What is this dipped powder cookie called?

Found it!
The recipe was in a book at my house called Cookies and published by Reader's Digest (ISBN: 0-7621-0593-3).
This recipe is typed up verbatim from the source mentioned above.

Two-Tone Cookies
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter two cookie sheets. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the center. Add the butter, sugar, eggs, and milk. Use your hands to knead the mixture into a smooth dough. Form the dough into balls the size of walnuts and place 1 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until just golden, rotating the sheets halfway through for even baking. Transfer to racks and let cool completely. Dip half of each cookie in the confectioners' sugar and the remaining half in the cocoa.
Makes 26 cookies. Prep: 35 min. Cooking: 15-20 min. Level: 1. Keeps 5 days.

I made the cookies a couple nights ago- they are a bit time-consuming to bake and dip, but I ended up with the cookies that I remembered- light and covered half with cocoa powder and half with confectioners' sugar. I used little bowls of powder to dip the cookies in. Here is a picture that I took of the finished cookie:

In terms of eating them, I recommend eating the entire cookie in one bite. If you decide to have a little nibble, you won't really enjoy the whole mixture of the flavors of the cocoa and the sugar at once :) Enjoy.


How to prepare tasty tea on induction cooktop?

From what you are saying, my working hypothesis is that you are overheating your tea.

My first suggestion would be to forget all the modes of your cooktop (Pressure cook, etc.) and also the "degrees" scale. I have always found that a degree scale on an induction cooktop does more harm than good, since it has little relation to the actual temperature of your food. It is very obvious in your case: when a mixture of milk and water boils, it is at 100C, not at 65C.

So what you should do is to manually select the 120 W setting and try cooking with it. If it also requires you to select some mode from the lower row, then my guess would be that saute is indeed a good choice.

If using the lowest setting (the 120 W) doesn't work, there are two and a half other ways to make it cook slower. One is to make a larger amount of tea at once. The other is to place the pan farther away from the coil. A thin wooden chopping board might be enough for a test, but it might char with prolonged use, so if you are happy with that solution, you could try a pizza stone or a bathroom tile for permanent use. Don't use anything that can melt or catch fire, or anything that's made of metal. It is still best to combine that with using the 120 W setting - if you were to use something thick and a higher setting, you would be wasting energy.

The "half" way is to move the cooking vessel such that its bottom is only partially on the stove. It might not work at all, if the sensor notices that parts of the coil are uncovered, and if it works, it is inefficient and makes for badly cooked food. For me, it isn't worth doing it, but I am listing it here for completeness.

The observation that the heat comes in waves is perfectly normal, that's how induction stoves work (the technical term is "time modulation"). Without that, they would be much, much hotter (all the heat all the time) and the food would burn instantly.


How much oil is absorbed by deep-fried donuts during frying?

I sold deep fry oil for a few years. According to company and industry studies, it could add 10%, but up to 1/4 of the weight if using the wrong oil or wrong temperature. Have you eaten a doughnut and it has the fatty taste and “bad mouth feel”- when the fat coats the tongue? They aren’t using the right oil (which melts at a lower temperature), and chances are frying below 350°F or not waiting for the temperature to go up again after frying a previous batch. A properly fried doughnut absorbs less oil and saves the restaurant or bakery money because they can buy less oil.


Can I thaw whole Ginger root to use later?

No, you can never restore a fruit or vegetable to its original texture after thawing. Physically, this is caused by the water in its cells expanding and bursting the cell walls. When it thaws, the water flows out of the damaged cell walls. It is not actually pure water, but cytoplasm, so it can feel differently from plant to plant, in this case slimy. It is not always slimy, but any thawed plant becomes soft and mushy, and there is no way around it.

While it may superficially look like rotten, there is no safety problem with it. You can use and eat it without any problems. The advice you found for using frozen ginger shows that, at least for the recipes it is intended to, the change in texture doesn't matter. If it matters for your recipe, then no, you cannot preserve it by freezing, because there is no way to restore it to its fresh state.


Having difficulties seasoning my new cast iron pan due to the coarseness of the texture. Please help!

We have many comments, but I'm going to throw this in as an answer…

Your issue is lint, on a rough surface, so use something that is categorically lint-free.

A sponge. Any type.
A Moppet, the yellow side of a pan-scrub, anything.

It won't absorb quite so well as a cotton or paper towel & squeezing it out to mop the last bit might be a bit of a task, but it won't shed fluff all over the surface.


How long will a shooter's sandwich keep?

The shooter's sandwich you linked involves cooked mushrooms and fried steaks. In contemporary food safety practice, this is not shelf-stable at all. It can be held 3-5 days in the fridge, or up to 2 hours at room temperature.

I can imagine that hunters did take it on longer trips historically. They lived in a time when mild food poisoning (symptoms limited to bloating and light diarrhoe) was commonplace, and the average person experienced it as often as the common cold, if not a bit more frequently. More serious types of foodborne illness were less frequent, but still appeared with some regularity in a given population.

There are two reasons we don't eat this way today. First, our standard of living is higher. We have the possibility to drastically reduce our risk of food-borne illness by choosing nutritious shelf-stable food for situations we need it, and we have much higher expectations of our own quality of life, including the expectation that the chance of getting bloating from a sandwich should be close to zero, not close to 10%. Second, our meat today well may have much more pathogen contamination than in the past. If you slaughter one healthy animal in your small farm, the worst you get spread over the meat are some E. coli from inside its own guts, and normal E. coli don't cause too bad symptoms (mutations can be very dangerous, but they are also exceedingly rare). Today, animals are penned together by the thousands, exchanging exotic pathogens while still alive, and then are slaughtered and eviscerated in efficient conveyor-like manner, so that if one cow had some unpleasant bacteria from somewhere, they will probably cross-contaminate the steaks from hundreds of other cows slaughtered in the same shift.

Bottom line: It is absolutely not safe. You are free to decide to take the risk and eat it, but by the usual standards in the food industry, this is an unacceptably high risk, and it is foolish to take it.


Napoletana Pizza dough not elastic and breaking

You probably didn't knead the dough for long enough, so the gluten in the dough wasn't fully developed. There are two useful tests to determine if your dough has been kneaded properly.

1.The Poke Test

Form the dough into a ball and, using a floured finger, give it a poke. If the indentation springs back, your dough is nearly ready - knead more lightly until you try test 2. If the indentation remains, keep kneading.

2.The Windowpane Test

If your dough passes the Poke Test, knead it a little more, then pull off a chunk of dough and stretch it with your hands. If the gluten is sufficiently developed, the dough will stretch thin enough to see light through, without breaking. If the dough breaks, knead it some more.

When shaping, even properly developed dough can spring back after shaping if you've just removed it from the bowl. Let the dough relax for a few minutes before trying to shape it again.

Try and avoid adding more flour if you can - wet dough is good dough. Semolina flour is a good alternative to prevent sticking.


I live up in the mountains. Two things I do not do are: a) remove food from heat and expect it to still cook properly, because boiling points are lower at higher altitudes; and b) use the cited time in the recipe. I always add time, because the lower boiling point means more cooking time is necessary. Also, try not to open the lid of the pot unless you absolutely have to. The lid provides some added internal pressure for the pot, which helps with cooking, and keeping the lid on as much as possible provides steady heat. Other than that, I have no suggestions.


Off the top of my head I would say the sparking and popping is unexpected: usually a significant of water content would need to be present for this kind of behavior, as water conducts electricity and everything else not so much. There is water in peanut butter, but it is around 1-2% and is emulsified with fat, and that should reduce the conductivity substantially. But, the voltages inside a microwave oven are quite high and could force a conductive path through the emulsion to cause sparking.

My best guess is that whoever makes M&Ms (can't remember now) changed their peanut butter formulation and used slightly more water. It is batch specific?


How high is the bacterial reduction when using Lysol brand sanitizing wipes, when compared to bleach solution?

Here is a good explanation of why hand washing is effective. The same applies to kitchen utensils.  For home cleanliness in the kitchen, hot, soapy water is generally all that is necessary for clean up. There are, of course, situations where you want to sanitize, or even sterilize...for example, I sanitize when brewing beer, because I want only one strain of yeast (the one I add) to be active.  Also when canning, one wants to be sure that jars are free of any contaminants.  However, for normal, everyday clean-up...even with raw meat, soap and water gets the job done.


Is there any other difference between the cakes and the cup cakes besides the size?

You are correct: Cupcakes are just regular sponge cakes cooked in approximately cup-sized tins.


Yeast are alive. They eat sugar and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide and flavor. The warmer they are the faster they eat and grow until it is to hot and they start to die.

When it gets colder they slow down but don't stop until frozen.

The answer to your question is therefore: either find some way to warm them up or schedule enough time for them to work slowly.

Using warm water in your dough and putting it in a draft free spot works well. Letting them work slowly results in more flavorful bread, so you might consider just making your dough the night before.


Does cooking black bengal gram with salt lead to increased cooking time or lack of softening?

No, this is a common myth. If you want to test it, you don't "try once with salt", you divide the same batch of beans and cook them both, one with salt and one without, under the same conditions, and repeat. This is what a food author did, although he seems to not have repeated the experiment: http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/09/salt-beans-cooking-soaking-water-good-or-bad.html. His salted beans were somewhat better than the unsalted, and he states he now always cooks them in salted water.


How can I make carving a chicken less messy?

As suggested in comments, you could try putting a small cutting/carving board into a large pan or baking tray to hold the liquid better.

In general, this is a good problem to have.  If you are carving a whole chicken, and no juices are coming out at all, you've probably overcooked it.  Resting will only help so much, as fully cooked chicken will generally be at a temperature when muscle fibers will have tightened and contracted, thereby squeezing out some moisture.  It's also possible that your chickens may have been injected with additional brine/broth (though this will generally be indicated on packaging).

As for how to prevent it, I might suggest less carving on the board and more cutting on individual plates.  I'm not sure how you cut up a roast chicken, but I generally start by only cutting off about six pieces -- the wings, the leg/thigh quarters at the thigh joint, and with a little practice you should be able to remove about 80%+ of the breast meat intact from each side in one large filet.  Depending on the size of your chicken, how many people you are planning to serve and what preferences they have, you can then go further and separate the legs from the thighs, and/or do a few cuts through the entire breast to make more white meat portions.  The fewer cuts you make on the carving board, the less juices will leak out there.  Instead, you can give more whole cuts (or parts of whole cuts) to people, who can cut them apart on their plates.  By that point, they meat will have rested and cooled more so it will release less juice, and any juice that is released will be flavor on their plates too, perhaps to be sopped up by other means.

Traditionally, I know many people tend to think of "carving a chicken" the same as "carving a turkey" and slicing thinly through the breast.  To me, that's a lot of work and often results in cold chicken by the time it is served.  It also will tend to release more juices during the slicing.  Even with a 20 lb. turkey, I tend to cut the entire breast off whole, then make thick slices down through the breast after it is detached and on the board.  It keeps the meat warmer, allows everyone to have a bit of skin if they want, and keeps everything moist.  Unless you or your guests are really attached to very thin slices of meat, I find it's better to leave things as whole as you can when you put them on people's plates.


Should you strip meat off bones before putting them in a stock?

Meat can add a lot of good flavor to a stock, but it can cause a lot of "scum" to form, so you have to be more diligent in your skimming, otherwise you get cloudiness. The bigger problem with winglets is that they're mostly skin, which equals fat, which is generally not a good thing for stock. Again, though, there's a way to fix it: refrigerate the stock, then remove the fat that solidifies on top.

Other than that, there are the usual bits of advice-

Add a whole onion, skin on - the skin provides good color
Add flavorful vegetables: carrots and carrot-shaped root veggies, celery stalks
Cook low and slow
Do add spices (whole peppercorns, whole allspice), but don't go overboard with them
When scum starts to form, skim it off with a strainer or a spoon, whichever works better for you
Did I mention cooking low and slow?


I never heard of lettuce dye, I wouldn't panic with that. You are not loosing nutriments either, like Michael said it might be chlorophyll, wich would explain the green color, but you are not losing nutriments for sure. I often have green water too, it's really not a big deal, don't worry!


If it was still mostly frozen I think it's just fine and no different than leaving out on the counter to thaw in the morning before going to work.


How long can I keep espresso in the fridge?

I don't know for sure how long you can keep it in the refrigerator, but it should be essentially indefinite in the freezer. You could freeze it in ice cube trays, then when the cubes are set, transfer them to a plastic bag for easy storage and access. You could even make each cube the right amount for a single drink.


How can I keep the cheese from leaking out of my cordon bleu during cooking?

The most common reason for leakage with Cordon Bleu Chicken is that the packets are too thick, which makes it impossible to get a perfect fold; you need to pound the breasts very thin - less than 1/2", maybe a little more than 1/4".

The other "trick" is to make a small cut along the folded edge of the breast after you fold and seal the packets, which essentially makes it almost like a sandwich; the top and bottom parts can move independently and you don't have tension trying to pull the top piece away.

Just don't cut so deep that you cause an immediate leak; if you've pounded the breast to 1/3" thickness, then your cut should be no more than about 1/8".

If you do it this way, you shouldn't even need to use toothpicks; I never do, and I haven't sprung a single leak in my last 20 or so preparations.


Both tomato and pepper seeds can be a source of off flavors, including bitterness ... but they have to be cracked open, either by crushing, grinding, pulverizing, blending, etc.

If the sauce isn't something that you can easily strain the seeds out of, such as with a food mill, and you can't just leave the seeds in whole, you can take the seeds out before processing.

Some peppers, especially dried ones can be seeded by cutting around the stem, then gently pulling the bundle of seeds out.  You will then want to bang the peppers against the counter a few times, then shake them with the opening down to get rid of (most of) the seeds.  This will leave most of the white membrane intact, which is where the heat is.

If you're willing to lose a bit of the membrane, you can hold the stem in your non-knife hand, hold it with the stem up, and slice down the sides of the pepper.  You'll end up with slabs of pepper that can be sliced or diced without losing much of the flesh.  (and it's fast .. although if you learn to start each cut with a slight curve out then back in, you'll reduce the chance of knocking off too many seeds from around the stem)  Also, depending on the pepper, you might end up with the bottom on its own (or still attached by membrane to the stem)


Duck fat.

You could use butter, of course, which would make it delicious like everything made with butter is.  But duck fat has a higher melting point than butter and in that respect is more like lard.  Duck fat is super delicious.  Also it seems to me duck fat is more in accord with the overall ethos of a game meat pie.

You could buy plain duck fat.  Or you could first have your friend over for roast duck, and you would then save the rendered fat and have her over for the game meat pie later.  Do the duck in a way such that any flavor in the fat will match what you intend with the game meat pie - for example duck with Moroccan spices would be great but those spices might then crash the game meat pie party.


How much gluten should I add to maida flour for bread, and how?

You can, but you'll likely get better results if you mix it together with the flour before you put it into the machine. As soon as gluten is exposed to moisture it will start to uncoil, mixing ahead of time will make sure it's evenly distributed when that happens.

As for how much to add I am not sure, it depends on the product and how much protein is in the flour already. I'd start with a teaspoon and add more if it is needed in future recipes.


How to determine if meat needs to be aged?

This is not a full answer, and different than aging, but must all meat needs to either be cooked immediately after slaughter or as least be allowed to go through the rigor mortis cycle.  Larger animals may take longer than smaller, but it still occurs.  Many home raised chickens for instance are very disappointing to the grower not because their is anything wrong with the bird or the way it was raised, but because this step is missed.  Immediately after death, normally muscles go to a temporary flaccidity, but this quickly is lost with muscles becoming rigid and causing joints and connective tissue to stiffen.  This is true regardless of if the animal is immediately parted or not, in fact parting while in the rigor cycle can cause muscles to contract in ways that will cause it to stay tough even when the cycle is allowed to complete if you cut across muscle.

With a chicken, an item I have more experience with, this process if relatively quick.  If you cook the bird before it cools, you are usually fine, but once it stiffens it takes maybe 24-36 hours to complete the cycle.  Cooling the bird aids in two ways, it helps get into the cycle faster, and prevents spoilage during the period. Larger muscle mass will take longer to complete the reactions to complete the process.  In a human sized animal, I believe the peak of rigor is about 12 hours after death without cooling to speed it to that point, and the relaxation is completed in the 2-3 day range later, or roughly 3 days to complete the process, but temperature will make this vary.  A bit of a guess, the I would assume that something like a cow would be up in the 5 day range.  My understanding is that in beef electrical current is often applied to the muscles to cause them to contract and relax and speed the process, but I have not personally seen it done.

I say this may not be the answer you are looking for as I would not call this aging.  Though there are chemical and physiological reactions going on, this is different than aging meat such as dry aged steaks.  That is a process in which the meat has already gone through that rigor cycle and then is allowed to age, often removing some of the water and partially drying the meat to produce a more intense flavor, but I think from your question you are keying more on the rigor cycle.


It sounds like you did everything right except you didn't cook it long enough. Pre-cut stew meat is often from tough cuts, and can sometimes take a long time to get tender. I would suggest lower and slower next time. Also, maybe you didn't rest the meat after cooking, I would suggest resting at least 30 minutes but give it an hour if you can. Try giving yourself 4 and a half hours from start to serve, 3 and a half for cooking at 150C and 1 hour for resting, that should give you a more consistently tender result.


Is there a discernible difference in taste between aeropress and chemex / pour-over?

I'm guessing that there will be some difference in taste, depending mostly on the amount of time the water spends with the coffee grounds. Depending on how long you let the water sit with the grounds before the press part of the Aeropress will increase the bitterness of the coffee you pour off and drink.  Similarly, the more water you pour over your grounds in the Chemex, the more bitter your coffee will be.

If you only use one cup of water in both methods, and don't let the Aeropress steep very long, the more similar the taste of the cups of coffee will be.  But if you pour a second and third cup of water through the Chemex without changing the grounds, the third cup will be significantly more bitter than the first one.  Similarly, if you let the water in the Aeropress sit in the water for 5 minutes before pressing the grounds down, your coffee will be more bitter than one that sat for only 1 minute.


Any tips for ways to cook chicken breast for recipes that call for shredded chicken?

I keep both shredded/chopped chicken and pork in my freezer as kind of a "staple". For both, I tend to use the crock pot.

The easiest way (but certainly not the cheapest) is to toss boneless, skinless chicken breasts into the crock pot with a flavorful liquid. I tend to use most of my shredded meats in things with either a Southwest/TexMex or BBQ bent to them, so I often will use beer for the liquid and toss in some chili powder/onion powder/garlic powder or one of those taco seasoning packets.

If you're looking for more wide-ranging purposes, you may want to go with something more like chicken broth as your liquid. In that case, I'd also avoid seasoning it all that much as the destination dish might clash with or, for instance, if you add salt, might result in WAY too much salt in the final dish.

I usually fill the crock pot all the way with chicken and about half way with liquid.

Set the crock pot on low and let it cook all day until the meat is completely cooked and tender. I only make it this way when I can be around all day or at least can check in half way through the day because you want to "rotate" which meat is sitting in the liquid at least once in the process.

To shred, pull out the chicken and, using 2 forks, pull apart the fibers of the meat.

To chop, just toss it on a cutting board and cut into tiny bits.

I usually take the results and put them in a large bowl. Then, using a turkey baster, I add some of the liquid from the crock pot back into the shredded meat. You'll be surprised how much liquid it absorbs without getting "drippy".

I freeze mine in 1 pound portions in vacuum sealed bags and it works great.


We store them at room temperature. If only for 3-4 few days: under plastic wrap or in the microwave. If about a week: in sealed Tupperware to keep the humidity from getting to them. I don't know if the humidity is an issue for everyone or only for those of us in a very humid climate. The refrigerator will make them last even longer but they won't taste as fresh after refrigeration. Freezer: 4-6 months.

The absolute best place I've found to store brownies though is in my stomach.


Is there any way that we can harden US store bought Cottage Cheese to make Indian Paneer?

Unfortunately, even if you press it, it will tend to crumble. The way the curds form in small curd cottage cheese forms a skin that makes them tend to fall apart. The same thing can happen in making Indian style paneer if you let the curds boil. (At least, I think it is why it happened!)

Probably your best bet is to drain it then make something like vada or kofte (for malai kofte) out of it, mixing in some maida or cooked potato or besan and kneading it into a dough, then forming it into balls or patties. I think it will still be tasty, even though it isn't what you planned for.


It's definitely a sign that the oven is cooking too hot somewhere; the under-done tops and middles are the give-away. I suspect your oven has a malfunctioning thermostat, which is quite common.   Try setting temperatures 50 degrees below suggested, and see if it solves the problems.  Failing this, purchase an oven thermometer to check it.

Another possibility is that there is poor airflow within the oven. In this case, hot air is heating the bottom of the pan, but cannot get around the edges of the pan to heat the top of the baked good.  The solution to this is usually to use a smaller pan, and ensure only one pan at a time is loaded into the oven.  My oven has problems of this nature when I try to bake in both racks with half sheet pans.


Soft bread is soft because CO2 produced by yeast and water that gets turned to steam by the baking process gets trapped into pockets by a mesh of gluten, causing the dough to expand. The dough then solidifies, keeping its shape. If your bread is not soft then it hasn't expanded enough for one or more reasons:

Dough too dry: as much as the yeast, water is responsible for getting a good rise in your bread. Gluten requires moisture to relax and stretch, forming the structure that traps the air that causes a rise, dough that is too dry won't form good gluten. Also, dough that is too dry won't have the elasticity to rise. Yeast needs water to do its work, dough that is too dry will inhibit the yeast. Also, the expansion of water into steam is as important for a good rise as yeast. If there's one mistake many bakers make (including myself for years) it is making dough too dry.
Yeast inactive or inhibited: if your yeast is old, came into contact with salt, or doesn't have enough water to work then your yeast won't work well for you. Yeast does several things for you: it converts sugar into CO2 causing a rise, it improves the structure of your dough, and it adds flavor. Put the salt on the opposite side of the bowl from the yeast to avoid inhibiting it. Also, adding the yeast to sugary water doesn't work well, especially with more modern yeasts. Just get quick acting yeast and add it to the flour bowl, then add water to that.
The dough is not worked (kneaded) enough: Kneading improves the structure of your dough by stretching gluten molecules and getting them to link together, making your dough stretchy and pliable, and forming a structure that will trap air for a rise. Under-worked dough won't have enough structure
the dough has been worked too much: as a home baker using hands this is unlikely, but still possible. Once you have the structure of the dough you need, stop and let it rise as any further working will form too much of a structure, making it too strong to expand
Dough under-risen: the times in baking recipes are just guidelines, you need to go for a result rather than a time. I've had books say 45 minutes but it takes 3 hours, especially if my yeast was old
Dough over-risen: if your dough rises too long the yeast will exhaust the sugars in the dough and die out, leading to the loss of all the air. This will make the dough dense.

For a nice soft sandwich bread I start with a really sticky dough. I then use it's stickiness to stretch the dough, smearing it all over the countertop and using a pastry scraper to bring it back together. This is a really quick way to build some gluten. Then I knead in flour bit by bit, kneading for at least 1 minute between adding flour until I have a soft dough that still sticks a bit to the counter. That stickiness means that there's enough moisture in the dough. I'll add a bit more flour to that and then stop adding flour to avoid drying the dough. If I want to knead it more I'll knead with a bit of vegetable oil instead to keep it from sticking.

It's consistency you're looking for, not time. Time is relative depending on your strength and kneading technique, 5 minutes for a skilled and strong baker may translate to 15 minutes for normal humans, so knead until you have the consistency you want. When you start kneading the dough it will pull into pieces easily, and have a rough texture. As you knead that roughness disappears and it will stretch longer without breaking. For a sandwich loaf I'll knead until I can stretch the dough from the middle of my torso to my knee without it breaking.

Next, rising your dough may take much longer than recipes say as it all depends on the ambient temperature of the room, humidity, the activity of the yeast, and other factors. Again, make this results driven, not time driven. A good sandwich bread dough should rise a lot, not the "doubled" many recipes say. For me tripled is more like it. Make sure you put it in a big enough bowl! This advice goes for the initial as well as the secondary rise in the pans. Let it rise enough in the pans until it looks like the recipe picture, that's about right. Ideally your oven will have been pre-heating for 30 minutes by now.

Now, slash your loaves the long way with a razor blade like a carpet knife, about 1/2 an inch down. Do it quick and avoid punching down the dough. Slashing will split the top skin and allow the dough to rise efficiently after you put it into the oven. Once you put it in the oven it's going to rise a lot as the yeast goes crazy before the heat kills it, and the moisture in the dough is going to vaporize into steam. If you don't slash you won't get as good a rise.


A stock question for British catering professionals

I buy tubs of Knorr stock powder from restaurant supply stores here in the uk, it's a different product from their cubes, and has a very different flavor, there's also a paste. It may be worth having a look at those. Knorr is the brand I see in the bulk quantities you'd typically see in a restaurant kitchen that you can get retail, other brands are not sold in the stores, like Brakes.

You'll find many ingredients in stock cubes, powders and pastes to pack flavor into a small space. The commercial stuff I use has several flavor enhancers: E621 (Monosodium Glutimate aka MSG), E627 (Disodium guanylate) and E631 (Disodium Iosinate). Some have yeast extract in them. You could experiment with some MSG and Marmite to see if you can re-create that special flavor.


Buttermilk substitute for making creme fraiche?

This recipe! found  here , calls for buttermilk or sour cream. Perhaps you can find sour cream.

Crème fraîche

1 cup heavy or whipping cream, room temperature
1 tablespoon buttermilk or 1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature

In a jar with a lid, place whipping cream and buttermilk (or sour cream); cover securely and shake 15 seconds. Set aside at room temperature for 24 hours or until very thick. Stir once or twice during that time. NOTE: Cream will thicken faster if the room is warm.

Stir thickened creme fraiche well. Refrigerate at least 6 hours before serving. Cover tightly and store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.


If it's high quality, store it in the refrigerator in an air-tight container and try to use it as quickly as possible so you can enjoy it while it's fresh. There are always excuses to use loads of parmesan: cheese plates, pasta dinners, fondue, scones, grilled cheese sandwiches, etc. It should last for 3-4 months in a sealed container in the fridge. As time goes on it will get drier, but that's to be expected.

If you can't eat it in time, consider giving some away to a friend. If you wanted, you could freeze it as well, but I would only use it for baking or melting once thawed as some flavor and a lot of texture will be lost.


I make smoothies every morning for my wife and myself (and have for over a year now), and when working out also added protein powder.  The only difference between our recipe and yours is an inclusion of a few ounces of greek yogurt.

On the days when I knew the workout would run long (and potentially make me late for work), I was making them the night before with no problem.  As yossarian said, as long as you make sure the protein powder is fully blended/dissolved you'll be fine.  I've noticed no graininess/texture difference between night-before and morning-of.

The ingredients do separate a little overnight, but a quick shake or stir and they're back to normal.

I would say to try it and see how it works with your exact combination of ingredients.

Something to watch out for: my wife swears that sometimes, making them beforehand would cause a bit of a "sharp" edge to the taste of the smoothie - if this is true, my guess would be the interaction between the acid in the fruit and the base in the dairy.  But, not being a chemist I can't speak to that.  I can, however, say that I personally haven't noticed a difference based on whether it was made the night before or not.

I see that you're not using ice; I don't know if you're using frozen berries or not, but if you're used to a chunkier ice-like smoothie from frozen berries, you'll lose that texture of course.


Is it worth to install a gas stove with a big gas bottle in the kitchen?

Yes.

It's much more fun to cook with gas, and the way I see it, any incentive I can provide for myself to cook good food at home is a major net positive in quality of life.

The setup I have is three gas burners and one electric stove top element, and an electric oven. The electric stove top really comes in handy when reducing stocks or making long-cooking soups and stews, and it can significantly reduce the amount of gas you use in cooking.

For oven I would definitely go electric. See the When baking is it better to use a gas or electric oven question.

I have one 5 kg liquid gas bottle stashed under the sink, and it lasts 3-4 months of heavy daily cooking for two, maybe 6 months in the summer when I eat more salads etc. In addition I have another 2kg bottle for backup if I run out of gas in the middle of cooking, and for the day or so it takes me to haul another bottle from the store. Having a smaller backup bottle doesn't waste too much space.

I've been considering upgrading to a 11kg composite bottle, which I expect to last 10 months to a year, and it's way more economical. So far though the convenience of having a smaller bottle I can carry to the store for changing without a sweat has been great.


Can milk chocolate candy be used as a chocolate substitute in fudge?

Fudge is candy. Like all candy making it is built on a concentrated sugar syrup. Fudge is differentiated from other candy in that it is encouraged to form tiny crystals and is high in fat.

The chocolate in fudge provides two things: flavor and fat.
Although less traditional, plenty of recipes for fudge variants leave out the chocolate altogether.

As @ElmerCat said above, chocolate candy already has a ton of sugar in it. This wouldn't be a problem but it might change the timing of your candy cooking. More sugar to liquid means the candy will not need to cook as long. You'd have to watch your temperature.

The real problem is that chocolate candy like that doesn't taste much like chocolate at all. You would be able to make fudge with the right texture and color but it would taste bland.


How do I adjust cooking time/temperature for peanut brittle?

Microwaving is not an ideal method for making caramel or brittle, as the heat generation from the waves is localized.  It is too easy to get hot spots and burning while other parts of the mixture are under done.

Instead, you should use a more traditional stove top (hob) method.


Can I know if lemons are safe to eat whole (peel and all)?

this may be too simple.  But I would think you could ask the owner of the website what chemicals the farmers use. Especially if you are concerned about particular ones.  I haven't seen a web store without a "Contact us:" link
I guess the owners could lie to you, but without knowing a lot about chemical tests, that's the best I've got.


Michael Ruhlman's Ratio defines a muffin as a form of a quick bread.  The basic quick bread ratio is:

  2 parts flour
  2 parts liquid
  1 part egg
  1 part fat

So you can make a muffin with those basic ingredients in about that ratio.  Remove any of those ingredients, and you no longer have a muffin.  Substantially change those ingredients, and you've moved somewhere else in the dough continuum or even towards a batter.

Personally I'd classify a cupcake as a type of cake.  The ratio for pound and sponge cake are both:

  1 part butter
  1 part sugar
  1 part egg
  1 part flour

The differences between cakes are often the mixing method - creaming versus foaming, for example.  You can see, though, that in a muffin your flour-to-fat ratio is higher than in a cake.  Muffins also don't require sugars.  Cakes and cupcakes do.

From the basic quick bread ratio, you should be able to add any fruit or other ingredients (try bacon or turkey bacon), substitute in dry ingredients for flour such as bran or oatmeal (or another grain), and make a lot of other interesting changes.  Just make sure you stick to the basic proportion of a quick bread.  If you add a very wet ingredient, remove some liquid.  Change tastes by adjusting oil versus butter (or browning your butter).  Add sugar, baking powder or soda for leavening, spices, extracts, etc.


Can calcium sulphate substitute for calcium chloride in mozarrella cheese making?

Calcium sulphate (CaSO4.nH2O) is also known as gypsum or plaster of Paris. It's slightly soluble in cold water (~ 3 g/l) and almost insoluble in hot water. Calcium chloride (CaCl2) is much more soluble (~ 800 g/l).

So if you need more than about 2 g/l of calcium chloride, the replacement won't work as you just can't dissolve enough of the sulphate. Also, any lumps of calcium sulphate risk solidifying in a fairly short time, depending on which form you planned on using: plaster (hemihydrate, solidifies when wetted) or ground gypsum (dihydrate).

(That's of course assuming you can get food grade calcium sulphate, technical grades are not necessarily safe for food use)


Can you put egg shells down the garbage disposal unit?

I've always put egg shells down the disposal.  The "official" word from one manufacturer is:

  Most forms of food waste can be put
  through the food waste disposer —
  bones from fish and poultry, meat,
  large meat bones, fish scraps,
  vegetables, fruit, egg shells, and
  much more. Very stringy or fibrous
  foods such as celery should be
  avoided. Food waste disposers are
  designed for food waste only and
  packaging materials should not be put
  into the disposer.

Given that this manufacturer says you can put large bones in a disposer, I can't imagine that eggshells would do any damage.

And as a practical matter, I've seen name-brand disposers at Home Depot for $100, so even if you felt you were shortening the life of your disposer by a small percentage by putting too much into it, it's not a big deal to get a new one.


What's the best way to execute a pulled pork dish?

You definitely want to pill the pork apart with a pair of forks or your fingers. The best way I find is to allow little "clumps" of pork to permeate the mix.
Note that while books talk about cutting against the grain of meat, that is for raw or cooked meat meant to be sliced and served. The reason you cut against the grain in that situation is to tenderize the meat by cutting the connective tissue.
In the case of pulled pork, the connective tissue is already broken down and dissolved, so you will have a tender product even when you are pulling with the grain.


Home made yeast cinnamon rolls deflating?

Next time pop half of the batch back in the oven for an extra 10min and see if they too fall.
Getting the gluten to really set may be all that is needed.

If not, dough might be a bit weak -shorter strands of gluten with a lot of starch- and decreasing water or working the dough longer are the next possible experiments.


How can you recognize cold milk that has gone bad or is about to?

Looks like FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) publishes a formal testing handbook here.

One of the easier methods:

  2.4.5.3. The Alcohol Test

  The test is quick and simple. It is besed on instability of the
  proteins when the levels of acid and/or rennet are increased and acted
  upon by the alcohol. Also increased levels of albumen (colostrum milk)
  and salt concentrates (mastitis) results in a positive test.

  Procedure:

  The test is done by mixing equal amounts of milk and 68% of ethanol solution in a small bottle or test tube. (68 % Ethanol
  solution is prepared from 68 mls 96%(absolute) alcohol and 23 mls
  distilled water). If the tested milk is of good quality, there will be
  no coagulation, clotting or precipitation, but it is necessary to look
  for small lumps. The first clotting due to acid development can first
  be seen at 0.21-0.23% Lactic acid. For routine testing 2 mls milk is
  mixed with 2 mls 68% alcohol.

Simplified for home use:

This test is likely to be adaptable to household alcohol drinks such as vodka or similar beverages.  For example the number of teaspoons of Vodka an ounce or two of milk can hold before it clots.


Can I make a neverending Soup in an instantpot?

I've actually tried it. It didn't work very well for me, but it might work better for you.
The problem is, cookers like the Instant Pot are designed for quick pressure cooking first and foremost. While they have a "slow cook" or "keep warm" setting, the heating element is still driven at high power, just at a lower duty cycle. Over time, that encourages solids to settle to the bottom and dehydrate and burn. (In contrast, a slow cooker operates at a lower power and heats to a lower temperature.)
However, the motion of the truck might actually help you out here by agitating the soup. If the soup doesn't have anything starchy (like beans or potatoes) that might be sufficient to prevent burning.


Who would I take my knives to, to be conditioned?

In the US, there are business called "sharpening services" that are dedicated to sharpening knives, saws, lawnmower blades, and other tools. You can probably find one in your area by searching google or yelp.


Pecan Sandies-Baking powder in the recipe vs. recipe without a leavening agent?

If you take the pecans out of pecan sandies, what you have left I believe is basically a short bread cookie, although those are traditionally presented in wedges.

Starting by searching for shortbread cookie recipe will give you a much better starting point.

These recipes tend to have a basis as simple as you list, although some embellish by dipping in chocolate and so on.   Others substitute cornstarch for some of the flour, to help promote the frangible, delicate texture (cornstarch has no gluten precursors like flour, so it doesn't bring risk of creating a tough or rubbery cookie).

The recipes you are reading which contain baking powder probably (without reading the recipe, its difficult to say for sure) use it to... well... literally create a small amount of leavening, or airiness in the cookie. This will contribute to its crumbly texture, especially if some toughness from overworking the flour is present.  As you have noted, it is not necessary in this type of recipe.

Side note:  cream of tartar is an acid, not a leavening agent.


Will cooking meat with the thermometer in affect the cooking time?

There are "potato nails" marketed for speeding up cooking of baked potatoes by conducting heat into the center of the potato. This testing showed about a 10% reduction in cooking time. Cooks's Illustrated also tested potato nails, and showed a 7-minute reduction over a 75-minute control. They also tested a potato with five potato nails, which reduced cooking time by 11 minutes.

Obviously potatoes aren't meat, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to extrapolate.


It is no wonder you can't keep them whole. There isn't anything in the recipe to give them integrity.

A normal pancake has lots of egg and lots of flour. When you are frying them, the proteins of the egg uncurl and connect to their neighbours to set in a loose, weak mesh. You know how the egg white sets when you fry an egg without whisking it? That happens in a pancake batter too, but much weaker, because there is a load of other stuff swimming around, so the protein molecules have less neighbours to build their connections to.

Then there is the flour. As usual, when you heat a batter, the gluten proteins in flour do the same thing as the egg white proteins, building their own mesh which permeates the whole pancake. While there is less gluten building than in a well-kneaded dough, it is enough to make the pancake hold together.

In your recipe, this just doesn't happen. You have no gluten content at all. So the stronger holding-together-part falls away. Unlike wheat flour, almond flour has no gluten. So it isn't contributing to holding the pancake together.

So what about the whole other protein you have in there? Well, the point is, it is already set. Ricotta, whey protein are both cooked proteins. They can't uncurl and connect a second time. So instead of helping the binding, they are inhibiting it. Every egg protein molecule which could have connected to a neighbouring egg protein molecule in a more fluid batter now keeps bumping into almond, ricotta and whey particles, to which it can't bind at all. So what you have here is a mixture of wetted powders without a binding agent. No wonder it can't hold together.

The best way I can see here is adding wheat flour back. You don't have to sacrifice all of your almond flour. Make a partial substitution, and also substitute part of the whey protein. This will keep the proper viscosity of the batter, while preserving the almond flour taste.

The way the recipe is constructed, however, it looks like somebody decided to exterminate all the carbs in it just because. If you are determined to keep your pancakes zero carbs, you can try throwing out all the whey powder and adding egg white instead. I can't guarantee this will be enough to do the binding, but if you insist on "real pancakes", this is worth a try.

I don't think there are any other traditional techniques you can use to improve your "batter" bonding. Of course, nowadays you can experiment with additives. Transglutaminase looks like your best bet. You'll probably need lots of tries until you get the recipe right, but it should bind the cooked ricotta proteins well enough. You don't want a superstrong binding for this application.


I have had smoked puffin once in Iceland. It made me think of a lean, strongly-gamey/livery duck/goose breast that's been sous-vided till very tender - I remembered the grains (meat fibres) to be very fine. There was a mild sort of silky fishiness (that was masked by the smoked preparation) too, but I'm not sure if I imagined that knowing the puffin was a seabird.

I googled faroese puffin (here), and I think the 90min cooking time is meant to ensure that the batter sewn up in the bird is properly cooked -> making the puffin merely a slow-cooking vessel for the cake within.

If I had to hazard a guess, and you could forgo the aesthetic of a whole stuffed bird, then perhaps you could mimic the flavor by sousviding goose/duck breast that had been sewn up with the batter, with a bit of liver in the bag (unless your duck was already very gamey). I'm not sure how (or why) you would add that element of fishiness.


Miso is (usually) just a flavouring agent, so you almost certainly can substitute any other type of miso.  The flavour will of course be slightly different, but it is not going to ruin the recipe.

Barley miso that has been fermented for a long time is quite dark with a very strong flavour, so you may want to increase the amount of white miso or other miso to taste.


Can I use Bisquick instead of All Purpose Flour?

You cannot directly use Bisquick in place of AP flour.

According to the company web site and Wikipedia, Bisquick consists of bleached all-purpose flour with several other ingredients, including fat (shortening), leavening (baking powder), sugar, and salt. It is essentially a self-rising flour with added fat. Because of all of the extra ingredients, it will not behave the same as regular all-purpose flour.

Depending on the recipe or application, you may be able to substitute or remove some of the other ingredients to make use of a pre-mixed flour like Bisquick.


Whipping-cream will not stay hard or keep its peaks and gets runny

The brands that used to work may have changed their formulation in response to carageenan shortages. If they use less emulsifier, a lower quality product, or different emulsifiers such as guar gum, locust bean, or xanthan gum, the stability of the whipped cream may suffer.
If the cream you can get isn't stable enough, you can add unflavored gelatin to stabilize it.
Method is in 'Joy of Cooking', or here.

May2013: Looks like carrageenan is still on the USDA organic list Shortage has eased, but whipping problems could still be due to variations in quality of supply.


There is no practical difference in spoilage time for wrapped versus unwrapped.  Spoilage is a factor pretty much of temperature, since in practice, all foods have pathogens present which can breed.

Assuming your refrigerator is free of insects, dogs and similar macro-fauna, wrapping is to prevent odors from going from one food to another, drying, or cross-contamination of one food by another through drips or splashing.  Now, outside of a refrigerator, where ants, flies, and so on are abundant, wrapping also provides a physical barrier to prevent infestation, but the body of the refrigerator already does that.

In fact, in some rare occasions, you may wish to specifically refrigerate your meat unwrapped:  for example, after brining a turkey, refrigerating it for 24 hours unwrapped will permit the skin to dry out, and permit a more crispy result.


You'll need a lot longer than 20 minutes that the recipe suggests.  For cow tongue, we usually let them sit in a crock-pot for about 4hrs.  My guess for lamb tongue is about 90 minutes on low simmer.

The skin tends come loose from the muscle underneath when done. The best trick I've found is to cut the skin down the center of the tongue (lengthwise). Use a sharp knife and try not to cut too much of the muscle or some of the meat will peel with the skin.

You can then peel off the skin easily ending up in two sheets (one for each side). Wearing latex or dishwashing gloves helps buffer some of the heat, but as long as they are above room temperature the peeling should go fine and easy.


Why can't I heat water properly on a new glass cooktop using a stainless steel pot?

One possible reason for this would be if the cooktop used induction, where rather than heating up, it used electromagnest to cause the pan to heat up.  For this to work, the pan must be ferrous and able to be magnetized.  Although stainless steel is made from iron, it isn't strongly magnetic, and thus will not work well on an induction cooker.

To test if this is the case, you can try pans from other materials and see if they have similar problems.  Aluminium, copper, or ceramic cookware simply won't heat up at all.  You can also try turning an element on high without a pan, and waiting a minute or two.  If you can hold your hand above the element without feeling any heat, it's either an induction cooktop or defective.

If you place a cast iron or carbon steel pan on the element, wait another minute or two, and test again but can feel heat, then it's induction.

As you mentioned it's a new cooktop, if it's new because you bought it (and not because you've moved), find the manual, and if it's an induction cooker, it should proudly proclaim that fact, and list what types of pans are recommended.

...

The next possibility is that if you're coming from a gas cooktop you may not be used to the speed of electric cookers.  With a glass-topped cooker, it's difficult to see the size of the elements, and so you may only have one or two elements on the cooktop that are rated for fast boiling or other high-heat applications.  You can try each of the burners in turn, and see if some of them heat up faster than others.

... but there's also a chance that the element is defective.    I'd suggest calling their customer service number, or e-mailing them to ask about the cooktop.


What happens if you cook pureed pancakes?

When you cook it, the mixture would go from firm to melted as the temperature increased above the freezing point. Also, your egg proteins that previously held it together will have already been denatured (no way to undo this step mechanically) with the first cooking episode so I'm not aware of anything that would hold the batter together once it melted unless you added more egg. Also, you would not have the bubbles expected in pancakes without adding more baking soda/ powder (as previously mentioned) or putting the mixture in a siphon with nitrous. Either way, probably not a very pleasing result unless you put the batter in a siphon, charge it up, freeze it, and make sure it remains frozen until consumed. In that case you would have frozen pancakes not much different than freezing the original subject other these would melt into a mess with the consistency of the batter upon thawing.


Does cutting sweet potatoes with non stainless steel knives cause oxidation poisoning?

Oxidation is not a health hazard, no matter how you spell it. Your sweet potatoes are as healthy kind of brown as they ever were.


Whipped egg white snack texture and preservation

The treat you are describing I believe is a meringue. These little guys are tricky to get right the first time, as it is all about how long you cook them for and how finely you whip the egg white mixture. What I like to do is add a bit of lemon zest on each one. Not only does it enhance the vanilla flavour (if you're using it), but it also serves to tell you when the meringue is just about ready (goes brown/near black). I have never tried adding gelatin but I don't suppose that would turn out well.

My suggestion: Cook the meringues at about 160-180 degrees celsius, checking on them every 5-10 minutes. Press your finger into one of them if you feel they are ready (the sacrifice of one for the survival of many, I know) and keep repeating this until you feel you have reached your desired texture. The beautiful thing about them is: you can cook them a little to leave them marshmallow-ey or you can cook them into crumbly, crunchy, snacks.

As for how long they last, meringue tend to last about two weeks without a significant change in quality in an airtight, sealed container.

Quick Tip: To keep them soft in texture, let them cool slowly in the oven with the door ajar.

Good Luck!


What are the best apples for juicing, and which ones should I avoid?

Almost impossible to give a consistent apple, because even some of the most praised apples will vary radically by location and year to year.  Do note though that many cider apples won't hurt you, but are generally not culinary apples as they are far too astringent.  Even within cider apples there are three categories, sharp, bitter and sweet and the best cider often are a combination.

Some of my personal favorites will be considered poor by others, but I will mention them anyway.  A Northern Spy requires considerable chill, is a huge tree, tends to biannual, and take a long time to produce, but is an old time traditional tart fresh cider apple with nice body and lots of juice.  A newer and popular apple, honey crisp is very juicy, and makes a nice base but I would tend to mix is with something with more body.  Winesap, a great fresh cider apple, but also tends to biannual, is a northern apple and has fallen out of favor.  My personal favorite, Cox Orange Pippin, but it needs to be an English version by this name, the US version is inferior, and it is not cold hardy.  It is however an excellent fresh apple, makes a very good fresh cider and is an apple that makes a nice hard cider even without mixing.  If you are in the wrong environment it simply will not grow though and "real" ones are often difficult to find depending on where you are.  Local extensions are a great source for this though they typically will only test common varieties.

I would suggest though that most important is to find what varieties perform well in your location, it will vary, and know exactly what you want and like, sweet, tart, hard-draft, hard-dry.  Then I would recommend you are on the correct line wanting a mix to build a deeper body.  And do not be afraid of using crabs.  A few crab apples can make all the difference when added to otherwise drab juice.


How to prevent pureed blueberries from gelling?

Blueberries, and especially underripe blueberries, have a lot of pectin. Blueberries have about .4g per 100g compared to apples which have .5g. As you suspected this is almost definitely causing the problem. Many blueberry jam recipes consist of just heating pureed blueberries with sugar and acid- no added pectin needed.

When you heated your pureed blueberries the pectins dissolved out of the cell walls and developed a negative charge that would keep them from gelling. The acid in your recipe, as well as the sugar, created perfect conditions for those pectins to re-tangle and gel.

Solutions to this problem would be:

Use riper blueberries- ripe blueberries are lower in pectin.
Use less sugar
Add less acid

Obviously the last two suggestions are easier but will change the flavor of the recipe somewhat.

You could also add less fruit but, as you noticed, a little pectin goes a long way. I fear you would have to drastically reduce the amount of fruit which would be sad.

An interesting paper about pectin says in reference to LM pectins: "The presence of acetyl groups prevents gel formation with calcium ions but gives the pectin emulsion stabilising properties."

Of HM pectins it says: "Acetyl groups prevent gelation and the DM within the group of high methoxyl pectins determines the setting temperature of a gel."

Other papers point out that the more acetic acid that can be extracted from a fruit the poorer the gelling properties of its pectin.

Wikipedia concurs that acetylation prevents gelling of pectin. Acetylation of salicylic acid to make aspirin is done with Acetic anhydride. If you could get your hands on this compound it seems likely it would drastically decrease the gelling ability of your pectins.

I included this last suggestion for the sake of the anonymous hordes on the internets because, as Acetic anhydride will react with water in the air to form acetic acid, it reeks of vinegar. And everyone knows that you hate that smell.


How do you keep ebelskivers from sticking?

There are a number of things that you may or may not be doing that is causing the problem, so any of the following "solutions" may fix it for you.  I am basing this on "burn" and "stick".

Make sure you've seasoned your cast iron.  Oil it, bake it in the oven, let it cool.  It will improve over a period of time.
Oil the pan every time you use it.
If your recipe doesn't have any added oil or butter in it, try adding some oil (Tablespoon or so) to the mix.  This would be the difference between pancakes and waffles...it will result in a little crispier exterior and less of a tendency to stick.
Turn down the heat.  If you are burning your ebelskiver you have the pan too hot.  You want the pan to reach and hold 350-375 F.  Again, think pancakes.  A drop of water on a cast iron griddle should dance for pancakes not spit and immediately evaporate.  You want the same setup.
Don't use soap and water to clean the pan.  I am assuming you know this, but for the sake of completeness I include it.  You don't want to remove the seasoning layer on the pan.
Oil the pan when you finish, before you put it away.

4 is probably the most important, since burning will mess up the oily patina you are trying to build up on your pan.  The others will all help.  As I noted in 1, your pan will improve over a period of time as the surface seasoning improves.


How do professional bakers handle rotating trays while mass producing cookies/muffins/cakes/etc.?

Swapping and rotating baking trays is recommended in order to account for differences in temperature inside residential ovens.  Typically, the top of the oven is significantly hotter than the bottom.  This is less of a concern with modern ovens, particularly those with fans to circulate the air (commonly called "convection ovens").

Professional bakeries will use a professional oven that evenly distributes the heat and/or automatically rotates the trays, thus not requiring manual swapping or rotation of the trays.


Simple: grate it.

If you grate the nutmeg using a microplane, it should have a strong, distinctive odor you can smell from a couple feet away.   If it doesn't, it's lost its flavor, throw it away and buy new.

It's fairly likely you're going to end up replacing it.  I've never seen nutmegs get moldy before, and I live somewhere with 80% humidity.  It would have to be stored in some very poor conditions to mold.


Prevent scrambled eggs from sticking to stainless steel

Raw protein sticks to hot stainless steel as soon as it comes into contact with it.  However, once the layer which is stuck to the pan cooks through, it releases from the pan. The trick is to heat the pan over a low heat before adding the eggs, then don't touch them until there is a layer of cooked egg on the bottom - about a minute or two. Then when you start stirring, the cooked egg will easily peel off the bottom and the pan will be sufficiently seasoned so that the rest of the egg doesn't stick to it.


What is the difference between Cajun and Creole cuisine?

The previously accepted answer contains a good link, but not any information here on Seasoned Advice, so I thought I would write out a few things from my understanding after having developed an abiding interest in Cajun foods over the past decade.

Basically, Creole is a much broader term with a longer history. While it is perhaps inaccurate to say Cajun is a 'subset' area and culinary style, it is more geographically- and flavor-specific than just saying Creole. The history of people and region identified as Creole (on the American continents) goes back a long ways, and Cajun is a more recent phenomenon. Creole can also refer to other peoples and regions other than just in the South/Central parts of North America, though such use in the United States is a distant memory.

In the past century, the "Cajun" term has certainly attained an independent status as a self-identified people, region, and flavor -- the last no doubt owing to the flavor potency of their offerings. Which offerings, in my opinion, when consumed, are nearly always exquisitely enjoyable examples of perfection in the experience of food.


I've eaten from the creme brulee cart in San Francisco before, which is basically a food cart that sells nothing but. They're presented in one-serving disposable aluminum ramekins and the crunchy top comes from caramelizing as people order. I've seen similar in bakeries and restaurants that sell creme brulee to go. Presumably this is far easier than cutting up large batches or trying to come up with ways that don't melt styrofoam! :)

More pics from the cart: http://hoodscope.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/street-food-redefined-the-creme-brulee-cart/


After you prove dough the yeast will continue to be active until they are killed by heat (or meet some other untimely demise). If you prove store-bought dough and then put it in the fridge, the cold temperature will slow down the metabolism of the yeast greatly, so yes, you are probably OK doing this for some period of time, but that's probably hours or overnight depending on how long you originally proved the dough.

If you prove too long your bread may become too sour or have an unpleasant crumb (it will probably collapse in the oven). If you are forming large bubbles in the bread you have probably proved too long. You can punch it down and prove again for the correct amount of time, or just bake straight away depending on the kind of bread. There are many recipes that call for proving in the fridge overnight to developer a deeper flavor.


Using Chicken Broth bones for chicken stock?

I don't think you can re-use the bones and expect to get a good product, no.

But I wouldn't use a whole chicken to make stock in the first place. Use necks, backs, and wings instead -- much cheaper! You can roast the pieces first if you'd like, or not. You'll get different results, both good.


Does quality decrease by heavily reducing wine?

The extended reduction could be destroying or driving off some of the volatile, organic compounds that give the wine its flavor.  Wine can contain literally thousands of aromatic and flavorful chemicals from the specific variety of grape and the winemaking process (see http://www.winegeeks.com/articles/93 for a good article that balances geeky and approachable) and together their flavor is what makes up the "profile" of the wine's flavor.  As you reduce, some of the more temperature-sensitive ones are being driven off, just like how the alcohol in the wine burns off before the water does.  So it's probably the over-reduction that's culpable here, but some flavor loss/change is inevitable with any reduction.

The other factor is dilution.  Adding or removing water from a substance can change the aromatics that your nose picks up as you eat or drink.  Try this: take two glasses of the same wine, chill one in the fridge, and add ice to the other until it reaches about the same temperature.  You'll very likely notice some significant differences in their flavor.

The best solution is to watch your reduction carefully so that it doesn't over-reduce in the first place.  If you want a stronger flavor, you're better off varying the type of wine that you're using.  Fruit-forward wines like Merlot tend to retain their flavor pretty well in reductions.


Can I use coconut oil instead of ghee in curry?

Coconut oil is used quite regularly in the southern part of India. It completely replaces ghee or sunflower oil in certain dishes. And as Chris pointed out, it definitely changes the overall flavor of your dish and it may not be a bad thing if it doesn't conflict with the rest of the flavor profile.
As for the original question of frying onions, you surely can but they don't end up very crispy but on caramelization you have a sweet, soft textured onion.


The viscosity of a xanthan solution is virtually unaffected by temperatures from
freezing point to boiling point of pure water and it hydrates rapidly in cold water. You don't need to let it sit on its own and the temperature doesn't matter.

The viscosity of a xanthan solution lowers when whisking or stirring, a process known as shear thinning. When you stop whisking, it will return to its previous viscosity. This will not factor in to thickening. That being said, you can get a xanthan gum foam using an immersion blender.

Between pH 1 and 13, the viscosity of a xanthan solution is practically constant. Unless you're using it for a strange application, you're good.

I cannot find any information on sugar or fat or other solids and their interaction with xanthan gum. Anything that can be dissolved in water would theoretically affect the xanthan gum's effectiveness, so I would expect sugar to be an issue, but fat or solids are obviously not.

The only thing you don't address is the concentration of your xanthan gum solution. Modernist Cooking Made Easy suggests a by weight ratio of:

0.2% ratio for light thickening
0.7% for a thicker sauce
and up to 1.5% for a very thick sauce

Additionally, the thickening effects only hold up for a day or two. What are you trying to thicken, specifically?

References

http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/hyxan.html
http://www.lucidcolloids.com/pdf/xanthan.pdf
http://www.modernistcookingmadeeasy.com/info/modernist-ingredients/more/xanthan-gum


Why do some melons contain removeable dark tiny bits?

Not growth inside
As you point out it is highly unlikely that these flecks are growth already in the melon when you cut it for a couple of reasons: 1) there's no wound shown in the fruit into which the contamination might have been introduced and 2) it seems you are finding them only on the cut surface, and the odds of cutting the fruit exactly where these very few and small bits happened to be are poor.
Unfortunately, after ruling that possibility out, it's difficult to know where else in your environment these bits might be coming from. The knife is the best possibility, as you guessed, so is your work surface, or your hands, or these could be tiny bits of ash from the air if you have a wood-burning stove, and so on.


Substituting freezer paper for parchment paper

Parchment paper is not paper coated with silicon. It's actually paper that's been run through sulfuric acid, leaving it just a really thick matrix of cellulose. Long story short, extremely thick paper without the wood pulp.

Freezer paper is normal paper with wax applied to one side. I wouldn't use it for anything involving heat, as you'd end up eating the petroleum-enriched waxy bit in your food, and the paper might light on fire.

Parchment is used as a spill-proof surface in baking. Additionally, you can wrap foods in parchment (a technique known as cooking en papillote) and stick them in the oven, which effectively steams them in their own juices, so no flavor is lost. Salmon and vegetables are exceptionally delicious this way.


Will chocolate cake be edible if I added one cup of water instead of two?

It shouldn't have affected the edibility of the cake....and there's no scope of the cake's being dry.... :)


You can use any kind of pot on a hot plate. I can't see any reason cast iron would be a problem, unless the hot plate has a less durable surface and you're worried about scratching it.

The only thing that matters is whether the hot plate is powerful enough to keep your food above 140F for the entire time period. That depends much more on the size of the pots than the material they're made of.

If possible, I'd suggest checking with a thermometer to confirm. You can always do a dry run, and you don't have to wait 3 days. If it holds steady at a safe temperature for an hour or two, it should be fine.


Most brisket I've seen in the UK is flat, although I've seen point as well occasionally. The recipe should work fine for both unless you have a really thick point. With a thick point you could cut it the long way to increase its surface area, or cook it a bit longer. You won't go wrong cooking it lower and slower in any case.


Can you reconstitute dried morels in broth instead of water?

The only reason I can think of against it is that your dried morels will have dirt in them and will contaminate your broth.
After the mushrooms have been re-hydrated, pick them up careful from the broth (they usually float).
Then, strain the broth using a coffee filter or a fine mesh strainer (@moscafj).
Use the remaining broth for your risotto.


There are two different types of flavors:

The fundamental tastes that are chemically detected by the taste buds directly: salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and possibly "umami"
The flavors that are detected by aromatic molecules being detected through aroma, through the olfactory system--the nose has connections directly to the mouth as well as the outside world.

The first type of flavor can transfer directly by being physically transferred, or dissolved from one food to another, but I imagine that is not what you are asking aobut.

The aromatic types of flavors are usually more characteristic of specific foods.  To be perceived, they must be atomized into the air to be smelled; this contributes to the sense of taste.

There are several major ways that aromatic flavors can be dissolved, and thus let them become atomized:

In water
In fat
In alcohol

The flavor compounds dissolve in these vectors; the vector then physically transfers from one food to another.

Additionally, for finely chopped or pureed foods, the solid components of the food may be suspended in liquid or sauce, and thus physically transfer or adhere to another food in the same dish.

Non-stick pans differ from more traditional pans in that browned bits do not generally stick to the pan.   This can be either an advantage or a disadvantage.

If the flavor from browning is highly desirable, and you want it dissolved into a sauce (for example, in classic French dishes where the sauce is made by deglazing the pan with wine), flavor creation and transfer is facilitated by the pan.

In other cases, not having flavorful compounds stick to the pan will leave more of them in the food itself.


First, I'll echo Catija's comment and say that there's no major advantage to cooking these breasts together.  I know Kenji does it here, but his purported claim toward greater evenness in cooking isn't really something you need to worry about with sous vide.  In fact, by creating a thicker piece of meat for your water bath, you're guaranteed to make the cooking less even, since it will take much longer for the interior of the meat to reach water bath temperatures.

So, my first recommendation would be to just cook the two breasts separately, making sure water circulates around both.  In that case, you probably don't need to modify your cooking times at all.

But let's assume that you really want to cook your 6-inch cylinder for some reason (perhaps to create a large "meat tube" for slicing if you tie it up well).  Okay.  Assuming your sous vide setup circulates water well, one advantage of sous vide (in addition to the precise temperature control) is the significantly greater heat transfer from water to food compared to, say, air in an oven.

In practice, that means that even rather large hunks of meat come to temperature a lot quicker than they would in an oven.  The main reason to increase time with a larger turkey breast would just be to allow for the center of a large cylinder of meat to rise to the water temperature.

The following recommendation assumes you're going to be using a water bath quite a bit above the "danger zone" border, say at least 140F/60C.**

I played around with a bit of heat transfer modeling here just for kicks, and I'm pretty sure your 6" diameter cylinder wouldn't take that much longer to come to temperature.  Allowing the center an extra 30-60 minutes might be reasonable, but that's still well within the parameters of your 2.5-4 hour recommended window.  I'd tend toward the longer side of that time span (closer to 4 hours), just to guarantee sufficient time with the center above the "danger zone" limit to kill off bacteria.  You obviously could go over 4 hours without compromising safety, but eventually the outer layers of the breast will start getting softer and more mushy (which might be a less desirable texture).

Lastly, for large hunks of meat cooked sous vide for relatively short times, I'd strongly recommend putting in a probe thermometer so you know what the core temperature is and when it gets above the "danger zone."  (See this Modernist Cuisine video.)  If you don't have a thermometer to leave in, I'd check the temperature with an instant-read thermometer after a couple hours to be sure you're at least getting above 130F/55C.

** Note: Precise sous vide temperatures are CRITICAL here for safety.  The closer the center of the cylinder gets to the water bath temperature, the slower its temperature rise becomes.  Getting the center up that last 5-10 degrees or so takes a lot longer.  I've seen some sous vide turkey breast recommendations with water bath temperatures as low as 132F/56C.  In that case, the center of a large cylinder may be skirting the "danger zone" boundary for much of the cook time and might not be safe even after 4 hours in a bath.  In that case, you might need to add more cooking time to guarantee safety.  Alternatively, you could raise the water bath temperature by a few degrees for the first hour or two, and then lower it to finish cooking.  Either way, if you're not sure your breast will spend a significant amount of time near 140F/60C or above, I'd definitely check the core temp mid-cooking and consult sous vide guides to make sure you have enough time above 130F to pasteurize.

Whatever you do, I'd recommend choosing a temperature designed to get the center of your cylinder above 130F/55C within two hours.  Sous vide turkey usually isn't heated to the much higher temperatures that people have traditionally used for oven-roasted turkey.  Those higher temperatures not only guarantee killing off bacteria (and a drier turkey) but also serve as an additional safety measure because higher temperatures will break down some toxins that might be created by some bacteria during a longer period in the "danger zone."  Spending more than a couple hours in the "danger zone" can create toxins in poultry that could still be present if the final temperature is still only 140F/60C or whatever.  This is something not mentioned in most sous vide guides, which tend to be focused only on Salmonella death curves, but it's a legitimate concern if you're cooking a very large hunk of meat in a water bath at low sous vide temps.


What is the difference between making a cheesecake with confectioner's sugar vs. normal sugar?

While you could use it, it would likely affect the finished product. As a substitute in baking, when the recipe calls for granulated sugar, powdered sugar is not always suitable. And, although it is granulated sugar which has been processed into powder, cornstarch has also been added to prevent clumping.

With sugar, the size of a granule determines how well air incorporates into the batter. The larger the granule, the more air and, since the batter needs that air to help it rise, using powdered sugar will not produce the same results.


New cast iron skillet came out rusty after seasoning

That looks a lot more like cooked oil than rust on the inside. Either way, probably not rust, and definitely not enough rust to cause concern. Scrub it off.

When I season my cast iron, I just do it on the stove. I heat the pan until it's smoking, and carefully add a little oil and swirl it around. Let it cool, wipe it out. Then, use it. When you do use it, clean it gently. Avoid using soap, just use water and a spatula or something. It's a good idea to heat it on the stove top to dry it well after cleaning. Over time you get a good thing going.

But either way, rust with cast iron is no cause for concern. Even if it was completely covered in rust, you can brush it out and re-season.


Storing a bear roast after cooking in a crockpot

If your crock has a warm that you can trust is above 140 F but not so hot to cook it down then you can leave it in the crock.  Otherwise you need to get it under 40 F.

A better option would have been to start it at a time so that it finished at 6 PM.
Why not just start it 8:30 AM?

If you are going to cool then remove from the crock pot as that is a lot of heat to put in a refrigerator.


Honeycomb in honey - how long does it last?

Forever.

Honey, comb present or otherwise, does not go bad. It even acts as a preservative. The date you are seeing is solely referring to the "quality" degradation.

Completely edible honey has been found in 3,000 year old Egyptian tombs.


What is the difference between Capocollo and Coppa di parma?

Coppa (aka capocollo) is a type of cold cut (salume) in Italy. You'll see it with different names, including capocollo, lonza, and lonzino. They are all made from the same part of pork. It comes from the neck to the fourth or fifth rib of the pork shoulder or neck, and the name "capo-collo" means "head-neck." "Di Parma" simply means from Parma, and it means the product is created according to certain traditions from that region (though it's actually produced in other regions). The word "coppa" means "cup" in Italian. I'm just guessing here, but I suspect it may be called this because of its shape which is created when it is trimmed (it is cut to be cylindrical).

I suspect the two products you are looking at have different amounts of fat. They are probably both delicious.


What are the official names for slicing an onion from pole-to-pole or cross-pole?

I don't think there's an "official" answer, and using obscure French terms is a good way not to be understood, but for reasonably knowledgeable readers, the most concise terms are definitely slicing latitudinally and longitudinally.

("first, assume a spherical onion...")


How do I know if a food or recipe can be made in a microwave oven?

Microwaves in general provide all-around, not too powerful heat. Very roughly, this means it's kinda like cooking on a low-powered stove, except the heat comes from all directions, not just below. (And depending on the microwave, it might heat a good bit less from below.) The things that work are therefore the things that work with relatively gentle, constant, extended heating. This translates approximately into the following traditional cooking methods:

Steaming. If there's not a whole lot of liquid, and there's some empty space for steam to move around in, this is what you'll get. For example, a covered bowl of vegetables (maybe with a little extra water), or even fish on a plate covered with plastic wrap, will come out about like if you steamed it.
Heating, simmering, boiling. If you've got a more substantial mass of food, you'll get something on the continuum between these three, depending on how much of it there is, what power you set your microwave to, and how long you cook it. This means you can do anything from melting butter (carefully) to cooking oatmeal to boiling noodles. (And along with that, you get the canonical use: reheating food.)
Dehydrating. This is a bit of a corner case, but if there's relatively little water in something to begin with, and it can escape easily, the heating will dry the food out substantially - this allows things like dehydrating herbs or even microwave jerky.

And the things you can't do? Anything that requires high heat, especially dry heat, anything where you'd expect the food to brown or get crispy. Roasting, broiling, pan-frying, and so on - the heat from the microwave just isn't going to accomplish it. And on top of this, anything where the cooking time really matters is a bad idea. Even if the microwave might eventually get it hot enough, it's going to take a bit to get there, so if you're looking to quickly cook something in an already hot pan then take it out, it's not going to work. Yes, there are complex ways to work around some of this (for example the herb-frying Brendan mentioned) but as far as what's straightforward to do, you'll want to avoid all these things; they're easier to do the normal way.


Use of algin and calcium chloride in spherification

There certainly are solutions that will not work. The reaction will only occur within certain pH ranges. You will sometimes see the addition of sodium citrate in a recipe, this is to correct the pH in to acceptable ranges for the gel to form. For sodium alginate, the acceptable pH range is 2.8 - 10. However, if the pH is < 4, that can inhibit the process (requiring the citrate). I can't find a definitive answer in a quick search for vinegar pH, but it looks like it may be too low. I'd guess that was your issue (since you had success with the milk).

I have also heard of issues with getting alcohol to gel at certain concentrations, but have no direct experience with making alcoholic gels (beyond a little flavoring).

Absolutely the best resource for this stuff at the moment is the Khymos Recipe Collection. Check out the appendix for detailed properties of the different molecular substances. However, Modernist Cuisine may soon become the 'bible' when it's finally released (and some people shell out $500 for it).

In my experience, if you want the caviar "pop" with spherification, you need to do it immediately before service. Leaving the caviar in a water bath can leach color and flavor, and as you say, the spheres continue to gel. My best results have always involved doing it at the last minute. Fortunately, it's not hard to do, and it's a great parlor trick, so you can incorporate the creation in to the service.

I also think that reverse spherification (putting a calcium solution into an alginate bath) holds the liquid center better as the gel forms outward rather than inward. This does leave you with a flavorless membrane thought, as the bath is technically gelling around the solution. So for preparations with a thick membrane, this may not be ideal.


How do I prevent venison (for jerky) from spoiling?

stilltasty.com gives you 3-5 days in the fridge for fresh, raw venison.


Braised short ribs differ in texture when on stove top vs in oven

"For the same time" seems to be your problem here. An oven will warm a pot much more slowly than a stovetop, especially a heavy iron stew pot. You'll need to monitor your temperature, and only count the time after it reaches 68 Celsius. The warming up phase can be easily close to an hour in the stove, eating away a lot of the actual cooking time.


Blending ingredients with cocoa solids are best added at the same temperature as the chocolate. If you used cold milk the fat in the milk heated before the water content and was absorbed leaving the water to float. Although I avoid milk and use cream I have rescued both ganache & chocolate with icing sugar and/or cocoa powder adding a little at a time.


In cooking rice or many other grains (and even some grain based products such as pasta), two things actually happen:

The starches absorb water; they are hydrated.
Cooking.

The boiling phase does both at the same time, very efficiently, but sufficient hydration happens before the rice is fully cooked through.  So steaming to finish allows the rice to be fully cooked.

If you just simmer, things would simply take longer.  The reason to turn the heat down is to not burn the rice at the bottom during the steaming phase.


I can't tell you why it works - possibly alteration of sodium or calcium channel response in the taste receptors? - but I've seen Indian cooks use lemon or lime juice in much the same way to cut down the heat of a too-hot curry. It's definitely a done thing.


I would suggest you to keep feeding the starter a few more days before starting the 'discard and feed'. Fermentation is a process that requires a LOT of patience, as everything else in baking.

On the other hand I tried and could successfully make a starter following these instructions. I love The Kitchn and Emma Christensen. Her baking tutorials are among the best.

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-your-own-sourdough-starter-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-47337


What is the smoking point of salmon fillet oil?

According to this anecdotal Reddit post [1], salmon oil holds up to 460F, 232C. However, most fish oils are considered unstable and unsuitable for cooking as their Inherent Oxidation Stability is relatively high [2].
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/AskCulinary/comments/7dx0cp/fish_oil_as_a_cooking_fat
[2] http://www.clovegarden.com/ingred/oilchart.html


In my "expert" opinion as a great lover of all things pork, I say yes, that marinade will be fine overnight. It's quite acidic, and that's a concern, but it's not so acidic as to create mush. You'll be fine marinating overnight. As a matter of fact, I'm surprised that the recipe doesn't say "2 hours up to overnight".


What kind of meats are good for quick or cook ahead preparation, and are reasonably priced?

Pork shoulder/butt is very fatty. You can get a small one, since there's only one of you, and make different things.
For example, you cook it once, and you can have pulled pork to add to salads, sandwiches, omelets, refried beans.

Roasts are pretty cheap, I'm thinking Chuck roast, Sirloin tip oven roast, boneless Center cut pork roast.
One small roast gives me 3-4 meals. So you can cook 3 roasts at once in the oven and you'll have meat for about 9 meals.

Chuck steak/beef stew meat, is very cheap, and you can make delicious stews to keep in the fridge or freezer in individual serving containers.

Bacon is expensive, but if you ask for bacon "ends and pieces", it's very, very cheap (and it's also very fatty).

A lot of my suggestions will make way too much meat, if you're the only one eating, but they freeze well in small containers.

Chicken leg quarters are very cheap and fatty. You can make so many things with them. Shred it for salads, soups, coconut milk curries, or have it whole by roasting in the oven.

Canned sardines (in water) are cheap, and you can add something spicy to them (e.g. chili paste or paprika) drizzle some olive oil, then broil in the oven.

If you need help in preparing these foods, leave a comment and I'll try to help.


After trying steaming a few times as renegade suggested, I've decided I prefer roasting:

As with steaming, everything stays in the vegetables, they're pretty easy to test, and they don't get waterlogged.
It gives some nice caramelization, contributing a little to the end flavor.
It leaves them drier than steaming, which I like because it gives me the freedom to add plenty of other liquids (e.g. milk).
It's easy to roast large quantities of whole vegetables (which wouldn't fit in anything I have to steam in), so I can make large batches. And cooking them whole means there's less to sort through when pulling out ones that got done faster.

To each their own, but this works for me!


Probably (famous last word)
(curious) what is the reason you want to do it in 2 stages ? Lamb roast usually does not take a long time to cook.
You could quickly roast/brown it at high temperature to have a crust.
Quickly cool it down in the fridge, and the next day, continue cooking up to temperature.
I'm not expecting this to result in the best roast, but it should be feasible,


When heating up a pizza, edges burn while middle still liquid

The key here is that you said you’ve thawed the pizza. Frozen pizzas are designed to be baked from frozen. The instructions on the box should reflect this.


Sous vide: why do cylindrical / cylinder-like and spherical / sphere-like foods cook faster than slab-like?

A picture really helps here:

There's your slab, cylinder, and sphere with the same thickness.

The time to cook does depend on thickness, since that's the distance the heat has to travel from the surface to the interior. But it also depends on the ratio of surface area to volume (and thus shape): the more surface area per volume you have, the more area you have to transfer heat compared to the amount of heat you need to transfer to fully heat the meat.

So unsurprisingly, at constant thickness, a slab takes longer than a cylinder, which takes longer than a sphere.

Of course, the typical thicknesses of the various shapes are different, so it's not all that meaningful to compare things at constant thickness. A slab might be a fish filet, a steak steak, or many smaller pieces of meat packaged together in a bag - nothing all that thick, unless it's a really full bag. A cylinder might be a pork tenderloin or a decent approximation of a chicken breast - still not that thick. A sphere might be a single steak medallion, or maybe an okay approximation of a large pork shoulder - a pretty wide range.

That said, in the end we often think about things in terms of the amount of meat, i.e. the volume.  A 2 by 10 by 10 cm slab, a 5 cm diameter 10 cm long cylinder, and a 7.25 cm radius sphere all have about the same volume. According to that table, the slab needs 1.25 hours, the cylinder needs 2.75 hours, and the sphere needs 4 hours. So if you were thinking of similar quantities of meat, perhaps that matches your intuition better.


There are a lot of different dishes, and not enough names, and different parts of the world don't agree with each other on what things should be called. In general, there is no standard for what a dish a certain name corresponds to. I believe for example Italy has standardized some recipes, but there are still people making their own version of that dish, and calling it by the same name. To summarize, both are correct. There is no universal body that names dishes.


What tasks require or work best with a knife point?

A pointy tip is useful in a boning knife, particularly when getting between meat and sinew, or getting under silver skin. The pointy end of the knife is helpful when removing meat from the bone. I also use the pointy end of a fillet knife to get between the skin and meat of fish, starting the separation, when I want to remove fish skin from the fillet. I use the pointy part of the knife to pierce pork skin, for example, when I want to string a piece of jowl or belly to dry.  I think you can accomplish plenty without the sharp point, but it does come in handy when you need to pierce or focus the cutting in a precise place. It's not really about recipes, rather it is a matter of the task that needs to be accomplished, and there are several where it comes in handy.


How long can I keep a leg of ham in the fridge?

The official answer is generally only a few days for meat in the fridge ...

Ham can be different, as it's salt cured, so depending on the salt content can last longer without freezing it.

As for freezing it, it really depends on how you plan to use it:

It's most convenient to cut it up in the same way that you're going to use it, so that you can just pull it and use it easily
For maximum storage time, the less surface area (larger pieces) the better.  Diced ham will get freezer burnt much faster than just bagging a 1lb chunk.
As with freezing most meats, you want to double wrap it to prevent moisture loss (and freezer burn).

So, I'd go ahead and ask yourself how you envision using it up, and how quickly.  For instance, if you think you'll make a pot of ham and black bean soup in the next month or so, go ahead and dice it now and freeze it, and you can just pull and dump it when it's time.  If you like ham steaks, slice them up, wrap and freeze those -- you can always chop it up further to fold into a casserole once it's thawed, if you have to.  If you have so much that you think you're going to get sick of ham and need a break, freeze it in a large chunk ... but you'll want to give it a day to defrost in the fridge so you can actually cut into it when you want to use it.


What is the safest, most effective way to cleave through thick bone?

The most reliable technique I found was the following:

Hold the cleaver in your left hand (assuming you are right-handed);
Press the cleaver from the top with your right hand to make a slight indentation into the bone, in order to maintain a stable hold for the next step;
Use a wooden mallet to pound the flat (top) end of the cleaver, again with your right hand.

This is completely safe and doesn't require precise aim.  Usually even the thickest bones can be cleaved through completely with 2 or 3 hard whacks from the mallet.


The Rival Crock Pot manuals are available online at this link:

https://www.manualslib.com/products/Rival-Crock-Pot-3100-3970921.html

You can always look up your specific or similar pots and confirm the settings with these posted manuals.

In looking through these, the general norm appears to be that as you turn the top of the dial to the right, you increase the temperature, and as you turn it to the left, you decrease it. Also settings of II and III are usually hotter than I.


Raw Salmon on a green cutting ( RTE ) board

I don't care if it is legit, it is unwise.

You do not train people to use these incorrectly, for several reasons:

Next time they will be sloppy with other colors as well
Someone who did not know this happened will 'lend' the board for further use with vegetables (between dishwasher cycles)
As you correctly said, someone who did not know, will wash it at too low a temperature or too short
You will arouse suspicion about the hygiene in your kitchen, if anyone sees this