What does natural vanilla extract smell like?

"Pure vanilla extract is made by macerating and percolating vanilla beans in a solution of ethyl alcohol and water."

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla_extract]

There is alcohol in it, that's why it smells like it has alcohol in it :)

So it is perfectly normal.

Personally, I find extracts and essences of vanilla to be a complete waste. To get that lovely vanilla smell and vanilla taste, add vanilla beans. To combat the relative high cost of vanilla beans, buy in bulk and store correctly, your vanilla beans can last for ages.


What I personally do is the following:

Note: I assume you want it well done and not rare. I would not recommend cooking the loin in 2 shots if you want it rare.

First, when cooking the day before, stop cooking the peice before you consider it cook as you would eat it. i.e. If your cook time for done is 1h, cook it 50 minutes.

Note: for best flavor, I highly recommend you keep the fond

On the re-heat day:

Let the meat sit at room teperature for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven or bbq to 300f
In a large enough cookware with a lid or alluminium pan (I would double it up to prevent spill) and air thight foil as lid, put a layer of 1-2 cm of 50% sauce + 50% water + some butter or olive oil.
With a spoon, pour some liquid mixture you just created over the piece.
Oven it for 30 minutes, then redo the liquid pouring step while making sure it's wet enough, it not, add some more water.
Depending on the size of the piece it should take 1-2 hours to be perfect.


There's a chance the extra sugar from the blueberries has helped bring the peppery taste from the kale out a bit more. Kale is known for its light peppery flavor much like watercress but not any where near the heat of horseradish. The addition of sugar, much like salt is great for intensifying flavors.

Rather than try and describe the taste of kale myself, I'll use the words of someone else instead.

  The flavor is peppery and assertive, and can have a pleasantly bitter edge.

Source: A Sweet and Savory Life <- A good read if you are more interested in kale.

So, in reply to your question. Yes, Kale can taste hot like Horseradish.


Is there an authoritative source on whether salt affects pasta stickiness?

Starch is extensively well-researched in food science, so the short answer is yes, there is an authoritative source; there are a myriad of authoritative sources.
The caveat (there's always a caveat) is that food scientists are doing controlled experiments using far more sophisticated methods than pasta and a boiling pot, and they tend to be primarily interested in more theoretical questions than this, because there are an absurd number of variables at work in your own kitchen:

Type and quantity of pasta;
Purity and quantity of the water;
Type, purity, and quantity of salt;
Water temperature;
Cooking time;
And so on...

So, really, to a scientist, the question "does adding salt to pasta water reduce sticking?" is bordering on ridiculous.  The answer is, as the answer often is, it depends.
The following is taken from Starch: Chemistry and Technology, an academic tome that is all about - you guessed it - starch.

Effects of salts on gelatinization are more complex than those of nonionic solutes, as they are solute-specific and concentration-dependent. For most electrolytes, an increase in gelatinization temperature, Tm, is found at low salt concentrations.  At high salt concentrations, Tm decreases and can even drop below the initial value.
[...] In general, the effect of neutral salts on starch gelatinization follows the order of the classical Hofmeister (lyotropic) series, particularly in the case of anions. [...but] cations of different chloride salts exhibit a more complicated behavior as evidenced with polarizing microscopy.
(Source)

In plain English: Adding a little salt might reduce the gelation and thus sticking.  Adding a lot of salt might increase gelation and sticking.  The definition of "a little" and "a lot" depends on how much and what kinds of starch are in the pasta, what else might be in the pasta (some already have salt!), how dispersed the starch already is in the water, what kind of salt you're using... you get the idea.
Incidentally, here's the Hofmeister series that the above refers to:

(Source)
Table salt is sodium chloride - NaCl. You'll notice that Na+ is about halfway to the "salt out" side and Cl- is right smack in the middle.  So, even with my limited understanding of all the mechanics at work, it does stand to reason that the effects of having both would be unpredictable.  It's easier to predict the effects when you have something like calcium perchlorate, i.e. Ca(ClO4)2, where both the anions and cations are on the "salt in" side.  Obviously, those kinds of salts are not in your average home kitchen and I doubt that they're even used in commercial food plants.
...although there are other well-known culinary salts other than sodium chloride, including ammonium chloride AKA salmiac, the (in)famous "salty liquorice" salt.  That is technically still "salt".  Which salt you choose will of course have wildly different effects on chemical properties including starch interaction.
So hopefully this helps explain some of the wildly opposing anecdotal reports you've read.  There is no simple answer because your kitchen is not controlled conditions.  However, there is some truth to the statement that salt inhibits starch gelation.  It might have that effect, at the right concentration and with the right set of ingredients.


How much can I change a NY cheesecakes recipe?

Many beginners in the kitchen get advice along the lines of “you can play around with cooking, but baking recipes shouldn’t be changed or you risk failure” or something similar. This is only partially true.

Whenever you consider substitutions, you need to consider what the purpose of the given ingredient is. This will help in finding the answer to the “can I substitute” question. A few examples:

Corn starch thickens - potato starch will do the same, plain flour will usually work, but may affect the mouthfeel and flavor a bit.
Substituting one kind of dry biscuit for another will be no problem texture-wise, as the crumbs are bound together with the butter, but of course each kind will give a different flavor - and if you use a recipe that adds sugar to the crumbs you want to compensate the difference in sweetness between the chosen biscuits. Still, crumb crusts are quite forgiving.
Dairy is tricky - especially if it’s the main ingredient. Using a low-fat softer type instead of the rather firm “bricks” of cream cheese in US recipes can backfire badly. Here the different water content must be compensated, which means you need to adjust other binding ingredients. And the flavor will be different.

If in doubt, it’s always a good idea to check lots of recipes for the same dish. The common denominators should become clear as well as the range of variations.


How can I make proper sandwich slices of home-made bread?

You can buy a home bread slicer - and you can also make one.

  "My little invention works on the same principle as a carpenter's miter
  box (as a matter of fact, I got the idea while watching a carpenter
  friend cut some miter joints). The only difference is that my device
  was made specifically for slicing homemade bread. Just slide a loaf
  into place, position the blade of a long, sharp knife in the slots,
  and you can't help but cut straight and true." - John Shell, Mother Earth News March/April 1978


2000g sourdough boule in medium sized dutch oven

Weak ovens still get to needed temperature, but slower and/or they may "leak" heat. The only way around it is to "accumulate" heat by placing baking stone into the oven, and (Thanks to Alton Brown creativity) place upside–down large clay pot around the bread. Naturally, you need to pre–heat them before you place the dough in.

Stone and clay keep heat much better then steel your oven is made of. Also, they distribute it more evenly.

This technique is similar to baking in a dutch oven.


Found some spots on dry aged beef, getting slimy. Need advice

Your conditions were both too warm and too low of a humidity. Ideal for 'dry aging' is 32.5°F to 33.8°F (0.5°C to 1.0°C) at 80%-85% humidity.

  Firstly, temperature control is critical to slow and almost stop the
  rotting process. Beef is received right after slaughter and it must be
  held at a core temperature of around zero degrees (this is done by our
  cool room running between −0.5 and 1 °C). Secondly, airflow is
  critical. Increasing the airflow around the aging room is needed to
  make sure that the fresh beef dries as quickly as possible on the
  surface to stop bacteria and potential mould growth. To achieve this,
  we have a number of ceiling mounted fans to push air in different
  directions around the room (Fig. 2). Thirdly, the use of UV lights is
  crucial to kill any air borne bacteria (Fig. 3). Lastly, the humidity
  is important and it must be between 80% and 85%.

Toss it and start over. (Bonus points for the effort though...not many have the patience to try to dry age their own beef)


Why can I resuse green tea leaves several times, but not black?

I've never had an issue reusing anything that's real tea (black, oolong, green). Perhaps there is another factor here? If you're black tea is coming out of a tea bag, or a lower "grade" then the green tea leaves you're using that might be a reason that it isn't coming out desirably.

Generally speaking it's an issue of grade rather than the type of tea. The finer the tea, the more likely you are to extract everything in the first run. Take apart a cheap tea bag, and you'll notice that the leaves are powder or almost powder. A full leaf (you can buy any black tea from a reputable shop in a higher grade) will extract more slowly and give you a better flavour and probably yield to better second or third runs.


When you visit your local BBQ places you normally see a few standard options.

For the pulled pork and brisket, it is usually sold by weight. I believe a 1/2 Pound portion is the most common from my experience of eating BBQ with friends.

For ribs, they are normally sold by half rack or full rack.  A full rack is a lot of food so I would not think anyone would expect to eat that at a BBQ. You would probably be good with 5 or 6 ribs per guest.

These amounts of meat per person along with some popular BBQ side dishes in your area should provide plenty of food for your guests.

The big part is figuring out who wants what meat.  If you already know then you can easily plan for that.  If you don't know you can do enough for 10 of each and let your guests fight over who gets what.  If it was me, I would probably make enough of each meat for 15 people.  That should assure nobody goes home hungry and you will probably have enough left overs for a few days.


Well basil and garlic could fit well with the walnuts (think about pesto, basil, garlic, cheese and nuts).

With the bean paste... I don't know, I guess it depends what kind of tone you would like to give to the dish.
Stated that the only way to know is to try, I would also try with nutmeg and, if you're brave, maybe even a pinch of cinnamon!


Can I cook gnocchi with sauce in the microwave?

I'm going to propose a different cooking method that's closer to cooking it on the stovetop; gnocchi when cooked wrong can be quite dense.  It's still edible, but it's not as enjoyable.

take your cooking vessel, and heat up your cooking liquid (I'd go with just water, as we don't know how much liquid it's going to absorb, and we don't want too runny of a sauce)
Float a toothpick in it, or something else microwave safe.  (note: this is for safety ... we need nucleation points so you don't get scalded in step #5)
Microwave on high 'til boiling**
Remove the toothpick
Add the gnocci
Microwave on high 'til boiling again
Microwave on low until floating.
Drain
Add sauce
Microwave to warm the sauce.

** as you said you had a combination water cooler/heater, you can start with hot water, and skip steps 2 through 4.


Is it possible to effectively dissolve chocolate into coffee?

One classic solution is to make a ganache to make the chocolate liquid. Ganache is an emulsion that suspends the cocoa butter in water which helps it mix with the coffee. While this sounds fancy, you can make it in a few minutes.
The recipe I use is from The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee by James Freeman

Put 3 oz (85 g) coarsely chopped dark chocolate in a small bowl
Pour 1/4 cup (60 ml) boiling water over the chocolate and stir until smooth
You can pour your coffee directly over the ganache or store the ganache in the fridge for up to one week. Reheat in the microwave (gently) before using.

The original recipe uses espresso and tops the coffee with hot foamed milk. I have also always used espresso and foamed milk, but I believe coffee should also produce good results. If you don't use the foamed milk, I suggest using a less dark chocolate to balance the bitterness.
Ganache can also be made with heavy cream instead of water. I have not tried using a cream-based ganache in this drink.
One note is that this recipe works best for hot drinks. Cold drinks can seize the chocolate into lumps.


You have 2 options to remove varnish at home:

Mechanical removal by sanding or scraping by hand or using a rotary tool. If you are too aggressive with this you could damage the pan, but if it is done right you will get a lot off. This could be tricky because of the shape of the pan, all of the curves and few flat spots, hand sanding will probably give you the best results in the curved parts
Solvents like varnish remover dissolve varnish and lacquer chemically, allowing you to wipe it off

Personally I would do both: start with my dremel and see what I can get off with a fine grinder attachment, and see how it comes off with sandpaper and a bit of elbow grease, then I'd use a varnish remover to get off the rest. Make sure you don't do this in an enclosed space and have good ventilation when you use the solvents. Eye protection is important, you don't want to get a fragment of varnish in your eye, trust me on this.

I have left out media blasting (sandblasting or glass bead blasting) as an option because it would probably cost more than buying a new pan, but if you know anyone with a machine it would make short work of it without chemicals.

Whatever method you use make sure to season it straight after, or at least heat it and run it down with oil to prevent rust.


First of all, the term "molecular gastronomy" is almost universally derided by those who practice it and "Modernist cuisine" seems to have become the accepted nomenclature. The book Modernist Cuisine has what I regard as an excellent introduction to the movement and drawing the analogy with other Modernist movements in other artforms. The Modernist movement was about rejecting the lineage of everything that had come before and re-examining basic questions such  as "what is perception". Similarly, we can trace a direct lineage from Escoffier to Nouvelle Cuisine and Modernist cuisine seeks to break that lineage.

The best way I've come up with to describe the Modernist philosophy is "the use of technology to gain direct, precise control over temperature, humidity, pressure and texture".

When you're poaching fish in a simmering stock, you want to bring the fish up to 45C by putting it in 80C stock that's heated by a 600C flame. You control point in this scenario is the knob of the stove which is the second derivative of the temperature of this fish. What's more, your feedback loop is entirely perceptual and based on human sensing and control. Modernist cuisine starts with the goal of bringing a fish up to 45C and determines the optimal way of accomplishing that goal which is sous vide. With Sous Vide, you are directly controlling the temperature of the fish and you're doing it precisely because you replace humans with automated feedback loops.

Another example might be reducing a sauce. In this case, you manipulate the vapor pressure of the liquid through the indirect application of heat. What you really want is to drive water off but you end up causing many inadvertent changes as well. With Modernist cuisine, you use a rotovap to control pressure directly and vacuum evaporate liquids without heating.

Same with using a roux or cornstarch to thicken a gravy. Instead of indirectly controlling the texture of a sauce by picking from one of the dozen common, natural thickeners, Modernist cuisine starts from asking exactly what textural qualities you want from a sauce and then figuring out the right combination of starches, hydrocolloids and proteins that accomplish that task.

Modernist cuisine may seem complicated on the surface because so much of it is new and unfamiliar but I find it actually to be radically more simple than traditional cooking once you understand this ethos. Rather than a hodgepodge of tradition built up over millennia, Modernist cooking is simply about starting first from your desired goals of flavor, temperature, pressure & texture and then figuring out the appropriate use of technology to accomplish that goal.


How to mix parmessan (or any hard cheese) into oil sauce

It's not traditional to add cheese to fish dishes in much of Italian cuisine. Historically, this may be more closely connected to economics and religious beliefs than for any culinary reason.  As far as flavor development goes, if you like parmesean cheese with your fish based pasta dishes, by all means, use it.

Getting the cheese to emulsify into the sauce is quite tricky.  Even though it is an oil based sauce, you will typically need to add a bit of the pasta cooking water to help with the emulsification.  Also, you will want to remove the sauce from the heat before the addition of the water and cheese.

When the pasta is about 1 to 2 minutes from being completely cooked, remove from boiling water directly to the pan with the condiment.  Add a few splashes of cooking water and stir vigorously to emulsify.  Remove from heat.  Add a bit of cheese, stir vigorously...and a splash or two of pasta water.  Continue until you have added all of the cheese, but a little at a time.

Sometimes, if it's too hot, or I don't have room in the pan to really stir and toss, it clumps.  It takes some practice and patience.


How long does it take botulism spores to germinate in the fridge?

This completely depends on all of the other factors involved in botulinum growth, not to mention the particular strain you're concerned about (there are several).

Salt, acidity (low pH), low moisture, and extreme temperature (low or high) will all slow botulinum growth significantly.

There are proteolytic and non-proteolytic types of bacteria. The proteolytic C.botulinum bacteria will never grow in the refrigerator - they cannot grow at temperatures below 12° C source. The non-proteolytic strains can grow at temperatures as low as 3° C. That is very close to refrigerator temperature so clearly they will grow very slowly - again, the exact speed depends on other factors - but they will grow.

According to other sources, the proteolytic strains (the ones that cannot grow in the fridge) are the ones that tend to produce gas and off-odours, so they'll be more easily detectable. They also have far lower heat resistance, so they are easier to cook away. But of course, if they've grown to a sufficient level, it's too late to do that.

As far as I know, there aren't specific guidelines for vacuum-packed foods, whether commercially packed or simply cooked sous-vide. I'd ask you to consider that botulism is not the only type of foodborne illness that can grow in the refrigerator. There's also listeria, salmonella, and possibly some others I'm forgetting about. Cooking (especially sous-vide cooking) doesn't kill every last one of them, just enough to make the food safe. By the way, listeria and salmonella are both facultative anaerobes which means that they can grow with or without air.

There's also the small matter of your actual refrigerator temperature. Although the theoretical temperature (4° C) is lower than that required for all but the hardiest of bacteria, once you move up even a single degree to 5° C there are many more kinds that can start to grow.  How cold is your fridge, really? I've heard of some being as high as 10-12° C in parts! If your fridge temperature is even slightly high, botulism will be the least of your worries.

Honestly, given the incredibly tiny number of actual documented cases of botulism (less than a dozen per year in the U.S.) compared to the insanely high total number of food poisoning cases every year (1 in 4 according to some sources), people seem to place far too much emphasis on that particular species. I realize that it's one of the scariest on account of that whole "instant death" thing, but even if you could prove that your improperly-stored food is 100% free of botulism toxin, you could still get seriously ill from eating it. You're literally worrying about the least probable vector for food poisoning.

Bottom line, I'd strongly advise you to treat sous-vide food just like any other food in terms of food safety and freeze it if you plan to store it longer than 4-5 days. There are just too many variables at play to conclusively say otherwise.


It’s too yeasty because you are putting too much yeast in. Yes, the majority of recipes states one 7g sachet per 500g, but that will give you a yeasty taste. It will also give you quite quick results.

As a first step, I suggest you consider a cold rise - reduce the yeast to 1-2% fresh (or about 3g of dry yeast), use cool instead of warm liquid and let the bulk rise (first rise) happen in the refrigerator or very cool room. Alternatively, let the dough “spring to life” on the counter for about an hour, shape your buns, brush with milk and put them in the fridge overnight. This will significantly reduce the yeast flavor.

For texture, 50% hydration is quite on the dry side. I would go up to at least 6o%, so 300 ml, maybe a bit more. Also, don’t melt the fat in the milk. Yes, many recipes suggest that,  and it works. But kneading without fat first until the window pane stage and then incorporating the fat will give you a lighter texture, which will also help with the crust.

Don’t brush with egg, for a softer crust, try pure milk or an egg wash with milk in it. Bake with a generous amount of steam to keep the crust even softer.

And when you are ready to take your buns to the next level of fluffiness, consider a water roux (aka tangzhong or Mehlkochstück).


What to look for when purchasing a honing steel?

Magnetizing can cause other problems, especially since you can also end up magnetizing knives which will then be MORE difficult to clean from metal debris.

There are smooth steels which really only set the edge straight; there are properly abrasive ones (diamond, ruby, ceramic), and there is the cheap in-between the ridged steel is. Do not confuse these three. Most criticism of honing steel use is towards ridged steels, combined with careless use.

Use of honing steels is mostly considered a bad idea for harder (60 HRC and above) knives. Especially ridged steels, especially with sloppy/cavalier "kebap cook"/"butcher" style technique. However, a cheap IKEA Santoku, unless it is something VG10 cored, will not be 60 and above. A "good" knife, especially if you choose a japanese style, might very well be. For such, you best use some kind of (paddle) strop for maintenance; a smooth steel or abrasive steel might also work IF used at a proper angle (this means you need the same basic knowledge needed for sharpening freehand on a stone...) and with caution. The "japanese way" appears to be to actually sharpen them on a fine (polishing) whetstone very regularly.

When it comes to abrasive steels, especially diamond!, be aware that you can accidentally change the edge angle significantly, create a coarser edge finish than intended, or raise a burr - all of these are a problem if done unintentionally (and probably inconsistently).


What emulsifier can be used for an Egg-free mayonnaise?

Aquafaba! (also known as chickpea water) Here's a good recipe from Serious Eats:

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/03/easy-vegan-mayo-aquafaba-recipe-vegan-experience.html


Does the order of preparation steps for soy milk make a difference?

I know I am joining the conversation late, but I wanted to share my experience with making soy milk in two different ways.  First method tried: soak, blend, strain, boil. This method produced a milk with a strong soy flavor but also a LOT of okara (perhaps my blender is wimpy?).

Another time, I soaked the beans in a crock pot, and then, just out of habit from making other beans, I started cooking them after they had sufficiently soaked.  I LOVED the result.  Cooking the beans produced a much milder bean with an almost sweet flavor.  True, this version was much more like a soy cream (depending on how much water was added) when blended, but I liked it so much better than the grainy, almost vegetable-tasting traditional soy milk.

I think it much improved the flavor and texture, and plus, I could then add some of the cooked beans to various dishes to add extra protein where needed.


Iron cast cookware: rust-ish or black coat even on new cookware, is it safe?

Lodge is an ideal choice because it comes pre-seasoned. While I expect to wash a bit of muck out of them after bringing one home, it should only be stuff the pan has accumulated after it was seasoned in the factory. And I don't mind that, because they're pans after all and designed to accumulate things. If you're still seeing that after uses and washes, I'd get in touch with them.

You might be in need of replacements, which the warranty (fortunately also great) would cover. I can't tell from the photos if it's iron oxide or not, and obviously you can't either - I'd call the warranty line and let them know what you're seeing.

It's certainly not what I've seen (I love them!) after an initial rinsing with hot water and drying prior to first use. Something seems off to me.


Why is a 4 lb bag of sugar at the grocery store hard as a rock?

This happens when sugar is exposed to moisture. I've noticed this frequently happening when sugar is shipped on a refrigerated truck, then stored at room temperature, allowing some condensation to form. Whether the sugar is "damaged" or not depends on what you want to use it for. If you're going to put it in coffee, or otherwise dissolve it, it should be fine. If you want to sprinkle it over a donut, it probably won't work.

Whether it's safe or not is a much harder question to answer, as it would depend entirely on how it was exposed to moisture. If it's from humidity or condensation, it should be fine. If it's from something being spilled or splashed on the bag, who knows?


Homemade marshmallows not roasting, just melting

Yes, there are two schools of marshmallow thought - with egg whites and without egg whites.  Most recipes without egg whites have another difference that might better explain why your recipe acts so differently from what you see with commercial marshmallows.  Egg white recipes use corn syrup as only a fraction of the weight of the sugar in the recipe - recipes without egg white use a LOT of corn syrup.

A cup of sugar weighs about 7 oz.  A cup of corn syrup weighs about 11 1/2 oz.

In your Epicurious recipe with egg whites, you would have about 14 oz. sugar and about 5 1/4 oz. corn syrup - so the corn syrup to sugar ratio would be somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 - you have a fraction of your sugar weight in corn syrup.

If you look at various recipes without egg whites (Alton Brown, Joy of Baking, etc.) what you will see is the inclusion of corn syrup in almost equal weight to the sugar.

I make this point because a glance at the list of ingredients on a package of commercial marshmallows will show corn syrup as the first ingredient - that means that there is more of that ingredient, by weight, than any other ingredient.

I have only made marshmallows one time - without egg whites - and while they didn't behave exactly like commercial marshmallows, they were pretty similar and a LOT better.


Is the sink or float test for eggs accurate?

Eggs are a vehicle for a growing embryo.  When that embryo is developing, it needs nutrients and fluids, and the egg yolk and white are those reserves,  The fluid requirements decrease as the embryo develops, while the space requirements increase, and nature devise the mechanism of making the shell of an egg porous so that over time, while the embryo develops, some of the fluid evaporates.  If the egg is not incubated, it is still porous, the the fluid still evaporates, but rather than the space being used by an embryo, it is i filled with air as you read.

Thus, in general, if an egg is put in water, and it floats, it is old, or worse, it may be flat out rotten and have a build-up of gases from spoilage and bacterial contamination.  If it goes upright in the water, but stays submerged it is likely getting old as the testing method claims, while if it stays sunk it is presumed fresh.  These tests are, and should always be stated as almost completely unreliable and quick tests only.  Refrigeration slows down the evaporation.  Oil coatings can slow it more and can many other things which would make an egg look fresher than it is.

The only real reliable thing you can learn from such a test is if it floats, assume it is old, at the least probably very low quality and potentially bad, and not something you want to eat.  If it does not float, it may be good.  A reasonable use for the test is you have two container of eggs, one old, one new and you do not know which is which.  Put one set in the water and some or all float or at least go upright, then try the other and they stay sunk, and you know which is the old one.  Nothing about this test assures you the eggs are good, only which is more likely to be good.


How to calculate mixing ingredients to a certain fat percentage?

As a matter of arithmetic, what you want is for the weighted average fat content to be 9%.  We can say
42X + 3Y = 9
where X and Y are the fractions of the whole that are from each of the two components.
X+Y=1
as the parts add up to the whole, so
42X+3(1-X)=9
leading to
39X=6
This means that a mixture of 2/13 42% fat plus 11/13 3% fat will make 9%.
It's important to be consistent.  If your fat percentage of both ingredients is by weight, then work in weight throughout, if by volume, work in volume.
To put this into practice, let's say both are by weight, and we want 100g in total.
2/13×100g = 15.4g
11/13×100 = 84.6g
You can't measure that accurately, so round to 15g of 42% fat and 85g of 3%, and you'll have 100g of 9%


How to know when chicken breast has cooked through?

A thermometer is the only way to be sure.

For methods with a consistent level of heat (stove, oven), you should able to learn the average cooking time, and outwards cues of color and texture that match the right internal temperature. Remember that these will vary with cooking method and temperature. Internally, the meat should look opaque and white.

These are CUES of doneness, not guarantees. Use the thermometer.

For methods with inconsistent levels of heat (bbq, campfire), wait until it looks nearly done and then check with the thermometer.

Err on the safe side. Prepared properly, chicken is a lot more forgiving of overcooking than steak.


Frozen Kefir Grains Seem Dead...Any Suggestions?

During the freezing process, ice crystals can cause cell damage to microorganisms. This means that a lot of the bacteria in your kefir may have died in the freezing process, leaving your culture significantly weakened. It may take a few batches to get it back up to full strength.


How to eat raw brown rice, yellow peas, black beans

Assuming you don't cook in excess water then drain it away, there's not a difference in nutritional value here, you're just not comparing the same amount of rice.

Raw, uncooked rice and beans are dry. When you cook them you add water. So if say you start with 100g of raw brown rice, you might end up with 330g of cooked brown rice. If you then take just 100g of it, it'll have less than 1/3 of the original nutritional value - you're basically eating 30g of rice and 70g of water. But if you eat all of it, it'll have the same nutritional value it started with.

Same idea applies if you start with one cup. It expands when you cook it, to perhaps a bit over 3 cups of rice, so if you take one cup to eat, it's just less rice.

The ratios of cooked weight to raw weight, and cooked volume to raw volume, depend a bit on exactly how you cook the rice. The nutrition facts are based on some average of "properly" cooked rice.

If you do cook things in excess water, then yes, there is some very small amount of nutrients in the water (it's still water, not a protein shake), hard to say exactly how much, and if you're determined to get every last bit of nutrition you can eat it. For rice it's generally a non-issue, since you don't need excess water - just use the right amount and it'll all boil away or be absorbed. Beans are generally cooked with a bit of excess water, but they don't need an insane amount, so it's not hard to turn that into a soup/sauce for the beans, and so there's still nothing to throw out.


Do foil packets on a charcoal grill get any flavor from the smoke?

No, not really exposure is sort of the key in any method of light, and/or heavy, and/or cold, and/or hot, and/or direct, and/or indirect smoking or smoking in general. This holds true for charcoal grilling as well.


How can I ensure that my pizza is properly cooked?

Get a pizza stone. It is important to preheat the stone with the oven. Put it in the oven before you begin to preheat, if your not in a hurry...let the stone and the oven hold at temperature for a while before you put the pizza on it. The stone will radiate heat into your dough evenly. Stones are 'better' than metal (like a cookie sheet) because they release the heat into the dough 'more evenly' If you have a 'pizza pan' putting that on the stone will work well also.
Completely preheat your oven. Many electric ovens use the broiler coil (on top) to heat the oven to the desired temperature faster, if you attempt to bake your pizza during the pre-heat stage the top is likely to cook faster than the dough. You may eyeball your pizza as done because the top 'looks' ready, when the dough is not yet finished.
One of the common culprits in an 'underdone' middle is that liquid has soaked into the dough causing it to cook more slowly. If your sauce is too thin you might want to thicken it up some. Also, spreading a thin coat of soft (not melted) butter over the top will form a barrier to prevent the liquid in the sauce from soaking in. Finally, you might try putting the grated cheese on first and then spreading the sauce over that. As the cheese melts and the sauce warms it will settle into (approximately) the expected layers, but if the sauce has been kept from the dough for a few minutes it will not soak in as much.

If you aren't satisfied with these results then you might try:

Get an oven thermometer. The temperature actually in your oven will vary from 'the dial'. It's expected, just know what you're actually getting. You want your oven to be 'very hot' (professional pizza ovens will range from 600°F - 900°F) your home oven is unlikely to get 'that' hot but 450°F should be close enough to do the job.
As a last resort... par bake the crust. Put the un-covered crust in the oven for a few (5ish) minutes first, pull it, then top it and return it to the oven.

I hope you find something here to help with your pizza woes.


Reconstituted dried blood will not have the quite the same texture as fresh blood. If the dish you're making requires blood as a thickener -- particularly if it's supposed to have a thick, gelatinous texture -- dried blood may not work correctly. For other textures, though, dried should be fine. By way of example, nearly all black pudding is made with dried blood, but drisheen (an Irish blood sausage with a more gelatinous consistency, made without oats to thicken) needs fresh blood.

In terms of water content, roughly 4 parts water to 1 part dried blood (by weight, not volume) should be fine.


I think the two most likely things to do with this are to serve it as an accompaniment to a cheese plate (preferably with a triple cream / brie type cheese or an intense blue cheese), or in a dish with a gamey meat.


Baking batter-covered chicken instead of frying?

I may be off base here, but Wondra Flour is the first thing that comes to mind.  Its’ an instant flour aka pre-cooked.  You could really cut back on the liquid in order to make a drier batter and use an egg and a little milk/water and other desired seasoning.

Use two bowls, one for dried Wondra Flour, the second for the batter.  First toss the chicken in dried Wondra Flour, then into batter, pull out then back into dried flour. You will have to experiment a little to get the right combo, just keep in mind you can always rinse off the chicken and try again.  Using an Oil Spray Bottle spray the back then put on racked baking sheet spraying the top.  Halfway through the cooking process, you will need to turn over the chicken pieces as moisture will accumulate on the bottom.  This also works best in a convection oven.  If you are heavy on the oil spray, you are defeating the purpose of oven baking, so keep it light.  Also, you may want to cut the chicken in larger pieces to give the batter a chance to brown.

If your supermarket doesn't carry it, just go to customer service and requested they start to carry it.  You may have to talk to a Manager, but they usually will order it in. There is always online.


Is there a plastic bowl/dish that can withstand high temperature in the oven?

Silicone bakeware is available which is oven safe up to 500°F/260°C. Just like other materials it has some advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

Easy to clean rubbery surface (will need a little cooking spray, but not much)
Flexible, so easier to remove baked goods
Often fridge/microwave safe

Disadvantages:

Not very durable, due to softer material
Can be cut by metal utensils
Floppy
May warp or melt in some cases.

Generally, I've heard very mixed reviews from bakers using silicone (except for Silpats). Although you can obtain it in the American market, most people prefer metal or Pyrex.


How do I make meringue using a whipped cream charger?

Actually, this can be done but it may not be convenient to do if you aren't in a restaurant setting where this can streamline your process. If you take equal parts egg whites and sugar, beat them together, cook at 74C for 30minutes and then transfer them to the siphon and charge with 4 cartridges, dispense to desired shape, and then bake at 150C until set (this will vary depending on size and shape) you should be good to go.

As I said, this is about the same as doing it the old fashioned way, time wise.


How many minutes between 115 F and 120 F for a ham?

Probably another 10-20 minutes. The interior should be heating somewhat faster now than it did initially, since it took a while for the heat to propagate all the way in. And assuming it was refrigerated at 40F, it's averaged about 10F increase every 20 minutes. (Your 15-20 minutes outside the refrigerator isn't going to change that much.)

It's also really not that sensitive, so it doesn't matter that much if you over shoot. So I'd check after 10 or 15 minutes, and if it's not all the way there yet, you'll at least have a good idea how fast it's heating.


Throw it away, seriously. Foodborne illness risk increases with the type of food, the conditions in which it was cooked and how long it was at room temperature. Given that it was never cooked right in the first place and it probably stood out awhile you really should play it safe on this one, it's not worth getting very sick to save a bit of food, especially since it won't have good taste or texture now anyway.


In a word: Science! The yolk of an egg contains a large number of complex proteins, which are large molecules composed of chains of amino acids.  The specific combinations and ordering of those amino acids cause the proteins to fold up on themselves into complex structures, which in turn determine the protein's function.

The bonds which interact between amino acids and fold the protein in a specific way are fairly delicate, and they can be "denatured" or disrupted by the application of heat, salt, or acid, which changes the shape of the protein.  The bonds can also reconnect to other, different bonds when the protein is in its new shape.  So, when you heat an egg yolk, the proteins eventually change shape and bind to each other in a specific way that causes the physical changes we refer to as "curdling".  Here's a neat animation of the process.

This can be avoided when the yolks are heated gently because it takes a certain amount of heat to completely denature the proteins, and it takes a number of unfolded proteins interacting to bind into a new "curdled" configuration.  When you heat gently, you're giving the heat enough time to dissipate throughout the food, so that it doesn't exceed that temperature in any given spot and there aren't lots of fully denatured proteins all in the same place.  The proteins may still be changing shape, but they haven't reached the shape or concentration where they can bind together and curdle.  Which is good, because when they do bind together, those bonds are stronger than the bonds that originally folded the proteins.  At that point they're permanently curdled and no amount of cooling will un-bind them and allow the proteins to re-fold on their own. (EDIT: ironically, I stumbled on this article today which describes how some scientists have managed to do just that with certain egg enzymes. Weird!)

The final configuration can also be mediated by other proteins, sugars, etc. in the food.  For example, in scrambled eggs the proteins in the whites and yolks combined set differently than either of them do separately.  The cooking process can also be done gradually enough to produce a smooth texture even if the proteins are completely denatured.  For example, in hollandaise sauce egg yolks work together with liquid butter to form a smooth emulsion; even though many of the yolk proteins may be denatured, they can't fully set into a curdled matrix because the butter proteins, fats, etc. are also present.

A bit more detail on how to prevent curdling in specific culinary applications can be found in this related answer.


How do I prevent sugar from burning/sticking on cast iron grill?

I encountered this problem making Bulgogi. I found that the surface should be well oiled/greased, and as much marinade drained from the meat as is possible. Baking soda and vinegar did a bangup job cleaning off the residue - my griddle was fine, but you may need to re-season.


As ricotta is often substituted in lasagna with cottage cheese, it seems like you should be able to do the reverse in this recipe.

Other options mentioned in this similar question include sour cream and cream cheese.


How can I mill / press sweet sorghum with household equipment?

How about an old "Ringer" clothes washing machine? I was just at a sorghum making demo yesterday and the machine reminded me of a ringer washing machine - just bigger.


It is not necessary to have any egg to make a breading.

You should instead take a step back:  rather than trying to create a substitution for egg in  a breading which relies on their unique properties, instead use one of the many breading methods which does not.

Among them are:

Simply dredging in an acceptable starchy flour (such as corn meal)
Using a (gluten free) tempura type batter
Using a (gluten free) beer batter without egg

All of them can be enhanced with spices or seasonings that you prefer such as chili powder, garlic powder, and so on.  The latter two can even accommodate wet prepared condiments (in reasonable quantities) like prepared mustard or soy sauce.

While the result will not be identical to the classic triple-layered French breading, it can be very good in its own right.


Langouste and Langoustine, what's the difference?

Simply, langoustines are much smaller and a portion is several. A langouste is large; one would be big enough for 1--2 people.
Other names for langoustines include (from wikipedia):

Nephrops norvegicus, Norway lobster, Dublin Bay prawn, or scampi

In French, a longer version of the name is Langoustine commune (again wikipedia):

Contrairement à ce que son nom peut suggérer, la langoustine n’est pas une petite langouste
Despite what its name may suggest, a langoustine is not a small langouste

While they can grow to 25 cm long they're normally served about half to 2/3 that size.  As typically presented, they're rather like large straight shell-on prawns, though a special long thin fork may be used to extract the meat.
Langouste (again from wikipedia) is known as:

Palinurus elephas, European spiny lobster, common spiny lobster, or Mediterranean lobster

In the parts of France I've most often visited, this is less common than the other major  lobster, which is called homard, homard européen, homard breton* or scientifically Homarus gammarus.
For those who can muddle through a bit of French, here's some further reading (the last paragraph is particularly relevant): Quelle différence entre un homard et une langouste ?.

* Breton as in Brittany, which is where I tend to go.


Sounds like it's working for you. As long as the dough doesn't form a skin, inhibiting rising, then looks like it ain't drying out.

Very even heating too, I imagine; that's critical: with the hot and cold patches of some big ovens, uneven fermentation and rising could ruin a loaf especially the final proofing. Cracks in the sides of the crust can be blamed on this.


Choose Wisely

Cookie selection is key.  You want to ship cookies that are going to stand up to the journey well.

Hard, dry cookies like biscotti or Mexican Wedding Cake cookies ship well.

Denser bar cookies, like brownies or blondies, packed well, should also stand up to shipping, and their rectangular shape makes it easier to fit them into the shipping container.

Moist, chewy cookies like Snickerdoodles or Chocolate Crinkles may dry out if the shipping time is extended, so only ship them to people you know can receive the shipment quickly.

Avoid filled cookies or those that are only at their peak for a day or so, like most sandwich cookies or French macarons (Coconut macaroons actually ship quite well).

Avoid any cookie requiring refrigeration.

Avoid cookies with small points (from cookie cutters) or delicate decorations which may break off during shipping.

Packing

Optionally, wrap pairs of cookies together back to back, in film wrap.  This will help them stay whole, and provide a little extra padding.

Pack the cookies well in an airtight container, neither under nor overfilling it (perhaps using some loose crumpled food safe plastic or aluminum foil to fill any voids in the container, so that the cookies don't jumble around in the container.

Avoid mixing moist and dry cookies in the same container.

Use good cushioning such as bubble wrap or packing peanuts when you pack the cookie container into the shipping box.

Shipping

Ship by the fastest means that isn't prohibitively expensive.

Milk

Do not include milk in the package.

See Also

Land O Lakes
AllRecipes
Betty Crocker


Can I eat chicken that was cooked, frozen, and thawed in the microwave yesterday?

I certainly wouldn't risk it. The conventional wisdom with things like frozen cooked foods is to eat them within 24 hours of defrosting. If you defrosted it in the fridge you might have a little leeway (but it would still be a risk) but as you defrosted and reheated it in the microwave the likelihood is that eating will make you ill.

Definitely don't reheat it again, you should only ever reheat things once (though I'm less certain of this as many recipes call for cooking and reheating things a number I'd times) as the various heating and coolings increases the risk of dangerous bacteria growth.


Can ginger root that's gone bad hurt you if you eat it?

Sure. Most foods can cause you damage if you eat it when spoiled. E.g. if its grown moldy, you don't know if the mold is a safe to eat one or not.


Is Calrose rice a decent choice for paella?

Some will say no, some will say yes. I'm in the yes camp.

If you want to make paella, and that's the only rice you have on hand, don't let anyone stop you.

Use this as a learning experience.

Be warned that the rice might be stickier than other type or rice, especially paella rice, so be careful about the amount of liquid used.

Rinse the rice thoroughly to remove as much surface starch as possible.


Can any bones (but specifically Beef Shortribs) be used to make bone broth AFTER they've done a stint in the crockpot?

Yes and no... You can certainly toss them in a pot and let it simmer for a few hours, you'll extract some flavor and there's no danger. But broth usually uses bones that have only been roasted, not cooked low and slow in liquid as I'm guessing you did in the crock pot. Depending on how long you cooked the previous dish, some or most of the flavor and even the gelatin could already have been extracted. Speaking of that previous dish, any spices used will most likely have imparted some flavor to the bones while cooking, which will then end up in the broth.
Personally, a lightly flavored Caribbean broth doesn't sound particularly appealing to me; I would just toss the bones. But there shouldn't be any danger to trying it if it does appeal to you.


Buy "hot house" tomatoes, particularly off-season.  You'll be good to go.


How long can you freeze raw chicken before it seriously affects its taste?

The change in flavor is mainly affected by packaging and how long before it gets frozen.

Packaging: If you have vacuum sealed chicken it will last quite a while. It won't get freezer burnt, dry out or pick up flavors from other freezer occupants. I would say properly packaged will last months to a year range depending on your taste buds.

Time before freezing: I have a habit of buying meat to cook right away, but end up freezing it raw several days after the fact. I then see it a week or two later and pull it out to cook. It never tastes as good as when I freeze it immediately.


What can I use to substitute apple juice in a preparation of ribs?

In all honesty, I think that apple juice is just a euphemistic way of saying sugar-water.
The braising happens due to the sugar content mostly, which is why it doesn't really matter what type of juice it is (citrus excluded).
The flavour of the apple juice will be almost completely lost during cooking, so you don't need to worry about it too much.


Please help me identify this Jamie Oliver cookbook

Jamie at home. See http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pizza-recipes/pizza-dough


Refrigerating cooked potatoes is perfectly safe.  The myriad of frozen and refrigerated potato products on the market demonstrate this, as do the experiences of millions of home cooks.

In fact, it is raw potatoes that should not be refrigerated, not because of safety concerns, but because they will convert starches to sugars and taste oddly sweet.  The ideal storage temperature is slightly higher, 45-50 F.


What savory flavors would pair well with chocolate pasta?

Hmmm, I would turn to cultures that use cocoa as a savory ingredient. There is quite a bit of Mexican cooking that does this and you did mention wanting to incorporate chili powder. How about looking at the ingredients in Mole sauce for an inspiration. Not sure I can provide specifics but just trying to give you some ideas. Mole is pretty intense so maybe temper it with a cream?

Just some idea suggestions for a starting point.


Turning focaccia upside down before topping

I understand it the same way: the wetter side on top. The Bottom side sucked up the oil while leavening. And by turning the dough she gets also the other side greasy.

I think the lady just likes to use her hands. As she turns the dough she pushes her finger inside it to spread it.

I actually don't see a different way to do the focaccia as you are supposed to push in with your fingers. She opens the cherry tomatos also by hand because she wants some juice to come out and fall in the small hollows of the dough.


What's the fluid that comes out from cheese after heating it up?

It is almost certainly either fat, water, or a combination of the two which was squeezed out of the cheese as a result of the heating.

The heating would cause the proteins in the cheese to further tighten, squeezing out the liquid, which is why you may not see it until heating the cheese.


How do I properly cut leafy herbs like basil?

Strips of herbs is called a chiffonade:

Stack the leaves together.
Roll the leaves into a cigar shape
Slice across them.

I typically use a chef's knife.

If I have multiple herbs, I'll wrap the smaller leaves in one of the larger ones.  (eg, basil & oregano)

If you want it minced, then you should "run your knife through" the pile.  Which in expression to mean in this context to rock your knife over the pile, turn it, rock it some more ... and keep repeating until everything's the size you want it.

update :

Even though the question clearly stated 'like basil', for other sizes/shapes of leaves, there are ways to efficiently get them into a cut up pile (possibly strips) that you can then mince finer:

For longer-leafed herbs (eg. culantro), you don't need to roll up the leaves. Just stack up what you need, hold them from the stem end, and rock/slice them.

For small leaf herbs, you're not going to get what I'd call strips.  It's more like confetti.  If you don't have a larger leaf in the recipe to wrap them in (basil, mint, sesame, or even vegetables like spinach), then you'll want to keep the leaves on the stem.

For tender stem plants (celery, parsley, etc. (except for cilantro (green coriander) -- throw that out and use culantro instead, as it doesn't taste like soap), you just hold the stem end and rock/slice your way from the top.

For woody stems, you work similarly, but slow down when you're getting close to the woody part.  Then you turn the stem so you're cutting more parallel with the stem, and cut in from one of the sides.  Roll the stem over, and continue working in from the side.  Repeat until you've gotten off all you can without cutting into the woody stem.  If there's still a lot of leaves left, break off the branches of the stems, and either work them  individually or stack them up to try to work a bit faster.  (For some plants, it's easier to break it off before you start, and work each one individually.)


What most people don't get when it comes to food safety: Spoiled food has a chance of making you sick.

When food is visibly spoiled, it has large bacterial colonies growing in it. This means that it has been exposed to conditions which were promoting bacterial growth. Anything which was present on your food will have grown, unless outcompeted by something else.

The bacteria which make food gross are rarely the ones which make you sick. But if they had the chance to grow, the real pathogens had a chance to grow too. If they were present, then they grew, and you will consume them, together with whatever waste products their colony produced.

Assuming that there were infectious bacteria on your food, you will ingest them. From there on, it depends on a ton of factors whether you will get sick or not - the amount you ate, the acidity of your stomach contents, the state of your immune system. The last does not mean "you'll only get sick if you're immunocompromised" - it is like being around a person with the flu, even if your immune system is intact, you can still catch it.

There are pathogens which cannot infect you, but simply produce toxins. Botulinum is the poster child for these, but I think B. cereus also works through a toxin. In this case, eating the food poisons you. Depending on the type and amount of toxin ingested, as well as the current state of your body again (mostly liver function), the symptoms can run the entire spectrum from "so weak you don't notice them" to "you die despite being correctly diagnosed and treated".

Then there are a few more exotic possibilities, for example Hep C cannot cause liver cancer alone, but it does so (sometimes) in the presence of a type of toxin produced by moulds. But this is not actually considered foodborne illness any more, even though it's possible that eating mouldy food was the trigger. It falls outside of the scope of food safety, as the fault cannot be pinned on a specific dish you ate. Nevertheless, it's one more reason to not eat spoiled food.

There is also the possibility that your spoiled food has no pathogens at all, and the spoilage microbes outcompeted all the bad guys, and then of course nothing happens.

So, to sum it up: if you eat spoiled food, there are four possible outcomes:

You get sick (right away or with an incubation period of 2-3 days) and notice it
You get sick (right away or with an incubation period of 2-3 days) but the symptoms are so weak you don't even notice it
You get a different health problem, soon after eating or even years later, without knowing that it was the spoiled food which caused it
Nothing happens.

There is no way to predict which one will occur. Actually, these outcomes are possible with any food you eat, including safe food, but eating unsafe food increases the probability of the first outcomes a lot, and eating spoiled food increases it even more.


Can someone explain this nutrition label to me?

Carbohydrates and added sugars have different Daily Values (DVs). The DV for added sugars is 50 grams, 69g is 138% of 50g, so 138% of the recommended DV. The recommended DV for carbohydrates is 275g per day, and 69g is 25% of the carbohydrate DV.


Which type of pan can you recommend for pan-frying tofu?

Cast iron rules! but if i was to choose from the options you provided i would pick the heaviest / thickest one regardless of the material.


I use 1 rounded teaspoon for 12 to 16 ounces (depends on the mug I'm using), so about 8 teaspoons (or about 2 1/2 tbsp) for a gallon of water. Hot water, just under boiling, is best.  Ideally, the water is heated and poured onto the tea at just under boiling.  Because I don't think you want to boil a gallon of water, I'd use the amount of hibiscus for a gallon of tea, but only use about a quart of hot water to start, let the tea steep in that (at least 5 minutes, longer will give a stronger flavor) then add the remaining 3 quarts of water.


I love the combination of pesto and chicken. Is there a reason traditional Italian cuisine seems to shy away from it?

I'm assuming you mean basil pesto, although according to an Italian dictionary a pesto is a sauce made by crushing ingredients (pestare is Italian for crushing). Some specific types (like the Genovese one) are protected by law and you can't call something with that denomination unless they have some specific requirements.

As Italian, I've seen basil pesto also as a sandwich sauce together with cold cuts and/or cheese, pizza topping or as lasagna filling as alternative to the ragù (aka Bolognese sauce outside Italy:) I think this answers your first question.

Together with meat, I've never seen it; probably because it can be too strong to cover the meat's flavor. However, a similar preparation with parsley (salsa verde) but probably not as strong usually accompanies the bollito (boiled meat). I'd say the pattern is that we're speaking about not-so-flavorful meats, but here I'm afraid to cross the line and step into speaking about my personal taste.


Why doesn't any of the Instant Pot recipes I find use the preset buttons (Rice, Bean/Chili, etc.)?

For the most part, the buttons just have pre-set cooking times.  For other times, then it's best to just use manual modes.  A few of the programs are particular, like the bean, multi-grain and porridge programs have a long pre-soak before pressure cooking.  And newer models (SMART, DUO-ENW) have the rice program pre-set to cook at "low" pressure.

Instant Pot made nice little charts of these programs and posted them online.

In my personal experience, the extra soaking time of these programs just takes longer - especially if you're already using pre-soaked beans.

That's why I always use manual mode - and the recipes I wrote for their recipe booklet always call for it as well.


How can I filter out unwanted particles in my chicken broth?

A piece of muslin/cotton/fine-tissue-of-your-choice will do the job nicely.

You can easily find it in kitchen stores or online.


How can I control ice crystal size in home made pure juice lollies

I have been experimenting with vegan frozen desserts lately and I've found that using invert sugar and 0.5% to 1% locust bean gum really helps in slowing down the crystal formation.

I would hydrate LBG by combining with water and then bringing it to a boil while mixing; then mix it into the actual liquid you'd want to freeze.

Making invert sugar is also fairly easy, you can mix 1 tablespoon of lemon juice with 1kg water and 480ml water. And bring it to 114C under medium-high heat. Here's a recipe using citric acid instead


Is cooking dark chocolate and simple dark chocolate same?

In many cases, yes. The specific case would depend on what, exactly, the "simple dark chocolate" had for ingredients, and also what the baking chocolate had for ingredients.

Most (but definitely not all) chocolate sold as baking chocolate has no sugar at all in it. This is what most recipes expect, unless they specify one that does.

Most (but perhaps not all) "simple dark chocolate" sold for eating has sugar in it, even if it's a "high-percentage" dark chocolate bar.

They can be substituted, but you should adust for the amount of sugar (more chocolate, since the sugar in it means there's less chocolate in it than chocolate with no sugar, and reduce the sugar in the recipe.)


Calcium chloride as substitute for sodium chloride

This is an interesting idea.  I have heard of using some potassium chloride to make reduced sodium pickles, but never calcium chloride.  So I did some googling:

Here is a PDF from OragonState that says you can use potassium chloride it for quick pickles, but not brined pickles. I'm assuming calcium chloride can technically do the same, but I don't know what the conversion ratio from table salt is.  They say:

  Reduced-sodium salts (such as potassium chloride) may be used in quick
  pickle recipes. However, the pickles may have a slightly different
  taste.  Don't use reduced-sodium salt in brined pickles or sauerkraut -
  these products need a specific amount of sodium to control bacterial
  growth and to give a firm texture.

Also, I found several recipes for "no salt pickles" that are just brined with pickling spices with no salt at all.

As for smoking fish: it should work but I would be VERY CAREFUL.  Calcium chloride is extremely hygroscopic.  It is used as an industrial desiccant.  You may end up with petrified fish.


Bakers Chocolate used to come in 1-ounce squares, but doesn't anymore. This has caused me some confusion (and unexpected recipe results!) in the past, since decades of recipes specified chocolate quantities by squares, rather than by ounces.

I have no idea why they made the change. But, the solution/workaround is to go by weight rather than by squares. If a recipe calls for 8 ounces, look at the package and figure out how many packages (or fraction of a package) you'll need -- in this case, two packages. If a recipe calls for squares (e.g. "8 squares"), then keep in mind that used to mean one ounce per square, figure out the weight (8 ounces), and purchase / add to recipe accordingly.


Shock cooling anything is never good, strictly speaking, but whether there is serious harm in practice will depend on many factors. Refilling a hot kettle with cold water immediately after emptying probably will not make that much of a difference to the longevity of it.

If you are excessively cautious and a bit pedantic, I would say completely emptying a hot kettle will create more problems, such as increase of scaling especially if you have hard water and iron piping or corrosion. There is far more shock cooling from the last few drops of hot water evaporating off the element. I would not worry too much about refilling straight after. If you really do care, it would be more beneficial to not drain it of hot water to the point of exposing the element out of water.


The bowl isn't absolutely essential; it's part of the aesthetic. The shape does serve a purpose, as most of them have nicely curved bottoms that will minimize the chance of the powder from clumping near the edge of the bowl.

I've used a normal whisk when preparing "matcha latte" drinks for a client of mine back in the day. There's an advantage to having the 80-120 "tate" (bristle?) because they make it easier to break up beads that form as moisture contacts the tea. But a normal culinary whisk will do the trick, perhaps with a bit more work.

I don't see how the silicone brush would help whisking; they tend to be pretty floppy (and mine has occasionally had some of the silicone strands break off when I've used it for brushing food).


Can I use oil in marinades for dehydrated mushrooms?

You can use oil in food you are dehydrating but you are correct that it will affect the shelf-life. The oil will become rancid before the dried mushrooms would have spoiled, but it will still be good for at least a few weeks and that can be extended to months, if you vacuum seal it.

If you want to avoid the oil, just skip it and use the spices in a bit of water (or diluted soy sauce, lemon juice, or vinegar).

I haven't done dehydrated mushrooms, but I have made dehydrated spice mixes that contained some oil. They were fine and dried like anything else, but I didn't use a whole lot of oil in them.


Can you make fish broth with just fish flesh — no bones or heads?

Fish broth, like most stocks (except vegetarian), is almost always made from bones, and usually includes other parts of the fish like heads, tails, and fins. In addition to the flavor and protein from the fish bits, you need the gelatin from the bones to give the stock "body" and texture.
I also live in the US, and there's a very simple way to get the heads, frames (bones), and tails: buy a whole fish and fillet it yourself.  You make a stock from the frame and use the meat for the soup.
If that freaks you out, or you live in one of those midwestern towns where you can't get whole fish, here's a workaround.  It has decent flavor, even if it lacks some of the body of a proper fish stock: make a broth using dried scallops.  You'll probably have to order them online, but they ship well.


Combining hot melted sugar with cold liquid ingredients

That sounds . . . strange. It would make more sense to heat the milk and sugar together first, thicken with the butter and flour, then add the eggs (tempering them with some of the hot mixture first).

Alternately, you could just mix everything together cold (except for the butter, which would need to be melted). I don't really understand the necessity of pre-cooking some of the ingredients, unless this is supposed to be a "no-bake" pie or something. Enzymes in the eggs will digest the flour unless the mix is brought to a boil first, but I doubt there's enough flour in a pecan pie recipe to really matter (it would take a few days for anything to happen, and I've never seen a pecan pie last that long).


Why does my soda fizz so much when making an ice cream float?

When carbonated root beer comes into contact with the ice cream, carbon dioxide bubbles are released. Likewise, the soda helps to free air bubbles trapped in the ice cream. The fat in the ice cream coats all these bubbles, protecting them and allowing them to expand to create the huge heads of foam you see on root beer floats.

https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-is-there-so-much-foam-in-a-root-beer-float

To expand on the first point, I believe they are referring to the ice crystals providing a nucleation site for the dissolved gases.


Cookie mixes (and similar mixes) usually call for the dry and wet ingredients to be mixed separately, which is mostly to prevent over-mixing and to properly control the amount of time that the baking powder/soda (or whatever chemical leavener is in there) is allowed to start its reaction before going into the oven.

Of course you can still mix the sugar in later, you're just more likely to end up with a cookie that's drier and/or harder, with a "grittier" texture, due to the extra mixing.

The bigger problem is waiting; cookie mixes are usually designed to leaven very quickly once mixed, so if you let the mixed dough sit for an hour before baking it, you might end up with very flat cookies. They should taste more or less the same, and certainly aren't going to harm you, they'll just have a weird look and texture.


Why does my ice cream get crispy in my float?

I think I know what you mean, but is the ice cream "crispy" only on the surface? Unless your ice cream becomes crispy in its interior as well, (which I could not explain), I think it's simply as you speculate, the water in the soda is freezing into a crust of ice around the surface of the ice cream ball. This would explain why it is more noticeable when the soda is cold.


When multiplying in baking, should I follow directions all-at-once or batches?

When making pie crust, you want to a) keep your fat(s) cold and b) avoid over-working the dough, both of which are difficult to do when working in large batches. Cold fat, evenly distributed throughout the dough, will steam and melt away during baking; that leaves the air pockets in the crust that cause flakiness. Developing the gluten in your dough is necessary for a strong, elastic crust, but if you develop too much gluten, your crust will become brittle and tough. Working in small batches allows you to thoroughly combine the flour and fat until you've reached the "pea" stage, and then incorporate your water just enough to bring the dough together for gentle rolling. The best thing you can do to pie crust is to handle it as little as possible.

If you're using a large food processor or stand mixer to "knead" bread dough, you could get away with making more than one or two loaves at a time because you want to develop your gluten to a much greater degree than you do with pie crust. Be sure, however, that you mix/sift together your dry ingredients thoroughly before adding the liquid components of your dough whether you're kneading by hand or machine.


In making a pudding, can you replace yolks with whole eggs?

You certainly can replace the yolks with whole eggs but you wouldn't do one-to-one as that would give you too much volume. The average egg has more volume in whites than in yolks (it's about 60% white and 30% yolk) so you'd want to use three whole eggs, not six.

Unfortunately, whites may give your pudding a texture that you won't like - one site calls it "jellyish" (meaning like gelatin), so you may want to use a combination of whole eggs and yolks alone, say, two whole eggs and two yolks. This would be about equivalent to using six yolks but will reduce the gumminess.


For the beginner wanting explicit instructions, I don't think you can do better than a 14 day free trial of the America's Test Kitchen website. They break everything down to where it's almost foolproof (which can actually be a bit of a negative to highly experienced cooks); it's great if you're stepping outside of your comfort zone.

You can learn a LOT from that site in 14 days. Cancel within that window and you won't be charged. If you want one more month or simply to pay one month at a time instead of a 1 year lump payment, talk to customer service, they will accommodate.

Immediately upon free registration you will get access to some 14 or 15 seasons worth of videos, with accompanying recipes, taste tests and science lectures from the shows "America's Test Kitchen" and "Cook's Country", along with articles from the magazine, "Cook's Illustrated".

They're very highly regarded, and geared especially to help non-expert cooks not mess up.

This may sound a bit like a paid ad, but I assure you that it is not. My subscription paid up through the calendar year. I may or may not resubscribe, but I've totally gotten my money's worth so far.

EDIT I looked up your example. There are 2 recipes for basic stove-top polenta on the site. One says this:

  ... pour the cornmeal into the water in a very slow stream from a measuring cup, all the while whisking in a circular motion to prevent lumps.

and includes a 3 minute video straight from the television show demonstrating this recipe for polenta from beginning to end. In the video they cover the hows and whys of pouring the cornmeal in slowly while rapidly whisking in a circular motion and you see her actually doing that.

In the other recipe they use a wooden spoon.

  very slowly pour the polenta into the boiling liquid while stirring constantly in a circular motion with a wooden spoon (see the illustration below).

They're like that with everything. If there is a way to screw up the recipe, they'll keep you from doing it. They'll also tell you what brands won their taste tests and their recommendations. I don't think for a second that they're willing to sell their influence. For polenta, they recommend:


Does a double walled glass mug really keep the liquid warm?

Yes, they work.

The reason they work for keeping liquid warm is because the air pocket slows down the transfer of heat from the liquid to the glass to your hand. Air has a lower thermal conductivity than glass does, which means that it slows down the loss of heat from your drink. (The thermal conductivity of air is 0.024 W/m/°C, while the thermal conductivity of glass is anywhere from 0.96 - 1.3 W/m/°C, depending on the type of glass.) It's the same reason that windows in modern homes are usually double-paned.

The space between the layers of glass are not a vacuum.

That being said, glass double-walled thermoses are popular mostly because they look cool (they give an optical illusion of the liquid being suspended in air). If your primary concern is keeping your beverage warm for as long as possible, it's better to go with a double-walled stainless steel thermos, which will retain heat much longer than a glass one. MargeGunderson is right, too - preheating the thermos, regardless of material, with hot/boiling water for a few minutes before putting your drink in it will be even better than pouring your tea into a room temperature thermos.


Another option is to simply lightly oil the eggplant with a pastry brush and bake or grill it, then add it to the rest of the dish as usual. It isn't the exact same dish, but it will still be good and substantially less oily. You could also bake the eggplant whole (poke a few holes and bake at say 375 until completely tender), then slice when done.


In the pastas that I have made the structure of the noodle is built out of protein- usually entirely from gluten from wheat flour. In fact the base of my pasta is just flour and water (or juice or pureed vegetables, etc.) Egg noodles, obviously get structure from the egg.

Quinoa has no gluten and will impart no structure to a typical pasta.

You could easily add it to a normal pasta recipe as long as it was not in so high a concentration as to compromise the gluten structure. Without experimenting I don't know what ratio this would be.

A cursory google search found several quinoa pasta recipes. The ones I looked at were similar in that they relied on a variety of starches and egg for structure. I imagine these would taste fine but they would be more like dumplings or egg noodles than al dente Italian pasta.

The results of the quick search:

http://gfgourmet.wordpress.com/2007/01/09/quinoa-pasta/

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-Quinoa-Pasta&id=3181479


How to reduce the intensity of garlic in a soup?

Actually, soup is the easiest kind of dish to 'fix' from overseasoning.  All you need to do is add more of the neutral liquid you started with--in this case, I'd use veg or chicken stock, but you could use water as well.  Add maybe a cup at a time, stir well and give it a few minutes for the flavors to equalize, then taste.  Once the garlic flavor has mellowed to your liking, add the other seasonings (salt, pepper, herbs de Provence) until they're back up to where you want them.  Dried herbs will take a bit longer to completely release their flavor, so keep that in mind.

If, at the end of the adjustment, you have too much broth, just ladle some out and freeze it for the next batch!


I have seen pot roast of Shitake. Pot roast = over-cooked obviously.

There were pot roast for: duck roast, chicken roast, pork trotters, buddhist faux meat, Buddha jumped over the wall roast. All of them amply roasted with shitakes.

Okay, for what I have tried, I encountered two kinds of shitake pot roast

sweet and sour
sweet and salted soy-sauced

The Buddhist faux meat:

I saw the usual buddhist faux meat the permutations of which I think are due to diverse combination of various flours, soy and other beans. The thick gravy is dark brown with obvious scent of dark sweet soy sauce and black vinegar. And the over-cooked shitakes are chewy juicy with the wonderful gravy.

Chicken pot roast:

Then there was another time, the chicken pot roast. The gravy was thinner but not sour. It was a whole chicken that was boiled in sauce with the shitake. From what I understand, the shitake roast was done first and then the chicken submerged in the boiling cauldron at the end of the roast. At the last 10 minutes may be. Shitake juiced up with gravy enriched with chicken taste/flavour.

Chewing on the shitake

You should try overcooked shitake that has absorbed the juicy gravies. Chocolate mousse cake is nowhere in comparison just as you sink your teeth into it and the juice runs down your chin. And then you lick your fingers after you had them wipe your chin.

Slow cooked shitake pot roast. I am sure there were spices involved. I also believe they used shitakes that had been stabilised by drying (i.e. dried shitakes). Otherwise, I doubt fresh shitakes could take the strain of being overcooked.


goat cheese or feta as substitute for guyere cheese in yogurt bechamel sauce

Yes, you could use either. A soft goat cheese can be mashed and mixed easily into your yogurt/olive bechamel sauce.

If you use feta, I would suggest that you melt it first. Crumble the feta into small pieces, add a bit of milk, and heat over a double boiler (or bowl set over pot of water), stirring, until it softens and becomes sauce-like.

In both cases, the substitutes may affect the consistency of the bechamel, and you may need to adjust your thickening agent.


Turkey Dinners For A Group of 140 People

Pound per person for bone-in birds, so 140 pounds of turkeys (6-9 whole birds)

Sides are a half cup per person — 60 pounds potatoes, 18 heads of cabbage for slaw, 12 pounds pasta, and 70 cups stuffing.

This is the site I use


Genuine fajitas are made with skirt steak. The most important thing you can do when making fajitas is marinate appropriately. That recipe calls for a dismally short marination time (30 mins to an hour). When I make fajitas I marinate them a minimum of 4 hours, though typically overnight. I usually use a combination of soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, olive oil and salt in a zip-loc bag.

Another thing to be aware of is how you slice the meat. If you bought your fajita meat presliced from a good butcher, then chances are he cut it properly - against the grain. If it's a random supermarket butcher you may or may not have had it cut properly. If you cut the meat yourself, make sure you slice it across the grain, otherwise you'll be chewing some very tough long proteins.

Also, as with any meat, don't overcook it. Medium rare is just fine for a skirt steak.

Some people will substitute a flank steak for a skirt steak when making fajitas. Flank tends to be a little less tough, but not as flavorful. The above marination and cutting guidelines apply to flank steak as well.

Update - I also notice that the recipe suggests 3-4 minutes per side for medium rare. This doesn't sound right to me if the grill is on high heat. Skirt and flank steaks are rather thin and 2 minutes per side on a hot grill should be medium-rare.

Also, make sure you let it rest. I usually rest any steak for 5 minutes, not 3 as the recipe suggests.


What is the proper/most common way to serve curry?

There are two traditional way to eat curry. Indians typically eat their curry with a type of bread. Usually Naan or Roti and use piece of the bread as a scoop/spoon of sort.

Thai curry will tend to be eaten, as you suggested, over top of rice. Typically it is separated when it is served so the rice does not get soggy while it is waiting to be served. The rice is typically served on a plate big enough to fit both the rice and the curry.

Of course, you can eat the rice and curry however you see fit.

Also there are thin soups that is flavoured with curry but usually those aren't served with rice so there shouldn't be confusion in that category. But do note that if you think the curry is too thin, it will thicken as it mix with the starch from the rice.


A recipe instructs to boil a whole head of cabbage, can I boil individual leaves instead?

The goal of the boiling step is to make it easy to remove the leaves. Removing whole individual cabbage leaves on a raw head of cabbage is tricky; they tend to tear.

If you want to put forth the effort, it should be just fine. They're cooked just long enough to soften them and make it possible to wrap them around the filling. I will happen much faster without a whole head of cabbage in there.


i would think the flavor would be different, but they really are similar to small, underripe (green) tomatoes. i might be worth a shot to try those in a pinch, but canned is also a good option.


What does dry ice to to ice cream besides freezing it faster?

The main reason for using something like dry ice is because of the speed in which it freezes the ice cream. The faster it freezes, the smaller the ice crystals, and the smoother the texture.
This is why thawed ice cream that’s refrozen in your freezer ends up so icy because it freezes so much slower than even a traditional machine, and has large ice crystals.
However, you may be thinking more about liquid nitrogen, which is used by some ice cream shops lately. Dry ice is harder to use because it leaves chunks in the ice cream that don’t melt (or “sublimate”) right away. Liquid nitrogen produces an incredibly smooth texture that I’ve never had from any factory or traditional machine.


How should "vegetarian duck" (seitan) be pre-prepared to substitute into a duck recipe

It's often a good idea to drain mock duck and bake it in the oven to slight crispiness (10-15 min at 180°C). You can add some cooking oil of your choice (something refined and smell-free is better) to make it fatter if you don't mind extra fat. If your brand of duck is not spiced, you can also try to add some white pepper/five spice mix or something you like there. If liquid in the tin does not smell good, you can soak chunks of duck in some stock of your choice prior to baking.

There is almost no way to make it fool a meat-eater that it's a real thing except in some very spicy dishes where you can't really make out any individual ingredients. That said, in Thai noodle soups and curries or fried with vegetables or in gravy it is less recognizable than being fried without additives.

So try different recipes and see what feels better. I certainly recommend you to try Thai and Chinese recipes, those guys are expert in mock meats. Not that there're not some very nice Vietnamese, Cambodian, or Malaysian dishes.

For example, I find mock duck the most suitable for Guay Teow/Kwai Teow (has different variations in Chinese and every SE Asian cuisine, you can google lots of them, or try some variation of it in every single vegetarian restaurant in Thailand and is super easy to make with just a few special ingredients and ready stock), at least much better than mock chicken (which is better in Tom Kha or curries). Hopefully, you will find something suitable.

Note that after baking mock duck doesn't really require much cooking, add it one of the last when frying, or even directly to the serving bowl for noodle soup.


Very, very few pizzas are made with butter.  There is no way to make a universal statement, but butter is a rare.  Olive oil would be more likely.

Many pizza doughs are fat-free, including the traditional pizza di napoli; New York style generally contains olive oil.

It is rare for any traditional toppings to contain butter.   Some individual cooks might saute vegetables in butter, but even then, olive oil more common.

As for particular restaurant chains, you would need to check their nutrition information sites.

Note:  as Derobert points out, some deep dish Chicago style pizzas may contain butter in the crust.


How can I make onion tomato paste taste more punchy?

A. To make the flavor of tomatoes stronger in a sauce:

start with better-tasting tomatoes. Depending on time of year these will often be canned. There are many reviews of canned tomatoes, so I'll not
pass judgment here but there are some excellent ones out there.
reduce the sauce more to intensify the flavor.
Tomatoes are an umami flavor. Adding another umami to it could intensify the flavor you're looking for (such as marmite, anchovies, etc.).
if you want to get really fancy you can try playing around with a centrifuge such as a Spinzall.

B. To make onions and garlic stronger you can try combining sweated fresh onions and garlic with powder. Be sure to activate the powder in water before cooking directly in fat or the flavor enzyme will be
deactivated before it can go to work.


Am I on wrong track or is my Apple Cider gonna waste?

I just finished two batches of vinegar, one with apples and one with peaches. I use plain quilter’s cotton to cover my jars, as I think cheesecloth lets in too many bugs. At least where I live.
I use only fruit, water, and sugar. I stir it every day for about 3 weeks.  You can smell it and tell when it goes through the alcohol stage. And you really should be tasting it every day. You shouldn’t need to add any yeast, or more sugar. Just let it do it’s thing for a while. You won’t always get a mother, either, although for my peach vinegar I ended up with 3. I would give it another week or two, stirring and tasting every day. If you can get your hands on some pH test strips, this can also help you to know when everything has converted to acetic acid.


How bad is it to freeze vegetables in glass for a maximum of 4 weeks?

The main effect that reduces the quality of food that is stored in the freezer is freezer burn. This is basically dehydration, caused by the very dry air in the freezer. Any container that seals airtight prevents this from happening, so your vegetables should stay good.

With glass containers, you may have to be careful to prevent them from cracking. If there is a lot of liquid in the food you want to freeze, you have to take care to leave enough empty space in the container to allow the water to expand as it freezes. With containers that have a very rigid lid (like jars with a metal lid) it can be a good idea to freeze with the lid placed only loosely on top, and then tighten the lid as soon as everything is frozen, to avoid having a lot of pressure inside the jar from the expanded water.


Can I further ferment store-bought kim-chi?

First, as noted in Sneffel's answer, "real" kimchi is eaten at a variety of fermentation levels.

It is possible the fermentation would resume in store-bought kimchi, but only if it is raw and unpasteurized.  A lot of store-bought kimchi is pasteurized (depending on where you buy it), which would kill off the bacteria that would typically be used for fermentation.  Kimchi that is not pasteurized would typically be sold in a refrigerated section and would perhaps have a container/lid that would allow for gases to be released as fermentation continues.  (The only real way to tell would be labeling or contacting a manufacturer.)

In general, I would not advise trying to resume fermentation on a store-bought product, as you don't really know the conditions it was made under or whether continued fermentation would proceed safely.  (Chances are that commercial kimchi would be processed in a way to ensure its safety, even if stored at low but not refrigerated temperatures, but again, this is difficult to know.)

Kimchi isn't that hard to make to begin with, so if you can't find what you like in the store, I'd suggest just making it yourself and letting it ferment to the stage you prefer.


I guess the answer to you is that we really can't give you one perfect answer.

The recipe is sort of vague. It calls for "sage" rather than "dried sage" or "fresh sage" and it doesn't specify a brand of "Italian seasoning", so there's no way to know whether or not theirs included sage already.

So, I'd ask myself a couple of questions:

How far down the ingredients list is sage in my Italian seasoning.

In a list of, say six ingredients, is it second or last? Or, are there twelve ingredients and it's tenth? Remember that ingredients lists are required to be listed from highest percentage to lowest. If it's high up the list, I'd be tempted to omit the sage. If it's really low down on a relatively long list, I'd guess that there's very little actual sage in the seasoning and go ahead and use the full amount in the recipe. If it's in the middle, use half.

How much do I like sage?

Sage can be a very strong ingredient, so it's understandable if you don't like it. If that's the case, I'd be more likely to leave it out. However, if you like sage, use it.

If I had to guess, sage is going to be pretty low on your ingredients list, so my general recommendation based on the information I have is that you use somewhere between half and all of the sage as listed in the recipe's ingredients and hope they mean dried sage because if they mean fresh, it's going to be really strong (dried herbs are much stronger than fresh herbs).

If you really aren't a fan of sage, leave it out entirely! It's not going to hurt anything one bit.


How to make nut butter without a food processor?

There usually is no good way to do this, since most home appliances in an average kitchen are simply not suited for making nut butters.

If you really want to do it, the preferable tool would be a masticating juicer. It is an expensive thing which also uses up quite a lot of counter space, and the process is messy.

All other electric tools you can misuse - food processors, blenders, mills, etc. - run into the problems you already noticed, because they are not designed to make nut butter. For all, it is easy to burn them out. If you take the risk and grind away, and the motor survives, you are as likely to end up with a collection of nut pieces and nut dust as you are with a butter. And not adding oils reduces your chances of success.

The mortar and pestle approach would work, but you will probably have to spend several hours for a jar of nut butter. It is usually not worth your time when compared to buying the nut butter.

See also earlier questions like What features should a food processor have in order to make nut butters?, What features should I look for in a hand grinder (for peanut butter)? and How to make ground almonds creamy?.


That's an unusual problem, rollable pie crust recipes will in my experience always get hard enough in the fridge and actually too hard/brittle after a full night there.
Troubleshooting should go in the following order:

Make sure you are using a recipe that was designed to be rolled. Pressing is a legitimate way of making a pie crust, and maybe you had a recipe intended for it.

Make sure is that you are working from a good quality recipe. You mention yours comes from a reputable book, so we could assume that it's good, but keep in mind that sometimes older sources have more elaborate/difficult recipes than newer ones.

Make sure that you are following the recipe exactly. Possible sources of error include

absentmindedly mismeasuring something, forgetting an ingredient or adding it twice
measuring by volume instead by weight (if your recipe is only given in volume, try to still measure accurately, but in the end you can't really be precise that way),
making a substitution in ingredients (maybe you substituted the fat, e.g. used some kind of plant-based spread when the recipe asked for butter?),
not following the steps to the letter,
using the ingredients at incorrect temperatures (although the fridge should have fixed this in your case),
if the recipe requires you to add something by feel (common with the water in German pie crust recipes) maybe your feel is off.

If the recipe still behaves weirdly, you can try workarounds. In your case, I see two possibilities. One, maybe you are rolling out using modern techniques (silicone or fibreglass mat, or on an oiled surface) while the recipe might assume that you will be rolling on a thick layer of flour, hardening your crust. If this is the case, roll on flour. Two, you can roll using the plastic wrap technique, then transfer to the pie dish while still on the wrap, then peel the wrap off.

If all else fails, just look for another recipe until you find one that functions.

Update: What you posted is an absolutely standard recipe with the most widely used ratio for American crusts. Typically, a recipe with this ratio will be not too soft, but too hard after a night in the fridge, being too brittle to place in the pie dish. This means that you can exclude points 1, 2 and 4 from my answer.
It is highly likely that it was a fluke that happened once, maybe because you made a mistake without noticing. I would give the recipe another try and see how it turns out, and measuring everything by weight. If it keeps turning out too soft in that case, you must be doing something very unexpected, or maybe using not classic shortening but some kind of modern product intended to stay soft at fridge temperatures.


How do you prepare Jello with fruit pieces?

The only trick I know is to let it start to firm up before mixing in the fruit.  You can pour a layer, let it slightly firm up (it'll be kinda a thick goo), add the fruit and the rest of the mix.

... but you don't want to let it set up completely; then you'll just have two layers that haven't bonded well with fruit stuck in there.

Exact time for it to gel depends on what temperature you're resting it, and the size of the container you're chilling it in (mostly it's a matter of surface to mass ratio)


Does repeating freeze -> chill -> freeze -> chill spoil yogurt?

I hate yoghurt which has been frozen even once, as the emulsion separates and makes the texture totally wrong.

But if you don't see any problem with that, the only problem you are left with is food safety. After many cycles, you don't know how much time your food has spent thawed and how much time it has spent frozen. The solution is simple: put the yogurt into smaller containers, freeze them, and take out a single container for each use.

By the way, 3 kg of yogurt isn't that much, seeing that yogurt keeps for many weeks in a fridge. With a few yogurt-heavy recipes, you could get it finished without the need for freezing at all.


How do you drain Velveeta Rotini & Cheese with Broccoli, without losing the rehydrated Broccoli?

One option is to line your strainer with cheesecloth, which will keep just about anything from getting through.  Since you're only putting pasta, water, and broccoli through it, uou can rinse and re-use the cheesecloth so it's cost effective.

I buy my cheesecloth in bulk at fabric stores, as it's significantly cheaper there than any food-related store I've ever been to.


I've used a sweet vinegar before in place of wine, you don't have to add much and it give's recipes a bit more kick due to the acidity.You will have to use your judgement as you definitely won't want to add as much vinegar as you would wine.


Perfect Hollandaise every time using a blender/food processor?

I have used the exact same procedure that you describe on a number of occasions, and the result has always been a thick butter-like consistency, and I think that this is pretty much unavoidable when using a food processor. Maybe you can get a thinner consistency if you use the whole egg like ElendilTheTall suggested.

Anyway, since the sauce never emulsified, I think you have been pouring in your butter too quickly. It is important to just add a few drops at a time until the sauce has started emulsifying. After that you can go faster, but it should still only be a thin stream.

Also, something that I have noticed is that when using a food processor with only a small amount of egg yolks (or any ingredient, for that matter) is that the rotating knives will actually rotate above the ingredients and not actually mix them. When making hollandaise/mayonnaise, that will be fatal since you will just be pouring butter on top of a thin layer of egg yolks. So you might want to check your food processor and see if it works similar to mine.

While I realise that you use this recipe because it is easier than making hollandaise by hand in a bain-marie, I would suggest that you at least try making it "for real" once before settling on this method. The consistency is so much nicer. I think the flavour is better too but that may only be my imagination.


What is the difference between a hen and a chicken? In terms of cooking, flavor, price, and anything else culinary related.

What you're looking for is sometimes called a Heavy Hen.

In the supermarket, it will look much like a large roasting chicken, however the bones are larger and the meat is much tougher than chickens sold as roasters, broilers, or fryers.

Heavy hens aren't as common in supermarkets as are roasters, but if they have them, it should be labeled as a stewing chicken, stewing hen or a heavy hen. Ask your butcher, or someone in your store's meat department.

Note that this is completely different from Cornish hens— they are tiny little birds by comparison, and not what you want for a stew.

If you can't find a heavy hen, you could substitute a large roasting chicken. There'll be a slight difference in the texture of meat, and the overall "chicken flavor" may be slightly less intense. Also, because a roasting chicken has smaller bones, there will be less gelatin released into the broth.

This may or may not make a difference in your recipe— but it won't be a big difference. A heavy hen might be preferable, but a roasting chicken will probably work just fine.