How do I remove bitterness from bitter melon

Some people claim you can reduce the bitterness of eggplant by slicing it then salting the slices, wrapping in a clean cloth, and putting some weight on it.  The salt draws out moisture.  It's possible a similar technique would work with your bitter melon, although I had never heard of it before your question.  It might not save much time, but you wouldn't have to watch them while doing the salt treatment.


Fully cooked, but requires a minimum internal temperature?

There are arguments of the universal validity of such rules, but there has long been an argument that reheated meat that was pre-cooked should always be brought to full safe temperature.

The general idea is that cooked or not there is bacteria present.  If heated to only the 100-120F range, you have reached the temperature of highest active growth of many pathogens, without killing them.  Some will argue that this is safe, as long as you eat the item immediately, not let it sit and give time for that bacterial growth to bloom.  I would even put credence to this for items which I knew the preparation and handling history, but for prefab type foods, like ground meats and especially poultry, I personally would be reluctant to take risks, I would bring it to temp.

There also has always been disclaimers that the reheating to temp rule only applies to if you reheat at all, for instance, medium rare roast beef is often eaten cold as leftover, but the rule stated if you reheat, the reheat to what would have originally be considered a safe temperature, not part way.  With something like a prepped burger, again, I personally would not eat it cold, and just thawing it might put you into an unknown zone.  I would heat it.


What is wok hai and how do I get it in my food?

Wok Hei is the "essense" imparted by the wok when stir-frying over very high heat.  The characteristic flavor is due to the the Maillard reactions and the charring of the ingredients.

Practically speaking, most home stoves do not have sufficient BTU output to achieve Wok Hei. If you have a gas stove with sufficient output, consider yourself fortunate.  Get the wok really hot before adding the oil and ingredients... and stir vigorously.  You should also make sure to crank up your hood fan/ventilation, since there will be quite a bit of smoke generated.

For those without a high BTU stove (myself included), a suggestion was made
here regarding a burner that could be hooked up to a propane tank.


Can raw chicken share a top loading cooler next to RTE food like cheese and also Raw Ground Beef?

That layout is a very bad idea, it would be very easy for the raw chicken to come in contact with the cheese and raw vegetables just to the left of it. Even if the chicken itself doesn't come into contact the chicken juices could drip or spatter.


Authentic is a very slippery question. Recipes change over time, and even the most down-home recipes are prepared differently from village to village and even house to house. As far as I know, cilantro and lime are very typical ingredients in guacamole - they are certainly included in both the Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless standard versions, and those authors are known for their meticulous research in Mexico.


Does dead yeast result in a stickier dough?

No, the dead yeast (if it was dead at all) has nothing to do with the stickiness.

Your dough has 87.5% hydration, which is unusually high. It also uses, for some unclear reason, pastry flour, so it will behave like much higher hydration.

The stickiness is absolutely to be expected with this recipe. If you have never done high hydration doughs, maybe you want to start in a more gradual way, maybe something like 80% with bread or at least AP flour, and and when you are OK with this go on to work with wetter recipes. Also see What can I do to keep high hydration dough from sticking to my hands? for how to become a bit more comfortable working with sticky dough.

If you don't know how to arrive at the number:
1.75 cups of water is 420 g
4 cups of flour is 480 g
420 is 87.5% of 480, so your hydration is 87.5%

You can repeat the calculation for other bread recipes.


How can I modify my hot sauce to make it Shelf Stable?

Low acid products must be pressure canned. Products intended for sale must be canned in FDA registered facilities and typically inspected by a state regulator. Many areas still have community canneries with some being FDA registered and state inspected where you can prepare your product with equipment that is well suited to the task. These community canneries have staff on hand who can teach you how to use the equipment and offer pointers while helping you adhere to any applicable regulations. The best way to locate nearby community canneries is to contact your local county extension office or university agricultural extension / food science program.

Edited to add an example of a community cannery: http://www.co.hanover.va.us/works/cannery.htm


Eggplant should be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated. It will last 5-7 days this way.

It can also be frozen 6-8 months with the following process:

  Wash eggplant, peel and cut into 1/3 inch slices;
  Blanch (plunge into boiling water) for four minutes in 1 gallon of boiling water to which 1/2 cup lemon juice has been added (to prevent discoloration) and chill quickly in ice cold water;
  Drain off excess moisture, package in airtight containers or freezer bags and freeze immediately.

Source: StillTasty


Must this Bhut Jolokia (ghost) powder actually be cooked?

The ingredient list is really short, so I guess it's just dried and ground up Bhut Jolokia peppers. I could imagine that if you were to take this fine powder "raw", it could go into your airways after triggering a cough response because of the intense spiciness. That could lead to respiratory problems. If you dissolve it in e.g. curry or chili, this won't happen.


What type of noodle and sauce is used to making Thai Drunken Noodles?

They are simply wide rice noodles.
Fish sauce (nam pla), soy sauce, sugar, chilli, garlic, thai basil.

There are any number of recipes online.


It's possible to blow open the door of your microwave if you try it on high for too long.
For best results, watch it from about a foot away.


Can beef stew be reheated several times?

There is some very useful information for you in this thread.

The direct answer is, every time you re-heat and cool the entire pot, you're passing through the "danger zone" (40-140 °F or 4-60 °C) where bacteria will continue growing.  Even if you manage to kill all of them, this is a problem because:

  Some bacteria leave behind harmful protein toxins that cannot be
  "killed" (denatured) by cooking. Cooking food is only effective
  against live organisms, not their toxic waste products.

So yes, there is a very real risk.  To reduce this risk as much as possible, you'll want to follow the alternate method you describe of only re-heating the amount that you want to eat at any given time.

That's also desirable because:

If you bring the entire pot back up to boiling each time, you're continuing to cook it.  Besides the risk of contamination, that will also affect the quality and palatability of the stew because it will be drastically overcooked after just a couple repetitions.
It's a lot more efficient to apply just the heat needed to re-heat a small portion than it is to re-heat a larger amount that you're just going to let cool back down anyway.

Also, keeping your stew in the pot may be undesirable, especially if it has acidic ingredients like tomatoes, which can react with a metal pot (particularly aluminum) and give your stew a faintly metallic taste.

Do yourself a favor and don't try to to take this shortcut.  It's a bad idea for a number of reasons.  Pack the stew into individual servings instead and keep them refrigerated until you're ready to eat them.


First off, do not use sand paper. The sandpaper grit will wear off over use (which is it's function) and possibly remain in the dough. You don't want anyone eating sand paper grit, and I'm not even sure what it would do. It might even be a hospital-level problem if the grit gets embedded in any digestive tract tissues and causes inflammation. Ugg. Please don't.

If you have a mandolin slicer and the cookies are soft enough, you could set it up on a very thin setting and slide the cookies across the bottom, shaving off a tiny bit.

I like the sandwich idea above.


What do these additions to common spice mixes do with your dish?

Salt:

Added as a preservative and taste maker. And usually indeed lots of it.
Very broad and coarsely put, salty is usually perceived as tasty.

Corn / Potato starch:

Added as a thickening agent. They also thicken sauces while keeping them more translucent than regular flour does, although I'm not sure if that's the reason they use those starches over flour, but I think it might.

As GdD mentioned, starch is also added as an anti caking agent: It absorbs moist to prevent lumps from forming.

Dextrose / Sugar:

Not sure, but I would guess mostly for taste, and partly to balance out any acidic ingredients. Again, very broad, and very coarsely put, humans like sweet. Sugar equals tasty.


Can I substitute powdered walnuts for all-purpose flour in a cake?

Sort of. Nut flours are the base of many "flourless" cakes and torts. This one from Joy of Baking is typical, and uses almond flour, which is more common than walnut. Here's one that specifically uses walnut. Note that these are not examples of using nut flours as a substitution for flour, they are recipes developed for nut flours. Both of those recipes start with whole nuts that are ground in a food processor or spice grinder.

Wheat flour behaves very differently, if you want to bake a cake using nut flour in combination with or instead of wheat flour, search for recipes that call for nut flour. Trying to work out an actual substitution would be fraught with peril. Nuts are full of fat and non-gluten protein, wheat flour has starch and gluten forming protein (although a high gluten level is not usually desirable in cakes, that's why cake flour is lower in protein than AP, so that it creates less gluten).

Now I see from the edit to the question that the zucchini/chocolate cake that led to the qustion is actually a kind of cheesecake. Cheesecakes generally don't contain flour, in the case of your recipe the nuts are actually replacing a portion of the cream cheese. In other cheesecakes you might see nuts in the crust or garnish, but I've never seen flour in the filling.


Dried herbs take less time than fresh (dried herbs are usually more concentrated than the fresh).  That said, I can't say that I stick to any certain time, just simmer until the ghee begins to smell aromatic.


Could be an unfinished roux (the butter, flour mixture). But most likely it's because the cheese was heated too quickly or too much, causing the protein to clump up.

Suggestions:

Melt with less heat
Use a double boiler (to reduce hot spots within the pan)
Toss the shredded cheddar with cornstarch first (starch helps reduce clumping)
Add cheese in smaller batches (easier to maintain correct heat level and stir cheese in)


When it comes to steaks, there is specific reason to use a lot of salt.  The Serious Eats food lab goes into pretty good detail about salting a steak.  It has to do with drawing out the moisture on the surface of the steak.  This helps create a nice sear and affects the way the steak cooks.

For other types of meat, I assume they are just telling everyone to season more.  The amount of salt used in a commercial kitchen is unreal.


How do you disinfect various cooking items that have touched raw meat?

Personally I just use hot water and soap. Generally bacteria don't last long on surfaces that have been thoroughly cleaned with soap and dried.

Also, if you're using a wooden cutting board once it's dry 99.9% of any bacteria on there will be dead.

If you're concerned about this though this review recommends:

Keep the sponge away from raw meat. "If you're dealing with raw juices from meat or poultry, you should be using paper that can be disposed of," Quinlan says.
Don't keep sponges around for too long. "I replace mine every one to two weeks," she says. "That's reasonable to me."
Clean the sponge every few days. The USDA recommends putting it in the dishwasher with a heated dry cycle, or wetting the sponge and popping it in the microwave for a minute.


How to know if my walnuts are fresh enough to be good to eat?

Your best methods are to use the tools nature gave you:

Visually inspect the nutmeats; you should not see signs of mold or discoloration
Smell the nuts; they should not have that rancid odor, nor (according to Eat by Date) smell like paint
Feel their weight; they should not feel light or dried out, nor slimy or wet (although the latter is very unlikely unless they have been stored in wet or very humid conditions)

None of these are absolute, but together they give you the best indication that you can probably get at home.
I found several anecdotal accounts that the float test, also described by MaxS (the nuts should float in water) will help separate bad nuts, but I could not find credible documentation.
See also:

University of Minnesota Extension article on harvesting and curing walnuts
Do nuts ever go bad?
Can cashews go bad? If so, how do you tell?


How long can a virus (e.g. SARS-COV2) survive in food?

Kenji Lopez-Alt did a very in-depth article for Serious Eats about the coronavirus and food that is worth reading. There is no evidence of the coronavirus (or covid) being passed through food, because in general the virus would break down too quickly to be passed on. Viruses survive better on non-porous surfaces. The full article is here:
https://www.seriouseats.com/2020/03/food-safety-and-coronavirus-a-comprehensive-guide.html


Why does dough and its ingredients need to be cold?

It's not drastically important in making it workable, it's more important in the texture of the finished result.

When you roll out pastry dough, you are created interleaving layers of fat and the flour/water mix. When you cook it, the fat melts, leaving pockets in the dough, causing it to form flaky layers. This results in a crisp, light pastry.

For this to happen, the fat must remain as solid as possible until cooking. If the fat melts and blends with the flour and water before cooking, you will have a dense, cardboard-like pastry. Also, warm pastry dough tends to become sticky and hard to work with.


What is the delicious brown layer that appears when you fry or bake apples, plums, apricots, etc.?

This is a combination of the two: caramelization and Mallard reaction.

Caramelization may sometimes cause browning in the same foods in which the Maillard reaction occurs, but the two processes are distinct. They both are promoted by heating, but the Maillard reaction involves amino acids, as discussed above, whereas caramelization is simply the pyrolysis of certain sugars.

Mallard Reaction – Wikipedia

Caramelization – Wikipedia


What's the difference between deglazing with an alcohol or non-alcohol?

Deglazing with any liquid, alcoholic or not, will have different result in regards with flavor but there is no way to say which one is better than the other, it's just a question of personal taste.
Using different liquids, alcohol, juice, water, stocks, broths, will help remove bits and pieces from the bottom of the pan.


I turned the fridge off years ago (noisy, waste of electricity). Equipment I've found handy:

A food dehydrator (or the sun when available) as many foodstuffs dry well. (Possibly also mosquito netting or screens, as bugs love to get into e.g. tomatoes.) Don't overlook things like mushroom stems as these can be dried then used to make stock. Downside: noisy when running.
With a oven (or toaster oven?) you could also dry or roast things, e.g. dandelion roots.
Tins and plastic containers. Lots of these. Space may be an issue in a dorm, or get creative and stash them under a raised bed. Lentils, beans, rice, chickpeas, etc.
Rubber gasket jars, possibly with airlocks, great for salt ferments (mince onions, 2% saline solution, let sit a few days). Roommates who only like modern sterile food (e.g. food with no smell) may be problem (find a better roommate). Moroccan preserved lemons (chop lemons lotsa salt wait a few weeks) are also possible in these. Use the lemons quickly when ready.
Glass jars with airlocks, to make a juice made from honey.
Old peanut butter jars and coffee filters are good to keep around, as you can sprout beans in these. Metal lids however mix poorly with vinegar preserve solutions (the acid eats them away) e.g. grated ginger root into vinegar will preserve the ginger for a few weeks, or even homemade mustard can be a problem with a metal lid.
Stock pot to simmer down stocks. Bonus: winter humidification of the room. Smaller versions of these may not be as good as a heavy pot on a stove or standalone burner, though.

Various foods ideas:

Tinned fish is quick and easy, e.g. bread crumbs + tinned mackerel + crushed walnuts + apple cider vinegar + soy sauce + dried shiso leaves + roasted chillies mix and then heat briefly. (Modern industrial soy sauce is vile, try to find the traditional version if possible.)
Load up on spices: make your own mustard, dried or roasted chillies keep well, ajwain is yummy in lentils with some dried stinging nettle and ghee (buy unsalted butter, simmer down, spoon off the white foam, stash in a glass jar).
See what you can forage for; in my area, rosemary grows like everywhere and nobody has (yet) objected to my dandelion harvests from state property. Check local laws for details, and don't harvest downstream from e.g. parking lots on account of the toxins from the cars.
Dried kale can be snuck into soups, egg dishs, etc.
Maintain a sourdough starter. 1/3c ground whole wheat (or also rye) grains per day plus water; use discarded half of this with equal amount flour and with a toaster oven you could probably make pita bread or pizza crusts, or cream of wheat soups, etc. Bread with flavor, what a concept!

Physical/Social ideas:

Join or form a food club. Networking, possible bulk pricing on food, etc.
If the dorm rooms are unsuitable for food storage (too warm?), are there other areas in the building that are, and are the Powers That Be open to such non-modern-traditional uses of the space?

A selection of my current stock:


How to remove the fuzzy innards from an artichoke?

I believe, madam, that zanlok has the right of it-- a spoon.


How can I harden the centre of a partly cooked christmas cake

I have never tried cooking a partially-done cake in a microwave to finish, but I don't expect it to turn out a desirable result.  You may be out of luck for the current batch.

In future, I recommend going by internal temperature, rather than total cooking time.  Depending on the recipe, cakes using wheat flour tend to set around 200F (93C), so aim for 205F; you may need to do a batch or two as an experiment before you find out the perfect "done" temperature for your cake.  Get yourself an instant-read thermometer or probe thermometer; make sure the tip of the probe is in the very middle of your cake when you take your readings.  Also, keep in mind that the cooking process continues even after you pull the cake out of the oven -- as the cake sits "cooling", the residual heat on the surface slowly penetrates to the middle.  Be sure to give your cake time to finish this resting process before you cut into it or stick it in the refrigerator/freezer.

As for hard-on-the-outside, there could be several reasons for this, but the one that comes to mind as likely is that the sides of the cake set too quickly for the recipe.  This could easily happen if the material of the pan you are using is too conductive.  Glass and ceramic bakeware heats slower than metal, and among metal cake pans, dark surfaces heat faster than dull or shiny ones.  If you are already using glass/ceramic bakeware, then get an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is heating to the correct temperature.  Even top quality oven thermostats rarely stay accurate over time.  If that doesn't reveal any problems, try dropping the oven temperature a little and extending the bake time.


Questions about a recently purchased wok

I don't think those are "cracked ridges"; I think you have a hammered wok.  The appearance is an artifact of how they are manufacted, by hammering a steel blank into a form or mold.   It probably is a carbon steel wok, as that is the most common material used for the hammering method as far as I know.

According to this article at The Kitchn, you should season it as follows:

  Scrub your wok in hot, soapy water and then dry it over low heat on the stove.
  Turn the burner on your stove to HIGH and add 2 to 3 tablespoons of oil to the wok. I prefer peanut oil, but any oil can be used - sesame,
  chili, or canola. Coat the wok surface evenly with oil by tilting and
  turning it.
  Heat the oil and keep the oil spread across the surface until it starts to "glaze" the wok - in other words, it turns into a thin layer
  of film. Use a wok spatula to move the oil around and tilt/turn the
  wok to move the oil as well. Be careful not to spill any oil that
  would start a grease fire!
  Let the wok cool and the layer of oil will harden on the surface.


Here, check this out. This is an article explaining at length how to make perfect French fries.

How to make perfect McDonald's style French Fries

So basically, you have to cut your fries so that they are 1/4 inch thick an then blanch them in boiling vinegared water (1 tablespoon per quart of water) for about 10 minutes. This has to be done to keep the balance between pectin, starch and simple sugars. Potato cells are held together by pectin (a form of sugar) and contain starch granules. When the cells come in contact with heat and water, pectin starts to decompose into simple sugars, which exposes the starch granules, which in turn release the starch they contain. Too much sugars and the fries become to brown, to less starch and your fries won't have a decent crust, and so on. Therefore balance is important. Now, putting the fries into hot water serves two purposes: rinse off excess sugars and activate an enzyme that strengthens the pectin, giving the fries a firmer and more intact structure. Problem is, this enzyme woks better the higher the water temperature, but stops working altogether above ~170 degrees Fahrenheit. But here comes the vinegar: acid slows the breakdown of pectin.

Step two is deep-frying the fries in 360 degrees Fahrenheit vegetable oil for 50 seconds.

Step three: freezing the fries overnight or longer. This helps make the interior of the fries all the more fluffier. By freezing, all the excess water inside the fries gets converted into ice crystals which damage the potato cells and make it easier to then become expelled as steam in the last frying step which is...

Step four: deep-fry the French fries in 360 degrees Fahrenheit vegetable oil for 3 1/2 minutes, drain them, season them and serve them immediately.


Is it possible to know how much the cake weighs using a specific size of cake pan before baking?

It is a question of scaling.

In chat you told us the given recipe was for a 23 cm pan.
I'll ignore height for now, assuming the same height for all pan sizes, because that can be adjusted in a second step.

The math:

The cake batter for round cakes fills a cylinder.
The volume of which is base circle area x height, ignore height as stated above.
The formula of a circle is pi x r2. As pi is constant, ignore it.
So for scaling, you only need to look at the radius (1/2 diameter) of the pans  - or even the diameters.

Divide the desired diameter (or radius) by the original one and square the result.

-> Use that value to multiply all ingredients.

Further adjustments:

Height scales linear - for a cake that is 1.5 times as high as the original, you need 1.5 times the batter etc.

So for your question:

  To go from a 23cm / 9in cake to a 28cm / 11in cake,
  you need (28/23)2 = 1.48 times the original recipe.

My personal gut feeling: three of those won't feed 100-150 guests.


Boiled a stainless steel pot dry, safe to eat food from the episode?

The broccoli and asparagus should be safe to eat. That being said they may not taste the best or have a good texture depending on how long they left.  If you forget about them and leave them in the steamer the texture and flavor will be off. If you just didn't add enough water to the steamer and "steamed" them for the appropriate amount of time they probably will be o.k. flavor and texture wise.  I'm assuming that they were covered the whole time while being "dry steamed".


Safely?  Yes.

Cold water thaws are fine.  It's hot or warm water thawing that's bad.

Cold running water will thaw faster than cold still water, but cold still water is okay as you basically have a giant ice cube in the water (the thing you're thawing), so the water stays at a safe temperature until you're towards the end of the thaw ... it just takes a really long time compared to thaw running water.

The only issue here would be the meat getting wet.  If it's clean water, and you don't drip it on other things it shouldn't be a problem from a safety standpoint.  It can change the quality of the food being thawed (wash away flavors, cause the food to absorb too much water), so if you're going to do it intentionally, it can be worth adding salt to brine the item being thawed.

So, from a safety standpoint, what you're doing is fine ... so long as your fridge temp is set well.


Gas grill compared to regular (high end) oven

While you are correct about the basics - both a grill and an oven can roast and sear, and it doesn't really matter if the heat comes from above or below.

However, there's some subtle details:

An oven will have fine temperature control (via a thermostat).
With an outdoor grill you can impart smoke-flavors (either via
smoldering hardwood, or by burning drippings). While that's possible
with an oven, unless you have one SERIOUSLY good ventilation-system,
you shouldn't even try it.
Grills also have the advantage of being outside - cookouts are much
less fun when you and your friends are standing in your kitchen,
staring at your oven.


Is this extremely soft "French raclette" cheese actually meant for raclette?

Turns out it's not mislabeled: it's actually "spécial raclette livradoux". Embarrassingly enough, I just noticed that there's a fragment of the whole-wheel label wrapped up with it, with a "vradoi" that let me find it, and it's consistent with this picture:

Different pages describe it as semi-soft or semi-firm, which still seems a bit of an exaggeration to me. It's possible to make irregular slices, but definitely nothing super-clean, and I'm afraid if you tried to melt a layer you'd melt a lot more than that. But cutting off a hunk/slice and melting in the tray does work just fine despite my initial impressions; while it's pretty soft before heating, it doesn't melt that much more liquid than a firmer cheese. And the flavor is definitely similar to other raclette cheeses I've had!

So it seems quite plausible that it's intended for this version of raclette, but not the older traditional version. (Of course, I was wrong about "completely impossible to slice" so I could be wrong about that as well.)


Equivalence between fresh coconut and coconut cream?

You should look for some coconut cream which is a semi solid block of very fine coconut puree found in asian food stores, it's more of a paste.  Coconut cream from a can in my experience has been a combination of coconut milk and the "cream" (fats) which seperates out from the milk.  Generally a less intensive mixture compared to the paste.
In Canada Coconut Cream is tough to find but every store has coconut milk in cans with different amounts of "cream" content which explains the price differences.
In the UK coconut cream is a common place item in the asian stores and probably the grocery stores now. ( I lived there in the early 90's so it's probably gone more main stream by now.)
Recipes could call for coconut milk, coconut cream or both for curry.


What is a suitable Low carb rice alternative?

Quinoa. I only recently discovered it as part of doing P90X, and man, it's so, so delicious. It's kind of a nutty flavour that goes really well with sauces. It's also pretty high in protein, which is good.

Note that this isn't "no-carb", though it is lower in carbs than rice.

It's important that you wash quinoa before you prepare it. Otherwise, it's prepared in a very similar way, 2-1 water-to-quinoa, boiled and simmered.


How can I make whipped cream if I can't always get cream?

Cream does last quite a while in the fridge, especially before it's opened - it has a pretty high fat content. So you may be able to buy it when you can, and still have it around when you want it.

Failing that, honestly, I think that anything you can do with milk and additives is probably not going to be nearly as good as actual whipped cream, so you might as well fall back to another substitute: aerosol whipped cream. If you get a decent one that's actually made with cream (not milk and oil and stabilizers, like your Dream Whip) it'll probably still taste better. And I'm pretty sure it lasts a really long time (months?) in the fridge even once opened. (But I don't have any to check for sure.)

As for actually making Dream Whip: as mentioned in several comments, it has a lot of ingredients that'll be way harder to find than cream. Sure, they're probably shelf-stable and you could probably buy them online, but it'll be a lot of trouble, and it might well be more expensive than just buying the Dream Whip itself. It's possible that there's a more home-ingredients version (I'm no industrial food authority), but unless you have some more restrictions I don't know about, I'd still prefer the other alternatives I suggested.


How long can I store homemade caramel or butterscotch sauce?

This similar (also has heavy cream) recipe from epicurious recommends: "Room temperature, up to 3 days; refrigerated, at least 3 months."

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Caramel-Sauce-105889

...And that conforms to my personal opinion, as well. I would not freeze it.


The cold temperature of the peanut butter will completely change the cooking process of the brownie, as it will be cooled from the inside while heated from the outside. I don't think this is a good thing. You could try room temperature peanut butter, but PB has a melting point around 150F (depending on the emulsifiers), and would probably melt before your brownie was fully cooked.

Unfortunately I do not think this will work.


Why is my microwave popcorn burned and undercooked at the same time?

Well if it is burning some of the popcorn I'd say that means it is going for too long or you are setting power too strong, otherwise it wouldn't burn.

If there's still unpopped corn at the end, then it could mean three things I can think of, right now.

Uneven microwave distribution in the chamber, which is a very common issue for which rotating platters have been created.
Poor quality corn maybe mixed varieties which don't pop so easily.
Insufficient humidity. Microwaves heat water well, but not other substances, if there is not enough humidity in the form of water/grease content in the package, or it is unevenly distributed, there may be kernels that never get proper temperature.

Try interrupting the microwave mid cycle and shaking the paper bag around a bit about half way through, instead of doing it all in one go. Make sure the platter is rotating.

Some unpopped kernel is expected regardless.


What is a good substitute for Kecap Manis

Kecap Manis is not simply sugar & soy sauce, as there are spices, too.  (typically galangal (related to ginger) is one of them, which I've only found in the US in larger asian/international markets).

The Dutch spelling of Kecap Manis is Ketjap Manis and you can regularly find it available online  (Through Amazon, you can get Bango, Conimex, ABC and Jans).

You can also find plenty of recipes for it (often intended for Indonesian or Dutch expats in America):

http://www.food.com/recipe/ketjap-manis-39318 :

1c. dark brown sugar, 1c. water, 1c. soy sauce, 7TB molasses, 1tsp fresh ginger, 1/2tsp corriander, 1/2tsp black pepper.  (see the link for instructions)
http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/ketjap-manis :

1/2c. soy sauce, 3TB molasses, 3TB brown or palm sugar, 1/4 a red chili pepper, 1 small garlic clove, 1" of ginger, 1 star anise (optional), some water.  (see link for instructions)
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Kecap-Manis :

1c. soy sauce; 1c. brown sugar, palm sugar or molasses; 1/2c. water; 1" ginger or galagal (optional); 1 garlic clove (optional); 1 star anise (optional).  (do I have to keep saying 'see link'?)
https://food52.com/blog/16102-indonesia-s-favorite-condiment-how-to-make-and-use-it-yourself

1 part soy sauce, 1 part palm sugar (or brown sugar or molasses), flavorings (garlic, ginger, dried chiles, star anise, curry leaves).  (see link)
http://www.whats4eats.com/sauces/kecap-manis-recipe

1c. palm or brown sugar, 1c. soy sauce, 1/2c. water, 1 to 2 tsp molasses (optional), 1 or 2 slices galangal, 1 star anise.  (blah, blah)
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/248323/indonesian-sweet-soy-sauce-kecap-manis

1 1/4c. sugar, 1/2c. water, 10oz reduced sodium soy sauce, 1 star anise, 1 clove garlic.  (ditto)


Ground turkey has rosemary added as a preservative.
Effect of Commercial Rosemary Oleoresin Preparations on Ground Chicken Thigh Meat Quality Packaged in a High-Oxygen Atmosphere
I have wondered the same thing.  It seems ground turkey invariably has rosemary.  I thought maybe turkey had some funk that was countered by rosemary.  But I could never taste the rosemary.    It turns out it acts as a food preservative.  I imagine that having "rosemary" on the label is more palatable to consumers than some chemical preservative name.


Can I use orange juice to pasteurize egg whites?

Only heat can pasteurize egg white.  You might be thinking about stabilizing egg white, to help prevent over beating.  In this case, cream of tartar is recommended.  If that is unavailable, lemon juice or white vinegar can be substituted. I don't think orange juice would be helpful.  You could always just leave these additions out, and be careful not to over whip.


Cook only until it is fully puffed.  If that isn't enough, try folding them right after taking them out, and put them in a paper bag.  They'll steam themselves briefly and keep the crust soft.


Best way to clean a countertop if you are preparing food on it

There is a difference between cleaning and sanitizing.

Cleaning

If you have something greasy on the counter then you need some sort
of detergent to solubilize the grease. (You might want to then use a vinegar solution to be sure and get all the detergent off the counter.)
If you were doing something like kneading bread, then you need
something a bit more abrasive to scrub the countertop to get off
stuck bits of dried out dough.

Sanitizing

A diluted bleach solution works well. (Say if you leaked some juice from raw meat on the counter.)


What does it mean when a recipe calls for coring a tomato?

The coring of tomatoes has a lot more to do with tradition than any sound foundations; the seeds in tomatoes can be bitter (and of course will ruin the texture of a smooth gazpacho) but the pulp surrounding them that is also discarded is rich in umami containing compounds:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2007/oct/23/hestonblumenthalstomatosauc

It proves something many cooks already knew or suspected - that the jelly around the pips of tomatoes contains most of the tomato's flavour. This is not so important for us home cooks - we tend to leave the seeds in the final dish we are preparing; but in the professional kitchen, the seeds are often discarded for the sake of appearance and presentation.
The title of Heston's paper that recently appeared in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry is Differences in Glutamic Acid and 5'- Ribonucleotide Contents between Flesh and Pulp of Tomatoes and the Relationship with Umami Taste (with co-authors Maria-Jose Oruna-Concha, Lisa Methven, Christopher Young and Donald S. Mottram from the University of Reading).
The paper's abstract cites the difference in taste we've all observed "between the outer flesh and the inner pulp of tomatoes," and the fact that "the pulp, which contains the seeds, had more umami taste." Umami, discovered by Ikeda in 1909, is the fifth taste, the meaty, broth-like or savoury taste that is now accepted as an addition to the traditional sweet, bitter, salty and sour gustatory sensations.
The paper shows that the inner pulp of the tomato contains up to 11 times the concentration of compounds associated with the umami taste as does the other flesh. This was determined experimentally, subjecting many different varieties of tomato to both chemical analysis and to sensory evaluation by a panel of human beings, who wore noseclips "to evaluate taste attributes" and took them off "to assess all other attributes." And just to make sure they weren't prejudiced by visual clues (such as the deeper red of some tomatoes) all the tests were done under red lighting.


Deer and it's relatives (goats and sheep) are famous for their musky males.

At a mere three months old my male goat had already developed a significant "bucky" aroma. He would not have become sexually active for another month or two.

The best way I found to cook him to deal with that flavor was smoking.


How can I increase bifido bacterium strain density in kefir

The simplest way to increase the diversity of strains might be to start from a mixture of kefirs from the most diverse and independent sources you can find. There's no guarantee that putting two symbiotic communities together will improve either of them though, or produce a final more diverse community.

What are the constraints on density? I would imagine that density will increase until either nutrients are depleted, or pH or other toxicity factors reach a certain limit. You might find that some strains tolerate a higher/lower pH range than others, and also that careful pH adjustment would allow density to keep increasing, provided you supply enough nutrient.


Do I need to worry about differences in produce in foreign recipes?

tl;dr: Yes, there are significant differences ... but use them as guidelines, don't just blindly follow recipes.  (Jacques Pépin agrees)

Part of the size issue that Jefromi mentioned is not only growing conditions (hotter/dryer/morning sun/in a greenhouse/etc), but there are typically different varietals of things.

Eggplant is one of the most significant -- In the US, we have in some shops 'japanese' or 'chinese' eggplant, which is a long slender thing ... but the typical US eggplant is the 'globe eggplant', a bulbous dark purple variety.  Indian eggplants tend to be smaller in size, firmer, more egg-shaped, and are much more difficult to find in the US unless you're growing your own.

For cucumbers, the ones we used to have in the shops were about 8 inches (20cm) long, thick skinned with rather significant seeds.  These days, I mostly find the 'English' cucumbers that are longer (over 12"/30 cm), skinnier, with thin skin and smaller seeds.  But some shops will also carry 'Persian' cucumbers, which are much smaller (under 6"/15cm).  Where and when the recipe was written will greatly affect what is meant if they don't qualify the cucumber.

There's also significant variation in hot peppers.  In your area, 'crushed red pepper' might be Allepo pepper, which is much fruitier than the variety used in the US.  (I'm not even sure what variety it is -- it might be cayenne)

We also have things like 'oregano'.  Mediteranian oregano (origanum vulgare) is a member of the mint family, while Mexican oregano (lippia graveolens) is in the verbena family.

Although flat leaf parsley is often the only 'parsley' in US shops these days, for years curly parsley was unqualified (just 'parsley'), while flat leaf was called 'chinese parsley'

Apples are another item with significant regional differences -- in part because they're typically bred for thrive in a specific growing condition, so many American varieties aren't available in Europe and visa-versa.  When I lived in the Netherlands 30 years ago, the typical apples in the shops were tart green apples, similar to the Granny Smith in the US.

Carrots have also changed rather significantly in the US.  'Baby carrots' were originally a way to sell broken carrots that would otherwise go to animal fodder, but as they could sell for a higher price, many farmers started growing more slender varieties where the majority of the carrot could be turned into the pre-processed "baby carrots".  In my area, the only places that I know to get decent sized carrots (as large as the old 'winter carrots') are in international grocery stores or Restaurant Depot (if I need 50lbs).

... I'm sure that I could go on, but unless you're baking, you can taste as you go and adjust however you like.  If you've never tried the dish you're trying to make, it just looked interesting, you can always use it as guidelines ... if you think it looks dry as you had smaller tomatoes, go ahead and add some more.  If you've had the dish before, you have more of a target of what you're aiming for ... but that still doesn't mean that you have to strictly stick to a recipe.


Freezing Hazelnuts, before or after peeling and roasting?

I roast all the nuts I buy and then freeze them.  I have never had a problem with moisture in them at all. I like having them ready to use when I bake.


Is it ok to let vegetables cool before roasting?

Yes, this works, as long as you don't boil them too long. The idea is that by the time they get roasted properly (e.g. your potatoes are browned on the outside) the inside is only just cooked, not overcooked. I'd aim for very roughly half cooked, starting to be pokeable with a fork but not actually tender.

For flavorful things like beets, you may lose some flavor into the water, but they should still be quite good. If you want to avoid this, though, you can just steam them instead, or even microwave. It's not really much more trouble than boiling! If you do this, and get the timing right, it won't really affect the taste or texture much at all compared to just roasting.


Which types of fish in sushi must be cooked?

All of the following are generally cooked items:

Shrimp, ebi, available raw in sashimi, but almost always lightly poached.  The poaching brings out sweet and subtle flavors otherwise masked by a metallic tang.  It also prevents the highly perishable shrimp from losing texture to spoilage.
Octopus, tako, available raw in sashimi when sliced very thinly, but otherwise poached lightly. The poaching reduces toughness and brings out additional flavors in an otherwise bland meat.
Eel, unagi, as you noted, is ALWAYS grilled, and steamed. This is necessary to achieve the truly transcendent flavor and texture of unagi.  In fact, the cooking of eel is such a challenge that it is generally a whole separate chef profession in Japan.  Most eel comes from one of the professionals, because sushi cooks know they will never be able to match the quality themselves.  Improperly cooked eel becomes tough and has unpleasant flavors.  Raw, the blood of eels is even toxic!
Sweet egg omelet, tamago, is by definition cooked.  This is not to say that raw egg doesn't have a place in Japanese food though; tamago kake gohan is a dish of raw egg on rice, with soy sauce.
Cockle is lightly poached
Crab, kani is always cooked because... well eating raw crab meat is just vile.

For further reading, I highly suggest the online sushi encyclopedia.

Food Safety:

Sushi is only prepared from the very freshest and highest quality seafood, and sushi chefs are trained to identify parasites and signs of spoilage.  In addition, some areas (including the EU) require sushi to be frozen for 24 hours to kill parasites.

If that wasn't enough to help settle  your stomach, the pickled ginger and wasabi served along with sushi are more than garnish or simple condiments!   Both ginger and wasabi have potent and documented anti-microbial and anti-parasite properties.  Ginger is also well-known for combatting nausea.  Source: the CRC Handbook of Medicinal Spices, page 310 for wasabi and 316 for ginger. (links are to Google Books copy).


According to http://southernfood.about.com/cs/breads/ht/self_rise_flour.htm, you would add 1.5 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt to each cup of flour.

Salt is only added to US self-rising flour. In the UK, where it's called self-raising flour there is no salt added to the flour itself.


preserving hot peppers without damaging heat

The heat in peppers (capsaicin) is quite stable.  Any number of preservation options will work, as long as you include the hottest part of the peppers which are the ribs and membranes holding the seeds.

You can choose a method based on your goals and ambition:

Pressure canning
Dry them (follow guidelines from a reputable organization, for example links below)
Freezing
Pickling (and canning)

For your use case (storage for a few months prior to making hot sauce), freezing may be your best option.

See also:

UC Davis guide to preserving peppers
Penn State Guide


Bringing water to boil with rice or alone and then add rice?

In his section on cooking rice, Wayne Gisslen makes a couple of frank statements which deserve to be restated here (Essentials of Professional Cooking).

First,

  There seems to be very little agreement among chefs regarding the best
  ways to cook rice.

And second,

  Everyone agrees that the key to properly cooked rice is correct
  proportions of rice to water and correct cooking times. Unfortunately,
  no one agrees on what those proportions and times should be.

So the expert is telling us that, no, there is no rule of thumb. We are wise to acknowledge that there exists so wide a variety of opinions on this subject that neither here nor really anywhere is anyone likely to give/find an assessment capable of bridging those several gulfs, capable of laying down that which is definitive. Each of many answers at variance with one another can still class as a right answer.

I personally never obtain anything other than perfect results by bringing an oversupply of water to a boil, briskly stirring in the rice, pouring off what my eyes deem to be just the right amount of water at just the right stage of cooking, reducing the heat for a few more minutes of cook time, and then removing and covering to allow the residual heat to finish the job. But as my results do not seem in any way superior to anyone else's using alternate or more traditional methods, I do not attempt to claim them anything but more convenient to achieve.


Cheap/DIY approach to compressed powder candy

As a resource, take a look at [VIDEO]Easter Gift: How to Make Shaped Confections with Candy Tablet Press TDP-0

You will need to provide the die or punch, but the result corresponds to what you're looking for.  Not sure of the price though.


How to correct egg nog that is too sweet?

1) Too sweet, you could dilute it with some rum or other alcohol. That might mask the sweet aftertaste with an alcoholic aftertaste....

2) Grate some nutmeg on top: fresh nutmeg has such a bite, your tastebuds will forget about the sweetness.

3) While you're at it you could further dilute it with a little half and half, or just plain milk.


Substitute Cayenne Pepper for Black Pepper

You can't really substitute cayenne pepper for black pepper. They're completely different, not even in the same botanical order. Cayenne pepper is a powdered chile. Black pepper is tiny drupe. The heat in cayenne pepper comes from capsaisin, and the pepperyness in black pepper from piperine.

Closer substitutes would be white peppercorns (in moderation!), green peppercorns, red peppercorns or grains of paradise.

Of course, you still could use cayenne, but the taste would be as different as if you were to substitute it with allspice, or cumin, or some other spice. If you were to substitute it with cayenne, there's not really any ratio that is applicable, you would have to add it to taste.


Is there a way to cook hot dogs in a microwave without them bursting?

Poke them with a fork in a few places. This will let the steam out in a controlled manner and prevent bursting.

or, even better, skip the microwave and boil them in a pan over the stove.


I think you are better off sauting small pieces of chicken on the stove. Small pieces of chicken cook very quickly and can dry out in the oven.


Why does "hot chocolate powder" lose taste?

The best before date is often only valid until the pack is opened.
I'd check the pack itself for confirmation, but many goods will say "Best before [2 years]" but then underneath something along the lines of "Once opened keep in [circumstances] & consume within [much shorter time]"

I first looked up shelf life of cocoa powder - essentially it will last several years if kept cool & dry, but will lose flavour long before eventually going off. Long-term it can go rancid & become unsafe, but long before that it will simply lose all its chocolate flavour.
I couldn't find any absolute authoritative citation for this; it was an opinion formed from many sources, quoting similar but not identical information.

Sweet whey powder, on the other hand, has a shelf life of only 6 - 12 months, according to Dairy for Global Nutrition*. Similar anecdotal sources to those for cocoa powder above say this will also lose flavour & eventually smell & taste like milk gone off. [This search is hindered by the number of results for protein whey powder, which rather bury those for sweet whey.]

  *Dry dairy products are known for having a neutral, mild dairy flavor.
  Storage at high temperatures and high relative humidity may increase
  the potential development of off-flavors. In many cases, significant
  changes in product flow and solubility will occur before any changes
  in flavor and aroma become evident. Flavor changes develop more
  quickly in agglomerated or "instant" ingredients.

 Emphasis mine

In conclusion, I imagine that what you tasted was not so much 'less sugar' as less 'chocolate' & potentially slightly past its best sweet whey.


The 'lemony' flavour in a lemon cake is from the volatile oils which are present in the fruit's zest,(mainly nerol, limonene and citral). I would'nt advise adding actual lemon juice to the cake as it will disrupt the ratios in the cake recipe and ususally the tart, zingy flavour gets lost anyway after baking. To get a really lemony flavour whilst still using a pound cake recipe (using the creaming method) there are several things which would enhance the lemon flavour:

Adding finely grated lemon zest to the sugar, then blitzing  with a blender (to release the oils) and leaving to infuse. The sugar is simply a medium to infuse into
Melting the butter (using it as a 'quasi' solvent) and adding it to some more lemon zest to infuse. Then once cooled use it as per the recipe requires.
Add lemon extract too (we're trying to get as much flavour as possible into the cake!)

And if all else fails, you can always soak the cake in a lovely tangy lemon syrup and may be top it off with some lemony cream cheese frosting!


The soft fats from your hamburger are still 'sticky' at refrigerator temps, but once frozen are solid enough that they no longer cling to the wax paper.

I typically use either cling wrap or parchment paper and never have a problem with either when pulling the patties from the fridge.


What can I bake for my nut allergic friend?

Step 1 should always be to ask  which ingredients exactly you need to stay clear of, just in case it's more than nuts.

My - possibly naïve - assumption would be that basic recipes that stick to flour, sugar, eggs, butter and possibly dairy should probably be ok. Chocolate could be dangerous as the factories often use nuts as well, so there is a risk of cross-contamination, but cocoa should be safe. Note that some oils can be made (partly) from peanuts, so read the label or use butter.

Once you have verified the extent of allergies, you will have a "safe ingredients list".

From there, choose the type of baked product and search for basic recipes - the no-frills, few-ingredients recipes are a good place to start.

Unless you choose a recipe that uses nuts as main ingredient (sorry, no macarons for your friend) the options are almost endless, in my experience.


Are chicken gizzards okay to eat if still pink inside?

After boiling for that period of time (especially after sauteing), the gizzards have certainly reached a "safe" temperature. They are probably not really good eating though. Gizzards are a tough piece of meat. They benefit from a low and slow cooking process. Here's a pretty good article from Livestrong. Among other advice, they suggest braising (or boiling) first for 15 or so minutes, then searing at a very high heat.

Here's a pretty typical recipe for Southern Fried Chicken Gizzards. It starts with simmering the gizzards for 45 minutes or longer, then cooling, then breading.

Safety really isn't the issue here, or color; after 15 minutes of boiling, you have well surpassed the USDA recommended temperature of 165F (74C). For good flavor though, they need more time.

  Traditionally, chicken or turkey giblets are cooked by simmering in water
  for use in flavoring soups, gravies or poultry stuffing. Once cooked, the
  liver will become crumbly and the heart and gizzard will soften and
  become easy to chop. Cooked giblets should have a firm texture.
  Casseroles containing giblets should be cooked to 165 °F. Stuffing should
  also be cooked to 165 °F. Chicken giblets are commonly fried or broiled.
  Leftovers should be refrigerated within 2 hours.


How to look after non-stick cookware so it lasts?

I'm still happily using a non-stick frying pan that I've had for almost 4 years.

I only use Teflon utensils.

I never use harsh abrasives.

After cooking, I fill it with boiling water, let it soak for a while and then wipe out with paper towels. Most of the time I just give it a quick rinse and it's ready for the next time.

And buy quality - "Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten".


Turning regular noodles into no-boil noodles

It's true.  I've done it quite a few times, before the 'no boil' packaged varieties were commonly available (if they even existed ... this was ~15 years ago)

Unfortunately, I haven't done it for many years, so I'm quite out of practice.  (found out I had a problem with dairy, so lasagne isn't something I make anymore)

From what I remember, you needed to use more liquid than normal, and make sure that there was a wet layer directly above and below the noodles.  You also had a rather long cooking time, to give everything a chance to absorb.  (I want to say 350F for 1.5 to 2 hrs, but I generally went with 'til a knife went in easily, then put it under the broiler to get it bubbly)

I know there are also slow cooker recipes for lasagne that don't requite pre-boiling the noodles ... I'd just look for recipes online, as plenty of them exist.  Just look for ones from the 1990s, as that tended to be before companies were selling 'no boil' noodles.


The typical sous vide temperature for most vegetables is right around 82-83 C, so I think you nailed it. Of course it is much more difficult to reach a consistent temperature in the oven than sous vide, but the texture at a given temperature should be roughly equivalent.


I found that when I dry apple slices (usually early dessert apples) that there is no noticeable difference in the finished product - except of course the colour. I went so far as to have people blind-test them, nobody could tell between acid-treated and "natural" dried apples with statistical significance.


Looking for a tasteless emulsifier, or a method to mix oily substances into water

Use soy lecithin powder. Cheapest and easiest place to find it is in the drugstore where drink supplements such as Ensure nutritional drinks are kept for those unable to eat solid food. It lasts forever and has no taste whatsoever. It is the perfect emulsifier when egg yolks or mustard aren't an option. Start with about a teaspoon for your average vinegrette recipe. Can also be used to make vegan mayo in place of egg yolk. Lecithin can also be used to make foams. The proportion needs to be more precise, however. Too much can collapse foams, but when done well, it will last as a foam for hours good luck.


So I finally was able to test out making the berry gel using some berry coulis. I used one half cup coulis in a small saucepan and added 1/8 teaspoon Agar Agar powder brought it just up to the boil then put it in a plastic container and put that in an ice bath.

I checked in it a half hour later and it had jelled. I then blitzed it with my hand blender and magic. It's the exact consistency I wanted, thick and fluid but won't lose its shape on the plate. I took this picture ten minutes after I put the gel on.

** Update - Here is what I wanted to do with the berry gel ;-)


How can I reduce the heat output of this heating element?

First, you will want to check the wiring and fuses in your current smoker to make sure it can safely handle the 1500w upgrade.

Assuming that your wiring and fuses can handle the 1500w element, keep in mind how the system works in the first place.  The heating element is controlled by the thermal measurement unit.  A more powerful element would still turn off once the set temperature at the measurement unit is reached.  The difference would be how fast it reaches the temperature and more hot spots closer to the element.

For the "variable" options you can alter the voltage or the current running to the heater. One issue to be aware of is that you would need to keep the power supply to the smoker's control board separated and unaltered.

Altering the voltage:

There is a power supply called a variac or variable transformer.

Pros:

Since this plugs into the a home receptacle and has a standard receptacle coming out of it, it would be safer from a wire splicing perspective.  Keep in mind, you'd need to acquire a variac that can the wattage.
You will look and feel like a cold war submarine commander when adjusting the voltage on this kind of equipment so this is a high testosterone solution.
There's conversational value here for parties.

Cons:

A potentially fiery death.  Playing with high wattage hacks requires strict attention to detail and close supervision of the device.
Cost.  The price ranges for these seem to be $180-$400ish in the 2000W range.  This could significantly increase the overall cost of your smoker setup.
The control board of the smoker can certainly cope with some range of voltage under the usual 120V, but it may not operate at the lower voltage
Even after everything is working you probably don't want to invite your fire insurance provider over for dinner if you like your current insurance rates.

Altering the current (by adding resistance):

You can add a variable resistor.  Just like the above solution you'd need a higher wattage rated device.

Pros:

It would indeed adjustably control the amount of current flowing through your element.

Cons:

A potentially fiery death.
This resistor would be handling some serious current and it doesn't have any housing as-is.  You wouldn't want your cat to brush against this.
This solution require wire splicing and would be inherently less safe for anyone not very familiar with electric systems.
Cost.  This is in the $350ish range
This could heat up depending on the setting you choose.

Summary:

Both of these solutions are costly compared to most smoker's retail value.  These higher power devices require alloys that are expensive to produce.

The variac would be my preferred cooler and safer solution out of the two, but keep in mind that the smoker control board wants plain old 120 line voltage.  It will not operate very far out of the 120 volt range and, even worse, could malfunction and not turn off the element.

Regardless of any solution,If you do proceed you will be hacking a 1000+ Watt device please be very careful.


This recipe is listed under the section for fermentation, together with beer, wine and mead. The section starts with the sentence "Wine, beer and traditional sodas all depend on yeast to ferment sugar into alcohol and generate carbonation".

I don't know enough about the history of soda to know if early sodas were alcoholic. Or rather, I am quite sure that there were alcoholic, fermented, carbonated drinks long before what we call "soda" today existed, but I don't know if they were called soda.

Whatever the language problem is, this recipe is definitely intended to produce a low-alcohol beverage, comparable to beer. If you want carbonated syrup, you should buy a carbonating machine. These take a bullet full of CO2 and press it into the drink base you have selected.

As for the too-strong carbonation, this is probably due to the vague term "room temperature". Yeast growth speed depends on temperature. Because it is an exponential growth, even small changes in temperature can lead to vastly different results. If you want to repeat the experiment despite the alcohol production, try better controlling for the temperature. As I don't brew, I can't tell you the temperature for optimal carbonation after two days, you will have to find it out by yourself.


Where did you look?
Here in Belgium we can find in the supermarket (in cans or frozen). We also have it fresh on some markets.

Maybe this can help you.
Here is a similar thread.

If you really can't find it, you can always buy seeds and put them in your garden.


What are some low fat butter substitutes for cookies?

You are asking not just to substitute for butter, but to reduce the total amount of fat in cookies.
All of the most common butter substitutes are going to be oils, margarine or other fats since they will perform similarly in the chemistry of the cookie.  This makes it difficult to offer a simple substitution.

Instead, I recommend taking the approach of making cookies that are naturally lower in fat such as:

Meringues - zero fat
Macaroons  - little fat, just in the coconut
Macrons (french style) - little fat, without the filling -- just from the nut powder

or using recipes designed specifically to have lower fat content.   If you google "reduced fat cookie recipe" you will find a wealth of results.

One site that looks promising, although I cannot vouch for it as I haven't tried the recipes is:

Good housekeeping's reduced fat cookie recipes

Another source for lower calorie recipes that are often pretty good, although not targeted specifically at reducing fat is:

Cooking light

Since fat contributes a lot of calories, you may have luck with their recipes.

The benefit of using recipes designed for less fat is that they are (from reputable sources) tested and likely to give you a better outcome than simply trying to substitute in a traditional recipe.

Also, you can try simply reducing the amount of fat in the cookie.   This is going to be tricky as it will modify the chemistry, but you may be able to get away with a 1/4 to 1/3 reduction before you get completely unpalatable results, but this will require testing on a recipe by recipe basis.  It also will not work well for cookies based on the creaming method, as the fat medium is part of the leavening (the purpose of the creaming method is to create a solid fat/air foam).

One final thought:  some people say you can substitute apple sauce.  You might try this on a recipe by recipe basis, but it will completely change the cookie.  I think you will get better results with recipes created from the ground up to use less fat.


Can plastic grocery store misters be used for oil?

No, they don't work well. I've tried them.

First, the viscosity of the oil seems to be wrong for them. Instead of producing a cloud of oil particles, they produce a stream which exits with some force, like a mini water pistol. Second, the plastic of mine got softer with time, and I had the feeling that it also lost some color, so I suspect that something from the plastic leached into the oil.

It might be that I had unusually bad luck with mine, but I suspect that the physical properties of oil and water require different pump head parameters and the problem will apply to any water-intended model. If you are really strapped for cash, it makes no sense to make such a risky investment, since the chance it will work is not good.


Does a granite pestel need to be re-grooved?

Just to clarify, the mortar is the bowl and the pestle is the rod. I haven't ever seen a grooved pestle, but the grooves on a mortar will wear off with use. The grooves are useful for holding seeds and the like in place while grinding, but they are not strictly necessary. Spices can actually be ground finer in a smooth mortar than they can with a grooved one since the particles can't get caught in the ridges, however the initial grinding and tapping may take slightly longer to get started as you chase things like seeds around the bowl a little. The rough surface of the granite alone is enough, just adjust your technique as it wears more.


The dough in my bread maker collapses just after cooking starts

I would first check on the type of flour I am using. To produce breads, always use flour that contains the highest protein count. It is this protein that produces gluten, and the more of this protein the stronger the gluten. This can be called a multitude of things, from 'Strong Flour', to 'Baker's Flour', to 'Best For Bread'.

Another thing you might want to do is check your mixing times. If your dough is undermixed, the gluten will not be strong enough to properly expand and hold structure from the CO2 produced by the yeast. Likewise, if the dough is overmixed you can see the same problem.

just a couple of things to start.

EDIT: you don't mention what type of flour you are using at all... If you aren't at least using a 50% mix of wheat flour, you aren't going to get proper rise as wheat flour is the only type that contains 'gluten'. Even when you buy 'whole wheat bread', this is usually a mixture of flours.


Without more details from you...

Try kneading the fondant more to make it more pliable and soft.
Work quickly after kneading.
Roll the fondant a touch thicker.
Try using less icing sugar/cornstarch if you are using these during rolling out.
Freeze your cake for a bit to stiffen the structure to avoid edges cutting into fondant sheet.
Gently adhere the fondant on the cake, holding the side/base of the cake before smoothing the entire fondant sheet onto the cake.


It appears simply there is no word in English to describe this process, and you have to use descriptive expressions like "simmer until dissolved".


What can I do with a large amount of dried cilantro?

Cilantro (or as the rest of the world calls it, coriander) is one of the most ridiculously applicable cooking herbs I have had the privilege of using.

That said, you are correct - when dried, it's application becomes far more limited (to a far greater extent than most other herbs and spices).

I have successfully used dried coriander in english stews, curries, pies, ice-cream, fried/breakfast egg seasoning, salads and coffee.

I have not successfully used it in stir-fries, any asian cooking, thai curries, or anything complicated or french, where fresh coriander does seem to work.

Take this with a grain of salt, but I think it has something to do with the way coriander breaks down in slow-cooked or oil-heavy dishes, so fast stuff or with coconut milk etc doesn't work so well with the dried herb.


What is a economic way to store/buy ingredient for salad

I myself love to eat salads, but can't ever seem to store them for more than a week. For me, I  only buy salad when I want to eat it. However, there are some tricks for getting more miles out of your garden treats. Here are two:

Remove as much air as possible from your storage container
This is kind of a no-brainier, but I have had people in my household set an open plate of salad in the refrigerator, and wonder why it spoiled over night. Air and moisture are the enemy and make sure to protect your goods. You have probably seen on commercials special bags or containers that claim to remove air and keep vegetables fresh. Be wary of these products, I have tried some and usually don't get the features promised.

Don't cut salad with a metal knife
Perhaps a lesser know fact about lettuce is that cutting it with certain metals accelerates the oxidation process. This simply means that your lettuce will turn brown faster if you cut it. Try using a ceramic knife or rip your greens when preparing to slow down on browning.

To answer your questions about storing. I would recommend not keeping your greens for more that a week, and store them in within the designated bin marked in your refrigerator. This bin is designed to remove moisture and keep your veggies fresher longer.


Prevent onions and potatoes from sticking to bottom of steel pot for stew

If your spices are sticking to the bottom you may have the pan too hot, and/or not enough oil. Spices need definitely benefit from some frying to release their flavors, however too hot and you can burn them, and if there's not enough oil they tend to clump, stick and sometimes burn. I like to turn the heat down a bit below medium before frying off my spices, and keep my oil bottle close by in case they clump. If they clump and stick I will drizzle more oil in until they loosen up.

If your pan gets sticky carbs will tend to stick to the bottom, a technique to prevent this is to deglaze the pan with some water, this will loosen the stuff on the bottom and reduce additional sticking.


How to choose fresh, ripe (hot) jalapeños?

First, Jalapenos do not ripen once picked.  No pepper does.

Red jalapenos are actually ripe and have more flavor, although they are not, in my experience, any hotter than the standard green, slightly-less-than-ripe, jalapenos.

There is no relationship between shape and capsaicin content that I know of.  So, mostly you're just trying to get jalapenos which are as freshly-picked as possible: no bruised spots, no spots or mold, stems not shriveled, etc.

Also, note that the seeds and membrane inside the jalapeno contain most of its capsaicin, so if you're looking for hot, do not remove those.


Do you already have a decent urn that makes decent coffee? Is the problem just that it doesn't shutoff and burns the coffee?

Short of recommending a $450-800 airpot brew-station solution, and without suggesting you buy/blow $200 on a middling solution, I would recommend you go for the $20 solution; a wall timer.

Personal Opinion: I think any unit you buy for around $1-200 will be sacrificing somewhere; be it in capacity, potency, or whatever there will be money ineffectively spent. A thermal solution is better than a heated one. You would be better off either waiting to spend the money on a lasting, quality solution or hacking a cheap solution and spending the $80 left over on fresh donuts for a few weeks.

That said I have no experience with the manufacturer unit you listed. According to Google, that unit;

  is a digital coffee urn, including a temperature readout, automatic timer, and adjustable keep warm and delay timer settings to give you precise control of brewing an - large coffee urn, coffee urn, commercial coffee urn, stainless coffee urn, 60 cup coffee urn, stainless steel, entertaining, catering, nostalgia electrics, 60 cup

...So it should match your criteria. I didn't see any direct reviews of that unit.


What are the options for thawing a frozen turkey?

Let's start with the assumption that Safety is never in the balance.  Safety has to be taken into account for any method that we use and that means that we want to keep any food that is time and temperature sensitive out of the danger zone.  The danger zone is the temperature range from 40 degrees F to 140 degrees F.

If you have plenty of time, letting the turkey defrost in the refrigerator is safest and easiest, since there is little that you have to do.  The turkey is always out of the danger zone and all you have to do is put it in the refrigerator.  However, it can take a very long time, 24 hours for each 5 pounds of turkey weight...4 days for a 20 pound turkey.

Assuming you haven't planned that far ahead, the other safe method is to defrost in the sink with cold running water.  The water doesn't need to be pouring out, just a steady stream so the water turns over regularly.  Water is a better conductor of heat than air, so the turkey will defrost more rapidly than in the refrigerator.

The danger zone is why you don't want to defrost the turkey using warm water, or just sitting on the counter.  In either of those cases, the outside meat is warmed into the danger zone before the inside defrosts, so you have some of the meat (the part that is most likely to have come into contact with contaminants) in a temperature range that promotes bacterial growth.


What are the 'acidity controllers' used in canned whole tomatoes?

It is normally just a mild organic acid like citric acid, they tend to act as buffers. But the reason to use a word like "acidity controller" is exactly to be able to use something else (say malic acid) so they don't have to reprint the label if they change the recipe.

The reasons for acidity controllers is both safety (not enough acidity will make the can unsafe) and taste - too much or too little acidity will result in a taste difference between charges, because each batch of tomatoes comes with different acidity.

Basic buffers like baking soda cannot be used, because this would make the contents practically uncannable, and very unpleasant to eat to boot.


Is it possible to make rice porridge without simmering for 1 hour+?

I make rice porridge in the oven. I bring the rice and milk to a boil on the stove and then place the entire pot, lid on, in the oven on ~90 degrees C for 4-8 hours, depending on the amount of rice. I'm basically using a DIY slow cooker. I imagine there are methods involving an actual slow cooker as well. The total time for my method is longer, but you don't need to stir constantly after bringing it to a boil.

If you have a pressure cooker, that can be used to make rice pudding much quicker. A pressure cooker recipe will according to my Google-fu take about 30 minutes total, and no stirring.


How long is it safe to defrost frozen vacuum packed chicken in cold water

It sounds like you weren't using running water, which guarantees that the water the chicken would be sitting in stays at a constant temperature. Since you had left it in a standing pot of cold water, the temperature of that water probably got up to 50 or 60 degrees, depending on how cool you keep your house, which is most definitely within the danger-zone. Your chicken was not thawed safely.

That does not necessarily mean that it was contaminated, but rather that it had the opportunity to become contaminated.

Personally, I think you'll be fine, because your husband caught it before it was out for too long, but 4.5 hours is certainly pushing it. As long as you cook it properly to at least 165 degrees, the chances of you getting food poisoning are pretty slim.

Also, for future reference, if you are going to quick defrost chicken in water, you should only be doing so when you plan on immediately cooking it, rather than throwing it back in the fridge. See here.


Apart from water, rice is mainly made from starch. Starch is initially packed in a crystalline structure that is not soluble. However if you soak it for long enough or expose it to heat, the starch slowly 'unpacks' and binds with water, resulting in a soluble compound. This is called starch gelatinization, and is what you are aiming for when you soak your rice in water (note it gains volume!). But it works in two ways: now soluble starch molecules detach from the rice and go into the water. This is why it gets cloudy.

The upshot is that this water is full of rice starch, and if you cook it will behave similar to when you add corn starch to water: thicken and form a glue. If you cook your rice in this water you should thus expect a much stickier result, with big lumps of rice 'glued' together. This is not always undesirable! Risotto is an example of cooked rice where we deliberately use this effect (so don't wash or soak your risotto rice).


If you make your own burgers you don't need to include any salt at all. You could make them unseasoned but you may find you enjoy them more if they've got herbs/spices in them. This also holds for sausages if you can be bothered to make them. Marinades don't need any salt either, though of course you may choose to add a little. Spring (salad) onion and garlic are very useful if you're reducing the salt.

Grilled veg is often best simply brushed with oil. I like to use chilli oil or pizza oil (chilli and herb). Along with steaks, chicken etc. you can also brush with a little oil and rub in spices or herbs.

Many sauces you might add after cooking also contain a fair bit of salt. Making your own or choosing ones that taste less salty will also help. Ketchup, for example, varies a lot in salt content.

You're probably used to fairly salty food, but your tastes can adjust fairly quickly.


What do I need to know when moving from an electric hob to a gas hob

The main difference is speed that it changes temperature. So when you turn the hob on it is at the heat you turned it to almost immediately, if you turn it down it is cooler that second.

This won't take long to get used to but if you have recipes which say something along the lines of "Bring to the boil before reducing to a simmer" you can now do exactly that as opposed to the best approximation electric gives.

Another important thing to note is that you want the flames under the pot, not going around the edges: so you need to use the right size pan; usually you want to put it on the largest ring which means the flames are under. If flames do go around the edges you'll find pan handles won't last long and you might have more trouble getting the temperature you want.

You will also find that you have more flexibility with choosing new pans as the thermal contact isn't just at a flat surface: woks, or pans with ribbed or curved surfaces will work better. Pans you might not have liked much before could become new favourites!

You'll love it, I don't think i could ever go back to electric.


How to cook a fish to make its bone as soft as those in sardines?

Sardines are canned, which means the high heat of a pressure canner.  That is what softens the bones.  If you are wanting softer bones for other kinds of fish, you can either cook them using a pressure cooker or can them.  However, this will only work for smaller fish that have smaller bones.

If your main concern is that you will swallow a bone and choke, then buy your fish as fillets only.  Most fish fillets have no bones at all. The pin bones that are in salmon fillets can be removed with needle nose pliers, and are so small that you couldn't choke on them if you tried.


It removes excess starch, so your sushi rice doesn't turn into nasty glutinous slop. The texture of the rice is very important, so you'll need to rinse it several times before you steam it. Make sure the water is nice and clear after the last time you rinse it, and make sure you buy japonica or similar: if you use regular rice, you may not get good results.

I wouldn't worry overmuch about the nutritional content of white sushi rice (you can starve on a diet of it). It's what you put into your sushi that'll give it nutritional value.


Purely conjecture but...

You've heard of chicken fried steak... right?
We also have chicken fried chicken... which is chicken prepared in the same way as chicken fried steak. It's different than "fried chicken " because it's a boneless (often pounded) piece of breast meat.

It's amusingly recursive.

So, based on the description on the menu, it sounds like a version of chicken fried chicken but with lots of garlic, so maybe they decided to replace the "scary" word, "fried" with the delicious word "garlic".

Unfortunately this conjecture falls apart somewhat since chicken fried chicken is a staple of the southern US and the menu seems to be from a pub in England somewhere.


What is the lesser evil, degassing too early or too late?

In my experience (and I'm only an amateur baker), you could leave this until you get back and knock it back then.  If you leave it really long (e.g. 24 hours), you might find it just doesn't have enough life left in it to rise again properly after, but an extra hour or so will probably improve it - I've always found that recipes err on the side of speed.

For a 2 hour prove time, I'd keep it slightly cool but not fridge-cool.  Since you're using a very wet dough, you will find it gets a little stickier the longer you leave it, so might need slightly more flour when shaping.

Having said that, I've recently been experimenting with really long rise times (12-24 hours, for ciabatta) - I just haven't found a happy medium yet that suits me.


how much alcohol is cooked away in preparing agar agar?

There is a misconception that alcohol will easily burn off when used in cooking, and since pure alcohol has a lower boiling point than water, if you mix them, it is thought, the alcohol will burn off first.

The reality is that when mixed together the situation gets more complicated and the new boiling point of this solution is neither that of pure alcohol (173°F/78°C) nor water (212°F/100°C) and will fall between depending on the ratio of the mixture (keeping in mind that you started with water in your alcohol).

So if you want to cook with alcohol and burn more of it off it's best to do so before adding water. In your case you may want to cook down the liqueur first to remove more of the alcohol. If you combine them as you have been, you can assume that you'll burn off a similar ratio of water and alcohol from the solution.


Clarification on the process for making fudge

I like Kristina's suggestion that you research some of the basics of candy making. I'll answer those questions only briefly.

Generic Candy Questions

You don't need to heat particularly slowly
This is not like an egg custard where the speed of heating will affect the curdling temperature. You're just trying to get water out. Just don't heat it so fast that you burn the bottom or overshoot the target temp.
Temperature range
The different candy stages have about a 10F range. 2-5 degrees isn't going to make much of a difference but 7-12 will start to.
Adding volatile flavorings to candy
Many flavorings are lost to heat. Such flavorings are added at the end because if they boiled the entire time they would be gone.

Fudgy questions

Stirring
Stirring isn't required. The syrup won't burn unless you have the heat too high and are using a very cheap pot. Additionally, the syrup absolutely should not be stirred in the final moments of boiling because a sugar crystal might fall in that doesn't get dissolved. During cooling stirring would destroy the fudge because it would all crystallize.
Drying out
This is not a problem. The fudge will not dry out in the time it takes to cool.
Losing the gloss
As I wrote in the other answer, the syrup is concentrated and then cooled to a super saturated state and not allowed to crystallize. When it has cooled sufficiently it is mixed like crazy to form your crystals all at once. When this happens the shiny, glossy syrup suddenly fills with crystals and becomes thick and loses the gloss.

It is important that the syrup be cooled enough that it is ready to crystallize at the drop of a hat. Again- if you stir it early, as it cools, you will end up with rock candy (more or less). I just leave my candy thermometer clipped on until the target temperature is reached. Make sure the thermometer is clean- one stray sugar crystal can ruin the batch.


If it is keeps sticking together that probably means you are over cooking it. Might mean for your pasta recipe you need to use a lower cooking temperature. Go back to the original recipe and then start messing with the cooking temperature. Here are some helpful tips as well: http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/tips-for-better-easier-pasta.html


How can I package durian flesh so that its fragrance cannot be detected?

I would recon you´d need a glass or metal container, as aroma-molecules can diffuse though plastic.

This is basically the same Problem users of certain "herbs" have, so naturally there is a lot of information available if you look at the right places


Can you caramelize onions without using fat?

You do not add fat to sugar when caramelizing it, you add it to the pan dry. Sugar has water suspended in it, and it comes out when heated. The caramel will transfer the heat to the onions just fine - anyone who's ever gotten splattered with hot caramel will attest to that.


What are the basic ratios for making a chutney

The average of four different recipes that use apples or pears to make a chutney suggest the ratios

  1.3lb of fruit : 1 cups of sugar : 0.9 cup of vinegar

or in units related to the metric system

  300g of fruit : 100g of sugar : 100ml of vinegar

The fruit weight is for peeled and cored apples or pears, the 0.9 cups is the same as filling a cup and then taking out 2 tablespoons.

If you add cayenne to the recipe you may want to increase the sugar a bit. If you add raisins, decrease the sugar.

If you end up with 6kg of diced apples, then use 2kg of sugar and 2l of vinegar.


Turning down the temperature by 20C was a good idea because of the fan, however it may be too much in your oven's case as it sounds like the temperature was a bit too low.

What likely happened was that the fan blowing over the center of the bread cooked the center first, but the fan didn't blow on the sides of the bread as much. This has happened to me when I'm using a high sided baking tin where the bread was not up to the top. I find when baking breads and cakes that the fan tends to char the outside of things even if I turn it down, and then the inside doesn't cook so well, so I usually leave the fan off. I suggest you try the recommended temperature with the fan off and see how that works.


What is a close alternative to Graeffe brown sugar?

Normal cassonade is cane or candy sugar with added molasses (I don't know what the exact difference is with brown sugar, I think cassonade is just a type of brown sugar.), however this cassonade is from sugar beets.

My best guess to replicate it is to put some regular granulated sugar for a couple of seconds in a blender, so the size of the particles is smaller. Then add some molasses and if you can find it, a drop of inverted sugar syrup. I've also found that there is caramel added in Cassonade Graeffe, but I don't know whether they add that flavour or they caramelize the sugar for a short amount of time. If I find the time, I will try to find out more, but it's not a product with a lot of information about.

If you just want a close alternative, I would advise you to just buy different kinds of brands of brown sugar. Perhaps, one will be softer than the other (I don't live in the US, I can't speak to that). Try to find brown sugar from beets, not from cane sugar (not sure if this is available).
Or if you're willing to pay the taxes and shipping costs, I can send you a package.


Balance out lemon juice in a smoothie, stinging my throat

You can add some sugar, but if you want to watch your sugar intake you can try using baking soda. You need only a small amount of baking soda. Roughly 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda for 1 cup of liquid should be enough. Too much baking soda can lead to a soapy taste, so use it sparingly.


Why would a recipe call for pouring boiling butter into egg-whites?

This is from a low-carb blog, specifically a gluten-free fluff marshmallow frosting recipe with that specific instruction – I asked the writer why she does it that way and here is her response:

  There are a few reasons why the hot butter is poured into the beaten egg
  whites. First of all, the egg whites are beaten first to give the
  maximum volume to the frosting. Secondly, the butter mixture is poured
  while it’s hot to prevent gelatin forming lumps or erythritol
  crystallizing. The hot butter also gives some shine to the frosting
  when poured into the beaten egg whites.

This is step five on her list of directions; her response is at the very bottom of the page in the comment section.

http://www.lowcarbsosimple.com/low-carb-marshmallow-fluff-frosting/#comment-276


converting dried measurements to soaked measurements

250g of canned black beans is about a cup of soaked/cooked beans, which is the same as a drained 15oz/425g tin.

The volume of beans increases from 2-3x. It is probably closer to 3x for black beans but I'm not certain.

So I would cook up about 80g-90g of dry beans, I think that will get you a bit more than you need without a huge waste. 70g would probably nail it but if I'm wrong you would be short. And I'd take notes on what the weight change is for future reference :-).


How to remove film from stainless steel pan

As others have already said, it appears to be polymerized oil. It happens when oil is left in the pan hot for a long period (temperature depends on oil), or smoking for not as long. However, lye probably isn't required to remove it.

Bar Keeper's Friend and a bit of scrubbing will probably manage to take this off. As an advantage, while getting BKF on your hands will dry your hands out, it won't cause injury—unlike lye.

Alternatively, a scouring pad and plenty of elbow grease will take it off as well (though will also leave shallow scratches in the stainless—it'll not be polished anymore). Or, similarly, a sanding block or sandpaper.

I wouldn't put an aluminum core stainless (or tri-ply) in an oven on the self-clean cycle. Those get very hot, somewhere around 900°F, and I'd not at all be surprised if the pan warped.


So, I checked Wikipedia, and want to make sure you plan to add salt into the barrel WITH the chile puree. I'm not sure why they would add more on top, but I'm not judging, here. However, if you want fermentation and not nightmare juice, you NEED to mix salt into that puree. It looks like you want 2.5% salt.

Another general advice thing I need to mention-- When your puree ferments it will grow. The bacteria magicking your mash into sauce will produce gas that will literally push your sauce up and out of your container if you don't give it some room to, quite literally, breathe.

To answer your actual question, when it comes to fermentation, smaller amounts don't actually mean smaller fermentation times. Your chile peppers will all be nice and full of bacteria and natural sugars to feed them, and the salt will help keep the bad stuff from taking over. More bacteria would give you a faster ferment, but the amount of bacteria you have depends on the amount of peppers you use. The time of your ferment will depend on your environment and personal preference more than anything.

If you WANT a faster ferment, you can look into adding extra bacteria to start things off. You could add some dried chile flakes (Korean flakes are mild but tasty if you've never tried them) or look into tossing in a commercial starter. But doing either of those things will change the character of your final product.


How much caffeine would there be if I reuse tea leaves in a second brewing?

In general it looks like 65-75% of the total caffeine comes out in the first steeping, while 20-25% comes out in the second steeping. This was addressed in this paper which examined different types of tea. The results are summarized in this table. For more details check out this reddit thread.


Chuck or "stew" beef labeled in the super market

"Stew beef" is slightly cheaper than buying a whole roast and cutting it up, because the stew beef is made up of bits and pieces that were left over after the prettier roasts had been carved.

If it's not to your taste, spring for a whole roast and cut it up yourself.

WARNING: Fat content in meat that is supposed to be cooked for a long time is a good thing. Keeps the meat from drying out. It's more efficient to simply cook the stew in advance, and then skim the rendered fat off the top, before you reheat it.


By mixing the dry ingredients separately and whisking them a bit before adding them to the liquid, you are making sure that the baking soda/powder/salt, gets evenly distributed throughout the flour.  Also, the flour will be able to absorb the liquid easier and more uniformly without the flour becoming over-worked.

From my personal experience, when I didn't do it this way my cakes seemed to be drier than cakes I had made when I combined them as instructed.  But this is from my personal experience, and others may have had different experiences.


Which of these ingredients are the acid component of a marinade?

I see no acidic elements to your "marinade."  Chili pepper (mentioned in the comments) is probably basic, rather than acidic.  As written (and as commented on) it sounds more like a rub than a marinade.  Both rubs and marinades impart flavor to the surface of proteins. Being acidic is not a requirement of a marinade.


Deep frying - beer batter vs. bread crumbs

As SAJ14SAJ mentioned, when doing a batter coating, you need to hold it in the oil for a second before letting it drop, so that it'll crust up before it touches the basket.

However, you also mentioned 'with some zucchini slices on top', I suspect that the batter came off entirely.

Breading for frying is a bit strange, as you need to make sure that you don't put something wet on top of something else wet (or dry on dry), and no layer too thick.

So, in the case of the zucchini, you need to make sure that the pieces are very dry before putting them in the batter ... if they're freshly sliced, they'll extrude liquid, and so you may need to coat them in flour or starch, shake them off, and then put them in the batter.


How to cook tubular ground beef using only disposable items?

You can try going with the classic Boy Scout "hobo" stew.  Put your beef, some sliced potatoes, carrots, celery into a foil that you then fold up completely to make a "poche" or pocket.  In this case the potatoes will absorb some of the grease...you'll still have the flavor.  But you are still going to have a lot of fat, such is the nature of 80/20 beef.

And, of course you could just broil burgers.

You might want to modify your question to state why you want to avoid using any containers.  If it is just a cleaning issue, you can line anything with foil and make clean up easy without having to go to so much trouble to come up with something.


I have seen recipes where a hot caramel was poured on the crust before the filling is added. It's designed to help help keep the crust from becoming soggy.

Sadly, I can't find a recipe for you; googling turns up a lot of results for caramel sauces on top. But I can give you a basic approach:

Prepare your crust in the pan. Dissolve 1/2 cup sugar in 2 tablespoons of water. Bring to boil over high heat. Cook without stirring until it becomes a nice, rich brown (about 350 degrees).

Pour the hot syrup over your crust, and tilt to cover the crust evenly. (You'll probably have more syrup than you really need.) Allow to cool (about 20 minutes) before pouring in the filling. Bake as before.

(Bonus: it helps to wrap a large, wide sheet of aluminum foil around your springform pan before putting your cake in the water bath, to prevent leaks.)


What is the difference between Chapati and a Paratha?

Chapati or roti -> Made by folding dough and making a triangle shape results in 3 layered indian bread. If you tear the chapati made this way it will show you 3 layers.

Fulka -> Fulka is made by rolling the dough ball without folding it. This results into a 2 layer indian bread. Its easier to make a circle shape using this method.

Paratha -> Paratha is generally stuffed with some filling. There is plain paratha also (without filling). If it is stuffed , it is not folded into triangle during preparation. If it is plain paratha, it can be made either folding or just rolling (like fulka).

Oil added while kneading dough/ making chapati (folding) / while roasting on tawa ,  helps to keep the product soft.


Is it best to just cook with the oil that has the highest smoking point?

The smoke point of the oil is only one factor.  It is advantageous in some types of cooking (particularly searing and deep frying) to have a very high smoke point.

Cost is another factor; the high smoke point oils are often more refined (getting rid of the elements that smoke) and are therefore more expensive.

They also don't contribute flavor the same way something like (unrefined) olive oil will do.

Most importantly, however, they will not really save you any effort on cleanup.  You still need to wash your pans.   They may be somewhat less likely to polymerize on into a hard film during routine cooking, but that should not happen in any case.


That's called the "rind".  It's the outer layer of cheese, hardened by the drying process, and colored brown with food coloring in order to imitate more artisinal smoked cheeses (where it would be actually brown due to smoke).  It's perfectly edible, and doesn't generally taste any different from the rest of the cheese food.