I worked at a movie theater for a few years in high school. We cooked popcorn in coconut oil and applied Popcorn Salt (the kind that includes artificial flavorings in addition to the salt) during cooking and at time of serving per customer's request.

For application after cooking we stocked many flavors of a brand of popcorn seasoning known as "Kernel Seasons." Those flavorings range from the expected cheddar and french onion to the stranger marshmallow and caramel.

These flavorings were fun every once in a while but most of them had strong chemical aftertastes. It's quick and easy to apply. Kids have a blast with it. People who object to artificial flavors will not enjoy it though.

You could try something like a powdered ranch dressing mix or some other spice mix for similar results.

The key is adding some salt during the cooking process. It sticks much better that way. Any additional seasoning should be added as quickly as possible after popping while the corn is still "wet" with oil on the surface, again for stickiness.


Beef: Red on the outside, brown on the inside

The meat is brown on the inside not due to too much oxygen but due to a lack of oxygen.
Oxygen can pass through the packaging but not, generally, through the meat itself.  Thus, the interior of the meat runs out of oxygen faster than the exterior (which is still exposed to oxygen from the air) and browns for this reason.
I'll quote the full-explanation from the USDA, just for reference:

Why is pre-packaged ground beef red on the outside and sometimes dull, grayish-brown inside?
Oxygen from the air reacts with meat pigments to form a bright red color which is usually seen on the surface of meat purchased in the supermarket. The pigment responsible for the red color in meat is oxymyoglobin, a substance found in all warm-blooded animals. Fresh cut meat is purplish in color. The interior of the meat may be grayish brown due to lack of oxygen; however, if all the meat in the package has turned gray or brown, it may be beginning to spoil.


A minimum of 4 hours isn't necessary. Pork chops don't have that much fat on them, don't have much tough tissue, and since their tenderness is on the same sort of level as decent steaks, I would cook them for a short time sous vide, not a long time.

As you hopefully already know about sous vide:

The duration of cooking isn't just "until it's safe to eat," but also about "how long it takes to convert collagen to gelatine" aka. "how to make tough cuts soft." A tough cut could already be "safe to eat" but still require many hours before it is "tasty."
Also, the duration of cooking will change depending on the
thickness of the cut. Keep that in mind: a 2cm thick pork chop will
cook faster than a 4cm thick pork chop. Also, a cylindrical item will
cook faster than a cuboid of the same width and height. Science!
The higher the temperature, the less time you need to cook it.
The tougher a cut of meat is, the longer the cooking duration is, to turn
that piece of meat into something tender.

If you don't already know those things, well, you do now! Also, go do lots of reading! Douglas Baldwin's Sous vide guide is a fantastic beginner's resource, also highlighting the (bacterial and parasitic) dangers and how to avoid them.

So what happens to a lean, decently tender piece of meat that you cook for a long time? Well, I've made mush before. You can strangely make cuts of meat both drier and mushier. Granted, it took 36 hours, but it can be done ...

I would cook the chop for 1 hour at 130 degrees F (54.4 degrees Celsius) for something that's quite pink, because I would be sacrificing some pink when I sear it on a pan afterwards.

I would cook it for 45 minutes at 144 degrees F (62.2 degrees Celsius) for something that has just a small amount of pink, because I wouldn't be searing after (for instance, I would be crumbing and deep frying after.)

I would cook it for 4-8 hours at 134 degrees F (56.6 degrees Celsius) for something that doesn't matter what the colour is, I am probably mixing it cubed in a curry or something, or I just really wanted to see what the texture was like.

I would also refer to Douglas Baldwin's guide on pork and table of meat thickness and cooking times, because that's a good idea. You can see he mentions both a quick and a slow method (13 min+ depending on thickness and temperature, or 12 hours slow.)

TL;DR: All the times and temperatures you mentioned will be adequate to safely cook the meat, it just depends on the final texture and style you want.


How can I make cakes in 20Ltr ONIDA Black Diamond conventional microwave oven?

I don't have specific instructions for that oven - and it is likely you won't find any recipes specific for that oven unless it came with a cook-book when supplied. However, it is possible to cook cakes in a microwave oven, there are many recipes available on the internet (e.g. this one).

You will need a recipe for a cake that is designed to be cooked in the microwave; conventional recipes do not usually work without some adapting.

Microwaves generally don't come with a temperature setting because they don't work off transferred heat (infra-red radiation) like a convection or fan oven, instead they use microwave frequency radiation, which gets absorbed by the items in the microwave cooking them directly - water is a strong absorber of microwaves, meaning it gets heated rapidly compared to a transferred heat system. Microwaves do however come with a power setting - again, this is a little confusing, because what it actually is, is a timer that switches the microwave generator on and off for different periods of time - longer breaks between it being on at "lower power" settings. These power settings are often useful for baking, especially if you are trying to cook a large cake.

You will also not be able to use your metal or teflon-lined metal baking pans in a microwave. I recommend using a well-greased glass or ceramic bowl or a silicone baking mould.


How to prevent a baker's chocolate mixture from resolidifying so that it can be used in beverages?

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but what came to my mind was making a ganache - pouring heated cream over chopped chocolate and then stirring until the chocolate is melted.  By adjusting the ratios of cream to chocolate, you can make a lovely thick chocolate syrup that works well for stirring into beverages.

There are 4 standard ratios of chocolate and cream, for different purposes:

2:1 (chocolate:cream) is very firm and holds its shape, good for uncoated truffles.

3:2 is firm but slightly softer; good for coated chocolates and cake icings.

1:1 is soft and smooth; good for tart and cake fillings, some cake icings, and spreads

1:2 is pourable and sauce-like - the obvious choice for sauces.

(from a Chowhound article on ganache)


Digestive cookies - substitute in South Africa?

You'd probably get away with any kind of sweet hard biscuit.

I'm not South African, so I can't help you if you want a local biscuit, but looking at Woolworth's online shop suggests you might actually be able to find Digestives, or there's Bourbons, Shortbread, or even Ginger Nuts if you fancy trying something a little different from the recipe.

Note that although the recipe calls them cookies, it's just using the American term for biscuit (even though it seems to be a British website).


How should I decorate a Spanish Epiphany cake?

If you do a google image search for roscón de reyes (Spanish spelling) you'll find them usually decorated with candied fruit, either just red (glacé cherries), red and green or red, green and orange. Sources vary, whether the fruit are supposed to stand for the jewels, the Three Wise Men brought to Bethlehem or for the jewels on a crown per se. Coarse sugar and chopped / slivered almonds are also rather frequent. Overall, there seem lots of different layouts and decorations, so I think, if you somewhat stick to "(alternating types of) candied fruit arranged on top", you're good to go.

If you do have a bit of a perfectionistic attitude, remember that the traditional decoration may vary from region to region, even from family to family. While I personally believe that your friends are probably already deeply moved by your gesture (otherwise I'd have them bring the cake), if you want some inspiration, I suggest you take a walk and check the window displays of your local bakeries - they'll have what's considered "the right" version in your place.


What is the appropriate lentil-to-water ratio for stovetop lentils?

In surveying the web, I have found a variety of ratios from 1:2 to 1:4 by volume, and some which measure the toor dal by weight.

I suspect some of the variation comes from the desired outcome (more or less soupy or poridgy), and whether or not the peas were pre-soaked.

You can google "toor dal recipe without pressure cooker".

This recipe for stove top toor dal suggests pre-soaking, and then using a 1:2 ratio of water.  The author provides lots of pictures and explanation.


How to prevent burning when frying bread?

Given that the frying of a cube of bread is a test for oil temperature, I suspect one or both of two things are happening here -

1 The oil is not at the correct temperature when the cubes of bread are dropped in it; and
2 The oil temperature drops when you add too many cubes in at the same time so some get burnt and some end up soggy for the single time duration you're cooking them for.

Suggested solutions -

1 Ensure the oil is at the correct temperature for the level of browness you want the cubes of bread to be fried to.
2 Don't over-crowd the pan. Fry them in batches, ensuring the oil temperature rises back to the correct one before the next batch is fried.


How to Prepare Chickpea Purée from a Can?

Chickpea puree with sesame paste would be hummus. Hummus can be served warm or cold, so you could serve it straight out of the can if you wanted. To warm it up, I'd avoid heating it with any kind of direct heat, but it should be fine microwaved briefly. When it is served warm, it's not hot by any means, so a gentle heating is all that's needed.


Non-stick spray is mostly canola oil plus some water and an emulsifier. So canola oil would work well as would most vegetable oils.

To get an application closer to non-stick spray you can pour some on a paper towel and rub it on your cooking surface. You can also buy misters that are made especially for this purpose.

Crisco is mostly soy bean oil and palm oil. It will technically work well, but personally I find the flavor of palm oil to be a little stronger and not as appetizing as other vegetable oils.


What would happen if I made angel food cake with whipped cream instead of whipped egg whites?

It would not work. The benefit of egg is that it is largely (aside from water) comprised of protein (~12g/100g). This forms a stable structure when you whip it, that is maintained because the proteins denature (that's why the white goes white from clear when cooked) and form an insoluble and highly stable mass.

Cream, on the other hand is largely fat (19g/100g), which forms an emulsion when whipped. When you heat fat - it melts. This would mean that the batter would lose its air and structure.


Does the foam from instant coffee always taste bitter?

With proper coffee the foam is referred to as crema. It is typically quite bitter itself (as coffee tends to be anyway), which seems to be a function of the emulsion of the aromatic oils  in the crema and CO2 from the bubbles. I don't know that the crema on an instant coffee is any more bitter than the crema on an espresso
Instant coffee aims to replicate the crema to give the appearance of a quality coffee. I have found (I'm from NZ, where we drink quite a lot of instant coffee generally), that instant coffee tends to have a faint chemical taste in the crema that isn't present in an espresso coffee. I suspect this is a result of the process of manufacturing instant coffee, or even perhaps as a result of aiming to get a crema on the instant without the pressurized equipment used to make an espresso coffee


How to make spherical chocolate-enrobed candies?

What you need, my good man, is a candy fork.

Basically it's a two-tined fork with incredibly thin tines. Dip, lift, allow excess to drip off, place on parchment (you will get a tiny 'foot' but this is normal).

unless you're talking about absolutely perfect spheres? to my knowledge this is not doable by hand, you will need industrial machinery. and the two hemispheres method will leave you with a seam.

i have heard one solution for the tiny hole left by a thin skewer is another tiny dab of chocolate and a quick blast with a hair dryer to smooth out any imperfections, but i have never tried it myself.


Beef discoloration on parts not in contact with air

When meat is first cut, it is purplish in color.  If it is exposed to enough oxygen, it can turn a bright red.  Eventually it will turn brown.

If the meat is cut and exposed to air, but then deprived of enough oxygen to turn red, the color will go from purplish directly to brownish.  (See this USDA FAQ, which was also quoted in the answer to a similar question here on ground beef.)

Also, many meat packers make use of small amounts of carbon monoxide during the packaging process.  Exposing fresh meat to carbon monoxide will retain the bright red color on the exterior for a longer period.

In the past, the interior browning with exterior redness was mostly visible in heavily processed meat (like ground beef), where the grinding exposes a lot of meat surface to air, but then deprives it of oxygen.  I assume that the carbon monoxide processing now makes it possible to see meats with less cutting involved (like sliced meats or steaks) where the exterior stays red for much longer, even as the cuts that are stacked or overlap may sometimes turn brown on the surface.


Will I definitely get food poisoning from unrefrigerated meat?

Of course there's no guaranty that you will get sick - there almost never is - this doesn't mean you should ignore food safety.

There are three large factors that influence how "safe" your meat is:

How much harmfull microorganisms were in your meat to begin with?
How much did these microorganisms multiply and more importantly metabolize?
How "healthy" are you? / What amount of toxin/microorganisms can your body handle?

You only will get "food poisoning" when you have ingested a sufficient amount of microorganisms / poisons produced by microorganisms to overhelm your own immune system.

So why do we still clamour about food safety?

Because you can't controll the factors involved. In a normal kitchen environment you have no way of knowing how "contaminated" your food is, or how much your system can handle.

Stay on the safe side, assume the worst, and throw out food which might not be safe to eat.

On a side note. Extreme temperatures (e.g. freezing / cooking) do not "sanitize" food.


Why does the roux separate from my gumbo?

Making a roux has two purposes:

Coat the flour granules with fat so they are able to dissolve into the cooking liquid without binding up.
Cook the flour to remove the raw cereal flavor.

When the cooked, fat-covered, flour is introduced to boiling liquid the starch granules swell and explode tangling up the cooking liquid. The cooking liquid is thus thickened and delicious.

If your roux is separating then the starch has not gelatinized. Because you saw this problem in the slow cooker and not in a pot I suspect that you are simply not bringing your liquid to a full enough boil to gelatinize your starch.

I have never seen a roux separate out. The roux should dissolve into the cooking liquid. You might check your ratio and make sure that you don't have too much oil in your roux. Variability in measuring your flour might account for why you see this intermittently.


How can I tell whether beetroot is still edible?

Generally, raw beetroot shouldn't become soft. The thing is that there are differing definitions of soft. If it is soft like a tomato is, then it has probably spoiled. If, on the other hand, it is still firm but has little "give" to it, then it's probably alright to eat.

It is the cooking that softens it up, though it can be eaten raw. I grate some raw beetroot into salads and stuff occasionaly, just for fun.

I'm not sure what to say about the smell thing. I think that raw beetroot generally smells a little earthy, especially if you haven't peeled it yet. The very distinct beetroot smell is usually released by cooking.

Obviously this is all a bit vague, as we can't send smells over the net yet.


Deep frying noodles is likely to create bubbles, depending on exactly how the dough was formed; this is normal and expected.  You see this on almost all battered fried foods.

The actual mechanism is that the heat of the oil partially sets the starches on the surface of the noodle fairly quickly, creating an a barrier to the further escape of water or steam.  As the water under the surface converts to steam from the heat of frying, it expands dramatically (about 1,700 times the volume of the water), but has no where to go.  The pressure created from the steam pushes out the surface noodle, creating a bubble.

As the frying continues, the starches completely set, making the bubble surface crispy and brittle.

I don't think there is a simple method to control this process.  You could try frying at a slightly lower temperature, which would slow the process down, and perhaps allow more steam to escape rather than create bubbles, but I haven't tried this, and am not confident that it would work.


I'm not aware of any vegetarian Chinese soup stock. Typical ramen stock is "Superior stock" I think. See this link for a reference recipe: https://www.homemade-chinese-soups.com/soups-stocks.html

My advice would be, if you want to make something that is vegetarian, AND, DELICIOUS then you should throw away your idea of making something Chinese styled and instead stick with the French classic: Equal parts onions, celery and carrots. Simmer those and you will have an absolutely delicious stock. Add some light soy sauce to season, and then see how that fits to your ramen.


When making rice for a large group, you should take a hint from the restaurants and do it in the oven in a large roaster or baking pan.  Put the rice in a pan, add boiling water and salt, and then cover with foil.  Or you can make it like a very large pilaf which will make it more special.  But oven in large pan is the way to go and make it fresh.

I don't have amounts because you will know how much you need to make. Common knowledge is 2 times as much water as the rice, and common knowledge is, generally, too much water, particularly in large batches.

Again, a restaurant recipe will do you well.


In general, the size of the cut has the biggest impact on how long the food will cook. A thinner slice of salmon will cook much more quickly than a thicker cut with the same surface area. Cutting the salmon too thin with a large surface area can also lead to over-seasoning, which will overpower the delicate salmon flavour. I prefer to cut salmon into evenly-sized squares approximately 2 cm thick, possibly thicker (I do not normally measure). Using a whole salmon can be good if you are an experienced cook, however it can be difficult to ensure all the small bones, guts, etc have been removed, and some find the head to be unappetizing. If going that route, it is also important to remember to season underneath the skin, as skin creates a waterproof barrier that will not allow flavours from spices to seep through, and normally one would stuff the opening you cut for removing the bones with seasoning as well (try placing thinly sliced pieces of lemon inside along with whatever seasoning blend you like before baking).


What would be the result of using chicken livers when making liverwurst?

Let me do a breakdown of the typical ingredients of liverwurst ("Leberwurst") roughly based on food laws in Germany (aka liverwurst country):

roughly 10% - 30% (sometimes up to 40%) liver:
mostly pork because it's cheapest, using partly veal or poultry is more expensive but tastewise no big difference.
muscle meat and bacon, again typically pork, but beef, veal and poultry is also used either alone or as add-in.
usually a generous amount of spices.

The liver is influencing taste and texture, but the used regular meat and especially the spices play a big role, too. Using a "too dominant" liver or too much in total can be overwhelming, but there's no accounting for taste. While pork, veal and poultry livers are comparatively "mild" and can be used interchangeably (or as you said, the results will be in your +/- 10% range), beef liver has a tendency to make the liverwurst bitter, so it's use is not recommended.


How are Belgian fries different than the average French fries found in North America?

All of the sources I read say the same thing... what makes them different is that they're fried twice.

From Saveur:

  Frites are the supercharged cousin to paltry American-style fries: made from soft Belgian potatoes called bintjes, they're thick-cut and—this is key—double-fried (in the olden days, in molten horse or ox fat, though modern options range from lard to vegetable oil). Served in a paper cone with mayo and ketchup, properly executed frites—the ones that have been fried, dried, then carefully fried again—are an addictive riot of textures: soft and fluffy on the inside, surrounded by a crunchy, greaseless crust, dipped in luxuriously flavorful sauces.

From Epicurious:

  There is no fancy skill involved in making these crispy fries, but there is a trick. The potatoes are fried twice. The first time cooks them through and makes them tender. The second time, which can be done hours later just before serving, turns them golden brown and deliciously crisp.

From a site dedicated to the Belgian Fry:

  So high time time for a (simple) definition of what makes fries Belgian Fries:

  freshly cut, irregularly shaped
  cooked (fried) twice
  fluffy on the inside, crispy on the outside
  a distinct potato taste
  at least 10 mm thick
  preferably served in a paper cone

Some sites mention the importance of certain fats or types of potato but the one similarity for all sites is the fact that they're double fried.


Chinese cooking troubleshooting: still biting into pieces of ginger

I like using a microplane to very finely grate the ginger (that's easier to do if the ginger is frozen), or making a paste with the ginger in a food processor or blender. Just peel the ginger (you don't have to be perfect), cut it into chunks, add just enough water to get almost a baby food consistency and puree. Then you can stir-fry the puree to flavor the oil, add it to soup, add it to anything that you want, and use as much as you want but you'll never bite into a chunk, nor will you ever need to fish it out of anything. The ginger paste will last quite a while in the fridge and won't suffer a bit by being frozen for up to a year or so. Make the paste with half ginger and half garlic and you've got a great convenient ingredient for all kinds of applications.

EDIT: This question inspired me. I needed a housewarming gift for my new neighbor and landlord. When I freeze ginger/garlic paste for myself I have always just used ice cube trays, but for a gift a little cookie scoop worked great. I just scooped the paste, froze the little rounds on freezer paper, then packed them in Ziplocs.


How to prevent oil splattering when placing steak in pan?

Three recommendations:

If you pat the meat with a paper towel, it will absorb some of the moisture without removing salt or other seasoning.
You need very little oil (if any) in the pan to fry a steak, since fat will melt out of the steak. Use less oil, or put the oil onto the steak rather than in the pan. Then there will be much less oil to spatter.
Use a tool such as a spatula or tongs to place the steak in the pan, so your hands are further from it.


Correct oven temperature for chicken tikka at home

Make sure that the tikkas do not touch a surface e.g. an aluminium foil or a tray. Suspend them from a grid and use a lined tray at the bottom of the oven to collect the fat/juices. Cook at 180°C for 20-25 minutes (to cook the chicken through) and then cook on maximum temperature (usually 350°C) for 5-7 minutes to get the charred/burnt effect.

As a side note, roast some besan (gram flour) and ajwain (carom seeds) in 1 tablespoon of mustard oil and add it to the marinade. And sprinkle coriander and mint extremely finely chopped together over your chicken immediately after it is out of the oven.

For the best tikkas or tandoori, if you have the time and space, build and use your own tandoor as described here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ukb_WoUG2Q


Can one create any flavor combination by breaking down the five modalities of taste into their chemical form and adjusting proportions accordingly?

While your wording is somewhat ambiguous, the answer is a resounding "no" for both possible senses of the word taste. To avoid confusion, I will use the word taste for only the sensation of sweet/salty/sour/bitter/umami, as in "tastes slightly salty", and the word flavor for what we perceive when we eat a given food, as in "tastes of strawberries".
Starting with the sense I think you meant: flavor.
This is a highly complex sense involving many different types of receptors.

The main ones responsible for flavor are the smell receptors. Every human has receptors for several thousand molecules, and the set of those receptors varies somewhat between individuals. Alone the task of recreating the exact combination of molecules which create the smell of a single food is impossible (usually the full list of molecules is not known anyway).

And if you want a perfect match, you also would need to include

the receptors for taste (the five I mentioned above)
the receptors for temperature. While every given food can be eaten at a different temperature, there are cross-communication effects both on the level of the receptors in the mouth (e.g. sucrose loses a lot of its sweetness if consumed very cold) and on the level of the brain (you might not recognize beer if somebody served it to you piping hot, because you are not accustomed to tasting it in this context)
the receptors for touch - texture is an inseparable part of the flavor experience
the receptors for fat - we don't usually notice their contribution, but they exist in our mouths and participate both in the experience of taste and the feeling of satiety
the receptors for pain - relevant for hot/spicy foods
previous knowledge/priming of what you are going to taste. It may come as a surprise to you, but we are not all that good at recognizing flavors. I have seen manufacturers create a "guessing game" by releasing new flavors short-term and have the customers send their guesses to win a prize. While I have never sent a letter, I have tried such "mystery flavors" and usually had no idea which flavor it is supposed to be. And while these are artificial flavors with a very limited complexity (see below), first they include the most characteristic smell of the real thing, and second, I am pretty certain that if I ask an average person to close their eyes and feed them a small piece of a typical supermarket-issue fruit, most will have difficulty recognizing it.

Of course, you don't have to create an exact match to invoke an association of a given flavor, this is how foods with artificial flavoring "work". They tend to contain 3-4 of the most prominent smell molecules of the given food (a single one in the cheapest case), roughly match the flavor direction of the original (I have never seen somebody put strawberry flavoring in pringles-style chips - but note that you don't want a perfect match, nobody would want a candy that has the sweetness levels of a real strawberry) and the rest - and it is a big rest - is labeling, to give you the knowledge mentioned above.
So, to the second sense of the word: taste in the strict sense.
This is also impossible, simply because there is no "rawest chemical form" of any of the five tastes. See this older question for more background. Each of the taste receptors can be triggered by different molecules, and produces a different taste profile - the bitterness of quinine tastes very different from the bitterness of bitrex, for example. You cannot even use one kind of bitter to imitate another kind of bitter - so you certainly cannot match any possible combination of the five. The best you can do is to do is a very rough imitation, which will lack all nuances.


How much weight does pasta gain when boiled?

The accepted answer to the question about a closely related matter: "how much water does pasta absorb", to obtain its result goes through a calculation involving direct answer to my question.

  100g dry pasta turns into 100g*75/31 = 242g of cooked pasta.

and

  The estimate below from the nutrition facts is 1.4x, which probably corresponds to typical American overcooked pasta - a surprisingly large difference from mine. I'm guessing you'll be somewhere between, maybe 1.25x.

Obviously getting the amount of pasta+water involves simply increasing these factors by 1, so al dente will weigh 2.25x the original, and 'typical American overcooked pasta' will be 2.4x the original weight.

For my allowance of 75g that gives me 180g of "overcooked" pasta or 170g of al dente.


The beans are fine to use for a little extra flavoring. If you're making a Crème Pâtissière, for example, you can add your extra beans in along with seeds and pods from a fresh bean.


Why would the exterior of a cake cook and not the interior?

May be the temperature of the oven was too high so the outer part got cooked too quickly leaving the inner cake raw.


I would also recommend that you find dried coffee by Nescafe - specifically the Greek brand if you can find it.  Depending on where you live it can be hard to find but is totally worth it and for some reason foams better than regular Nescafe.  If you search the internetz you will find that there is a Nescafe with a label written in Greek.  This is the one you want!

Once you have strong enough dried coffee to start with then it is only a matter of ratios with water and the coffee.  Experiment, but two teaspoons sounds like not enough - I'd start with a tablespoon to 3 tablespoons water.  Pour over ice.  Add water after you have mixed it but be careful not to ruin the foam you just created.  Remember the ice will start to melt immediately also making your frappe taste wishy washy so make it stronger from the start.


Why would you place potatoes on salt when baking in the oven?

This is what America's Test Kitchen (sorry, paywalled) has to say about it:

  Sometimes baked potatoes can use a flavor boost. And instead of light and fluffy, most often they are dense and crumbly. We found that baking the potatoes on a bed of salt remedied these problems. Moisture that escaped the potatoes during baking was trapped in the enclosed pan, absorbed by the salt, and eventually reabsorbed by the potatoes, making their skins tender and their flesh light and fluffy. All we needed to do was fine-tune the variables. Using a hot oven and uncovering the potatoes toward the end of cooking ensured dry, crisp skin. A 13 by 9-inch baking dish provided plenty of space so that we didn’t have to crowd the potatoes, and 2 1/2 cups of salt allowed us to thoroughly cover the bottom of the pan.

I have found that salt roasting potatoes makes the skin crispy, without it getting hard. Like the above says, the potato itself seems fluffier. The way the salt seasons the potato is particularly nice as well. Incidentally, you can reuse the salt over and over again, so it's not as wasteful as it might seem when you first consider the method. You'll want to keep separate salt for things like this, though, since it picks up potato flakes and discolors a bit.

EDIT The ATK method calls for covering the 9X13 baking dish (for 4 potatoes and 2 1/2 cups of salt) tightly with aluminum foil and roasting at 450F (232C) for 1 1/4 hours. Remove foil, brush potatoes with oil, raise oven temp to 500F (260C) and continue roasting for 10-20 minutes, until potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife and the skins are glossy.


How can tuna/bonito be tested for histamine?

If you say that your handling of the fish was a 5 minute walk and to cut it up and freeze it, it is more than likely that the contamination occurred during the supply chain. Once the enzyme histidine decarboxylase has been formed, it can continue to produce histamine in the fish even if the bacteria are not active.

There are test kits available for checking histamine levels but they are intended for commercial use. http://www.noackgroup.com/Live/ProductCatalog_en.YoCms?GROUP=%24D_FAA_07_01#_1NEO9505 is one of the places that has them.


Does (how does) cake batter consistency affect outcomes?

I'll take a stab at this, based on my experiences and general knowledge of cake science.  I don't know of any reference resources that directly address this question broadly.

Does cake batter consistency affect outcomes?  Yes.

Can we straighforwardly predict the type of outcome based solely on consistency?  Generally no.

Well, you can make some very broad generalizations about how thicker batters all other things being equal are frequently used to produce denser cakes, but even then it depends on what you mean by "consistency."  (For example, some types of batter can be highly viscous but contain a lot of air, leavening agents that will produce such air in the oven, and/or lighter ingredients.)

But something brought up in comments is basically the problem -- there's too much "chemistry" to predict anything definite from batter viscosity (and whatever else is included in the term "consistency") alone.  A thick batter with adequate leavening can make a light final cake.  A thin batter without leavening can result in a dense "hockey puck."  Moistness is subjective and hard to predict too, because it depends on bake time/temperature (which will determine amount of evaporation during baking), as well as the amount of rise (more air can make the final product seem "drier") and other ingredients (e.g., fats, proteins, and sugar content can have an affect on how we perceive "moistness" or how it is held in the baked structure).

Part of the problem is also what makes the batter "thin" or "thick," etc.  This addresses the final question about whether ratios are predictable.  They are to some extent.  But unlike, for example, many types of "lean" bread, cake batters frequently have a complex set of ingredients that aren't easy as easy to predict as basic "hydration level" in bread.  Aside from liquid like milk or water, you often have moisture content from eggs, as well as things like liquid fats which don't contribute to consistency the same as water but nevertheless also contribute to "thinness" of a batter.  (And this doesn't even include possible other additions like fruit, syrups, etc.)  Air content will also greatly influence apparent consistency, so it's not just whether you add butter or eggs or whatever, but do you beat them as well?  How much air do they retain when the batter is fully assembled?

It might be possible to create a sense of appropriate/predictable ratios for specific types of cakes with the same general mixing method.  But I think there's too much variety among cakes overall to generalize for all cakes.

The final two points concern wrapper sticking and doming.  The former is perhaps related to moisture, but it mostly has to do with having enough gluten or other binding agent so wrappers can be pulled off without the cupcake crumbling apart.  Since so many different ingredients can contribute to hold the cake together, it's difficult to relate that directly to consistency.

Lastly, doming: again, batter consistency is very important here, but it's only one factor.  A persistent dome requires several things to happen:

Leavening amount has to be calibrated to be enough to cause the batter to rise, but not so much that only large bubbles are formed that rise and burst out of the top of the batter while baking.  Batter viscosity is important here, because a batter that is too thin will allow too much bubbling out, but a batter that is too thick may not rise adequately under the weight.  (Thin batters will obviously thicken during baking, so leavening has to survive until batter viscosity increases enough to create structure.)
"Crust" begins to form early enough to trap bubbles inside the top center of batter.
"Crust" must be flexible enough (not thick or firm) to allow the center to keep expanding.
Expansion of internal gases (either due to temperature rise alone or in combination with leavening-produced gases) must continue long enough to provide support while the structure beneath the dome "sets."
Oven temperature and browning agents must be calibrated so the batter sets completely internally before the exterior burns.  Also, some structural proteins can shrink significantly as they lose moisture, so baking must be completed before too much of this can occur.

Bottom line is that there's a lot of consistency-related factors in this process, but very different types of batters can still produce a sufficient rise and a dome (as well as "moistness" and other factors in the question).


In the light of the confirmed case of BSE in Scotland, is it safe to eat beef?

From the linked article, there is a non-zero risk to human health if eating beef infected with the Mad Cow disease.

"There was nationwide alarm following the confirmation of the first deaths caused by transmission of BSE to humans in 1996. At the time there were fears that hundreds of thousands of people might die as a result of eating infected beef.

As it turned out 178 people have died of the human form of mad cow disease, known as Variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD). It is believed that these individuals were genetically more sensitive to succumbing to the disease than the wider population.
"

If uncertain, make certain your butcher shop has verifiable traceability of all the meat he/she sell, so you can know where the meat comes from.

I think the information should be publicly available at your butcher shop.

Elsewhere, well, in Europe and North America, the standards are very high, so I would not worry that much; I can't say anything about the rest of the world as I don't know enough.


Do fresh herbs have properties that dried herbs do not?

The answer is the same for herbs as you got for chili - you lose vitamins (not that you will get much from the amount of herbs usually used in cooking anyway) and some volatile compounds, which are the bits that make the flavors. In general you can expect to use about 2-3 times as much fresh herb as you would dried to get the same level of flavoring in a dish. Note that this amount of dried herb is equivalent to a larger amount of fresh herb as dried has shrunk as it lost water.

The degree to which the herb loses flavor when dried varies depending on the species of herb and most likely is a function of which aromatic compounds are present (i.e. how volatile they are) and how easy it is for them to escape the leaf (toughness of leaf). Some herbs, like sage and oregano, hold their flavor fairly well, while others, like basil and cilantro/coriander, lose their flavor very rapidly and should only be used fresh.

In my experience, if you are only able to get dried herbs, only get those that are whole leaf or crumbled. Do not get the powder ones, as these lose flavor very rapidly, indeed by the time they get to the store they are often almost flavorless. The same principle applies to spices too - whole is better than ground for storage and retention of flavor.

There are some herbs, like bay-leaf, that are best dried as it concentrates the flavor, but these are a rarity. This doesn't appear to be the case for spices, which are generally dried before use, but this may have something to do with many of the spices only growing in tropical areas and needing drying for storage while shipping rather than fresh spices not being good for cooking.


Caramel Coating producing inconsistent results

It is odd that the original recipe didn't include a temperature, as temperature is absolutely critical in candymaking. That is probably why your results were so inconsistent, as different pans would have heated the mixture at different rates. I would shoot for a temperature of 240-250F (Hard ball stage) as that should be thick enough to coat the nuts and allow them to finish caramelizing in the oven.

To avoid getting the pecan brittle again, avoid excess of the coating mixture on the pan and be sure to keep the nuts moving frequently during the bake.

Here are a couple of recipes that show a similar temperature range:

Candied Orange Walnuts

Brown Sugar Walnuts


If the recipe says simmer beans for 3 hours, can I just turn up the heat and cook faster?

You probably want to just use already-cooked beans, from a can. (Hope there's a store nearby.) Then you just have to cook as long as it takes to let the flavors mingle; half an hour is plenty.

If you happen to have a pressure cooker, you can cook dried beans much faster, something like 20-30 minutes. See for example this recipe - you can add back in whatever seasonings you like from your recipe.

But otherwise, there's no way to speed up cooking dried beans - boiling water doesn't get any hotter than 100C, and it just takes time for them to slowly soak up water and cook through.


how to calculate a standard drink from the alcohol percentage?

It is easier to define the standard drink by volume as you won't have to switch between concentrations by volume (as is normal in most drinks) and grams.

This is probably where your recollection of moles comes in as somewhere in this morass of units they get involved.

14 grams of alcohol is 17.7 ml

so 30% alcohol (many spirits) to get to a 100% you need to add another 70/100 ths of volume.

(17.7/30)*100 = 59 ml of drink which just so happens to be two fluid ounces for our american viewers.

or, slightly less intuitive but easier to use:

the volume of your drink = 17.7 / (the concentration or your drink /100)

Now if you want to use the "proof" of your drink as a unit of volume I'll need a drink first.


How can I minimize stirring when blending whole fruits?

If you don't add additional liquid, you will likely need to stir.  That is the reason Vitamix includes the plunger. So, if you want to minimize stirring, you will need to add additional liquid to allow the whole pieces to remain in contact with the blades.


Proofing pizza dough with an electric oven

No, an electric oven is not especially well suited as a device for speeding up dough proofing.
The closest you can get is by turning the oven on at the lowest level, without preheating, and babysitting it. Provided that you have a standard, large oven, it is unlikely that you kill the yeast - but you really have to pay attention to it, so it is labor-intensive, and not actually surefire.
If you insist on a warm proof, you will have to buy or construct a separate proof device.


Take a peek of the dough every 1/2 hour.

If you see in a certain peek it's lower than the last time you saw it, it has fully risen and is starting to fall.

The dough should be about to reach it's rising limit before it begins to be baked, but not pass it. You can change the dough's rising speed changing the amount of yeast from your recipe, or controlling the dough's temperature, among other ways.


Is it possible to season chicken breast with BBQ sauce before baking it in the oven?

Yes you can, and should try it.

Baking the chicken with the sauce will cook the sauce and will start caramelize some of the sauce making the chicken better (IMO).


Butter and shortening can generally be substituted for each other in cookie recipes if you keep a few things in mind: Since butter does contain water and less fat than shortening, you'll need to use more of it as a substitution. Also keep in the mind that the textures and shapes of the cookies will be different due to moisture content and melting points.


How would I produce (stable) foamy bechamel sauce?

I ended up getting the recipe from the chef himself! It turns out that gelatin makes little sense at the temperatures involved unless you up the quantity in which case the texture gets altered for the worse (I experimented only twice so I can't really be sure that it wouldn't work at all).

The recipe itself calls for a bechamel with a very light roux simmered for a very long time (~3 hours) and stirred occasionally so that the milk doesn't burn. At the end of the process it becomes thick enough to foam in exactly the right texture. Strangely the guy doesn't use any seasoning aside from salt and pepper but I'd think this is so that the particular dish is in balance.


How to hold salmon after cooking for travel to family dinner?

Most folks rely on smoked or cold salmon when travelling. It's a special treat getting hot salmon brought in.

Cooking it right before you leave and keeping it warm will be the challenge. You might look at pizza delivery carry bags with the foil interior or create your own foil wrapped fish, wrapped in old towels and placed in a covered box with heated foil wrapped bricks (wrap a clean brick with foil and heat in the oven).

If you reheat the fish at your family's house be sure to follow these tips: use an oven (never microwave), reheat at a lower temp, cover the fish to keep it from drying out. https://www.thekitchn.com/5-mistakes-to-avoid-when-reheating-salmon-230418


It might be easier to find handbooks or informational sites than classes specifically, as the former can be put up once and left there, whereas the latter requires a teacher be present for each iteration of the course.

I found a good bread-making handbook at The Fresh Loaf; they also have lessons on specific topics. Prepared Pantry has a free baking cookbook as well, plus lessons, though their classes are done I believe at their store location.


How do food producers determine expiration dates on products and ingredients?

To determine the shelf life of products, there is usually a microbial activity test conducted over a specific time frame. For instance, in baked goods with an expected shelf life of 7 days, you would send 4 or 5 of the product to a lab. They would use one to measure the initial microbial activity, then perhaps 2 days later, they would measure another one, etc. Generally companies have an acceptable threshold of microbial activity, so the shelf life is set by how many days it takes the product to reach that level.


Why is no juice left after cooking lamb or beef joint in a pan?

The way you describe it, you seem to be doing it quite right.

So, let's have a look at where juces in a pan come from and where they might go:

Any juice in the pan comes either from the meat or from added liquids (like wine).
You actually don't want your meat to loose it's water - that's what we call dry meat ;-) A small amount is fine, if you lose nothing, you a) obviously used good quality and b) did everything right with the searing.
If your meat exudes liquid during roasting but afterwards nothing is left, it has evaporated. That ist especially likely when using a convection oven.

If you want gravy you could either

Add some liquid like broth, wine, port or even water (whatever goes with your type of meat and your personal preferences), spices (peppercorns, clove, bay leaf, allspice...) and a mirepoix when roasting your meat. Place the seared meat either in the liquid or on a rack above it to catch any drippings (which might not be much). Scraps from your meat / bones could go in, too.
Make it separately (even beforehand!) from bones and veggies.


Coating to make waffle cones withstand hot liquid?

Many hydrocolloids are very heat tolerant.

Hydrocolloids Primer

Some of the options that might work for you are:

Agar agar
A polysaccharide made from boiling seaweed, agar agar is heat stable up to about 90C. It gels when cooled to 40C. It is inexpensive and easy to find, especially in Asian markets. It would be relatively easy to coat the inside of a cone by heating the agar agar to 90C, cooling it almost to 40C and pouring into very cold cones and pouring out the excess ungelled liquid.

Obviously it won't work if your liquid is hotter than 90C.
LM Pectin
Like agar agar, pectin is a polysaccharide but it is extracted from fruit. Regular, off the shelf, pectin that requires a lot of sugar is HM Pectin. It will melt easily. LM Pectin on the other hand, requires calcium to gel. Once gelled it is heat stable and will not melt again.

Unless you have a well stocked specialty pastry supply store handy you may have to buy this online and it will definitely cost more than the agar agar.
Sodium Alginate
Like LM Pectin, sodium alginate gels in the presence of calcium. Often used to make "caviar" preparations of random liquids. It is easier to find for sale as part of molecular gastronomy kits.

It forms a heat stable gel but you'd have to be creative about how to coat a waffle cone with it. Perhaps you could form a sheet of it and "glue" it into the waffle cone.

All in all, if your liquid is cooler than 90C, for cost and ease of use I would recommend going with the agar agar.


I've used wasabi powder before and it always gets activated with water, not oil.

Searching about the industrial process, the closest I got was a comment in this cooking blog (emphasis mine):

  In the commercial world they add rice flour into the mix to make it all stick together, but before that they cook the peas and dry roast them or just dehydrate them. Once that is done then they use a "coating" machine which looks a bit like a cement mixer and slowly rotate the machine which contains the rice flour/wasabi mix.

So I think the key is: roast the nuts, use oil or arabic gum to make the surface of the nut sticky, cool it down to below 32ºC then add the wasabi powder mix. As long as it stays dry the wasabi powder won't get activated, which will happen only when you put them in your mouth.

I suppose the rice flour is to thin out the mix a bit, since pure wasabi powder might be too strong, to help coat the nuts uniformly and to keep moisture away which would kill the wasabi flavor.


Inexpensive vacuum sealer not pulling out air

One of the things I've found critical with getting a vacuum using a fairly similar style unit is to make sure the air has a way to escape from the bag reliably. The best bags I've found are ones that are smooth on one side and have a cross-hatch ribbing on the other side, I've had limited success with bags that are smooth on both sides that presumably are OK with commercial machines.

Apart from that it seems important to cut the bags fairly straight if not using pre-formed ones and to make sure the end of the bag is in the center of the channel right the way along. I've also found it's worth trying to keep the end of the bag slightly open so don't try and push it down just let it sit there and rely on pressure from the lid to hold it down while operating it. You also seem to get best results with a nice even pressure on the lid, I use my palms rather than fingers to press down and keep them towards but not right on the end of the lid.


How to keep my (deep frying) oil usable as long as possible?

First thing, a cold zone doesn't prevent particulate build up, it just cuts down on the amount that will remain suspended in the oil. You should still filter if you want to keep your oil as long as possible.  You can detect bad oil (meaning rancid) by a few ways, like smoke point or smell.
You should store your oil someplace dark and cool, which could be the inside of your fryer as long as you filter and clean the sides before you stick the oil back in.  Another thing you can do to extend the life of your oil is switch to tallow (beef fat) or rended pigs fat (lard) as saturated fats do last a lot longer than the poly-unsaturated.

Once again, you should lose the oil when the smoke point drops, or if it is to dark, or if it develops any foul odor.  And as I said before, once you use the oil once, you should NOT use it past six months under any circumstances, if you do, you are taking your gastro-intestinal tract into your own hands.


Why does batter often taste sweeter than the baked product?

I think that SAJ14SAJ listed some good examples, and that these certainly contribute to the overall taste. But I think there is yet another one, whose effect is strong enough to matter: rising.

Let's say that you coat 1 cm² of your tongue with a foodstuff. The more tastebuds are activated by a sweet molecule, the more is it evaluated as "sweet". First imagine your batter. It is dense, and coats all of the tastebuds on your tongue. Each of them is likely to register a few sugar molecules.

Now imagine the baked cake. It has air bubbles in it. If the plane of a cake cut has X% air bubbles by surface, then only 1-X% of your taste buds come in contact with the sweet cake. And the concentration of sugar molecules in the solid part of the cake surface is the same as the concentration in the batter, so you have the same number of sugar molecules per activated taste buds, but less taste buds activated. As cake volume contains lots of air, you also get lots of air bubble area in a cut. The effect is reduced by chewing, but by the time you have chewed the cake very well, it has also been diluted by lots of saliva, so now you have a much better coating, but less sugar molecules per taste bud.

By the way, this effect also occurs with salt in bread dough vs. baked bread, so I don't think there can be factors uniquely bound to the details of sweetness perception, as salt uses very different chemical pathways of being tasted.


Recommend decent, sturdy steamer basket?

I've commented this but I may as well make it an answer.

Asian bamboo steamers are cheap, especially at Asian supermarkets. They're also durable, easy to clean, and usually come in layers so you can steam multiple dishes at once (for example fish and vegetables).


Pre-baked baguettes are typically not browned at all when you buy them. If there is a crust all all, it is still very soft and mostly the same colour as the inside of the bread. The main chemical change undergone by cooking them is browning the outside. The inside is slightly undercooked when you buy them, to make sure it doesn't dry out completely when you brown the outside. If you tried to eat them straight from the package, the texture will be slightly uncomfortably doughy rather than fluffy.

They are intentionally underbaked compared to those intended for immediate consumption, and underbaked at a temperature that's low enough that there is minimal browning of the crust. This related question describes how to achieve something similar at home.


Strong Yeast Taste on Japanese Milk Bread

If your buns are doughy they are probably underbaked. While 18 minutes sounds reasonable for small buns, you should be flexible about baking time. Ovens run slightly too hot or cold, different pans heat up faster and slower, and your buns may be slightly larger or smaller than the ones in the recipe.
The best way to check for doneness of bread is by temperature. After 18 minutes, use an instant-read thermometer to make sure the interior of your buns reaches at least 88°C (190°F). If they have not reached this temperature, simply return them to the oven for a few minutes longer.
It is also essential to let bread cool almost completely before cutting it open. As it cools down, it continues to set a little; if you cut too soon, steam will escape and leave a gummy texture. I recommend cooling 30 minutes on a wire rack.
Proper baking and cooling will make a huge difference for your buns, but you bring up two other issues we can address. In terms of the yeasty flavor, I think fixing the underbaking problem should remedy this as well. Raw dough can certainly have a yeasty note to it, but fully baked dough should smell and taste better. (It is possible to get off notes from overfermented bread, even fully cooked, but this should not be an issue with your relatively short rising times.)
For the issue of leaving space to grow, I suspect this is at most an aesthetic issue, but it is hard to tell how big a problem it is without a photo. As long you bake long enough your bread will cook. Using a correctly-sized pan effects shape more than anything else: closely packed together, you will get a batch bake where adjacent buns stick together; more spaced out you will get individual buns which are not connected and brown on all sides. Either format is suitable for milk buns.


What ingredients will allow me to make a foam with a whipped cream charger?

A foam is just a liquid with plenty of air incorporated into it.  You can incorporate air into any liquid; in order to be able to create an actual foam, however, you need to be able to incorporate the air faster than it escapes.

What makes a liquid able to hold the air you're incorporating (and hence form a foam) is a foam stabilizer, also commonly called an emulsifier1.  I know of no specific taxonomy of stabilizers, but the vast majority are hydrocolloids AKA gelling agents and belong to some family of protein.

Agar, carrageenan, alginate, xanthan, and pectin are all types of polysaccharide;
Lecithin is mostly a random collection of phospholipids;
Gelatin is denatured collagen, i.e. animal protein;
Whey protein is the prevalent protein in dairy products;

And so on.  Really almost any emulsifier will do.  Basically everything in your list either is, or contains, one of the the additives mentioned above:

Chocolate is almost always emulsified with soy lecithin;
Eggs contain high amounts of lecithin;
Milk and cream contain whey protein;
Most "supermarket cream" also has emulsifiers like carrageenan already in it.

...you get the picture, I hope.  The most basic answer I can give to this is that if you want to make a foam, you need to either use something that's already an emulsion (milk, butter, chocolate, etc.) or use an emulsifier/stabilizer additive (such as gelatin, lecithin, etc.)

If you want a relatively complete list of all of the food additives that qualify, you'll want to look at the E number, and specifically E400-499 (thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers).

1. As commenter Erik very correctly points out, an emulsifier is not the same thing as a foam stabilizer.  However, by convention, the terms seem to be used interchangeably all over the place, to the extent that I get blank looks when I refer to a "stabilizer" as opposed to "emulsifier".  So, know the difference, but don't get too hung up on it.


Are there gas ovens that come with a thermometer?

Many ovens in the US have such a feature.

However, ovens lie.  Even if thermostats and thermocouples in ovens were scientifically accurate (they are not), they are positioned on the outside walls of the oven, not the center of the oven where you are actually doing the cooking.  This might not be an issue if you are baking a frozen pizza (if this is the level of cooking you are intending on doing, go for it, and use such an oven), but would be a problem if you attempt any sort of finicky baking.

Don't trust the knob or readout on your oven, it isn't telling you the whole story.  If you need precision, use a bulb style thermometer on the center rack of the oven.  And unless you have very basic oven needs, don't let the presence or lack of a thermometer be a prime purchasing decision.


Is there any harm to eat cooked renal pelvis in lamb kidney?

Nothing unhealthy if you eat it.  Just a aesthetic preference since it is a different texture than the body of the kidney.  If you don't get it all cut out when dressing the kidneys, it's kind of like eating rubber bands.  I prefer to cut it out with all of the bits of kidney fat.


There are two things that will help here:

"Low and Slow"; drop your heat to 250°F for about 5-6 hours
and
Add a braising liquid, this will generate steam inside your aluminum foil pack.
Both of these will help to break down the meat to the desired 'falling of the bone' condition.

You can see a demonstration of this by Alton Brown at Foodnetwork.com

Alton provides both a good rub and braising liquid, but I prefer to use beer rather than wine in the liquid and have tried it with other recipes that follow the same 'basic formula'. Mt. Dew or Dr. Pepper are both good choices.


Should broth from a shrimp boil be refrigerated after canning?

If you want to keep the broth at room temperature, it needs to be pressure canned, as do all stocks and broths with animal ingredients.  Advice on times and pressures varies, but assuming that you don't really care to go back and pressure can it, I'd just keep it in the fridge or freezer (if freezing, have plenty of headroom in those jars).


Why is salt sometimes ingredient of otherwise sweet cookies?

Great question.  the salt is not there for the taste of salt. A pinch of salt helps with the ionization process so your taste buds can pick up the tsate of the chocolate, ice cream, etc, better.

I think this was discussed in an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats as well.


How to help my vegetable beef soup that I added too much tomato to?

Like all essentially liquid recipes, once you put two much of something in, its in.  You cannot get it out.

So you have only two choices:

Find a way to mitigate the excess ingredient, or in this case, repurpose it so it seems intentional
Create an additional batch of the soup with reduced or eliminated tomato, and combine them so the proportion is essentially the intended one.

For the first approach, you might embrace the tomato-y-ness of the batch, and add spices or flavors like chilis that compliment that.   Enjoy it for what it is.

The second approach can also be effective, but you will end up with much more soup.  That is great if you are happy soup lovers, or if you can freeze it for later, but may not be practical for everyone.


Easy-peasy:

Wet your hand
Rub moisture all over the pieces
Wrap them all cosily together in:

Aluminium foil if a normal oven
Microwave-safe kitchen foil if a microwave oven

Bake as per original instructions


I think adding a few drips of vegetable oil or honey could help! Always heard other people say that.


What is the best way to store fruit in bulk to make smoothies?

In professional smoothie/frozen youghurt/fruit shake shops, you'll usually see the fruit frozen in small pieces for easy portioning.
So raspberrys and blueberrys are fine, but you'd wnat to quarter strawberrys and cube mangoes or apples or kiwis or whatever before freezing them.

The freezing process itself is important to the strucutral integrity of the fruit, and will affect its texture. However, if you only want them for smoothies/blended drinks, that isn't very important.

As a usage note, remember that a home freezer compartment is usually at -4 degrees Celsius, whereas a chest freezer (deep freeze) would more commonly be at -18 degrees. A good blender won't mind either way, but your lips might find it a bit cold.

Also, you might find you can buy the fruit pre-frozen from the same vendors the shops get them, in which case it will be prepared for you, and all you need is to defrost and blend. Aside from saving you the work of peeling and chopping, their freezing process may be better, and it'll probably end up being cheaper too.


Does the type of strainer built in a teapot matter?

I have used several types of integrated strainers and in my experience nothing is better than a wire mesh. The holes and slits in glass and plastic strainers are too small and too few to allow good water circulation, so you have to move the strainer around to get the tea to brew. Cleaning-wise, slits are the worst as their tapered ends trap leaved which can be annoying to remove. The plastic strainers are probably the easiest to clean, with wire being in the middle.

I'd personally go with the wire mesh type as it brews the best tea.


Will roasted corn work as soup croutons?

Yes, toasted corn works great as a soup topper, especially for "American" soups, like chili, tortilla soup, or cream-of-tomato.

The difficulty is that, as you surmised, the corn needs to be first cooked and then dried and toasted in the oven.  Also, small corn kernels don't work very well since they become almost microscopic when toasted and dried.  Here's how I've done it:

Bought dried "giant corn", or hominy of some variety from a Mexican
market.
Soaked corn overnight in cold water, then boiled it for 20 minutes.
Drained corn and then roasted it on a cookie sheet at 200F for an
hour or so.

This is a lot of effort, and for that reason I never did it again even though it turned out well.  My easier effort suggestions would be:

Start with canned hominy (have not tried this to see if it toasts well)
Find a natural foods store which will sell you unsalted "corn nuts" in bulk, then toast them briefly in the oven.


The only thing which can hold patties together is raw protein. Other things can thicken them, but they don't glue them. Egg is the easiest source of raw protein. In theory, you can also use the gluten in flour, but in practice, you will have to make a dough with just a little salmon mixed in it, not lots of salmon with a little flour sprinkled, and this would taste very weird. Cream cheese won't help at all, because all the protein in it (which isn't much) has been cooked/curdled during the process of turning milk to cheese.

But if you say that the only difference between the dip and the patties is cream cheese instead of eggs, why do you say that the dip is a snack and the patties are a full meal? The dip is likely to have more calories, by the way.


In Sweden we have a long tradition of herb and spice infused spirits, or "snaps" as we call it. Many of these are made with caraway and/or dill seed, which are also the ingredients which characterize the Aquavit type of spirit, common in both Sweden and Denmark. I have only made it myself once, but it was quite successful and extremely easy to make. I cannot remember the exact recipe I used, but the ingredients were dill seed, caraway seed and lemon zest. I think the proportions (to one standard bottle of vodka, 700 ml in Sweden) were something like a table spoons each of dill and caraway seed, and lemon zest from about 1/4 lemon. All of this was just combined in a jar and left to steep for a couple of weeks.


Dangerous simmering - exploding liquid? (cheesemaking)

Reducing whey to that level of concentration is going to create what is very likely to be a viscous, non-newtonian fluid.  That means its flow rate changes with sheer stress, much like ketchup does.

The heat at the bottom of the pan will slowly heat up water until a bubble of steam starts to form, and press against the remaining fluid.  At first, the pressure will not be enough to overcome the viscosity of the.. substance.  Eventually, the pressure will be sufficent that bubble ruptures, creating sheer in the fluid, which suddently becomes much mroe liquid.  And so you have a giant gloop.

See related:  Why does tomato sauce spatter more than other sauces?


Based on your picture, you're asking about Weiner Melange coffee in Vienna, a serving of half espresso coffee and half milk foam.  That's instead of American "Viennese Coffee", made with whip cream and cinnamon.  Assuming that's correct:

The spoon is intended for mixing the milk foam and coffee.  You may wish to add sugar as well.
The sparkling water is a chaser to clear your palate.

The above is based on personal tourist experience and some internet research.  Some links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiener_Melange
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-wiener-melange.htm
http://www.tasteofaustria.org/coffee/


Yes, the heat is the difference. You get a better gluten production with a colder dough. That's a pretty basic fact of baking, there are even recipes which insist on using ice cold water for making bread.

If you want to have the same effect in summer, you should use cold water. As cold as possible, I even tried once slush from the ice cream machine just for kicks and it indeed produced very strong gluten (actually too strong for my preferences).

You should use the cold water on the actual dough. The sponge should use room temperature water, because ice cold water is rather unpleasant to yeast. They can live with it after they've been reawakened from their dry state, but it's not good to use it for their hydration.


Is there a reason to peel onions for storage or sale?

Combination new technology and an excuse to charge more.

It seems to be a 'value added' feature driven by new technology in processing harvested onions and the 'convenience' of not having to peel the Onion.

According to fruit today this is a growing market.  As others have noted sometimes Organic means an excuse to charge more.  Peeled onion aids that front.


A reasonably light cream (about 15% fat) should be fine as a substitute.

It will lack the specific coconut flavour, obviously, but that's fine in this case. What's more important is the fat as a flavour carrier, and the creaminess in the texture.

A soy based cream, or even oat milk should work equally well here, too.

On the other hand, rice milk would probably not work so well, as it tends to separate quite quickly, and is generally more watery.


How can I tell which limes have the most juice?

Heavier limes tend to be more juicy, but another important factor is the color and texture of the skin. Look for the brightest green (sometimes with almost a yellow tinge) and smoothest skin you can find. Many bumps or shriveled looking areas are good indications that there will be less juice. If that's all that's available in your store, though, just get more of them. If they have broken skin, I always avoid those. I've gotten them home and found that even if there's juice, at least the section near that break has gone dry and sometimes discolored, definitely a waste of my money and time.

Another thing I've found helpful, which can be done easily in the grocery store, is a smell-test. (This also works with lemons, which to me are just as confusing.)  When very juicy, the skin has a scent, which may be subtle, but definitely different than those with none. It's one sign of freshness, similar to knowing when to pick them from the tree.

As Josh Caswell said in his excellent answer about pith, there's nothing wrong with rolling them around in your hand in the store; not enough to damage the lime of course, but enough to warm them up just a bit so they'll release some juice and a nice smell. I don't know where you're from, but in Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States, the produce department is often quite cold, so I do that with all my citrus choices.

This site has some good pictures and information, and even mentions using them for cocktails! The Cleveland Clinic gives the same basic information, with a video that I found helpful.

To answer the question that was asked about the importance of skin thickness, it's something I don't generally think about when I shop, so I did some research. Most sites didn't mention it, especially with the common lime which is the most popular variety, but there is one that does recommend choosing a thinner skinned fruit.

  They should feel firm and heavy for their size, because heavy limes will produce the most juice. Select limes with thin skins, avoiding the thicker skinned fruit, which is an indication of less flesh and juice.

I know you didn't specifically ask, but just to add that if you have limes at home and you're not getting the maximum effortless, free-flowing juice, you can microwave them for about 20 seconds. It helps release the juice, and works for other citrus fruits too. I'd watch carefully, because I've overheated my fruit doing that. It's fine if I'm going to use it for cooking or in my hot tea, but for cold drinks and things you then have to wait for it to cool off, which may be more effort than you need.


Mostly it comes down to practice. However there are some tips and tools that can make it a lot easier. If you have a cake stand (the kind that spins) then you set the cake on the stand and slowly turn it with one hand while cutting forward and back with the other (trying to keep the cutting hand as level as possible). Another option is to buy a cake leveler http://m.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?sku=415-815 - if you make a lot of cakes it can be very handy.


What's the difference between a Stromboli and a Calzone?

My understanding based on local experience (five Italian restaurants on every block) is that Stromboli and Calzone differ principally in (a) their filling, (b) the dough, and (c) the final shape.

Calzones are basically folded pizzas, made from pizza dough and stuffed with the same ingredients as pizza - almost always tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese, usually ricotta, often pepperoni and maybe some other cheese and cured meats - and then folded over like an omelette.

Stromboli are more like pizza rolls.  They're made from a thicker dough (still pizza dough), the tomato sauce and ricotta are optional and usually left out, and they are literally rolled up into a tube shape (sometimes more of a blocky sandwich shape though).

Other than that, they are quite similar, and the differences seem to get murkier over time... I often see Stromboli with the sauce and cheese and Calzone without the sauce.  But fundamentally, Stromboli is more like a sandwich and Calzone is more like a pie; if a particular restaurant doesn't do it that way, then that would have to be their own twist on the traditional recipe.


What's a good substitute for onion for someone with an onion allergy?

The perfect solution to you - Use the Indian spice called "Asafoetida" or "Hing". It gives a taste which is very much like Onion and Garlic - In fact, stricter practitioners of Hinduism are not allowed to eat onion and garlic (as supposedly they cause mental agitation). Thus, traditional Hindu (Vedic) cooking uses Asafoetida as a subsitute for onion in Indian recipes which almost invariably call for the use of onions.

The spice gives off a slightly funky smell (I like it, but most people describe it as bad), but tastes great. It is easily available in powdered form in Indian grocery stores - and usually comes in small containters such as this:

It has a VERY strong taste, so put a very small amount of it - about a 1/4 of a teaspoon for a dish that's meant or 4 people. Usually in Indian cooking it is quickly fried to get rid of the "raw" taste. I am not sure how well it tastes in salads, you'd have to experiment with it.


I would assume it's a synonym for parchment paper.  And yes, pan release is a generic term for any food release spray.


This appears to be watercore, specifically radial watercore, from the image you have posted.  It should be safe to eat, according to this site and this site.

According to an article from Washington State University, watercore is a disorder of some apple variants, which can cause the internal flesh to appear glassy [shiny and translucent] later into the growing season.  In some studies, low levels of calcium have been shown alongside the condition.  As well, it should be noted that the condition 1) does not occur after harvesting 2) may cause an increase of sweetness, and 3) cause the apple to quickly degrade during storage.

As to the causes of this disorder, there are a number of theoretical factors for causation:  Genetic defects, water regiment, temperature, minerals, leaf-to-fruit ratio, maturation and ripening, sorbitol metabolism and altered transport.  These are discussed to some degree in both the WSU article and this MSU article


Can I add extra eggs instead of xanthan gum?

If you want a flaky crust: No, you can't. A flaky crust is made from small pieces of gluten sheets formed when part of the dough reacts with the water, separated by melted fat blobs. The idea of making a crust with coconut flour instead of normal flour is already risky: it will give you some kind of crust, but nowhere as good as a normal flour crust. Maybe it is worth doing it in the case of food allergies, but not just for the flavor.

Provided that you want to make a flaky crust, you need the non-fat dough part to stick together well in sheets, and the fat dough part to form an uniform soft paste. If you use coconut flour, you need a protein to make the non-fat dough part stick together. As the wheat flour is missing, you can't use gluten. The only substitute I know of which indeed does make something sheet-like is xanthan (also, it does bind, but not as well as proteins do). Other proteins, like the ones in egg whites, will indeed bind your coconut flour, but the amount needed will be so high you will have dominant egg whites creating tough, leathery "layers", not crispy at all, and tasting very much of eggwhite. And I say "layers", but they won't be layers the way you would get them with flour, it is more likely to disperse with the fat part in irregular shapes, not flakes. This is if you only use egg whites; yolk will make the matter worse here.

The fat part of the dough will be even worse. The coconut flour won't absorb the fat, building a smooth paste. It will mix with the fat, but will stay in its way when it melts, preventing it from creating the very thin pockets needed for flaky crust.

Conclusion: I doubt that you can make any kind of flaky crust without flour. Xanthan may give you a not-so-good approximation; just eggs will give you nothing.

If you want a shortbread crust, you are better off. You don't need the gluten structure in the water part and the smooth starch of the fat part. There are lots of shortbread recipes which include substantial amounts of nut flours for flavor, although they tend to stop at 1:1 nut flour to wheat flour at most. I guess that you can go with nut flour all the way if you must, but then expect a crust even more crumbly than usual. Xanthan is a good ingredient to hold it together in this case, although it won't give the texture of a wheat crust. Additional eggs will work too (slightly beaten, but not whipped), but they will make it less of a crust, they will wet it a lot and push it in the direction of batter. Try using whites only, and drop the water altogether. For better, more tender texture, add starch, for example corn starch. And because you are already moving into batter direction, you are risking a dense, soggy crust. Add just a little big of baking powder to prevent it (not the same amount as for cake, maybe 1/4 of it), this will make it a bit more bisquit-like.


Age, pure and simple. I used to be a free range egg producer and our chickens were retired to homes happy to have them as pets and occasional layers by the time they were two years of age.

Eggs become larger as they age but as they get beyond two, most hens lay a lot less and quite frequently the eggs can show their age on the inside as well as outside.

Like humans, hens have only so many eggs they are born with and once those have all been released everything starts to slow right down until it stops completely.


For something more delicate than kitchen twine, any thread from a 100% natural fibre (cotton, hemp) should work.  Synthetics (polyester, rayon, nylon) could melt or offgas into your food when subject to high temperature.


How can I best dry homemade extruded pasta?

Over the years I have extruded pasta hung on poles and let dry for 12 to 24 hours.  Room temperature and humidity is what it's all about I have found that on humid days the pasta dried slower and was very strong.  On low humidity days it would break and not be strong at all.  I haver extruded over 100,000 pounds using semolina eggs and water.  Weigh your eggs and water every batch cause your eggs will weigh different each batch.  If you adjust your water by very small amounts it makes a huge difference.  Extruded pasta dried is the best pasta you will ever eat.


What kind of meat is used in cheese steak?

There is no single cut of meat that is universally used in Philadelphia.  Top round is common, and it may actually be the most traditional given the sandwich's Italian origins (top round is what is used in braciole and Italian beef sandwiches).  It is becoming more and more common to use rib-eye, though, which is what is used in some of the most popular Philadelphian establishments (e.g., John's Roast Pork and Tony Luke's), which makes sense given its higher fat content.

As lazoDev mentioned, you should be able to get your butcher to slice the meat into thin (~1mm) pieces.  If that is not possible, though, you can put an entire rib-eye roast into the freezer for a half hour or so.  This will harden the meat without actually freezing it solid, and will make thinly slicing by hand much easier.


converting pure chocolate to "bittersweet" chocolate

Can you melt unsweetened chocolate, add sugar, and have bittersweet chocolate? No. The resulting chocolate might taste fine, but it would be gritty from the sugar. To get an idea of what is involved in sweetening chocolate, check out this page about making chocolate from cocoa beans: http://www.chocolatealchemy.com/conchingrefining.php

Of course, since you're using it in backing, the simple solution is just to increase the sugar in the recipe. Instead of adding the sugar to the chocolate, just add it to the cookies.


Is plastic saying "dishwasher safe" safe on both shelfs or only on the top shelf?

The reason some products are marked "Top Rack Only", is because many dishwashers have the heating element situated at the bottom of the interior, in close proximity to the bottom rack. It looks and acts much like the heating element in an electric oven.

Typically, this heater comes on during the final rinse cycle, to boost the water temperature. It also comes on during the dry cycle, to "bake" the dishes dry. Items placed on the bottom rack will therefore be exposed to a more intense heat than on the top rack, so things made of plastic can melt or deform.

Your dishwasher likely has options for "temperature boost" and "heated dry". If you turn both off, the heating element will probably not come on. Alternatively, try to place your container in the center of the bottom rack, in such a way that it's as far as possible from the heating element. If you use heated dry, take it out before that cycle begins, and/or check on it during the dry cycle


There is no clear cut border between polymerized and burnt, it is a continuum. The center went clearly farther than the sides, which is common enough in stovetop seasoning.

If the coating in the middle of the pan doesn't work well for you, you can strip and reseason to a lighter state, preferably in an oven. If food cooks well on it, you can keep it as it is.


What is the purpose of creaming butter with sugar in cookie recipes?

Creaming puts the air bubbles into the mixture. The baking powder only helps enlarge the bubbles, not make them.  In cookies the creaming plays another essential role, which is to help dissolve the sugar.  To cream the butter keep it cool and do it for a few minutes (at 65°F, harder in the summer).

It has recently been discovered that cookie dough is different from cake batters. Sugar is part of the structure of the cookie and not just a sweetener, tenderizer, and browning agent.  It forms the base upon which the fats and the starch granules of the flour are embedded.  The sugar needs to dissolve for the matrix to form.

If you beat the whole thing, it will be harder to get bubbles in and you may end up overworking the dough.  The cookies will end up flat and tough.


I make butter spreadable-from-the-fridge by adding grapeseed oil (recipe here -- 1:1 ratio for very soft "butter") and blending in a food processor for a smooth consistency.

This is done after the butter is churned, or after leaving store-bought sticks to come to room temperature. Pretty much any oil can work for this, but a neutral-flavored oil will keep the mixture tasting like butter.

I don't recommend using this for anything besides buttering bread; changing the consistency in this way can affect baked goods.


How Long is the Shelf Life of Refrigerated Eggless Mayonnaise?

According to the recipe here, Milk Mayonnaise will last about a week in the fridge.


Try it all the short way, and if you like it, that is OK. Or buy it pre-made.

When I have cooked curries in the past, the extra time paid off with superb taste, and I haven't found another way to get that colour except by reducing down and reducing down the tomatoes.

When you have time or want the authentic flavour, then you still have the recipe


What's the best replacement for "solid vegetable oil" in pastry recipes?

The "solid vegetable oil" you're describing sounds like Crisco (shortening), which you can find in any US grocery. You could also try refined coconut or palm kernel oil, both of which are solid at room temperature.

Another possibility to note is that the butter may be fine, but maybe the chickpea flour you're obtaining in the US is different.


How to convert a muffin/cupcake recipe to a large muffin recipe

This table comes from the front of the muffin section in Bread, by Beth Hensperger:

Muffin size          Baking time     Yield
Mini/gem (1 5/8")    10-15 minutes   18-20
Regular (2 3/4")     20-25 minutes   9-10
Oversized (3 1/4")   25-30 minutes   6-7
Muffin cake (8-9")   55-65 minutes   1

The baking times are for 375-400°F; most recipes will fall around that range. Note that the yields don't necessarily match up to typical pan sizes; for example, if you take a recipe meant for 12 regular muffins, you'll probably have more batter than you need for a pan of 6 oversized muffins. Perhaps this is your problem - you could be overfilling. If even after scaling the volumes appropriately, you still have problems, you could try reducing the temperature by 25°F and increasing the baking time.

("Muffin cake" refers to baking in an 8-9" pan of some sort - the author says that you can get away with it for any muffin recipe, but I've never tried it!)


You can absolutely do that and in fact it will enhance the flavors of the baked bread and it is a recommended approach.

The yeast activity is reduced in colder environments, so, your dough will not rise too much after cooling some time. However, it's best to de-gas your dough and let it rise in the fridge (although not as much as doubling) again until you decide to bake it.


How can I prevent coconut cream from curdling in a soda drink?

If it's acidity that's causing the separation, a pinch of baking soda should do it. In fact (trivia alert!), the first "soda" was naturally carbonated spring water, which usually contained alkaline sodium compounds, including sodium bicarbonate, a.k.a. baking soda. Many brands of carbonated water today, especially those marketed as "club soda" in the US or "soda water" in the UK, have baking soda added to mimic the flavor of that natural spring water.

Having said that, if coconut cream curdles with acid, and you've already added lime juice to your coconut cream, there's nothing you can do to un-curdle it. However, coconut cream has very little protein, which is what causes dairy milk to curdle in acid. Most of the discussion I can find online about coconut milk and cream curdling refers to heat as the main cause.

Could your problem simply be that the high-fat coconut milk, like many fatty products, doesn't mix easily with water? Try blending it thoroughly with a small amount of water, and then blend that with the larger amount of carbonated water, and see what happens.


Can I use an induction cooker to restore silica gel's water absorbency?

If you heat silica gel, you will drive out the water from it. What actually happens depends on how you heat it, and how hot it gets.

If you have a thick layer, you may not be able to effectively dehydrate the crystals in a reasonable time.

If you try to use a gas oven, you're on a loser because burning gas makes water and carbon dioxide - it takes ages trying to do the job with moist heat.

You might be able to do a thin layer in the bottom of a pan on an induction cooker, but remember that you cannot achieve temperature control very easily. The optimum range to regenerate the silica gel is 120 degC to 140 degC, and you really want a gradual temperature rise to do the job effectively - better to hold the stuff at 80 to 90 deg C for half an hour before you go to 120 deg C.

If you try to dehydrate too quickly, the crystals will crack and break up, so you may end up with a fine powder, rather than crystals.


Simply put, the longer garlic cooks for, the weaker the flavour gets. If you want a super-garlicky hit, put it in at the last minute. Chopping it finer, or crushing it, also increases the flavour because more of the 'juice' is released.


Sounds like you don't want to go to a store, so if you're stuck with what you have on hand, probably soy sauce and sugar are as close as you'll get. It won't be thick, but it'll at least have the umami, salty, sweet taste. You could thicken it with corn starch or even flour if the liquid volume is a problem.

Beyond that, the flavor depends on the specific variety, but you might want a little chili and garlic if you have it, and possibly five spice. See also the Wikipedia page on hoisin sauce, which lists some common ingredients.

(Sesame oil doesn't really sound similar at all.)


How can I stop my pavlova from "leaking"?

The most common reasons I know are:

Preparing when humidity is high.  Tough to avoid when you are on a schedule like wanting it for an occasion.  But in my experience, having an oven that circulates fresh air in can make this worse by bringing in more moisture all the time, or ever opening the door or trying to cook something else at the same time.
Over beating can cause it.
Undissolved sugar, which of course is opposed to trying to not over-beat.
Overcooking.

A couple things I do see in your recipe:  I am used to seeing a bit of vinegar.  I assume the lemon is to cover the same with a bit fresher flavor, and it may but it might be worth trying such a recipe.  I know the point it to help create the classic Pav crust while I am used to lemon in pavs being more to help the foam form buy your recipe calls for it after you already have peaks.

The 2nd thing I see is your recipe calls for a bit higher temp than I am used to.  For instance the first I checked to refresh my memory called for 190F for 5 minutes, then drop to 130F for an hour, then turn off.  I think what may friend from NZ who made much better than I do used was 200F for about 10 minutes, then just the light that kept the oven at about 140F for an hour.  That is quite a bit lower than yours, so I would question possible over cooking as the issue.

I have even seen the higher pre-heat skipped and instead torch the meringue and only do the low heat to slow cook the center, but when I tried that I got the nice cruch, but raw egg inside and it also leaked, but it was a egg white leak.  Yours visibly looks more of a sugary leak to my eyes.


Converting upright charcoal smoker to electric

1- The meat drying out is a very real problem when cooking for so long. When I have smoked with water it has seemed to be less of a problem. I'm sure it also gives a nice thermal buffer but I haven't conducted experiments on this.

2 and 3-
When I built the AB style smoker mine was smaller and earthenware so it would retain heat better. My cheap little hot plate was not able to get the temperature up to even 200F.

With a bigger smoker and one made out of metal I don't think a normal little hot plate will be able to get hot enough. You can experiment of course. It may be that my cheap hot plate was just under powered.
In my smoker I adjusted the hot plate temp knob as necessary. Eventually of course it stayed at full on.

If you are interested in more of a project- there are many hobbyist projects for making temperature controlled smokers. They would be more work but for an excellent reward. I was just looking at this one today that uses a wireless router for a web interface and an Arduino for control. Kind of like a homemade sous vide setup but for a smoker:
http://tvwbb.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9270072103/m/5721075126


In general, it is not a good idea to use the same surface for poultry and other foods; you would have to assume that cross-contamination has happened.

In this specific case, since you mention roasting, assuming it is a whole muscle cut, even if contaminated, the pathogens will not quickly penetrate to the interior—they will remain on the surface.   Don't cut slits in the meat (such as for inserting garlic, or the cross-hatching on a pork roast) which would allow penetration deeper into the roast.

Assuming you cook it so that the exterior reaches at least 155°F/68.5°C, then your roast should be fine.  Just make sure it is well browned which is a sure sign that the surface temperature has (well) exceeded 155 F.


What ingredient changes will make this cookie dough more workable?

Sounds an like you may just need more flour. That recipe has more fat per flour than common cookie recipes - for example, the canonical chocolate chip cookie recipe has 10 oz of flour for 1 cup of fat, while yours is only about 8 oz flour per cup of fat. So I'd definitely expect the dough to be on the soft side to begin with, and since the fat softens at it warms up, as you've seen, it just gets worse.

If your kitchen is on the warm side, it's possible that you'll also need to chill in the freezer instead of the fridge, but I'd certainly start with more flour (or less fat).


You aren't getting the 'Indian restaurant' taste because you aren't using Indian restaurant techniques. Most Indian restaurant curries are based on a 'gravy' made with copious amounts of garlic, onions and ginger, stewed for several hours. They also use large amounts of ghee to add richness (and a boatload of calories), and finally they use marinaded chicken, cooked in a tandoor (a very hot, dry oven) which gives a unique flavour.

It is simply not possible to replicate the flavours at home without using the same ingredients or similar techniques. It is not something you can knock up in half an hour.

If you'd like to have a go at replicating a restaurant curry, try reading The Curry Secret by Kris Dhillion.


Best tool for quickly cutting vegetables into a salad?

You could chop all your veges with a knife once a week and put them in containers...

If you are set on a machine, pick up a Food Processor (like a Cuisinart).  It has attachments to slice or grate your veges quickly and uniformly, and has many other uses too (quick bread dough, sauces, puree soups, etc.)

A Mandolin slicer will also work, and you can julienne things, but make sure to get a good one.  I am not happy with mine at all.  The advantage to this is you can change the thickness of your slices (i.e. thick cucumber slices, thin radish slices).

The tomatoes you will just have to cut by hand though.  There are tools for that, but I haven't seen a consumer version (giant slicers/wedgers at McDs, many decades ago).


It's fine. There's enough alcohol to prevent anything from growing in it. The worst that will happen is that it could get clumpy, which would be unpleasant and obvious.


Black spotting/dust in stainless steel utensils.Is this mildew?

The specks are corrosion pits. Austenitic stainless (aka- 18-8 , 304 , and several other numbers) are notorious for pitting in salt (halides). The 316 and 317 with molybdenum are more resistant but I doubt any cookware producer would go to the extra expense to use these alloys. However, I expect sitting for a couple days with salted water would be needed for pitting to develop. Out of curiosity, check it with a magnet; If strongly magnetic it is likely 13 Cr (410 SS) which would be likely to pit.


Fresh half and half curdles in hot coffee

One possible difference is that when you pour coffee (or any other hot liquid) into a ceramic mug, the liquid cools a fair bit (the heat is "lost" to heating the ceramic cup). The double-walled stainless mug is designed to lose as little heat as possible, and the inner wall has much less thermal mass than the ceramic. So, when you pour the creamer into the stainless cup, the coffee is hotter.

The simplest way to test if this is the case, would be to measure with an accurate thermometer. And the solution, then, would be to allow the coffee to cool some before adding the creamer.

Alternatively, temper in the creamer. To do this, put the creamer in the cup first, then add a little coffee, stir, add a little more coffee, stir, then add the rest. The idea is to slowly heat the creamer up to the coffee's temperature. This should prevent curdling, even if your coffee is near-boiling.

It could be some residue on the cup, but I doubt it, because stainless is fairly easy to clean. Also, it'd be hard to imagine enough residue to curdle the cream without also being very evident in the taste of the coffee. Stainless steel itself is pretty non-reactive, so its probably not a reaction with the coffee or cream.


What's the difference between jerky and biltong

According to Wikipedia, the main differences are:

  Biltong differs from jerky in three distinct ways:

  The meat used in biltong can be much thicker; typically biltong meat is cut in strips approx 1" (25 mm) wide – but can be thicker. Jerky is normally very thin meat.
  The vinegar, salt and spices in biltong, together with the drying process, cure the meat as well as adding texture and flavour. Jerky is traditionally dried with salt but without vinegar.
  Jerky is often smoked; biltong is never smoked.

The same source states that typically Jerky is cut prior to drying, whereas biltong is dried first, then cut.

Apparently the different seasoning and curing/drying procedure leads to a technically similar but taste-wise remarkably different result.


is it ok to store quinoa, rice, lentils, barley, farro, kasha, black beans in the fridge?

If you have the space there's no reason not to, and some good reasons to.
For one thing, it reduces odds of various bugs infesting (or hatching out if the eggs are already present.) For things like ground whole grains (whole wheat flour) it also slows rancidity - though that should not be a problem for the whole grain.

Personally, I'd need a walk in fridge (which I'd love to have anyway) to manage to have space to store dry goods in it.


If this is all kept at refrigerator temperatures, then cooked, your health risk is extremely low.  However, there is a better method, which you suggest.  Place your seafood/shellfish in a colander or strainer. Place that over a container so that the melting liquid can drain off, and so that the product will not be sitting in the liquid.  The same set up can be used for fresh fish, and is common in seafood markets.  With non-frozen, the seafood can be packed with ice to keep it as cold as possible.  Again, with the set-up I describe, the melting ice will be captured below the product.