Are lebkuchenherzen made from the same mixture as Lebkuchen?

The Lebkuchenherzen in your second picture are quite different from the cakey Elisenlebkuchen in your first photo.
To be blunt, they are not primarily designed for consumption, but focus on being a novelty item with witty or cute decoration. They are marketed as “decorative sweets” by a wholesale supplier, others offer customization like for other advertising objects.
If you want to make them yourself, aim for a rather stiff and dry dough, with lots of sweetener (often recipes have both sugar and honey) that gets kneaded quickly and contains no leavener like baking powder. Recipes that whip eggs and sugar and result in a spreadable batter will give you something in the Elisenlebkuchen family. Other good choices for sturdy Lebkuchenherzen are those for gingerbread houses - I have read rave reviews about the gingerbread house recipe by bravetart.


Bread is basically just flour, water, and yeast, so it's pretty hard to make it inedible unless you burn it to a crisp in the oven.

The difference between all-purpose flour and bread flour is gluten strength; if you substitute all-purpose flour then your bread won't rise as high or be as strong; this is a desirable quality in, say, cake, but not bread.

However, AP flour isn't that far off from bread flour in terms of gluten; while cake flour may be as low as 6% and bread flour can be as high as 14%, AP flour tends to weigh in at around 10% or more, which is why it's called "all-purpose".  As Michael says, yeast bread is actually not as sensitive to the exact quantities as (for example) most pastries, but it's still better to use a recipe that was actually built around AP flour instead of just trying to substitute it for bread flour.

If you are determined to make the substitution, then I would suggest you try to find some wheat gluten and add a small amount of that to the AP flour.  Mathematically, if you assume that you're lacking some 3% protein, then you'd want to add about 1 tbsp of gluten for every 2 cups of flour.  It's really not much, though, and if you don't have or can't find wheat gluten then your bread would probably survive anyway with AP flour, it just might be a little denser than you expect.


While this isn't a definitive answer, I've given it some further thought and believe that my original suspicion is probably correct.  That is, the saltiness is probably due to the chicken itself, and the kashrut is a likely root cause.

For the benefit of anyone unfamiliar with the koshering process for poultry, in a nutshell it involves removing the feathers and various other parts, then thoroughly coating it in koshering salt, which are flat, coarse-grained crystals that are ideal for sticking to the meat (unlike table salt crystals which would dissolve, or sea salt crystals which would just fall off).

The koshering process desiccates (dries out) the meat - the salt crystals absorb moisture, and then they are washed off, taking the moisture with them.  It's mainly done to remove the blood, but at the same time removes a lot of other moisture.  The entire process only takes about an hour and does not add a significant quantity of salt to the meat. Kosher salt crystals can absorb quite a bit of water before they dissolve and without being in a solution, they cannot actually penetrate the meat.

This is in contrast to brining, where the chicken is immersed in a saline solution and actually absorbs up to 10% of its weight in brine (which adds up to about 0.05% of its weight in salt for a typical solution of 5% brine).  This actually does makes the chicken saltier throughout, although very few people actually perceive this as "salty" - it just enhances the flavour of the chicken.

So if a brined chicken, which has actually absorbed salt, doesn't taste particularly salty, then a kosher chicken should definitely not taste salty, and normally it won't.  The caveat is that this assumes that the plant was diligent in its preparation of the chicken before packaging, and depending on where you live, many if not most kosher factories are anything but.

Specifically, there are a few ways a kosher processing plant could, by virtue of carelessness, produce chicken or other meat that's way too salty:

They can apply far too much salt to begin with;
They can salt it for too long;
They can wash it poorly or not at all.

All of these factors will compound each other leading to roughly the same effects:

The meat may become noticeably dry;
Crystals of salt may be deposited on the exterior, undissolved;
Over time some of those crystals may actually absorb enough water to dissolve, creating its own "brine" of sorts and even diffusing the super-saturated salt-water back into the meat.  Koshering is a time-sensitive process.

If you're also noticing any dryness in the meat then I would definitely think they were being less-than-thorough at the factory and suggest looking into different brands or even filing a complaint.

Even if that's not the case, or if you don't have that option, one thing you can probably do at home to compensate is to simply rinse the chicken thoroughly before cooking it.  Note that this is not for food safety, and rinsing a chicken is known to actually raise your risk (slightly) due to cross-contamination concerns.  But you are not doing this for food safety, you are doing this to get rid of non-bacterial contaminants (salt, and maybe other things) that the factory left behind.

Undissolved salt on the surface is definitely going to taste the saltiest since you'll be putting actual whole crystals on your tongue, and I think that's a very likely culprit here.  Salt and other solids really have a hard time penetrating the exterior of meat or poultry, so it's less likely for the salt to be inside the chicken, even if the processing plant was truly sloppy.

So try giving those kosher chickens a good rinse - don't forget to sanitize your work area when you're all done preparing them - and see if that helps you at all.  If not, then probably all you can do is find another brand or try to mask the saltiness with a lot of spices and sauce (find a recipe that's normally heavy on salt, and cut the quantity of salt used).

P.S. Note that this is quite speculative and I do not actually have first-hand evidence of this happening at a kosher factory.  Nevertheless, it is the best explanation I can think of for a kosher chicken coming out too salty when there is no salt at all in the recipe.  I've never had it happen with an unkosher chicken.


I bought a bag of Brussels sprouts that looked fine but smelled exceptionally bad, even for sprouts

What you are describing is what we call a food that has "soured". (This is what I was taught growing up.) The food looks and feels perfect but has that awful sour odor.

In my experience it is from improper storage, usually from foods being kept too warm or not getting enough air circulation. (Not necessarily by you, but somewhere along the transport chain.)

I have found it in both Brussels sprouts and broccoli. I have even bought broccoli, used some of it, and later taken the rest out only to find it soured. Or bought Brussels sprouts and kept them for a couple of days before using and found that they had soured. This says to me that the souring process had already started.

Additionally, I have had it happen with fresh corn that was left on my porch in warm weather.

I have also found it in bagged salads and spinach. With those, a good washing and fresh air sometimes gets rid of the odor - but not always.

Unfortunately, we don't always know how foods have been handled and stored before we buy them.

I have searched extensively to find out more about this, to no avail. I can find information about how to tell if food is going bad or rotting, but this is a totally different thing. You have no way of knowing that this souring process is happening. That is, until you smell it.


Can I make a buttercream using cacao butter?

Cocoa butter isn't like regular butter as it is very hard at room temperature. It's what makes chocolate so hard when cooled, so it's not ideal for a creamy frosting. There are many other alternatives that would work better, for instance vegan butters which are designed to mimic butter's properties. Some vegetable shortenings can work as well, although they don't have much flavor.


How can I save tomatoes for at least 20 days?

Tomatoes can last that long in a root celar at 15 degrees Celsius. You have to choose tomatoes bred for lasting - so supermarket ones, not homegrown heirloom varieties, and preferably not perfectly ripe and juicy. Your biggest problem would be mold, so carefully check each tomato for places where the skin is torn or the tomato has been squished. Then carefully order them such that there is enough air/ventilation around them, ideally in a single layer. If the humidity around a tomato gets too high, it will grow mold at the place where it grew out of the wine. And never let the temperature drop below 13 Celsius (so don't do it in the fridge!) because they change their taste then.

If you cannot do that - for example, if you just harvested a large amount of overripe tomatoes and wonder how to not lose them - your only option may be making something out of them that can be canned.


Will eggs absorb flavor from cooking liquid?

I think it's pretty clear that eggs absorb flavors that they are soaked in. Just look at these pictures and decide for yourself. These are soy sauce eggs, but eggs can be soaked in anything and readily absorb that liquid and associated flavors. The brown color is not the shell but soy sauce:


Can you re-use parchment paper when baking batches of cookies?

You can reuse parchment paper several times for your cookies (it also works for other dry dishes), depending on cooking time and temperature, with no problem. Change the paper when it gets dirty, dark and/or brittle as it may crumble beyond this point. I always do so with no difference in the results, saving both on money and waste.


Are stainless steel saucepan glass lids dishwasher friendly?

The lids are most likely dishwasher safe.

Factors in dishwasher safe designation:

Will the item be damaged by high temp water? (probably not, this is a pan)
Will the item be damaged by the drying cycle heat elements? (probably not, it was designed to take high heat)
Is the item susceptible to the corrosive detergents used in dish washing?

I think most better brands would pass all three factors.

The corrosion from the detergent is the wildcard. On a lesser quality brand of kitchen ware:

Might the hardware (screw and washer) that attaches any handle knobs be a low quality metal?
Might the glass be soft and susceptible to abrasion? Is it really glass?
If a steel ring surrounds the lid edge, is it low quality metal?

I agree with comment: check with the manufacturer.

OT because we're talking lids here: but, most non-stick pans are not dishwasher safe. And of course: don't put your well seasoned iron cookware in a DW.


Is there a difference between a vegetable tray and a relish tray?

A relish tray emphasizes, but isn't necessarily exclusively comprised of, preserved/pickled vegetables.


It's meant that way. Good for pies, etc.

See this link on phyllo types if you like.


Canning Tomatoes: When are they too blemished and why does it matter?

It's exactly what you suspect: blemishes indicate the possibility of contaminants, or provide an avenue for invasion, inside the tomato flesh. And while pressure canning kills a lot of organisms that would cause contamination, the higher the bacterial/fungal load, the more likely a few spores or cysts are to survive(PDF, large) and eventually germinate in the canned food.
To quote Michigan State University:

... the tissue damage and a rise in pH can create conditions that promote the growth of other potentially dangerous microorganisms ... The condition of the food item will not improve once it has been canned or frozen.

Tomatoes are particularly risky because they hover around the border of being acidic enough for low-pressure canning, and most home processors don't want to kettle them too long for texture reasons.
So it may be "granny wisdom" but it's solid, scientific granny wisdom.
In terms of your specific blemishes: yes, the skin splitting on otherwise fine tomatoes is still a problem.  One thing that does is provide an avenue for botulism spores to embed themselves in the flesh of the tomato.  Normally when you can tomatoes you remove the skin, and with it the vast majority of spores.  But any spores that got into that split are still there.
(note: the long PDF on heat-treatment was included to show that spores die over heat/time as a percentage of the spores originally present.  Hence, more spores, more risk)


No, it's not necessary. You can do it, and if you'd soak them for about an hour, the cooking time will diminish strongly (half).

I'm not sure if this would affect the chalky taste.
Which kind of lentils do you use?


How to properly clean a bundt mold without ruining the surface

I hope you're using cake release! And you've never actually "seasoned" it (as in covering it with oil and baking it in a very hot oven). If you did season it, that's a problem. I'll get to that in just a second.

Otherwise, all you need is to wash the pan right away in hot soapy water (use a high-quality dish soap, ultra-cheap ones don't work as well) after each use. If necessary, soak it for a half-hour or so in hot soapy water (as in for hand washing, not machine-dishwashing detergent). Then wash it with a dishcloth. If you still have stuff stuck in crannies, use a soft toothbrush. Dry thoroughly. That's it. If you still have stuff stuck on, use a plastic scrubby sponge-like this (my favorite), or this.

Do you absolutely know what surface it is? Unless it says otherwise, don't season it. If it is made by Nordic Ware, look for any model number or anything it says on the box about seasoning or not seasoning. If this is your pan, don't season it. I've got their number. I'll call them if you still have questions, and if this is, in fact, your pan. If you seasoned it, please don't do anything else until we contact the manufacturers. Just catch me in chat, you know I'm almost always there.

There is an answer somewhere on this site (Seasoned Advice) that says that Nordic Ware tells you to season their pans. Please note that that answer refers to pans that DO NOT have a non-stick coating.


Royal icing - how important is accurate measuring?

The consistency of royal icing depends on many things, including the size of your eggs, but also the humidity/weather. So if you know what stiffness you want, it's perfectly valid to add sugar until it "feels right". (I usually make royal icing with meringue powder rather than fresh egg whites, which removes one variable from the equation [the size of the eggs], but I still have to adjust the sugar to get the right consistency.)

As far as troubleshooting, if you've been whipping away and it's still gloopy, by all means add more sugar. If you overdo the sugar, you'll know immediately: it'll be too stiff to mix. (In which case, depending on the quantities involved you can either just add a teaspoon of warm water, or you can whip up another egg white separately until soft peaks form, then fold it into your icing.)


Mysterious "spoon" in family. Requesting specific name/buying source

That is a pretty neat spoon.

The closest I could find is these spoons.  They are handmade, so you may be able to speak to the maker for modifications if you're preferences are only a little off.  This spoon is also kind of similar.

There is also this spoon - it has the angle and some curves, but is a bit flatter than your spoon, a bit more spatula-like.  I don't know how much that matters.  Here's another one.  Or this one.

I also found this one, it is more available, but it is much more spatula-like and cannot be used for scooping... but if you're interested in the scraping side it might do

Most of these showed up under wok spoons, though it took some going through the listings to find them.  I didn't find a better term, though, than wok spoon or scraper spoon.

A bit further afield, I found this or this, both much less similar in appearance but seems similar in function, ie, scraping and ladling.

Of course, it is possible you've already seen these or ones like them... the first couple seem decent, the rest are less of a match.

On the other hand, you mentioned making them?  A wooden spoon (serving spoon, probably, has a deeper scoop) could be cut and/or sanded at an angle to achieve much the same effect.  Or else look at people handcrafting cooking utensils - wood is more common, but there are some metalworkers that might work - and see if they can quote a price on making such a spoon to order.  I would suggest looking at etsy.com as a starting place for that.


How do I dehydrate hot peppers in the oven?

I've dried out chillies a bunch of times, both with and without a fan-assisted oven. It's much easier with a fan oven, but not impossible with a conventional oven, but it is wasteful of energy in a conventional oven as you have to leave the door cracked. That and you must have an oven that has a very low setting.

The reason that heat works is that heating air reduces its relative humidity as warmer air can contain more moisture. Once the warmer air fills with moisture it will saturate, and won't be able to accept any more, and when that happens your chillies will stop drying. A fan oven will generally cycle the air out and bring in new air which will accept more moisture, but a conventional oven won't, so you either have to crack the door or open it every 10 minutes to bring fresh air in.

All in all it takes days to dry chillies in a fan oven with it being constantly on, and it will stink up your house while doing it. A more effective way (although I've never tried it) would be to use a desiccant like silica gel (available from hobby stores) in a sealed container to dry them out.

A good way to keep dried chillies dry in a moist environment is to put them in a sealed container with a bunch of rice grains in the bottom, the rice will absorb any moisture.


Please see this  question  and the accepted answer. It has a great deal of information.

Without really knowing the reason why there were differences, I learned several years ago that there are most definitely major differences between brands. In my area, for most uses I buy Gold Medal. However, I will never use that for biscuits or rolls. They turn out way too heavy. For making biscuits and rolls I buy either White Lily or Snowflake.

Not sure where you are located, so I have no idea what brands may be available. This  page  gives some good information and has this chart that lists info for some brands/types of flour.


What type of baker percentage should one use for brown sugar when compared to white sugar?

First, be aware that substituting brown for white sugar will result in a different product.  Brown sugar has molasses flavors, and absorbs water differently from white sugar, so both the taste and texture of the final baked goods will be different and no amount of adjusting quantities will change this.

With that in mind, 1 cup of packed brown sugar, weighing 220g, is equivalent to 1 cup of sifted white sugar, weighing 200g, according to the book Kitchen Companion.  So in your example recipe, you would swap the 2.5kg white sugar for 2.75kg brown sugar.


Quantity of Orzo when using other ingredients

In my experience orzo behave much like rice, in the sense that grow a lot in volume after cooking.

I'm supposing that the orzo salad will be an apetizer or at least not a main dish, and you are talking about pearl barley which requires only 20-25 minutes of cooking with no pre-soak(but remember to wash it before cooking), so you can count about 50g per person.

50g x 25 = 1.250Kg (which can be rounded up to 1.5Kg just to be safe in case someone want a second dish)

If I recall correctly for every cup of orzo you add at least a cup and a half of water, so you'll need at least ~3.50L of water for the cooking


What causes the difference between Maine and Canadian lobsters?

First of all, Ramsay was primarily concerned that they were advertising Maine Lobsters and selling Nova Scotia Lobsters.  He actually didn't comment on the flavour.

I've searched about 20 web pages (nothing authoritative) and the consensus is that the colder the water, the better the lobster.

But, the waters off of Maine are fed by the Labrador current, which is the same water that flows past New Brunswick, PEI and Nova Scotia.

If there is a temperature difference, it is likely not very significant, and any effect it would have on flavour is minimal at best.


What is the best way to reheat meat with fried rice?

Use a wide skillet with a small amount of water in it. Heat the water to boil, then distribute the fried rice. Cover and reduce heat to low. Wait five minutes. Stir or fluff the rice. Add the chicken (which I assume is in little bits). Cover. Turn off the heat. Wait an additional five minutes.

Should be nice!


I would not advise eating there again. Silverfish or harmless to humans, but their presence can signify some serious hygiene issues. While silverfish are most known to feeding on decaying wood, in a kitchen setting, they are signs of 1) poor moisture control, which can include leaks and spills that are left unmopped, and 2) the presence of uncleansed floors, corners, and prep areas. Silverfish are particularly fond of starches and food debris. You can find a quick summary of silverfish in a food prep setting at Cannon Hygiene.


Storing knives: wood block or magnetic stripe?

I prefer the block. I've used the strip before, but if it was knocked accidentally when bustling about the kitchen, it caused a rain of sharp metal death. It was also possible to get the blade of the knife being pulled off under another and cause an extra knife to come shooting off the strip.

These could probably be overcome by being less of a clutz or getting a better magnetic strip rack, but I've transitioned to something like this, which you can make at home for about $10. Works great. No need to worry about sizes of knives to holes, and doesn't let the blades rub against anything metal.


Can I put any kind of bowl into a steam/rice cooker?

For the amount of time it will take for this to work, you might as well use the stovetop, which is designed for this -- but if you must, read your manual for instructions on how to use the rice cooker as a steamer. Using a steamer basket inside the cooker pot should work; I'd recommend sticking with just the basket itself if possible; stainless steel is plenty safe.

If you are going to put a bowl or dish in there, use ceramic or stainless steel - both of those should be fine, and unlikely to leach strange things into your food. You might be able to use some plastics, but I'd think that heating up plastic with your food in it is more likely to put stuff you don't want to eat into the food than microwaving in a ceramic bowl would.


I've never had particularly good experiences with freezing cabbage so that it's usable as a "fresh" vegetable afterwards. Personally I'd recommend going down the cabbage soup / picked cabbage route, I'm afraid.


Raw Eggs in Hot Black Tea: Common in Ukraine? Correct Preparation?

I think what you've stumbled across here is an interesting implementation of a technique, and not really a specific dish. The technique (simplified) is poaching. It's just a very unique way of doing it.

I've had eggs poached in black tea in Macau, and you'll also find the technique used in English and French cooking. There's an old recipe for scallops with demi-glace that calls for the scallop to be garnished with a quail egg poached in tea with bergamot (Earl Grey, commonly). I wish I could remember the name of it and my French isn't nearly good enough to search effectively.

My eggs were cooked until just runny, but it's not uncommon to have them warmed just to hot and gooey with the white still translucent (and delicious with noodles).

There's probably a colloquial name for what she described, but it's essentially an adaptation of a technique that (very likely) originated in China.


Mousse has Raw Eggs -- is it Really Safe?

Raw eggs are actually a lot safer than said to be believed, especially in recipes such as this one. Rocky ate raw eggs all the time! haha So please feel free to make the mousse and eat it too! Although cooking them almost always kills bacteria if they reach 150 degrees Fahrenheit. The most dangerous part about using eggs is something that many of us were taught to do at a young age, separating the yolk. Most people separate the yolk by cracking the egg and pouring it back and forth between the two egg shell halves. This is the easiest way to spread salmonella because it can hide on the egg shell or in the pores inside the egg. One thing to never do is wash an egg. They are washed after they are laid and a new barrier is put on by the egg company, some sort of hardened mineral I think. Washing the egg will make your situation worse by destroying this new man made barrier. For the last part of your question I suggest not feeding your baby and thing that has a small percent chance to have any bacteria, such as mousse, because their immune system is still developing. I would also choose not to feed your baby anything high in sugar, thats what Grandma is for later in life. The baby's tastes are forming now and veggies are the way to go with that. Need to teach them to like good for them foods. They like sweet stuff when they are born so they don't need to learn how to like those. Hope I helped!


What is the purpose of seasoning a skillet?

Purpose of Seasoning

protect bare cast iron from rust
make the pan surface non-stick

How often to season the pan?

You'll need to season it more when it's new.
Use it frequently and you'll need to season it less often.
Don't cook beans or tomatoes in it at first; if you do so later, you may want to re-season it.

Regarding adding butter, you're right: that would be for taste, not necessity. If seasoned properly, a cast iron pan is non-stick.


I believe that the top element in your pizza oven is your biggest problem. It is broiling the top of the crust, cooking it too quickly. You can use it to preheat the oven, but don’t use it when the loaf is in the oven.
The temperature of the oven may be off as well, if it’s running too hot that could make the problem worse.
Although you’re not having blow out problems, the answers to this question may help.
Bread doesn’t split at the score


Watermelon - picking and managing them during heat

There may be different varieties of watermelon that behave differently, so I can't guarantee that this will work for you.

The way I've always done it is to only cut up what I'm going to eat.

We cut across the watermelon in the shorter direction, starting at one end, producing circles about 1-1.5 inch (2-3 cm) thick.

Here's an image of what removing the first slice looks like:

You can cut these circles into wedges or remove the rind and cut into pieces.

This leaves the remainder of the watermelon intact with only a single side open to the air, and that end is covered in plastic wrap (cling film) and stored in the refrigerator.


How many wash cycles should I aim for when washing brown rice?

The cloudiness you see in your rinse water is starch, not arsenic.

The amount of arsenic still present after rinsing off the starch and cooking the rice is safe according to the FDA.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/arsenic-in-rice_us_589cc1ffe4b09bd304c0b04c


Fish sauce! I think the clam juice is probably already a substitute for fish sauce anyway, so it should make a very good substitute. (If you look up recipes for Thai beef salad you'll find tons of things with fish sauce, and probably not much with clam juice.)

You probably want to use less, though, maybe starting with 2-4 tablespoons, though I've seen recipes using more.

It should be fine for the dietary restriction too; it's just made with anchovies, not an unknown blend of seafood, but of course check the label just in case.


I suspect it means "ditto (the above line)":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditto_mark seems to indicate that "do." was an old way of abbreviating before the ditto mark (") became widespread.


Well, a food safety expert would tell you that your current plan is a terrible idea. You want to minimize the amount of time food is between 40 F and 140 F, and restaurants have very strict regulations about that. The right way to do it is to put your food in relatively small containers, no more than a quart in size, and put them into the fridge right away. That prevents any possible bacteria growth.

On the other hand, with a slow cooker, your food has been sitting at like 170 or so for many hours, and is likely entirely sterile. The bacteria that live in air are not likely to be harmful to you in any way if you eat them, and they wouldn't grow all that fast on most things that you would have cooked. (This, according to a toxicologist I once knew who would leave baked chicken out on top of the stove overnight!)

The short answer is that if you haven't died yet, you probably won't, but don't tell anyone I told you so! And never do this on anything that hasn't been cooked hot enough to be sterilized!

Personally, I'd just put the food in plastic containers and throw it in the fridge. It's not going to heat up the inside of your fridge enough to hurt anything.


Placing a steel disk inside a non-ferrous pan using an inductive stove

The usual approach would be to put the steel disk under the pot. Such disks are even produced commercially for this purpose: look for an induction interface disk. The basic mechanism is straight forward. The disk heats due to electromagnetic induction; then heat moves from the disk to the cooking vessel via conduction. As long as your cooking vessel is a good conductor and the bottom of the pan is in direct contact with the disk, it will heat up relatively efficiently.

Putting the disk inside the cooking vessel seems iffy. If your cooking vessel has a thick bottom, then the disk will be further from the stove-top. Because the magnetic field strength decreases with distance, induction would be less efficient. Also, if the disk is inside the vessel, it will come into contact with the food and probably need to be washed. Putting it under the pot leaves one fewer item to wash.


how can I strip the surface from an iron alloy pan without harming the metal?

There is a video at the manufacturer's web site.

My French is strictly limited, but it is pretty self explanatory even if you cannot read the captions.  Just be prepared for some really cheesy music.

It appears you were supposed to wash off the beeswax (which is probably just to keep it from rusting during shipping and storage) and then season it much like any cast iron pan (although this is a die-pressed iron pan, and should be smoother).

The following advise is specifically in response to the original question asking how to remove the seasoning so that it can be re-seasoned as the OP desires.   The general advise against using detergent or soap on a cast iron or pressed iron pan is to protect the seasoning on the pan, not the metal itself:

Now that you have a wierd amalgamated coating, I would wash it with something strong--like dishwasher detergent or Barkeeper's Friend--then when you are back down to the metal, season it as desired.


Is a broccoli that already turned yellow anyhow harmful?

It is safe to eat, but it would be fibrous and a bit tough - not to mention that the flavor might be a bit subdued. I would personally cut my loses and toss it in the bin.


Effects of Milk vs Cream vs Condensed Milk in a no-bake cookie recipe

Using condensed milk would definitely make the cookies much, much sweeter and may not be moist enough in the same volume to make the cookies. Using the condensed milk could require more care on the stove since it would probably be easier to burn. If it browns a bit in the pan it could also impart a burnt sugar/brûlée like flavor, which might add a nice complexity to the recipe.

The cream would just make the cookies a lot more oily, which would probably result in a moister cookie that doesn't harden as well.


As jolenealaska pointed out in a comment, corn flour has no gluten, which is essential to the texture of most breads and many other baked goods. Unless you replace the gluten with vital wheat gluten or some kind of gluten substitute, your corn flour loaf would have a crumbly texture very uncharacteristic of ciabatta.

rumtscho added:

  If by "corn flour" you mean the white starch from inside the corn, you
  probably won't notice much difference in the ciabatta if you use a
  bread dough like gluten to starch ratio, and if you do, it'll be some
  lack of flavor. If you mean to use whole milled corn, it will be more
  interesting, but also give you texture problems, similar to whole
  wheat ciabatta.

The texture problems you'll get with whole milled corn (commonly sold as "corn meal") will be less if the meal is ground finely and more if the meal is ground coarsely (as for polenta).

Stephen Eure gave this suggestion:

  You might consult a few recipes for Anadama bread - a bread that is
  popular in New England - made with some corn meal and wheat flour. It
  is usually sweetened with molasses. Two things that are common to
  recipes for Anadama bread are cooking the corn meal first (and
  allowing it to cool) to soften the corn and adding sweetener to
  amplify the taste of the corn. ... You might also find you need more
  yeast or a longer fermentation time.


Does butter really penetrate a steak when allowing it to rest after cooking?

I'm not sure the butter penetrates, but it tastes pretty good on the surface. ;)

I think it's pretty obvious that marbling plays a huge role in juiciness, so it stands to reason that if you bard or lard the meat it would also make a difference in juiciness (and indeed, the standard filet mignon with the bacon barding would seem to bear this out).

In the end though, it's always been my experience that once you cook the juice out of something, it's gone for good. I've always considered the idea of "resting" meat to be more about letting it cool to the point where the temperature isn't going to force out juice that would otherwise linger.


How to economically make home-made sushi?

Sushi does not require fish, sushi is the style of rice preparation (rice, salt, a little rice vinegar, occasionally some kombu). So long as you have the correct preparation of rice, you technically have some form of sushi (you could just throw it in a bowl with some additions on top and have a type of sushi called chirashizushi).

Second, there is no such thing as sushi grade fish - sushi grade literally means the fish has been frozen for over 24 hours to kill any parasites present. Otherwise, just about any clean fish can be used (as always, fresher is better).

As for sushi making, you can use any number of ingredients to make it, you don't specifically need fish. In fact, if you are trying to throw a sushi party or are just hungry for some rolls, this may be a better way to go since you can use what is on hand. Here are some ideas:

Canned eel
a fried egg
a filet of salmon (again, freeze it for 24 hours and then thaw)
Carrot
sweet potato
cucumber
avocado
imitation crab or crab
shrimp
tilapia
lox
cream cheese
squid

When you make it yourself you open up to lots of possibilities and chances to experiment. Since you are looking to do this on an individual level, play around a bit. If you have your heart set on using fish, talk to a good seafood counter and get small portions of fish. If it is 100% fresh, kill clean and store for 24-36 hours in a freezer, then thaw and use. Don't buy in to "sushi grade" fish because it is pure marketing.


How To Get the Popcorn effect on Pigskin Cooked on a Roast?

It is certainly possible using the oven only.

For a good crackling you need to have several components - a good layer of fat under the skin, a nice dry skin surface before preparing, sufficient edges on the skin to help crisp the skin, and some salt and oil. There is a lot of debate around how to prepare the skin and the different methods for getting these things to work. Personally I prepare my roast by scoring into ~cm^2 grid, rub with plenty of salt and oil, then roast. This has worked well for me, but there are a number of other methods, including pouring boiling water over the skin before roasting that are advocated by top chefs from around the world.

The difference between the two types of crackling is down to how the roast has been prepared in the final stages. A darker roast crackling with little bubbling is due to roasting alone. This will cause the skin to harden and darken, creating a hard crisp skin with some bubbling, but not to the extent that a "popcorn" crackling shows. "Popcorn" crackling starts in the same manner and is finished by heating the crackling to a high temperature so that the fat under the skin boils and causes the skin to puff.

Basically all you have to do is prepare the skin as you would normally do for a roast of pork that you want to crackle. Roast the pork as you would normally so that the skin is crisp. From this point you have two options - either remove the roasted skin and "popcorn" it separately (works well for shoulder roasts, where it is difficult to spread the heat evenly) or "popcorn" in place. For both, turn off the bake function on the oven and turn on the grill/broiler. When the element is hot, place the roast/skin under the broiler/grill and let the heat do its work, rotating the skin/roast as necessary. This should only take a few minutes, and you need to be careful that it doesn't burn the bits which are close to the elements.


where to keep an opened can of condensed milk safe

You have to keep it in the fridge. This is generally true of any open can or jar. Once the seal is broken, you have to refrigerate as with any other non-conserved food.

Personally, I also refill it in a glass container, because sometimes the oxidizing metal of the can gives food an off taste.


What is a good spicy potato wedges seasoning?

Add cumin, chili powder and garlic powder to your salt and pepper. You might like a bit of curry powder or turmeric too, but I don't know if you'd call that a Mexican flavor.


Do you season a cast iron waffle pan before using?

I see no reason that a cast iron waffle pan should be treated differently in regards to seasoning than other cast iron.  Since it won't be cooking anything with significant fat in it naturally, if anything it may be more important!  Seasoning is both for non-stick reason and  non-oxidizing reasons.

Season it well on your own, then use it with some fat (of some kind) very lightly brushed on to keep it well. Only brushing right before use will keep one good likely, but would take a long, long time to naturally season since a large portion of the fat will immediately get used by the food.

Cast iron gets gummy if you either 1) season with a spray like Pam consistently or 2) don't cook your seasoning long enough and/or high enough.  Use a fat, bacon fat, would be great here and season away - properly.  In regards to seasoning, I recommend checking out this question, as its unneeded to replicate detailed information elsewhere in the site.


I run a gluten free bakery and yes, over mixing is a concern for many cake batters, cookie doughs, pie crusts, etc. I find, what makes overmixing an issue is the gums used in the recipes. This being either xanthan or guar. An over-mixed cake batter will become very stringy and goopy, and will not pour smoothly when run off of a spoon, for example. Cookie dough, when over-mixed, will become very tough and elastic-like. Cookie dough should break apart easily when you separate it, but an overmixed cookie dough will stretch when pulled apart... Kind of like play dough or fondant.

Just like when baking with wheat flour, GF recipes that use gums (so pretty much all of them) yield a tougher, somewhat unpleasant texture.


It may have been the mozzarella. When traditional Greek moussaka is topped with grated cheese, it is usually a harder, aged variety, such as Kefalotyri or Parmigiano-Reggiano. To thin the bechamel with additional milk, after the roux is complete, is fine. The roux should be very thick, as it's only flour and butter. It thins when the liquid is added, then thickens again as it simmers. However, if your bechamel was too thin and the cheese melted into it, that may account for the chewy result.


Why is baking soda included in sourdough cracker recipe?

In addition to leavening, baking soda increases the PH of the dough. Since your recipe uses sourdough starter, it may be fairly acidic. Adding baking soda will make the dough less acidic. The PH level, in turn, is important for browning: a high PH level facilitates the Maillard reaction, giving you brown and toasty crackers.


When should I add fresh fruits in homemade yogurt?

The Codex Alimentarius standard 243-2003 on fermented milk products, states in section 2.3 that:

The non-dairy ingredients can be mixed in prior to/or after fermentation.

So, yes the recipe is correct and you can even sell the product if you follow all the other WHO standards as well.
However, as you introduce additional microbial agents when using fresh fruit, the rule of thumb (to be analytically tested) is half of the minimum of both products separately:

As you're probably doing this for home use, this means in plain English:
Eat the yoghurt in half the time you would eat the fresh fruit.
If this would be for professional use:
You should not be asking random strangers on the Internet what to do and have your commercial product tested analytically.  ;-)


Eat By Date claims a shelf life of about one month, in the refrigerator, which matches my experience.

Ginger root is a living rhizome, and is the plant's way of storing energy to grow later.  As long as it is firm, not slimy, with no signs of a mold, with a good aroma, you should be able to use it.


I found steaming artichokes to require a very unpredictable about of time, and have fallen in love with the microwave method.

Cut off the stem so it can sit flat
Cut off a little of the top of the thistle.
Pour about 1 tablespoon or a few milliliters of water into the middle.
Wrap securely in plastic film
Microwave on high for about 10 minutes. Test the base for softness with a toothpick. Use about two minutes extra if needed.
When done, open the wrapping and carefully pour out any remaining water.

They can still be unpredictable, but at least the variation is a little less.


Yeast raised doughs, and quickbreads (chemically leavened doughs) have very different basic chemistries (see the answers to the linked reference question for much more detail).

You cannot simply convert one into the other.

I suggest you search for breads designed to be quickbreads, such as Irish Soda bread.

See also:

Why are there no recipes combining both yeast and baking powder?


Storing Bao Overnight--to steam and refrigerate?

As Jefromi mentioned in the comments, what you do is highly dependent on the recipe for the Bao you are making. Traditionally Bao is made with yeast but if your recipe includes baking powder as the main leavener, then you would need to steam the Bao as your recipe indicates. Otherwise the leavening will expend itself and you will get tough Bao.

If the Bao recipe you are using have yeast as the main leavening agent, then you can do either.

If you want to steam it the next day then you can leave the dough in the refrigerator to rise the first time overnight. You might want to decrease the amount of yeast used in your recipe in this case. The next day, take the dough out 2 hours before you want to steam it and let the dough sit for about 1 hr to get to room temperature. Then cut and form the dough into the Bao shapes and let it rise for another 45 minutes at room temperature. Then you can steam it.

Resteaming Bao is not an issue if thats the route you want to go. A lot of places that sell Bao actually premakes it, steams it and then refrigerates the Bao. Then it is resteamed when it is needed. You can even freeze the Bao if you make a particularly large batch. The quality of the Bao won't degrade too much as long as you resteam the Bao.


I disagree with the answer from Phil. Spelt flour has more gliadin and less glutenin than wheat flour. (See Escarnot et al, Reactivity of gluten proteins from spelt and bread wheat accessions towards A1 and G12 antibodies in the framework of celiac disease.) One would expect this to affect the gluten formation in bread.
My experience is that substituting wheat flour for spelt flour makes for a 'cakier' loaf. That is, the loaf is softer, less structured, and less chewy. All this suggests less gluten formation.


Why does tallow taste overpoweringly different from saturated fat from the same animal?

Tallow is rendered fat, usually beef.  Off flavors can occur quite easily when rendering fat if it is not done carefully.  Do you know how the fat was rendered? Did you do it yourself?  What was your process?  I'm not sure you are describing tallow in your question, though, because you are describing fat that is discarded by butchers.  So, you'll want to clarify.  I will also add that it is not unusual that fat from different parts of the animal would taste quite different.


More than likely you'll be fine as long as you don't start to feel ill. The recommended cooking temperature for meats is based on the temp required to kill the yucky things in the meat.

Sometimes chicken (especially near the bone) cooks a dark red color, nothing dangerous about it.


Pot stick to induction top not able to remove it plz advice

Unfortunately this happens to me frequently. In my case it was always a thin film of liquid (water) that was holding the pot to the glass. Don't try to lift it straight up - that would take the most force. Instead, grab both handles of the pot and twist.  If that doesn't work, you can try heating up the pot again and twist.


Chocolate is a sol, consisting of solid particles suspended in cocoa butter. It is something similar to a hard emulsion. And it can separate just the way a liquid emulsion does (think mayonnaise). This happens when you melt the cocoa butter completely, so the solid particles separate from the fat. If it happens to a chocolate bar, your chocolate looks grey. If it happens to a bowl of melted chocolate, the chocolate seizes the way you describe it. This happens with both milk and dark chocolate. If you haven't experienced it with milk chocolate before, you either had luck, or your milk chocolate was of a lesser quality than the dark one and contained non-cocoa fats and/or emulsifiers, which change the behavior of the sol.

The only way to prevent seizing is to work within the correct temperature zone, which is extremely narrow (2-3°C). Even as an experienced confiseur, it is extremely hard to judge it intuitively. If you insist on trying to watch the chocolate and guess when it is OK, you will have inconsistent results, with a seizing once every few tries.

What you need is to get a candy thermometer. Keep it in the chocolate and, whenever the temperature nears the danger zone, put the inner bain marie vessel in a basin of cold water you keep near the stove for this purpose. It will cool rapidly and stay tempered. It isn't a problem if you cool it off so much it hardens again; you can remelt chocolate as often as you want as long as you never exceed the seizing temerature.

And now for the numbers. All kinds of chocolate (milk, white, bitter) harden at 27°C. Between 27°C and 30°C, they are soft, but unworkable, because they are too viscous (hold unpacked chocolate pieces in your hand for a while to see what I mean). The workable zone is 30°C to 32°C for milk (and white) chocolate, and 30°C to 33°C for dark chocolate. Above this, your cocoa fat melts and the chocolate seizes. So, keep an eye at the thermometer, as you see, the zones are narrow.

Edit: I just noticed that you call 40% "bitter". This is a very low cocoa percentage, and I wouldn't let it go up to 33°C. The numbers for "bitter" are probably safe for 70% cocoa and above.


Cooking multiple dishes at once in the oven

There aren't any very good "rules of thumb" for specific temperatures or cooking times.  I'll take a stab at the question in general terms, but it really will vary depending on the specific dishes.  There are other questions which have been asked here that ask about specific cases.

First, timing and temperature are separate issues.

The general answer about timing is to bake until done.  Most recipes that require a very particular doneness have some sort of test to determine it (e.g., final internal temperature, texture, brownness level, solidity, etc.).  Pull the food from the oven when it satisfies the doneness condition.  Most foods will eventually get done at lower temperatures; they may just take longer.  Other foods are often not as picky about doneness levels, e.g., stews, casseroles, braises.  Longer cooking will often just make the texture more tender, which is often a benefit.

If your goal is to try to have multiple things done at the same time, timing can be more tricky.  In that case, you'll just have to take a guess, put foods that need longer cooking in first, and keep an eye on everything.  If one particular dish is getting done too quickly, you can often remove it, cover with a lid or foil, and return to the oven when the remaining dish(es) are approaching doneness.  For baked goods, they should probably be nearly done before removing and resting.  (The gluten structure needs to be stable, usually with interior temp of at least 180-190F.)  For other dishes, you may be able to remove from the oven in mid-bake and return after other dishes have "caught up" in doneness level.  For food safety reasons, you don't want to "rest" the food too long before returning to the oven, but it can help to balance timing as you're approaching doneness for everything.

There are various charts and tables available for determining how timing will be affected by temperature changes, but frankly they're rarely accurate.  Only experience and trial-and-error can tell you how a particular dish or recipe will be affected.  This is even more true for full ovens, where temperature fluctuations, steam from other dishes, variations in radiant heat and air circulation produced by other baking vessels, etc. will really create differences in baking times.  The only general advice here is to monitor the cooking frequently and use whatever doneness criteria you have.

For temperature, things get a little complicated, but here are some general thoughts for different food types.

Baked Goods

Temperature has to be determined by the foods that are most sensitive to temperature.  These are usually baked goods, which depend on a particular balance of high heat (to rise or create oven spring, and to "set" the dough/batter after expansion) and lower heat (to avoid overbrowning or burning before the center is cooked through).  If you have baked goods involved, you may need your oven set at the temperature required by the baked goods.
If you have multiple types of baked goods to bake at the same time, it may or may not be possible to get good results: the best you can do is take something close to an average temperature and pull them out when done.  When in doubt, I'd err on the side of a slightly lower temperature.  Some types of baked goods won't rise as high, but that's often a lesser quality problem to deal with than baked goods that are burned on the outside but raw or dried out on the inside (which can happen with a high temperature).  In fact, despite warnings about the necessity of pre-heating, a surprising number of baked goods can even be successfully baked starting from a cold oven and will still achieve perfectly sufficient rising/oven spring.  However, you will generally need to get up to something close to the recipe temperature to achieve sufficient setting of the batter/dough (before collapse) and then browning.
Any sensitive pastries (and related complex desserts, e.g., souffles) are generally best baked by themselves.  Aside from balancing temperature and timing, the moisture introduced into the oven by other dishes can significantly affect the baking process of pastry.  So, I'd recommend against trying to combine pastry baking with other things unless you really know what you're doing.

Roasted Meats/Large Pieces of Roasted Food

These are generally quite flexible.  The primary reasons to roast at a high temperature are (1) to achieve adequate browning (with its flavor elements), and (2) to cook at a fast pace.
If you're flexible, there's no reason to worry about (2).  Roasting at a lower temperature will still get things done, and even doing a "low and slow" roast will improve the quality of just about any meat.  There are charts and rules of thumb to estimate different roasting times for meats at various temperatures, but these really can't substitute for a good probe thermometer.  If you're on a schedule, you can make adjustments to the oven temperature to ensure the meat finishes on time.
As for browning, you can either sear the meat first on the stovetop or in a high oven (probably best for poultry) or do a "reverse sear" where you turn the oven up right before serving and blast it with high heat for 5-10 minutes (works well for beef, pork, lamb, etc.).  Also, the reverse sear can give you time to get your other food into serving dishes, make gravy, etc. before serving.
If you're roasting at a higher temperature in order to accommodate baked goods or other foods, the outer layer of meat may get done too quickly.  Covering part or all of the roasting meat with foil may help.  If this is insufficient, cover completely and remove from the oven for a few minutes for the meat to rest and "even out" a bit in temperature, then return.

Roasted Vegetables/Small Pieces of Roasted Food

Again, these are fairly flexible, but if cooked too long they can dry out and shrivel, and if cooked at too low of a temperature, it can take a long time for dense vegetables to soften (e.g., potatoes, carrots, etc.).
They also often release a lot of moisture into the oven, which can affect other dishes, particularly those where browning is desired.  This latter point applies to most roasted items cut into small pieces.  It is often helpful to temporarily remove any items that release a lot of steam during the browning phase of other foods.  (Cover with foil and return to oven to warm before serving.)

Covered Dishes/Casseroles

The above dishes are often primarily baked uncovered in the oven.  Dishes baked inside of pots or in other covered vessels are usually less sensitive to temperature changes, unless the temperature is really high which can cause some foods to stick and burn to the cooking vessel.  Again, most foods will eventually cook at lower temperatures, though the total time can be hard to predict until you experiment.
Using a cover over some of your dishes will also prevent excess moisture in the oven.  Excess moisture is usually undesirable in most circumstances, since it can interfere with browning.  However, it can be used to your advantage in limited circumstances, such as during the first 10-15 minutes of baking for bread and similar baked goods, when oven spring is required before the crust dries out and sets.
Consider making adjustments as necessary to dishes that request a phase baked covered and another uncovered.  Often continuing the covered bake for a longer time will only result in more tenderness in the dish, and it may be an effective way to allow the oven to be used at a lower temperature with a longer bake.  Just like the "reverse sear" for meat, a dish that needs to be uncovered for a final portion of the bake can often be finished with a final high-heat blast or a few minutes under the broiler.

General Tips and Summary

Most foods need to achieve a certain doneness level throughout; aside from some baked goods, this can almost always be achieved with a lower oven temperature (to a point -- going below about 250F will introduce complications in some dishes).  Some foods need a specific outside texture, flavor, browning level, etc. which is best achieved at higher heat.  If you need that latter effect, either choose an intermediate temperature, or do a phase at the beginning or ending of baking at higher heat for those items specifically.  Convection oven features can often also be employed for this, if they're available.
For baked goods, the production/expansion of gas in leavening needs to be balanced with the time that the dough/batter sets, making baked goods more sensitive to temperature.  Unless you know what you're doing (which might involve making adjustments to leavening agents or choosing a different stage of proofing for yeast-based products before baking), baked goods often need to be baked close to their normal recommended temperature.
Overloading: too much food can introduce complications.  Always ensure adequate air circulation is possible around all dishes, but particularly around uncovered ones.  As mentioned above, excess moisture can also be a problem when too many dishes are in the oven, which will influence the speed at which food cooks and browns.
Consider placement of dishes within the oven.  Placement of heating elements will affect this greatly.  But generally speaking -- with ovens that have a heating element on the bottom or bottom and top -- dishes on the bottom of the oven will brown faster on the bottom, while those on the top of the oven will brown faster on the top.  Don't put things that will burn quickly on either surface in the wrong place.  Heat rises, so with a lot of food in the oven, the top of the oven will be hotter (and the temperature difference will be greater when the crowded), so place things that need a higher temperature farther up.


How can I tell if a fish can safely be prepared "crudo"?

Well, your discernment is indeed what you are looking for. You want really fresh fish. The usual advice for detecting really fresh fish apply. It can't hurt to have a fish source that you have good reason to trust.


How long can I store soaked beans before cooking?

It rather depends on the temperature of the room. Where I live, in the summer it gets hot and humid, and they shouldn't be out on the counter during the day, or they ferment.
In winter (like spring in the northern US, 45-70 farenheit) they can be out for two days with no problem.

My recommendation would be to soak overnight for morning use, or to soak during the day for evening use. It also helps to change the water every few hours, though this isn't critical.
If you refrigerate them with the water, you get an extra half-day. Refrigerating drained gets another day or so.

Either way, they should always be shaded, never in direct sunlight.

If they do spoil, you'll know, as they'll have a sour/yeasty smell to them.


As long as the eggs aren't expired you should be fine. I've made creme brulee many times with both fresh eggs and not so fresh with similar results.


Is mustard lid supposed to pop when opening?

Plastic usually does not pop, it bends slowly under the pressure differential. Metal usually bends quickly and pops when the vacuum in a jar is relieved. Some jars use thicker metal that wont bend, so you have to listen for the rushing intake of air. Sometimes now they replace air with nitrogen before sealing. You won't get a pop or any other sound from a jar canned that way.


Are there any snacks that use a large amount of black sesame seeds?

You can make black sesame seed soup. It's mildly sweet and is often eaten at breakfast by Chinese. Black sesame seeds are unhulled unlike most (white) sesame seeds sold in North America and Europe which are hulled. So if you eat the seeds whole, you'll get little benefit from them as they basically pass through your digestive tract unchanged. The soup uses ground seeds.

I know we're not supposed to give out requests for recipes but you're not asking so I hope I'm not wrong in giving you a link to the soup recipe. I have no idea if there are other sites with a recipe for it. http://www.chinasichuanfood.com/black-sesame-pastesoup/

A suggestion in toasting black sesame seeds. It's easy to toast white sesame seeds in a pan on the stove and tell by the colour change to a light golden brown when they're done. Black ones aren't so easy to tell by looks though. I found that adding some of the pale coloured seeds with the black ones is a good way to know. When the pale seeds start showing a light golden colour, you'll know the black are also toasted enough. Be careful not to over-toast them or they'll taste unpleasantly bitter.

There are other ways of using black sesame seeds but this is the easiest.


The best BBQ's are wood fired, you get real wood smoke flavour. Anything else is just a just outside hotplate/grill, and might as well be electric

Using charcoal is easy and safe. A simple hack is to use some small pieces of strong smoke flavour generating wood on top of your charcoal when you are actually cooking

Smoke is all part of the BBQ experience, and after a little practice at fire lighting techniques, shouldn't become a big issue. Join the local Scout group as  leader, and they will teach you how to make good cooking fires :-)


Why does my canned enchilada sauce smell and taste like dog food?

It's because the enchilada container was mis-labeled at the factory :)

All kidding aside, if you purchased a sauce in metal cans instead of glass jars you may have picked up added flavors.


When should I add melted chocolate to reduced sugar meringue?

The only ingredients you add to a meringue before the stiff peak stage should be ingredients related to stabilizing the meringue itself - acid and maybe a little salt near the beginning, sugar during the transition from soft to stiff peaks, and starch or other stabilizer at the end of stiff peaks.  It's also OK to whip in small quantities of things like extracts or citrus zest near the end.

But if you're trying to actually incorporate something into the meringue, whether it's chocolate chips, melted chocolate, or anything else large, then you always, always want to fold it in after the meringue is stiff, just before you bake it.

Adding anything to the meringue too early or whipping it in too forcefully - especially fat (which chocolate contains a lot of) - stands a very good chance of permanently collapsing it.  You incorporate other ingredients at the point when it's most stable and incorporate them very very gently.

If you're only whipping up to the soft peak stage then I guess you'd add the chocolate then, but the result would be very unstable, and most meringue cookies are normally whippied to stiff peaks.

Note that if you're incorporating cocoa powder then you can and should whip it in, rather than folding it in, during the stiff peak stage. Many if not most "chocolate meringue" recipes involve a certain amount of both cocoa powder and chocolate.

As for how it will turn out - it won't be very stable or rise much, the chocolate weighs it down a lot, and expect it to crack significantly. It will still be more like a meringue cookie than a solid block of chocolate, unless you add far too much.

If you want some chocolate flavour but the stability of a pure meringue, just add cocoa powder by itself.


Cloudy material will be fungus growing in the culture. It is not safe to eat.
Where the contamination has come from is impossible to work out, there are several steps in the canning process during which a failure in the step could result in the canning not being sterile and growing something.


Do pre-packaged chocolate truffles (e.g., Lindt) remain flavorful months after their best by date?

I used to be quite fond of Lindt balls, and I was also a candy hoarder, so I ate many a Lindt ball past its "best by" date. If the Lindt ball has cracked, the filling will start to leak out and be unsightly. The leaked filling may have dried hard or crystalized, so the texture may not be good. If you have leaked filling on a Lindt ball, you can scrape a bit of it off with your fingernail for a taste test. They're usually fine to eat, though. Unless the package has been roughly handled, almost all the truffles should still in intact.
Undamaged Lindt balls a few months past their "best by" date are fine to eat. At worst, the chocolate shell will "bloom". Chocolate bloom is visually unappealing, and can have a waxy or crystalline texture which will may be noticeable on the tongue. However, it's still fine to eat.
The above mentioned issues are only cosmetic. When you melt the truffles, the cosmetic issues will probably disappear. This sounds like an excellent use for truffles that are slightly past their date.


Meatballs and Spaghetti in the InstantPot separately

I have't done it, so I don't know if this will work, but here's what I would suggest:

Pasta will cook more quickly if you soak it before cooking.  (it also allows you to get 'al dente' with gluten-free pasta)

You can then put the pasta in the inner pot, while the meatballs are closer to the heat.  But you might have to experiment for just how long to soak the pasta before putting it in the pot, and what temperature water to use in the pot.  (you do the soak in room temperature water)

I'd also recommend changing your type of pasta.  Strand pasta is notorious for the need to stir to prevent it from clumping together; something like fusilli (spirals) won't contact each other as much, so they won't have as much variation in doneness.


Recommendations for making ice cream with milk and corn starch (corn flour)

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer has a (somewhat) similar base to this, in that it has no eggs, and uses a mix of milk and cream - along with a tiny bit of cream cheese to provide the requisite proteins, and corn starch to thicken.

In my opinion, it's one of the best ice cream bases out there.

I also have the Perfect Scoop, and have had no trouble switching the recipes I've tried from it over to Jeni's base.


Is "angostura" (as in bitters) a flavor?

Angostura Bitters is a specific brand of bitters.  The Angostura in the name refers to the town where it was originally produced.


Presto multi cooker sous vide- clarification?

The standard hack is to use a PID controller.  IF you google, you will find many articles detailing exactly how, such as this detailed one from Over Engineered.

There are now also a couple of vendors of moderately low cost circulators intended specifically for this application such as Sansair that you insert into a pot or cooler.  They are new to the market, so there are some early adopter issues being reported, but the idea is quite elegant.


What can I use as a replacement for Curry Powder?

Curry powder is a blend of spices to some recipe or merchant's taste, as a convenience.   More traditionally, a particular blend of spices would be created for each individual dish, tailored to that dishes idiosyncrasies.

You can research one of many current powder recipes on available, and simply make your own blend without whichever spice or spices it is that you do not enjoy.


Saffron and coloration - is there a way to know why it gave the wrong color?

So, my question is, is there any reasonable guess as to why the threads gave off a pink color?

Yes. It's fake. I've had family bring over the exact same thing from Turkey a few years ago: entire bags of "saffron threads" that turned everything they touched pink. It's a known fake product in the Middle East region. The fact that you bought it in an ethnic store is worrying though: I'd expect to find unlabelled safflower there but not dyed threads.

  I want to know what I can do with what I've got left in the box

Throw it out. Even ignoring the possibility you raise that the dye used to create it isn't food-safe, fake saffron isn't useful for anything. In your case, I'd take it back to the shop and demand a refund.

Fake versus Real

Here are some general tips to follow when you're buying saffron:

only the threads matter: the yellow stamens are useless and only add bulk, which is a sign that something's wrong
the scent can't be faked and is unmistakable provided you've smelled real saffron before, however most people are fooled by vendors mixing in threads of the real stuff (adulteration)
it has a characteristic taste (that's highly individual), but will never be sweet
it's a deep yellow to orange hue: saffron should never create a pink colour, though the threads themselves are such a deep orange colour that they can appear red
said colour will appear in liquids but will not fade from the threads, putting a strand on a wet paper towel is an effective colour test
the threads will not dissolve but can (and should) be crushed into powder, they also have a distinct texture and feel
it's hideously expensive: even if you personally know a producer/trader or buy in bulk (i.e. tens of thousands of strands), the wholesale price is still incredibly high (more on this below)

Note that the checks mentioned can all be invalidated in different ways and most simply by the seller pulling a bait-and-switch. As a rule, don't buy saffron as a tourist unless you've done your homework on the seller and product.

A quick note on price. Saffron is famous for being more expensive than gold per weight (in retail quantities) and the reason for that is its incredibly costly production process. More than a hundred crocus flowers go into producing a measly gram and the threads need to be harvested by hand. This coupled with the consistent and high demand means that there is simply no incentive for anyone to sell below market value and that's especially true for retail quantities. The retail markup is significant though, especially given the high base price, and avoiding some of it by buying online or at specialty stores can indeed save you a lot, but your average cook or chef is never going to be buying this for 50% off.

Saffron versus Safflower

Safflower is often sold as "Turkish saffron" and some claim it's a substitute but that's just not the case. While safflower does add colour, turmeric does a better job of colouring food yellow without requiring you to filter out chewy threads later. Safflower adds no noticeable taste to food. Saffron simply cannot be substituted, largely because of the complexity of its aroma (which includes over a hundred compounds). There is no artificial or synthetic saffron for the same reason.


Baker's Percentages for Baked Doughnuts?

I'm a big doughnut fan. I've watched a lot of Unique Sweets episodes and it seems that the shops with the best doughnuts usually use a standard brioche recipe as it is rich in flavour, but also yeast risen... Thus it gives you the perfect texture and flacvour.

I wouldn't use ANY bread recipe that it measured in volume. Weight is far more accurate, especially for something with sensitive chemistry like bread.


Freezing lasagne made with previously frozen meat

Broadly this is OK.

By broadly, I mean a couple of things. First, I'm assuming you are cooking the meat very thoroughly. That both means for long enough time to be completely thorough and hitting high enough temperatures to kill the main nasties off. Second, it naturally assumes you observe good practice with regard to not letting it sit for long periods, not co-mingling uncooked and cooked meet, yada-yada-yada.

I do what you're describing lots of the time myself incidentally, and have done for years without incident.

Of course, as I'm sure you know, one thing that is certainly a really bad idea is to freeze defrosted meat without cooking it.


Left sourdough starter out overnight after feeding and it overflowed?

Since yeast will survive up to 55C, unless your oven with the light on is unusually hot, your starter still has active yeast. It overflowed because (at least for some period of time) there were the ideal conditions for rapid growth of the yeast. Certainly you should feed it now, just as you would every 24 hours.


Unfortunately, cornstarch does that. It does not reheat well. Potato starch is even worse, and that's the thickener in Knorr's Leek Soup.

If you want to reheat something thickened, your best bet is to thicken it with a roux. There are other more modern thickeners (think molecular gastronomy), but I don't know much about those.


Morphy Richards new Intellichef, states boil at 240 degrees C?

You are correct that the indicated temperatures are too high.  240 C (480 F) is a very fast oven temperature, and inappropriate for almost all direct contact cooking methods.  Even 120 C is well past water's boiling point, and so not achievable in slow cooking.

A more typical an appropriate braising or slow cooking temperature would be 82 C (180 F).

Assuming this is the instruction booklet for the product you have, it appears the instructions for slow cooking are actually trying to get you to do a two part braise (they even seem close to identical to the braising instructions):  first searing the meat for flavor development through browning, and then a longer cooking period.  The higher temperature is intended for the searing phase; they then you have reduce the temperature to about 100-140 C.

This is still too high for braising, but that may be the temperature the device's thermometer will perceive at the bottom of the cooking insert.  You want the temperature in the actual food to be about 82 C—use an instant read thermometer to help learn where to set the dial.

Similarly, the boiling temperature is almost certainly again set too high (as water, by definition, boils at 100 C), with the intention of putting the device at its maximum power to bring the water to boil and keep it boiling rapidly.


Will cannes food tops melt if dropped in boiling soup?

No, it won't melt to the point where it becomes liquid and mixes evenly with the soup. You cannot have consumed a melted top without knowing it.

There are very few "everyday" metals which melt at below 500 C. Even tin (which I doubt is actually used for food packaging any longer) needs 231 C, while soup is at 100 C max (boiling point of water). If your top was metal, it wouldn't even have softened.

Plastics have a lower melting point, but they are amorphous materials with a very wide transition range. This means, even though they can get quite soft at 100 Celsius, they will remain in one piece. A plastic top could not have melted and mixed with the liquid.

Also, neither metal nor plastic is soup soluble. If you had had some material which melted into the soup (and that's purely hypothetical, after all nobody makes food cans out of gallium), it would have coalesced into visible hard lumps after the soup cooled down.

If there is indeed a can top in the soup, you'll be able to find it, practically in its original state. And the food is still edible.


Can anyone explain the meaning of 2x and 4x brie cheese?

I think you're referring to "double creme" and "triple creme" brie. In this, the milk is enriched with added cream until the butterfat content is double or triple the normal level before the cheese is made.

According to French law, this works out to 60-75% butterfat for double creme brie, and 75%+ for triple creme.  Note that's the percentage of the dry matter in the cheese, excluding the water contained in the cheese, and not total volume.  Here's a good post explaining the differences.  In general, these tend to be much creamier and richer than "regular" brie.


How do I tone down onion sharpness already in the chicken salad?

As much vinegar as the salad will take might help a bit. Salt too, but your window there will be even narrower. Obviously, too much of either of those ingredients will ruin the salad.

Basically, I'm hoping for a bit of a 'pickling' effect. Onions become dramatically less sharp after even the briefest of pickling. So I'm hopeful that a reasonable amount of extra salt and vinegar plus time will help.

Of course, making a bigger salad by adding more of everything else is your safest option, but I'm sure you have already thought of that. Also, time alone will help some.


For almost all baking applications, you can freely substitute a bundt pan for a loaf pan, especially for quick breads like banana bread or pumpkin bread.  I have often made my Thanksgiving cornbread in a bundt to get a more attractive presentation.

You may wish to measure the capacity of your bundt, which is easiest to do by filling it with water to the same level you would batter, and then measuring that.  This will let you compare the volume to your loaf pans.

If you have extra batter after the bundt is filled, you can always make a few muffins to use up any excess.  (Just leave the unused muffin cups empty; it is fine, despite the advise some five to fill them with water.)

Depending on your particular bundt, it may take a little while longer (usually) to bake through than loaf pans will, so make sure you test for doneness instead of relying on timing.

For quick breads, the toothpick test is usually a good one (does a toothpick stuck into the thickest part come out with only a very few slightly moist crumbs on it).

For yeast raised breads, it should also work, although you will definitely want to do your final proofing in the bundt so that the dough can expand into the mold.  You should also use a fairly traditional bundt, not one of the modern ones with many small cavities that the dough might not work its way into.

Again, make sure you are testing for doneness (most yeast raised bread is done around 198 F to 202 F), rather than relying on time.


Are these tiny white dots on my bread mold?

No it is not mold. They are coarse particles of some kind of grain (often corn meal, but in this case maybe wheat as corn meal is usually yellower). They sometimes sprinkle these on when they bake the bread; Sometimes on the bottom of the loaf (often with French bread) I think to keep the bread from sticking to the pan as it bakes. Also makes the bread look rustic and more "homemade."


When is the right time to pick blueberries?

When it's plump, and happily jumps off when lightly tickled. :-)

Seriously, you can put a container under the berries and whichever ones easily fall off (with gentle encouragement) are the right ones to get. If you had to really pull them off, then they're not ready yet.


Pudding vs. laundry starch - Add water gradually or all at once?

Yes, both processes are valid ways of making pudding (not roux). You can either dissolve the starch in a little cold water first and then gradually warm it up, or you can dissolve the starch in all of the cold water and then start warming it up. After it is warmed up, you can bring it to a boil.
The "dump all together" method is the more tedious one, because you have to stir constantly until you are ready, else the starch sediments and burns on the bottom, especially if you are an old-time cook using direct fire. If you warm up most in the water in a kettle first, your time of cooking the slurry (and stirring it) is reduced a lot, which makes it the preferred method.
Another reason is that most people cook blanchmange with milk, not with water. To reduce the amount of water used, they make the slurry with only a little water, then add the slurry to the warmed milk.


How to build steam in the oven for getting an oven spring?

The most common method of getting steam into the oven during the first five minutes of baking when it is critical for crust formation, at least for a home style oven is:

Place a pan at the bottom of your oven, and pre-heat as well it while pre-heating your oven.  An empty metal loaf pan or even a cast iron skillet would be suitable.  The pan should be metal (ceramic or glass may not fare well with this kind of treatment).
Bring some water to a boil separately, a couple of cups worth.
When you put the loaf into the oven, pour the hot water into the pre-heated pan, which will result in immediate steam production (this is why the pan was preheated, to help it immediately transfer energy to the water, and produce a burst of steam).

In previous questions, you have indicated that you have a toaster oven, not a full sized home oven, at least as we would think of it in the US.  There may not be enough room for this method in such as small oven.

Another method, which may be more suitable to your oven, although possibly less effective:

Obtain a spray mist bottle, such as the kind used for misting plants.  Fill it with clean water.
Preheat your oven thoroughly.
Immediately before putting the loaf in the oven, mist the oven floor and walls.  This will cause a small burst of steam.

The downside of this method is that it only produces a little steam, and it also cools your oven slightly.


Pinot noir is generally made as a light bodied red wine, and in many cases, tends to have enough acidity to make it a wonderful pairing with lots of different kinds of foods.  (Barberas from Italy are similar).  Knowing that red wine is not a traditional pairing for fish, I would go ahead and see if you like Pinot Noir with whatever fish you like.

Dry rosé (there are some lovely French, Spanish, and Italian dry rosés) is also a nice choice, as they are generally light, easy to drink wines.

Remember, what YOU like is the right wine for whatever you're eating, no matter what the experts say.


The key to a smooth ganache is fat - add too much water and you will end up with a “grainy” product. There are even recipes that use butter instead of cream (full or partial substitution), and while that’s probably a heart attack on a spoon, the texture is excellent. Almond milk is at least as “watery” as regular cows milk, so yes, that’s a questionable substitute without further changes.

You can benefit from the recent vegan trend and either use full-fat coconut milk (if the flavor is to your liking) or buy a vegan cream substitute, just check what your local store has available. If you want to use almond milk, consider adding a butter substitute (solid vegetable fat?).

Margarine instead of butter in the crust won’t be an issue, alternatively, you may want to check vegetable shortening. We may have a few Q/As on that substitution on the site. And don’t forget to get dairy-free chocolate.


Not sure anyone would be able to tell you definitively, but, if you add water after each use, my guess would be minerals from your water.


Yes, theoretically, and no for practical purposes.

Here's the Yes part:

If you have access to a chemistry lab, you can certainly analyze the dish for the presence of specific molecules that would indicate the presence of specific spices.  For example, the presence of "cinnamaldehyde" would indicate that cinnamon was used.

Here's the No part:

First, you would need to do individual tests for each possible distinct seasoning molecule.  Given the universe of spices, that's only feasible if you already have a pretty good idea of what's in the dish and are just verifying.

Second, some seasoning molecules are changed by cooking, making them less recognizable.  Sugar particularly can change into dozens of different compounds depending on the cooking process.

Third, some seasoning molecules are just not that indicative of what the original seasoning was.  For example, the presence of salt, glutamate, and various soy compounds would indicate the use of soy sauce, oyster sauce, or miso, but which kind of sauce exactly?  That's leaving aside the difficulty of distinguishing various starches and sugars.  Also, some spices come from the same plant (e.g. coriander seed and cilantro) and thus will be biochemically indistinguishable, even though their effect in a recipe is distinct.

So: ask the restaurant.  It'll be way easier.


How is sockeye salmon available year round?

The smoked salmon is stored frozen and released periodically for retail sale or
The fish is stored frozen and then thawed before smoking.

I frequently buy thinly sliced smoked salmon frozen in vacuum packaging.


Difference between Organic Bread and Fresh Bread

Fresh just implies that the bread was never frozen (or canned, irradiated, salted, pickled or otherwise preserved, but those almost never apply to bread).
Organic, at least in the US implies following a set of FDA guidelines regarding prohibited methods or techniques or ingredients in producing the product.
From the USDA's Labeling Organic Products Fact Sheet:

Organic products have strict production and labeling requirements. Unless noted below, organic products must meet the following requirements:

Produced without excluded methods (e.g., genetic engineering), ionizing radiation, or sewage sludge.
Produced per the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (National List).
Overseen by a USDA National Organic Program authorized certifying agent, following all USDA organic regulations.


What does a fridge do apart from storing and cooling?

The fridge itself does storing, cooling, and dehydrating. But the last part is rather slow, you don't see the effect all that much. It is more prominent at low temperatures (manifests as freezer burn). But try leaving unwrapped bacon slices in the regular fridge and you'll see what I mean. But anyway, it isn't all that interesting what the fridge does, because we only use it for cooling. The interesting things happen in whatever you put into the fridge.

The explanation will be somewhat long even without details. The dishes you described have different reasons to need cooling, so I have to deal with them separately.

First, egg whites. Stiffly beaten egg whites tend to weep. Cooling them slows the process. You know, less Brownian motion, etc. Still, overbeating them is never a good idea :) In this case, there are no fat particles responsible for the foam stability; in fact, the smallest amount of fat can disrupt the building of egg white foam.

The second class are the dishes which contain lots of saturated fat. They are made with (raw) cream, chocolate, butter, or other such stuff. Saturated fat is an amorphous solid, it has no sharp melting point. It gets very soft before it melts, butter is a good example. So these things are kept at fridge temperatures. If they are left to warm again to room temperature, they become much softer than in the fridge. (The exception which gets softer than in the fridge, but not all the way to the state before cooling, is ganache. This is because cocoa contains starch, which thickens. See the part about gelling below).

Third, we have custards. Panna cotta is a good example. They set by way of denaturing egg proteins. This happens at around 85°C, on the stove. They are put into the fridge to get colder, because they taste better that way. They don't get firmer in there, and they won't melt if taken out of the fridge.

Then we have the hydrocolloids, or gelling agents. While technically starch gels in a different way than gums, I'll put them together here. The important point is to know if they are thermoreversible. Starch isn't thermoreversible. If you create a blanchmange thick enough to stay on its own out of the mold, it will need to be cooled before it is set completely. But once set, it won't go fluid again at high temperatures. Gelatin, on the other hand, is thermoreversible. It needs to be heated before it will dissolve at all, but then it must be cooled to set again. If you make jello and keep it outside of the fridge, it won't be much softer than in the fridge. But if you heat it up all the way to 50°C, it will melt to liquid again. Then there are the even funnier ones which will harden at high temperatures and soften at low temperatures, etc. But mainly, you don't have to keep hydrocolloid gels cooled once they are set. In fact, they don't even need fridge temperatures to set. Gelatine is perfectly happy to gel at summer room temperatures. But the cooling takes much longer because of the smaller heat difference between liquid and air. So it sets quick in the fridge, but has to be left overnight in order to work at room temp.

As for the practical meaning of all this: you can keep most stuff outside without a texture problem. The exception of this rule is anything made with saturated fat: cream, chocolate, pastry dough, buttercream frosting. But it is common knowledge that these should be kept cool anyway.


Baking soda is a mild base (the opposite of being acidic). In the right concentration & environment, it can be a corrosive.

What happened is that in addition to taking the burned bits off your pan, it also took the shiny finish coat off the outside of the pan. What you're seeing is the unpolished aluminium, with a coating of aluminum oxide.

Since only the exterior of the pan is affected, you've not damaged the functionality of the pan, just the looks.


Collecting & using cooking profiles on foods like coffee roasters do

I found this question particularly challenging to provide a complete and concrete answer to your question.  Although through strenuous research I was finally able to locate a text book that describes all sorts of new-age food processes and systems used in measuring such methods such as 'roasting profiles' which is also included in this text book, although most methods appear to be utilized in a scientific setting with expensive equipment.

The text book is also rather expensive, although looks very interesting, its called: Emerging Technologies for Food Processing the website provided allows you to purchase individual chapters of the book in PDF form.

The text book is edited by: Da-Wen Sun. who is the Professor of Food and Bio-systems Engineering (Personal Chair),  at the National University of Ireland - Dublin (University College Dublin)
also the Director, Food Refrigeration & Computerised Food Technology (FRCFT), National University of Ireland - Dublin

I hope this is helpful


How do I flavor popcorn with a minimal amount of fat?

Don't spray with water with a standard squirt bottle. Get an olive oil spritzer. It's pressurized, so you get an almost aerosol-fine mist, which prevents the kernels from getting soggy. It also adds flavor, in addition to the powdered seasonings you add with it. Or you could use an infused oil and skip the powdered seasoning altogether.


If that is 1/4 cup lemon juice, that seems like quite a lot and reducing it is also probably making it taste even more lemony. If you want to keep about the same amount of liquid, try softening the shallots and garlic in 1 t olive oil and then adding 2T dry white wine and reducing. Add 1T lemon juice and bring to boil again but don't reduce, add in the cherry tomatoes, scallops and the 1/2 stick butter. You could also reserve half the butter to swirl in after the scallops are cooked through.


Trouble cooking steak to the standard internal temperature

There's a few things that could be going on here:

cut: not all steak cooks at the same rate. Really tender cuts cook faster than some of the tougher, more flavorful cuts, increasing cooking time by up to 50%. Cuts like tenderloin, filet, and loin (US) - Sirloin (UK) are more tender and cook faster. Denser cuts like sirloin, top sirloin, and bottom sirloin (US) and rump (UK) cook slower. If you are cooking a denser cut then you simply need to cook it longer.
Pan heat: Most chefs have really good stoves that produce load of heat, most mere mortals have average stoves which aren't as powerful. Medium heat on a professional, or very high quality stove is hotter than the medium heat on an average stove, so try cranking it up to full blast. Also, make sure your pan is fully up to temp. I cook my steaks on a cast iron skillet, and I let it heat up for 10 minutes before I start frying steak
Heat contact: even though steak is full of fat it takes some time for this to start working, so coating your steak with a bit of vegetable oil (not olive oil, it burns at high temperatures) will make sure it gets good heat contact

So my advice would be to get the pan hotter and cook it longer. Try adding one more minute per side.

EDIT:
@kenny says that he is cooking loin, so assuming it's 3/4", or 2cm thick and looking for medium done-ness I would cook the first side for 5 minutes and then the second side 3 minutes. The uneven times are to make sure it cooks evenly. So you need a total of 8 minutes cooking time. I don't do the flip every minute method because the uneven times work for me, and it lets me do other prep.


Botulism thrives in high-moisture, low-acidity, low-salinity, anaerobic environments at between 50 and 130 degrees.

In your refridgerator pickles, you're:

keeping cold
adding acid
adding salt

All of which should at least prevent the botulism from reproducing in great enough numbers to be toxic, if not outright killing it.

That's not to say nothing nasty can grow in refrigerator pickles — you're likely safe from botulism, however.


Passing the float test is a good indicator that your starter is ready to use, however, it is not a perfect science. An active starter will produce pockets of CO2, as well as alcohol, which is less dense than water, and will result in buoyancy. This buoyancy is a good indicator of a very active starter that will go on to produce a decent rise. That being said, I have used starters that did not float, yet went on to make a decent loaf.

It's important to note that the flour-to-water ratio (aka. hydration) of your starter also impacts its buoyancy. I encourage you to try this out for yourself.

Pour 1/4 cup of your active starter into two separate containers, reserving some of the mother starter, of course. Feed one container with a 2/1 ratio of water-to-flour. Feed the other with a 2/1 ratio of flour-to-water. Mix them up and immediately try the float test. The mixture with more flour (less hydration) is more likely to stay composed and not desegregate upon contact with water. This, combined with the fact that partially dry flour less dense than water give it a better chance of floating.

Answering the "is it ready" question is tricky as there are far too many factors in play for anyone to look at a starter and say "this starter is ready and is going to make awesome bread".

My suggestion would be to take your current starter and branch it off into separate containers throughout your house. Experiment with different feeding techniques (I use 1 part organic whole wheat, 1 part bread flour, 2 parts bottled spring water). You might try altering the flour types and hydration ratios to encourage yeast production.


How do I bring out the garlic flavor in an oil base?

Yes. Pre sautéed the garlic or add whole cloves to the cooking oil, crush down the cloves to release flavor and then remove. Proceed as usual. P.S. NEVER store garlic submerged in oil. It can produce botulism toxin introduced from the growing soil. Botulism bacteria are anaerobic meaning they survive without air as is the case when covered in oil.


Help wanted to identify this food item (oriental)

"高麗" is the ancient name of Korea. However, "高麗菜" (where "菜" means vegetable) has nothing to do with Korea, but just how people call cabbage in Taiwan and Fujian. (It's unclear why people use this phrase.) The making process involve drying the cabbage leaves in the sun, so it's called "乾" (in simplified Chinese "干"), which is the name of the Sky in the Bagua, so the category name of any dried things.

According to this blog from Taiwan (it was written in traditional Chinese, but you can see the photos to have some rough impression about how the blogger made the 高麗菜乾 for her/his own family using:), people hang up the cabbages on shelves and dry them in the sun untill the cabbages become dry and soft, then salt it and rub it gently, then wait until it become soft (I guess also more pliable), then put a heavy stone on them to push the remaining moisture out of the leaves, then again hang them and dry in the sun, this time, untill completely dried. Now you can seal them in containers and keep them in fridges.

So for conclusion, I believe it's a kind of cured cabbage maybe produced in Taiwan, and if you like cured food it should be delicious! :)


It depends entirely on the recipe and how it will be used. Fat can work as a medium for flavors and heat, to provide texture (especially in the case of emulsification), and for its own flavor. Blindly removing it from a recipe may "work", but leave you with something quite different from what was originally intended - whether that's ok with you is a personal decision.

Rather than looking to eliminate fat, look to maximize your benefit from it. Find out what purpose it serves in a given recipe, then find an oil you like that fulfills that purpose and add only as much as is necessary.


How to Rescue Too-Soft Cookie Dough Made with Butter Substitute?

I don't believe you will be satisfied with any cookies you roll out and cut from this dough. That said, there are three options that may allow the dough to find a tasty future.

Make a 'Mega Cookie': roll the dough out and fit it onto a pizza tin and bake. This can be decorated as one large cookie/pizza.
Make 'Brownies': work the dough into an 8"x8" or 9"x13" pan and bake.
'Cupcakes': scoop a spoonful of dough into each compartment of muffin tin and bake.

Of course you will have to watch to get them done enough as the standard bake time probably won't apply.

If your recipe doesn't include eggs (or you are not concerned with the risk that raw eggs may pose) adding it to homemade ice cream would be a fourth option.

Good luck.


How long can milk products be frozen before spoiling?

Your sauce won't spoil when frozen, but the quality will decline. Not knowing how much time exactly there was between making it and it being totally frozen, there is a possibility that this is an issue. If it was chilled rather quickly, your sauce is safe to eat.


Thai lava chili: how could I reproduce this?

I generally associate the phrase "chili jam" (also known as chili paste) with store-bought sauces, like this one.

It wouldn't surprise me if they were using a very similar ready-made sauce - perhaps they get it from a distributor or perhaps they even make it themselves in large quantities and store it, but I doubt that they make it from scratch for every meal - few Asian restaurants do.

If the dish you were served doesn't contain ground beef or any of the things you'd traditionally associate with American chili (other than the thick consistency) then this might be as simple as whipping up a stir-fry using a store-bought chili paste.  If it's too thick, add a little soy sauce.  If you want more tanginess, add some lime juice.  If you want more sweetness, add brown sugar.  And if it still seems to be missing that certain je ne sais quoi, you might need Thai fish sauce, which you find in almost every Thai dish.

I hope that helps.  If it doesn't get you where you want then feel free to report back and explain how it turned out differently from what you expected - one of us can surely take it from there.