Recipes of Turkish drinks in Voltaire's Novel

First, let me clarify a linguistic point: Nowadays, both words "sherbet" and "sorbet" have entered the English language as loanwords. They both describe frozen desserts, and I have seen some people use them interchangeably and others making a distinction, e.g. that sorbet is dairy-free and sherbet has dairy. No matter how they are interpreted, sources about this meaning are not relevant to your question. It just so happens that the loanword's meaning has changed when entered English.
What you need is information about the word "sherbet" as understood in Turkey, not in English-speaking languages. And I am afraid that it is not a very informative word - it is a generic word for a sweet drink. I would actually go so far and translate it as "syrup" while noting that in modern Western countries, a syrup is seen as a concentrate to be diluted, while in Turkish cuisine, it is drunk straight (maybe at concentrations slightly lower than of the "simple syrup" found in classic western pastry books, but not too much lower).
Being that the word is so imprecise, there won't be a source referencing some kind of exact recipes for the drinks mentioned in that passage. Instead, you have to imagine people taking any combination of water, sugar (lots of sugar), and additional flavorful stuff, and drinking it. It is similar to a milkshake - what I throw in the blender is differnet from what my neighbour throws into the blender, and the "pistachio milkshake" I make today may have different ingredients and ratios from the one I made last week.
Dairy is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of sherbet, but there is also no sherbet police to prevent people from using it, so the kaymak (thick cream) was probably just added for more richness.
I wouldn't necessarily assume that the Mocha was drunk separately. Maybe it was, but maybe the specific example described was of a coffee based drink, the way people add espresso to milk to create a latte, or maybe they used a tiny bit of (brewed or ground) coffee as a flavoring. Just because it's unusual today, it doesn't mean that it has to be unusual across different cultures. Again, it wouldn't be a classic example for sherbet - the classic, purest form would be sugar and water, with maybe fruit juice as flavoring.


When should you season sauce that needs to be reduced?

First of all, people indeed often add some seasoning in the beginning, but are usually careful with the amount, especially with salt.
Flavor-wise, you could add it at the end, after the reduction and be fine.

However, salt can also affect the process of cooking. For instance, it can draw moisture out of some vegetables when frying them first, meaning that they will be cooked a bit faster. That is why some salt can be added at the beginning. At the end, after the reduction, you should taste and add some more seasoning, if needed.


How to season a carbon steel pan on an electric hob

To the question as asked: No, there are no more tricks. When you use the wrong tool for the job (in this case a too-small electric hob), then you can't expect the job to go well.
Nevertheless, there is an easy solution for you: Use the oven. If you are that worried about your rubber button, remove it before putting the pan in the oven, and pop it back in afterwards. But I use my own Mineral B in the oven frequently enough (and don't always bother to remove the button), and have had no problems with it.
I had never heard of the manufacturer's advise you cite, but if you absolutely want to stick to it (e.g. because of warranty issues) and are against the oven, you just have to live with a badly seasoned pan.


Why does diluted half & half not make a substitute for whole milk?

The difference between whole milk (or any milk, really) and half-and-half is one of fat content, not overall concentration. Half-and-half gets its name from being a 50/50 blend of milk and cream, which normally separate because the less dense fats concentrated in cream float naturally to the top of the mostly-water milk. However, milk also contains a number of other proteins, sugars, etc. that give it flavor. When you dilute half-and-half with plain water, you're diluting the fat content (potentially down to a similar range as contained in whole milk) but you're also diluting all those other flavorful components. You wind up with something that has the right fat level but not enough of anything else, and which tastes somewhat flat and flabby by comparison with proper milk.


To make avocado oil, how ripe do your avocados need to be?

I’m not sure which kind of technology you are going to use to press the avocado oil, but if you want pure and more healthy oil for cooking or cosmetic utilization, I recommend the hydraulic cold press process. Cause physical press will keep the nutrients of oil better.

Back to the question you asked, when hydraulically pressed, the ripeness of avocado greatly affects the final oil yield. The riper the fruit, the higher the oil yield. If you want to maximize the oil yield, just wait patiently be fore the fruit is completely ripe.


How do you make a deep spicy flavour that leaves you wanting more?

Adding some grated fresh ginger towards the end of cooking can do this, and is compatible with both Indian and Chinese food.

In general though, you need more of the spices that give flavour, and less reliance on chilli heat alone. For that, in a curry, cumin, ginger, mustard, turmeric, and coriander are common, though there are plenty of others. Commercial spice blends can be good but I prefer to fiddle and taste as I go, I tend to do it myself


Butter is mainly fat - no nitrogen. (It is about 0.8% protein by weight.)  So it is not a very nutritive environment. But its principle protection is that it is “dry”. Although it is about 16% water, that water is emulsified and therefore protected from contamination.  The original wax paper wrapping, and the surrounding container, as well as the temperature of the fridge, would make it very difficult for microbial contamination or growth to occur.


Are you sure it was not in fact a puffball fungus?  There are some varieties that are edible and can be found in grocery stores.  Depending on how fresh, and when they were picked, they could easily be mistaken for a root vegetable.  Look for pear shaped puffball here for an example. http://www.wildernesscollege.com/edible-wild-mushrooms.html


Why is it necessary to remove skins from soybeans before making soymilk?

I've never heard of the advice to remove skins from re-hydrated soybeans before processing into soy milk. It does sound like a hassle (is it even possible?). I just grind them in a quality blender before heating.  I've never noticed any problem.


Using low oven temperature to accelerate proofing

Let me suggest a totally different approach:

Why not work with the cool conditions instead of against?

You could let the dough proof for a long time, e.g. overnight in the fridge. This allows for a lot less yeast and hence a less yeasty taste, which is usually desired. Also, more complex flavors develop during long proofing times. (There is a reason french baguette may wait for two days before baking.) For a start, aim for about 5% yeast1 and use cool instead of lukewarm liquid.
You might have to adjust your attitude, because this requires some planning ahead, but gives you more degrees of freedom on the other hand: Fresh bread / cake in the morning without having to get up before dawn and more tolerance with regard to proofing / timing - the dough can handle an extra hour or two in the fridge easily. (Especially nice if you have a baby or a crazy schedule...)
You could also dump the dough in cold water and proof it there. As crazy as it sounds, it works. See more here.

If you'd rather stick with warm conditions, I'd aim for 30°C for optimum (=quickest) activity. Yeast starts to die at about 45°C, completely dead at 55°C. Also, warmer dough tends to proof unevenly and have a "flat" taste (can't find a better word).

1 fresh yeast, percentage based on flour weight.

Adjust dry yeast accordingly: fresh to dry conversion rate is 1:3, so use 2% dry yeast.


Is it safe to eat a non-refrigerated store-bought pizza base?

The default answer is NO. You don't know how long the pizza bases have been left outside, but most likely more than 4 hours.

Before you open the package, see if it's vacuum packed or in a protective environment. If it's vacuum packed but bulging, throw it out, it can have dangerous levels of botulism toxins that are mortal. If it's not vacuum packed and bulging, you don't know...

You should open the package and smell. Yeast doesn't smell pleasant, but it has a distinctive smell. So, if it smells like yeast, and if you don't see any dark spots (of mold) on the base, and if you are a healthy adult, you could risk it (at your own risk). If you do see mold, just throw it out.

Do not give risky food to children or the elderly, ever.

At any rate, for the price of a pizza base, just throw it out. Make your own pizza base! Even cheaper than store bought and more fun.


Why does instant coffee have less caffeine?

Caffeine is water soluble, but it takes a bit of time to be absorbed by water.

What determines the caffeine content of a coffee process is how much time it spends with/in water.

For example, a bodum French press will pick up more caffeine from the coffee since the grounds stay soaked for a while.  Drip coffee will have more than a single espresso (common misconception is to think the opposite).

It's likely that the instant coffee process passes the water through the coffee under pressure and faster than drip.  This will naturally prevent the caffeine to be absorbed in water as much.

Besides using decaf roast, what you may wish to do is get an americano coffee made with one or two Ristretto shots of espresso.  A Ristretto shot is usually pull away after 10 seconds.

Take a look at this analysis from the Mayo Clinic for the actual Caffeine values.


The most likely thing is that it is the salad itself. Most lettuces are quite bitter plants, naturally. Modern supermarket varieties are bred for removing that bitterness, but it is not infallible, and you will still get the occasional bitter leaf. Heirloom varieties and less widespread salad plant species tend to be outright bitter. Also, endives are a widespread species which tends to be bitter even in the supermarket.

It is also normal to get a bit of a habituation for the bitter taste after the first bite. Bitterness can be an enjoyable acquired taste, even though it still catches one by surprise at the first bite.


Does fish blood have a smell, how to remove it?

truly fresh fish should not smell of anything except sea water

While that might be true of most fresh fish fillets, fish guts most certainly smell, and unless all of those little guys have been opened and cleaned, you're almost certainly tasting/smelling the guts. The big fish in the case are nice and clean because they're gutted and washed. Often, smaller fish like Sardines are sold whole without gutting and washing. This can be kind of a dicey proposition if your store doesn't do a ton of volume, or you're not super close to the port at which they were caught.

Are you removing the guts and washing them before you cook them? That would be the first step to reduce the flavors you don't like.

Is the thin flesh of the belly deteriorated, perhaps even with the guts falling out? This is called belly burn, which occurs when the guts were left in too long and start to digest the fish from the inside out. These fish should be discarded (or used as bait if you decide to go DIY)


What's the kind of cake that have liquid frosting that drips when you open the package?

Ok found it. they're called pull-me-up cakes or tsunami cakes or in my opinion quite ambiguously, doll cakes.


Why would boiling milk in an electric kettle break the kettle?

The electric kettle is (clearly) not designed for this. The main issue is that milk doesn't evaporate, whereas water (obviously) does. The secondary reason is that milk will burn.

Milk is a complex mixture of water, fats, and proteins. The fats and proteins will separate out from the water when heated, and form a layer on top. Unfortunately, this layer prevents the water from evaporating - it traps it. This is what causes milk to boil over. Incidentally, the reason potato or pasta water boils over is due to the starch.

The way kettles turn off is by steam reaching the top of the kettle, rushing down a tube and causing a bi-metallic plate to expand unevenly, tripping the switch.

No steam means the kettle will never turn off. Because the kettle doesn't turn off, the element continues to heat the milk next to it. With water, the hot water will rise, rather than stick to the element. This means leaving the lid open won't cause a fire - at least not until all your water has boiled away. Unfortunately, milk will burn, and this layer of burnt milk will prevent effective heat dissipation - the milk in contact with the element is not moving throughout the remainder of the liquid. This causes the element to get hotter than it is meant to.

However, kettle manufacturers have thought this through - they don't want their products to catch on fire (well, most don't) - even when they are misused like this. They will have built in a small (one time) temperature switch, like this one. This acts a little like a fuse, but for heat, not current. They are often called "thermal fuses" for this reason. When the element reaches a temperature which has been deemed "too hot" (probably around 190ºC, perhaps a little hotter) this switch is tripped, and current can no longer reach the element. I attempted to get a measure of the temperature of the heating element of a kettle, but I could not get good enough contact between the element and my probe.


How can I tell if a mushroom is poisonous?

No as per: "There are no outward characteristics that all poisonous mushrooms have in common, so picking and eating wild mushrooms requires the utmost caution. To be absolutely safe, the only mushrooms you should eat are those found at supermarkets and restaurants!

All the old wives’ tales about how to tell if a mushroom is poisonous – such as whether it tarnishes silverware or turns blue when bruised – are dead wrong.

There’s a saying that there’s no such thing as an old, bold mushroom hunter."


Should syrup or pastry be cooled when pouring on to Baklava?

The pastry should be cool, but the syrup should be neither hot nor cool - it should be lukewarm. If it's too cold, it will be too thick and difficult to pour, and it if it's too hot, it may run or damage the pastry. I usually allow mine to sit for 10-15 minutes, until I can comfortably place my pinky finger inside it.


Convert seed based measurements to pre-ground?

Converting whole spices to ground spices is not as simple as matching up the weights. Ground spices have a distinctly different flavour from the whole. The freshness of the grind will also affect the taste quite considerably as well as how carefully they have been stored. When the spice is freshly ground it will have a very strong intense flavour, so you would reduce the amount you use slightly. However, ground spices rapidly loose parts of their flavour. The taste changes and you may find you will end up using more than the recipe states in order to get a similar taste. However, you'll never get exactly the same taste, grinding changes the spice.

The best solution is to try to get an supply of the whole spice from an online store. You can then use them whole or grind them yourself, fresh, as the need arises.


How long does pizza dough keep in the fridge?

As long as there's no mold in it your dough should be ok. Flavour and texture will start to degrade due to the yeast dying out (as you found already).

Technically, you'd get better results if you feed that dough regularly with more flour like a sourdough - which can last virtually forever!

Other than that you could also freeze the dough balls and just defrost a day before you use it. Frozen dough should last for months with no change in texture or flavor if there's no freezer burn.


What should I be aware of while eating raw oysters?

Usually for a business it's up to the oyster shucker to worry about the quality and you're to just enjoy.

You can tell if the oyster is bad if it has an off smell. Much like fish, fresh oysters won't give that off rotten fishy smell and tend to smell mild.

Many people suck them whole but you should chew oysters before swallowing to taste if there's anything wrong. If there something not tasting properly don't chance it, spit it out!

If you are buying oysters to shuck yourself try to get some without noticeable openings or cracks in the shell because this could mean that the animal is dead and possibly rotten. Wash the outer shell of any debris clinging on and inspect the shell thoroughly before shucking.

The oyster just shucked should be attached to the shell still before the oyster knife cuts it off for eating. If it's detached from the shell without cutting it, the odds of it being bad go up.

The meat should look shiny and mildly semitransparent the oyster juice should smell of the water it grew in and should be clear. Bad meat will look dried and unhealthy and the juice will be cloudy.

PS. When you shuck the oyster don't wash the meat off after shucking it; you'll lose the oyster juice and that gives it tremendous flavour!


How to get the texture of commercial ketchup?

Try sugar.

Per Heinz' website, the ingredients in their ketchup are:

  TOMATO CONCENTRATE FROM RED RIPE TOMATOES, DISTILLED VINEGAR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, SALT, SPICE, ONION POWDER, NATURAL FLAVORING

I notice that they do not include xanthan gum at all, but they do include sugar in the form of various corn syrups.  Cooking plain sugar can can harden it (think the ball stages of candy-making).  I think that what happens in commercial ketchup is not so much a "thickening" as a "hardening" of the tomato syrup, for lack of a better word.  It is likely that during the reducing stage of ketchup making, the sugar reaches what would be at least soft-ball stage if the ratio of sugar to everything else was correct, thus leading to a ketchup that is "thick" but not hard or mucus-y.

Edited to add:  As noted in the comments by @Ecnerwal, Heinz also seems to be using a tomato concentrate, which would include the flesh of the tomatoes.  When I initially read the question, I seem to have missed that you're straining out the solids.  Try leaving them in as you reduce-- the addition of solid matter will also help thicken while providing a better mouthfeel.


Considering the time of 10 hours in a food without being in the fridge, that can be in danger zone (of bacteria reproduction), so i would recommend you to prepare your lunch a few hours about 2-4 earlier to avoid bacteria reproduction as posible, if the temperature in where you live its cold rather than warm, that can help to maintain a little bit more. if you cant prepare it less late until time of consumption, then it will get some ugly smell in the sausage rather than the bread (if the bread has moisture on it then it will too) tho you can still eat it, but likely or not it will upset your stomach a little.


Chocolate chip cookies with whole wheat flour

I made chocolate chunk cookies with whole wheat flour, sifted whole wheat flour and all purpose flour.

The picture didn't come out good, the cookies were thicker and lighter in color than what they look like here.

The cookie with whole wheat flour was denser and barely spread out while baking. It also had a very different "whole wheat" taste.

The one with sifted whole wheat flour was somewhere in between.

I won't be making whole wheat flour chocolate chip cookies (if the recipe calls for all purpose flour) again, but I won't mind the ones with sifted whole wheat flour.


Adding malt powder to a conventional brown bread machine recipe

As it's really hard for us here on Seasoned Advice to quantify a memory from your youth, please experiment using the binary empirical method:

start with one spoon ¹
if that's not malty enough for you, double the dose
keep doubling the dose until it's too malty
then go halfway in-between the too low dose and the too high dose (E.G. if 4 is not enough and 8 is too much, take 6)
keep on halving until you get it just right (E.G in the above example: 5, 4.5, 4.25, 4.125, ...)

If you get it just right, dream of childhood memories...
:-)
¹ Obviously "spoon" is a non-SI unit and can be a coffee spoon, tea spoon, table spoon or even a ladle depending on the size of the bread and how malty your memory of the Granary bread reallly is...  ;-)


Why Does a Lot of Pastry Have an Orange Flavor?

Coriander perhaps; or, orange residue (by-product of orange juice production) often found in cake mixes, etc.


Is there an alternative to spreading flour when rolling the dough?

Traditionally one could use a rolling pin cover and pastry cloth that have been floured or dusted with powdered starch like cornstarch.  For sweet pastries you can combine cornstarch and confectioners sugar. You can also lightly oil your rolling pin and rolling board.

Other alternative rolling surfaces that are commonly used for pastry doughs include using a marble slab, a silpat mat, or plastic bag as your rolling surface


How to Get a Nice, Round Home-made Corn Tortilla

I roll them into a ball and use a cast iron press, similar to this one:

I think the official name is a "tortilladora". You can find them online or at restaurant/cooking stores for $10 to $20.

I wouldn't worry too much about getting them perfectly round. Store-bought tortillas are perfectly round because they're made by a big machine.

If you're still having problems with a press, I would look into a different recipe or maybe use more shortening/lard.


Note that the recipe refers to reaching a honey caramel color before beating, and the final color looks to be a bit lighter than that, so the darkening during beating does seem like a bad sign.

So it sounds like, before the eruption, you had some continued caramelization during beating. It's a bit of a guess, but possibly your pot was heavy enough to retain enough heat to keep on cooking after removing from the heat. In that case, as the beating thickened it, it might've eventually gotten to where instead of bubbling a bit, it held on to all those bubbles and foamed up.

To address that, I might try transferring to a bowl to beat in, or letting it cool a little bit before beating. I know that for maple fudge, which is a pretty similar texture, you actually do both.

I could also see weird things happening if you got the ingredients wrong somehow, and for example had more liquid than intended, so too much was still left to boil at the end. So it could be worth double-checking quantities, but given that you tried it twice and it's a simple recipe, I assume that's unlikely.


I was just in Morocco and asked some of the owners selling the spice how to do it, the answer I got was:

Add 100 grams of Harissa powder
Add 1/2 cup water
Add 1/2 cup of EVOO

I would add that I have not tested this yet, and 100 grams is a lot to be making at once.


In ingredient lists, does "lime" mean the fruit or the chemical?

Calcium hydroxide is pretty much insoluble, so it's hard to get every last bit of it out after nixtamalizing. A trace always remains. If the maker were selling lime flavored tortilla chips, which are sold the ingredient list would say something like "lime extract" or "natural lime flavor".


Is 1 cup of rice powder equal to 1 cup of uncooked rice?

I agree with your evident suspicion that 1 cup of whole rice will not be the same amount of rice as 1 cup of rice flour. There would be quite a bit of air in the cup with the whole rice, and not in the cup of rice flour. To get an equivalent amount of "rice-matter", you really need to use weight measurements.

But aha!... Look at this handy-dandy rice unit converter
           http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversions_of_measures/rice_amounts_converter.html

(somebody had too much time on their hands)

Anyway, I tried it out, and according to them, 1 cup(USA) of rice => 185 g => 6.5 oz.

So if you want to get an amount of ground up rice equivalent to 1 cup whole kernels, try 6 and a half oz. ... But, as Catija & GdD point out in comments, the two rice products, even if materially equivalent, aren't going to act the same at all, so be very wary, ready to adjust your amounts empirically, and don't expect your first attempt at this dish to impress critical people.


What is cold pressed method to extract Juice?

Cold pressing is as the name implies, to press(instead of blending) juice from a fruit while minimizing heat generation. You can buy these cold pressing juicers from the market as they're quite common nowadays.

Cold pressers from the market will likely have a rotating core (think drill bit) fixed in a tube structure. Drop your fruit from the top, and juice comes out after it gets pressed by the slowly rotating core.

The need for cold pressing juices likely came about when people thought that the traditional style of juice extraction via a blender/juicer subjects the mixture to high shearing/centrifugal forces which introduces heat and oxygen, which degrades the nutrients and vitamins in the juice. On the other hand, cold pressing purportedly negates these effects by "gently" treating the fruit. (think your cold pressed olive oil, coconut oil etc.).

Personal opinion: Since you essentially discard the fibrous parts of the fruit (that has a ton of benefits!) and consume the sugary mixture, your body will absorb a lot of sugar in a short time. Have a whole apple instead! :)

Slight addition:

For the heat generated by a blender, you may refer to this:
Experiment on waste heat in a blender. Over 3 minutes time, 9.4 degC rise was achieved in 200mL of water with a 350W blender. Of course, with fruits in the mixture the figure might vary slightly so take it with a grain of salt.

Sources:

(1) https://www.wired.com/2015/04/nobody-can-prove-cold-pressed-juice-better/

(2) http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/fact-check-are-cold-pressed-juices-worth-the-hype-1.2926121

(3) My mum bought a cold pressed juicer


Steaming and seasoning veggies in a pressure pot?

It depends... (taking carrots with rosemary as an example)

If using dried herbs, add them beforehand so they get steamed together with the veggies
if using fresh: crush and add afterwards

(or a combination of both)


I think the temperature is your issue.  76F is a bit warm-- your recipe specifically states:

  Dough temperature should still be somewhere between 65 and 70°F (18 and 21°C); if not, refrigerate briefly before proceeding (see note).

If the fat gets too warm, it will melt and you will loose the chunks of fat which give the baked crust its flake.  Unfortunately, it looks like this is exactly what has happened, with a side of overmixing. You also mention whisking "it until it had a creamy, mash like texture" which is way too much mixing. Also from your recipe:

  With your fingertips, smash each cube flat—that's it! No rubbing or cutting. Stir in water, then knead dough against the sides of the bowl until it comes together in a shaggy ball.

That means basically "stir together until it forms a dough in a single mass" not "whisk until a consistent creamy consistency."  Pie crust should always have some remaining lumps of fat, as those lumps are what give the crust its flakey texture.

Chilling may help you get it rolled out, but this batch is likely to be unsatisfactory for a couple of reasons. First, there is the lack of flake.  Then there is the fact that you mentioned adding extra flour, which would have altered the proportions of the recipe and would affect taste and texture.  Lastly, by the time you get it rolled out you will likely have overworked the dough and developed too much gluten in it.  That will give you a very tough crust.  So if you bake this what I predict you'll wind up with is a poorly flavored, not at all flakey, tough and possibly chewy crust.  Not good eats.

If you have the ingredients and time, I would suggest starting over for best results, this time keeping everything well chilled.  In the future (if necessary), you can chill the flour and other ingredients ahead of time, and also in between each step, which will help keep this from happening again.


Put the roast on the bottom and the potatoes around the edges. Cover everything with red wine (or whatever fluid you are using)


Is it safe to consume microwaved Campbell’s chicken stock?

Aseptic packaging which is what the Swanson's and anyother brands products in those coated carboard-like packing 9a.K.a Tetrapaks) broth are safe. The aseptic processing has killed thhe harmful bacteria. So long as it was kept refrigerated below 40 deg F after opening it is still safe.

Your frozen veggies if notdefrosted then refrozen are safe.

Combining the two and heating in the microwave in a clean vessel is safe so long as you've not introduced bacteria from another source, your food is as safe as it is going to be.


@aaronut is right that trussing will maintain the more cylindrical shape you want. However, I feel like he's a little misleading about surface area.

A cylindrical roast actually has LESS surface area relative to the mass of the roast than a flat one. A plate will have more surface area than a ceramic cylinder of the same mass. As a consequence, the cylindrical roast means that less of the meat's mass is exposed directly to heat than for a flat one.

A flat roast will cook faster in the same heat because the middle of the roast (where you're trying to hit a target temp) is closer to the outside (where the heat is). At what would be considered standard roasting temps, this means that your middle will be up to temperature before much nice crusty stuff is formed. The whole roast will be more uniform in temperature.

With a cylindrical roast, on the other hand, the outside will be cooked much longer (and get crustier) before the relatively well-protected center is up to the heat you want.  The roast will also have greater thermal mass, which means it will hold heat longer after coming out of the oven.

So is this good? It depends. Most people really like the great flavor that's imparted when the meat gets a nice, browned crust. To get that, you either need a lot of heat, or long exposure to heat.

If you are working with high heat, you're better off with a flatter roast so the outside isn't burned before the middle is ready. This works well with leaner cuts that would get tough or dry if cooked a long time, or where you want relatively more crust than middle. Steaks are nice with a lot of crust, for example.

If you are working with lower heat (which is much more forgiving, as the slower cooking means you don't have to be quite so exact getting the meat out of the heat), you want the more cylindrical roast. The low heat is going to take a while to get a crust on the outside, and the cylindrical shape extends the overall roasting time, giving plenty of time for the crust to form. This method works nicely for meats that benefit from longer slower cooking, and where you want the proportion of crust to middle to be low. A roast, where the nice pink inner part is the real draw, is ideal in this situation.


How to make rendang beef with a smooth and consistent texture?

A cheap food processor is usually just fine for this type of application, I used a stick blender for years to make curry pastes with good results. Although, if it's a really cheap and nasty one it may not do much for you.

The trick is to chop hard ingredients before blending. Galangal is very hard and will take forever to blend unless you cut it into pieces first. For lemongrass I suggest cutting it lengthways and then cutting into 1 inch or so pieces - bash the fat end with the back of a knife and throw away the pithy hard plug that comes out first.

As for sourness tamarind is not a universal product, you get different intensities throughout the world so you may need to add less. However, it sounds like you overdid the lime a bit, lime leaves aren't that sour so zest and juice from a lime is a bit much. However, you can add more sugar (palm sugar is great) to balance it out. It all depends on how sweet and sour you want it.


Cod is cod, a smaller variety's characteristics won't be so different as to make much difference in a recipe.

Really any mild-flavored white fish with a medium strength flesh is a reasonable substitute for cod, in fact due to cod stock depletion you'd be doing nature a favor by picking something locally caught.


For fried or oven-roasted maduros you want the plantain to be a bit riper than the one you pictured.  I usually wait until they are closer to the following:

The flesh should be yielding and have a slightly sweet flavor, but not be completely mushy or soggy.  It's ok if there are a few mushy spots.  If your final product is starchy tasting, then they were not ripe enough.  If you can't get riper plantains make sure to keep the slices thin enough (<1/2" or 1cm) so that the interior can get fully cooked before the exterior burns.

They should be fried in oil or lard that is around 350˚F (180˚C)


Yeast and Flour for Panasonic Bread Maker

Depends on your budget, personally I find bog standard value Tesco strong flour tastes the same as top of the range organic premium stuff.

Yeast I think it probably depends on your recipe, some will use fresh some will use dried instant action. The different brands don't really have any influence. I'm convinced it's all made in the same factory but stuck in different packets.

So... Buy the second cheapest yeast (generally a rule of mine always to buy one better than the cheapest)  and what ever flavour flour you fancy :-).

Edit:

Also if I remember correctly, you can buy bags of flour mixes designed for tipping into bread makers and just adding water.


One thing to keep in mind is that they are in the "Contains 2% or less" section, which means they are exempt from the "descending order requirement". So all we know is that they are less that 2% of the total weight. I just looked at one typical chocolate chip cookie recipe that gave weights in grams, and it was 8% eggs by weight (114 grams out of 1419). So 2% isn't totally off the map - it probably is still enough to provide some binding and richness.


Can oatmeal be cooked in rice milk in a regular oven and pan?

Yep, you can make oatmeal in the oven. Mine turned out just fine, quite good in fact.

I used a small casserole dish with a lid in a 350F (180C) oven.

I heated 1 cup each of water and milk with a dash of salt in the covered casserole dish for 20 minutes which brought the liquid nearly to a boil. I stirred in 1 cup of old-fashioned oats (not quick-cooking), replaced the lid, and baked without stirring for 20 minutes.
So a 1:2 ratio of oats to nearly boiling liquid.
It is as good as any oatmeal I've ever made. Rice milk should work just as well, I'd go half and half with water the first time you do it, and definitely use a pot or dish (ovenproof, of course) with a tight-fitting lid.
See Is there an easy way to tell if a pan/pot is oven-safe? for advice concerning the cooking vessel. You can be pretty relaxed about any pan that is meant for stovetop use for this application because most modern cookware is made to withstand 350F (180C) easily - even non-stick surfaces or handles.


this depends very much on:

the specific kind of fruit you're about to eat;
Cultural normatives;
your personal flavor and preference;

For instance: I eat Avocados with the skin. Seriously. I do. Some of my friends consider it to be weird, but i couldn't care less - when they are ripe i just slice them as they are, stack 'em on a piece of bread and feast away with a sprinkle of salt.

Most fruits i know of have edible skins - even citrus skin, as sour and zesty as it may be, is edible - and is used for producing all sorts of sweets, flavor extract and even food for animals.

I wouldn't go ahead and eat the skin of the Durian fruit - it's probably 'edible' but.... i donno.... it just doesn't feel right (plus the smell of it is UNBEARABLE)


Substitute for refined white flour to make fried potato wedges crispy?

You could substitute any flour you like, the purpose of the coating is to give it some extra crisp when frying. I would suggest maybe rice flour or you could use whole wheat flour but the taste may be different.

IMO, I would skip that step altogether though. A potato wedge is just a french fry cut in a different shape and we don't dredge french fries.


As long as you add enough liquid to the chocolate, it won't clomp up. This means you'll have to add your liquid flavoring to the cream and mix it well. Afterwards, make the ganache as any other white ganache, you shouldn't have any problems. Chips are even less likely to be a problem than real chocolate.


Coat the vegetables with a bit of oil and then place them in a hot oven. Your broiler should also work.


What are the best types of apples to use in Charosset?

Looking through recipes suggests a variety of apples.  Gala showed up the most, with Fuji in second, and McIntosh and Delicious tied for last.

If you want to go with the "source" of the recipe for Charoset, though, you'll want a sweet apple.  The recipe has its roots in Song of Solomon/Songs, and the verse that refers to the apples reads as:

  As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

So, for authenticity, go for a sweet apple, but Gala is the most mentioned apple in recipes online.


I doubt you'll get much of a yield. You will probably even have a difficulty creating a hazelnut paste in the blender. Ideally, you would pulverize and then separate with a centrifuge, to extract the oil. Unfortunately, I don't think your options are the right tools for the job.


First time canning....forgot to sterilize my jar. Advice please!

If you are going to eat over the next few weeks, just store the jars in the fridge. They will be safe either way


Cheesecake Cooking Time Change with Pan Change?

The 30 minute cooking time is somewhat similar to my experience with mini-cheesecakes in a muffin tin, although I would recommend checking between 20 and 25 minutes with a toothpick.  In my experience mini-cheesecakes were cooked until set entirely in the middle, but if your recipe is for an NY-style cheesecake that seems to wobble a bit, things might be different.


From the description "Rock-solid" you guess correctly that you have overcooked your jam mixture. The process of overcooking your jam mixture results in most of the water content evaporating. In candy terms, your jam is probably somewhere between Hard-Ball stage to Caramelized stage.

For jelly/jam you want the temperature around 220 degree F. Hard ball stage is about 250 degree F. Depending on how far your "jam" is into these stages you may be able to save your "jam" by introducing more water back into it. Try and out a small portion of it into a sauce pan and adding a little bit of water to it. If you are able to turn that mixture into something resembling jam by adding water, that means you haven't cooked it beyond saving and you can do that to the rest of your jam. Note that fruit flavors are volatile so cooking further will result in the blackberry flavors deteriorating.

Otherwise treat your jam mixture as a candy.


Is burnt milk that sticks to a pan something used in cooking ever? Does it have a name?

Short answers (in Indian languages): Thirattu paal (in Tamil); Doodh peda or Khoya (in Hindi/northern dialects).

If you mean you just boiled and reduced the milk to its minimum volume, that is a common recipe for a "milk sweet" in many parts of India, to my knowledge. In south india, in the state of Tamil Nadu, it is called 'Thirattu paal'. That just loosely translates to 'stirred milk' where paal definitely stands for milk.

In the northern regions of india, it is an intermediary to "doodh peda" where doodh means milk and I dont know what peda means. Maybe it means "soft block".

Here's is one 'recipe` that calls for a low heat simmer, so things don't burn unless your vessel is thin bottomed. Usually heavy bottom vessels are used for low heat stirred sweet recipes with milk. You can add small amount of sugar, grated vanilla or cardamom powder etc to flavor it additionally.


Because manual machines work under the same premise as automatic machines, you can follow the standards for a normal espresso. Id suggest looking at other guides to making a good espresso, or even watching how the espresso is poured at your favorite cafe.

Consistency

The ideal consistency for espresso should come out between a pour and a drip in what I'm coining a half-drip. It should look like this:

Brew Ratio

The standard brew ration for an espresso is 1:2 - 1:1.5, 1.5-2 grams of water for every gram of coffee. Since a double basket is usually about 18g of coffee, you should aim for about 27-36g of espresso.

Since every manual machine is different, you'll have to play around to see how many times you need to pull the lever to get the right amount of espresso. This also means if you have a bigger basket, you will need to pull the lever down more times to get a similar shot.


How can you achieve the glazed top in a mille-feuille?

The dessert discribed is not truley a "Tom Pouce", that is a different pastry.  What is discribed in the question is a "Napoleon" dessert pastry.  The Mille Feuille or Puff Pastry is topped with an icing called "Fondant".  Fondant in it's simplest (shortcut) form is made by mixed powdered sugar and water until the desired thickness is reached.  Some time in the open air will harden it a little further beacause of the water drying out.  Fondant made correctly is by making a simple syrup (water and sugar cooked together), cooking it to the "soft ball" stage or temperature of simple syrup, then dispursing it onto a marble slab (to cool it quickly) and with 2 baker knives (one in each hand) fold and kneed the sugar until it frosts from transluscent color to the frosty and shyny white color.  This is an old skill which has been taken over by machines.  Fontdant is now purchased from larger makers in 5 gal. buckets for a cost of appr. $25.00.


You are about to enter the wonderful world of Charcuterie, the preserving and curing of meats.

The traditional cut of beef to turned into corned beef (or pastrami, which has a similar preparation) is a well-marbled brisket. I'd imagine that a flank steak or other similar long-and-moist cuts would work out too.

The curing process involves soaking the brisket in a brine of pickling spices (for flavor) and  Sodium Nitrite, which will preserve (cure) the meat and provide that wonderful pink color. You'll have to plan ahead, as the process takes about five days. I've used the recipe detailed in this forum post with fantastic results before. I think that it comes from this book, which you might think of picking up if you have future dreams of sausage, pastrami, and other feats of meat.


I need to convert cocoa powder into unsweetened chocolate squares

One ounce of semi-sweet chocolate equals 3 tablespoons cocoa powder + 1 tablespoon butter or oil + 1 tablespoon of sugar (from The Cook's Thesaurus)

2/3 cup = 10 2/3 tablespoons

If your recipe calls for 2/3 cup cocoa powder and you want to substitute semi-sweet chocolate, you will need to reduce the butter or oil in your recipe by 3.5 tablespoons and the sugar by 3.5 tablespoons (10 2/3 divided by 3 equals 3.5)

You will also likely incorporate semi-sweet chocolate differently than you would cocoa powder, depending on what it is you are making. For example, for brownies, instead of mixing the cocoa powder directly in as in Alton Brown's recipe for Cocoa Brownies, you may need to melt the chocolate in a double-boiler, let it cool, then proceed with instructions such as those for Ghirardelli's Classic Chocolate Brownies that calls for semi-sweet chocolate.


Should these be placed in refrigerator: tomatoes, and banana?

You generally do not want to refrigerate tomatoes; they will will get mealy in texture, which can be unpleasant.

Bananas are more complicated.  Once you refrigerate them, ripening will stop, and it will not recommence when they are brought back to room temperature.  So you never want to refrigerate unripe bananas.

Ripe bananas can be refrigerated to make them last a few days longer, but the skins may darken, which some people find unacceptable.


The opening up is not really a sign of spoilage.  With Asparagus, what we are eating is really only the sprout.  The actual plant if allowed to grow is a branched plant like a fern.  They canned some that were starting to open up, a bit older than really should be picked.

So yes, the entire asparagus is safe to eat.


How much to heat mustard oil before cooking?

To check if mustard oil is ready to use, add onion peel: if it browns immediately, the oil is ready to use.
You can also notice the change in fluidity of the oil.


This question is actually answered in a comment to the recipe you linked:

  kimberly says:

  Sorry for silly question, but the ingredient list says ” ½ sleeve
  celery $0.65 “. do you mean 1/2 of a stalk or 1/2 of a bunch of
  celery? [...]

  Beth M says:

  Yes, I meant a half bunch. Sorry about the confusion! :) I used about 4 stalks or so.
  They cook down quite a bit.

Also there's a picture of the ingredients used:

So 4-5 stalks appears to be intended amount of celery. A recipe like this though is going to pretty flexible so if that seems like too much or too little it shouldn't be a problem if you go outside that range.


When cooking pulled pork in a slow cooker, should the meat be submerged in liquid?

For pulled pork, there is good reason to only use a small amount of liquid. Use only enough liquid to come nearly half way up the side of the pork.

The pork that is sticking out of the liquid will brown, much like a sear. The mechanism is different, but result is the same. The exposed meat will develop color and that extra meaty flavor that gives good BBQ its character.

Since you're planning on an 8-10 hour cook, you can flip the meat halfway through to get that effect all around.

Flavor your added liquid generously, and be prepared to de-fat it when the pork is done, it will make for a great sauce.


How to ensure rice from rice cooker becomes dry?

What I normally do is fluff up the rice- sometimes its just the top layer which is a little more moist due to condensation, but if it's watery I sometimes leave the rice cooker open for a bit and let it evaporate which works for me (although I don't know if that is how you're supposed to do it)


Help me duplicate Potbelly's fat-free vinaigrette

Emmy,

I don't have Potbelly's specific recipe, but most "fat-free" vinagrette dressings rely heavily on corn syrup as a thickener and to dilute the vinegar.  Given the sweetness you noticed with the Potbelly dressing, I would guess this to be the case with theirs as well.  For example, these are the ingredients in WishBone's Fat Free Red Wine Vinagrette:

  Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Red Wine Vinegar, Cabernet Sauvignon
  Wine, Sugar, Salt, Soybean Oil (Adds An Insignificant Amout of Fat),
  Garlic, Onion, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Xanthan Gum, Tocopheryl
  Acetate (Vitamin E), Calcium Disodium Edta (Used to Protect Quality),
  Natural Flavor, Sulfiting Agents.

Even "homemade" recipes involve large amounts of sugar: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/saladdressings/r/fatfreesalad1.htm

So in general you're looking for a recipe which involves corn syrup + vinegar + spices.  Beyond that, online recipes abound.

Also, if you're looking for fat-free dressings for health reasons, you need to ask yourself if eating several ounces of corn syrup is really an improvement over a little olive oil.


What's the best way to store rice long-term?

If you are only using it three times a month then this 25lbs bag may last a very long time indeed.

The problem is that even white rice can eventually develop off flavors when exposed to light and air. Additionally- even if pests don't have access to the rice, it is not unlikely that the rice has some eggs on it that can hatch and spoil the whole bag.

The solutions to these problems all make it difficult to use the rice in the short term. For long-term food storage dry foods are typically sealed in either #10 cans or mylar bags. An oxygen absorbing packet is also included. This will prevent spoilage and pest growth. Mylar bags are less expensive and you can open one bag at a time for short term use.

Alternatively- if you can freeze the rice to ensure there are no pests then the rice can be stored, sealed, in a cool, dry place as others have described.

Given how cheap rice is- it might be acceptable to you to just take your chances and replace it if it spoils after some months.


How long can you keep whiskey in the freezer?

You have no problem at all.

Whisky doesn't spoil, it doesn't need to be kept in the refrigerator or freezer to preserve it, the same is true for many other spirits like gin, vodka, tequila, etc. Some like to keep spirits in the freezer because they like to drink them cold, it doesn't make them last longer
Storing spirits in the freezer won't damage them because alcohol freezes at a much lower temperature than water. 80 proof spirits will freeze at about -16F (-26C), freezer temperature is usually about 0F (-18C), so unless your freezer is extremely cold your booze won't freeze. If your whisky did freeze it could ruin it, but it's very unlikely


Capsaicin - how sourced and what's in it

There are a ton of different extraction methods used in the industry and it would be very difficult to pinpoint which one is used for a particular brand unless they tell you.

The "conventional", low-tech method is to use an alcohol solvent (capsaicin is alcohol-soluble; good thing to know in case you ever "burn" yourself with it).  Very pure ethanol (grain alcohol) is probably the safest and what you'd use in a home extraction, although there are more effective solvents that are less safe such as acetone.

You grind up the dried chilies, let them sit in the solvent until it turns dark red, strain out the solids, filter the liquid remains, then evaporate the alcohol. That is a very simplified explanation, so do not try to actually do it yourself without a proper guide.

Manufacturing processes are much more precise. Solid Phase Extraction is one, Supercritical Fluid Extraction is another, there may be more.  These are all highly purified (some claim 99% or better) which is far more pure than anything homemade.

So as to your question about what's in the bottle, the answer is: capsaicin.  It's strange to ask if there are "any additives" because capsaicin is an additive.  You cannot use that stuff as a hot sauce; you use it in minuscule quantities, i.e. one drop for an entire pot of chili.  Of course, many brands of capsaicin extract are heavily diluted already (such as the "Pure Cap", which is only 500,000 SHU instead of the 16 million that actual pure capsaicin is).

It's easy enough to ascertain if it's diluted by just looking at the ingredients. Most will have an oil as the first ingredient. Not unhealthy, just filler. If capsaicin is the first or only ingredient, then it's pure.

Rest assured that a bottle of concentrated capsaicin is not going to contain significant quantities of anything more harmful than capsaicin itself. Even though it can't literally burn you, if it comes into contact with any part of your body, the reaction will be similar to that of a very serious burn. So don't worry about what else is in the bottle, worry about the capsaicin itself!


At every restaurant I've ever worked at we warmed the sauerkraut on the griddle while the bread and meat were grilling. This evaporated much of the moisture in addition to making sure the sauerkraut was warm enough to not make the sandwich cold.

So we'd have the sandwich warming up open faced, cheese on each face. Then meat and sauerkraut would be warming individually. Once the bread was crisp and the meat/sauerkraut were warmed up you'd place the meat one piece of grilled bread, then the sauerkraut, then you'd squeeze on either mustard, thousand or Russian dressing and then top with the other piece of bread.


Looks curdled, but it wasn't - my bad alfredo

Emulsions aren't necessarily all about oil vs. water. Alfredo sauce is actually an emulsion of cream and butter, both of which contain varying amounts of both water and fat, and in many cases, if you bought them from a supermarket rather than a farm, also a fair amount of emulsifiers.

Any emulsion is going to be temperamental and not respond well to sudden changes in dispersion. The most important thing to do with one is incorporate new ingredients slowly! If you just dump in a bunch of watery tomatoes, or anything else with enough liquid (water or fat), it's almost certainly going to separate.

Even if you incorporate very slowly and thoroughly, if you upset the balance too much, it might still break. There's no way to know the exact amount you can add without experimenting, unless somebody else has already documented it (not likely).

Sometimes, if your emulsion just creams (see my related answer about mayonnaise), you can restore it to its former glory with sufficient agitation. If it's actually broken then you're in trouble.

Anyway, my advice to you would be - if you want a rosé sauce, then make a rosé sauce, don't waste a lot of time and perfectly good Reggiano cheese trying to start from an Alfredo recipe. I've made a great many tomato and/or pesto cream sauces and the general rule with these (including Alfredo) is that you always start with any oil and vegetables (garlic, tomatoes/paste, etc.), then add your seasonings, then add the cream and slowly reduce it. You don't need or want butter at this point, its flavour will be completely overwhelmed by the other ingredients and it therefore just adds instability.

You might also want to consider using sun-dried tomatoes for a stabler and probably tastier result; they essentially classify as a solid as far as emulsions are concerned, so it's not much different from incorporating pepper or dried herbs. You could just make a regular pesto cream sauce and whisk in some sun-dried tomatoes near the end.


Is it necessary to follow the suggested order in this challah recipe?

The order of operations/ingredients in many recipes is critically important, especially those where chemistry is involved and/or gluten development. Some ingredients, such as baking powder, will activate as soon as they get wet, so you may not want to wet them too early. Yeast development is affected by sugar and salt (in different ways). Gluten development is affected by fat and mixing (in different ways). So, for example, if you premix other ingredients before you add flour you can limit how much the gluten is developed in the dough, which is desirable for some breads and cakes. And most important in challah is to "take" the challah (remove a small piece and burn it before baking the rest into a loaf).


Can I substitute unsweetened cocoa powder for unsweetened baker's chocolate?

Yes, that's a very standard substitution. For each square (ounce) of unsweetened chocolate in the recipe, use:

  3 tablespoons (20 grams) natural cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed) plus 1 tablespoon (14 grams) unsalted butter, vegetable oil or shortening

Joy of Baking

I'd add that Dutch processed cocoa (if that's what you happen to have) is fine too, just be aware of your acid balance. This is the opposite issue, but it's relevant here: Effect of undutched cocoa on baking

This too: What makes the difference between domed and flat cookies?

If your cocoa happens to be Dutch processed, ask another question about adjusting acid. Even though it usually doesn't matter, in that recipe, it just might.


You know, I'm right there with you on the sacrilege part, but nowadays I microwave pasta all the time. You need to use a non-starchy pasta for this to work. I use plain store-bought Barilla Plus because I love it anyway.  For fresh pasta, you could try a small experiment; I've never tried with freshly-made pasta.

It takes less time than boiling on the stove for me because I do this:

Fill up the electric kettle with water and turn it on.
I use a 1/2 gallon Pyrex measuring cup as my "pot", and I put an inch or so of water in that and pop it in the microwave for four minutes to warm it up.
When the water's boiling in the kettle and the oven timer expires, I take out the Pyrex container, add the pasta and a little oil and some salt (optionally a little vinegar), and then pour in the boiling water to cover by an inch or so.
Dumpling-like pasta (rotini or penne) take about 8:30 to cook on high (I've got I think an 1100 watt oven; experiment); spaghetti 5:30, thin spaghetti 4:30.

I know it sounds like a horrible sin, but I started doing it when I needed to cook small portions of pasta for my kids.  I tried it myself, and realized that I could tell absolutely no difference from the results I got in my big pasta pot. When I need to boil a lot of pasta (like 2 14oz boxes) I still use the big pot of course, but a pound or less actually cooks up perfectly fine. My pasta cooker is enormous and takes a long time to come up to the boil.

Now once I tried this (not thinking clearly, obviously) with some very starchy, fancy pasta, and it did  not work at all. But maybe because it's got so much extra protein, Barilla Plus comes out absolutely fine. (It's good for you too.)

edit — Here's an update: I still do this, but recently one of the seemingly endless succession of microwave ovens I've had recently died, and I'm pretty sure it's because it somewhat frequently overheated while doing this very thing (cooking pasta). Now I don't blame the technique, really, since an oven should probably be designed with the possibility of hot stuff being inside of them for some periods of time, but be warned. (It overheated probably 10 times or so over the course of a couple years before dying, so it was right about at what I find to be typical end-of-life anyway.)


It is simply teflon. It can be colored in any color, but the lighter colors will darken with overheating, so it is convenient to coat a pan in an "overheated" color from the beginning. The manufacturer here chose to use a different color.


Salvage means different things, if you want to make it presentable at a fashionable dinner party then probably not, if you want to make it good enough for a family meal then you should be ok. It's still edible at the end of the day, it's not as if broken down dumplings are bad for you.

It all depends on how broken down the dumplings have gotten. If they are in reasonable chunks then get yourself a slotted spoon and get to work, you should be able to get it pretty decent looking. If they are really fine then you will need to sieve the liquid through a fine strainer to get them out. That will be time consuming as you will need to separate the good stuff you want to keep from the stuff you want to strain.


It is normal for store bought canned beans to have a cloudy liquid. This applies to previously dried, starchy beans such as cannellini, kidney, etc.

The water will get cloudy also when you cook dried beans.

For others like green string beans or wax beans you would expect to see a clear liquid.


They choose edible casings, either way, you're better off taking the casing off.

It sounds like it's a cellulose synthetic casing. It's possible to be natural casing, but papery fibrous leads me to think cellulose.

I've included some pictures to aid you along so you can guess for yourself.  Often it's easier to tell by the extra casing at the ends since natural and synthetic bunch up differently.

Here's a picture of synthetic casing from this morning's session (it's a sopressata):

This is what it looks like cured and partially peeled:

And this is what natural casing looks like fresh:


You have to use the right type of rice - Spanish Rice, (such as Arborio Rice or Valencia Rice). This SA post may be helpful to you. You can buy Spanish Rice on amazon.

Don't use rice cooker or pressure cooker. You suppose to toast the rice in oil and fry it with ingredient. See this post for more information.

If you want to increase further the "crack-ness" of the rice, I suggest to soak it in water for few hours before rinsing it. Every time I left the rice forgotten in water they end up breaking apart after cook.


Help with what to bake leftover cake batter in

Use a muffin tin (cupcake pan).  The upside is that you don't need to know in advance how many you will get.  Just keep scooping until you run out, filling each cup about 3/4 full.


Whey separation making yoghurt: change in proportions

Presumably your culture was still doing its work after 8 hours (and cultures derived from old batches can lose potency so what was achieved in 8 hours a few batches ago may take a little longer now). The shut-off time turns off the heat I assume, but the temperature will drop very slowly from that point. It wouldn't surprise me if this batch was actually a little more tasty due to the longer fermentation.

However there could be another cause,  especially if you're in the Northern hemisphere. Even if you did everything exactly the same, including the starting temperature of all ingredients, one possible cause would be a change in the milk.  I don't know whether you always buy the same milk (and even then the ultimate source can be different from most shops.)

But then it gets more interesting, even if you get your milk from the same herd of cows: milk isn't a uniform product. See for example Seasonal variations in the composition of Holstein cow's milk and temperature-humidity index relationship..  The paper I link (among many others dating back over 100 years) would appear to suggest that both fat and protein concentration will increase as the weather cools off. More protein in particular would mean more to coagulate.


The answer depends on what happens to the sugar in the recipe.

If the sugar is used as a flavoring/sweetner inside the tart  filling (i.e. not sprinkled over the top or in the crust), you can do a number of things - you can take some caster sugar and vanilla extract, as you suggest. This will add some moisture and dissolve the sugar a little, but if this is in the filling this shouldn't matter. You could also add some vanilla seeds (the scrapings from inside a bean).

If it is used in the crust or as a topping, I would get some vanilla bean and scrape one into a volume of caster sugar. Alton Brown recommends 1 bean per 2 cups of sugar.


Scones (UK usage) are a quick bread, usually moderately sweet.  They are baked on a sheet pan, sometimes sliced into wedges,sometimes cut into rounds or other shapes.  They are similar to, but sweeter than American style biscuits.

Biscuits (UK usage) or cookies (US usage) are very small, flat cake-like confections, usually rich in butter and sugar.  They are also baked on sheet pans, in individual portions typically only a couple of inches across (although sizes vary widely).  They come in a myriad varieties and flavors.

Typical flavorings are vanilla, chocolate, nuts, citrus.  Some of the simpler varieties allow the butter flavor to come through.
Biscuit (US usage) or tea biscuit (UK usage, one variant) are a type of quick bread charactarized by flat, flaky layers.  They are typically cut in rounds a couple of inches across, and tend to be about an inch tall.  They are usually only very lightly sweetened if sweetened at all.

Tea biscuit (UK usage, another variant) or teacake are biscuits or cookies traditionally served with tea.  They tend to be fairly neutral in flavor.

Muffins (UK usage) or English muffins (US usage) are small yeast-raised breads which are griddled in rings, rather than baked in an oven.  They tend to be a couple of inches across, and about half an inch tall.   They are often split and served toasted.

Muffins (US usage) or American Muffins (UK usage) are a quick bread, usually moderately sweet, baked in single serving portions in muffin tins (the same pans used for cupcakes).


How does one go about marking food in an oven?

I have spent decades cooking for people who can't have gluten, and I and several other people can't have shrimp. The simplest thing to do is to make everyone's food meet the needs of the allergic person. So for example don't bread anyone's chicken, or make a single gluten-free gravy.

That's the simplest, but it may not meet your other needs. In that case, I avoid anything that can fall off or be missed. In the case of chicken pieces on a baking sheet, I would use one large sheet and one smaller pan, and put the special portion on the smaller pan. Now you can flip and turn the pieces freely, and you don't need to worry about the juices mingling or whatever. I do this when cooking regular and gluten-free pasta, for example; I use very different-sized pots. When I run a separate butter dish to avoid crumb contamination, it's not two identical white butter plates, one of which is labelled; it's a white plate for the might-have-gluten-crumbs butter and a small clear bowl for the keep-it-crumb-free butter. These visual cues are much larger than a toothpick and can't be missed or fall out or end up on the underside or whatever.


What sort of rice and noodles are "brown rice" or "brown noodles"?

No noodles are actually called "brown noodles" but the only noodles I'm aware of that are brownish in colour are either wheat or buckwheat.

Given the suggestion to cook it with a "protein source", and given that this is meant to be a quick and easy meal, I'm sure that the idea was to cook some dried noodles briefly in soup along with some sliced or shredded meat.  This is common in Asian cuisine, and it can be nutritious, assuming you don't rely on instant noodles and artificial flavour packets.

You'd probably be looking at one of the following:

Ramen, which is traditionally made from la mian (hand-pulled buckwheat noodles, although sometimes they're made from wheat), served in broth, usually with meat and green onions, and often flavoured with soy sauce.  Keep in mind that real ramen is actually quite difficult and time-consuming to make, and is not even close to the "instant ramen" you see for 99 cents a package. You can cheat a little and still have a decent meal by buying quality dried noodles and cooking them in real homemade broth, or at least canned broth.
Udon, AKA "thick noodles" (made from wheat), which are also typically prepared in broth, specifically dashi - broth made from kombu (kelp), dried tuna or bonito flakes, and occasionally mushrooms, and seasoned with soy sauce and mirin (rice wine).  Meat isn't as common in udon, but fish and tofu are, especially deep-fried.  You can still make it with beef or chicken. You can find decent-quality instant dashi at Asian grocery stores, so again, prep time is minimal if you get the right ingredients.
Soba (buckwheat) noodle soup, which (in my experience) is almost always served in miso (again, available in instant form). Seasonings and toppings are otherwise similar to udon, although they tend to get a bit more elaborate. For example, the wiki page references tsukimi soba which means poaching a raw egg in the cooked soup.
Finally Phở, which is the Vietnamese take on this, which uses rice noodles (so definitely not brown). The most common preparation (at least in all of the Vietnamese restaurants around here) is simply the hot soup and noodles with some rare beef dropped in to briefly cook, then topped with basil and bean sprouts just before eating. The broth is really very difficult for non-natives to learn and instant pho is usually terrible, so I wouldn't recommend this for beginners.

Of course you can always just go with good old-fashioned Western chicken noodle soup or chicken soup with rice and vegetables. Chicken noodle soup usually uses egg noodles, which are, again, definitely not brown, so although they're a fine choice, they're almost certainly not what the question is referring to.


Did I kill my chili's heat by processing the tomatoes and onions together?

So, first, that chili recipe will always be heavily meat-flavored because it has 3lbs of beef in it; at a glance, that recipe is more than half beef by weight.  So if you want a recipe with a subtler meat flavor, that's probably not the right recipe for you.

There are several possible reasons for it being less spicy than you expected, among which are:

the dried anchos and cascabel you used were old and had lost most of their flavor
heat level in fresh peppers can vary a lot; maybe you got ones that were on the less-hot side for their variety
many fresh peppers vaporize a lot of their capsaicin when fried.  So it's possible that adding just the peppers and garlic to the pan could have burned a bunch off; I've had this happen particularly with habaneros

All of that aside, I wouldn't expect that recipe to be super-spicy, more medium-hot.  So maybe you just have a high pepper tolerance.


Does Tea Quality Matter For Making Kombucha?

I'm not terribly familiar with the nuances of kombucha, but I suspect the answer lies between "maybe" and "probably".  The key question is, how similar the finished kombucha tastes like the original tea used - the more that is the case, the more the initial tea quality will matter.  The few times I've had kombucha, it has seemed not terribly similar to plain tea - thus I would think the difference between kombuchas made with different grades of teas would be subtle.

Higher quality ingredients do tend to improve the quality of the finished product, however, the more processed or mixed something is, the less any individual ingredient matters. Tea is a major ingredient in kombucha, so changing the grade should make a difference in the final taste.  Kombucha is fermented and sweetened, so I suspect a fair amount of the differences between grades of tea would be smoothed down by that much processing - not all the differences would be lost, but perhaps enough to make the change subtle, rather than overt.  The same would go for different types of tea, the greater the difference, the more change in the final product.  It will also matter how picky you are, in terms of telling the differences between grades of tea leaves - some people find the differences very obvious, others very subtle.  If the grade of tea matters to you a lot in regular tea drinking, you would be more likely to tell the difference in your kombucha than someone like me, who is fairly causal about different grades of tea and is fine with most anything.

I would guess that you can make a perfectly acceptable kombucha from regular tea bags.  Also, the tea doesn't seem to be carefully brewed, just steeped in boiling hot water until all the flavor is extracted - so the differences between whole leaf, broken leaf, and powder (assuming the same grade of tea) will vanish in the brewing - a lot of the differences in processing tend to matter the most with certain methods and timing of brewing, like brewing at lower temperatures or controlling the steep times.  This is more or less the same reason tea grades don't matter very much in preparations like chai tea or milk tea - strongly brewed (overbrewed, most would consider it) and doctored with other flavors, the grade of the tea itself matters much less than a precisely brewed plain cup.

Differences in the grade of tea, high vs low quality or leaf vs bud, and the bigger differences with type of tea, green or black or puer-eh or oolong, will matter a little more (as there are different compounds being extracted, or extracted in different ratios).  I would expect differences in color and taste would be the result of using very different kinds of tea to make kombucha - though I don't know how they would actually come out, without experimenting.


How are mozzarella cheese sticks (string cheese) formed?

Oh you mean cheesesticks not the fried mozzeralla sticks.

I would imagine you would knead it by using the folding method in which you flatten the cheese and fold one end of the cheese over to the other end and continue folding it in that fashion(and the same direction).

Also note that the mozzeralla sticks you buy at grocery stores are machine processed and you can't really hope to achieve that same results/texture.


What does a meat thermometer display if the meat temperature is uneven?

The sensor in your thermometer is located at the tip of the needle, so you're measuring wherever the tip of the needle ended up.

If the tip of the needle it not touching anything (or is touching the pan or cooking surface) your readings will be skewed.


Is it possible to make a wheat free/gluten free/dairy free apple pie?

You have several options for the crust.  It is possible to purchase mixes that will get you started.  There are also several recipes available.  A good resource for all your gluten-free baking is Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, and you can find a recipe there.  Another great option is former pastry chef Helene at Tartlette.  This question has compiled a list of gluten-free baking recipes which may also provide you good jumping off points.

You can make a dairy free crust by replacing butter with lard or vegetable shortening.  Margarine is likely not be dairy free.  Lard will provide a texture and taste that is better than an all shortening crust, but shortening is easier to find in stores.  If the dairy free requirement is a requirement to avoid casein, you will have to do some experimentation on your own to find an appropriate egg replacement, as gluten free crusts appear to require eggs to hold together.  Options for egg replacers can be found in this question and this question.

Once you have assembled a crust recipe from these tips, if you have questions about it or are struggling you can ask a follow-on question here about how to improve the crust and the community can provide specific help on a provided recipe.

In general it appears that the gluten free crusts available are actually similar to work with versus a regular pie crust, something that is not always the case in gluten free baking.  As usual you want to do everything cold and refrigerate your dough over night.  Pie dough of all forms is easiest to roll when you place it between two floured sheets of parchment paper.  Remove the top piece of parchment paper, flip the bottom piece with crust on it (hold it all together, because your crust shouldn't be sticking) into the pie plate or onto your pie, and remove the top piece.

Apple pie is sometimes thickened with flour, and obviously you do not want to do this when cooking gluten-free.  The absolute best pie thickener is actually not flour, so you are set here.  In taste tests the editors of Cooks Illustrated determined that instant tapioca, a gluten-free product, is the best pie thickener.  Make sure, however, not to use more than 2 tablespoons or your pie may be gummy.  Since apple slices contain pectin, you shouldn't need more than 2 tablespoons for your pie to set up.

Sugar, apples, and the usual apple pie spices (if you choose to spice your pie - with good apples you can actually make an amazing pie with simply sugar, instant tapioca, and apples) should all be gluten free and dairy free, with the usual caveat that in gluten-free cooking and baking you want to make sure that there has been no gluten added to anything by carefully reading labels.


Eggs are completely safe in cooked food, and pancakes are cooked. Pancakes made from scratch have egg in the batter too. As long as you don't drink the batter, or more realistically, leave an uncooked bit in the middle of the pancakes, you're totally safe.

(And of course, it doesn't take much to kill salmonella, and a mL of uncooked batter right in the middle of a pancake has ridiculously small odds of getting you sick even if it's somehow still cold, but if you're trying to play by all the rules, then you should make sure they're fully cooked - you probably want that anyway.)


Does a pan used for cooking scrambled eggs multiple times a day need to be washed with soap every time?

Bacteria have several requirements to grow — water, food/nutrients, oxygen/lack of oxygen (some bacteria), temperature, and pH. The acceptable range of conditions varies, but if you deprive them of one of their requirements, they don't grow. We use all of those in food — but for your question, three are involved:

Temperature. When the pan is hot, nothing can grow. Once it cools off below ≈130°F/55°C, that changes. Until you get down to 40°F/4°C, you're in the "danger zone" where bacterial growth is possible and relatively quick.
Food/nutrient availability. When you wash clean the pan, you're removing the nutrients, so the bacteria can't grow. You propose not to do this, so this control method isn't available.
Water. Without available water, nothing can grow. This is why you want your pans to dry out after washing (even things like aluminum or ceramic, which won't rust). If there are nutrients left (perfect washing is hard), without water, nothing can grow.

So... I think as long as you make sure the pan is dry then you're fine. Wipe it out with a paper towel, you don't want any egg-gunk left (that'd be hard to get all the water out of). If there is any doubt, turn back on the burner after wiping it — heat will drive off any moisture. Just make sure not to let it get hot enough to damage the pan. (Be especially careful if its Teflon or similar).

If paranoid (which, depending on your health condition, may be justified), once the pan cools to near room temperature, put it in the fridge. You'll then have two factors redundantly protecting you from bacterial growth.


My guess is that "white moist sugar" is meant literally -- that is, white sugar that is not completely dry.

Granulated white sugar starts out wet, and is dried as the last step in the modern production process. At the time, sugar was sold in "loaves", which could be cut into pieces or more finely ground, rather than the hot-air convection process used these days. Drying would likely be seen as important for granulated sugar served in a sugar bowl with tea, but wouldn't matter for sugar to be used in baking -- except that it would affect the weight.

So at a guess, you'd want to just mix a bit of water into sugar until it clumped together slightly, and use half a pound of the result.


I would suspect that these lumps are milk protein coagulating, sometimes these little lumps are unavoidable. I also suspect that this means your milk was 'on the verge or going,' and I would suggest that you either use a pure silver pitcher to keep your milk from growing bacteria or you can drop a pure silver item into your milk. Silver will prevent bacteria from multiplying(silver works especially well if you are going to leave your milk at room temperature for any period of time.) Good Luck


Why do you need to thicken the shells? Some bird's eggs have thicker walls than others, and it also seems that younger hens form thicker shells than older ones. However, it is doubtful that a thicker eggshell is available commercially. Your best bet may be to poke holes in the eggs, let them drain and dry, and then paint them with a strengthening varnish. A water-based polyurethane maybe? You should probably color them first, and then varnish them.

You can buy black food coloring. Buy it online if you haven't seen it at your local stores. You will probably have to use more than suggested to get full, deep color coverage. If that doesn't work, you could try clothes dye, Rit is a good brand, but I don't see evidence it is recommended for use on eggs. However, since it appears you won't be eating the eggs, just throwing them at each other, it is probably safe, and you could dye a bunch of eggs at once.


Can I use a fondue bourguignonne set to make cheese fondue?

For a fondue bourguignonne (oil) or Chinoise (broth), raw ingredients are cooked in the pot, which means you need to get the liquid at least close to a boil, i.e. in the 90-100 C range. The burner under your model should easily supply enough heat.

For chocolate fondue, this would mean the chocolate would burn almost instantly. If you serve a chocolate fondue with a heat source at all, you'd use probably a tea light (small candle) at a distance.

Cheese fondue can take more heat than chocolate, but less than broth or oil. The idea is to just keep the warm cheese liquid. If you can reduce the power of your burner a bit, e.g. by closing the outer holes, you should be ok. Just pre-melt the cheese mix gently on the stove, not over the flame of the rechaud and never forget the "stirring rule": each participant is to use his bread on the fork to stir once or so over the bottom, to ensure the cheese doesn't stick. If you use a heavy ceramic pot instead of a metal one, it would be even better, but your set should work, too.


In general, refreezing food is safe--but your thawing method is not a good idea.

While the rule that pathogens grow in the temperature "danger zone" of 40-140 F is oversimplified, it does reflect the fact that these temperatures are the most friendly to them.  By thawing with hot water, you are raising the temperature into this range.

You would be better off thawing them with cool running water, which is one of the four acceptable methods of thawing food—see: What are the acceptable methods to thaw food items?

Even so, foods thawed with that method should be cooked or consumed immediately, as it does not ensure they stay at a safe temperature the entire time.

IF you really plan to refreeze, you should thaw in the refrigerator.

The total time the beans spend in the thawed state outside of the refrigerator should not exceed approximately 2-4 hours.  Each time you thaw the beans, that clock is ticking.

Within that time frame, assuming you are thawing them with a proper method (such as in the refrigerator), they will be safe to refreeze, although you may get some degradation of texture.

Still, all of this thawing and refreezing seems like more work than packing them in smaller portions... one might argue that individual portions is actually the lazier approach.  You don't need expensive or bulky containers; small zip type freezer bags will do.


There are several phases meat goes through when simmering - a better-educated chef than myself could probably give them all names, but with no formal education, this is what I've noticed over the years.

If you're going to cook mince for a long time in a sauce, you'll not be interested in the first one - that's more for a burger.

When first fried until a good brown, you could eat it just like that - tender & 'just done' - fine for a burger, not for a long-cook in sauce.

Once you mix it into the sauce & bring it to simmer, it's then going to spend the next hour not smelling all that good & if you taste it, it's decidedly rubbery.

This next bit can depend on temperature - much longer in a slow cooker than on the hob.
Somewhere between there & about the 4-hour mark the rubbery gives way to 'just right' then goes too far & becomes 'grainy' - the 'sandy' texture you alluded too.
This 4-hour delineation seems to be the same whether it's mince or chunks of casserole steak.

So, my best guess is you're cooking it too high.

If your ring won't drop to 'barely, barely visible bubbling' at minimum with the lid on then I'd invest in a simmer ring to put underneath [$£€ 2.50 on eBay] You may need to actually lift the ring temperature with one of those on, or consider it a poor-man's slow-cooker, as you can get it cool enough to be bubble-free with one under the pan.

Once you can get the heat down, your 4 hours should then be fine. Cooking with the lid on means you don't have to watch over it so much in case of evaporation; but you do need to reduce your liquid levels slightly to accommodate that difference.

I tend to consider my bolognese [or chilli, shepherd's/cottage pie, or any long-cook on tomato &/or onion] to be done when the onion pretty much disappears when you stir it in.

One additional note.
If you get your mince from a supermarket, these days they all tend to add the 'legal maximum' extra 10% water, which means it won't fry properly at all if you add it to your sautéd veg.
My workaround for that is I blast it on full-flame in my largest frying-pan, separately to the veg, which can be ticking over nicely in the saucepan at the same time.
Once you can evaporate your 'free water' from it [I never pour it off, I evaporate it all away], then you can get a brown on it. [This would be 'overdone' compared the the 'burger-ready' first phase from above & already into the 2nd phase].
I tend to find if I drop my onions etc first, I can get the meat fried in about the same time it takes for the onion to be ready for it. I deglaze the frying-pan, of course, after that & add it to the saucepan.


The flour in this recipe is for thickening the sauce.  You can use xanthan for this purpose, but in very small amounts...0.25 to 0.75% for a thin to medium running sauce.  As you increase the amount, xanthan will make your sauce take on an unpleasant, mucous-like texture.

This is most easily calculated in weight (and metric).  I'll have a go, and convert it back:

You have 2 cups of broth = about 480 grams + some other liquid.  I would suggest 500 grams is a reasonable estimate.   .25% of 500 grams = 1.25 grams of xanthan (start on the low end.  You can always add more).  There are about 4 grams in a teaspoon.  I would suggest 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan as a reasonable starting point.


Why do American supermarkets only carry lamb and not mutton?

It's not just American supermarkets that rarely carry mutton, this situation is similar across the Anglosphere, and I suspect most Western countries too (or at least those without a strong mutton culture). The reason is largely economic. Mutton is expensive and not as tasty as lamb.

First, the immediate reason is that nobody really eats mutton anymore. Yes, there are certain locales, cultures and movements still eating mutton or are trying to bring it back, but today, on aggregate, the demand for mutton is near zero. According to the USDA:

  The U.S. market for lamb and mutton has weakened throughout the decades. Since the 1960s, per capita consumption has dropped from nearly 5 pounds to just about 1 pound. This drop is due in part to declining acceptance of lamb from a growing segment of the population, as well as competition from other meats, such as poultry, pork, and beef. Most meat is sold as lamb and comes from animals under 14 months old.

Here's a per-capita consumption graph:

If nobody buys mutton, supermarkets don't sell them. The supply chain for meats is pretty complex; it's not something that a store manager can just decide one day to order a batch and shelve to see if it sells. Meat needs to be slaughtered and deboned in an abattoir, butchered either in store butcheries or at centres (unless you fancy buying an entire, 50kg cut), and displayed in refrigerated sections. If there's enough local demand for mutton then maybe individual supermarkets can carry them, just as meats like rabbit, duck or kangaroo is sometimes sold at a few supermarkets.
But why don't people eat mutton? People just don't like it. It is an inferior good.

  Mutton comes from older animals and is often less expensive but less desirable to consumers. (USDA)

.

  As can be seen, the average income elasticities across the studies are 0.77 for
  beef, 0.24 for lamb, -0.65 for mutton, 0.47 for chicken and 0.48 for pork.

(Negative income inelasticity = inferior good) That is, as incomes grow, as they have over this timeframe, people want to buy less of it.
Lamb is a superior substitute for mutton. Anecdotally, compared to lamb, mutton is gamier, tougher, and harder to cook. Economically, lamb and mutton have high cross-price elasticity - if one's price grows, demand shifts to the other, indicating that they are substitutes. And the real killer is...
Mutton prices have grown faster than lamb.

Mutton is still cheaper than lamb, but in relative terms it has become more economic to raise and sell lamb. There are multiple market forces at play: the cost of raising the sheep past lamb age, the efficiency of raising lambs (i.e. increased lamb weight), the growth of dairy leading to higher beef supply, the relative decline in wool reducing mutton supply and so on. You'll have to ask a farmer.

Source: Changing Pattern of Meat Consumption in Australia by Lucille Wong, E A Selvanathan and Saroja Selvanathan

Update: didn't notice that the graph was price indices and not actual prices


Sea Urchin Roe (uni) -- is a mixed yellow and brownish color okay?

It should always be bright yellow to orange. The brownish hue you are talking of makes me worry about age and age equals increased bacterial content.
https://harborfish.com/what-is-uni-a-complete-guide-to-sea-urchin/


I hate to say it, but I'd be willing to bet that gluten-free udon is about as practical as gluten-free seitan - the gluten is precisely what gives udon noodles the texture that makes them so special.

Having said that, I've bought frozen udon noodles that had tapioca starch as an ingredient in addition to wheat flour, and those were some of the best udon noodles I've eaten.

The other catch is that making udon noodles at home is hard - traditional recipes call for putting the very tough, springy dough in a plastic bag and stomping on it for a few minutes, as the only practical way of kneading it.

This site describes how to make udon noodles with tapioca - you could try replacing its flour with the gluten-free blend described here. I would also consider adding xanthan gum. If you're feeling adventurous, This e-book (not free, but looks pretty solid) discusses a wide variety of gluten-free flours and their properties, and might help you choose flours to use with the properties you want.

If gluten-free udon turns out to be impractical, I recommend soba noodles as an alternative. Those can much more easily be made gluten-free (although most commercially made ones available in the US do have wheat simply because it's cheap and bland) and can usually be used in the same dishes as udon. They have their own distinct texture, very different from udon, and a deliciously hearty flavor.


How can I reliably bake pizza with no temperature control or pizza stone?

For your missing equipment, calibration, and control, you will have to substitute vigilance and technique.

Basically, if you parbake your crust, you should get something good.

Turn on your oven, probably as hot as it'll go. Unless you have a thick crust and a very intense oven, it'll be hard to get too hot.

Roll out your dough into a baking pan/cooking sheet/pizza pan.
Bake in the oven until the dough is just starting to brown.
Take it out, add toppings to the more-cooked side of the crust (flipping the crust, if necessary). Put it back in until the cheese starts to brown.

The process above is the lazy-man's method, and it works with my oven at 350F or at 500F or out on the grill at 750F and all points in between.

The "ideal" pizza that is the target of most pizza aficionados may well be beyond your reach. However, I make pizza a couple times a week, and most nights I don't worry about that. Delicious toppings on good bread and excellent cheese is a great meal, whether or not it matches stereotyped image of "pizza".

P.S. If you do get some equipment, get the pizza stone and put the crust directly on it (w/ or w/o parchment paper). Your crust will be crisper. In a pan, sometimes your crust may seem closer to bread than to pizza.


soy milk production with no beany flavor

Ok - given your clarification try the following:

Rinse your beans before handling, through transport and storage dust accrues and can increase their natural nutty flavour.
Blanche them in boiling water for roughly 90s. Then strain and rinse under cool water in your sink (have a catch of some kind to prevent bits of going down the drain).
Cook as normal but add a pinch of sugar (can't say for sure how much, as I don't know the volume you are making).
When cooked/milked, strain again, and then let it rest in the fridge until cool.

This is exactly how I make mine (I make both varieties though), and there is very little  (if any) beany taste left. In fact, sometimes as a result (mind you I use the same beans everytime) it comes a little bit nutty.


How to best cook potatoes to be used in a curry?

You don't need to precook the potatoes just put them in and let them cook through (30-40 mins high heat). The real trick I've found is then letting the curry cool completely and leave in the fridge overnight. The next day the potatoes have a lovely soft texture and have absorbed lots of curry flavour.

Other tips are make sure you don't add acidic ingredients early on (lemon, lime, yogurt ect) as this prevents the potatoes softening. Also make sure the curry has plenty of spice and salt to work with bland potatoes.


Is chocolate that was in contact with moldy vegetables safe to eat after washing?

My personal opinion:  I don't think you would be at risk for any health issues beyond potentially throwing up the chocolate after you eat it.
I once bought something from a local gas/market and was eating it before I realized that it was moldy. Promptly got sick. I'm not sure if getting sick was caused from actually eating it, or because I saw the mold. Either way, my body responded in a natural way. And I think you would (also) throw up if the chocolate bar was truly bad. I'm not sure that the conditions you describe would put you in any serious risk... but I really can't say (not there, can't see it, examine it, etc.) The important thing is, what do you think? If you really think it would make you sick, throw it away.
I am sorry to hear that you have so many health concerns. Going online to try and make sense of this pain, or that ache would give most healthy people a reason to worry. But some of the conditions you have "self-diagnosed" are serious health concerns. Please take the initiative to see a health care professional and find out for sure if you do (or do not) have health issues that would require medication. There is no reason to panic over things you "might have", better to find out from a doctor and then decide how to deal with it.


Is there a general algorithm for calculating the amount of time to roast meat?

What would "ideal" mean? Most items that you can roast in 2-3 hours can also be thrown in the slow cooker for 10-12 hours. It depends entirely on how the dish is prepared, how much fat/water you're using, whether or not you incorporate steam or convection, and more.

Anyway, if there were such an algorithm, it would be highly inadvisable to try using it at home, due to the huge variation in freezer temperatures, refrigerator temperatures, oven temperatures, rack positioning, how and where and for how long it was thawed, whether or not you open the oven door, etc.

In fact, if you happen to come across any cooking times that are based on weight, ignore them, because the weight is probably being used as a proxy for thickness, which is normally what matters in an oven.

There are many, many areas of the culinary arts where ratios and formulas are useful or even critical (especially baking and mol-gas) but cooking time isn't one of them. Please, just use a thermometer and the USDA temperature chart. That is how you cook meat safely; as long as you do that, it really doesn't matter what the oven temperature is or how long it's in there.


Time and temperature for converting collagen to gelatin in chuck roast cooked sous vide?

This depends on the end result you are looking for.  At some point, if you leave it in the bath too long, the texture will probably go too mushy for most peoples' liking, but here are a few observations: Baldwin states that 131F (55C) is the lowest temperature for collagen conversion, and that at higher temperatures the denaturing happens more quickly.  So, you could increase the temperature. Since you cooked at 55C, you probably want it on the pink side.  You could go as high as 57C or 58C (though now we are getting into "medium" territory) and still have pink meat. Chefsteps has a recipe for chuck roast, and provides a time and temperature guide.  They cook for 18 hours with temperatures ranging (depending on your desired outcome) from 54 - 72C (129-162F). I am guessing that 18-24 hours produces something that resembles a more traditional roast in the end.  If you are looking for a softer texture, I would go slightly higher on the temperature, and longer on the cook, maybe even 48 hours.


What oil to use when cooking steak, and what difference does it make?

For steaks I really prefer cooking butter instead of oils, I find that the flavor fits the meat better.


What do you do with left over tomato paste?

This isn’t really an answer to your question, but I have found that Amore brand tomato paste has better flavor than canned tomato pastes and it comes in a resealable metal tube, which you can store in the refrigerator and take out whenever you need a tablespoon or two of tomato paste. It’s also more expensive than canned tomato pastes but you actually get the opportunity to use all of it rather than just a spoonful or two.

America’s Test Kitchen reviewed tomato pastes (subscription required link) and came to the same conclusion:

  Sold in a 4 1/2-ounce tube and priced at $2.49 (considerably higher than other tomato pastes), Amore Tomato Paste shined in our initial from-the-tube tasting—no cooking, no sauce. Tasters described the product as “intense” and “fresh,” which may be because of the fat it contains. It also scored points because of its tube packaging. Just squeeze out what you need and store the rest in the fridge. No fuss, no waste.


At which temperature Parmesan cheese must be transported?

While ideally Parmesan may be stored (at home) in refrigerated environment, there is no harm done to it (assuming nothing else like condensation occurs) by allowing it to sit at a warmer temperature for a few days.  It is, after all, aged at ambient temperature for 2 years.

At least where I live, stores do not even put Parmesan in a refrigerated case; it is sold from tables at room temperature would would be slightly higher than what you measured in the shipping box.

I think your 18 C cheese should be just fine.

See also:  How to store Parmesan cheese?