Solutions for when heating chocolate and butter doesn't mix well

I am sorry, but the accepted answer is incorrect in many details.

When chocolate seizes, it is due to a small amount of moisture.  Imagine a cup of sugar.  It will pour freely.  If you add a small amount of water, clumps of the sugar will stick together and stop flowing.  Add enough water, and the combination of sugar and water dissolve together, and flow freely again.

With chocolate, it is the solid particles embedded in the fat phase that interact with water to seize.  Adding enough water (about 20% by weight) will un-seize the mixture although it will of course contain much more water.

Similarly, seized chocolate can be recovered for some purposes simply by adding additional water.

This is in contrast to scorching where the chocolate and its components essentially burn, at least locally.  This creates a similar texture to seized chocolate, and a terrible flavor.  There is no way to recover scorched chocolate.

Of the three reasons enumerated in the original accepted answer, only one is a true cause of seizing:

Using too high a heat.  The danger here is scorching the chocolate, not seizing it.   You do want to use low and gentle heat, as from a bain marie, double boiler, or simply in the microwave at low power, but this has nothing to do with seizing.
Sugar bloom and other impurities.  Neither sugar bloom nor fat bloom cause seizing in any way.   In fact, bloomed chocolate can be melted down and then re-tempered, and assuming it has not gone rancid or spoiled, it will be as good as a fresh bar.

Impurities on the other hand, well, it would depend on what they are.  Chocolate chips, especially from supermarket brands, often have some of the cocoa butter of true genuine chocolate removed and substituted with cheaper lipids like hydrogenated vegetable oil.   These fats do not have the same mouth feel and melting characteristics, but again, are unlikely to change seizing behavior.
Contact with moisture.  A small amount will cause seizing.  However, it is trivial to recover--add more liquid until the mixture smooths out again.  Note that this is again in contrast to scorching, which is not fixable.

So of the first three gotchas, really only the third could cause seizing.

So the most likely culprit for the original poster is low quality chocolate chips, or too high a heat leading to scorching.  It is also possible but unlikely that the heat was too high, so that some of the the water boiled out of the butter, leading to seizing—but if that were true, you almost certainly would have scorched the chocolate as well.

Most recipes which direct the cook to melt chocolate and butter together actually have more butter than chocolate, and butter is about 20% water.  This is enough that the fully melted mixture should be passed the seizing point.

Using margarine is also perfectly acceptable in terms of seizing.  It, like butter, is about 20% water, and so performs similarly.  However, if there were some margerine-like product which has a much lower but non-zero water percentage, there might be some danger of seizing.

Furthermore, when melting butter and chocolate together, it is not necessary to pre-melt the butter for two main reasons (I have done this enumerable times, both stove top and in a microwave):

Butter melts at a lower temperature than chocolate, and so will tend to melt first anyway
Assuming the heat level is low, and you stir occasionally, the mixture will not scorch, and so will un-seize when everything is fully melted and stirred together.

Of the advise listed in the original, I would clarify:

Using is margarine is fine, but don't use a product that doesn't contain 20% water, equivalent to butter (or one that contains more water).
There is no need to melt the chocolate and butter separately.  Clarifying the butter first is actually counter-productive, as it will reduce the water percentage, but probably not down to zero.  This may leave enough water to seize, but not to move past the seizing.
Use the best quality chocolate you can find.   This is true, but mostly for reasons of taste, in my opinion.
Melt in a double-boiler or on very low heat.  A microwave on low power, with occasional stirring, can also be very effective.

I would add that any recipe where butter and chocolate are melted together should have more butter than chocolate, in general, because of the seizing problem.  Given that the total water needs to be at least 20% of the chocolate weight, you would need at least equal amounts of butter and chocolate, and preferably double the butter to chocolate (by weight).

A typical brownie recipe that I have made many times, for example, melts two sticks of butter (8 ounces) with 4 ounces of chocolate.  That is 3.2 tablespoons of water from the butter, which is enough top prevent seizing.

One final note:  melting chocolate together with a pure fat (such as pure hydrogenated vegetable oil) that has no water content is fine at any ratio.

Coda on the science:

Chocolate is normally a solid suspension of solid particles in a fat phase, with only a minuscule percentage of water.  So it is water in fat emulsion.  Add enough water—about 20% by weight—and the emulsion will switch to being a fat in water (or sugar syrup, as the sugar in the chocolate will tend to dissolve) emulsion, with suspended solid particles, again flowing freely.  See Food Education's chocolate article for more details on the science.


What non-alcoholic liquid can I use to store Ginger, both cooked and raw?

Vinegar is non-alcoholic, and my suggestion would be a brine of some sort, essentially pickling it. Alternatively you could just dry it out.

I should also add - Ginger is a root, and can generally be kept fresh in a cool dark place (ie. a root cellar) for some time.


The problem is that you're using 3 things that are enemies of gelatin:

Acids
Enzymes
Alcohol

These 3 things are very common protein denaturant agents, which means that they break down the protein structure. And well, gelatin is a protein, so adding freshly pressed grapefruit juice (acid + enzymes) and alcohol to gelatin will prevent it from setting.

You should boil well the mixture of sugar, juice and alcohol before using and rectify volume with water.


Can I make buckwheat flour starting from toasted buckwheat?

Buckwheat is more similar to a sunflower seed than grass cereal grains like wheat, but they have similar characteristics. Buckwheat has a hard outer shell (like wheat's chaff), with a starchy endosperm inside. It's the endosperm you need to grind into flour. I'm not certain, but I would guess the wheat you have already has its husk removed and is not the whole grain.

You can make flour from buckwheat by hand. However, using a motar and pestle to grind will be tedious labor, unfortunately. (But not impossible!) You need to pulverize the endosperm, which sounds easier than it actually is. If your buckwheat is whole grain, you will need to first remove as much of the germ as possible.

I'd suggest using an electric grain mill if you're intensely about serious turning it into flour. A decent grain mill costs $175 or more.

Personally, I'd make use of the buckwheat as an additive or topping for other breads I make. A flatbread with millet and buckwheat flour (purchased or milled yourself) would be good.

Lastly, if you have no immediate use for the buckwheat: It'll keep for about 2-3 months in a sealed container in the fridge or 6 months or longer in the freezer.


Cumin is the spice that, to me, makes taco meat taste like taco meat.  Whenever I make ground beef tacos I use lots of it.  It also tastes really good with sautéed potatoes.


I believe the most likely cause from the look is a condition known as Deep Pectoral Myopathy, also known as Green Muscle Disease.  If you are interested in an explanation of the condition, here is a reasonable write-up or just search on that term.  The basic issue is an internal injury to the muscle of the bird that results in blood restriction, typically in the "tender" area of the breast and is more common in modern broiler chickens and broad breasted turkeys that are popular with home growers and almost exclusively used in many areas such as the US for commercial birds.  Green and blue coloring in the muscle is the result of the damage and the cells dying from the damage in that area, while the bird remains healthy.  Normally the damage is not detectable by any inspection until the chicken is cut up, so missing it is not an inspection issue.

When I have researched it before (I raised meat chickens for a few years and did have a couple instances of it.), the claims I could find places like the Center for Food Safety claim safe.  Not something I would personally chance in any case myself.  Reports I have found claim the effected meat tends toward stringy, woody, and lacking in taste.  To me green meat means do not eat, so I personally discarded those claims and am not sure why others chose to take such risks, but risk is a personal choice I suppose.


what can i add to wings that were frozen in a soy sauce to save them

If there's sauce stuck to them, you could just wash them thoroughly. If they're seriously overmarinated, salty all the way through, you could try soaking in water to try to pull some of it back out.

If none of that works, Joe's suggestion of adding bitter flavors could work, up to a point, but it won't be the recipe you had in mind originally.

You could also add or serve with something bulky that isn't salty at all. This is a bit tricky with wings; it might have to be a sauce, since you can't exactly just toss in potatoes or vegetables and expect to eat it all together easily.


How do green jackfruit and hearts of palm compare for vegan pulled pork/carnitas/barbecue?

As a veg/vegan for 24 years, I've used both and prefer jackfruit. Hearts of palm typically come canned and quickly turn to mush if you do anything but slice them up. Whereas jackfruit has a much better, meatier consistency. I've done BBQ pulled "pork" sliders with jackfruit and they were awesome. You can buy it canned at Trader Joe's and elsewhere. Some places, like Whole Foods, sell it pre-marinated in BBQ sauce and other flavors. DELISH.


Why would a portable barbecue warn against using pots on the grill?

Personal experience: I have used pots and pans on this and similar grills with no problems.  My guess would be, if it says not to use them, it's probably as you said - for the non-stick coating.  There is a specific grill grate you can buy for the larger models, and perhaps you're not going to get the most efficient heat transfer by putting it directly on the attached - but that doesn't mean it won't work at all.  Personally, I'd rather have something slightly less efficient than have to carry two grills.

Not sure which model you have (since you said the portable, I assume this red table-top), but the LX can handle pots and pans according to this site: "Grill lid detaches to make room for large pots or pans." As far as I can tell, they're essentially the same grill as far as how they function, just different sizes and features.

Just to be safe, I would probably fire it up in your yard before the trip and try cooking something that you would cook on the trip, like a pot of coffee or a can of beans.  That way you won't have any surprises when you're deep in the woods and don't have a backup!

If you aren't comfortable using it after your test, or for any reason, there are other solutions available that are pretty easy to carry.  You can get a propane burner, they're very small and light and easy to pack.  There are some that sit directly on top of the propane bottle, but I don't recommend them - they are very easy to tip, especially if you have children at the campsite.

Unrelated to your specific question, but related to camping, I always recommend taking a small cast iron pot or dutch oven of some kind on any camping trip.  In a jam (let's say you run out of propane), you can use that on any fire that you build, even directly on the wood/coals/whatever, and a pot is more versatile than a pan because it can be used for things you said, such as boiling water and making coffee as well as your typical browning, etc.


Cooking minced/ground beef with a jar of sauce

Fry the mince in a saucepan big enough to hold the sauce until it's brown all over, add the sauce and simmer for an hour or two.

Mince is usually made from cheap cuts of meat. This means, while it will technically be cooked after a few minutes, it will also be tough and chewy. Browning it in the pan then simmering it slowly in the sauce will result in nice tender, tasty mince.

Incidentally, 1kg of meat is a lot for one person, so be prepared to portion it out into freezer bags or tubs. All you have to do then is defrost it overnight in the fridge then reheat in the pan for a quick meal.

You might also consider bulking it up a little with some diced onions and carrots; there might be some in the sauce jar but they will be mush. Fry them in the pan for 10 minutes on a medium heat before adding the mince and proceeding as above.


How to get a juicy and colored, crispy roast chicken at the same time?

I provided this answer a couple of years ago for a similar (but not a dup) question: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/25668/6279

Soak cheesecloth in melted butter and drape it over the bird prior to putting it in the oven to roast slowly. This will capture the juices making your chicken moist. 30 minutes (or so) prior to finishing remove the cheesecloth and return the bird to the oven to reach that golden color. The butter will help crisp up the skin as well.

I would recommend an oven temp of 275°F (135°C) until the internal temperature of the breast is @145°F (63°C) and allowing it to reach 165°F(74°C) after the cheesecloth has been removed. An important part of this is to use internal temperature as your gauge to when it is done. If you simply watch the clock you may get lucky, but your results won't be consistent.


Can I clean enameled cast iron with steel wool?

it is perfectly safe to use stainless steel wool on a Vitreous enamel. I presume that the cast iron skillet has a Vitreous enamel finish.

The reason is simple:
Vitreous enamel is essentially a type of ceramic and has a hardness of around 5-6 on the Mohs scale. Steel has around 4-5 on the same scale. This means that generally, you can not damage it with the steel wool.
Also no not confuse the "grit" of the steel wool with its hardness :P

The only thing that will happen is that the enamel will get very small scratches and that things will stick a bit better in them. You can get rid of most of them with a good polishing compound if they disturb you to much.

Personally I would advise you "not to need" to clean it with steel wool in the first place, but is something burned up badly and you do not have heavy cleaning agents nearby steel wool is an acceptable solution.

If it is just for cleaning leftovers , usually soaking in soap water and a hard plastic brush does a very good job as well.

Remember that even thou Vitreous enamel is very hard and durable it may be damaged by overheating or crack if dropped.


Sure, freeze away. It's not going to be as good as eating it fresh but it's better than throwing it away.


What is the difference between fruit teas and pure fruit teas?

Teas made with fruit and herbs, or fruit and tea, are often referred to as fruit teas. Teas made with only fruit would then have to be called pure. However a quick look online suggests that "pure fruit teas" also includes some of the former.

The article you link seems to use pure to mean "not containing tea*, as it discusses caffeine quite a lot. The sugar aspect is probably a distraction as even a fruit tea made by soaking dried fruit in hot water can only deliver very little sugar as the total weight of the dry tea is small and most of that is discarded.


In principle you could proceed as you suggested. However, a few small tweaks may improve the overall results.
1. Straining the remaining fat.

Small particles of whatever is floating in the fat (either added on purpose or just pieces of water food you were frying) will be tasty in the first round of frying, but probably just burn and turn bitter in subsequent rounds. Just remember how most recipes will warn against letting garlic fry too much lest it becomes bitter. Burned herbs aren’t pleasurable either.
And fat will extract flavors, so what is a nicely aromatic mix in the beginning may become overpowering after a few days of storage if you leave the crushed garlic clove, peppercorns or twig of rosemary in the butter.

2. Letting the fat cool down or at least float to the top in a jar or jug and then draining off liquid at the bottom / skimming off just the fat.

Depending on your cooking process and ingredients, your food may have exuded quite a bit of liquid. If you try to fry in a fat + liquid mix, you will inevitably get a lot of splattering.
If you cook off the liquid, you will get leftover particles, which tend to burn (see 1.) If you want to reuse the flavorful liquid, freeze it separately and add it to a sauce or finished dish.
Even without aromatics, the butter contains milk solids. When you heat the butter, they will solidify and can be removed (so that they don’t burn), so that you get clarified butter, which is very good for frying and quite stable in storage.

If you have sufficiently clarified and filtered your butter, storing it in the refrigerator instead of the freezer will suffice (unless you plan to keep it for months) and it will be easier to scoop out if you need just a small amount instead of the whole jar.


Excess oil in fan grease trap after stir frying in a wok

Partial answer to the new formulation:

  how do I make sure the oil goes into the food, not into the fan?

You don't. The oil is not supposed to go into the food that's being fried, it should be fried at the temperature where it does not soak through, else it becomes quite unappetizing. It is normal that you get a lot of oily vapor when frying, especially at higher temperatures, you cannot prevent that. A splatter screen is sometimes used, but it is not suitable for wokking, because you can't move the foodd items with it.

As for what is the right amount of oil, I can't help you exactly because I don't do much wokking on my own. But I suppose good temperature control will indeed use up more fat than modern Western cooks tend to use.

There is a related question of a user complaining about oil splatter, and the conclusion is the same: you have to live with it. Good way to prevent grease build up in kitchen?.


The point of heating the milk to 180F (and then holding it there for a few minutes) is to denature some of the milk proteins so they will participate in the yogurt structure and improve the texture.

You wrote that you added milk powder. This is a good thing because it adds extra protein. It is perfectly reasonable for there to be enough protein that simply heating it will form a loose curd. Acidifying the milk would produce a more firm structure for yogurt or cheese, etc.

Milk can also curdle prematurely if it has accidentally acidified already. For example if it has started to spoil from a mixture of wild bacteria. If your milk is of questionable freshness then I would recommend throwing it out to be safe.

If you are confident that your milk is fresh and has been handled well, and if the curd is fragile and tastes like milk, I would recommend inoculating it and fermenting it for yogurt as normal.


Is there a mold test kit for packaged food?

A household mold test is going to test for the sort of mold which causes problems for buildings. It's a very different organism than that found in food.
The main thing you need to consider is whether you know what mold tastes like. Spoiled food will taste strange in many different ways, so if you're associating what you're tasting with a moldy food you had, you might be recognizing something completely different.
It strikes me that vitamin gums and chocolate chips are both at least somewhat likely to be coated with a small amount of cornstarch to prevent sticking. You should look at the ingredient labels and see if that, or some other ingredient, is common to them. I've heard of people who dislike the taste of cornstarch.


How does boiling remove vitamin C from food?

It isn't really "absorbed" by the boiling water; more precisely, it is leached into the water. As kiamlaluno said, Vitamin C is water soluble. An important thing to note is that the leaching of vitamin C into water, by itself, doesn't destroy the vitamin C. It's still there; it's just in the water rather than the vegetable. If you consume the liquid you cooked in, you'll reclaim some of the "lost" vitamins.

High heat can reduce the vitamin C content of the vegetables, and when heat and water are combined, as they are in boiling, you can see significant reduction of vitamin C. (One study found that boiling reduced the vitamin C content in broccoli by 45 to 64 percent.) This is because the vitamin is first leached out of the food into the water, and then degraded by the heat. Heat alone will cause some reduction in vitamin C, but not as much as when combined with loss of nutrients through leaching. Steaming and microwaving are recommended cooking methods for preserving as much of the nutrient content as possible because they involve minimal exposure of food to both water and high temperatures.


I did some some more research and Ecnerwal is right, it is a mold identification number.

Each manufacturer numbers their molds kind of like a baseball team has unique numbers for each player. This number is placed in the center of the bottom of the bottle.


Any time / temperature recommendation for a short braise of a tender piece of meat?

Generically speaking meat that is appropriate for a braise is tougher and has connective tissue that can be turned to gelatin by the long slow cooking process.  As you've noted, meat that is tender can be "cooked to death" using that same method, so I would, generally, recommend against using a braise.

However, a stove top braise can go quickly without ruining the meat, if you keep it short and treat the braising liquid as more of a sauce than anything else.  I would suggest that you brown each side of your lamb chops, then add all your other ingredients.  Depending on the amount of liquid your original recipe calls for, you might want to cut back.  I wouldn't want more than 1/2 cup or so of liquid.  "Braise" covered on the top of the stove for 1/2 hour, never going past a simmer.  Pull out the chops and cover, while you reduce the braising liquid to make it more sauce-like, then spoon onto the chops.

Note that you won't have the long time to meld flavors, and if there are big chunks of garlic or onions, they won't be a sweet as in the longer braise.  But you should get a serviceable dish.


How to prevent bursting from cheese stuffed beef patties?

Most cheeses are going to want to melt and ooze out unless they are very hard and stringy cheeses. A hard mozzarella sliced along the strings may work, but I'd try halloumi above all. You can fry halloumi on a pan and it will brown and form a crust, so it is perfect to stuff in a burger patty.


Have you tried straining the salsa? Put it in a coffee filter or in some cheesecloth in a sieve sitting over a bowl. Let drain until the salsa's the texture you want.


In India, there are typical traditional ways of Candying the Fruits like Pickling, Drying, etc. In your case with Pomegranate, you can always try Combination of Pickling & Drying.

Try the following method,

Step 1: Make a 1/4 Inch Layer of Powdered Sugar in a Transparent Glass Jar
Step 2: Follow it with a Layer of Pomegranate (Note: Pomegranate must be spread horizontally & not Stacked Vertically)
Step 3: Repeat Steps 1 & 2 (Last Layer should always be of Sugar)
Step 4: Take a Cotton Cloth & tie it on Mouth of Jar, covering Until Neck.
Step 5: Expose the Jar in Sun for Few Days.
Step 6: Empty & Spread the Contents of Jar on a Baking Tray & allow it to Dry in Sun for a Day.

Though, the process is not Instant & very Tedious. But this slow cooking process will help to Lock the Freshness, Taste & Essentials in any Fruit in best Man-Made Way.

I Usually do this with Seasonal Fruits.


How do I make shelf stable legume dishes in vacuum bags?

If you want to shelf store the cooked legumes in plastic, you need to buy boilable pouches

They are a great space saver, and somewhat environmentally friendly as the oil/energy required to make one glass preserving jar can make 50 to 100 of these bags. And how many preserving jars survive 50 times without breaking!

You will find plenty of sources on the Internet, typical prices $50 to $200 per 1000

The process varies from each bag supplier and vacuum system, but is similar to normal home preserving

If you get the foil lined (light proof) pouches they will preserve food for many years

Example suppliers caspak pacrite

This process is popular in NZ and AU, but as I have just discovered, not so in the USA? So it maybe easier to order from here

The energy, weight, and space saving of plastic pouches is significant


this looks like a question about logistics and I really don't know about shipping things to Serbia, but since you mention you only need it for Piña Colada, I have good news: you can make your own cream of coconut!
Find a can of full fat coconut milk (this should be way easier to source than Coco Lopez), ideally not under 10% fat content. Add sugar (Darcy O'Neil, who popularised this recipe, says 375 grams) and a pinch of salt, heat to dissolve, and you're done.
Homemade cream of coconut will not last as long as Coco Lopez and needs to be refrigerated, but it's as good (or better), cheaper, and easier to come by


Rinsing tea is normal in a ceremonial preparation of tea. There can be several reasons for rinsing:

To wake up the leaves: Especially with tightly rolled teas, the infusion is more optimal when you let them unfurl a bit during a short rinse.
Remove unpleasant flavor on the surface: With some roasted oolong teas or pile fermented teas, the earthy or smokey flavor on the surface can be unpleasant. So people like to rinse the first layer of flavour away.
Remove impurities: There's a lot of processing steps involved to produce a tea. And when the environment isn't kept clean, the final tea may not be clean. I personally always rinse ripe pu erh tea and oolong tea. These teas have the most chance of being 'dirty'. I don't rinse green, black, raw pu erh and white teas.


1: Done is when you are happy with the result, less than 18 hours means less fermentation, more means more fermentation, it all depends on how much flavor you want to get out of it. 18 hours is approximate and as you say there are many factors. For a biga I'd use my nose, you will get a feel for when it is ready. Much more than 18 hours might get a bit strong.

2: Refrigerators are great tools for bread baking because they slow down the processes without stopping them or killing anything. You can ferment your biga/starter, or prove your bread in the fridge, it just takes longer. You could leave it out for 10 hours and then 16 in the fridge for example, or start it 2 days early and keep it in the fridge the whole time. A refrigerator is also very consistent in temperature, whereas room temperature varies from day to day

Keep in mind that the starter fermentation is about flavor development, and is an optional step. I always use a starter (a starter is a biga you don't ferment, you use it to get a good, healthy base for the rest of the dough) when making pizza dough but I rarely ferment it and I still get excellent results. Often I will make the dough and then refrigerate it for a day, I get the flavor development later in the process. So if you have 6 hours you can ferment the biga do it for 6 hours, it's not critical.


Huy Fong Sriracha Sauce is made with a specific variety of red jalapeños which, at this point, is grown only for them.

Note that this is different from traditional Thai sriracha, which is made fruitier and less hot peppers like the goat pepper.  If you haven't had this, I recommend picking up a bottle to keep alongside your Huy Fong, it's quite different tasting.

Non-traditional sriracha sauces, now made all over the world, may be made of any red, fleshy, hot pepper you can imagine. There's even a few green ones.


No, it doesn't. Rice is always gluten free.

It just so happens that words like "gluten", "glutinous" and "glue" are words which have a common root, meaning "sticky". Glutinous rice is sticky due to a high proportion of bushy starches in the rice grain. It has nothing to do with gluten, which is a complex formed by wheat proteins, and not contained in any type of rice.

See also our list of gluten-free grains, which also notes the gluten-glutinous distinction.


How to tell when bacon is cooked enough?

Bacon cooks to safe very quickly.  Once it's opaque it is safe to eat.

Raw bacon is itself pretty low risk, provided it has been properly cured.  Even if it wasn't cooked through, you are unlikely to come to harm.


How important are each of temperature, humidity, and vibration for storing wine?

For a few months I would really not worry too much about your storage, half a year at 80F is not going to destroy your wine. If you have the space in your fridge then that is a better option, but I doubt even the most dedicated wine snob would be able to tell much of a difference.

Humidity only matters if you have wine with traditional corks as low humidity will dry them out and spoil the wine, if you are buying twist caps and synthetic corks then humidity is not a consideration. A few months in low humidity should not result in cork drying, but year will.

Vibration used to be a problem with older fridges, most newer fridges are pretty quiet and low vibration so I wouldn't worry there, especially for shorter term storage.

Colder temperatures for storage will not cause a noticeable effect on wine's flavor over a few months, you'll want to let it warm up some for the best flavor though. Storing an opened bottle of wine in the fridge is a good idea in fact, as it will keep it drinkable longer.

So unless you are buying expensive wine to keep for a long time you should be fine no matter which option you choose.


Try watered down cream, as you'll still get some of the milkfat, but you don't want quite as much.

Water would probably also work for your crepes, although it would change the taste.


How to add more toppings to frozen pizza?

The method I've used to add toppings to frozen pizza is- use frozen toppings. For example, green peppers are in my opinion a great addition to pizza. I usually keep frozen green peppers and other pizza-worthy vegetables for use with many things, and frozen pizza is one of them. This way, I simply add the toppings to the pizza before baking and viola! Easy, simple, and much more tasty frozen pizzas.


How much dried herb to use when substituting for fresh herbs?

The Cook's Thesaurus is a great resource for these types of conversion and substitutes. There conversions differ for each herb, but for rosemary, they list

  1 tablespoon fresh = 1 teaspoon dried


Why not just add more enzymes after the stuff cooled sufficiently?

Enzymes you add to food are generally not toxic. If you denature them by getting them too hot, they don't usually renature spontaneously when the food cools down. They'll just act like a gram, or whatever amount, of protein added to your yogurt mix.
Adding fresh enzymes once the milk is cool enough won't hurt anything. Those new, happy enzymes will just do their enzymatic thing, and give you the yogurt you want.


Method to brew a large batch of iced tea without steeping in a plastic container

Stephie's answer covers a couple convenient options: there are large ceramic pots, and any stainless steel vessel can work.  (Traditionally, metal has been frowned upon for tea brewing because it loses heat too quickly, and many people are particular about maintaining a consistent temperature during brewing.  I think that concern is overblown, particularly if you aren't serving the tea hot.)

I'd also just challenge the assumption from the question that glass containers will shatter when used for brewing. It's really a question of the type of glass.

Glass vessels designed for hot liquids are usually produced from borosilicate glass, the same stuff used for most glass laboratory equipment.  For example, borosilicate lab beakers are commonly available up to 5 liters, with pouring spouts as an option.  The downside is most lab glassware doesn't have convenient handles.  And beakers don't generally have lids, so storage in the same vessel is less convenient.  (I have been known to brew tea in my 2-liter Erlenmeyer flask, which can be conveniently corked for storage; I guarantee it will get interesting looks from guests.)

I would, however, be careful with cooking glassware that is not specifically advertised as borosilicate glass.  Much "pyrex" glassware, for example, has switched in the past few decades to a soda-lime glass formula, which is more susceptible to thermal shock breakage (though cheaper to manufacture).  Ironically, you're often better off buying dedicated "professional" lab glassware for a cheaper price than the expensive non-borosilicate stuff often marketed in kitchen stores.

Personally, I've also found heavy-duty traditional canning jars to work fine for brewing tea.  And they're usually available quite cheaply up to 2-quart size, with standard lids (including pourable flip-cap ones, if you look for them) so you wouldn't even need to change vessels from brewing to storage.  (I'd be careful with the gallon-size ones, which often aren't built for standard canning and more susceptible to fracture.)  Just don't "abuse" them or "beat them up" -- avoid metal stirring and cleaning utensils or rough handling, and periodically check for any sign of flaws.

Although it will generally take many thermal cycles before canning jars will crack, you can limit the stress by pouring a small amount of hot water in the bottom first (the most common breakage point in canning jars is around the bottom), "swishing" a bit, and then gradually filling the rest of the way -- or emptying that small amount and re-filling, sort of like "warming" a traditional teapot.  Traditional ceramic pots are sometimes seen to crack over time too if you don't do this.


Making stiff not dry egg whites is very important in any chiffon/angel food cake that is counting on the expanding hot air to give lift to the cake. I worked as a professional baker for 18 years. When making egg whites for chiffon and other such cakes we used a combination of salt sugar and cream of tarter using a planetary mixer. At home now I use 1/8 tsp cream of tarter 2tsp sugar and 1/4 tsp salt per two egg whites but do not exceed 1tsp salt at any time unless you cut back in the batter so as not have a too salty cake. Be very careful that the bowl is perfectly clean. Any type of oils will prevent your egg whites from whipping satisfactory Using a cold bowl and allowing your egg whites to be very cold also helps as the natural friction will break them down (like whipped cream). Also be careful with how aggressive you are with the folding. If you knock it down to much it will not come back. Hope this was of some help.


To answer this question a bit of physics comes in handy:

Microwaves emit, well, microwaves, this is a form of electromagnetic radiation, like light or heat, with wavelengths (basically the distance between two peaks of the waves) between 1 meter (39.37") and 1 millimeter (0.039") and frequencies (number of times a wave goes up and down per second) between 300 MHz (300 million/second) and 300 GHz (300 billion). Interestingly, these wavelengths are pretty similar to those used in the radio frequencies - like WiFi. These wavelengths are very strongly absorbed by water, which is why it you can easily boil water in a microwave and why they are touted as "cooking from the inside out".

To stop the microwaves coming out of your microwave oven, it contains something called a Faraday cage. Faraday cages are basically a way of blocking the microwaves from coming out of your oven and cooking you or anything else nearby. In your microwave the cage will look like a wire mesh covering the door - the rest of the microwave is covered in sheet metal, which works the same way, but you can't see through it, and people like to be able to see into their microwaves.

At a minimum for a Faraday cage to work it needs to have have holes smaller than the shortest waves it is trying to block - in the case of microwaves this will be 1 mm. If the hole that the pan generated is bigger than this, then it can emit some microwaves.

Now the part we can't answer is how much radiation is getting out and how will this affect you - these can only be determined by measurement of the microwave emissions from the microwave. I recommend that you get it checked by a competent electrical service.


Yogurt is acidic, much more so than milk. So when you substitute it for milk, you're affecting the acid-base balance in your recipe, and you may need to change some of the baking powder to baking soda to restore it.


What are the differences between baking in bulk and baking in smaller amounts?

Yes, recipes need to be changed as well.

The most important [IMHO] difference is leavening (yeast/baking powder/soda etc.)
The next issue is ratios, once you get beyond 'doubling' a home recipe your ratios will get out of sync.
When you multiply dry ingredients (other than yeast) do so By Weight rather than dry measure. (note for sugars in a yeast leavened recipe: sugar is often 'treated as' a 'wet ingredient', still multiply by weight, this will provide the correct amount of food for the yeast)

  Rule of thumb for yeast baking is to multiply everything but DO NOT
  multiply the yeast for doing 2X or 4X. When you are increasing the
  recipe by 8X you double the original amount of yeast. Your rising time
  may increase but that also happens with temperature variations.

  Rule of thumb for chemical leavening is to multiply carefully ALL
  ingredients. If using baking soda and acid, sift the baking soda with
  flour and mix the acid (vinegar, lemon juice, sour milk) with other
  liquid ingredients. That way you don't lose rising power when mixing
  more dough.
  But for chemical leavening, you have to bake the mix without it
  sitting around. So you might weigh and set up 4X, 4X, 4X if you need
  12X yield.[from King Arthur Flour]

  Home sized recipes can usually only be doubled safely. Beyond that,
  due to rounding, the ratios within the recipe will get out of sync. We
  have a number of pro resources here, take a look:
  http://www.kingarthurflour.com/professional/flours.html(Ibid)

These are, obviously, only 'general guidelines, your mileage may vary with any given recipe.


Does it work? Yes, it does.

The idea is to create something akin to an individual "dutch oven" around the chicken or fish you are baking. The meat is "steamed" in his own juices. There are a bunch of different "recipes" for the salt crust, often with some "binding agent" like egg whites.
Usually, the skin is removed when serving (go ahead, give it a try, if you like), so rest assured that the meat underneath is not too salty.

An alternative to salt (and arguably more "paleo style") would be baking in clay.

A quick internet search should yield plenty of recipes for both varieties. (Remenber: asking for recipes is a big no-no here.)


If your noodles are mushy, then you're overcooking them. Vermicelli take barely a minute or two to cook in already-boiling water. Egg noodles take a little longer, but either way, trying the noodles as they start to loosen up is the best way to ensure the right texture.

Remember, you are going to be cooking them again when you stir fry them, so they should be a little underdone when they come out of the broth. Rinsing in cold water will arrest the cooking process and also wash off the starch that can make the noodles stick to the wok when frying.


To achieve maximum flavour is it better to cut or tear basil leaves?

Tearing is for artistic effect

Some people will claim tearing does not damage the cell of the plant as much as cutting, a simple look under a basic microscope will show you otherwise. Not sure how this would affect basil in particular. What dish are you preparing?

If you want more basil flavour and smell, cut it more finely, or bruise it (back of knife or rolling pin) to release more oils just before serving


Can I use tapioca pearls for thickening?

The problem with using the non-ground pearls is that they don't always fully dissolve. Cook's Thesaurus indicates that they can be pulverized or ground in a grinder or by mortar and pestle and used similarly to the starch. However, there are pearls which are instant and those that are not. With instant tapioca you can substitute 1:1, with regular tapioca pearls, pulverized, it would be 2:1.

As for What are they good for?, they are good as a thickening agent assuming that you are okay with little gelatinous balls in whatever you are making. Rice and tapioca puddings spring to mind; there are uses of it in curries and stews for its thickening prowess; also it can be used as a gluten free thickening agent in place of flour.

If you run out of corn starch or arrow root you can also turn to the pulverized stuff. Same rules apply; slurry 1 Tbsp in cold water per 1 cup liquid to thicken. However, do not bring to a boil or you will end up over-cooking the starch.


Your garlic was moldy within it's peel, then dried out, leaving you with a "garlic mummy". This happens occasionally, sometimes with a single clove, sometimes with the entire head.

According to the OSU Plant Clinic, there are different types of mold commmon on garlic, but most seem to be visible from the outside. In your case, the infamous Aspergillus niger seems to be the likely culprit, because it can enter though small wounds or even the neck when the leaves dry out, leaving the outer layers of the skin intact. It produces a large(ish) amount of black spores that look like a powder.


Graham crackers should work well for you. I have used graham crackers and vanilla wafers interchangeably for several recipes. There are rum ball recipes that list several different crushed cookie options (using the same volume of each.)


Is it okay to slow cook sausage casserole without pan frying the sausages?

There's no health issue here, the sausages will be cooked enough to be safe. The reason you fry off the sausages first is that you make the casings more edible, get flavor from maillard reactions and browning, and maybe get rid of some of the fat (if you discard the fat that comes out of the sausages that is).

I'm thinking that the sausage casings could end up being a bit soggy, however that depends on several factors and you'll probably get a good result. Worst case is you don't eat the sausage casings.


Once the potatoes are overcooked, there is little you can do to give them structure again.

Your best bet would be to re-purpose the dish, making them into potato pancakes, a home fry, or some other type of dish, depending on how much structure is left.

In the future, you can minimize the chances of mushy breakdown by:

Use a waxy potato (such as the US varieties Red Bliss or fingerling).  These hold their structure better than starchy potatoes like Russets.
Start the par-cook in cold water, and remove the potatoes as soon as it is comes to the boil.  This will still shorten your roasting time, but minimize the likelihood of severely overcooking.
Add a small amount of vinegar to the par-cooking liquid, which will help the pectin retain structure.
Depending on the variety of potato you are cooking, don't cut them up into small chunks.   It is much easier to overcook small chunks than larger ones.
Don't par-cook.  You will require longer for roasting, but it is slower and more controlled, and less likely to overcook.


Care Instructions for PTFE Nonstick Pan: Function of First Use 'Seasoning'

What functional use would this single-cycle of oil provide?

I'll be reckless enough to say: none at all. There is no reason to do it.

Stuff gets printed on labels for all kinds of reasons. My best guess is that they either reused the booklet from a pan type which needs seasoning, or a package designer who did not know enough about PTFE pans wrote down what he believed to be true of all pans, and no technical person checked it. Besides this, there is a number of other explanations why information can end up being wrong, including information provided by the manufacturer about their own product.

Trying to season a nonstick pan is actually harmful, as even a good coating will be worse than a nonstick. If you follow the halfhearted instructions given here, you are likely to end up with a bad beginning of a patchy coating, which is quite a pain. So, you would be risking your brand new pan for no reason.

Disregard, and do not season the pan.


How to calculate optimal temperature to extract specific compounds from herbal teas?

No, calculating is practically impossible, there are too many variables. It's not about density and melting point, it's about tons more.

The way you'd go about it is like everything else in biology: empirically. You'll have to brew your herbs with different temperatures (and ratios of herb to water! These are very important) and use some method for measuring the resulting solute. Sadly, you'll likely need expensive lab equipment for that, although some specific compounds may have characteristic reactions which allow for easy analytical chemistry.

If your compound is very interesting, there is a chance research on it has already been made. You can search Pubmed and Google scholar for phrases like "Extraction of X from Y" where X is the compound and Y the plant. Try doing it with an account which has access to scientific journals' paywalls, for example by becoming a subscriber to your nearest university's library - many will allow this for citizens who are not immatriculated.


Why not use cornstarch instead of flour for pastries?

You still need some gluten, otherwise the cake will crumble. Any recipe that is gluten free has to use a number of different additives to mimic the structure provided by the gluten. If you just replaced the flour with cornstarch, your cake or pastry would not be able to rise (it would lack the internal structure to "inflate") and likely crumble as soon as you tried to move it.


Madehow.com discusses the entire process of making peanut butter.

  Peanut butter is usually made by two grinding operations. The first reduces the nuts to a medium grind and the second to a fine, smooth texture. For fine grinding, clearance between plates is about .032 inch (.08 centimeter). The second milling uses a very high-speed comminutor that has a combination cutting-shearing and attrition action and operates at 9600 rpm. This milling produces a very fine particle with a maximum size of less than 0.01 inch (.025 centimeter).
  (Emphasis mine)

However, creating the correct emulsion of fat and particles may have a greater impact. As with ice cream, the fat coats the tongue and helps prevent a grainy texture.

EDIT:
This report from Micromeritics, a rheological analysis firm, shows the particle sizes of three (unnamed) chocolate bars. However, it has a useful graph of particle diameters. For the smoothest chocolate bar, approximately 50% of particles are smaller than 5 nanometers, and nearly 80% are less than 10. The lowest quality bar has only 25% of particles smaller than 5 nanometers, and only 45% are less than 10.


The way my parents always did it is to cut it up and then freeze it. Whenever you need some just take the box out, crumble a bit of the frozen parsley into whatever you need it for, then put the box back in the freezer.

Obviously it won't be fresh, so I suggest you only cut the amount that you don't think you'll be able to use before it goes bad, and keep the rest in the fridge, maybe with ice water as per Tetsujin's suggestion. But it does keep basically forever while frozen.


Will unsealed fish in the freezer contaminate packaged food?

In the freezer, things are relatively safe, as pathogens will not multiply given the cold temperature.  So, as long as you remove the package with the waffles and toast, or remove the hotdog package and cook, you will be fine. There is a higher risk for pathogens to multiply on anything that the fish is resting on if you were to remove those items and warm them up slowly (thaw on the counter top, for example). There is also a risk of cross contamination if you have the handle the fish to move things about.  However, the more significant problem with not wrapping the fish is (a) it will dehydrate/become "freezer burned" thus limiting shelf life, (b) it will be a source of off-flavors for other food stored in the refrigerator/freezer, and (c) it will pick up off-flavors from the rest of your refrigerator/freezer.


Unless they found a taste receptor, it likely is a part of the texture (including heat conductivity, solubility etc.) part of flavor. Spicy heat actually is related to temperature and texture (triggers heat - as in literal heat - receptors, does not trigger injury receptors and/or temperature receptors deeper in tissue, so we will not mistake spicy for actually dangerously hot).

The five/six basic taste system (the sixth being fat, currently being scientifically debated) does not describe flavor completely: It completely ignores the factors of aroma, texture (including how non-flavor ingredients will just mechanically keep most of some flavor compounds from ever getting near your tongue), temperature and their interactions. It assumes that bitterness is one dimensional, which is also debated.

Adstringency is considered a separate taste in some cultures, one could also consider it a textural factor (excites tissue in a certain way, just as capsaicin does).


You certainly should season it, else cooking in it will make it rust. Also, your iron intake will rise rapidly if it's not seasoned, which can become a problem if you're eating too frequently from it.

What Wikipedia is telling you is to not use reactive metal vessels (cast iron or carbon steel) for acidic dishes at all. Not to use them unseasoned.


How long to warm taco bar dishes in a roaster

Well, if anybody gives you a solid figure on how long it's going to take, they almost certainly don't know what they're talking about. Even if they did know how hot your appliance gets and how quickly; the quantities of your ingredients, the initial temperature of your ingredients; the water content, fat content, and density are of your ingredients; how big the pieces of beef are, etc, providing anything more than a ballpark figure would be overly optimistic. In almost every circumstance, time is the least precise measurement to measure how cooked something is.

A good temperature to shoot for with any buffet items is just above 140 degrees without going too far over. If your beef is rare or medium rare, be sure to heat it immediately before serving so it's not sitting around hot– it will become tough, dry, and overcooked quickly. Stirring makes a huge difference in both quality and reheating time, so be sure to consistently stir it up.


What is the best way to store prepared raw vegetables

It's really difficult to answer, as there are way too many variables.

Which vegetable?
What is being done to it before storage?
What will be done to it after storage?
Is it closer to 3 days, or 5 days?

For instance, let's look at carrots, one of the items that you mentioned.  Cut carrots can be stored in water, in the fridge, and they'll do just fine ... but if you're going to try stir-frying them, the extra water has to be dealt with, and so that won't work (unless you remember to drain them and give them time to dry before you're going to use them.)

Brocolli's another strange one ... if you're slicing up the stalks for using later, once again, water's a good idea ... but I've never had good luck with soaking the florets, as they just take way too long to try to dry back out to use.

Potatoes are one of those things that you might want to do more than just cutting or peeling them -- I typically bake a few off to use in later dishes, like hash.  (and I leave 'em whole, and cut them up as I need them).  But if you're going to leave them raw, you really should put them in water, or they'll oxidize and turn brown.

The time's also another issue -- not everything can be stored for 5 days without freezing, but that brings in lots of other issues.  If I blanch brocolli, 3-5 days is what StillTasty gives in the fridge.  (they claim the same for raw, but I know I can keep brocolli from the farmer's market for 7 days ... part of it's buying firm heads .. if the florets give at all in the store, you're not going to get very long out of 'em).

... if it were me, I'd also try to look into what issues your friend has ... there might be tools that could help her (eg, if it's an issue that she's unsteady with a knife, could she use a box grater, food processor or mandoline for slicing things?).  If it's an issue with grip, would a vegetable peeler with a larger handle give her more control?


How to make hot dog buns or sandwich rolls with a soft crust?

Normally, a bun for a hotdog or hamburger is going to be made of a softer, sweeter dough.  It will have higher egg, milk, fat, and sugar content.  It is a slightly softer (more water) dough than a white bread dough (and a lot softer than a crusty, lean loaf like french).  You will definitely want to bake it at a lower temperature, 425 is far too high.  I would not usually bake too many breads higher than 400.  A softer, sweeter dough such as this should be baked no higher than 375.  If you are looking for a good pointer towards the type of dough to use, I use the same dough for hotdog and hamburger buns as I use to make cinnamon buns/sweet rolls.


It'll be fine. Just put it in the refrigerator after the initial rise. That will slow the yeast considerably. (If you let it sit on the counter for three hours, yeah, it risks over-rising and becoming a mess on your counter.)

I usually make yeasted waffle dough the night before. That way, all I have to do in the morning is heat up the waffle iron and get cooking. You don't even need to bring it to room temperature before cooking. (I also leave yeasted bread dough in the fridge, for as long as a week, but they need to be brought to room temperature before baking.)

You might even prefer it that way. The yeast will continue to work, slowly, producing more yeasty flavors. That's a key component to the flavor of good sourdough.


As I understand it, it's down to the flavour you get from frying the rice. However, it does also break down some of the starch which reduces the thickening it can do when the risotto cooks, which might cause a problem. I can attest to the flavour, but I've not done experiments about thickening.

Serious Eats had a good article on the topic though, in which such experiments were described. The solution in that was to wash the rice in the stock, then fry the rice, then add the stock containing all that undamaged free rice starch during cooking, thus giving you toasty flavour and creamy risotto with no questions asked. I haven't tried that, but it seems like a fairly sound idea to me.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/10/the-food-lab-the-science-of-risotto.html


Of course stainless utensils can be used on stainless pots and pans; otherwise, the restaurant industry would come to halt.

The only time you need to use utensils of specific materials is pans with a non-stick coating that can be scratched, such as using plastic for PTFE.

As to your alleged "metallic leaching," that is not typical at all to stainless steel cookware.  You would have to provide more information to get a good answer.


Sounds like you want to pop frozen slices into a frying pan? That should work just fine. The slicing allows for quick freezing, which decreases the size of water crystals and the effect they have on food. And quick frying keeps the disturbance of the polenta to a minimum.

In general, basic polenta should be fine, since starch, the many component to consider, responds alright to freezing. Recipes with cream make things more complicated. Freezing and reheating cream can lead to separation, so reheating a big block in a pan could leave you with pools of oil.


This is completely  normal.   Cake is a perishable item, much like almost any prepared food.  It will spoil if left out unprotected.

Although during the baking process, almost all bacteria and molds that are present in the batter will be killed or reduced to trivial numbers, there are still countless mold spores present in the air.

The cake can also absorb water from the air if it is very humid (you mentioned the rainy season).

If the cake does absorb water (as opposed to drying out and getting hard), it will present a hospitable environment to the mold spores that settle from the air, and they will begin to grow.  Very warm conditions only help to accelerate this process.

This is essentially the same process described in the answer to this question:
Is bread that can go mouldy better than that which does not?

Two of the best sources for shelf life agree that an non-refrigerated cake should last 1-2 days.  These sources probably assume prevailing conditions in the US, including air conditioning in the summer.  They are also looking at quality; cakes are also subject to staling.

Eat By Date - How Long Does Cake Last
Still Tasty - Butter Cake, Unfrosted


Small amounts of natural fruit or vegetable juices should provide some colour without altering the flavour too much.

If you have access to a juicer, carrot, beet, strawberry and blueberry all come to mind as colouring agents.


How to measure 7g yeast and 10g salt without a proper scale?

(1)  A packet of yeast is typically 7g exactly.  So if you're buying yeast by the packet, use one packet.  But assuming you will be measuring from bulk yeast, the correct measure by volume would be 2 1/4 tsp instead of 2 1/2 tsp.

(2)  The weight of salt relative to its volume varies considerably depending on what salt you are using - the best way to work out the appropriate conversion for the salt you have on hand is to consult the Nutrition Facts on the back of the container.  Most salt gives the nutritional information based on 1/4 tsp. - but the weight of this amount of salt depends on the type of salt and size of grain.

Here's how you do the math.

Start with the information on the back of your package - for example, let's use my Fine Mediterranean Sea Salt - 1/4 tsp. = 1.2 g.

Multiply both sides by 4 to get the weight of 1 tsp. - 1 tsp. = 4.8 g - i.e. 4.8 g. per tsp.

You need 10 g - so divide 10 g by 4.8 to get the number of tsp. you should use - 10 / 4.8 = a little more than 2 tsp.

You really should get your measurement this way instead of relying on a generic conversion formula.  There is significant variability from salt-to-salt.  Another salt I use has a label that states 1/4 tsp. = .7 g (the crystals are larger so the same 1/4 tsp. now weighs much less than the sea salt).

1/4 tsp. = .7 g.  (multiply both sides by 4)

1 tsp. = 2.8 g.

So this salt is 2.8 g. per tsp.

You need 10 g - 10 / 2.8 = a little more than 3.5 tsp.


Does anyone know of a source of goat parmesan in the New York Area or a farm in New York that produces it?

While I'm not from New York (Charlotte) I know that Trader Joe's sells many different goat cheeses including cheddar and parmesan. A quick Google showed at least 3 Trader Joe's in NYC.


How to decode some less common food Expiration Date/Date Manufactured codes (US)?

Manufacturers usually will decode the date if you call them, which I did. I am sharing the codes I have gathered for easier reference.  Other users may wish to click Edit and add other manufacturers' codes.

BRAND / CODE / TYPE(BEST-OR-MFG) / DECODE / NOTES

Lieber's: 021 T B4A1: BEST: The 021 is 21st day of the year i.e. Jan-21.  "T" (20th letter) is for 2019, as "A" is Year 2000.
Blooms: 028 B2 A1: MFG: The 028 is 28th day of the year i.e. Jan-28.  The year is not in the code.

Here is a list of some more common codes, from Bush Brothers to Stagg Chili:
http://www.foodreference.com/html/tcannedfoodshelflife.html#datecodes
Accessed July 2019

Here is another, very long list from 3 Springs Water through Zatarains:
http://www.eby-brown.com/sites/default/files/u3/EbyCodeDateCatalog_0.pdf
Accessed July 2019


Please do see the excellent answer to the Cacio e Pepe question, which applies to your future efforts.

The recipe you link to is just bad, which is why it's not working for you.  Boiling the butter and cheese in the pasta water is wrong, and will always result in clumps of stringy cheese.  So the answer is to not use that recipe.

The tradition for all emulsified cheese sauce pasta involves tossing the hot pasta in a bowl with the cheese and a little pasta water.  Fettucine Alfredo is no exception to this; it just uses butter as well as the cheese.  In all emulsified cheese recipes, it's critically important that the cheese not get above 180F/80C, or you will get stringy clumps like you did.

Some examples of recipes that do work, and show this principle:

Serious Eats traditional recipe and commentary
Saveur
Memorie Di Angelina

Then go and read the other answer linked above, because all of those tips for cacio e pepe also apply here.


Are European white truffles significantly superior in flavour to those from North America?

I think the truffles that are exported are of better quality on average than what you'll find on the european market. I've never tried the american ones consciously (they're not imported to Europe as far as I know).

You could also take into account that the fresher the truffles are the better the quality, so in theory it would be better to eat american truffles in the USA and european truffles in Europe.

Given the mind boggling price differences and the supposed high quality of the stuff found in the forests in Oregon, you're likely going to be well off picking the local stuff.


The first thing I would say is to be sure this is your main problem.  Whole-wheat sourdough is tricky, and low dough volume could be caused by a number of things.  Perhaps most common is a weak starter: a weak starter will take longer to rise, and whole-wheat sourdough often requires a longer rise even than normal sourdough bread to achieve sufficient dough volume.  On the other hand, a rise that takes too long will start increasing dough acidity too much.  That not only results in a loaf that can be excessively sour but also will start breaking down some of the gluten and decrease final loaf volume.

I've frankly never had a significant issue with loaf volume with whole-wheat bread once I was sure I had a super-strong starter and started practicing better techniques (stretch and folds during bulk rise to develop more gluten, proper shaping, proper slashing, etc.).  I've heard of these issues with "bran cutting gluten," but I personally found my techniques and weak starter were much more significant barriers to loaf volume.

Anyhow, if you're sure the bran/gluten is the issue, there are several ways of solving this problem.  As John Dyer's comment notes, Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads book goes over many of these methods in more detail.  (I have to admit that I find his recipes to be overly complicated and fussy, though.)

But to summarize:

Do a soaker, which is generally just flour and water (no leavening).  This is most effective if done for many hours, often overnight.
Do a mash (or scald), which is like a soaker, except with hot water.  They will be more effective and will act faster (though letting stand overnight is still a reasonable practice).  Some people actually heat the grain and water directly, but I'd recommend simply pouring hot water over the grain.  Many people just use boiling water, but if you are careful not to get the grain too hot (over ~150-160F), natural enzymes will also extract more flavor and sweetness, thus providing an additional benefit.
Do a preferment, which uses part of the flour but also with leavening (in this case, your sourdough starter).  There are many different names for them (poolish, biga, etc.), with different consistencies, but they all basically do the same thing.

Any of these -- or a combination of them -- will hydrate portions of your flour (which addresses your problem), will get gluten formation going ahead of time (particularly if you use a smaller water-to-flour ratio in these), and will add significant flavor.

Personally, I've found the best results (good rise with good flavor) came from doing a multi-stage firm preferment for 100% whole wheat sourdough.  (That means: I start with a firm dough ball of starter saved from a previous batch (the chef), then gradually build it up by tripling/quadrupling in size a few times every 12 hours before using it to build the final dough.  This is close to a traditional method used by old-school French bakers in natural yeast breads in general to maximize yeast growth/gluten development while avoiding excessive sourness.  It's not as laborious as it sounds once you get used to it.)  If you wanted a sweeter, richer tasting bread, you could also do a mash with some of the other flour before mixing the final dough.  But everyone has their favorite techniques.


"Mix with...required salt" is just a kind of awkward way of saying to mix in salt to taste. Might make more sense if you read it as "the salt required to make it taste how you want".

Curd is basically a thick yogurt.

As for how to use it... I certainly might try their recipe and see if you like it (whether it's canonical chicken tikka masala or not).

But if you want to a variation of your existing recipe, just omit all the spices from that recipe and use this spice mix instead, probably starting with the same quantity as the total ground spices from the original recipe. Since the spice mix already contains salt, I might also omit the salt from your recipe and then add salt to taste once you've added enough spice.


I love Fathead dough!*

No, don't microwave the egg. If the temp gets up to about 145°F, the proteins in an egg will solidify and you'll end up with bits of scrambled eggs smushed into the pizza crust. Unless that's your thing, I wouldn't microwave the egg.

But...you are right. It can be hard to mix the cheese(s) and flour together and then to incorporate the egg into that mixture.  So...the real secret is to just use your hands to mix it all together. It's messy but well worth it.


How to cool 8 liters of cooking oil quickly for transport and disposal

I don't know that this is necessarily the best way to do things, but if it were me, I'd likely rig up something using a few disposable aluminum pans :

To assist in our cleanup, we'll start out by assuming that your fryer is set to one side of a full sheet pan, with the other side free as a catchment area for any spills while we're emptying it.

First, we make a cooling device using 1/2 deep pan filled with ice, and then another 1/2 deep pan on top of it.  Squish one of the corners of the top pan to make a sort of a spout.  Set this on the vacant side of the sheet pan.   To reduce the possible mess from working too quickly, cover the side of fryer near the cooling container with some aluminium foil.

Next, ladle the oil from the fryer into the cooling tray.  Swish around the oil 'til it's cool enough to handle, then lift the oil-filled tray out and pour into your final recepticle for disposal.  How much oil you put in each time depends on how sturdy the foil pans are.

Once you get the majority of the oil out of the fryer, you should hopefully be able to move it safely.  If it's still hot on the outside, you can try wiping it down (to remove any oil residue), and then wipe it with wet towels to cool it down.

If you think that would take too long, your next option would be to find a metal can that could fit inside a larger bucket and seals well.  Take whatever your local equivalent is to a 5 gallon bucket, add some heat-stable insulation along the bottom (eg, mineral wool), center the metal can on the inside of the bucket, then insulate between the can & bucket.  You'll want to modify the lid for the plastic bucket so that it has a hole in the top to snugly fit the funnel.  Assemble the whole thing, then either ladle into it, or attempt to extract the container and pour it in directly.  Remove the plastic lid, seal the can, then re-attach the plastic bucket lid (but without the funnel).

The problem with this method is that you haven't actually cooled down the oil, and with the insulation, it'll stay hot for quite some time.  (slowly heating up the outer container).  You'll likely want to transfer the oil back into something disposable once it's cooled down enough to handle.


Chiffon cake constantly has an unfilled bottom

This will happen if you grease your cake pan or if the cake isn't allowed to fully cool before being removed from the pan. Another possible culprit is overbeating your egg whites.

Egg foam cakes, like chiffon, blow up with steam as they bake. The tube pan gives them more surface area both so they bake in the middle and also to give them more to cling to.

After they bake the cake is inverted until the egg proteins set. If not inverted, the cake will collapse as the steam escapes. A good rule of thumb is about an hour rest but the cake should be nearly room temperature.

If the tube pan is greased then the cake will not adhere near the end of cooking or through the inversion rest period.

The consistency of the egg whites is also important. If the whites are overbeaten they will lose some of their elasticity and give up their steam when they are stretched too far. Chiffon cake recipe do call for firm peaks, that is if you pull your beaters out the resultant peaks don't droop. But if you beat much past that phase the whites can get fragile.

Keep in mind that you should expect the cake to shrink slightly from it's max height when the steam is hot, but nothing like the collapse in your photo.

I don't believe that over or under beating the egg yolks would have caused the behavior you were seeing.


Cake sinks in the middle when baking. Only happens when I make a Coca-Cola Cake

Without looking at the recipe, I can't know for sure, but I have a couple of ideas. First idea is to check your oven temperature. Oftentimes ovens will run hot or cold, and you might not know it for years. Get an oven thermometer and match the pre-heat temperature to the temperature on the thermometer. That will help your cakes bake more exactly.

Next idea. You may be putting too much leavening in the cake. Too much baking soda or baking powder could cause your cake to fall, and it also can impact the flavor.


You could ferment your eggs; salt-pickled fermented eggs are a thing and don't require any higher salt content than you already have.  However, there are some potential problems with that.

First, your comment that "a month later they've gone lacto on me. Probably safe, but I'm not a fan" gives the impression that you wouldn't like the result of fermentation.  Second, a couple of your ingredients -- the oyster sauce and the anchovies -- are easy-spoiling ingredients that could cause the batch to go off.

Your brine doesn't seem quite high enough in salt for canning them to succeed.  You can hot water bath brined eggs, but only if they are brined in a very high salt solution -- the linked post says 25% brine.  Heck, with enough salt you can keep eggs for months without canning at all.  But that's a lot more salt than you're using.

While you can theoretically pressure-can boiled eggs without salt or acid at all, after an hour of cooking under pressure they would not be edible.

Overall, I don't believe there's any way to preserve them that wouldn't substantially alter their flavor/texture.  So ... I'd say make as many as you'll enjoy in a few weeks.


Proper cook times for mushrooms, onions, and peppers

I am going to make the assumption that you're stir-frying in a really hot pan. The onions and peppers are going to take around 5-8 minutes to get good color but retain their snap.

I would cook the mushrooms separately - they're going to take a little longer 8-10 minutes, because they give off a bit of moisture.

So as you're poaching the chicken I would

Fry the onions/peppers - remove and keep warm
Fry Mushrooms
When the mushrooms are done, add everything else to pan to meld flavors.


Hard to know what you're tasting, but most likely the bay leaf.


I would say no for two main reasons, the butter will change texture as the dessert cools, and I don't think the oil will, so the mousse will split. Also the tastes will be off.

You could try margarine, or at a real push lard (you would need to play around with the sugars to keep the sweetness)

However I have seen recipies that exclude butter,  here is a link to one possibility.

http://www.sarahcooks.com.au/2012/07/perfect-chocolate-mousse.html

Good luck


Should I keep the microwave turntable and plastic turntable support ring in the microwave oven when using convection mode?

I cannot vouch for your specific GE oven, but I've been using my combination oven with the turntable and turntable support in Microwave, Convection Bake, Convection Roast and Combination Fast Bake for the last >10 years with no ill effects.

As your oven has the same technical capabilities as mine:

  Combination Fast Cooking
  Your oven also offers the option of Combination Fast Cook, using microwave energy along with convection cooking. You cook with speed and accuracy, while browning and crisping to perfection.

I'm led to believe you're safe to use the turntable in convection only mode like I do as my round shelf fits perfectly on the glass turntable, so I never asked myself the question and have just used it like that since the first time I turned on the oven.


What are some best practices to cook salmon on a cedar plank in an oven?

The experts at Outdoor Gourmet suggest:

Soak the grilling plank for 1-2 hrs.
Preheat the oven to 350°-400°.
Place food on grilling plank; place the grilling plank in oven. Put a baking dish under it to catch the drips.
Bake according to recipe until done.
Reserve grilling plank to use again in the oven or on the grill.


Here's a summary of what I do:

Chop off the top part. About a little less than half an inch.
This will tell you how thick the skin is, and make it easier to peel.
Cut the a slice down the length of the fruit, and then repeat 3 more times, so your skin is then segmented into four quarters.
Peel as much of the skin off as possible.
Take your knife and peel/scrape off as much of the pith as you can. I ususaly take my paring knife, dig between the fruit and pith and then pull it off in large chunks. Once you're down to the translucent skin, you should be able to separate the segments easily. If you want, to just get in there and pull it apart, you can do so skipping this step.
With each individual segment, I put a slice near the centre from end to end, so I can pull the skin back in one large piece.

Here's a video that summarizes it somewhat.


Why isn't the Shapton Glass Stone 1000 Grit 5mm sharpening my WÜSTHOF 4596-7/20 Classic Ikon 8-Inch Cook's Knife?

This is like saying "I bought my grandpa a Faber Castel pencil and 200 gm acid-free paper, and now the pencil is not drawing realistic portraits, why".
Knife sharpening is a fine motor skill. The only way to learn it is through hours of deliberate practice. It is also a tricky skill to learn, because you don't really get immediate feedback per stroke, and there is not that much affordance. So it is more difficult to learn, especially learn on your own, than something like throwing a ball.
If your grandpa wants to sharpen his knives with a stone, he will have to put in his hours of learning. It is impossible to say how many he needs before he starts to see consistently good results, it can be a dozen or it can be over a hundred.
It is best to start learning on old, bad knives, since a learner's first attempts frequently destroy the edge, making it more difficult to repair it later.


Why does Black Gram Batter turn fluffy only when stone ground?

A blender will cut or shatter what you put into it while leaving the structure of the pieces relatively intact. A grinder or mortar will apply pressure, causing cell walls to rupture, so molecules in the food that were previously kept separate can react, and fermentation relevant microbes (which, if I remember correctly, are important for idly?) have good access to all of the lentil and not just ruptured cells at the edges...


1) Watch Good Eats.
2) Practice
3) Goto 1)

In order to learn how to cook one must practice. This is self evident.
But - what to cook and where to begin?

Well, I'd recommmend watching a few episodes of Good Eats (pick a few
episodes on food you enjoy). Pay notice not only to the steps he use, but
also his explanations on why he has chosen the various steps.

(Concrete suggestions: Episodes on eggs.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=good+eats+eggs

)

The why is important, because in due time, you'll be able to modify
recipes based on previous experience.


What kind of mortar and pestle is most food safe?

A granite mortar and granite pestle; this combination will do everything.

The granite is hard and dense and will not chip under regular usage.

You need to remember that the mortar and pestle must be harder than what you need to grind.

Serious Eats Mortars and Pestles is a good read.


How long can savory cream cheese dishes last?

According to North Dakota State University, cream cheese, opened should last about two weeks between 32'f and 40'f. For the cheese itself, unopened, they recommend to "Use within one week of the 'best when purchased by' date". Unfortunately, in this situation, you cannot simply cut away the mold from the cheese since it is a mixed dish.

When you factor in the fact that the cheese was not only unwrapped, but heated along with other components, and likely sat out for some time on the counter in addition to in the pan, with added protein (the black beans especially), the math for how long cream cheese can last in your fridge shrinks and shrinks.

Personally, I would follow the cooked meat guidelines to be on the safe side. This means that well-wrapped leftovers, quickly taken out of the danger zone range of temps (40'f - 140'f), should last for 3-4 days after cooking.


My knowledge of how to make bread is almost entirely from The Bread Baker's Apprentice, which cannot be praised too highly.

To make a crackling crisp bread crust, preheat your oven to as high as it will go with a pizza stone inside and a heat resistant pan capable of holding 8 fl. oz. of water elsewhere on the rack or on another rack (I do mine on the rack below).  Shape your baguette on a pizza peel or cookie sheet (not a jelly roll pan with sides) on top of lots of cornmeal.  As your oven is close to being done preheating, boil 8 fl. oz. of water (doing this in a tea kettle works well.)

When the oven has preheated slide the baguette or baguettes off of your pizza peel/cookie sheet directly onto your pizza stone.  Pour the 8 fl. oz. of boiling water into the pan.  Using a spray bottle, mist the sides of your oven with steam.  Do all this as quickly as possible to avoid loosing heat.

After 30 seconds, mist the sides again.  Repeat once more.  Then turn the temperature down to whatever is appropriate.

Not only will this technique promote a great crust, it will also promote oven spring which improves both taste and texture in your bread.

Cool your bread completely (recipes usually call for 30 minutes but up to 2 hours) on a wire rack.  This will remove any sensation of doughiness as the cooking process completes.  It also keeps the bread from sweating, which is what it was doing in plastic bags.  Store in a cool dry place, preferably a brown paper bag.


Do specialty cheese-cutting tools have specific advantages over an ordinary knife?

There's a lot of different cheese cutting implements ... so it's probably better to discuss advantages / disadvantages by type.

Wire mounted to a cutting board : Useful for really soft cheeses like chèvre and brie, but I'm not really a fan as you have to clean out the little groove, and it takes up a lot of room for something with only a few uses (it also works for cutting logs of refrigerated cookie dough).  If you're cutting a log of chèvre, you get a similar cut by looping it with dental floss and pulling, and it'll deform the log less.  Also works well with medium firm cheeses.
Wire mounted on a handle with a roller : Works on semi-soft to medium firmness cheeses (or cheese food); anything that'll hold its shape in a block (even Velveta), but not what you'd consider a 'hard' cheese.  There's less drag than a knife, and you can get consistent thickness slices (some are adjustable, some you just change the angle of the handle relative to the block to get a thinner slice) ... but they have the problem that the roller can get gunked up, and if the block's wider than the cutter, you'll have to take a knife to the block first.
Cheese Plane :  (looks kinda spatula-ish, with a slicing slot in it).  Works best for medium firm cheeses; easy to clean, you get consistent thickness slices (although, only one thickness), and it can be a little faster than using a knife if you're trying for really thin slices.  (if you need thicker slices, you'd have to double or triple up, removing any speed advantage).  It actually can be used on something wider than the slot if the cheese isn't too firm.  And, in a pinch, it can also double as a vegetable peeler, as I've learned from a friend.

When we start getting to "cheese knife", there's a few different things that the term might be referring to:

a spreading knife : rounded tip, used for serving soft cheeses, but can still cut firmer stuff.
knives with a fork on the front; may also have holes through the blade so the cheese will release rather than dragging; used for serving medium firm cheeses.
a spade : short, wide, pointed tip (actually looks like the spade on a deck of cards) : used for prying off chunks of hard cheeses.

I've seen other ones that look more like chisels; I've never used them.  I'd assume they'd be best for medium-firm cheeses that aren't in too large of a block.

Personally, I typically use this cheap 'micro-serated' paring knife that I think I got two in a pack at a dollar store about 15 years ago.  It's horrible for cutting just about everything else, but it's amazing for most cheeses; it might be that the teeth aren't really aligned well anymore, but it keeps the cheese from dragging along the blade, so I can get really clean slices quite quickly; it works okay for everything but really hard cheeses (good point, but not wide enough to get a flake off, really soft cheeses (see the dental floss comment above), or really crumbly cheeses.


What is the best way to re-serve day old meat balls?

My preferred method by far would be heating them in a pot along with some kind of sauce.

Failing that, I think I might try putting them in a tightly covered pot in the oven along with just a little water (just a tablespoon or so)--that would gently heat them and also keep them moist.


If you are not allergic to citric acid you can use it as a substitute for lemon juice in canning.

Related  Can I use citric acid instead of lemon juice when canning?


Should I have been able to melt white chocolate and marshmallows together?

This is definitely possible, though I should add that the addition of melted butter would be crucial.
Do not simply toss "raw" marshmallows into the melted white chocolate, as they will start to cool down the chocolate more than you'd think (I once tucked my hand into a bag of marshmallows, it was relatively cold in temperature).
Here is how I would do it:

Melt some butter in a pan (don't skimp!).

Toss in your marshmallows and constantly stir them, until all melted and silky.

Pour the melted white chocolate into the melted marshmallow & butter, and continue to heat and stir for a few minutes.


From a chemistry perspective there's no difference between the approaches, either way you're ending up with the same amount of water and salt with the same boiling point.

Ramsey is saying salt in first because he's adding the salt to the water before the pasta, not before heating the water. It makes sense to add the salt to the water before heating it because:

It's one less thing to do later: by the time you're ready to add the pasta to the water you might be busy, adding the salt to the water first saves you the step later
You're less likely to forget to add it: again, if you're busy later you might skip the step


Why do "saute pans" have straight sides?

North American cookware companies seem to use the terms "saute" and "sauteuse" interchangeably, but technically, the saute pan is the straight-sided one, and the sauteuse or "fry pan" is the slope-sided one.

In French cooking equipment terms, the straight-sided one is called a "sautoir", and the sauteuse has higher sides and while angled out, they are not curved.  The curved, shorter sided one is called a poele (and probably what most North Americans would identify as a "frying pan").  So the issue is really that there are a lot of different names floating around for just 3 types of pans.

When you saute, you want to maximize cooking surface area, so that things don't steam.  Sloped sides will reduce the cooking surface, so that's why a saute pan will have straight sides.  Regarding the lid, it would be used in the case that you want to cover the pan after a sear, to braise or steam.  It also makes your pan more versatile.

Regardless of the etymology of "saute", according to La Cuisine de Reference, the definition of saute is to cook quickly in a small amount of oil, and any of the aforementioned pans can be used for this cooking technique.

"Sauter - Cuire rapidement des petites pièces de viande, de poisson ou de légumes dans un sautoir, une sauteuse ou une poêle, avec un peu de matière grasse."


To create gluten from glutenins and gliadins mechanical work is required. So if you want to stick with the NK approach, switching to an even stronger type of flour (Manitoba) or special purpose flour (e.g. Mulino Caputo Nuvola Super) might be your only option. But even then chances are high that the results will not be as good as they could be.


Which spices are best fried in oil, which are best toasted and which are best cooked in water?

Generally? whole woody pieces such as star anise and cloves fry nicely. tiny dry leaves like oregano and marjoram with less success.

If a brief rub in the fingers disintegrates and releases a lot of aroma, water is best bet. Rule of Thumb


What is the minimum time home baked bread should be left to cool before eating?

Giving a minimum time is not possible, because it depends on the size of the loaf, whether it is in a pan or not, and the ambient temperature of the location where it is cooling.  In general, the recommendation is to cool the loaf to room temperature. If you are baking rolls, this might mean 30 minutes.  For a larger loaf, it could be hours.  At the risk of providing information captured in other questions...There is a process called starch retrogradation that takes place as the bread cools.  This means that water absorbed by starches during the baking process is expelled at the molecular level, and evaporates.  Cutting too soon means you risk a gummy textured bread. Next, cutting your bread too soon releases trapped steam, this could mean that your bread is drier, later.  Finally, depending on the ingredients, flavor continues to develop as your bread cools.  All of this is carefully explained here. I would also suggest that you don't want to shortcut this process.  It takes a bit of effort to produce a good loaf at home.  My guess is you've already planned ahead quite a bit.  What you want is a loaf that has cooled to room temperature.  Then you can heat it for your guests, as restaurants do.


That's a yam, not a sweet potato. Looks like tropical rot. Probably had one or more insects get into it in the monsoon season. Looks like a fungus infection to me. Too wet a soil.


What is the measurement of 1 1/2 cups of cilantro leaves into ground cilantro

The two are not interchangeable.

One is fresh leaves; the other is ground seeds.
They don't taste anything like one another.

At a push you could use fresh flat-leaf parsley. It would add some 'freshness' to the flavour, but wouldn't be a proper substitute, even then.

A late thought - is your ground herb actually labelled 'cilantro', or are you translating from the US term for 'coriander leaves'.
In US terminology, 'cilantro' equates to coriander leaves [fresh] & 'coriander' is specifically the seeds.
In UK terminology both are called 'coriander' & the specific type, leaves or seeds will be mentioned separately on the packaging, if there is any potential for confusion.


My experience is that washing doesn't effectively get rid of onion or garlic odors from cutting boards.

Either get another - maybe lighter weight and cheaper - cutting board for fruits, or flip your current board over, and use the "bottom" side for delicately scented items, etc. Mark the "top" side with an "o" for "onion" (or some such discreet indicator) in permanent marker, so you will remember in future which is which.

Getting housemates to comply is a separate problem.


Is it safe to eat a pork loin that has been refrigerated for 6 days?

I once left a whole New York strip in the walk in cooler for two weeks and it was great. Chances are that the salt and acid in the marinade preserved the pork well enough it would still be safe to eat after six days. I would check for slime and foul odor. There are several other factors involved such as how it was handled before put in the refrigerator. For example, a piece of pork that was at room temp for one hour with a semi sterile knife trimming it might not last three days. I always go with whether it has an off odor or not. I find that meat which has aged a little in the fridge will have a more robust defined flavor. If you run your finger across it and feel any type of slime just get rid of it.


How can I make sauerkraut to best preserve the probiotic elements?

The ingredients of sauerkraut are very basic--its basically just cabbage and salt (the water is drawn out of the cabbage).  Given this, you will produce the most nutritious kraut using high-quality cabbage and salt with natural minerals.  A high quality sea salt will contain additional minerals that processed kosher and table salts lack (also, it is typically advised not to use salt with iodine--as it apparently prevents the growth of the desired bacteria).  Additional ingredients such as spices will add their relative nutritional value to the mix.

Obviously this doesn't necessary maximize or preserve any "probiotic" aspect in particular, but as commenters have mentioned these claims are dubious as best.

Also, by the way, you only need to add water if the cabbage fails to produce enough brine to cover it after being salted.  If you do add water you'll want to add additional salt so as to preserve the salinity--typically I've used 1Tbsp of salt per quart of water.


What does the number mean in the specification for a mincer?

The number specifies the diameter of the grinder plate

#5 is 2 1/8 inches
#8 is 2 1/2 inches
#10 and #12  are 2 3/4 inches
#20 and #22 are  3 1/4 inches
#32 is 3 7/8 inches


I would suggest two options, but first, when taking the temperature of a steak, insert the probe through the side of the steak. Aim halfway up, and have the end of the probe as close to the center as possible. The probe should be level, rather than angled.  This might allow you to be more accurate.  You don't need to take the temp at several places...just the center.

The first option, is called the "reverse sear" method.  This works well for steaks of about an inch in thickness or greater.  Preheat your oven to 275F (135C). Place a rack on an oven tray.  Season the steaks well.  Place on the rack, and put into the preheated oven.  Cook until your desired doneness...maybe 125F to 135F  (52C - 57C). At the low oven temp, this will probably take at least 45 minutes, but this depends on thickness. Remove from the oven and rest for 15 minutes. Sear in a screaming hot cast iron pan for 1 minute per side.  Slice and serve.

Alternately, you can use sous vide to cook the steak perfectly.  This has been addressed here before.  Basically, you heat water to the desired internal temperature of your steak.  Place the steak in a zip lock bag, submerge in the water for an hour (the water temp must be maintained over the entire period, preferably with circulation).  Remove, pat dry, season, and sear as above.  Slice and serve.  ...poking your steak with a thermometer is not necessary with this approach.


Does commercial bread use baking powder?

No way. I have 3 loaves of (different brands) commercial bread open at home now. None of them lists baking soda, baking powder, sodium bicarbonate or any other synonym I know of, and all three do list "yeast". In addition, Amazon website gives the ingredient list for the authentic "Wonder Bread classic white bread loaf", and it also calls out yeast, and not baking powder.


Hot-canning non-acidic, pressure cooked food

While that'd be a lot less risky than no pressure cooking at all, it's not fully safe. For complete safety, it's important that the actual canning processing be pressure cooking.

The problem is, even if the jar is sterilized, and the food is safe before you put it in, there's no way to completely ensure that no additional spores make their way into the jar before you close it. I don't think there's really any good way to assess the actual level of risk, but it's a "why take the chance" thing - in the unlikely event the food does get contaminated, there'll be no sign, and the botulinum has been given an ideal environment to grow in.

Note also that in order to actually sterilize the jars, killing any botulinum spores, you'd have to pressure cook them too, so you already need a canning pot big enough to hold them even for this plan. (It sounds like maybe you were thinking of using just a boiling water bath, but then they're only safe for use for high-acid foods that you can in a boiling water bath, not for low-acid foods that you need pressure canning for.)


What are the effects of abstaining from eating a certain flavor?

You nailed the correct wording in your question - "we become accustomed to". We tend to get used to and like what we become accustomed to.

For the same reason that we get used to overly salty things, we can get used to less salty things. What we get used to becomes normal and what we like.

I've experienced the salt reduction due to a health condition my husband has. We can no longer tolerate food with the same level of salt that we used to eat. By reducing the amount we use, we became accustomed to food with less salt.

I did the same thing with sugar in tea and coffee many years ago. I grew up with Southern style (very) sweet tea. I didn't gradually reduce it but cut it out all the way. To this day I don't use sugar in coffee or tea, add it to cereal (or buy frosted cereal) and I find many sweet things just too sweet for my taste.

I also liken this to learning to like new foods. There are many things I've tried and didn't like up front but, after continuing to try them, eventually found that I had learned to like these foods. One, for example is cilantro. When I first started tasting it I couldn't stand it. I swore that it tasted like soap. But after a while, I found myself really liking it. So much so, that I started adding it to many foods that ordinarily I wouldn't have thought to.

While taste is subjective, we can become accustomed to new things and often times need to.


What is the most practical pan for a deep-dish pizza

A 2" or 3" deep round cake pan (i.e., fairly thin aluminum, but nowhere near as thin as the disposable things) actually works pretty well. These cost under $10 each. For example, Walmart sells one for $9

That's a 9" wide pan, but 12" cake pans are available too—and only a little more expensive. Maybe expect to pay $15 for one.


Indeed, Mr. Zable actually applied for a patent -- US application no. 0014320, filed Sept 13, 2010.  (Of course, just because he applied doesn't mean the US Patent Office will issue a patent on it.)

His process is, in essence:
(1) gelling a liquid beverage; and
(2) wraping an aliquot of the gel in a raw "farinaceous dough", selected from the group of pretzel, pizza, bread, and pasta doughs.

The application says he used gelatin as his gelling agent, but the patent (if it issues) would not be limited to gelatin.  Once wrapped, the raw snack could be fried immediately or frozen for later use.


If your sauce is too thin, the problem is that your initial roux was either too thin (not enough flour) or you added too much liquid for the amount of roux that you made.  Standard ratios are 1 Tbsp butter - 1 Tbsp flour - 1 cup liquid for a thin sauce, 2-2-1 for something in the middle and 3-3-1 for a thick sauce.

Once you've made the sauce and it's too thin, the best fix is to add a beurre manié, which is essentially butter and flour that you mash together in a small bowl and then whisk into your sauce.  It's kind of like adding more roux after the fact.  However, because it's not pre-cooked like the roux, you need to make sure you give it enough cooking time after adding to get rid of the floury taste.


Why would coffee cause stomach cramps? Are there alternatives to Caffeine?

You probably need to distinguish between coffee and caffeine.

Caffeine is a chemical compound that is a central nervous system stimulant. It is basically just bitter.

But coffee contains a load of other compounds that create the coffee taste.

Those that affect the human stomach most are tannins, acids and bitters that stimulate the secretion of stomach acids which - in case of a sensitive or already damaged stomach lining - can cause discomfort and pain. The content of those in the beans is greatly influenced by the roasting process (hot and fast typically worse than low and slow, darker roasts more than light ones), type of beans and the brewing process. 1

The easiest answer for a caffeine fix would actually be caffeine - without the accompanying coffee. You should get the powder at your local pharmacy.

But where's the fun in that? So drink lighter roasts or go for a shorter extraction time - Espresso vs. Cowboy coffee are two extreme examples.

1 (Source: Deutscher Kaffeeverband)