What is a good substitute for oyster sauce (for someone with a shellfish allergy)?

The most widely-accepted substitute seems to be various sauces made from mushrooms. I don't want to say "mushroom sauce" because most products don't have that exact name. For example:

Here you have "Vegetarian Mushroom Flavored Stir-Fry Sauce" on the left, and "Premium Shitake Mushroom Flavored Soy Sauce" on the right. I'm actually not familiar with the one in the middle and not sure what the whole label says - it might be the same as the first.

If you go to a specialty Asian food store, you might actually find a product called "vegetarian oyster sauce", which is pretty much the same thing.

Failing that, you can always substitute soy sauce, or hoisin sauce if you want a less watery texture. They won't be exactly the same, but it's the same general idea (dark, fermented, salty sauce rich in glutamates).

"Fish sauce" will be very close to oyster sauce in taste, but may still contain shellfish, so be careful.


It's not particularly risky.  In general, any bacteria or fungi that will hurt you will also cause the yogurt to turn visibly and smellably bad.


Why does hot food placed in a picnic cooler keep cooking?

What you call a "modern picnic cool box", I assume, is also known as a "cooler" in other parts of the world.  This is generally a well-insulated, most often plastic, container.  It could be hard-sided or made of soft material.  The container and insulation is designed to maintain a consistent temperature.  So, cold things remain colder longer, but also hot things remain hotter longer.  It's the same principle at play in an insulated drink container (Thermos is a common brand).  Also at play in your question is a phenomenon called "carry over cooking".  Food retains heat and continues to cook, even after it is removed from the heat. Usually not a concern with a stew, which slowly cools when you are finished cooking.  However, when you place your stew into a cooler, fairly soon after it is removed from the heat, it will take much longer to cool.  Carry over cooking will be impacting your final product.


Riced potatoes recipe called steurens or steritz?

It might be the dish called "Sterz", common in Switzerland, Austria, and a little further away in Slovenia and Croatia.


Can I leave uncooked rice sitting in water for an hour or longer before cooking?

That's fine. A lot of people actually do that on purpose, it's referred to as "soaking". It will shave a bit off the cooking time and won't negatively affect the rice at all. Give it a stir before you start cooking. You can drain and rinse it too if you want, that will give you very separate, distinct grains. Use about 1/4 less water for cooking if you do it that way, because the rice will have soaked up some water.


What is the difference between a lemon pound cake, a lemon loaf, and a lemon bread?

The difference is the person doing the naming. Seriously, you seem to be looking for clear cut categories where none exist.

If one of the same person calls three different things a "lemon bread", "lemon loaf" and "lemon cake", you can typically expect that the "bread" will be somewhat less sweeter, less aromatic and less fine than the "pound cake". This is probably connected to soda breads eaten in times of shortages (especially wars) which were then mixed with vegetables or fruit, but were not as fine as cakes. The "loaf" part may be more connected to the shape than to the batter type. But if two different people are doing the naming, all bets are off. So if you are looking for recipes, you should use all three search terms.

See also my recent answer explaining a bit more about naming.


What ratio of rice is needed for lentils to be a "complete protein"?

Preamble

I will act in the interest of the OP and not close the question. I assume that my premise that the ratio doesn't matter (explained in the answer proper) is an established fact (at least I don't know of any source claiming the opposite). If we find a claim to the contrary, we will have to close the whole question, because it means that there is no undisputed answer even at that very general level, and the question falls completely in the field of "unverifiable" nutrition.

Answer

There is no such ratio, as complete proteins are not about ratios. They are about minimum intake of essential amino acids. This means that, if you would only eat rice and lentils and nothing else (or at least no other sources of protein), there is a minimal amount of rice you have to eat per day to not get deficiency symptoms. If this amount of rice is X gram, then it doesn't matter if you eat X gram of rice and 2X gram of lentils, or X gram of rice and 10X gram of lentils. The ratio of rice to lentils is irrelevant.

The more interesting question for you is probably what is the minimal amount of rice you have to eat per day. There are freely available nutrition value databases such as the one derobert linked. Once you have determined that you want to eat at least Y mg of a given amino acid per day (supposedly it will be an amino acid not contained in lentils), you can use a simple rule of three calculation to find out how much rice you need to eat in order to get Y mg of the amino acid in question.

But how do you decide how much you want to eat? There are government approved RDAs, as well as thousands of sources at all levels of credibility which recommend their own intake levels, usually pointing out that RDAs are intentionally conservative. We cannot help you with that decision. It is completely off topic for us, and it is up to you to find such sources and decide which one to believe. Consulting a nutrition professional is a very good option if you are going on a highly restricted diet; they will probably be able to give you such a value. Personally, I wouldn't trust a number given to me by a stranger on the Internet, and would try to keep in mind that the minimal amount (under which you get deficiency symptoms) and the optimal amount are most likely not the same, but many sources conflate them.


Cacao percentages and aromas developed in chocolate from different origins

The cocoa plants/grains were grown in different areas, the soil they grow in will have different mineral content; the heat and humidity will be different, the plant will grow in different ways resulting in cocoa pods and grains will be different.

They will have different flavors, sometime it is subtle, sometimes it is obvious.

This is what people, in mostly wine countries, call terroir.

The only way to train yourself tasting chocolate is to taste more and more chocolate and taking notes.

The most difficult thing when tasting is to find the proper words; sometime you will taste of smell something subtle, but you cannot make the connection with the actual corresponding word.

You will smell something that smell like nutmeg, but your brain is not trained enough to make the connection.

You can find Wine Aroma kits containing small vials of "flavors" that you can use to train your nose. This can be used even for chocolate, just as a training tool.

(Anecdotal) I'm part of a wine tasting group, most of the other attendants are translators, writers, and they are better than I am in finding words corresponding to what they smell and taste.


black residue left at the bottom of bowl after eating honey bunches of oats

The company says that it is grain dust. Yes, I contacted them to ask when I found the same powder in my cereal. I've seen many, many different types of grain dust in my life, and none were anything like that black powder. Needless to say, I don't believe the given "explanation," so I stopped eating the cereal


Wash them right before you use them. You could wash them when you get home, it's not going to hurt most things if you're gentle, but that won't mean they're still clean once you're ready to use them. I'm guessing you aren't storing them somewhere sterile, so they will get dirty again during storage, and you'll just have to wash them again.

The other issue with washing a considerable amount of time before using is that washing doesn't remove 100% of bacteria on a surface. It should get rid of enough so it doesn't make you sick, but if you let it sit long enough after washing, the bacteria could reproduce into a dangerous quantity again. Obviously that's not true of everything you wash off produce (it's not going to magically gain more pesticides and some pathogens can't reproduce on the surface of produce), but it could be of some things.

In short, washing produce when you get it home isn't sufficient to make it safe to consume later, and you probably don't want to wash it twice if you don't have to, so just wash it before you use it.  An exception might be in the current pandemic situation, where you want to get rid of any viruses on your produce before putting it away. In that case, feel free to wash produce when you get it home along with other washable items, but you should still wash it again before using it.

With that said, nothing makes eating raw produce perfectly safe, so it's really a matter of your risk appetite. If it's much more convenient for you to prep your produce in advance and you keep them in something that's thoroughly washed between uses, then it's not terribly likely to hurt you. It's a bit safer to wash them closer to when you use them, and some things may keep longer if they aren't washed, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to wash them sooner in some cases.


What approach can be taken to create a sugar free Butterfingers clone?

I think what you'd need is actually a sugar-free hard candy recipe - something like isomalt, or erythritol, with additional sweetner.  The crunch in butterfingers candy is actually thin thin sheets of sugar crystals, folded around, separated by and layered with peanut butter.   There are a number of sweets that use the same basic principle, using fats keep layers of sugar separate in fragile layers instead of staying in chunks or dispersing smoothly.

For a basic technique, you would need the hard candy recipe in a half-molten, taffy-like consistency, it needs to be soft enough to fold but sturdy enough to keep together.  When you add the peanut butter, you would use a flat spatula to mix, so that the candy would stretch and tend to lay in flat layers as it's being folded.

You would need to fold a lot - the more layers, the thinner each layer is (think how thin the layers in a butterfingers is, thousands and thousands), and although it is pretty messy at first, more layers means more surface area for the peanut butter to cling to instead of sloshing around in puddles, until they're not separating much if at all.  Once it's pretty well folded, the mix can be spread out into a pan and let cool.  The more carefully you fold, the more consistent and even the layers will be - but if you just want some crunch, a fairly sloppy technique should still get the job done.

You can warm the ingredients if it cools too much while mixing, you just have to be careful not to overheat, lest it turn into a smooth mixture instead of staying in layers.  Obviously the warmer the mix is the easier it will be to manipulate and fold, and the cooler the more likely to stay in layers instead of intermix - that's why the taffy stage is best.

Of course, this is a very basic explanation of just the technique - you would do better to find a sugar-free hard candy, and substitute it into a proper butterfingers clone recipe for things like amounts and ratios, not to mention supplementary ingredients.


I'm making tomato sauce which never thickens

I wouldn't worry too much about your results not matching the picture.*  If you got enjoyable results, enjoy them. However, some notes can be made about your concerns.

The bacon certainly isn't going to disappear -- no matter what you do (short of blending), you will always be able to see those bits.

The onions in the sauce shouldn't really be caramelized, but they should be thoroughly sweated -- without coloring -- so that they are soft and just starting to be sweet. If you'd like the onions to disintegrate more, you can cut them differently: either dice them finely or slice them latitudinally. There are fibers in an onion which run from top to bottom, so if you slice from pole to pole, you get the whole length of it. If you cut across the fiber, the slice will break down much more when cooked.

  the water from the tomatoes evaporated without leaving anything of substance.

It sounds from that like you may actually have cooked it down too long. You can cook tomatoes all the way down to paste, if you like, but in this case you want to stop before that happens, leaving a fair bit of the tomatoes' juice, enough to coat the pasta when you mix them. It sounds like the sauce did thicken, and then went past that, to drying out.

Keep the time that the recipe gives for the tomatoes to cook down in mind only as a very loose guideline. Much more important is the results that you see on your own stove. The person who wrote down that recipe has a different pan, different burner, different kitchen... Of course, to know exactly what is right (for both your equipment and your preference), takes repitition, and thus the time-based guideline to put you in the ballpark.

I'd suggest just trying it again, paying particular attention to the consistency of the sauce after you add the tomatoes. Taste and evaluate it frequently as it cooks, and take it off the heat when it looks and feels the way you expect.

As an aside, if you're interested, the official recipe for the sauce is available on the website of Amatrice (the town), although it's in Italian, of course.

*For one thing, the presentation is amateurish -- the cooked pasta should be mixed with the sauce, rather than just being topped with it. (And it's entirely possible that the picture is not even the product of this recipe.)


Does an activated carbon filter in a kitchen hood dry the air?

I assume the moisture/vapour gets sucked in by the vent and eventually condensate (sp?) at some point in the duct and then evaporate normally.


If the plantains were on the greener side, they would take longer to fry than riper plantains like you have.  The more ripe plantains are, the higher their sugar content, and the faster they will caramelize.  The only effect of oxidation is an increased speed of caramelization.  They will be done when they are soft and brown, but be careful not to let them burn since the sugar content will make them brown in less than 10 minutes.


Do chile peppers heat vary depending on the season?

Many references indicate that stress on the plant effects the heat rating of the fruits produced. "Good" stress (usually people want to increase heat) is generally a reduction in water supply, carefully and aptly timed, and/or increased outdoor temperatures.

While appearing dated and non-authoritative, this site, also looks very accurate from my experience around growing chiles, and states that (as is common, referring to spice/heat as pungency):

  ...total pungency amount of the medium and mild chiles increase
  dramatically when put under stress.

Normally, chile plants like summer weather (sunlight and warmth), and are not nearly productive in winter. What you're obtaining in winter months may be imported from a very different location, probably from a place on Earth where it was summer when harvested. As indicated in the above-cited article, the truly hot peppers don't get much hotter from stress.

Anecdotal addendum: fwiw & ime, chile plants grown in winter (the ones observed are nagas, tabasco, japone, jalapeños) aren't as productive and the peppers are not anywhere near as hot. So, when not grown in the proper conditions that a species expects - mostly enough daily sunlight or a long enough warm season, the heat in produced fruits can drop dramatically.


Why is maple syrup less viscous than other liquid sugars?

Maple syrup is more liquid because it contains more water.

That also depends on the type (category) of syrup; most consumer syrup will be on the lighter side of it and will contain more water as the darker ones because it will be less concentrated.

You could dillute honey or Golden syrup with water to have a lighter syrup but the cookies will taste different.

Maple syrup grading in Québec
http://fpaq.ca/en/federation/quality/grading-system/


Yes, that's totally fine. As long as the oil hasn't broken down and still tastes fine, there is no reason you can't use some of it for other purposes.


No Lava in my Pressure Cooked Lava Cake!

For lava cake, cooked using any method, there is a relatively fine line between perfect and over cooked.  It appears that you crossed that line.


The simple answer is YES!  There are a number of chefs currently experimenting with the implementation of robots in their kitchens.  There are various technologies and the research is on several fronts, including what I think is most interesting which is controlling nutritional values for specialized diets.  Food printing is where I am seeing most chefs focusing their attention.

One of the first examples is actually just a concept design called Cornucopia by Marcelo Coelho: http://web.media.mit.edu/~marcelo/cornucopia/

I started a site to document these developments which are currently unfolding.  For example, Paco Morales is experimenting with Food Printing in his kitchen: http://robotsingastronomy.com/food-printing-at-restaurante-paco-morales/

There are several other examples I hope to add to the site soon.  It is really an exciting field!


What's some safe advice for a beginner for making sushi?

Buy sushi grade fish and it will (well should) have been frozen.  This is in the US.


170°C, 150°C?  That is just too hot.

Snow-white crisp merignue process is more of drying, not actually baking.  Which is why the temperature must be in 100-120°C.  Also, forced air circulation must be turned off.


I would not recommend using the microwave for two reasons:

It does not scale up well as you add mass to the cooking chamber
The shape and size of asparagus is almost designed to fit into the fact that microwave ovens tend to cook unevenly

Instead, if you wish to cook a large amount of asparagus in a reasonably short period of time, I recommend roasting.  The method is very forgiving, but an approach similar to this will give you good results:

Preheat your oven to approximately 400 F / 200 C.
Clean and trim your asparagus.
Please the asparagus in a shallow layer on a sheet pan, and season with salt, pepper, herbs, olive oil, and/or lemon juice as you desire.
Roast approximately 10-15 minutes until it is slightly browned, and cooked through to your liking

While this technique does not cook a small amount of asaparagus terribly quickly, it does not get any slower for larger batches, and so is probably your most effective method.

Also, many people consider the outcome especially delicious, more so than steaming or microwaving.


To juice a pineapple without a juicer, cut off the rind and remove the fruit from the hard, inner core. Slice it up and pulverize the fruit in a blender or food processor with a few tablespoons of water. Filter through a screen colander if you want a lot of pulp, or line it with cheese cloth if you want less pulp.


Pork shoulder discoloured in the freezer to a greenish grey colour. What happened?

If you got air in the freezer bag, my guess is the meat probably just oxidized. When meat is exposed to oxygen it turns a grayish color. The meat is not bad. You can still use it and you won't even be able to tell that it was gray at one point.


You could do it, and it would certianly cause the meat to be cooked. However, I suspect it would lead to a less-than-tasty result.
There are two potential issues here that I can see:

If you're steaming, the temperature maxes out at 100 degrees Centigrade. This leads to longer cooking time, and a "washed" look. Think of how the chicken meat looks in chicken soup.
You'll be losing the Maillard reaction, which is what gives that lovely outside texture to anything fried. This is because of the relatively low temperature of steaming, and the lack of liquid (oil) to react with.


My caramels sugared but I don't want to throw them away. Is there any way I can reheat the sugared mess and turn it into a caramel sauce?

Worry not, you can fix this: The sugar crystals that formed in your caramel behave just like ordinary sugar crystals - they dissolve in water or other liquids.

This means you can still turn your caramels into a caramel sauce, drizzle or spread.

You don't give an amount, so no recipe, but gently heat the caramels with some cream in a pot. You may also want to add a knob or two of butter. Cook until the sugar is dissolved and you get a not-too-thin sauce, pour into jars and refrigerate. If it solidifies in the fridge, gently warm in the microwave until spreadable/pourable before using. The consistency will depend on how much cream and/or butter you add, obviously.

There is a great Serious Eats article on caramel sauce, which you might want to use as a base when calculating how much butter and cream you shoukd add.


Can I make ravioli dough with only all-purpose flour or do I NEED semolina flour?

Pasta can be made from many types of flour.  Often, this is predicated on style of pasta or the dish.  100% AP flour will be just fine for your ravioli. I use it often when making fresh pasta.

Substituting the AP flour for the semolina might impact the hydration.  I would hold off on the water at first.  If the dough feels too dry, add water a tablespoon at a time.  Getting the correct hydration comes with practice when making pasta.


Smoking a whole duck - when to remove from heat?

You cannot find the correct final internal temperature for a whole duck, because it doesn't exist. If you stop the cooking when the white meat is tender, you'll have very tough red meat. If you cook until the collagen is melted, you'll get very tough white meat.

With whole birds, it is more popular to go the collagen route. Especially a duck, with its darker meat overall and sufficient fat in the breast area to insulate the breast meat during smoking and then lubricate it, is a very good candidate for it.

To melt the collagen, wait until the duck thigh has gone up to 70 Celsius (160 Fahrenheit) and from then on smoke for 2-4 hours. In this case, the lower part of the range (2 hours) is probably better, to have a chance of a little bit of juiciness to remain in the breast.


Can sour cherries be used in a semi-stable bar?

I will have to preface a bit with bad news about food safety, but bear with me, not all is lost :)
As per standard food safety: "semi-stable" does not exist, at all, for anything. You either have "shelf stable" or "needs refrigeration". And the idea of having baked cherries being shelf stable is impossible. We have a writeup on food safety for beginners, it will likely clear a lot of things up for you: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/tags/food-safety/info.
Your own answer starts going into the right direction, but is not completely there. You can turn the cherries into a jam, but to be shelf stable, you will have to use a 1:1 jam recipe (1 kg sugar per 1 kg cherries), the lower-sugar-ratio recipes preferred nowadays are only shelf stable after canning, and as soon as you open the jar, need refrigeration. Once you have made the jam, you will find out that it is not "solidified", it's smeary. To  prevent a mess during transportation, you will have to take a gasket-seal box along on your bike (are you willing to do glycogen-depleting tours with saddle bags?), and eating will require taking a break and doing cleanup.
The second recipe also produces "bars" in the "homemade baking" sense, not in the "convenience food" sense. They will not be shelf stable, and they will be prone to squishing and falling apart. You will need the same procedure as above to transport and eat them.
The only way I see this working is by drying the cherries - and by drying I don't mean such superficial measures as baking a bar twice, I mean using a proper dehydration technique. You have two options.

You start with whole, fresh cherries. You dry them (you can research recipes for this, don't just stick them in the oven and hope for the best) and the result is raisin-like, but intensely sour (if you want it sweet, choose a recipe with sufficient added sugar). Once you have the dry cherries, you can eat them on the bike one-by-one, or make granola bars with them, or bake them into some kind of scones/muffins/bars. Note that the third option requires you to use significanly more dough than cherries, else it will fall apart, so granola may be the way to go.

You make fruit leather. For this, you can start with the frozen cherries you have, or also use fresh ones. You have to juice them and dry the juice. When made properly (again, research recipes!) it is shelf stable and very bike-friendly. Also, it is very friendly to "using it up" projects, since a large amount of cherries produces a small volume of fruit leather. Here too, you may have to persevere through a few learning attempts when using an oven, but if all goes well and you decide to make it your go-to snack, an investment in a dehydrator would be advisable.


It won't. In meatballs, pork and beef will behave pretty much the same, the flavor will just be of pork or of beef. The only real difference that you're likely to see (other than flavor) is if you are substituting ground pork for beef of a lower fat content. Ground pork in the US is not generally labeled for fat content, but tends to run about 20% fat. Ground beef is common in that range too, but a lot of people choose lower fat ground beef as it is labeled for fat content.

If you want to find meatball perfection, check out Serious Eats.

Don't worry though, your meatballs will be fine.


What can pasta absorb from the water it's cooked in?

It can absorb spices.

I have a Sicilian couscous recipe which involves boiling large couscous in water with a couple of cinnamon sticks.  The couscous tastes mildly of cinnamon when it's done, which is part of the balanced spicing of the recipe.  The large couscous in this case is boiled for 7 minutes, and you put the cinnamon sticks in while the water is still cold.


First, 145 °F (63 °C) and higher is the temperature for a well done steak. So, with the addition of carry-over cooking, your results don't surprise me.  If you are shooting for rare, cook to an internal temperature of 125 °F (52 °C), and let your steak rest 10 minutes before slicing.
While the USDA correctly and necessarily provides temperature guidelines, in fact the reduction of pathogens follows a logarithmic curve and includes the variables of temperature and time. That means, in general, that longer times at lower temperatures will reduce pathogens. This understanding is the basis of sous vide cooking, for example.
Additionally, we generally assume that any potential pathogens are only present on the surface of whole muscle cuts.  So, again, in general, achieving the target temperature on the surface eliminates the threat.
Finally, the quality and handling of the raw product is critical.  It is important that you have fresh products, kept refrigerated or frozen until use, and handled by people who are practicing safe handling procedures (washed hands or gloves, ...).


What is the difference between regular (vege. oil) and butter recipe cake mixes?

Butter gives more flavor, but oil provides longevity.

Butter is about 20% water. That water will evaporate during baking and continue to do so even after they are out of the oven causing your cakes to stale quicker. Also the the fat in butter remains solid at room temperature. Once your cake has cooled the fat, now dispersed in your cake solidifies once again and makes for a bit firmer of a crumb.

Vegetable oil, however, is pure fat containing no water and remains liquid at room temperature. The moisture provided by oil will not evaporate during cooking and even after the product is cooled to room temp, the liquid fat remain and provide a moist crumb. Since there is no water to evaporate this product will last much longer on the shelf than one made with butter.


My understanding is that "cake margarine" is regular margarine which has been whipped to incorporate air. As long as you're using a stand mixer to cream the margarine and sugar (and do so at high speed), I suspect regular margarine should be fine, as that creaming step is intended to accomplish the same thing. If you chill the mixer bowl in the fridge, it'll help avoid overheating the margarine during creaming, giving you more leeway for a longer beating time.


Using hardware store dowel as rolling pin?

Assuming that the wood is untreated (ask the store!), you can use whatever you find in the wood isle.

There are very few woods with questionable compounds that might leech undesirable substances, but neither is a typical mass market material. And even for woods like yew or oak, the amount of tannins or other is extremely tiny if used as rolling pin. I would hesitate to store wet or humid food in an oak bowl, though, unless I'm aging wine.

Try to find a hardwood dowel, pine and its relatives are rather soft and dent easily. Not a problem if you need a quick substitute, but if you want to use it as rolling pin for years, probably less sturdy. Also, make sure you pick something resin-free, especially if you have fluctuating temperatures in your kitchen.

Before you use the wood for the first time, clean it well, note that it was neither produced nor stored in necessarily the cleanest of enviromements. Then after it's dry, check for splinters and loose wood fibers. You might want to give it a quick wipe with sanding paper to get rid of them or they could make your dough stick to the pin. You might also want to go along the edges of the ends, to be sure nothing can hurt you during use.

For long-term use or to further reduce sticking dough, you could season the pin with a light coating of oil, like for chopping boards. Find more on that procedure here. After that, the grease in your doughs should suffice to maintain the wood.


Alton Brown made a tandoor out of his kettle grill and a terra-cotta pot in Good Eats season 13, episode 17 ("The Curious Case of Curry").  It could reach very high temperatures.

I obviously can't link to that video, but there are plenty of similar videos on YouTube.


Sealed whey protein container past its use by date - is it still usable?

You didn't say where your product was packaged, but according to the USDA, "Use by" dates refer to best quality, and are not safety dates.  This is especially true when foods are handled well...in your case, factory sealed.  Additionally, I can't see how the proteins would go anywhere.  Given the reportedly good flavor (not an indication of safety, but simply of good taste), I would use it.


Chinese noodle dough breaking when pulled

Baking soda, being alkaline, makes the dough unstretchable. The hand-pulled noodles recipes I see on the internet do not contain baking soda. But even if you use a noodle maker, you need to add wheat gluten if you want to include baking soda.

More info here : Use high gluten (bread) flour for hand pulled noodles

also: What flour and technique do I need for hand pulled noodles?


How long does it take to cool 5 lb of deep fried chicken from 350 degree to 75 degree

What size pieces of chicken? How are they arranged?

In order to cool quickly, you need to spread the food out in as thin a layer as possible, preferable with space between pieces. You may also require a more active cooler for the chilling process with a larger cooling unit and a more powerful fan - chilling hot food is a far more difficult task than holding cold food.

But the most fundamental step is spreading the food out on trays so it is only one piece deep - that will cool much faster than a basket or tub of the same meat at the same starting temperature. If the tray is metal and is stored in the freezer before use, it would add just a bit more cooling.

Another approach would be to place the meat in a sealed bag (still in one layer), and plunge it into ice-water for rapid cooling.


How long can deep fried chicken kebab be stored in freezer not fridge

Usually a couple of weeks if well packaged (maybe more if put in vacuum bags)

Try freezing them as fast as possible; put them in a single layer on a cooking sheet with space between each kebab.

Once frozen, put them in plastic bags.

Be careful when thawing, vegetables tend to get soggy.


How long can I let a steak rest after seasoning and before cooking?

The one problem I see with the article is that they cook the steak "as is" after letting it rest. They even mention that because so much liquid had been pulled out it caused problems with cooking. The missing step is to pat the steak dry. It needs to be dry when going in to the pan. I think the results are slightly skewed because of this - it was dry at the 0 minute mark and at the 40 minute mark but not at the in between marks. Keep in mind that you can wipe off seasonings when patting dry so this is still something to keep in mind.

As for your question - how long to leave it out? As Aaronaught said it doesn't really matter if it's salted or not. How long a steak can sit on the counter and not go bad will depend on the conditions and is more of a food-safety question unrelated to seasoning. You can, as the article mentions, place it in the fridge if you want to let it rest for a long time. Just remember to let it come back to room temperature before cooking for best results.

I'm not sure I really buy in to the importance of water reabsorption in how it relates to taste. The entire process of dry aging is designed to pull moisture out of the meat to give it a more concentrated beef flavor. Again, the article mentions that letting it rest this way for up to a day only results in an ~5% loss by weight, which pales in comparison to the 20%+ loss from cooking.

Now if you want to let it "rest" for a LONG time, like days or weeks you're talking more about a process like dry aging, in which case you'll want to start with a large piece of meat as the outside will need to be cut off as it will get rather dried out and not very appealing to eat. This involves more than just putting meat in the fridge though, so you probably don't want to go too far past 24 hours in the fridge.


What is the enzyme that makes apples's pectin heat resistant? And can it be added to other fruits to achieve similar results?

I don't know for sure if it is the same enzyme naturally that naturally occurs in apples, but there is a commercial product called NovoShape that serves this purpose. It is a pectin esterase. You can find it in small quantities at Modernist Pantry: http://www.modernistpantry.com/novoshape.html


There should be no flavor contamination between the potatoes and the ribs; so you can start the potatoes and put the ribs in later on.

You could start the potatoes in advance and pop them in a really hot oven to get them hot and crispy again. (that is what I would do).


Yes, you can often do this substitution and I've done it successfully many times when I've run out of milk unexpectedly, but you should know that the substitution is never going to be perfect.

On a purely mathematical basis, let's say your heavy cream is 36% M.F. You need partially-skimmed 2% milk for your recipe.  If you go purely by weight (which is almost 1:1 for volume when talking about mostly water), then 250 mL of 2% milk will contain about 5 g of milk fat.  To get that from 36% cream, you only need about 14 mL, or approximately 3 teaspoons of cream.  (Note - don't do this, read on!)

Of course, diluting cream at a ratio of 15:1 is ridiculous and you'll end up with something that's just really watery, and that's because milk is more than just water and fat.  I only provide the above calculation for illustrative purposes, to show why there's no hard rule or even rule of thumb for this particular substitution.

With normal cream, most people go with half water, half cream, or if they're trying to approximate skim milk then maybe 1 part cream to 2 parts water.  If you have double cream, I would probably use 1 part cream to 3 or 4 parts water; that will give you a reasonable approximation of the consistency of whole or skim milk without making it too watery.

Please keep in mind that different recipes/preparations use milk for different reasons, so this isn't going to work everywhere.  I certainly wouldn't do it in baking, but for many stovetop recipes, the main purpose of the milk is just moisture, so you're fine to substitute cream + water and it doesn't really matter if you're "exact" - which you can't be anyway.


Please see Food Safety News:  Did You Know Iced Tea Safety which gives the very strict FDA guidelines for iced tea as:

  Iced tea sould be brewed at 195 F for 3-5 minutes.
  Iced tea should be stored for no longer than 8 hours.
  The tea brewer, storage dispenser, and faucet should be cleaned daily.

while pointing out that "Tea is a beverage with little history of disease transmission."

Applying some common sense, assuming that you:

Keep all of your tea equipment "impeccably clean" as Julia Child used to say
Do not leave it very long at room temperature
Refrigerate it thereafter

given that tea does not have a huge number of nutrients to encourage pathogen growth, the risk should be minimal, although non-zero.

You must assess your own tolerance for risk, but this is not an activity that is inherently highly dangerous.

Finally, please note that modern refrigerators perform very well, and there is minimal heating of the other foods, even if you put a fairly large volume of tea in the refrigerator to cool.  See:  How effective are modern home refrigerators at keeping other foods cool when hot food is introduced to the space?


Roughly speaking, the low setting on a crock pot is 200 degrees Farenheit, and the high setting is 300 degrees.

Crock pot time vs oven time:

4-6 hrs on low = 15-30 min oven
6-8 hrs on low = 35-45 min oven
8-18 hrs on low = 1-3 hrs in oven

In addition to the liquid notes above, you may want to make these changes as well:

reduce the amount of whole/leaf herbs by half
add ground spices during the last 30 min of cook time
you may prefer to brown meat before cooking in the crock pot; it's a flavor & fat issue
add rice or noodles in the last two hours of low cook time


I trust you've already tried leaving a hot, wet (just water) cloth on it for a while, which may work if its sugar, as opposed to grease.

As long as your oven manual allows (it typically will, unless its a self-cleaning or continuous-cleaning oven), oven cleaner, which is basically caustics such as lye and solvents. Easy-off is a common brand in the US. Note, BTW, oven cleaner is one of the products where you actually want to read and beware the cautions on the side of the can.

Also, unless you actually see the black stuff on the bottom smoking, I'd guess its more likely to be the brown stuff everywhere else.


Making Chinese chicken-and-broccoli sauce

Think of Soy sauce, sugar, garlic, rice wine (or sherry) as the basic formula for that kind of sauce. Stock will help round things out, you can experiment with other stocks (vegetable, shiitake...). Mind that green onions (Not mixed into the sauce but used in the preparation; and often ginger and some hot pepper and/or white pepper) also are common in stir fry sauces like that.

(Toasted) sesame oil and hoisin sauce are more of add-on aromatic flavors. Both are potent and can be overdone easily.

Keep in mind that light and toasted sesame oil is not at all the same - usually toasted is intended. Also, add toasted sesame oil late, do not burn it by cooking it down with the sauce or even using it to saute in.


How can I prevent my honey cake from splitting open?

Effectively what's happening is that the outer crust is forming before the inside has finished rising.  This is the exact reason with a yeast bread that you would slice the loaf before baking, so that we can control how the crust breaks.  (as it wouldn't break on its own, it's too strong).

In the case of a cake or quick bread, you don't have gluten, so although the crust doesn't have a lot of tensile strength.  As such, if you have sufficient internal pressure, the top will split as the inside continues to expand.

The solution is the same as the problem with too much doming -- you have to find a way to get the outside to not set before the inside has finished setting.

... but in this case, I don't know that I'd turn down the temperature.  If the cake is going to be stacked and decorated, sure, as it makes a more dense cake that's actually more condusive to stacking.

If it were to be served sliced, like you might with a poundcake for strawberry shortcake, I'd be more likely to turn up the temperature to try to get the characteristic split that you get our of a poundcake or banana bread, as it'll give you a lighter internal crumb.

If you wanted to try to avoid the cracking, as that shape of pan isn't really conducive to cooling strips, I'd place the pan on the bottom 1/3 of the oven, and place a sheet of aluminum foil or a sheet pan on the rack above it to reduce radiant cooking from above.


Like dlb suggested it is a spoon for sugar. At least in Germany this type of spoon is not uncommon with sets of cuttlery.

Update:

For an impression of various forms of spoons check a picture search. I searched for "Zuckerlöffel" (German for sugar spoon) and found a wide range of different forms.

As for the specific form I don't think there is a special reason other for having a different looking  spoon that fits the design of the cutlery set.

Historically sugar spoons where of a complete different design than your everyday cutlery as sugar was quite expensive and not used everyday. There are even examples of sugar pots that have small locks on them so that the servants weren't able to nick some sugar if laying the table.


Chick peas/Garbanzo beans, lentils, and other legumes (black beans, Great Northern beans), and nuts (nuts are a bit pricier). Cheap and vegan/vegetarian friendly!


Some recipies call for beer to be added, but why?

Beer, like wine or coffee, is often used when a reduction over a long cooking time is called for but water would be sub-optimal. I make chili a lot. Water is not your friend there, especially if you incorporate a lot of elements that have water in them to begin with (undried/roasted tomatoes in particular). Beer doesn't add the acidity that coffee does, but it is great for adding sugars and the maltier flavors. The sugars aren't precisely 'sweeter' but rather add depth of flavor.

I'd be interested in the effect of carbonation on the cooking process, however since carbonation is supposedly lost faster at higher temperatures I'd imagine it's less than expected.

Beer can be used to de-glaze and so on; its lower alcohol makes it much less reactive (than marsala or liquor) and the sugars make it as likely to glaze over. Still it imparts some flavor depending on the context.

The type of beer you should use is largely up to you. They differ greatly in flavor and composition. For some suggestions on pairings check out this question. Another consideration is to look into Cicerones; it's a certification people get where (more for large scale operations than restaurants or personal use), in addition to knowledge of processing and manufacturing, they are sommeliers of beer.

An additional consideration is how long the beer will be cooking down. The longer the cook down, the more the flavors will be less distinct. However, there are flavors that are frequently only found in beer; hoppiness, roasted malt, and (the effects of open fermentation with) wild yeast can do amazing things in a dish. Creating a side reduction minimizes the cook down and can preserve the flavors.


Is it possible to get American-style cream cheese in the UK?

The best way to 'get cream cheese' is to make cream cheese, fortunately it isn't difficult. Here is a great video detailing how you can make cream cheese yourself with whole milk (full-fat) milk and lemon juice. This will be very much like the Philadelphia brand cheese you are looking for.


This looks very similar to a recipe that I make for chocolate cake. Mine was always a bit crumbly until I changed my measuring technique for the flour. Instead of scooping and leveling I spooned the flour in to the cup and then I leveled it. That made a huge difference. Of course, weighing is even better.

It could also be an issue of slightly over baking. You could try testing them 5 minutes earlier.

Those two things tend to be the crumbly culprits in cake.


Shelf life of homemade self-rising flour?

The shelf life is not a problem. This is one of the rare cases where mixing ingredients doesn't change their shelf life. All of them are shelf stable because of lack of moisture, and nothing is introducing moisture, so the mixture is shelf stable.

You could, however, run into problems if you try to make a large batch and scoop out of it for every baking session. The reason is that this kind of mixture rarely stays homogenous. Every shake encourages it to separate, with the larger grains (salt, baking powder) gathering on top of the smaller grains (flour). If you store it somewhere undisturbed, the effect won't be too strong the first few times you use it, but you will be on the safe side if you pre-mix the quantity for exactly one batch only.

As a side note, this seems like a strange way to go about it. If you either don't premix and just pour all ingredients into the bowl on baking day, or premix all dry ingredients at once (making your own baking mix, so to speak) you will be more efficient than just mixing a self rising flour separately.


I don't know if I'd consider the cut I use for stir fries to be a jullienne, as I tend to make 'em a little larger, as I like a little bite left in my vegetables.  (I consider julienne to be at most 1/10 of an inch / 2.5mm across ... I cut my carrots for stir fries at maybe 5mm across)

I tend to julienne when adding vegetables to cole slaw-like salads  (or even apples and other firm-fleshed fruits).

If you like really crispy fried potatoes, you can julienne the potato before frying to make 'matchstick potatoes'.

Many professional chefs will have a mandoline, and so if they're preparing large amounts of something, they'll use that, rather than a knife.  (and you can get longer strips that way ... the full way down a large zucchini or long cucumber, which would be difficult with even a long knife).

Julienne is also just a step before finely diced items, so technically, I'll pass through that phase when cutting up carrots for mirepoix.

... all that being said -- you're probably most likely to encounter the term when dealing with fancier french cooking or "gourmet" type recipes where you're trying to impress a dinner party. "Home" cookbooks are less likely to get into complicated knife tasks.


Pork chops: low and slow or high and fast?

Depends a lot on how thick they are. Thinner chops would work well with just a high-temp sear under the broiler. Whereas a thicker (for example, a double-cut chop) would be better with a two-temperature process.

I.e. Bake them until they reach the right temperature at 350 or 400, then finish under the broiler for color and flavor.

Same thing applies if you want to pan-sear first, then bake until they get to your desired internal temp.

A really-long and slow cook (AKA 225 for 4 hours) won't work well with a loin-cut, as it doesn't have enough connective tissue to breakdown.


Can I cook meat on low for half the preset time?

I would put it in on the right temperature and take it out after the time stated in the recipe. If you're worried about whether the food is done or safe to eat, use an instant-read thermometer to take the temperature. You can check the FDA's website for safe cooking temperatures:
https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/mintemp.html

As to your concern that the simmer point is different with different settings. If it were different enough to affect the situation you're describing above, your crockpot would not be safe to use. There's a minimum time that your food has to get to a safe cooking temperature no matter how long you are cooking your food (I don't know the exact time, but I would guess around 30 mins). Many slow cookers initially cook food at a higher temperature to get it to a safe cooking temp (above 140 degrees Fahrenheit) and then lower the temp to the designated cooking temp.


Well, this is what Kikkoman has to say about it:

  Kikkoman Less Sodium Soy Sauce is brewed exactly the same way as all-purpose Kikkoman Soy Sauce. However, after the fermentation process is completed, approximately 40% of the salt is removed. Although there is less sodium in Less Sodium Soy Sauce, all the flavor and quality characteristics remain because it is aged before extracting the salt. However, to maintain this full flavor, we recommend using it during the latter stage of cooking in braising sauces, soups and stews, vegetables or stir-frys.

Huffington Post claims otherwise:

  Another category of soy sauce is low-sodium, which is made with extra chemicals. Cooking instructor and author of "The Chinese Takeout Cookbook" Diana Kuan recommends diluting regular soy sauce if you want less sodium instead of buying the low-sodium stuff.

The ingredient list on my Kikkoman Less Sodium Soy Sauce includes lactic acid, which is not on the ingredient list of Kikkoman Original Soy Sauce, but as it is a by-product of fermentation, I'm not sure that it means anything.


Standardized symbols for marking food allergies / warnings?

The only true specifications for allergies that I know of are medical ICD-9 diagnosis codes used for medical bracelets and billing at hospitals. However, these codes are not easy to understand, and therefore many people who have food sensitivities or allergies may not actually be aware of them. I would use a listing of common allergens and "-free" after them. (Ex: "gluten free"/GF, "dairy-free"/DF, "peanut-free"/PF, "nut free"/NF, "egg free"/EF, etc). As someone with severe food allergies, I would be able to comprehend this or any obvious images or icons. As long as you make it explicitly clear, you should be okay.

You can find the ICD-9 & 10 codes here:

Specific ICD-10 Codes for Allergies

Specific ICD-9 Codes for Allergies


Can I dehydrate homemade sausage with a dehydrator?

Safety concerns aside (although this is related), the issue with this approach is case hardening.  That is, the sausage, salumi, or whole muscle dries too quickly and unevenly.  The exterior becomes too dry, while the interior is not dry enough.  The hardening of the exterior, then further limits the drying of the interior. Hanging meat to dry, in the appropriate environmental conditions, leads to an evenly and appropriately dried final product. I would not recommend a dehydrator in this situation.  With a constant warm airflow, case hardening is inevitable.


OK, so I left one of the butters (the Kerrygold) out for a little while longer to see if it would affect the taste. I tried it again the day after taking it out of the freezer and the sour notes disappeared!

So I guess my freezer isn't the culprit after all. Here are the possibilities as I see them:

The first butter (Plugra) was, in fact, a bit rancid. The sourness lingered in my mouth and affected the taste of the second butter (Kerrigold).
The first butter was unsalted and I simply wasn't used to the taste of unsalted European butter. (Unlikely, as I just spent a year in Europe! But I also don't eat unsalted butter very often.)
The sourness of cultured European butters is more pronounced when the butter is colder and/or defrosting. (More with the Kerrigold than the Plugra. The Plugra was already room temperature when I tried it.)
It was all psychological.

UPDATE:

Just tried a fresh, unsalted pack of room-temperature Plugra. Well whaddayaknow, it's sour. So I guess the answer really is:

I don't know what I'm doing.


Gelatin. All bones and connective have gelatin and collagen. When you cook bones slowly and gently for a long time, the gelatin leaches out in the water. Being heavier, it sinks. It isn't marrow. Marrow will stay in the beef bone until you spoon it out (lucky you). If it did fall out, it would stay in one piece. But I believe the substance you found in the bottom of your soup pot is the natural gelatin from the bones in your stock!


You may want to see Serious Eats' coverage of scrambled eggs.

Getting them to puff initially requires a little higher heat.  Adding extra liquid (water, milk, cream) will result in softer eggs, so you may want to reduce or eliminate it.

As for the cheese -- it really depends on how much you're adding.  If it's so thick you can't see the eggs under them, I'd recommend either reducing it so it's a bare sprinkling, or mixing some in with the eggs and then only a small bit on top.

For a fritata specifically, you should be careful about not overcooking it -- it can cause it to deflate if the air bubbles over-expand and burst.

When dealing with serving frittatas at room temperature or chilled, make sure that you let it cool slowly -- you need to make sure that the proteins get a chance to set up before the air bubbles shrink significantly.


Food was left in Instant Pot for a month and it grew mold. Is it safe to use it after cleaning?

Honestly? I would scrub the pot, and then toss it in the dishwasher and be done with it. So long as the smooth surface (notice I did not say scratched up) is clean meaning no visible soil, then running it through the dishwasher with its hot water, detergent and possibly drying cycle will be more than enough. It's not like you have some biochemical experiment you need to avoid doping. Just practice good hygeine with your cooking equipment and you'll be fine.


If I'm using milk as an ingredient in soup, how can I prevent it from curdling?

Milk curdles due to acidity, so if you can raise the pH of the soup by adding something basic, it would help, although it could affect flavor.

The other thing to try is heating the milk to ~90 degrees C before adding it to the soup. This will cause the protein in the milk to change in a way that curdling won't result in as bad a final result--it may in fact appear that the milk hasn't curdled at all.

You can also "temper" the milk (as mentioned by Ocaasi): add a bit of the soup to the milk first; then add the milk-soup mixture to the soup at large.  And yes, higher fat milks will tend to work better.


How do I add menthol flavoring to this gum?

The recipe already tells you when to add the flavoring. The menthol gives it that minty kick ("cold" feeling) and is used in more than one bubblegum flavoring, like mint, peppermint, sometimes cherry.

For industrial applications it is easier to buy powder and then compound it into the flavor, but for home applications I recommend that you buy a mint flavor solution instead of just straight up adding menthol, since a mint flavor is more than that.


Some things I can see:

  1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce

You want to use good canned whole peeled tomatoes. Put them in a bowl, get your hands in there, and crush them very finely. But you have to let that tartness cook out a bit.

  1 teaspoon sugar

Try very finely grating 3/4 cup (about one) peeled carrot instead of using sugar. The sugar isn't doing what you think it's doing if you're just tossing it all in together. Very finely grate it, you shouldn't be able to see it in the sauce, you're just grabbing the sweetness.

  1⁄4 teaspoon salt

Start with that, you're probably going to need more.

  1⁄4 teaspoon garlic powder

You probably want to use toasted minced garlic, crushed using a mortar - or use a few cloves of fresh minced garlic instead.

Here's what I recommend:

Start with a large can of whole peeled tomatoes. Get them in a bowl, crush them. Finely grate one whole carrot into the tomatoes, set aside. Taste them; notice that sour, sort of tartness? It's your job to get rid of that.

Get an appropriately sized sauce pot going over medium heat. Crush your dried thyme into it and let it wake up in the pot for about a minute. Pour in the crushed tomatoes and carrot mince, bring to a boil then lower the heat. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Taste it - you want the tartness cooked out of those tomatoes. If it's still tart, give it another 15 minutes. And even another, depending on the tomatoes that you used. When it's not tart any longer, Add your salt, pepper, bay leaf and garlic. Stir and let simmer for a few minutes more. Taste again, adjust for salt. Make sure you cook out that tartness.

Let it gently bubble on medium-low heat, don't touch it for 30 minutes.

Again, taste for salt. If you can't clearly taste tomatoes, or if it tastes sweet, add salt a pinch at a time. Salt, here, is what makes those tomatoes the star of the sauce. Too much and you ruin it, too little and it's bland or sour.

You may or may not want to add more water at this point to thin it out. If you add more water, walk away after doing so and then come back in 15 minutes. Taste again for salt.

Let it cook another 20 - 30 minutes on medium-low heat. It should just be bubbling. Do a final taste - add sugar or salt if you think it needs it, add the basil and oregano then let it cook for another 15 minutes, and it should be ready to go.

Grate in some parmesan (but if you do, hold a little salt back in previous steps, as parmesan is salty).

That should get you pretty close. There's a conspicuous lack of onion here, I'm not sure if you're omitting it intentionally. If not, finely chop and saute one medium onion in a bit of olive oil until it turns translucent before you add the thyme or tomatoes. And, if you use fresh garlic, get it in there with the onions.


Rubber like skin on surface of chocolate mousse

The cause is that the mousse dries out on the surface. It builds a skin of dehydrated mousse. It happens with most cremes, not only your yolk foam.

To prevent it, put plastic wrap on the mousse. Don't span it over the bowl, press it on the surface itself, without leaving air between the mousse and wrap. Your mousse will stay soft. This also works for custards and starch-thickened puddings.

In general, also cover other things you put in the fridge, or they can get an unpleasant odour.


Baking bread with spelt flour, without using a bread pan

Although similar, spelt has more protein and less starch than wheat flour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat#Nutrition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelt#Nutrition

This means that it will create a great structure but won't absorb as much liquid. This would result in exactly what you saw- it was sticky from water and protein and too loose to hold its shape but baked with a good crust.

The recipes I have seen use a mixture of flours that includes spelt.

Try adding less water.


I've made a similar cake before - note that it uses clementines, not just any oranges. This is an advantage because their skin is thinner and less bitter than larger oranges.

The cooking softens the peel enough to puree smoothly, and helps release the orange flavor from the peel. It's not really about reducing biterness; some of the bitter flavor may be drawn out into the water, but the same is true for the good flavors. Most of the flavor (fortunately) stays in the oranges. The end result is still a bit bitter, but bitter orange isn't an entirely bad flavor, and the sugar covers it a bit.

The best time probably depends on exactly how thick and tough the peel is. But it won't really hurt to cook them on the long side - they're not going to disintegrate or anything in just two hours. If you want to save time, you could poke them periodically to see if they're softened up enough.

As for other citrus fruits... it definitely does work best with things like clementines, which have thin skin that isn't horribly bitter to begin with. With thick-skinned oranges, eating the whole peel isn't such an exciting idea, but I guess it's mostly just that you'll end up with some additional mostly flavorless pith pureed in. Looking for variations, I'd be more inclined to try something like thin-skinned limes, though not in the same kind of recipe, since you'd need a lot more sugar to cover up the acidity. It'd also work incredibly well with things like kumquats, whose peel is sweet and if anything more pleasant to eat than the sour center. There is a decent amount of variation in bitterness of citrus peel, even between varieties of the same fruit, so it's probably prudent to taste the peel first before you invest time baking a cake out of it.


There are three primary reasons why dried beans do not soften despite extensive cooking time: 1) they are old; 2) hard water; or 3) the presence of an acid.

If you don't think your beans are old, then perhaps your water is the problem. Beans cooked in hard water will never soften properly. If this might be your case, try cooking them in distilled water instead. That should help. It doesn't sound like acidity is a problem, given what you described.

For cooking advice, I often look to Christopher Kimball of America's Test Kitchen. His group does extensive testing of all sorts of recipes and cooking techniques.  Here is an excerpt from his blog on dried beans:

"Troubleshooting Hard Beans

Finally, if you’ve cooked your beans for hours and found they failed to soften, chances are they are either old and stale (and will never fully hydrate or soften), the water is too hard, or there’s a acidic element present. Food scientists universally agree that high acidity can interfere with the softening of the cellulose-based bean cells, causing them to remain hard no matter how long they cook. Alkalinity, on the other hand, has the opposite effect on legumes. Alkalines make the bean starches more soluble and thus cause the beans to cook faster. (Older bean recipes often included a pinch of baking soda for its alkalinity, but because baking soda has been shown to destroy valuable nutrients, few contemporary recipes suggest this shortcut.)"

Here is the link: https://christopherkimball.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/cooking-beans-101/

Good luck!


What varities of chili peppers are most commonly used in Italy

Peperoncini (=literally little big peppers)

Grown and used in all Italy

The green ones - Peperoncini verdi

Used in north Italy, made under vinagre, typical Milano's recipe.
They make it in airtight glass jars and open them in December for Christmas (or whenever)

The red ones - Peperoncini rossi

Grown and used most af all in shouth of Italy. They are put to dry, then made in powder, like chili. Can be from medium hot to high hot. Used for seasoning many recipes in all Italy. Many types of red small peppers are used to be dried and for seasoning recipes.

Peperoncini verdi fritti

http://www.cookaround.com/yabbse1/showthread.php?t=8358 (see the photo 1 and 2)

Typical of south Italy.
They are fried in oil, then dried on a cooking paper, then seasoned with salt.

"Pepperoncini" is a contaminated word by a wrong spelling pronunciation of southern Italy, and "friggitelli" (like "puparuolilli do’ sciumm", in the text) is a local/dialectal denomination, not even known in north Italy.

Peperoncini rossi corti ripieni (=red short filled pepper)
Typical of South, filled with tuna and other ingredients.

Peperoni = (literally = big peppers)

Used in all Italy (the two varieties = the shorter are sweeter) - but any color changes the flavor, so the result, depending on the blend color, changes.

They are used most commonly used to make "peperonata", made with onions, oil and tomatoes (some like a ratatouille). With celery in north of Italy. They can be from sweet to hot.

Can be made in oven also, usually filled. Or passed on any fire to burn the skin, then peeled from the burned skin, reduced in large stripes, put into a container, seasoned with garlic, oil and salt and covered with oil. They let rest at least 24 hours for the flavors to blend.


What you are referring to is called a brine. It's pretty common to brine meats, especially poultry (think Turkey, etc). Brining meat before cooking helps break down protein bonds, and create a more tender, moist finished product.
thekitchn.com has a very succinct explanation:

What Is Brine?
Brine is a salt solution made by mixing salt and water, usually about 5 to 8 percent salt by weight. Some recipes include sugar and other ingredients to add flavor to the meat being brined, but a basic brine is a salt-water solution.
How Does Brining Work?
Here are three major functions accomplished by brining — and reasons to try it. It's so easy, too.

Meat absorbs some of the liquid: When a piece of meat is soaked in a brine solution, that solution is slowly drawn into the meat, and even though some of it is inevitably lost during cooking, it still makes a big difference. Since the meat starts out with more liquid within, it ends up juicier and more moist when cooked.

Muscle fibers are dissolved: Highly concentrated salt solutions will cause proteins to precipitate (essentially forcing them to aggregate with each other and clump together). On the other hand, a low-concentration salt solution has the opposite effect and actually can increase protein solubility and allow more proteins to dissolve. So brine actually helps dissolve some of the muscle fibers, which helps to reduce the toughness of meat.

Muscle fibers and meat proteins denature: A salt solution can denature proteins, essentially unfolding and unravelling them. As they unfold, water works its way in between these proteins so there is more water in between the meat proteins as the meat cooks. This results in a more tender cooked meat.

Source: thekitchn.com


You didn't say what kind of dough you are thinking about, so I'll try to give a bit of an overview first:
With most doughs, the way you handle it will influence the development of gluten. Roughly stated: more handling/stretching equals more/longer strands and more density.

Type 1: Pie crust, shortbread, bisquits etc.
You want to avoid excessive development of gluten as it would make the result tough instead of light and flaky. So we aim for as little handling as possible, "cut" or "rub" the fat into the flour and add liquids at the end with only a quick stir. Use of a rolling pin would counteract this approach, so no use here. Some people will even avoid re-rolling this type of dough whenever possible.
Type 2: Bread etc.
Here, the gluten strands will trap the co2 developed by the yeast, thus enabling the bread to rise. The type of strands can be influenced by the method of kneading. If you go "round and round", either in a mixer or by hand, you'll get lots of small bubbles, giving your bread a uniform texture inside. If you do a "stretch and fold" (usually repeated a few times during the first rise) you get longer, aligned strands and large bubbles. With each method, the dough will be way to sticky to use a rolling pin, at least at the beginning. Most doughs will become less sticky when the gluten strands have started to form. (My great-aunt always said "it's ready when it cleans the bowl and your hands".) That's the point where the rolling pin could be used theoretically. Usually that's after the first rise, when you knead gently again, then shape. I'd strongly advise against the use of a rolling pin here because a few things are likely to happen: a) you might "burst" too many co2 bubbles, b) you are likely to work too much extra flour into the dough, because your hands "feel" when it starts to stick, the pin doesn't, c) you actually aren't supposed "flatten" the dough, rather gently stretch it somewhat, then fold over to the middle and just press to make it stick onto itself again (to quote my great-aunt again: "Handle it roughly first, gently later."). And you will use your hands anyway to move the dough, so why clean the pin, too?
Type 3: Pasta dough
This is actually one type of dough where the use of a rolling pin might be an option. Based on flour and very little liquid, pasta dough needs to be kneaded rather firmly and longer, because the development of gluten strands is somewhat inhibited due to the "dryness" of the dough. The pin could give you the leverage your hands don't. Some people roll the dough a few times through the pasta machine on the wide setting before shaping it, too.


Before answering directly to the quesiotn, a little forword is needed:

The garlic contains allicina (alliisina , glucoside solforato), an enzyme (alliinasi), vitamine A, B1, B2, C and niacina (another vitamin in B complex).

What happens is that there is a serie of chemical reactions when you chew the garlic, with the result of creating allile disolphour, which is what have the typical garlic smell.

The latter substance is very volatile and easily get in solution in liquid and gases.

So.... (this is the interesting part) when you ingest it, the propagate almost everywhere in your body. That's why you can smell it thorugh the organs which eliminate this substance, that is to say lungs, kidney, skin.
Hence, in conclusion, when you eat garlic, it is not only a problem of your breath, but your whole body smells of garlic (in fact if you make sport and you sweat, you'll see you smell of garlic).

This said, here are some remedies for the breath:

Chew sage leaves or prasley
Chew cofee grains
Drink a liquorice or mint decoction
Chew liquorice stick
Chew anice grains
Eat slowly a honey spoon
Eat slowly an apple
Drink slowly a grappa
Drink some milk or some yougurt spoon
Chew slowly some lemon slices
Drink some sodium bicarbonate.
last, use mouthwash prepared with cloramine solution at 1%; the clorite will get in contact with your body tissues, mitigating the garlic essential oil effect.

In any case, after a while (maybe hours) the smell will come up again.

So, apart from not eating it, another remedy is in the cooking:

If you make the garlic boil before using it, the high temperature will inibite the production of the smelling agent, and you'll not have this killing smell.

References:

http://www.placidasignora.com/2011/01/14/chi-laglio-mangia-daglio-sa-rimedi-contro-il-puteolare/

http://benessere.atuttonet.it/consigli/rimedi/alito-aglio-rimedi.php


I would not use a generous addition of seeds in an otherwise unchanged recipe because it would be throwing the hydration off. The seeds will absorb some of the liquid in the dough, which then is missing in the dough. It’s hard to give a good ratio of how much extra water the seeds would absorb, this will depend on the kind of seeds, but also on the rising time - in 48h they would absorb more than in just an hour or two. So some experimenting would be advisable.

Especially heavy or pointy seeds will influence the structure of the dough a bit, literally bursting bubbles, but again it’s hard to give a generic answer on how noticeable this will be.

I suggest you start with a small amount of seeds and gradually increase over various batches until you find your preferred balance.


From my experience it's likely that chocolate shavings are too small to keep any integrity during baking. They will likely melt into the batter as it bakes. If the batter is warm it may already melt then.

Larger pieces like chocolate chips are more likely to stay together enough to re-solidify into noticeable pieces when eaten.


Difference in technique for cooking with non-stick and standard pans?

The big thing that you you are going to see cooking in regular pans vs. non-stick is the addition of pan sauces to your table.  It is almost impossible to get a pan sauce out of the non-sticks because they prevent the formation of fond in the pan.  As for stick in a regular pan, it is not much of a concern for most items, but there are a few things that non-stick are invaluable for so I generally keep a cheap non-stick around for those. (Talking cepes and eggs, mostly) The biggest trick with regular pans is learning to stop messing with your food while it cooks. You want to let it form that crust which as a by-product will help prevent sticking. Also, you will find that you start at a higher tempature when cooking with regular pans.


Does freezing non-freezable liquids affect life span

Most sauces do freeze solid, but it is the temperature, not the solidity, that matters for food safety.

The hardiest bacteria, temperature-wise, are psychrophiles and can grow in temperatures as low as -15° C. Since they can't grow in temperatures above 10° C, they are very rarely found in food, but if your freezer is actually at -18° C (and you've verified this with a thermometer) then the food is quite safe.

Practically speaking, most of the common foodborne bacteria are mesophiles (Salmonella, E.coli, etc.) and don't grow well below 20° C. It's impossible for any of these to grow at even a "warm" freezer temperature.

Bottom line: Check your freezer temperature (and, if you're really paranoid, the food) with a thermometer to make sure it's working properly, but otherwise, don't worry about it.

P.S. Vinegar lowers the freezing point slightly, but more importantly, sugar causes the other liquids to freeze into much smaller crystals, which may give the appearance of not really being frozen (think of "soft" ice cream). Plum sauce also tends to contain various gums such as xanthan gum as thickeners, which are also used to keep commercial ice cream soft.


Home made ranch dressing has bubbles. Is it bad?

For some background: On our site, only official, stringent food safety is on topic. Any further considerations are considered not suitable for discussion here.

From the point of view of food safety, the question "is it bad" does not exist. The only difference that can be made is between safe food, for which there is absolutely no doubt that there is nothing wrong with it, and not safe food, which includes anything from "formally not OK even though 99% of people would eat it" to "I see the maggots crawling in it". There are no further distinctions made, and this one distinction is based not on the actual chance of the food making someone sick (which is usually not calculable) but on what one can prove about the food's chance to make someone sick.

Based on this (admittedly very unintuitive point of view), your dressing, your mayo and your milk are all unsafe. I am not entirely sure if the sour cream may fall under some exception. The reasons:

all food you prepared, and all food you bought in a hermetically closed container and opened, is considered unsafe after 3-5 days from preparation/opening, unless it falls under a more specific rule. (There could be one for sour cream, since it is fermented). Your food was opened/prepared 7 days ago.
also, the moment you notice something which you don't know if it is spoilage or not, you are required to assume it is spoilage, which makes your food unsafe. So, it doesn't matter what these bubbles are - if you don't know for sure they are OK, they are considered not OK, no matter on which day it happened (this precedes the time-based rule).

I know you were probably expecting a different kind of discussion, but it is not something we can provide.


Those dark spot could be either due to physical damage.

For instance like banana or potato, if you hit them too hard, they will "bruise". That could be one of the cause. The other cause you see dark spot in potato means it is starting to show sign of rotting. Usually potato that are about to spoil tend to have this dark spot. If you leave this potato uncooked with the dark spot for another few days, you would realize root will start growing and by then the potato is not recommended to be eaten. This happens in both normal, purple or sweet potato. So either you can choose to cut off the dark part away from the potato before eating or you can throw it away ( if you're very particular about things like that.

P.S : If you always pick potato like that, i recommend you giving suggestions to the shop where you are buying them from. Fresh potato will look like the one on the right. To be honest, some shop may buy "poorer quality of potato" at a cheaper price and pass it off as "fresh" potato, so do be careful about that too. Just my two cents, not generalizing shops that sell such potatos.


Minerals, naturally found in salt whether it's mined or evaporated; and believe it or not, water. Infosa In the US, the FDA requires that salt must not contain more than 2.5% minerals other than NaCl and still call itself salt. That 2.5% does not include water. HowStuffWorks Your numbers for sodium content seem a bit low, but not extremely so, especially for a very unrefined, wet salt. The more refined the salt, the less trace minerals it will contain.

Outside the US, it's possible that your salt also contains added iodine, fluoride, folic acid and/or anti-caking agents, but in the US those would be listed among the ingredients, and would be included in that 2.5%. Only iodine and anti-caking agents are common in the US.

Plus, nutritional information labels have legal margins of error. If and when they can, they'll be slick. Lower sodium looks good on a nutritional label.


Why is the rice in my mushroom risotto always very hard?

I love risotto. A few things might help.

Use a saucepan, not a skillet. I had never really noticed a difference until ElendilTheTall (another user here) pointed it out. It makes a big difference. So you should have 2 sauce pans on the stove, one for your simmering broth, one for the rice.
Brown your aromatics and your mushrooms well in butter and oil and include your dry rice. The rice should get quite translucent before you add wine to the pan. The wine should sizzle and boil dramatically.
The old idea that you need to stir constantly is silly. Add your broth a big ladleful at a time (you can add larger amounts of broth for the first couple of additions), keep the heat high enough that it maintains a low boil and keep an eye on it, stirring occasionally. Add more broth well before the rice seems dry.
Each batch will vary regarding exactly how long it will take and how much broth it will need, so be prepared for today's batch to take longer and need more broth that last week's batch, even if everything seems the same. But shouldn't take more than about a half an hour as long as you've kept it at a low boil (high simmer?) and haven't let it dry out.

That's it. Add Parmesan when the rice is done, and true arborio is worth it.

EDIT: Oh and BTW, cooking wine is nasty. Use real wine, your rice may just be insulted by "cooking wine". For "cooking wine" they add huge amounts of salt to bad wine to make it undrinkable, so that they can legally put it on grocery store shelves and sell it to minors.


I'm not sure about other types of grenadine, but assuming they're the same as Rose's, they do not need to be refrigerated.

It's not just that they contain sugar - they're practically nothing but sugar, water, and a couple of "chemicals."  There's really nothing in there that can spoil, unless you put something else into the bottle that wasn't there originally.

Unless you accidentally dropped a piece of chicken in there, definitely don't worry about refrigeration.  It can sit on the shelf.


Red bell peppers freeze really well after being roasted. This is the method I would recommend for you.

The problem with freezing first is that it can degrade the peppers (breaks the firm cell walls) and would likely make them more difficult to roast afterwards. If you roast them first, the cooking starts the cell collapse itself and the peppers don't tend to degrade more afterwards, plus your peppers are already roasted, so you've saved yourself that step in your pasta making process.

The process is pretty simple... roast as usual, parcel into recipe-sized portions in small zip top bags (don't forget to date the bags) and freeze or roast, put on a cookie sheet (if you have one that fits in the freezer), and freeze in a single layer. Once frozen, they can all go in one big bag and they shouldn't stick to each other too badly.

Here's a guide that explains the process with some roasting tips. And another here.


What causes gnocchi to pop violently when fried?

I think it's because there is water inside the gnocchi paste, which turns into vapor and builds up pressure. A little bit like why you shouldn't throw an ice cube in hot oil.

You can pan fry them, but not deep-fry them.


Stone ground flour is simply whole wheat flour. It is differentiated from whole wheat flour that has been ground with rollers or impact grinders in that the grinding with stones does not heat the flour as much. It is thought that this leaves more nutrition.

You can look for any whole wheat bread recipe.

Whole wheat is a little trickier to bake good bread with for a couple reasons:

It has much stronger flavor than white flour.
Honey is often used to
compensate for the bitterness. Using flour from hard white wheat will be
milder than from hard red wheat.
It goes bad fast.
It is full of oils
that will quickly go rancid. I recommend either using it quickly or
storing your flour in the freezer. Of course, the best option is to
grind it yourself on demand. Whole wheat flour stored outside of the
freezer will taste noticeably less fresh after just a couple days although it will still be edible for longer.
It makes dense bread
Whole wheat flour has less gluten than refined bread flour. The shards of bran in whole wheat cut up gluten and result in denser
loaves. One way to combat this is to use flour ground as finely as
possible. I've read this is sometimes worse with stone ground flour. Another option is to add gluten or some bread flour.

I bake often with whole wheat but only rarely with 100% whole wheat. 100% whole wheat can be bitter and is very difficult to keep from being very dense. I use 50% bread flour and 50% whole wheat and that produces my preferred combination of hearty flavor and lightness.

The honey in your recipe, besides improving the flavor, will make the bread a little more tender. I second that you can leave it out.

Also, while not in your short list, one ingredient that you cannot omit: Salt.


Pampered Chef taco shell maker stoneware with cracks. O.K. to use?

Unless, I'm not seeing something in the photo, those appear to be scratches and not cracks.  I don't see any reason to doubt the integrity of the stoneware.


Serious eats has a good overview https://www.seriouseats.com/2013/09/ask-the-food-lab-how-many-times-can-i-reuse-fry-oil.html
There is not a "how many times" or "good for a number of days" answer because there are too many variables, but your linked article clearly spells out what to look for to know when to discard.
Working in a high volume kitchen, we filtered the oil in each fryer for three services, and discarded it after the fourth. The exception was if we cooked fish, the oil would be discarded following that service.


Is this okay or moldy? Sourdough starter question

It sure looks weird - but with just a blurry photo we’re mostly in the guessing territory. In the other hand, sourdough can look strange after a while in the fridge.
Activity means that you have at least a good amount of active yeast and the vinegary smell indicates lactobacillae, both indicators of a good starter. In a stable sourdough, the combination of the two will keep mold at bay by outgrowing any unwelcome bacteria or fungi and by creating an inhospitable environment due to the acidity.
Whether a sourdough starter that has developed mold spots needs to be discarded is a widely discussed topic - some count on the desired microorganisms’ power to outcompete the mold, especially if the obviously moldy parts are scooped off, others assume that the mold may grow alongside them.
In short:
We can’t say whether your started had mold or just some hooch (the latter perfectly harmless) and so can only give you the general ideas and concepts to help you make an informed decision.
On a very personal note (and this is by no means a recommendation or statement about food safety!), I would interpret the pattern as hooch and the grey patches as the beginning discoloration that often happens with a starter that has been stored for a while in the fridge. I see no fuzziness and no “weird” discoloration apart from the brown-grey of dark dough. But on the other hand, creating a new starter takes only a short while. Hint: Many bakers have a “backup” of their favorite starter for cases like this.


Well there is good news and bad news. The good news is, if you keep cooking it, the proteins will eventually break down and the meat will get softer. The bad news is, the boiling for so long may have spent the goodness of the meat.

More good news however. The meaty goodness has likely been transferred to the broth. You could convert your dish to a small bite stew, and no one would be the wiser, and the broth will impart some great flavor to root veg you might add to a stew. (Potato, parsnips, turnips, carrots, etc.)


I have stored and used pickling liquids in the frige for up to 10 days, and it has been fine.

The guys here

http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/food/food_safety/preservation/hgic3101.html

(Second question down)

State that it is fine as long as you have not used the brine, but to throw if any mould growth occurs (which I think we all probably might do!)

I hope this helps


In general, can I substitute egg species for either egg-only or egg-centric dishes?

More or less, yes. Just know that eggs of different species have different "flavors." There may be some issues with substituting in dishes due to varying fat content of the yolks and such...

I've had duck and goose egg quiches. I've had fried quail eggs on toast. I have yet to try an ostrich or emu egg.


Can spherification be done with hot liquids?

You might be able to use konjac flour, but you'll need to raise the pH.  Start with Dutch process cocoa, as regular cocoa is acidic.

From Guy Crosby (the science guy on America's Test Kitchen):

  But even more surprising, when the pH of a viscous 1% dispersion of konjac flour is raised to pH 9-10.5 by the addition of a mild alkali, then heated to about 85° C (185° F) for 20 minutes, and cooled, the sol transforms into a very firm, but elastic heat-stable gel. So stable that it will not melt even when placed in a 177° C (350° F) pan or oven!


Substitute for egg yolk in chocolate truffles?

Classic French truffles often add an egg yolk for enrichment. You could use a pasteurized egg product if you'd like, or depending on the recipe you could leave it out all together or replace it with cream since you're using a butter ganache. Alternatively, you can stream in 1/4 cup of boiling water/cream per egg yolk very gently and while whisking to bring the yolks up to 160 degrees. This must be done slowly to prevent the eggs from scrambling.


Is my Anchor Hocking Oven Basics glass measuring cup inaccurate?

I'd get a third measuring tool to see which one is wrong.

One way to test this is to measure by weight (and IMO, all recipes should list ingredients by weight instead of volume)

1 cup of water is about 236ml which is 236g.

Get 1 cup from your red cup and weight it.
Get 1 cup from your glass cup and weight it.

It should tell you which one is right.

And to answer your question, yes, for some recipes, if you add too much or too liltle liquid it will not result in different results (either too dry or too wet).


Seeking a creamy/melty Swiss Cheese commonly available in the US

I had to look this up. It turns out that Swiss cheese is an American term for what Europeans call Emmentaler cheese.

This cheese is characterized by the large holes created late in the fermentation process. As Wikipedia mentions, the byproducts of its special fermentation, acetate and propionic acid, give it its typical taste. This means that you can't harvest it early when it's still soft and creamy - if you do, it won't have the holes or the taste. So, there is no creamy variation with the same taste. To confirm that, even the cheapest versions are quite firm and non-melty, as opposed to other cheap supermarket versions of semihard cheeses, which are very young and soft.

If you want funk, you can use a soft cheese with a funk. A Tomme de Savoie, or a semihard or soft member of the red mould family, for example Tilsiter or even Limburger, will give you lots of odor. I don't know if they are exported to the US, but if you ask the cheesemonger for a substitute, they will help you easily, I hope.

The other possibility is to process Emmentaler with gelatine in the Kenji way, http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2011/09/the-burger-lab-how-to-make-super-melty-cheese-slices-like-american.html As any processed cheese, it melts perfectly.


Which varieties of milk cheese are raw food?

I would venture that the opposite is usually true. Most fresh cheeses require heating to separate the curd. In the US, commercial fresh cheeses are never raw since they must use pasteurized milk.

Emmental (Swiss) seems to fit the criteria. It's held at a heat in the 30s but no higher.


It's a late answer, but I do this all the time when I'm feeling lazy and don't want to make traditional roti. Heat up oil to 300 to 350 in a skillet .about 2 inches of oil. Or use your deep fryer at 350, just make sure it's large enough. The most important  thing is your oil needs to be up to temperature.  As soon as you toss in the tortilla it should automatically  pop and bubble up .count to 15 seconds and flip for 10 more seconds....let it drain on paper towels in a large bowl and cover with a kitchen towel to let the steam seep back in to keep it soft and moist....if it's crunchy it's because  your oil wasn't hot enough or it just sat too long frying...the while frying  process shouldn't exceed 25 seconds.
By the way I used the burrito tortilla flour type. Burritos  are bigger.


How to deal with a freshly shot hare.

Immediately it is shot, or as soon as possible thereafter, take hold of the carcase between the rear legs hold the legs downwards and apply pressure with both thumbs between the legs on the bladder to expel any urine onto the ground. This will stop stale urine tainting the meat.
Do not paunch the hare. Leave the entrails in situ and hang the hare by the hind legs in a cool dry place. Use a perforated metal fly proof game larder if you have one. If not, a cool dry area of a garage will suffice but you will need to inspect the carcase regularly to see that flies nave not laid  eggs that have hatched into maggots. Do not worry if it happens, just cut away and discard the affected area when you butcher the carcase. The hare may drip blood from the nose this can be collected by tying a jam jar around the head to hang under the nose.
According to how gamey you like the meat to taste and the local temperature, ideally 40 – 50°F, hang the carcase for a week to two weeks. After five days sniff it regularly to judge how ripe it is. Fresh hare is tough, the longer it is left the tenderer and tastier it will become.
Paunch (remove the entrails) and skin the carcase. Remove the head and tail but retain the liver, kidneys and heart to give added flavour to the stew. Joint the carcase into from eight to ten pieces.
Cook according to any recipe you fancy, There are lots on the web. To my taste the essential ingredients among the many herbs listed are, in order of priority: juniper berries, a hot peppercorn (remove before serving), a glass or more of port, an onion studded with cloves (remove before serving) and other herbs to taste.

The keys to success are hanging the carcase until ripe and gamey and long slow cooking with plenty of herbs. The dish is always nicer if left to cool overnight and then reheated. Bon Appetit!


There isn't anything wrong with ovens heated from the bottom, many actually are. It's actually better that way because heat rises, if the element is on the top you'll get an oven that is hotter at the top than the bottom.

With a baking stone the principle is the same no matter where the heat comes from, with the same benefits, just make sure that there's space for air circulation around the stone. Also, baking stones take time to heat up, so leave more time for preheating.


In most wheat-based recipes, gluten strands are formed while you work the dough. If you don't rest the dough, rolling can be more difficult and you may get a tougher texture in the final product.

Additionally, refrigerating the dough up to a certain point will firm up the fats in the recipe (butter, etc), which will make the dough less mushy and will making rolling out the dough evenly a bit easier. Unless the dough is so firm it becomes brittle, refrigeration will make the dough less fragile in most cases.

Perhaps less important, the moisture levels may become a bit more consistent throughout the dough as well.


Pre-preparing breakfast scramble -- potatoes

You're right that they will need to cook a bit longer than your other ingredients and you should plan on cooking them separately for that reason.

If you just want them soft then I would dice them and cook them in the microwave until they are done. For the quantities that I prepare it is only 5-8 minutes and they are almost completely cooked.

If you want them crispy then you will need to fry them. Precooking them in the microwave will make the frying go faster and be more even.

After the potatoes are cooked feel free to mix with the other veggies. They will keep in the fridge for a while- the sausage will go off before the potatoes do. If your potatoes were fried you will lose some of the crispiness in storage.

If you need to keep them for more than a week then I would freeze them in individual portions.


Is rice supposed to be eaten with chopsticks?

The Chinese cultural norm is to eat rice with chopsticks. It would be very inconvenient to constantly switch back and forth between eating with chopsticks and a spoon depending upon whether you were eating rice or vegetables or meat.

To get around the loose grain problem, you can use the shovel method. You pick up your bowl and use a shoveling motion with your chopsticks to eat.

This video illustrates the shovel method as well as picking up clumps of rice.


It really depends on the density of the bottom sponge. If it's too light, you might have a problem. To be doubly sure, take some wide straws (the ones about 1cm across) stick them in the bottom layer, then snip them flush. These will act like columns to support the top cake.


Can I substitute a top round beef roast with a beef rib eye roast?

Yes. You may want to baste from time to time if there's little fat, and ribeye benefits from lower and slower cooking--which you pretty much seem to have here--but otherwise yes. You may wish to check out Ad Hoc at Home, by Thomas Keller, which discusses roasting a ribeye.


Does the "Game of Thrones" browned butter pie crust technique make any sense?

Any kind of crust that doesn't use cold fat could be made with brown butter easily. You can make crust by melting butter (with water and oil) then adding flour, and it's flaky - though not exactly the same texture as you get with cold fat. So just do that, except brown the butter first.

Or you could brown the butter, cool it til solid, and make a crust with a more normal recipe. I don't know if I've seen a pie crust calling for that, but I've seen it in cookies. I doubt it'd be exactly the same texture as with unmodified cold butter, because you lose some of the fat crystal structure in the butter, but it'd probably still be fine, and it'd taste like brown butter, which I assume is the goal.


Why did pork tenderloin go pink in the fridge?

Pork does tend to turn pink after refrigeration. The FDA changed the safe pork temperature to 145 degrees. If you take it out at 135 degrees it should be fine after sitting a few minutes. Especially with dry cuts like tenderloin, this will work wonders for juiciness! Yes, and it will be a bit pink in the middle and you don't need to reheat it.


Suggestions for easy peanut butter clean-up

The problem is the fat. You would have the same problem with a spoon full of shortening.

Since fat doesn't normally mix with water the fat makes a film that gets on everything. The solution to fat- or rather to make a solution of fat- you use soap.

You are trying to wash away a very large quantity of fat so it takes a lot of soap. Instead, scrape the majority of the fat into the garbage. Apply a liberal amount of soap and work it into a solution with the peanut butter residue.

The peanut oil, now in solution, will wash away nicely without coating everything.


How to stop meatballs falling apart when frying

You might consider a different approach - don't fry them.  Drop them (carefully) into a pot of boiling sauce instead.  They come out perfectly even, very tender, and more flavourful than frying.  Usually the sauce we're talking about is a sweet tomato-based sauce, but it could be anything that's reasonably thick (so that the meatballs don't just fall straight to the bottom).

This sounds counterintuitive to a lot of people - you might think it would be more likely to fall apart this way, but in practice it sets almost immediately because it's suspended and has a much more even heat distribution.  When frying, all of the heat comes from the bottom; it's the combination of pressure and weight (gravity) that makes it fall apart.

Perhaps you want the rougher, browned texture of pan-fried meatballs, and that's fine; but I thought I would mention this anyway because I can distinctly remember dozens of guests having come to the family home (this is a family recipe, after all) asking "how are you able to make the meatballs like that?"  So if you have a chance, just give it a try; you might be pleasantly surprised.


How to toast whole nutmeg to put in coffee?

You can break up a whole nutmeg with a hammer - just wrap the nutmeg in a kitchen towel first so none of it goes flying. Give it a couple solid smacks with the hammer, right through the towel, laid on a hard surface. This should break it up into larger pieces. (Add a couple more whacks if it doesn't, but try not to break it up too much.)

To toast the pieces, the easiest way really is just to use a pan. Don't worry - you will barely need to clean it, a quick rinse with water will do once you're done.

Toast the pieces on a stove, over low heat. Move the nutmeg bits around frequently with a spoon or by carefully tossing the pan until you start to smell them. You can also use an oven on a medium temperature (around 350 degrees F) and toast for about 10 minutes, checking and stirring them halfway through. Make sure your pan is oven-safe before you do this.

Either way, once the nutmeg smells toasted, it probably is. Remove from the heat, and add to your coffee for grinding.