You can use UHT milk in cheeses that don't contain rennet, basically cheeses that are formed by adding acid to milk, allowing it to curdle, and then separating the whey. Quark, Paneer, Queso Fresco and Ricotta are all cheeses of this type. Opinions differ on whether UHT milk can make good cheese of this type, but it's clear that you can achieve cheese. Serious Eats discusses the use of UHT in Ricotta here. "UHT milk does not work as well as regular pasteurized milk. It has a smaller yield, and the curds do not cling together properly. The results weren't terrible, and would do in a pinch."

Even though Mozzarella can be made without rennet, it has a reputation for being particularly troublesome with UHT milk. Pictures of UHT Mozzarella Fail

UHT Pasteurization denatures the proteins in milk to the point that they can no longer hold the curd shape, they can't fully solidify. So you can certainly try UHT in Ricotta type cheese, you may find it perfectly tasty, but I'd recommend not even trying to make rennet cheese or Mozzarella.


Is there any dessert that needs a knife?

In certain cultures whole pieces of fruit, like an apple, for example, will be served for dessert and the diners are expected to eat it using fork and knife only - no fingers. as far as traditional desserts such as pies and cakes, I'm sure you must mean whether the individual serving requires a knife because, of course, a whole cake or pie must be cut into individual servings. I've only seen dessert forks offered for traditional baked desserts.  There's an interesting website on manners that deals specifically with eating desserts using a fork and spoon, but no knife.

http://www.etiquettescholar.com/dining_etiquette/table_manners/dinner_etiquette/desserts/desserts.html


You could use fresh chopped green herbs and some minced red pepper as a Christmas color themed garnish.


I found some publications about the decomposition of Bisphenols A and E in high-temperature water (BPA: https://doi.org/10.1039/B313509H, BPE: https://doi.org/10.1021/ie060888l). But "high temperature" in their context means 250°C - 300°C (at correspondingly high pressures), while at lower temperatures the reaction rate was practically zero.

Since the reactions described rely on water, dry heating is probably even less successful (and besides, most foods contain water anyway). And I would at least not take it for granted that the decomposition products in either case are less harmful than BPA itself.

So, for household purposes, the answer is clear: No, heating food is not a viable option to destroy BPA.


Can you make pan gravy if the turkey was brined?

I believe that I have made some of those conflicting comments.

It is definitely possible to make an excellent pan gravy with the drippings from a brined turkey.

It is also really easy to have the gravy turn out inedibly salty if you aren't careful.

Make sure you follow the brining recipe. Don't have too high a concentration of salt and don't brine for too long. Rinse off the bird, inside and out, before roasting.

I have also read, from reliable sources such as Harold McGee, that gravy is impossible. My own experience would suggest otherwise.


I find that brushes and even paper towels are too rough on mushrooms. I use cold running water and gentle rubbing by hand.


I generally find that basting while grilling is less about keeping the internal meat moist and more about preventing outside from scorching. If you've brined and injected the turkey breast, I'd say you are fine as long as the exterior isn't browning too quickly.


Most freezers are frost-free, which means that they occasionally cycle above freezing to prevent formation of frost on the walls of the freezer. This makes them easier to maintain but it shortens the storage longevity of the food.

This makes products stored in them vulnerable to freezer burn, which is a loss of moisture. It can also cause ice and IQF products like frozen fruits or vegetables to solidify into a single mass. If you have ice cube trays, you may even notice them becoming empty after a few months of sitting unused.

Freezer burn is a loss of quality, though, not a health issue. The food isn't spoiling.

If you have a "deep freeze" or a non frost-free freezer that you only access occasionally, you can certainly keep foods for nearly indefinite periods of time without worrying as much about freezer burn.

You can also reduce the likelihood of freezer burn by following better freezer practices.

Resources available here and here and here.


Slight smell and slight bitter taste of the belly parts of grilled fish

From what I've been told, the bitterness around fish belly is caused mainly by spilled bile when the liver or gallbladder is punctured.
May be caused by improper handling, packaging, rough treatment, excessive pressure (too much weight during storage or transportation), or careless cleaning procedure.
Improper cleaning or removal of the guts may also play a secondary role, though I suspect bile to be the main culprit.
You can some times tell in advance if you notice mustard-yellow spots in the inner walls of the fish belly before or cooking, which tend to turn silvery-greenish after cooking, caused by the spilled bile tainting the meat.
These are usually a indication of bitterness.

You can see an example around the area where the finger is touching the fish. Image source
Food source of the fish may also play a significant role in belly taste.
I have noticed that aquaculture or farmed fish tend to have little to no bitter taste at all, as opposed to wild or free range ones, possibly due to different feeding habits. Farmed ones likely exclusively eat the provided feed (with controlled selection of ingredients for taste and growth), rather than whatever they can naturally find in their environment.
Specifically addressing the pheromone as a cause, I've never personally heard about it, but pork does get Boar Taint (which is pheromone based effect on taste), so it is not totally beyond the realms of possibility, thought I'd expect it to have a widespread effect of fish as well, rather than just around the belly.
I have recently had fresh grilled wild White Seabream (Sargo) and it is one of the worse fish in terms of bitterness, which contrasts strongly with the aquaculture Gilt-Head Bream I can buy at the same vendor, and has absolutely no bitter taste, supporting my food source hypothesis.


I tried freezing tzatziki sauce but wasn't happy with it when thawed as it seemed to separate easily and even when mixed thoroughly it seemed to have a different, more watery texture than when fresh.

What I do now if I have cucumbers I need to use is to prepare and process them exactly as I would for fresh tzatziki sauce. I freeze the processed cucumber in 1/2 or 1 cup containers and thaw to make fresh tzatziki sauce. Works great and the added bonus is that it doesn't take up as much room in the freezer.


You can't absolutely guarantee that it's safe. Botulism spores can survive to pretty high temperatures. (The botulism toxin itself is generally inactivated at cooking temperatures, but the spores are also dangerous.)

That said... the water will separate from the oil, so if you don't see a layer of water at the bottom, then it's fine. And although there is some risk if it is there, the odds are fairly low, and I personally wouldn't worry too much about it. (If the lid has been sealed, though, and you get off-gassing when you open it, then it's probably best to chuck it.)


Here's a picture of some raw ground beef from the Wikipedia ground beef article so that you can see for yourself.  Basically it is beef that has been run through a meat grinder, great for making taco meat, hamburgers, and the like.


While it might be too tough and bitter to eat as a raw salad, you might try it as a warm wilted lettuce salad with a sweet and sour dressing (bacon, bacon grease, onions, cider vinegar, sugar) to help mask bitterness.

Alternatively you might also try a Lettuce and Pea Soup:
Sweat onions in butter, season with salt and pepper.  Add lettuce and wilt down.  Add fresh or frozen green peas along with chicken stock and bring to a simmer until peas are soft and tender.  Puree (maybe add a little chopped fresh mint) and adjust seasoning with additional salt, pepper, and sugar if the peas don't produce enough sweetness.


What is a device used to slice tomatoes with in one motion called?

Yes, believe it or not... it's called a Tomato Slicer, but they are also sometimes referred to as a Tomato Saber. Which is a product name originally from the commercial company Price Castle.

Although I agree with Stephie and janeylicious just include the additional keyword 'commercial' with your search.

Another option is that you can try the keyword 'Tomato Saber', this should also aid to a successful search.


It's important to distinguish between the two different types of "crisping" that both happen in bread.

The first is the Maillard reaction which is caused by the sugars reacting with proteins; this is facilitated by high heat and low moisture, and is what actually causes the bread to turn brown (and eventually to burn).

The other is simply the evaporation of water - drying it out - which can make the bread or crust noticeably "crisper" without any browning.

The Maillard reaction happens at 154° C / 310° F, which is much higher than the boiling point of water (100° C / 212° F), so the evaporation happens first.  If you put a piece of bread in the oven at a low temperature and leave it there for half an hour, it will crisp up significantly but not brown.

So essentially it depends on what kind of "crispiness" you want.  High heat will cause the Maillard reaction to occur and that will crisp it up faster, but you have to shorten the cooking time, otherwise it will burn.  Lower heat, on the other hand, will crisp much slower - and if the heat is too low, you won't get any browning - but you can leave it in there for much longer and the crust will keep getting drier (i.e. crispier) due to the water evaporation.

The instructions are correct.  High heat causes more "crispiness" in some applications, where almost all of the crisping comes from the Maillard reaction or caramelization of some kind, but bread is an exception because of its porousness and high water content (easy for water to evaporate).


How can I tell if vitelottes/purple potatoes have "green flesh"?

Sprouting and turning green are two basically unrelated things.

Sprouting means the tuber tries to form roots and grow into a new plant. It can be triggered by light, but even more so by warmth and the "internal clock" of the potato. That's the reason you are supposed to store potatoes in a cool place, ideally around 10C / 50F.
And yes, the sprouts contain solanine, but as they are not eaten and sprouting does not significantly raise the solanine content, sprouting per se is not critical.
(The reason gardeners encourage sprouting in light is the fact that the sprouts remain shorter, less brittle and some even grow the first tiny leaves.)

Greening, on the other hand, happens whenever a tuber is exposed to light - even in those that are growing slightly partially above the soil, which means you can even harvest green potatoes, although they are typically not sold in stores. This greening correlates with locally higher levels of solanine, the glycoalcaloide found in members of the nightshade family and the rule is to cut off green parts. To prevent greening you are supposed to store potatoes in a dark place.

So while both effects may happen together, sprouting does not automatically mean greening.

If you look closely, you can sometimes see a green tinge that needs removing, e.g. here:

Source

For the really dark purple varieties, it may be hard to impossble to see clearly. In these cases, a bit of knowledge about solanine distribution in green potatoes helps: the highest concentration is found in the green parts of the skin and directly (as in one or two mm) below. So if you suspect exposure to UV light, peeling those potatoes should bring you easily into into safe territory - reducing the solanine content by up to 80%.

And finally, note that solanine is a rather weak poison. Sources vary a bit, but typically you find doses of 2-5 mg/kg body weight for toxic symptoms. Modern potatoes contain around 7mg/kg in and directly below the skin, way less in the other parts. Heirloom breeds can contain significantly more, but I couldn't find exact numbers, again, peeling removes a significant portion. And the last line of defense is your palate: Solanine tastes slightly bitter, so eating bitter potatoes is a bad idea, both from a culinary and from a food safety position.

In short: no need to worry about your sprouting purple potatoes if some basic precautions are taken.


Soaking beans will not soften them.  If done for a very long time (i.e., days), some beans will eventually begin to sprout or ferment, at which point they will become softer.  But that is generally not desirable for basic cooking.

Instead, you'll need to cook the beans to get them to soften.  Bring to a slow boil and then simmer until the interior is the desired texture.  (A common test is to take a few beans out on a spoon and blow on them; if the outside of the bean breaks open a bit when you blow, they are likely soft and cooked through.)

By the way, the main purpose of soaking is to hydrate the seed coat (the outer covering of the beans).  Once that happens, the moisture can more easily penetrate the interior when cooked, allowing the beans to soften.  If you don't soak, you'll simply waste the first part of your cooking hydrating the seed coat.  Depending on the type of beans, their age, and other factors, that could increase your cooking time by anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour or so.  (For more details, see my previous answer to another question here.)

Also, do NOT try using an acid.  Acids can actually toughen the seed coat, making the beans take longer to cook and soften.  This is one of the reasons chili recipes (for example) often recommend cooking the beans first, before adding to acidic ingredients like tomatoes.

(Note that cooking times for beans and lentils can vary significantly, depending on type of bean and age.  For a mixed bean soup, I'd expect about 1-2 hours of simmering for pre-soaked beans, and perhaps as many as 3 hours.  Older beans can take longer, and I've occasionally had old batches of dried beans which never quite softened to a consistent texture.)

EDIT: Just to add onto Joe's great advice from the Dry Bean Council, Harold McGee has this to say about beans which never soften (from On Food and Cooking):

  "Hard-to-cook" beans... are normal when harvested, but become resistant
  to softening when they're stored for a long time -- months -- at warm
  temperatures and high humidities.  This resistance results from a
  number of changes in bean cell walls and interiors, including the
  formation of woody lignin, the conversion of phenolic compounds into
  tannins that cross-link proteins to form a water-resistant coating
  around the starch granules.  There's no way to reverse these changes
  and make hard-to-cook beans as soft as regular beans.  And there's no
  way to spot them before cooking.  Once cooked, they're likely to be
  smaller than normal and so may be picked out before serving.

McGee also mentions that occasionally you may encounter batches of "hard-seed" beans, which hardened during particularly hot and humid growing conditions.  In such cases, the beans will be tough no matter how early they are used; they may take much longer to cook than usual (and sometimes may never soften).


What's a good technique for cooking fresh corn in the microwave?

I've done it in the husk, when it's fresh (ie, the husk isn't dried out), but I don't like the grassy flavors that the husk imparts.

My neighbor's clued me into a box of dry wax paper sheets to cover food for the microwave (so I can be lazy and not have to clean the microwave as often), so I wrap the corn in it after it's been husked and the silk removed.  I just roll in around the corn, twist the ends like the paper wrapping on taffy, then microwave it for a few seconds.

I haven't done it recently, so I can't remember exact times (and the wattage of microwaves differ, anyway) ... you just want to warm it through, though.  If you were going to try to get it hot, I'd consider dropping to medium power for a much longer time, so you don't overly cook the outside, as I vaguely recall having an incident once.


Timing an oven to start while I am out - but what about preheating?

Preheating is mainly needed for breads and anything that has a short cooking time (< 15 mins or so). I don't bother preheating when I'm roasting something for a longer time. If you're setting a timer, I assume this is something that will take a while to cook, so I wouldn't worry about preheating.


I put frozen veg back in the fridge instead of freezer

Safe, most likely.

Will they be worse ? yes, freezing and thawing break down cell structure.

You will loose a lot of the vegetable structure and texture, they will be more mushy.


What wines pair well with spicy, citrus chicken?

In my experience, dry wines risk being completely killed by hot food.

The classical pairing would be an aromatic white, like Gewürztraminer or Riesling, with substantial sweetness. Germany is the role model here, especially the wines around Spätlese and Auslese levels, with Alsace a close second. (They're also great QPR, but that's a secondary concern.)

The sweetness will ease the heat of the food and lets you actually taste the wine, and good semi-sweet wines (especially Rieslings) will have very good acidity so the citrus won't be a problem.


What are the rings on the bottom of a frying pan called and can you use them on a glass cooktop?

The concentric rings can serve a variety of purposes. In addition to helping to prevent the pan from sliding, they increase the surface area of the bottom of the pan, which helps it to get heat more efficiently from a gas range.

On some pans, these concentric rings are made of different metals (aluminum or copper) and act to more effectively spread heat around the pan.

I have used pans with textured bottoms on ceramic ranges before with no problems. As always, you will want to avoid repeated shaking motions (say, popcorn) but it's otherwise not a big deal either way.


Does the dish lose flavor when it releases a lot of smell?

No, not really. Yes in another way.

Scent is a great indicator that you have achieved your objective. Recipes will often say things like "sauté until aromatic". With experience, bakers can often tell that bread is done by the smell. Things simply smell done. If you stop cooking before you can smell that doneness, it is likely that you will miss out on what that dish could be.

You are correct in that every molecule your nose picks up without the palate is one that your palate cannot experience. But once your nose is really tickled by the aroma, that is a strong indicator that your food is ready to release those flavorful molecules in a way that our palates (along with our noses) can interpret.


What does soaking in a solution of baking soda do to fruit when preserving it?

Alkalinity breaks down the structure of plant cell walls.  I assume the purpose of this baking soda bath is to soften the structure of the fig. That's why yours softened so much.  If you want to maintain the structure of the fig, try using an acidic bath, as acidity helps to maintain plant cell structure.


What kind of food components contain more energy?

The body can derive energy from three main "families" of molecules:

Fat. This is the highest density, at about 9 KCalories a gram. There are varying recommendations regarding the amount of fat intake to be healthy, and most major medical establishments have been seriously wrong over the past decades. In my opinion, which works for my body alone, 20% of your calories from fat is about right, but this varies from person to person. Fat is in any oil, fatty fruit (like avocadoes), margarine, animal fats and dairy products. The body can convert fat to glucose for energy as needed.
Carbohydrates. This includes sugars, and anything that breaks down into sugars, such as starches and complex carbohydrates. Glucose is a type of sugar that the body needs to burn for energy. Most starches will reduce to glucose via the body's own chemistry. Other simple sugars are metabolized differently, like fructose, which is too long a discussion for here. carbohydrates contain about 4 calories a gram.
Proteins. The body needs protein (a set of different amino acids) in order to build muscles, brain and other tissue. However, if needed or if there is an abundance of protein in the diet, the protein can be broken down to carbohydrates and waste products, thus gaining some energy from it, at about 4 calories a gram (like sugar).

From a health perspective, the body is "designed" to take the bulk of its energy from carbohydrates. Taking energy from protein is possible, but a high protein diet has a negative effect on the kidneys over long periods.

As for energy during the day, the release of energy (read glucose) into the bloodstream is governed by the time it takes the body to digest the sugar. The more fibre around the sugar (fruit, vegetables, whole grains etc.) the longer it takes to get to the sugar, and the slower the release. This allows for a relatively constant level of energy.

The opposite would be to eat some pure white sugar (or equivalent in candy or soft drinks). This causes the bloodstream to be flooded with sugar, giving an energy high. Within about 15 minutes, the body's insulin response will kick in and lower the sugar levels, causing a "down".


Does sesame seed oil taste like toasted sesame seeds?

There are two types of sesame oil you can normally buy.

Pure sesame oil (or just sesame oil) has a mild sesame taste. Refined sesame oil is used as a cooking oil and only has a hint of sesame flavour.

Toasted sesame oil is made from toasted sesame seeds (and therefore tastes like toasted sesame seeds).  Aside from the labeling, you can easily tell it apart from pure sesame oil by its much darker colour and stronger aroma. It is not a cooking oil, it's more of a condiment and used frequently in Asian cooking.

Neither of these taste exactly like sesame seeds on a bun, obviously, but the sesame flavour in toasted sesame oil in particular is very noticeable.


A quick Google search turns up a couple of companies. I didn't look for locations since you didn't specify yours or whether you're open to international shipping options.

This one looks like it deals in rather large quantities, some as low as one kilogram, others as much as a ton. Seems like a larger investment than you might be prepared for; you'd probably want to be reasonably sure of what you're doing. On the other hand, plenty of room for experimentation if it's in your budget.
http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/food-grade-chemicals.html

This one is obviously UK by its domain extension; it has a variety of food-grade chemicals
http://www.reagent.co.uk/sodium-metabisulphite-food-grade

Disclaimer: I know nothing at all about the quality, reputation, etc. of any of these; never met anyone who works in the field. My only connection and contribution here is a bit of Google-fu.

You might also check with your local pharmacies and health food stores; even if they don't sell in large enough quantities for a stop-and-shop situation they may be willing to special order for you, and possibly even negotiate a better price than retail.

And since this isn't exactly a regular part of a pharmacy's business model/revenue source, they may even point you toward their suppliers for a direct connection.


How close are store bought broths and stocks to the real thing?

There's a great deal of variation in the quality of the pre-made stocks you get from different sources, so there's no clear-cut answer. Here's the types you might find:

Stock cubes: these are dehydrated stock, or sometimes just chemicals meant to taste like it. It's the lowest quality option. There's a lot of variation here, I've found some brands (knorr for example) to be better than many others, but still not close to the real thing. I rarely use these
Stock powders: similar to cubes these are loose rather than cubed powder stocks. The advantage of them over cubes is they dissolve much faster
Gels: these are more recent, they are super-concentrated stocks in a gel format. They come in little mini tubs, you peel the lid off and squeeze/spoon the contents out. I'm not sure these have made it over the pond to the US yet. They are IMO much better than cubes or powders and closer to the real thing, and I use them more often than any other alternative
Canned/bagged stock: Most of the time these are concentrated, there's a lot of variation in quality between brands. They have a long shelf life, and don't require refrigeration
Fresh stock: you can sometimes find fresh stocks in the refrigerator section of the supermarket, or at a butcher/specialist food store. These are the best alternative but can be expensive

Personally I rarely make stock, and when I do I use it right away. When I need to strengthen the flavor of a broth, or I need stock I use knorr stockpots (one of the concentrated gel products), or if I only need a little flavor, I spoon of powder. There are a few cubes rattling around my cupboards for emergencies too.


What is the chemical process behind the way you cook a risotto?

I always thought, and one of my molecular cooking books indicates that, smaller batches kept the heat higher (less temperature shock), and the scraping released starch. The article Key success factor for tasty and creamy risotto on ideas-smart.com indicates something slightly different:

  Note that the instructions normally
  suggest that each batch of the stock
  needs to be absorbed by rice. In
  reality, something else is happening.
  Most of the water actually evaporates.
  The remaining “mash” gets warmer than
  boiling point. This speeds up the
  chemical processes, which create the
  intense taste of the risotto. These
  chemical processes are essentially the
  same as when browning meat.

  Other reason for pouring the stock in
  small batches and stirring constantly
  is to let loose starch from the rice
  kernels. Starch makes the mixture
  creamy. So the tedious process of
  adding stock in small batches and
  stirring constantly is the key to
  having tasty and creamy risotto. Only
  the reason for doing this, which most
  recipes give, is often misleading.

This matches personal experience and some (other) of my cook books.


Where does scarface pasta get its name from?

Scarface was the nickname of the early 20th century American organized crime boss, Al Capone. He was slashed in the face while working at a New York City nightclub. The injury left a scar that led to the nickname.

Capone's parents immigrated from Italy, and it is said that he enjoyed eating Italian foods. The notoriety and name-recognition of Al Capone (a.k.a. Scarface) has resulted in it being chosen, in one form or another, as the name for many restaurants and pizza parlors over the years.

Naming a dish "Scarface Pasta" is but a natural extension of that line of marketing. It is however, merely someone's suggestion of what Al Capone might have ordered — something that sounds cute on a menu, but may actually be nothing more than spaghetti with sauce.


Effects of correcting partially mixed/kneaded dough with flour or liquid

The effect that adding flour or water after initial mixing will vary depending on what you are trying to build. Different techniques leverage different properties of flour, water, and fat and so will behave differently.

The differences come down to fat and protein. I'm sure you know that wheat flour contains proteins (glutenin and gliadin) that, when mixed with water, form stretchy gluten.

In biscuits, quick breads, cakes, etc., the stretchiness of gluten is very undesirable and the techniques focus on minimizing it.
The biscuit method is cutting fat into the flour and then mixing the liquid in very briefly. The lack of agitation minimizes the gluten formation.
The muffin method involves beating sugar and fat and then mixing in the flour and liquid. The sugar makes the fat fluffy which is vital to the texture. The large amount of fat coats the flour and prevents it from mixing with water.

Bread dough is completely the opposite. Gluten makes bread what it is. The more gluten the better. Flour is mixed with water and either kneaded or allowed to sit in the fridge for a long time to maximize gluten. Fat is sometimes used for flavor or to soften the bread but it is mixed in completely.

The implications:

For doughs that rely on minimizing gluten by minimizing mixing, adding more flour or liquid is undesirable.
Adding the flour a little at a time means that it will have a lot of time to be kneaded and the product will be much tougher.
A good example is the second rolling of a batch of biscuits. The first rolling is always lighter and fluffier and when the scraps are rolled out again, the dough forms more gluten and the second set of biscuits are tougher and don't rise as much.

For doughs that distract the gluten with fat adding more is fine within reason.
Mixing will create more gluten but if it is still coated with fat it won't be too bad. It is bad if the ratio of fat to flour is thrown off. I can't tell you how far off you can get and still have a good product.

With bread doughs, flour and water can be added at any time and still be good.
The problem is purely mechanical. It's easy to add water to flour. It's easy to add flour to bread dough. It's hard to add water to bread dough- the water just splashes around and it takes a while to get it integrated.
When kneading bread by hand, it is good to start with too little flour because adding water is so difficult. In a mixer it's not so bad because it's doing the work and the mess is contained.

Remember that flour and water have almost no flavor and adding too much will dilute the flavor of the product. Even in cases where the flour itself provides much of the flavor, as with yeast risen bread, there won't be enough salt. How much you can dilute the recipe with flour depends entirely on the recipe and your own personal preference.


Absolutely!

You can use most any oil on hand. Sunflower oil is a little pricier than others, but works well and has a neutral flavor. I use it occasionally for maintenance/cleaning on my Griswald #10.

It's not necessarily tolerance to heat that you're looking for in an oil, but oils that polymerize easily, which is (chemically) what you are doing when you season cast iron.

See also: What oil is best for seasoning a cast iron skillet?


How does gumbo spoil while still cooking?

I believe in this context, spoil is not referring to food safety issues such as dangerous pathogens, but rather that the dish does not fulfill its culinary promise.

For example, any soup or stew that is cooked on too high a heat will become burnt on the bottom. You won't get sick from eating it, but from a flavor aspect, it's spoiled.

Not being an expert in cooking gumbo, I can't cite all the specifics, but there surely is an optimum heat and time that it should be cooked. Stray too far from the base recipe and technique, and you may spoil the gumbo.

From your comments, it sounds like the recipe calls for cooking the gumbo to a point of "doneness", and then turning down the heat so that it stays below the boiling point. In other words, if the fully cooked gumbo continues cooking at a full boil, the recipe will be spoiled.


I would suspect for the same reason you often marinade steak or meats in onions.
According to the answer onions contain proteolytic enzymes which are natural tenderizers, by breaking down proteins into smaller polypeptides or single amino acids, common in natural processes like digestion.

From Wikipedia
A protease (also called a peptidase or proteinase) is an enzyme that
catalyzes (increases the rate of) proteolysis, the breakdown of
proteins into smaller polypeptides or single amino acids. They do this
by cleaving the peptide bonds within proteins by hydrolysis, a
reaction where water breaks bonds. Proteases are involved in many
biological functions, including digestion of ingested proteins,
protein catabolism (breakdown of old proteins), and cell
signaling.

It is easy to believe these would have on octopus flesh a similar effect that they have on other meats. Whether it is significant or not may be open to debate, some times old traditions tend to stick around even after being debunked as myths.
Keeping the skin on is probably just a practical consideration for preventing it from breaking into pieces and spreading all over, as well as easier removal.
Like other seasonings it probably also imparts some flavor, even if residual, which some people might find pleasant, adding to the advantages.


The information provided by both Paparazzi's answer and logophobe's comment is correct. The bolo is from the forequarter of the cow, specifically from the shoulder area.

I don't know of one single whole cut in the US that would encompass the whole bolo roast. However, we have three cuts that make up the three primary parts of the bolo roast.

Round bolo = mock tender roast
Shoulder bolo = shoulder roast
Side bolo = boneless blade roast

This picture shows it quite well. (Cropped to remove ads.)

And this picture shows the three pieces together as a whole bolo roast:


Are sesame greens served raw, or cooked?

Assuming you're talking about ggaennip, also known as shiso, it's quite common to use it raw or salt-pickled. There are two common varieties, red and green-leafed, and to my taste there are some subtle differences between the Korean, Japanese, and maybe Vietnamese varieties.

In Korea and Vietnam, ggaennip is frequently used to wrap foods (ssam bap, for example, or the Vietnamese turmeric crepe). Shiso can be used to wrap foods, as a garnish, or chopped and served on some things, like grilled chicken (yakitori) as a flavor contrast.

I don't see much point in cooking shiso or yukari, but I've cooked the red pepper and salt pickled version sold in cans (or sometimes in the freshly made kimchi section) by adapting it into a sort of variation on the mediterranean dolma. It retains much of the flavor, but is different than the raw leaf and mellower than just the pickle it starts from.

I do appreciate shiso tempura, so I'm not dogmatic about not-cooking, and there is certainly precedent for some cooked applications. I've also made an agedashi-doufu, deep fried tofu in soup stock, which had shiso added before it was coated for deep frying.

Shiso/gaennip is now popularly used in a drink that has added lemon juice or citric acid, but I've only seen this as a concentrate or prepared beverage, so it's possible that it requires some industrial techniques to retain the flavor when making a syrup.

Dried salted shiso, called yukari in Japanese, is also used raw, but often mixed into warm rice either as a topping or to make onigiri.


Jalapeno Poppers and getting a thick crust?

I have found that the problem with thicker batters not adhering to peppers generally is to do with the outer membrane protecting the flesh of the jalapeno. Essentially, you need to try to remove or weaken its effect.

You can minimize the effect of the membrane by:

roasting the pepper, then steam in a brown paper bag and remove it
scoring the membrane with a fork

Also, the pepper may have a decent layer of wax on it; this you can try to wash off with hot water and a thorough scrubbing.


Over the years, I've microwaved, air popped, and tried a pot on the stove...even tried over an open fire.  Once I found the Whirley Pop, I never returned to any other method.  You can't beat it.  Perfect "crunchy" (maybe crisp is a better description?) popcorn every time.


How should I cut cookie dough when in tube?

When you say you have tree the dental floss method, how did you hold the floss? I have had really good results by putting the floss under the roll of the dough and crossing the tails over the top of the roll and pulling the tails until the dough disc is cut off the roll. That way there is no downward pressure to crumble the sides of the roll.


Surely you figured something out by now, but here is what I would do. First, look closely and carefully for surface mold. Look around the rim of the container. If that is clear, smell the oil for rancidity. If it stinks, throw it out. At this point, it looks good and it smells good. I can't imagine a dish where the roux is not thoroughly heated, so unless you are pioneering some kind of cold ingredient, cold roux dish, I think you are good to go. The sealed roux in the fridge should behave like a confit and retard spoilage for a while. If you did a dark roux (like a cajun style) it should last a really long time. They sell it in jars in New Orleans supermarkets, and if memory serves, the jar said something like 90 days in the fridge after opening.


Is there a way to remove sodium tripolyphosphate additive from fish?

You can remove any salt like this by diffusion/osmosis - basically by soaking with multiple changes of water over a period of time. This technique is used to make preserved salted-fish edible.

How long you need to do this for will depend on the thickness of the fish and the concentration of the salt. You can determine this empirically by experimenting, but you need some way to measure how much salt is coming out at any one time (e.g. in a change of water), which will be difficult to do without some analytical chemistry skills.

However, in your case, you have a fish that has had some small amount of salt added to improve texture for keeping it longer. The amount of salt added is not enough to preserve the fish and prevent it from rotting, so soaking it comes with the added risk of causing the fish to spoil. If you are going to do this, keep the soaking fish in the fridge. This will slow the diffusion process somewhat. It is also likely that it will alter the texture and probably the flavour of the fish and result in soggy, not so great tasting fish.


How long does it take for sugar to get to the hard ball stage?

It's not a question of "how long" as much as it's a question of "how hot." Sugar reaches the so-called hard ball stage somewhere between 250 and 265 degrees F. How long it will take your sugar to reach that temperature depends on a number of variables including the power of your cooking range and the type of vessel the sugar is being cooked in.

Use either a candy thermometer or the tried and true water testing method from which the stages get their names. When dropped into cold water, the sugar will literally form a hard ball when rolled between your fingers.

You either did not apply enough heat or you applied too much heat. The most reliable way to troubleshoot this problem is with a thermometer.

There's some great information in this article titled How to Test Stages of Sugar on RecipeTips.com

Pictured below is the example image from that article of what hard ball sugar should look like when dropped into cold water:


There is no real functional difference. Only change between the two types of ovens is a fan blowing the hot air around...however...if aluminum gets too hot it was melt so don't let it touch any metal if you are baking over 385.


Is it wise to use an aluminum foil in the microwave? Is there a substitute for the aluminum foil?

See this wikipedia page, it states that if not crumpled aluminum foils is generally safe, so make sure you do not crumple it.
Then it says

  The USDA recommends that aluminum foil used as a partial food shield in microwave cooking cover no more than one quarter of a food object, and be carefully smoothed to eliminate sparking hazards.

The reference states

  However, small pieces of aluminum foil can be used to “shield” areas of foods,
  such as poultry drumsticks and wings, to prevent overcooking.

It also states

General Rules for Safe Use of Aluminum Foil:

Use new, smooth foil only. Wrinkled foil can cause arcing (sparks).
Cover no more than 1/4 of the food with foil.
Shape the foil smoothly to the food so no edges stick out
It makes no difference which side of foil (shiny or dull) is facing out.
Do not place the foil closer than one inch from the oven walls.
If the microwave oven has metal shelves OR a metal turntable, don’t
microwave food in foil containers or metal pans, and don’t let foil used for
shielding touch or be close to the shelves or turntable.
If you see arcing (sparks), immediately remove the foil shielding; transfer
frozen food from foil container to a microwave-safe utensil.

My bolding.

So make sure you only cover the top of the cup and make the foil smooth, do not crumple it and it should be safe.

The reason to use this as stated in the blog is speed, a few minutes compared to much longer.


Does the LPG stove flame intensity reduces during winter?

If the cylinder is outside, it could well be too cold for the liquidified gas to evaporate fast enough. Propane is OK but butane is useless this cold. A mix of the two is often sold as propane is more expensive. A mixture can become richer in butane when used for prolonged cold periods, reducing its performance.

If this is the case, lifting the cylinder indoors for a few hours before cooking should help - take it out just before use and it should stay warm enough to get things going a bit better. Don't forget that the evaporation itself causes cooling, so it can get cooler than ambient.

This is a common problem in camping, searching for camping stove performance in the cold will give you more information.


What is the white sauce of Domino's pasta made of?

It's Alfredo sauce and according to Domino's nutrition guide it's made of:

  Water
  Cream (Cream, Milk)
  Parmesan Cheese (Part-Skim Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes)
  Asiago Cheese (Pasteurized
  Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes)
  Margarine (Palm Oil, Water, Salt, Vegetable Monoglycerides, Whey Solids,Sodium
  Benzoate [Preservative], Natural And Artificial Flavor, Citric Acid, Beta Carotene [Color], Vitamin A Palmitate Added)
  Seasoning
  (Maltodextrin, Nonfat Milk, Modified Corn Starch, Salt, Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour [Bleached Wheat Flour, Malted Barley
  Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid], Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Xanthan
  Gum, Spices, Mono And Diglycerides)
  Butter (Butter, Salt)
  Parmesan Cheese Concentrate (Parmesan Cheese [Pasteurized
  Milk, Cultures, Salt, Enzymes], Water, Salt, Natural Flavors, Yeast Extract, Sodium Phosphates, Sodium Citrate)
  Modified Corn Starch
  Garlic (Garlic, Water)
  Chicken Base (Chicken Meat, Chicken Juices, Salt, Potato Flour, Flavorings, Sugar, Disodium
  Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate)
  Parsley
  Salt

You can definitely make something similar at home. You should also be able to buy something like it in a jar at your local grocery store.


Roast beef in slow cooker for 7 hours on low then on high for another hour?

There should be no problem cooking for an extra hour or two on 'high'. The rule of thumb which I have learned is one hour on "high" = two hours on "low". Generally, you should always start with an hour on "high" in order to get the food out of the danger area for bacterial growth as soon as possible, after which you can reduce the heat to "low".


Should I clean all of my cooking utensils after being exposed to mothballs (naphthalene) for over a week?

I doubt that there's enough naphthalene deposited on the cutlery to give you severe poisoning, although it may taste bad. Based on the rat/mouse lethal doses, you would need to ingest ~50 gr of the stuff to die from it (of course, you would experience adverse effects at much smaller amounts). It seems like chronic exposure to naphthalene is where you really start getting problems - so definitely don't mothball cutlery as a regular thing in the future! Nevertheless, it is a harmful chemical so I would wash them just to be sure.

Naphthalene is an organic compound and has very poor solubility in water (32 mg/l at room temperature) so regular washing might not remove it effectively. Meanwhile, alcohol can dissolve 11.3 g/l (1000 times more!) and acetic acid (vinegar) can do 13.1 g/l. Granted, soap is supposed to solubilize things, and since you would wash with soap and not just water, solubility shouldn't be as big a problem in reality, but it's worth taking care to ensure it actually gets removed. So my needlessly complicated procedure that I would suggest to you is:

Thoroughly wash with vinegar, as warm as possible (use rubber gloves)
Thoroughly wash with soapy water, as warm as possible. Remember to also wash the gloves and your sink to remove residue on them.
Thoroughly wipe with alcohol. I think ideally you want close to 100% (if you have Everclear that would be about perfect), but in a pinch rubbing alcohol (typically 60-70%) would do or even a strong spirit like vodka. After wiping the alcohol off, leave to dry as alcohol will quickly evaporate.

At the end, ventilate the room, wait an hour or so, and see if you smell any of it from sink/cutlery. Hopefully the answer is no and you'll be good to go. This method is probably overkill and will REALLY get the naphthalene out, but it would only take a few minutes (excluding the drying and checking for smell) and you don't have to worry afterwards.

For cutlery, I don't think it's worth throwing them out for something like this. Naphthalene is pretty volatile, so even leaving them in a warm, well-ventilated place for a few days without the above washing would probably get rid of most of it as the napthalene evaporates (technically, sublimates) and dissipates in the air. With pans, I'm not so sure. My guess that there's no difference and the pans can be used after cleaning just like cutlery, but then since you heat those, small amounts of it conceivably might react with the teflon or itself and make something nasty. I would throw away if it's a very cheap pan, if not just wash with vinegar, soap and alcohol as I say above and you should be fine.


First and foremost, this.

Second, according to the company their test kitchen tests all products in the microwave and oven and they have instructions for what they find works best. If the oven doesn't cook to a certain standard they only list microwave instructions. Note that all their products are pre-cooked so you don't have to worry about not fully cooking from a food safety standpoint.

I suspect that some hot pockets have a higher thermal mass and cooking in an oven would easily lead to overcooked shell and undercooked interior. I looked at their web site and some lean pockets have microwave instructions and some do not. I would suggest cooking in the toaster oven at a lower temperature for longer and they should turn out fine. But let us know how it goes. Obviously don't use the sleeve.

You may also want to turn up the temperature at the end of the cook to brown better after the inside is properly heated.


Is there a rubric for what ingredients go into a Chinese stir fry?

Usually, some optional mixture of liquids, vegetables, noodles, fruits, and meats.
A bit of a facetious answer, but really- stir frying is just a method of cooking food.
While there are certain ingredients that we usually associate with stir frying, the existence of a 'mother stir fry recipe' is about as real as a 'mother grilling recipe', or a 'mother microwaving recipe'. It's silly to say, isn't it? You can grill whatever you want, however you want.
So why do two different recipes have minor, small variations?
Well, because they're different recipes. Those chefs just decided that's what they wanted their recipe to be, so it is.
Your implicit follow-up question seems to be "Are those small differences enough to make a difference?" and of course, as always, the answer is 'it depends.' The difference in 1/4 cup of Shaoxing wine to 1/2 teaspoon of rice wine? That's a pretty huge difference. You'll taste that. You might not know what difference you're tasting, but that's not the goal, is it? Just the fact that it's different is enough for it to be, well, a different recipe.
If you look around enough, I'm sure you'll find two recipes that are essentially identical with different names. That's okay too, isn't it? Two different people could eat the exact same thing and experience the taste of that in different ways, and thus name it two different things. If a dish contains hot peppers and garlic in equal measure, one person might call it Spicy Pepper Dish and another person might call it Sweet Garlic Dish. They're both valid names.
Hope my long rant was at least a little bit helpful. Thanks.


By definition, Boeuf Bourguignon contains wine. However, non-alcoholic wine can work just fine. Bacon and cream are optional. You can tweak the recipes to make the final product exceptional.


Substituting Chicken Breast for Chicken Legs in Korma

If a recipe calls for assorted chicken parts, you can swap out all white meat or all dark meat to your liking safely. I do it fairly often, depending what cut is on sale or what I have lying around in my freezer. It shouldn't change much.


Problems with my technique in making a Belgian Liege Waffle

The reason why your Liege waffle has breadlike texture is that it is supposed to have a breadlike texture.

While currently in America, waffles tend to have a uniform texture with small variations, and everybody has come to expect waffles within this range, in Europe waffles are any dough or batter baked in a waffle iron. I have waffle books which contain waffles made from batter, cookie-dough-style dough, bread-dough-style dough, and others. They are all baked in a waffle iron, but their final texture ends up being similar to bread, cookies, etc., becasue this is how dough works.

Traditional Liege waffles are a type of waffles made from firm yeast dough, like bread. And the texture is more similar to bread than to a standard American waffle. You didn't do anything wrong, you got the result intended by the recipe author.

If you don't like this type of waffle, you should search for a different recipe.


Can an opened pack of dried yeast be stored for later use?

Yes, you can store an opened pack of dried yeast without a problem. Seal the pack as well as you can (plastic clips for just that purpose are very common, or you can just use an office 'bulldog' clip), and put it in the fridge.


Do nutritional facts take into account the inedible parts of certain foods?

Nutritional values are based on Servings, not on the whole product, so it is realistic to assume that the values are based on what is actually to be consumed.

As for the second part of your question, I would refer you to this site that simplifies FDA labeling and nutrition requirements:

https://www.foodpackaginglabels.net/food-labeling-requirements/


What is the egg mixture used in gratins called in English?

I would call it a custard, I think, if not only for want of a better word. A custard consists of milk, egg and a thickening agent i.e. flour, so it fits the description well enough.

It might sound a bit odd to English-speaking ears though. I think 'savoury custard' is probably more appropriate. I must admit I always thought moussaka et al was topped with a white/bechamel sauce; I'm pretty sure that's the more common topping in 'the West'.

As for the dishes themselves, I'm not sure if there is a catch-all English term for them - 'pasta bake' is an English version of the Italian pasta al forno, but that obviously only applies to dishes that use pasta.


Can I put my cast iron pan with wood handle in the oven?

Personally, I would not put it in the oven.  You may be able to get away with it if you are not broiling anything for an extended period of time, but heat does not play nice with wood and after extended use I would expect the wood on the handle to blacken or even crack.


Does salt interfere with the yeast in the dough swelling process?

Salt in high concentrations can kill yeast yes. So can sugar, though salt is so much better at it. You see both are hygroscopic, meaning that they suck water out of stuff. This induces osmotic stress to the yeast cells leading eventually to cell breakdown (aka death).

On lower concentrations salt will throttle the yeast fermentation producing a richer and more uniform crumb.

Adding the salt early or later in the process will have a big effect on your dough, but that won't be because of the way it messes up with the yeast. Salt is supposed to coagulate gluten proteins, in a sense it "stiffens" the dough. On various situations this should happen late in the process (e.g. see the "Delayed salt method" used for sourdoughs).

For pizza dough I'd add the salt early.


What water temperature should be used for instant coffee?

You have quite a bit of leeway with Instant Coffee.  You can brew it using water of your desired temperature. I would recommend using water just below boiling point though, around 95-99 degrees Celsius.  You could use 85-95 degrees Celsius water as well; it won't make a big difference in terms of extraction of flavour, and here is why:

How instant coffee is prepared in the factory:

Coffee beans are roasted
They are ground very finely (0.5 mm - 1.1 mm in diameter)
The ground coffee is mixed with water in percolation columns which reaches 155 - 180 degrees Celsius.  This is the extraction process.
This mixture is then concentrated and/or dried using vacuum evaporation, freeze drying, or spray drying methods.

The result from this is what you get in the store.

Conclusion:

All of the very particular factors that one must consider when trying to make great coffee have already been decided for you.  You have no control over roast, grind, time from grind to extraction, extraction time and temperature, or time from extraction to consumption.  All of this been decided for you.

It is up to you.  Brew it at whatever temperature you like to drink your coffee at.

However, it may be slightly harder to dissolve the coffee and get good flavor at cold temperatures.  Keeping it on the hotter side may be better.  That's just chemistry though.

Sources:

I am a professional barista and coffee connoisseur.
Instant Coffee Wikipedia Article


Salad packaged with raw meat: is it safe?

What you're looking at is called (in the US) "cross contamination". You have a food generally considered "unsafe" (beef) that is coming into contact with a food generally considered "safe" (salad greens).

This contact makes the greens "unsafe" to consume raw.

  Cross-contamination is the transfer of harmful bacteria to food from other foods, cutting boards, utensils, etc., if they are not handled properly. This is especially true when handling raw meat, poultry, and seafood, so keep these foods and their juices away from already cooked or ready-to-eat foods and fresh produce.

The rule in the US is to always keep these products away from each other so that the "safe" foods stay safe.

The only way to make the greens safe to eat is to cook them, thereby killing off the bacteria that may have been transferred to them in the juices of the meat.


Does poking steaks and other meats cause flavor loss?

This is totally fine. Meat gets poked and prodded all the time, whether to test it, to pick it up with tongs, or sticking a fork in it to cut. Meat just is not that fragile.

Things like smashing with a tenderizer are much more violent and do affect the texture (that's kind of the point), so that's not a great comparison. But this is a really minor thing.


How much to reduce salt when using salted butter in place of unsalted butter

Depending on brand, it is approximately 1 1/4 tsp per pound (US), or a little more than 1/4 tsp per stick (4 oz).

For most applications, yes it is fine to substitute and adjust; you can just adjust the "salt to taste" step of your recipe in many cases.

There are a very few uses (such as yeast raised dough) where you want to be more precise.  I would not use salted butter for a yeast dough by preference, but if I had to, I would calculate the amount of salt to remove from the other ingredients based on this ratio:

1 1/4 tsp salt / 16 oz butter


Lactic fermentation related question: Is there a relationship between pH, salinity, fermentation magic, and heat?

Your question is missing the word 'bacteria'.
All bacteria have a growth curve. These will vary quite a lot by species.
This is the growth curve for salmonella

As you can see the growth peaks around 40C, and there is no growth at 47C.
Salmonella is a pathogen, and we store food at low temperature to inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria.
'No growth' is not the same as death.
The death curve is different:

If you are trying to KILL bacteria, then it's a combination of temperature and time. Bacteria are killed in seconds around about 72C, so that's a safe internal cooking temperature. If you cook sous vide, you can cook at much lower temperatures safely, as an internal temperature of 54C for several hours would also kill the salmonella.
If we are talking about LAB, then we could be for example making yogurt. When we make yogurt, we add a culture of known bacteria to milk, which may have been heated to 72C to kill existing bacteria. Typically a yogurt culture consists of just two species. For the classic yogurt, using S. thermophilus, and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. Bulgaricus, these both grow well at temperatures around 42C. However some yogurts are made with other species, some of which grow better at lower temperatures. For example Lactoccus lactis is much happier around 37C.

If you look at that table, then you can see that L. lactis is relatively more acidophilic than the main yogurt cultures.
The target pH for yogurt should be a fixed number, in that if we were to taste test yogurt at say 4.6 pH against yogurt at say 4.4 pH, then it's likely that we can find an optimum pH which is correct, perhaps +- 0.1 or whatever. Here it follows that if we want to consistently produce good ferments, then we should spend a couple of hundred dollars on a pH testing setup.
It should be apparent that not only do bacteria have a temperature growth curve, they also have a pH curve.
Many pathogens (Salmonella, E. Coli) are classed as neutrophiles:

Many LAB are acidophiles.
By fermenting vegetables with LAB, we reduce the pH to levels unfavourable for neutrophiles. The 'safe' pH of foods is often given as 4.6, but could be 4.4 or 4.5 depending on regulatory requirements.
If we consider the fermentation of, say, a cabbage, then it is likely to be desirable to ferment it anaerobically. This is because LAB do not require oxygen, so by excluding oxygen our LAB still grow but moulds and yeasts do not. The lack of oxygen is so that the specific organism we are targeting (LAB) is the one that is favoured.
In terms of salinity, salt is again there to inhibit bad bacteria. Many harmful bacterial species are salt-intolerant, for example Clostridium Botulinum. This graph shows that L. plantarum, a  very important species in vegetable fermentation (though these graphs are strains isolated from Stilton cheese), has roughly the same growth at 0 or 3.5% salinity, slightly slowed at 5%, barely any at 8%, and 10% salinity kills the bacteria.

It follows that if you use WAY TOO MUCH salt, then you may kill some of the bacteria that you want to keep, and if you don't use enough salt then bad bacteria can grow.
This is a combined pH/salinity graph for C. botulinum

If we consider what C. botulinum is, it is not an infectious bacteria like salmonella, but rather one that produces a deadly toxin. Botulinum toxin is not a bacteria, but a protein produced by the multiplying bacteria. So it is desirable for us to have enough salt to keep such pathogens away.
If we return to L. lactis, mentioned earlier, then it follows that if we made yogurt at 37C using a L. lactis + S. thermophilus + L. delbrueckii subsp. Bulgaricus starter, with a target pH of 4.6, then the flavour of the yogurt is going to be quite different from if we made it at 42C, in which case the latter two species would dominate. That is because the resulting yogurt will contain amount of various different compounds (acids, alcohols, esters, ketones, terpenes) depending on which bacteria gets do most of the work, which we can influence by temperature.
Fermenting using naturally occurring LAB from the source is slightly less exact, in that we are typically relying on the naturally occurring LAB (while inhibiting other things using an anaerobic environment, and salt), which could vary depending on what we are fermenting, where it was grown, and so on.
This graph shows the various LAB in a typical sauerkraut ferment over time:

The key thing to note is the effect of Leuconostoc mesenteroides in the early stages of fermentation. L. mesenteroides is referred to as a 'heterofermentative' LAB. This means that it produces not only lactic acid, but also other compounds such as alcohol and flavour compounds. Subsequent LAB during the sauerkraut process are considered homofermentative. This means they produce only lactic acid.

As can be seen here, L. mesenteroides will grow at quite low temperatures:

Comparing to the main homofermentative LAB in sauerkraut

which likes higher temperatures
The result of this is that if you ferment sauerkraut around, say 18C, then the conditions are better for L. mesenteroides which produces flavour, to grow compared to other acid-only species. And, if you consider for example fermenting in a warm environment then it would be useful to start with a cooler temperature. Referring to the population size graph above, it turns out that L. mesenteroides is neutrophilic and is all dead when the pH reaches a lower level, so when the pH is acidic enough, there's no longer much point in cooling things down.
So:

salinity matters mostly to keep bad stuff away, but too much will also inhibit good stuff, and at different amounts for different species, but somewhere starting from 1% is possible, but 3% may be safer.
heat (as in 'not too cold') is required to get things going and different species with different flavours will be active at different rates at different temperatures. When you've reached your target pH, you can stop the fermentation by chilling down a temperature low enough that bacteria no longer grow at all. Or you can kill all the bacteria by heating at this point, which means if kept sterile, then your product can keep for a long time without refrigerating
low pH keeps bad guys away, but too low will taste bad. Not low enough will allow bad bacteria to grow. pH also influences which bacteria are currently growing and as pH drops, then you will get different chemicals produced because different species are taking over, so that a particular compound may become much more concentrated if you allow pH to get too low (and this might taste bad, over and above tasting 'too acid').
If you consider something like a fermented salami, it can keep a long time because it has a low enough pH will act as a preservative almost indefinitely. If you are not storing the meat, then this might be less important.
fermenting more slowly can often give better results, but you'd have to know roughly the bacteria you are working with and which ones are heterofermentative, and their optimum growing conditions for this to happened - it won't always help to lower the temperature.
LAB have different strains, and a cabbage in Thailand is going to have different strains and even LAB species from one from Germany, so it's a little tricky to be sure about exact temperatures and pH levels and such like referring to a book when you are using wild cultures. Safety rules will stay the same, but the conditions required for best flavour are not necessarily the same using vegetables in different countries, so ultimately you might want to experiment with different combinations of time and temperature.


Ways to make my cooking routine more efficient?

I see a few issues with what you've described:

It sounds to me like a significant portion of your time 'cooking' is actually cleaning.  This might mean that you're not letting the pan heat up significantly, or that you're not using enough oil.  (yes, we're trying to be healthy, but it is fried rice).
By cooking in bulk, you're likely over crowding your pan.  This would dramatically affect the texture of the final result.  (see BaffledCook's reply)
The crud that you're scraping off is likely fond, the brown bits that stick to the pan and caramelize.  What you want to do is try to deglaze between batches with some liquid (ideally, whatever you'd be using in the sauce, but without any cornstarch), but keep the now dark brown liquid to make your sauce.  If you don't save these bits, then you're dumping the flavor down the drain.
I suspect that you're making the rice and using it in the same day -- this will result in more sticking.  You're actually better off making the rice a day ahead, spreading it out to cook, then putting it in a container to place in the fridge.

Personally, to speed up my fried rice, I actually make Nasi Goereng -- while the pan is heating up, chop up an onion and whatever other veg, then make an omelette or two in the hot pan (set aside, then cut into ribbons), cook the veg, add the cold, cooked rice + your spices (I often just use madras curry powder + soy sauce, mix in the egg ribbons.


Bacon is already cured and smoked. In many cases could be eaten as is but that is not supported by food safety guidelines.

If the meat was opaque, it was cooked. That plus smoke and salt and you are fine, especially if you do not live in a germophobe lifestyle. Parents who sanitize everything incessantly wind up having children with weak immune systems.

Opaque, pink meat is OK. It is the heart and soul of all good barbeque cookery. In the future, for a similar preparation, cook the bacon on the side in a skillet first, then drizzle the fat on the rest of the dish and drape the cooked slices, then you won't have to worry a smidge!

Good luck and hope all goes well with the little one. You'll worry less when you see they are pretty durable!


I actually routinely peel thing 2 while thing 1 is frying. To me the key is to work out your critical path. But you don't have to plan as I do. Just work out what your goal is:

get everything done in the least time possible
get everything done as calmly as possible
make sure nothing burns, dries out, overcooks, or cools and gets gluey

Say you want to make a piece of panfried meat (steak, chop, chicken etc) that needs to rest, along with mashed potatoes and some steamed veggies. So work out all the steps and how long they take:

sear meat 3 min each side, 10 min in oven (oh ooh, need to preheat oven), rest 10 min
peel potatoes 5 min (or however long you need), water come to boil 10 min, boil 10 min, mash 1 min
prep veggies 5 min, heat up steaming water 5 min, steam 5 min

(You can adjust all these numbers of course.)

Now you can sort it out into order so that you take as little time as possible and end up done at the same time.

dinner - 26 minutes: start searing steak. Preheat oven.
put potato water on to boil
peel potatoes (partway through, turn steak)
should be about dinner - 20 minutes now. Put steak in oven.
wait 5 minutes (tidy up?)
dinner - 15 minutes put potatoes into water
turn on steaming water
prep veggies
dinner - 10 minutes, steak out to rest
dinner - 5 minutes, put veggies into steam
dinner - 1 minute, mash potatoes, put into serving bowl, put veg into serving bowl, put steak onto serving plate, dinner is ready

The exact order will be different every time but you work it out by finding the longest chain and starting that first. For each thing you want to end up serving, you need to work back the steps to get you there and therefore when you want to start that chain. Keep in mind that an oven can preheat or a pot can boil for a few extra minutes without consequences.

Now this approach keeps the overall time the lowest and gets it all on the table at once. But you might find that too stressy. So you could do it like this:

preheat oven
peel potatoes and put them in a pan of cold water.
prep the veggies and put them in the cold steamer.
pan fry the steak, focusing on nothing else for 6 minutes
put the steak in the oven
turn the heat on under the potatoes
after 10 minutes, take the steak out of the oven to rest
turn the heat on under the steaming veg
after 10 minutes, everything should be ready

This takes 10 minutes longer because you "get your mise en place together" (that is do all the peeling and prepping) before you do anything else. But it spares you doing two things at once, and if your peeling takes 7 minutes instead of 5, all that happens is you eat a little later, you don't throw other timings off because you haven't started anything else yet.

It doesn't matter which of these approaches you take, you can still work out the order and the times when you just need to wait for a bit. As you get faster at prepping and more confident in your prep time, you may naturally start to take a more overlapping approach.


Suggestions for convenient and safe methods of transporting a few meals without a vehicle?

I think in general it is much safer to transport food cold (frozen, even) than hot. You can buy soft-sided insulated bags with straps - I see them in the grocery store - that should be ok for a trip of that length. I buy frozen food and then drive home for an hour with it, put it straight in the freezer, and would laugh at the thought of there being food-safety issues with that. So one approach is to make a lasagna, casserole, or the like in a disposable container, freeze it at home, take it to your relative's and put it in her freezer. Now she has a semi-quick (but at least easy) meal waiting for her.

(A side note from remembering my days with an infant: something that heats up FAST and can be eaten with one hand will be more useful than a serves-12-needs-a-fork-heats-for-an-hour option. In other words burritos (2 min in microwave, can eat while holding the baby) beat lasagna (60+ min in oven, you can forget and dry it out or burn it, then you need a plate and a knife and fork to eat it.) Samosas are good one-handers, too.)

If you want to take something that is ready-to-eat, you could use the same bag to keep hot food hot, but I would probably suggest heating it up again on arrival.


Most restaurants that I have seen that make falafel use a little plunger thing like this:

You load the cavity with the falafel mix, then push the plunger and it pushes the ball out.

If you can't find that, I'd think that any appropriately sized portion scoop would do (probably something like a #24).


What precautions need to be taken while using sour culture for setting yogurt?

Hygiene is your most important tool to successful (and safe) yogurt.

Everything should be spotless and sanitized appropriately.

I have made a yogurt that made me really sick, so take that as a warning to maintain good hygiene while working with cultured foods.


How do I distribute fillings evenly in flan/pudding mix?

After they're stuck to the bowl, lightly "fold" them in.

Youtube search for "Folding Ingredients" here...


I freeze my bones for stock as I accumulate them, keeping a large plastic bag in the freezer and adding to it.  Then when I have enough, I make the stock, leaving the bones frozen.  They thaw as they cook.  I then cool the stock in an ice bath, put into individual plastic containers, two cups each (I find that to be a perfect amount for most recipes) and freeze them.


How to imitate the oven on the stovetop?

There is no great solution for an oven on the stovetop, even stovetop ovens aren't that great. The two are entirely different styles of cooking. The only thing I can think of that comes close is a dutch oven as the thick sides conduct more heat around the vessel, but that still gets most heat on the bottom.

If you want to do a lot of browning of the tops of things in a commercial situation then you could invest in a dedicated top grill unit, these are just for that purpose, a bit like a broiler except it's a table-top unit. If you want to brown the top of things and melt cheese every once and awhile but can't have an oven then I would introduce you to my good friend the piezo ignition gas torch which you can pick up in most hardware stores.

Other than the equipment side I'd suggest you modify your choice of dishes and ingredients to fit the equipment you have available. You can struggle trying to re-create oven cooking on a stovetop with mediocre results, or you can learn to make falling off the bone stovetop slow-cooked meats. One approach is more rewarding than the other.


Induction cooktops generate heat on iron or steel elements. There's no fire involved.

You want to lit a piece of charcoal on fire. That requires a flame. Induction doesn't generate flames, just heat, so you won't be able to light up your charcoal with just that - I'm not even sure the induction will generate enough heat to light your charcoal piece on fire.

I'd recommend a small gas torch, such as those for searing or creme brûlée.


Why is there no sweet (as in 'with sugar') butter?

Butter traditionally has salt in it as a preservative, mainly to stop bacterial growth on the residual whey, and to slow fat rancidity

Modern butter has a much lower amount of salt than is required for shelf storage in the pre-electric era. Now we have refrigerators, salt is not required at such a high level

Butter with no salt has nearly half of the shelf life of modern salted butter

Processed sugar is a modern ingredient, and therefore there is no culture in having it in butter.

Sweet yoghurt and milk are all "new" inventions

Using salt as a preservative is as old as recorded history. Many cultures used salt to preserve fruits, as well as meats and vegetables


can a person taste the difference between coffee that has been ground 8 hours prior to brew vs 12 hours prior to brew?

While the timeframe between grind and brew affect the taste of the coffee I wouldn't go as far as measuring it down to hours. Of course it is best to grind directly before brewing, but in your case, as you use a timed drip maker I don't think it acutally does make that of a difference.

Plus other aspects also affect the flavor of your coffee (water temperature, temperature of surroundings (kitchen), way of extraction (in your case it could be the way the grounds sit in filter) and, for a great deal, the age of the coffee itself. So if you taste a difference, it could be the result of (an)other factor(s) as well. Not only the + 4 hours of 'sitting time' the grounds had.

To sum it up: Simply try it yourself (as Pete Becker mentioned in the comment).


How to clear your palate between different flavored dishes when cooking?

My first thought is to tie them together or plan them in order to closest ingredients that might lend flavor to the next.

On another note, here is an article at About.Com written by By Rebecca Franklin a French Food Expert: http://frenchfood.about.com/od/explorefrenchfood/a/palatecleanser.htm

Traditional palate cleansers:

Apple and Calvados Sorbet
Lemon Sorbet
Lime Sorbet
Mint Sorbet

Unorthodox palate cleansers:

Sparkling water, with or without a twist of citrus
Lightly brewed green, black, or mint tea, with minimal sweetener
Celery sticks or fresh tart apples
A sprig of parsley
Flat water with a twist of citrus

Here is, Fig & Brie “Bites” found here: http://entertainingiseasy.com/fig-brie-bites/

I would add fresh mint leaves and ice to a glass of water or ice cubes with mint leaves and put them into sparkling water or citrus in sparkling water.
I'd try mint or ginger tea,
a creamy cheese or port wine cheese on table water crackers,
or even something creamy like shrimp scampi might be helpful as well.

Please let us know what you choose :)


How to salt whole potatoes before roasting or cooking in the microwave?

You cannot season a whole potato from the outside when baking or microwaving, the flavor may penetrate a small amount but most of the potato will be unseasoned. Boiling potatoes in salty water will give you a better result, however the skin of a whole potato will still block much of the flavor.

The only way I could think of to salt the inside of a whole potato would be so inject a salt solution into it with a syringe, which seems excessive. You'd probably be better off simply cutting the potato open after it's cooked and seasoning it then.


Should I add broth to the bottom of the Dutch Oven?

If braising, yes. If roasting (lid off), no.


Moist salts are naturally harvested sea salts from which not all the water has been removed.   They are noticeably wet, often caking up or forming more of a "slush" than a powder.

Some aficionados only believe that sea salt is "real" and "natural" if it is moist.  Me, I have enough humidity in the apartment.


Fat softens bread because it interferes with the gluten formation. It also gives the bread a richer flavor.

Many breads, including standard sandwich bread, include fat for these reasons. Butter has great flavor but any fat will do. You should soften any solid fats.

You can probably leave the fat out if there isn't much in the recipe. Expect the bread to be a little less flavorful and a little less soft.

If there is a lot of fat that is being left out you might have to increase the liquid to compensate for the dough being stiffer. At that point, unless you enjoy experimenting, I would just find a recipe that doesn't use fat.


Can the broiler replicate a regular gas oven?

This is a solid idea. I would recommend another heat sink below your cooking area as well, perhaps on the bottom of the oven. That should hopefully provide a suitable oven-like environment. You also may want to consider foiling the top of your top heat sink, if you are still getting uneven temperatures at the top.

Neat idea. I hope it works out for you.


Can you use sundried anchovies for myeolchi yuksu (Korean anchovy broth)?

Yes, you can.
It looks like the Korean dried anchovies are very similar to the ones you have, just with the skins, heads, and guts removed, then flattened or 'spatchcocked'. For a fish stock like this, the specific type of fish you use won't matter too much. Also, I noticed the ingredients on your pack include salt, so you might want to taste and adjust the salt levels in wherever you're using the stock.


How to keep thick puréed sauces from separating into solids and liquids?

SAJ14SAJ has mentioned starch, but I wouldn't add any additional -- I'd just finish the pasta in the sauce.

Pull your pasta a minute or two early, let drain but do not rinse it, and add it to your sauce.  The pasta will finish cooking in the sauce, absorbing some of the liquid.  It will also release some of its starch into the liquid, helping to bind it.

If you can, reserve some of the pasta water to thin back out the sauce in case thickens too far.  (A pyrex measuring cup works well for this, as you can just dip it into the hot water before you drain your pasta)


Can I use 3 jalapenos in place of 1 habanero?

Yes, you can usually make that substitution without a problem. The key thing in substituting peppers is that you like the substitution. So, experimentation is necessary to find what is ideal for you.

Personally, I like the flavor (separate from the heat) of habanero peppers more than I like the flavor of jalapenos, but I usually have jalapenos on hand. So I often make that substitution and then just add crushed red pepper flakes or cayenne to make up the difference in heat because I'm a big-time chili-head. Doing it that way, you don't need to use more jalapenos than you would habaneros, but you can. After all, it's your dish.


How can you melt chocolate without it getting wet?

The way you've described is precisely how I melt chocolate.  If you have a double boiler, that's even better, but a bowl on top of a pot is fine too.

I can only think of two things that might be affecting the quality of your end result:

Is the bowl big enough?  The melting bowl should be larger than the pot if possible; you want the steam to be forced under and around it.
Is the water temperature reasonable?  You want it to be at a simmer.  If it's rapidly boiling, the heat is too high.

As long as you keep those two things in mind, your chocolate should melt fine!

Edit: Thought of one other thing:

It's possible that the steam is actually rising above the bowl, then hitting something (like your range), condensing and then falling back into the bowl as water.  You shouldn't even be getting much steam with this method, but just in case, turn your fan on, to make sure you aren't getting any condensation.


Would using seafood stock instead of chicken broth/stock work in a butternut squash soup?

TL; DR

As long as you get the balance right anything that's tasty separately can be mixed together and still be tasty.

What I would do is to make the butternut squash soup first without any stock, set aside one bowl of said soup and then little by little add the shrimp/lobster stock into the kettle until just right to your taste-buds.  Then add the separate bowl back into the kettle.

Why? Your taste-buds will have gotten gradually used to the shrimp/lobster stock and the final product will be slightly over the top, so adding the bowl back in will make it just right for your guests.


Techniques to Remove Water from Vegetables?

Ordinary drying/dehydration can certainly change the taste and texture of foods, but the primary point of dehydration is often preserving food rather than improving taste.  Sometimes additional seasonings are added during the drying process (as in beef jerky, although I know you were asking about vegetables).

Application of heat often releases liquid from vegetables.  For example, wilting spinach or other leafy greens on the stove top, or roasting root vegetables in the oven.  Especially with high heat, as in roasting, other chemical processes are creating flavor besides simply removing water.

Osmosis is a another process for removing water.  For example, in making namasu, it is common to sprinkle salt over thinly sliced cucumber and let it sit for 10 minutes to several hours, sometimes with a weight on top
to help press out liquid.  Then the salt is rinsed off, leaving little salt taste but a large change in the texture and flavor of the cucumber.  Add vinegar to this process takes you into the realm of pickling, where some of the change to the vegetable is from removing water but some is from infusing other flavors.


Why do home-made pickles float in the jar, but commercial pickles don't?

Most likely commercial pickles are preserved by an accurate pasteurisation and ascorbic acid or other chemical preservatives so that the "brine" contains much less salt as compared to your homemade ones.  It is mattert of the liquid density, yours is heavier.

(Though the density of the vegetables might likely vary a bit - and though surface/volume ratio could have an effect on how much water flow throughout the skin of the preserved vegetables - I would expect it to tend to the same value upon preparation and storage).


I like to practice too if it's something I've never made before. Roasting a chicken will give you an opportunity to practice the all-important skill of correctly placing the thermometer, but chicken has a different flavor than turkey.

One option is to get the smallest turkey you can find, experiment with a brine (which I highly recommend for roasted turkey) and perhaps go into Thanksgiving with a bit more confidence.

You can always cut up the turkey meat and freeze it for sometime after Thanksgiving when you're no longer sick of turkey. Leftover turkey makes great tamales or enchiladas.


How long can you keep bacon (from a butcher) in the refrigerator?

Most cured products last 7-10 days in the fridge although you most likely will see a quality drop off before then at around day three or four.  You can also freeze the bacon for up to two months and thaw for use to extend the shelf life.


How do I cook food in this square stone oven?

It's a barbecue. The firebricks in the bottom can be used to contain the charcoal in a smaller region, and/or be stacked to raise the grill. I recommend raising the grill as going by the picture, it looks like the food would be too close to the coals and burn before it cooks through.

The chimney takes the smoke away from you quite nicely and is well worth having.


How do I adjust apple crisp cooking time for muffin-size crisps?

According to the book Kitchen Companion, when you take a square cake and cook it as cupcakes, you cut the baking time by 40-60%, depending on the relative depths of the two pans.  I'd assume the relative cooking time for a crumble to be similar, which would mean 25-35 minutes.

There are also a number of apple crisp/crumble recipes on the web done in muffin cups or small ramekins, and their cooking times range from 14 minutes, to 25 minutes, to 35 minutes.  The 35 minute ones sound the most similar to what you're doing, so I'd say start checking them at 20 minutes, but expect 30ish.


Cleaning white bubbles on induction stove

I have an induction stove and have had similar marks. I think rumtscho is right; these are mineral deposits from water. Water gets between the surface and the pan, most likely because the base of the pan was initially wet (spillage from the pan will mostly end up beside it, and only areas directly under the pan will get significantly hot), the heat of the pan evaporates the water, leaving dry deposits.

There is some good advice on cleaning glass stovetops from eHow, which suggests leaving a "[vinegar-drenched] paper towel on the stove top for an hour", and using ceramic cooktop cleaner if still present.

But I've found these marks can be mostly prevented by making sure the base of your pan is completely dry before putting it on the stove.


It's not exactly the same for liver, but there is some reason to roast it before frying:
Some people believe in roasting (grilling) before the cooking/frying in order to make the blood drip out of the liver. Can do on fire or in an oven; doesn't matter.
Personally I prefer to go directly to the pan and just fry so it gets less dry. It is definitely sufficient cooking for the liver.


When sauteing should I put onion or garlic first?

Onions always benefit from a few minutes on their own to soften and start sweetening. Garlic burns easily, especially when finely chopped or crushed, so in general should not be fried as long as onion. Having said that, when doing a quick stir fry or similar dish, you can throw in the garlic first for 10-20 seconds so that it flavours the oil.


Can spanikopita (or other phyllo foods) be prepped in advance?

Yes you can.

Anecdotal, Mom makes batches of small spanakopita in advance and freeze them up for later use.

The filling should be cold when you are assembling the spanakopita.

(edit)You need to bake them before freezing them.

I would store them in the fridge in a plastic container in a single layer.
If freezing, put them on a baking sheet and freeze them in single portions, put them in a freezer bag.


How old is it? If it's newer than a few months, it could easily just be that you still have a huge variety of bacteria vying for dominance, and some slightly foul ones still remain, and haven't been kicked out yet. If it still tastes good and doesn't smell like acetone it should be fine.


Is oven an important factor in getting great baking results?

For reliable baking you need to know what your oven is doing. If the internal temperature fluctuates wildly, you're dead in the water: replace it. If it's fairly stable, spend some time learning it. Get a decent oven thermometer; set the oven's temperature control to, say, 350 degrees (F) and let it settle; check what the oven thermometer says. Then work through various other temperatures, so that you know what you need to set the oven's temperature control to in order to get the internal temperature that you want. For example, to cook something at 350 with my oven I set the control to 325; to cook at 450 I set it to 420.


Can I substitute vanilla extract for cocoa powder in a cupcake recipe?

The recipe you've found looks like "crazy cake" or "wacky cake" (or "depression cake"), which is a fairly common egg-free cake. I've made it a number of times for a friend with an egg allergy and it's a very good vegan cake.

To make a vanilla version, leave out the cocoa powder and increase the vanilla extract slightly (1.5 teaspoons). There are a wide array of variations on this blog -- chocolate is the "original" (and most common version that I have seen), but vanilla, spice, lemon, and more all seem to be possibilities.


Sous Vide Roast: What should I do with the excess liquid in the bag?

If you are planning to stew the leftovers, I would use the juices there: as a gravy base.


What is Zwieback toast and where can I find it?

Zwieback toast is a twice-baked sweetened toast fed to teething children. It is also known as teething toast, and can be found in the baby aisle of most grocery stores.


How can I make my Hot chocolate thicker?

Spanish hot chocolate and Italian cioccolata fiorentina both use cornstarch as a thickening agent. Both are used more for dipping or sipping (churros in the former case), however you could easily just use less cornstarch to make it more 'drinkable'.

Try a teaspoon of cornstarch, mixed with a little cold water, added to the milk when you boil it.

As Kate Gregory suggests, you could also use full-fat milk, or loads of shaved chocolate.


What are the differences between an induction stove and a regular electric stove?

A regular electric oven uses a large coiled resistor as a heating element. A large electric current is passed through this element which generates heat, similar to the tungsten filament of an incandescent light bulb.

An induction stove doesn't actually generate heat itself, but rather induces it the pot or pan. It does this using a rapidly oscillating magnetic field. This field induces an electric current in a ferromagnetic pan which generates heat, thus heating the food.

Induction stoves are faster, safer, and more energy efficient than traditional electric stoves. It requires significantly less electricity to create the magnetic field than it does to drive enough current through a resistor to make it heat up. They are safer because they don't actually generate heat themselves. After taking a pot off the "burner" (glass surface) it quickly begins to cool.

With regards to differences in the cooking process, there's not much. You just need to be aware that it heats up much more quickly and cools down much more quickly than a traditional electric stove. It does affect your choice of pans however. All aluminum pans will not work, nor will some lower quality stainless steel ones. If a magnet sticks to the pan then it will work just fine. The pan must also have a flat bottom to make full contact with the surface.


What are the fault tolerances on the FDA food handling guidelines?

The recommendations (in the US at least) are based on a risk model, which takes into account a number of factors:

frequency of outbreaks and occurrence of illnesses
severity of illness, taking into account illness duration, hospitalization and mortality
likelihood of contamination
growth potential/shelf life
manufacturing process contamination probability/intervention
consumption
economic impact

Some of these factors are statistical (frequency, economic, for example), and some are measured (growth, aspects of severity). For the measured aspects, a large number of methods are employed, including animal testing, human histories, and toxicology reports (including LD measures).

Primarily, most home cooks should follow the FDA guidelines as the recommendations take into account the supply chain and common outcomes for most pathogens (for a given food). It's important to note that live pathogens are not the only risk in food safety, also toxins (as produced by the pathogens) are an important factor depending on the specific life form. These toxins are not mitigated by cooking (generally), and some pathogens are not completely mitigated by heat or cold. The risk is related to the combined risks, time, and supply chain.

The FDA site contains the regulations, methods, and sampling guidelines for various stages of food production and food safety.

This is not my speciality, but I did teach food safety many years ago (please refer to the current guidelines and methods for current recommendations).

References:

Designating high risk foods
Home food safety cheatsheet
Example toxicity studies - I'm not certain these feed into these specific guidelines, but the methodology will be similar


They may be using beef round, precut stew meat almost always is, unless otherwise marked.
It has a livery taste and odor some people find objectionable.
Generally the more work a muscle does the better it tastes, the round comes from the rear leg and rump, the least exercised muscles of a cow.
Probably has nothing to do with the blood, but hopefully someone can enlighten us to exactly where the funk comes from.


Ceramic vs Stainless Steel in coffee mugs

Stainless Steel

Most stainless steel travel mugs are double walled, but are NOT vacuum flasks

They usually have a screw on stainless steel base, or just a plain plastic base. Both of these stop thermal air losses, but are in no way as efficient as a true vacuum flask. It can't be anyway, due to the lid having a drinking hole in it

Lids with sliding covers are impossible to clean, and should be avoided. Just a simple double wall stainless steel mug, with a "reduced spill" style plastic lid and silicone gasket will last many years, be cleanable, and provide reasonable heat retention

Double Walled Ceramic

Double walled ceramic mugs are heavy, and while reasonable strong, generally have two fundamental flaws:

They are very heavy due to having two ceramic layers, even though both layers are quite thin
Because the layers are thin, most mugs do not have a handle, as they cannot support one without breaking

Their insulation qualities are fine and they can be-reheated in situ. The typical silicone lids they ship with are easy to wash which is a bonus

If you don't mind not having a handle they are fine, but heavy

I don't like drinking from silicone, it feels weird, and the hole is usually too small. Cutting a bigger hole always ends in disaster (maybe a hole punch would do it?). They also break much more easily than a normal ceramic mug if used while travelling


Your recipe is broken. If it actually gave you that temperature then discard it and find a new one.

Nougat is made, depending on the recipe, by heating the syrup to "hard ball" or "soft crack" temperatures before beating it into the egg whites.

Candy temperatures are categorized by the behavior of the syrup when dripped into ice water.

Hard ball is around 250F (121C) and looks like this:

Your temperature of 327F (164C) is actually off the chart and is categorized as "caramel" because the syrup has started to break down and the sugars are burning. Caramels have a lovely flavor but it is not going to create the correct texture for nougat. There is also a very fine line between "light caramel" and "horribly burnt" that is best avoided.

I recommend you find a more reasonable recipe.


I accidentally dropped the lid from a can of diced tomatos in my crockpot of cabbage roll soup!

When you can foods, even in a mass production setting, you're pouring near boiling contents into the cans. So heating it in your soup is no different than having used those tomatoes in the soup. If it wasn't food safe it wouldn't be used for canning. It would do no more harm to eat the soup than it would be to eat the tomatoes out of that can.

Addition:

While there may have been health risk in the past with the coating on many canned products, its incredibly rare in modern day. While trace amount of tin are generally safe, in a larger quantity they can cause nausea and vomiting, but generally no long term effects as these are mostly related to the inability to digest tin. In the UK some canned products are coated in a Bisphenol-A compound which is a known carcinogen. Though this is becoming less common, as BPA is generally avoided in food containment. Though the toxicity of BPA is still widely debated, its generally best to avoid it.

Most cans are made of steel, which if dissolved, even in relatively large quantities is not a health risk. For instance, many pans are made of steel or iron. Most commonly these cans are coated with aluminum as its much cheaper to plate steel with aluminum rather than tin. Aluminum can be toxic in large quantities, but aluminum is very resistant to corrosion, as it tends to form an oxidized coating which prevent most corrosion.

There are some minor safety hazard in consuming the coating on certain canned products, though its increasingly less common to find products canned in these containers that contain potentially hazardous materials. Tin coated cans have made people nauseous in the past, due to the tin dissolving from acidic contents like fruit. Though generally the can has to be rather old, and discoloration is a good indicator in this case to avoid consuming problematic amounts of tin.

I'd say being that there are no reports of people becoming ill from cooking a portion of a can, that its safe to assume that there are no major health implications. Though if you are worried, you may want to contact the company that packages the specific brand of canned goods you are using.

sources:

Wikipedia, Tin Can
Mount Sinai Hospital, Aluminum Toxicity


What spice in Asian food makes me sweat and my nose running?

Some health food stores will sell Cayenne Pepper capsules for this very purpose. Some people find that taking a couple will help them sweat out colds and flu. Never tried myself, but I agree there's nothing like a dish packed with heat to clear out the sinuses.