primarily to help it rise, and to a limited extent to improve the moistness.  The lecithin in the yolk also has emulsifying properties.  For cakes, commercial egg replacers such as Ener-G will usually do the job nicely.

There's also a dairy product called QimiQ that's used in all manner of recipes to substitute for eggs, especially when a recipe needs raw eggs.  It will also work well for cakes, although the substitution tends to be a little more involved.  Also, it's probably harder to obtain.

I wouldn't substitute anything else in a cake.  I've heard of people substituting all manner of things in other baked goods like cookies, but with a cake, you really need it to rise and you need the wet ingredients to bind together with the fats, and the only single "common" ingredient that will do that is either egg or a commercial egg substitute.

If you're literally about to bake this, as in you've got all your other ingredients already sitting in mixing bowls, and need to substitute the eggs with common ingredients you already have in your fridge or pantry, then I'm afraid you may have wasted your time (and your other ingredients).  But maybe somebody else will have some suggestions - guess it can't hurt to wait, given the alternative.


Some crabs are better tasting than others.  Ornamental crabs, to my knowledge none are inedible, but tend to be very small, and high skin/seed to flesh so tend to be too much trouble to bother with.  Larger crabs though can be very desirable for some applications.  They are often blended in mixed ciders, both sweet and fermented.  They will be tart to very tart and even bitter, but when blended with other juices add what many people consider a very refreshing bite to the juice.  Candied crabs and apple butter are commonly made with them and they can be used for jams other applications especially mixed with other apples to increase tartness.

There are a wide variations of varieties, just as with full size apples, and some will seem better than other.  If they are wild seedling trees rather than grafter varieties, the quality of the fruit may be hit and miss, and even some of the cultivated named varieties may be astringent, especially some which are marketed for their hard cider characteristics where the astringency is desirable.  If the particular ones you have will work will be mostly dependent on your tastes and the variety, and how willing you are to work with the smaller fruit.  Even the sweetest crabs are likely to have a lot more tartness than a granny smith.


For starters, the pasty stuff in your sieve is most likely just fiber from the vegetables. Cabbage and carrots in particular have a lot of fiber and unless you have a really high powered blender, you're not going to break it down enough to pass through a sieve. Most immersion blenders certainly won't be able to do it.

As for the sweetness, usually to bring out the sweetness in vegetables, they are roasted before the liquid is added to make the base of the soup. You could try roasting the carrots and peppers or caramelizing the onions as a prior step.


My hand mixer came with dough hooks, can I knead dough with it?

If you do most of the kneading while the dough is very wet (like Jeff Varasano recommends for his pizza dough here http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm), you should be able to do most of it with even a comparatively weak hand mixer and not have too much trouble holding it steady enough (see link - gluten IS working even though the dough is still only slightly more dry than a batter).

That said, if you try to work with a drier dough, even if your motor can handle it (which it likely can't), it will probably be more difficult to hold the mixer than to just knead the dough by hand.


It seems at the least plausible, on two fronts.

If I'm reading http://ajpgi.physiology.org/content/291/6/G1005.full correctly, saltiness and sourness can cancel each other out to some extent.
Salt can increase perceived sweetness: T1r3 taste cells have sodium-glucose co-transporters which may provide the explanation.


New Oven in the US, Which would home cooks prefer?

Only some 30" ranges (the technical term for an oven with an integrated cooktop) have actual warming drawers, generally only high-end models. Most only have a storage drawer, one that for efficiency reasons should be well insulated from the oven proper and so isn't suitable for warming foods. A warming drawer will have its own heat source with dedicated controls.

I think most Americans would expect a 30" range and wouldn't expect an actual warming drawer. It probably wouldn't make a big difference either way, but a few might be put off if they think can't cook a huge turkey, even if they never will.

However, I'm not sure why you're concerned with future tenants. If you're renting the space then just get the range you want. Stick the old range back in when you move out and sell yours.

If on the other hand you own the space and will be renting it out in the future than I don't think what your tenants would expect should be a priority. The range you get for your renters should be cheap and easy to maintain. They will not treat it well and if it breaks it's your problem. In particular don't get a range with a glass top as these require level a care you can't really expect from a renter.


How to make specific taste more obvious in slow cooker

I think the most general answer here is often: if ingredients might be "overpowered" (or "absorbed"), add them toward the end of cooking.

Slow cookers are great for making flavors homogeneous -- over long periods, all the flavors flow together, with some less flavorful ingredients absorbing flavor from others.  In many cases, this is perceived to be beneficial: onions absorb flavor from beef liquid, and the beef gets some onion flavor in return.  Or, for example in the case of things like beans, they end up absorbing a lot of the flavors around them and can turn from relatively mild-flavored (or even bland) to highly flavorful.

If you do NOT want that to happen in a slow cooker, the only real remedy is to allow less time for the flavors to mingle.  In practice, this may mean adding some ingredients for only the last hour or the final 30 minutes or even 5 minutes of cooking.

With that said: Lifting the lid at that point does have the potential to alter temperature significantly in the slow cooker and to alter cooking times (not to mention the temperature fluctuation introduced by putting a bunch of room temperature or cold food in).  So unless you have a recipe that is specifically designed to add in food at a later stage like that, you may also consider pre-heating or even pre-cooking the other food separately, and merely mixing them together at serving time or slightly before.  Yes, it's extra work (and for some people defeats the purpose of "throwing it all together" in your slow cooker), but it will help keep flavors more distinct.

It's the equivalent of adding a garnish of fresh-grated cheese or a spritz of citrus juice or a fresh-chopped herb or vegetable on top of a dish before serving -- you do it then, because you'd lose the distinctive "fresh" flavors if you cooked them into the dish for a longer period.


What are the advantages of serving fries in a metal cone?

In a traditional British chip shop, you would have got your chips (fries for Americans) in yesterday's newspaper, wrapped into a cone shape. These days of course, it's food grade greaseproof paper, but it's still in the same shape.

I suspect the reason for serving chips in a cone is that simple tradition. Also, there may be thermal reasons, that it allows the chips on the top to get cool enough to eat, without the chips at the bottom getting too cold by the time you get to them.

I can't speak about the seasonings. Traditional chips would just have salt and vinegar poured n from the top by the customer himself.


Achieving 'glossy', ultra smooth pudding texture

Without the actual recipe to work with it's hard to suggest precise modifications (I don't have the cookbook you mention), but it's quite possible that store-bought puddings have more gelatin and/or gum-like ingredients. Gelatin can be added to a ganache (normally some combination of chocolate and cream, with a low-gloss finish) to achieve a "mirror glaze", which has a very smooth, consistent, high-gloss surface. Perhaps adding a bit more gelatin (and liquid?) to your recipe will get you there.


Does leaving the lid on make a difference to whether the meat in a soup softens/cook properly?

The only thing that gets the connective tissue in tough cuts to loosen is heat. With the lid on, you've got more insulation. I'd bet you a shiny nickle that the meat towards the bottom of the pot was a touch more cooked than the meat at the top of the pot— you're losing a lot of heat where all of that liquid is hitting room-temperature air. With my immersion circulators, for example, I can't keep the water bath much above 70c without covering them, but the second I cover it, the temperature shoots right up. So sure, the lid likely made it cook a little more quickly and evenly. That said, allowing your cooking liquid to evaporate and intensify as you stew your meat can be a good thing too.


Why are there spikes growing out of my ice tray?

They're often called ice spikes. Ten years ago these things were pretty mysterious, but now Wikipedia even has a video of them growing out of ice cube trays in a freezer.

Basically, the ice surface freezes first, which slightly pressurizes the water underneath. That water breaks through the crust, and continues to flow, and freeze to equalize pressure within the cooling cube. Temperature conditions have to be just right for it to happen, so you don't see them all the time.


If the insides aren't cooked when the outsides are, you're cooking too hot. Lower the baking temperature... try a batch at 300F for 30 minutes and test them. If that doesn't work, drop it another 15-20 F and extend the time a bit.

It's all a matter of getting the right balance between heat to cause browning and time to let the inside cook completely.


A roast should be fine for 3-4 days, refrigerated see:

Beef board reference

If any of several modern packaging systems are used--most of which are designed to exclude air and pathogens, you can get significantly longer storage, although freezing is probably still not a bad idea:

Beefresearch.org


The way my French boyfriend and French roommate (both with Spanish grandmothers) pronounce the name, it does sound like "Monte Cows," or "monte cailloux." As far as I have been explained this cookie have resulted from a mix ofMuslim/Ottoman cuisine and Spanish cuisine; it's definitely not French. It is also affectionately referred to as a "poor person's cookie" because of its super-simple ingredients.

The recipe is a simple ratio of 3:2:1 -- 3 parts flour, two parts sugar, one part oil (we've used canola or peanut, both work well). We've used measuring cups or just regular mugs or even small bowls and it has worked every time. If they're a tiny bit dry and crumble too easily when you're shaping them, adding a tiny bit more oil helps keep everything together. Cinnamon sprinkled on top is great, and I tried adding a tiny half-teaspoon of almond extract once.


Most western substitutes call for using Corn Starch instead since the two have similar binding properties. For example see this:

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/tapioca-flour-substitute.html

Garri/Gari may seem closer to home, since it made from Tapioca as well (aka Casava), but it is a different composition than Tapioca flour. While Tapioca flour is primarily starch, Garri's composition is somewhat the opposite since Garri is what remains after the starchy water is drained from mashed-up, oiled Tapioca.

As suggested, look for starch-based flours, your best option is Corn Starch available in most countries.

Sources for my research:

On Tapioca Starch:
http://www.bobsredmill.com/blog/healthy-living/what-is-it-wednesday-tapioca-flourstarch/

On Garri: Wikipedia :)


How do I extract coconut milk from coconut meat?

Empty the water from inside the coconut, as this is not the milk you want.
Crack open your coconut and scrape out the meat.
In a blender, take about half your meat and roughly 1 1/2 cups of hot water (more or less depending on your desired thickness), and process.
Repeat step 3 with the other half of the meat.
Place a few layers of cheesecloth over a bowl and strain the milk through.
Wrap up the cheesecloth and squeeze the rest of the milk out.

No special press or tools needed. However, some sort of press could help get the last few drops out when squeezing the mass through the cheesecloth.

I don't think the water necessarily has to be hot. Some sources say to just use water, while other say hot. You may also want to start out with just 1/2 cup water and see how much it yields. Keep in mind: coconuts aren't super juicy. So expect the yield to be roughly equivalent to the amount of water used.

The flesh is still perfectly usable, but its applications may be limited based on how much you processed it (in terms of size).

This site has the step-by-step I used with a few (albeit not very helpful) pictures.


Should tuna steaks sit out before cooking?

The same logic applies. The smaller the temperature difference between uncooked and cooked, the easier it will be to get an even amount of cooking all the way through. Especially with a fast method of cooking like broiling.


Hard and brittle fat as cocoa butter alternative

Such a thing doesn't exist. Cocoa butter is absolutely unique in that respect, to the point where even thinking of cocoa butter only is not sufficient - only two of its six crystal forms give you the desirable texture, that's why we temper chocolate. With anything else, every halfway mindful eater will easily recognize that what they are eating is not real chocolate, and has a quite different texture.
The closest you can get are commercial replacements. They are sold under names such as "baking chocolate", usually in the baking aisle. If you have never used them yourself, you probably know them from eating commercially prepared foods with them, for example they make up the chocolate glaze on ice cream, or on the packaged marble cake in supermarkets, or on other products such as jaffa cakes. They contain a high percentage of real cocoa powder, the fat is specially formulated vegetable fat, and at freezing temperatures, they do have a satisfying snap (see the ice cream case), while at room temperature, a thin layer of them is somewhat comparable to a dry ganache. They do work well as a cheaper alternative of adding a bit of chocolate to baked goods, but not for pure chocolate work.
The cocoa fat somebody else mentioned is hard at room temperature, but has a completely different texture. It also has the unique quality of melting at body temperature, taking its energy from the mouth. This is why it is used in "ice confections", candies which cool down your mouth when you hold them on your tongue. Beside this very noticeable effect, it has no snap, and while it does make solid confections, they won't be mistaken for being made with actual cocoa butter.
The third option you can use, if you are trying to save money and not to work around an allergy, is to work with the cheapest unfilled chocolate bars you can buy. They use a mixture of cocoa butter, heavier fractions of vegetable fats, and special emulsifiers which make the texture somewhat closer to real chocolate. They do have a slightly different, waxy consistency, but in some parts of the world (e.g. the USA), this is what people actually associate with chocolate, due to the use of these emulsifiers in the most popular brands of chocolate bars. You can melt and shape these bars reasonably well, as well as make ganaches and similar with them, and the taste and texture is not worse than when you bite into the bar as-is. If you like the taste, it should be a viable option for you.


Learning through repertoire is a good way to build standard skills in nearly every discipline. If what you want is to be able to create a variety of good meals then cooking out of books will serve you well. That isn't to say that the book you choose doesn't matter, of course it does! A book full of accurate facts and procedures does not a good teacher make. Choose a cookbook that is so engrossing that you don't mind reading it like a novel. That's how I felt reading Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook and I'm sure you can find a similarly inspiring work.

Understand that this makes you one who can produce recipes, nothing more. I mean this earnestly and non-disparagingly, as being one who can replicate a good recipe time and again is one who has a high level of skill. Still, most who delve into cooking and the culinary arts are rarely satisfied by this state of affairs. One desires to substitute ingredients, build on a base, even invent their own cuisine! For that, experimentation is the best teacher. You're going to have to start cooking boldly and failing often to achieve that. There really is no better teacher than making something completely inedible out of $50 worth of pork, then adding insult to injury with a fast food dinner. =/


What is the optimal method for making box macaroni and cheese?

The 4th version you gave is optimal from a chemistry standpoint; the process of using heat to melt a soft fat and dissolve a powder into a liquid by stirring is going to be at it's most efficient when the ingredients can fully interact with each other without all that pasta in the way.

It seems the main issue at hand here is the 10-15 minute wait for perfection that you mentioned. The thickening agents in the cheese powder need a few minutes to do their molecular bonding magic, and there's nothing we can do to speed that up. All 4 methods you mentioned are going to force this wait for creamy goodness because you aren't starting the sauce until after the macaroni is done.

While I don't have impatient kids to cook for, I do have an occasionally 'hangry' wife so I understand the value of efficiency here. What I would highly reccomend you try (and the method I use at home) for Kraft mac & cheese is basically the 4th one in your question, but instead of waiting until the macaroni is done and using the same pan for the sauce, just grab a second pan and prepare the sauce while the macaroni is cooking.

Put the second pan over med-low heat and throw in your butter (hard or soft, doesn't matter). After the butter has melted, add the cheese powder and stir until it's mostly wet clumps instead of dry powder. Then add your milk and stir everything together until the powder is dissolved. Just keep an eye on it and occasionally stir while the macaroni finishes cooking. You'll definitely notice it thickening up after a few minutes. When the macaroni is done, drain it and return it to the pot like normal, and stir in your sauce; by this time it should be the perfect consistency or very close. Voila, mac & cheese "aged to perfection" without actually having to wait.


I would start by rolling the pastry dough thinner; I often have my dough too thick the first time or two that I work with a recipe.  Keep the dough cold to make it easier to work with.

Next, I would try different oven times and temperatures.  Try a temperature 25-50 degrees (F) higher, and pull the rolls out 30 seconds to one minute sooner.  The nice thing about playing with oven times and temps is that you can go through many tests quickly by just putting a few of the items in for each time/temp combination.  (Extra mass in the oven, such as a pizza stone or even some bricks, will help keep the oven temp more steady.)

If the outside of your rolls are getting over done before the inside is done, try chilling the rolls in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so before baking.


When making french fries, can I precut them before baking or frying them?

Regarding potatoes, not sweet potatoes:
It's actually great to precut potatoes for French fries, it gives you an opportunity to soak them in water, which removes the starch and simple sugars from the outside of the fries and even from just below the surface. In fact, many if not most places that make fresh cut French fries do cut the fries in advance and leave them soaking in the refrigerator until fried to order.
You don't say how long your drive is going to be, but if it is less than six hours, you can just put the cut fries and ice water in a Tupperware container for the trip. Longer than six hours you should probably either replenish the ice during the trip or use a cooler. Of course, depending on the weather, the trunk may work as a fridge - but don't let them freeze!
Your soaking container should either be pretty close to at least half-again the volume of your cut fries, or you should rinse them well first and change the water at least once while the fries are soaking.
From Caroline Russock writing for Serious Eats:

Russets or baking potatoes are the best, whereas waxy potatoes (such as Red Bliss or new potatoes) simply won't do. Soaking is key—this removes the starch, keeps the potatoes from sticking together, and eliminates the sugars that prevent the potatoes from achieving maximum crispness.

America's Test Kitchen (Sorry, paywalled) says pretty much exactly the same thing:

Experts agree (just ask McDonald's or our test cooks) that russet potatoes are the best variety for frying—either in a vat of bubbling oil or on a baking sheet in the oven. Unlike other potato varieties, russets produce fries with light, ethereal centers. But they are not perfect.
Russets can produce excessively thick crusts and somewhat dry interiors. The thick crust is caused by the browning of simple sugars in the russet, and the best way to remove some of the surface sugar is to soak the potatoes in water. The water has an added benefit. Potato starches gelatinize completely during cooking. The water introduced during soaking improves the creaminess and smoothness by working its way between the strands of gelatin starch. The final result is a fry that has a good surface crunch married to a smooth interior.

From the recipe attached the Serious Eats article:

Put the fries in a large bowl of cold water and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 8 hours.

Be sure to dry them well before cooking!
Fresh cut French fries were a big part of the business in my café. It wasn't unusual for us to have French fries soaking for as long as two days, perhaps even three. I never noticed any quality problem from soaking too long, but the French fries were simply not good if we didn't have time to soak them for at least a half an hour.
Cook's Illustrated (also known as America's Test Kitchen) (Sorry, again paywalled) looked at oven fries. For that application, they soaked the cut potatoes in hot water. I suspect that starting at a higher temperature was beneficial for baking. To get the best of both worlds I might do a final soak in hot water. As I mentioned above, I haven't seen over-soaking as a problem.

For an easy, no-splatter oven fries recipe that would produce potatoes with a golden, crisp crust and a richly creamy interior, we followed this procedure: We soaked peeled russet potatoes, cut into wedges, in hot water for 10 minutes to remove starch. To prevent the potatoes from sticking, we poured oil, salt, and pepper on the baking sheet instead of on the potatoes. And to get the combination of creamy interior and crisp crust we wanted, we covered the potatoes with foil to steam them for the first five minutes of cooking for our oven fries recipe and then uncovered them and continued to bake until they were golden and crisp.


The British tea? Don't know what that's all about. Anyway...

English Breakfast Tea is a mixture of Assam, Ceylon and Kenya teas that is often served with a dash of milk and sugar to taste. The UK Tea Council discusses their view of the appropriate way to serve each variety at the supplied link. I would think that a great majority of British people take their tea with milk (I don't find the type of tea used palatable without, as it is somewhat bitter and high in tannins, and I don't think many other people do either). When I say a dash, what I mean is somewhere in the region of 10% of the volume of the cup, rather than the half and half or thereabouts used in beverages like chai.

Most British people (in my experience at least) use teabags which are simply added to the cup and hot water poured on top. However adding several spoonfuls of loose tea to a teapot is not uncommon, as was probably done for millennia wherever tea was drunk, prior to the invention of the teabag.


What is the best substitute for eggs when baking cookies?

There is no substitute when it comes to cookies. Aquafaba is an egg white substitute that can be whipped into peaks, but it would make cookies too runny without any benefit. Vegan cookie recipes make up for the lack of eggs with a bit of extra margarine or coconut oil and maybe a spoon or two of milk substitute. Rather than trying to adapt a recipe I would suggest looking for a vegan cookie recipe and using the proportions from that.


That sure looks like anodized aluminum that has been put through the dishwasher. I have never seen a non-stick coating that washes off in the dishwasher.

If it is anodized aluminum then it is harmless to continue using the pan.

I suggest contacting the manufacturer (stamped on bottom) if you want to be safe.


Can I fix a chewy beef joint after it's already cooked and sliced?

Stack the slices up neatly, tie them together with some string and either use a slow-cooker (crockpot), or steamer to finish the cooking

Cook for at least the amount of time it missed on plus about 5 to 10 minutes for it to get back up to cooking temperature

The other option is to cut it up and add use it to make a new stew or casserole