Using homemade pasta instead of dried in a bake

I've made lasagna several times with homemade egg pasta. The pasta cooks in the steam generated by the ingredients you're baking and there is no need to blanch, parcook or do anything to the homemade pasta before using it in your recipe.

The noodles can be quite fragile and moving them around once they are cooked can easily tear them or stretch them out to breaking thinness.


I believe it's another name for the tenderloin. http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Beef%20Cuts.htm

Also, if you check out this other fillet of beef recipe from the same show:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/fillet-of-beef-recipe/index.html
You can see a much better picture of the meat. That one is clearly a tenderloin.

So The Fillet Mignon is part of that technically...


What are the crunchy bits on top of Thai mango with sticky rice?

Aha! Found the answer myself!

This recipe includes the step "Garnish with toasted sesame seeds or fried salty mung beans." -- I googled "fried salty mung beans" and found the picture below, which is exactly what I was looking for:


How can one make dry fine hazelnut flour?

Over half of the weight of hazelnuts consists of oil.  So just:

buy / pick the hazelnuts yourself
buy yourself a decent nut oil press, (the higher the pressure the more oil you will remove)
press the nuts

and whatever is left after you've pressed all the oil out of the nuts is very dry though still coarse so the only thing left to do is just use a grain grinder to grind that into the smoothest most wonderful flour you've ever seen and tasted.

Tip: if you're only interested in the nut flour, start selling the hazelnut oil as it's a fantastic product to make all kinds of fried desserts like fried chocolate to offset the 2 new items you had to buy


Sombra Pumpkin: Is it known by other names?

Most winter squash is fairly interchangeable when cooking.
Obviously, there are differences in them (sweetness, density, size, flesh color), but if you're cutting it up and roasting it, then it's fairly universal (but you might need to cut up denser ones into smaller bits).
Tozer Seeds describes it as:

a combination of sweetness, flaky texture and depth of flavour

(Kings Seeds uses the exact same description)
I'm not sure what they mean by 'flaky', but it might mean that it can be treated like spaghetti squash, where the fibers are such that it can be cooked whole and then removed from the skin in long strands as a pasta substitute.
As it looks to be a smaller pumpkin, and they mention it's sweet, I'd recommend trying recipes for "acorn squash".
And, if you roast it and it's not quite right ... then you can always mash it with other flavorings, or blend it with some stock to turn it into soup.


Edible lollipop sticks for a complicated birthday cake

The brainstorming in the comments has provided numerous examples:

Candy cigarettes

These are likely the most realistic sticks you will find, as they're usually completely white, but fairly soft so use care when attaching the muffin to the top:

Pocky / Mikado

These are chocolate covered biscuit sticks, they're much more sturdy but not the right colour:

There is also a Cookies & Cream flavoured Pocky, marketed as Pocky Panda, which is white and the closest resemblance they make. This may require being purchased from the internet though as I'd never heard of them before:

Rolled Chocolate Wafer Biscuits

These are simply tubes of wafer biscuits, typically filled with chocolate, such as DeBeukelaer Pirouline and Pepperidge Farm Pirouette:

Stick Candy and Rock

Quite simply sticks made out of candy, I suspect Rock will be less common outside the United Kingdom, but Stick Candy should be simple to find.

Rock is a hard candy tube up to an inch thick which could support a table, nevermind a cupcake:

Stick Candy is basically un-bent candy canes and less thick than rock, though very similar:


Should I include egg shells in my stock?

I've not heard of egg shells being used that way. I'm not sure what they would add.

The classic way of clarifying a meat stock to make it crystal clear (ie: for a consommé) is to whisk egg white (and I know at least one chef who adds crushed up egg shell to this mix) and finely ground meat into the cold stock and then gradually heat it. As the added ingredients cook they rise through the stock trapping all the bits that make it cloudy and the gunky 'raft' can be skimmed off the top.


How can we prevent the steaming of tiffin when we put chapatis in?

Anything hot in a closed environment will cause steam. Either cool it down first, or you can wrap them in a paper towel or kitchen paper that will absorb the moisture before putting in the container.


Difference in caffeine levels between light and bold coffee?

I believe that the following study provides a definitive answer:

Application of high performance liquid chromatography to the analysis of some non-volatile coffee components

From the abstract:

  High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was applied to the analysis of caffeine, trigonelline, nicotinic acid and sucrose in Arabica and Robusta coffee. Green and roasted coffee samples were used in this study and the degradation of sucrose and trigonelline, with the formation of nicotinic acid, was followed during roasting. Caffeine did not undergo significant degradation with only 5.4% being lost under severe roasting.

Roasting does in fact lower the caffeine content, so bolder coffees will have less caffeine if they come from the exact same bean. But even under the worst conditions, the impact of roasting is trivial compared to the impact of bean selection, brewing method, etc.

What does degrade is sucrose (sugar), which is why heavily-roasted beans tend to taste so bitter (or "bold").

Bottom line: Make your roasting decision based on flavour preference, not caffeine content. Because the effect on caffeine is so small, you really can't compare the caffeine content of light roasts vs. dark roasts categorically unless you have a controlled sample, which you don't unless you're working in a lab.


Why do my weighing scales have ml and g?

Well as a chemist the densities of water and any watery liquid like milk will be very close to 1 gram per milliliter (g/ml) -- within a few percent. However corn oil would be off since it is about 0.90 g/ml. Lard seems to be about 0.87 g/ml. So be careful, but I'd guess that most ingredients in a recipe would work if within 10%.


If you produce edible food, it cannot be left at room temperature indefinitely. The bones in ossuaries are not cooked, softened fish bones, they are only the mineral part of animal bones, with the organic part decayed away. So there is no comparison there. Treat them like any other cooked food.

There is nothing which gets firm after going through the freezer, stuff gets mushier if anything. For bones, there shouldn't be any change in texture.

So the standard storage lifetime applies to them, just as for any other cooked meal: 2 hours outside, 3-5 days in the fridge, as long as you want in a -18 C freezer.


I had this happen to me - it's because fat gathers on the top of the creme.

After heating the creme, for some reason, fat/oils gather at the top of the creme and when cooled become the hard layer you have described. It's just what normally happens to fat when you cool it down - it gets hard.

You can try stirring your creme before letting it cool down completely, unfortunately I do not know why this happens or how to fix it, otherwise.

EDIT:
Apparently, as @mathgenius pointed out, this happens if you use vegetable oil based cream. He reported that when using animal far cream the problem was fixed.


How to get rid of raw onion smell while doing Gojju when forgotten to fry the onions

In my experience, a combination of acid (lemon juice/tomatoes/tamarind paste) and heat(temperature) is used to cut the taste of raw onions. You will need to continue frying the raw onion and masala mixture until it separates from the oil, which is a good indicator of the doneness of the onions as well as the spices.
If you follow this route of cooking the onions after pureeing them, you would also not want to roast the spices before grinding them, and instead fry them all together at this stage.


When should or shouldn't you toss pasta with sauce?

It really depends on what your goal is; that is, what you are doing with the pasta.  If you are making most authentic Italian pasta dishes, the slightly under cooked pasta is transferred to the pan in which the condiment was prepared.  It is then tossed with some water from the pot that that the pasta was cooked in, along with some butter or olive oil (depending on the region of the dish).  This finishes the cooking, emulsifies the sauce, and mixes in the the condiment.  The final dish is not about pasta or the condiment in isolation, but rather the combination.  Just like a salad is not about the lettuce, per se, but the combination of lettuce and dressing.  It is true that pasta will potentially absorb the sauce and get mushy if stored in fridge.  This is less of a problem if sauced appropriately, but still, it is possible.

First choice, prepare only enough pasta for the meal.  Depending on the type of pasta, you are only looking at a maximum of 10 - 12 minutes of cooking and often less. So, it's not really about convenience. If you find you have cooked more than you need, you could always chill and reserve non-sauced pasta, then reheat it in condiment at another time.  But, in my opinion, this would be inferior to freshly cooked, and take almost as much time.

If your goal is a cold pasta salad, by all means, cook, chill, then mix with dressing whenever you need it.


It depends on your oven and how big the hams are. If you try to cram 2 big hams into your oven and it's not a fan oven then you probably need to add extra time. If they are moderate size then it shouldn't make much difference at all. If they are big but you have a fan oven then you shouldn't need to add time.

The best way to make sure something is done is not by time, but using a meat thermometer. When the ham is 150F at the center of the meat's mass then it is ready to come out, below that it still needs more cooking.


I find them to be quite different, actually.

The pickled banana peppers you find at sandwich and salad bars are usually cut in rings. They have a sour but quite sweet flavor that I like a lot. I don't usually define these as being "hot" at all. They have thicker flesh than pepperoncinis.

I could eat these things all day. They have a really pronounced flavor, too, that often overpower any other flavors in a dish.

On the other side, you have pepperoncinis... These I also will eat but I don't find them to be nearly as sweet as banana peppers. They also seem to be more bitter. I nearly always find them served whole, often in a salad (as you find at Olive Garden) or with a pizza.

The descriptions of them here seem to corroborate my feelings:

  Banana Peppers:

  Have a heat level ranging from 0 to 500 SHU
  The skin is often smoother and thicker
  The end edge is pointier
  The taste is mild, sweet, and tangy.

  Pepperoncini:

  Have a heat level ranging from 100 to 500 SHU
  The skin is often wrinkled and thinner
  The edge is more bulbous
  The taste is also mild and sweet, but slightly tangier and a little bit more bitter.

My guess is that Subway only has one or the other (banana peppers, it's pretty obvious to me and what they also say on their website) but they know that people tend to use the terms interchangeably, so they don't argue with you when you ask them for "pepperoncini" and all they have are banana peppers. They reach for "the same vegetable" because they only have the one.

Papa Johns offers both, which is why they have both on the menu. If you ask for one pizza with one half with one and the other half with the other, you will get two different things... though based on their website, you can get banana peppers as a topping while you get pepperoncini as an "extra" meaning it's not cooked onto the pizza, it's served on the side. If you asked, they'd likely be willing to do put the pepperoncini on the pizza but it's not their standard practice.

Possibly worth noting that I'm pretty sensitive to bitter flavors, which may explain why I can tell more of a difference between the two.


Vacuum sealed frozen salmon burgers - seal broken due to thawing?

The question I would have is whether it was frozen when you bought it, or if you froze it yourself. If you froze it and the packaging was good when you did then there's no reason to throw it out unless it's gotten too freezer-burned to be palatable. It's the temperature of the freezer, not the packaging that preserves food when in the freezer, so it should be safe providing it was properly handled before being frozen.
As for the bag being loose it may very well have a hole in it, it's more likely to have happened in the freezer than during thawing. Because you froze it yourself and the packaging was good you know whatever happened occurred after you bought it, so it should be just fine.

If you bought it frozen then I would suggest throwing it out because you don't know when the packaging was broken or what the food could have been exposed to.


What methods can be used to cook Skipjack tuna other than frying it in oil?

A few suggestions:

Raw. If your fish is great quality and very fresh, and you have  a good sharp knife (just look up the way to cut it for the nicest texture)
Ceviche. This cooks (denatures) the fish with acid, rather than heat. Lots of recipes out there for great marinades, some with no added oil at all.
Seared. You only need to add rub enough oil into the surface of the fish to prevent it from sticking, to a hot griddle or flat pan.
Steamed. Often with aromatics. In a bowl to catch the juices, or wrapped in a loose but well-sealed package of foil or greaseproof paper (en papillote).

Gently poached in good oil is very nice, but I don't think that would meet your dietary requirements!

En papillote Is often done in quite a hot oven: the package enforces steaming inside; the fish isn't exposed to fierce heat.

All of these methods will be enhanced by your choice of recipe for dipping sauces, dressings, marinades,  sides, etc. There's no difficult technique in most of them. The lucky thing about good fish is.. the less you do to it, the better it is. (Almost). Look up the methods, and you'll find the recipes.

The only real danger is overcooking. You'll have to get to know your preferred doneness.


The classic way to compensate for saltiness (especially in Asian cuisine) is to add something sweet (usually sugar), which tricks one's taste-buds into thinking that the food is both less salty and less sweet.  (Ever wonder why a can of cola has 45+ mg of sodium?  It's there partially to mask all the sweetness which gives you a sugar rush, and simultaneously make you thirstier!)  I seem to recall reading a section on this phenomenon in On Food and Cooking, but my copy is back home.  I'll try and post an excerpt later today.  Update #2: I can't seem to find any mention of saltiness inhibitors in OFaC, however, there is a section on sweetness inhibitors (cf. page 663) so I must have been confusing it with that.

Update #1: I haven't gotten a chance to look at OFaC yet, however, I did find this study:

An overview of binary taste–taste interactions by Keast and Breslin.  Journal of Food Quality and Preference, 14 (2) 111–124.  March, 2003. Elsevier.

It is a survey of research on both perceived and chemical reactions between different tastes.

  When compounds eliciting tastes are mixed many outcomes are possible, including perceptual enhancement and suppression, unmasking of a taste not initially observed, or possibly chemical synthesis of a new taste.

The survey notes (see Sections 3.2 and 3.3):

  At medium and high intensities/concentrations
  sweetness was generally suppressive of other basic tastes.

and also

  Sweetness suppressed salty taste at moderate intensities.

It goes on to note that at even higher concentrations sweetness and other tastes are symmetrically suppressive (i.e., their tastes cancel each other out).


Why does my pan always splatter when I make chicken breasts?

The reason why fried meat splatters is that correct frying temperatures (~ 180 Celsius pan surface) are well above the vaporizing temperature of water (100 Celsius). Each droplet of cell plasma which comes into contact with the frying fat creates a tiny steam explosion. And explosions splatter.

If you were meaning to ask not why it splatters, but how to prevent it: you can't. See also the existing question about it.

On a side note, 12-14 minutes per side of chicken breast sounds like you are reducing it to particleboard. See this question for correct internal temepratures.


What's the function of acerola powder in bread?

The only functional reason that comes to mind is indeed the vitamin C content. Vitamin C makes for quite tough gluten, so it is frequently used in bread making.

The question about the choice of acerola powder over ascorbic acid can only be answered with certainty by the person who made that choice. An obvious guess would be that it was done for marketing reasons.


Marinade then cook or cook then marinade?

If your issue is with the meat being too tough and dry, then your best bet is to marinate beforehand. Marination is the process of soaking food in seasoning before hand to flavor meat and also to cause the marinade to break down some of the tissues in the meat. This will cause more moisture to be absorbed into the end result. This will likely solve your too dry issues rather than cure your meat and dry it out.

If you "marinate" it afterwards, it will likely only flavor the meat but not have the secondary effect of making the meat more moist. The proteins in the meat have already denatured so the marinade will not be able to break down the tissues that it would in a raw product.

If you want to sous vide the meat, I would suggest a lower temperature. 170 degree F is beyond the well done temperature. If you are cooking your pork sous vide at 170 degree F, then the pork will reach a internal temperature of 170 which will result in dry tough meat. Try between 150-160 degree F.

Also traditionally it is marinated before hand rather than afterward.


There are many variables here that may or may not caused OP's problem.

The Pan sounds as it might not have been hot enough.  How hot was quite hot, how long could you hover your hand above the pan?
Did you notice any change to the oil once you added it to the pan, did it streak, did it start to smoke?
[Personally I tend to oil the meat before placing into the pan.]

I think the main flaw is the frying for a minute on each side, at the temperature you had, that cooking time was too low.  Maybe 2-4 minutes on each side.  A medium should have a lot more heat penetrate the edges and allow that heat to transfer and cook the steak off the heat.

That's an acceptable blue/rare steak though.


How can I adjust a recipe for different grades/brands/types of gelatin?

Looked up 'gelatin strength' in Google and found this link. Very interesting.

There are two types of gelatin: A and B (I have no idea what the 'isoionic point' is).

Anyway, in the shop, I guess you'll find approximately the same 'strength' gelatin, independent of the format.

Normally, the gelatin sheets are 2g and the granular gelatin is packed in 6gr envelopes. 3*2=6.

6g of gelatin (1 envelope) will bind 500ml water for jelly (as per the instructions on the envelope). Substitute water for other liquid and you are set to go.

Edit: Personally, I don't think the precision is too important. This weekend I added too much water to a recipe (500ml) and the result was nearly perfect. That is, it didn't collapse but was hard to ration.

Also - Changed gr to g.


Why does adding salt to microwaved broth make it foamy?

There are likely two or three things happening.

When clear liquids come out of a microwave, it is quite common for it to froth as soon as you put something into it. A spoon, or crystals of salt or sugar forms nucleation sites for over-energised water molecules to make vapour bubbles. Water forms vapour at any temperature, not just at its boiling point.

In conventional heating, convection starts from the layer closest to the heated bottom of the pan and the hottest liquid always rises to the surface and there is plenty of movements in the liquid body. In a microwave energy goes into the water molecules directly and the container is heated by the energiesed liquid, the opposite of conventional heating. There is very little time for convection currents to develop. Molecules within the body of the liquid that are excited may not find sites to form vapour and become locally superheated. Vapour pressure above the liquid may be actually less than what it should be at that temperature until the body is disturbed. Lots of tiny vapour bubbles are released when disturbed. They look foamy until they escape from the liquid. This is the most likely cause.

Salting out of proteins could be another cause, though probably less likely. You would probably see a layer of scum on the surface that would not disappear.

Emulsion breaking. Heating and addition of salt will encourage any emulsion to split. From your picture, there is plenty of oil around. There could have been some oil droplets suspended in the water phase of the soup. These could clump together at the start of emulsion breaking giving a cloudy appearance before floating to the top as a continuous layer. Not likely either.


Bad smells don't suddenly appear: they have a source. The way to get rid of it is removing the source. If there is a persistent bad smell, I would recommend going though the kitchen from top to bottom and clean everything. This will probably take several hours to most of a day, depending on how many people help and how big the kitchen is.

This includes cleaning in drawers (removing inserts and cleaning them as well) and cupboards, pulling out appliances like the stove and refrigerator (maybe a piece of some food fell behind the stove while cooking and is spreading a bad smell?) and potentially even having a plumber check that there's nothing wrong with the sink / waste disposal. You should also change or clean the filters in the exhaust fan. Hopefully after this the source of the smell will be discovered and removed.

Once the bad smell is gone, you can maintain the kitchen by cleaning daily as you have been doing and making sure you get fresh air into the room. Leave the door open and have a window open in some other room to help get fresh air into the kitchen.


The main factors are a gelling agent, alcohol, sugar and air/stirring.

Sugars may decrease the freezig point - add enough sugar and your ice remains soft-ish. Unfortunately this can mean your ice gets too sweet. So instead of using plain sugar, add some "inverted sugar": glucose syrup (aka corn syrup), which stays runny and doesn't crystalize.
You could even take it up a notch and use trehalose, which is basically two linked glucose molecules. It is used in ice-cream making to inhibit the formation of ice crystals. It tastes also less sweet than regular sugar, allowing for less sweet ice cream. Find an award-winning sample recipe here (further down). And if you really must have some hard science, a study on the use of trehalose in ice cream.
Alcohol has a low freezing point. But apart from the question whether you want to use it at all, you should note that you need a certain amount of ethanol to have a noticeable effect - high-proof alcohol and yes, you will taste it.
Glycerine (a sugar alcohol) helps keep ice cream soft.
Likewise the addition of gelling agents may inhibit the formation of ice crystals - locust bean gum is often used to replace eggs in custard-based ice cream and agar agar and pectin may serve a simmilar purpose.
And finally you can mechanically avoid / hinder the formation of large ice crystals by churning your juice first and freezing the slush instead of pouring the juice straight in the molds. The ice will still be rather hard, but not as much of a "solid icicle", especially if combined with one of the additives above.


Adding a little bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to the beans when soaking overnight should help soften them.


How do I make a really flavorful turkey burger?

We have been eating turkey burgers for years.  The super secret is to not let them dry out while cooling.  I take a pound of ground turkey, mixed 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 shakes garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon of water.  Then mix thoroughly by hand.  After patty-ing them to 1/4 inch thick patties, I grill for about 5-6 minutes per side, turning a quarter turn at 2-3 minutes.  After removing from grill, I wrap in foil and let sit for 5-10 minutes.   Voila!


Vanilla Extract with and without alcohol

According to the FDA vanilla extract must contain a minimum of 35 percent alcohol ("TITLE 21--FOOD AND DRUGS"). That's roughly on par with vodka.

There's no such thing as flavorless alcohol. Ethanol has a flavor ("Bitter and sweet components of ethanol taste in humans") and alcohol (at least, when the dilution is greater than 35 percent) produces a burning sensation in the mouth and throat. Perhaps this is what you've identified as the harsh flavor.

There are pretty good alternatives, fortunately.

One option is vanilla flavoring. This is similar to vanilla extract, in that it's made from real vanilla beans, but it contains no or very low amounts of alcohol. Instead, the solvent will often be propylene glycol.1

The other very common option is what's sometimes called imitation vanilla, which is not made from vanilla beans, but instead from artificially produced vanillin. Such imitation flavorings may or may not contain alcohol.

Vanillin is an organic compound that's responsible for the most prominent flavor in vanilla beans. It's produced naturally in the beans, and artificially through a number of different processes (which some people think aren't safe, but most of the concern I seen seems not to be grounded in science, but in a fear of "chemicals"). Vanilla beans also contain a ton of other flavors, which is why imitation vanilla may be thought of as inferior. But, on the other hand, a lot of these other flavors can either be denatured or simply overpowered, especially when baked. The general advice I've heard (which may have come from America's Test Kitchen) is to use imitation vanilla in baking and vanilla extract for making things like whipped cream, where the vanilla is practically all you taste.

Adding imitation vanilla to tea may not improve the flavor (over vanilla extract, that is), but it costs very little, so it wouldn't hurt to try.

1: As with so much in the online world, there's a lot of bad information out there about vanilla flavoring. For instance, look at what Eden Foods says about vanilla flavoring:

  Natural Vanilla Flavor is an extract of many things using animal glycerin or propylene glycol (antifreeze) and a googol of other synthetic and/or toxic chemicals.

  https://www.edenfoods.com/articles/view.php?articles_id=83

Thirty seconds of Googling will tell you that antifreeze is ethylene glycol, not propylene glycol and that the FDA considers propylene glycol to be "generally recognized as safe" ("PART 184 -- DIRECT FOOD SUBSTANCES AFFIRMED AS GENERALLY RECOGNIZED AS SAFE")

The Center For Disease Control has put together a "Public Health Statement for Propylene Glycol", which you can read for even more information.


I can understand your confusion, but this is assuredly not a dessert pizza. The white circles of sauce, while they look like icing in appearance, are actually Ranch Dressing.
For comparison, here is a pizza that someone made themselves on Reddit. While I wouldn't say it is common to put ranch on pizza, it is definitely something that people do, for better or for worse.  (See Edit)
The rest of the pizza is a bit more difficult to identify. I can see that there are chunks of lean meat, which I initially assumed were tomatoes, but I believe the texturing and crisp edges indicate meat more than tomato. It's hard at the moment to know which, specifically.
It might be the end of the answer here. However, the piece of information that this is specific to the Brunei pizza hut allowed me to finetune my search a bit, and I found this:

There are higher res images of this available on Google, if you want to look into it. This Pizza is a Brunei specialty, "Honey Garlic Chicken Pizza." Looking at the various sample images, I feel fairly confident that this is the pizza in question. The biggest difference is how much less green the flecks of green are in your image, but it wouldn't surprise me that a real Pizza Hut would use slightly less ideal-looking ingredients than their marketing images would suggest.
While it does not seem to come with ranch by default, Pizza Hut allows for customization of orders, so probably this pizza had Ranch added to it, whether by the restaurant or by the customer afterwards.
If you'd like more pictures of the pizza in question, minus ranch, you can search for "pizza hut brunei honey garlic chicken".
Let me know if anything doesn't quite check out.
Edit: Pulling this into the answer from comments below, for posterity.
I found this near the end of my investigating as well: pizzahut.com.bn/upload/images/pizza/ButterChickenMasala.jpg the image is labeled 'Butter chicken Masala' and has the trademark swirl, which I originally thought was ranch, but actually might be milk or cream.
Essentially, I have very little confidence in my original answer at this point. I would give 70-30 odds that your pizza is actually a Butter Chicken Masala pizza rather than the Honey Garlic that I initially thought, and odds are good that the white topping isn't even ranch like I originally assumed.


Temperature for making bone broth in slow cooker

It's almost certainly not ruined, in the sense of being unsafe or undesirable to eat. A higher temperature can actually increase the extraction of collagen, which is generally desirable for stock/bone broth, though it could also damage some nutrients and more delicate flavors. Given the amount of collagen to be extracted from beef bones, a 19-hour cooking time is certainly not excessive, and you could probably go even longer.

The bigger concern is really with the slow-cooker. A noticeable boil, even just a few bubbles, indicates that the actual temperature is probably on the high end of the manufacturer's given range. If an automatic shutoff also didn't work, that might indicate a faulty component; it sounds to me like the heating element might not be shutting off appropriately to maintain an accurate temperature. That may make the appliance less safe to run unattended and will make its behavior less predictable whether you use it for broth again or something else.

Personally, I'd start looking for another slow cooker before you make another batch. But the batch you made should be safe and fine to consume, assuming it's been handled properly otherwise!


How can I fix a mole sauce with excessive cinnamon?

Clove or allspice can take it nicely over the top; sage and oregano can tame it.

This approach means to simply adjust the flavors of the sauce. Basically, if the problem you are having is that cinnamon is to cinnamon-y and distinct relative to taste, you can apply a flavor blur with neighboring spices (the clove, allspice, coriander, cardamom, cumin etc). If the problem is that you are finding that neighborhood of flavor to intense, you can round the palate by adding the herbs.

The other route would be re-scaling the sauce. Adding stock, oil/fat, peppers/onions, chocolate disks/cocoa, or other ratio constituents means you would need to re-up on the other constituents as it may throw off the sauce's viscosity. This may be preferable if you simply can't stand the cinnamon or its neighbors; or if balancing the spice/herbs would make the sauce too noisy.


Is the oily liquid from roasting a turkey worth keeping?

Before you use the drippings, taste them. If they taste good on their own, they will be great for gravy. Often, the oil left in the pan after roasting turkey is used to make the roux to thicken gravy to go with that turkey. If it looks like all oil, you can use it as such.

Especially since the turkey was pre-basted, the drippings might be a mixture of oil and juices. Pour the drippings into a clear container so you can see just how much is oil and how much is juice. Scoop off the oil and cook it (and added butter as necessary) on the stove (preferably in the roasting pan) with an equal (roughly) amount of flour.

  To make a roux gravy, the basic formula is 2 tablespoons fat, 2 tablespoons flour, and 1 cup of liquid to equal 1 cup of gravy.

Quote from about food which meshes with my own experience.

As you cook the flour and oil to a medium brown, try to scrape up any brown bits stuck to the pan. Those are huge flavor bombs. The liquid portion of the drippings poured off can be added with the broth that is the liquid part of the gravy.

The above link leads to more detailed instructions.


Aside from saving gas or electricity, why cover the pot?

It retains heat & steam pressure, so you achieve a simmer or even a boil with less power input & less water loss.
Great for long-cook sauces. Not so good for starchy things which may boil over if you're not careful, or have the pan too full.
As with most things, familiarity with how your stove/pan/lid combination reacts to a slow simmer will determine how well this works for you. If your stove won't drop low enough, you'll burn things, or need to get a simmer ring to reduce the risk. If you tend top make things too wet, you need to adjust over time.
Making anything to an online recipe needs you to be fully aware of how your own kitchen responds to wet/dry/timings. I don't think I ever blindly follow a recipe, I modify to how it needs to turn out based on my own experience with similar ingredients/quantities.
If I guess wrong, then I'm reducing sauce in a flat panic over the last 10 mins… not a good feeling, but familiarity breeds content ;))
There was at one time folk wisdom that said, "if it grows above ground, lid off, if it grows below ground, lid on"… which I have pretty much ignored for most of my adult life.
Sure, potatoes boil best with the lid on, as you obviously retain the heat, but I'm pretty sure I've never boiled a leafy vegetable in 20 years, I steam them… incidentally using the 'spare' steam from my lid-on potatoes.


I can't seem to get my nougat to come out right and I don't know why

As you suggest, most nougat recipes require the sugar syrup to be brought to specific temperatures (typically "hard ball" or "soft crack" stage, see for example this page for details of the stages of cooking sugar). By that time, any water that you started out with (in your case in the form of rose water) has boiled off. Simply bringing the mixture up to a boil will not be accurate.

For repeatable results, I suggest you use an instant-read thermometer (or a sugar thermometer) to ensure your sugar syrup is at a consistent temperature. If the nougat does not set, increase the temperature next time.

Regarding your second question: Even in your recipe, you add some of the syrup to the egg whites, to raise their temperature before adding them to the syrup. This is called 'tempering' and is common when using eggs in sweet applications with something hot. In the case of nougat, however, you can probably add the egg whites directly to the syrup, as was pointed out in a comment.


Can I substitute corn syrup for honey in bread?

Yes, I would do a 1:1 substitution. I think your recipe will work fine and should taste good, but the flavor profile will be different (obviously honey has a very different taste from corn syrup).

Second, there will be different proportions of sugars between the two, so even with the same number of calories the sweetness will be different (honey is sweeter than most corn syrups). Fructose, for example, is much sweeter than glucose, which in turn is sweeter than maltose.

Honey has about the same sweetness as sucrose (table sugar), but acids, enzymes, heat, and other processes can convert sugars into other sugars. Sucrose, for example, can be broken down into glucose and fructose, making it sweeter.

You may also want to try the recipe with dark corn syrup which has added molasses and a deeper flavor. You can add some vanilla to your recipe if you want that as well.


In dal recipes I have made, the lentils and tempering are cooked separately, then combined later.  They generally begin by toasting spices (careful, mustard pops, but that is what you want), then caramelizing thinly sliced onion in the spices.  This brings out the sweetness of the onion, which can offset the bitterness of some of the spices.  Once the lentils are cooked, the tempering (onion and spices) is added and the seasoning is adjusted.


What is the difference between Devil's Food and Chocolate cake?

PracticallyEdible has a nice description of Devil's Food Cake.

Originally, Devil's Food Cake had a medium dense texture.  The colour had a reddish tint that was probably caused by baking soda reacting with cocoa powder.  In fact, I have an old cookbook (The Day by Day Cook Book, 1939) that contains a recipe for Red Devil's Food Cake.  This recipe calls for 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate and 1 tsp. of baking soda.


Yeasts are pretty much interchangeable but have different fermentation qualities. Most recipes will specify the kind and amount of yeast. Adding more yeast than called for makes bakes rise a little faster and taste yeastier, and this appears to be a regional preference in the US and in some other countries, so amounts called for in recipes will vary.

Instant yeast is dry yeast that is as it suggests faster acting, for a faster rise. Good for pizza dough that doesn't need a long rise, for example. Also, the ratio of instant yeast to flour is around  one-half percent, about half that of active yeast. (2.5g of instant vs. 5g active per 500g of flour). Instant yeast can be added dry to the flour and salt (which inhibits yeast, so it's good to place the salt opposite the yeast in the bowl) when combining the dry ingredients and does not require proofing in water. Typically you will add very warm (@ 100ºF/40ºC but no warmer than 120ºF/48ºC) water to a recipe using instant yeast.

Active dry yeast is typically granulated and takes longer to rise than instant yeast. The ratio of yeast to dough is 1% (thus 5g active yeast per 500g of flour) and the yeast should be proofed in lukewarm to warm (about 75-90ºF / 23-32ºC) water with about a tbsp. of granulated sugar to ensure it foams and is live. Active dry yeast is proofed then added to the dry ingredients. More complex flavors and texture can be obtained by slower rising so active yeast is good for many breads. Active dry is the yeast typically used by my mother for her homemade white bread and cinnamon rolls, and results in a mildly yeasty bake with a fairly tight crumb structure.

Live yeast is a more perishable yeast typically found in refrigerator sections of the grocery. Its ratio to flour is 2%, double that of active dry yeast (10g of live yeast per 500g of flour) and should also be proofed in warm water with sugar as with active dry yeast to ensure it is live, and added to the combined and mixed dry ingredients after proofing. It can spoil due to mold and lasts about 2 weeks in the fridge.

Wild yeasts include the sourdough starters, which contain both wild yeasts from the air and probiotics (good bacteria). These wild yeasts can create a complex flavor and texture and take longer to prepare. Sourdough starters must be continually fed (some bakers feed daily, others refrigerate starter and feed weekly or as used for recipes) and typically will take 4-6 hours to prepare a mature starter batch (sometimes called a "sponge", "poolish", or "levain") for a recipe. These starter batches are either mixed with all of the recipe's warm water then added to dry ingredients (except for salt) before autolyze (the period where the dry ingredients are mixed with water and left sitting to absorb the water and start developing gluten) or mixed with a little water and added along with the salt after the autolyze. Fermentation times for rustic or sourdough bread using wild yeasts are often extended by refrigeration of the dough for 12 to 24 hours during the rise, and the longer fermentation results in a typically more open crumb with large voids and varying amounts of sourdough flavor to the bread.

When in doubt, best results come from following the recipe when choosing the type of yeast. All yeast types can be used with varying amounts of different types of flour, and the dough working techniques and fermentation times will vary depending on the flour; typically whole grain-heavy recipes will take a longer time to develop gluten but will have deeper and "more rustic" flavor, and may need several hours longer to rise to achieve the desired texture and flavor.


What's the egg for in this no-bake fridge cake and can I leave it out?

The egg (the egg yolk actually) acts as an emulsifier which allows you to get a smooth blend of the margarine and the milk. Without it, the margarine would float on top during the cooling period. (The proteins in the egg might also help in trapping some air bubbles.)

More technical, what's actually acting as the emulsifier is the lecithin in the egg yolk. But I have no idea if it's possible to replace the egg with e.g. soy lecithin (and perhaps some extra milk and margarine)


You should never use less liquid than is recommended by the manufacturer.

If you use less you run the risk of boiling your food dry or burning it since the level of heat to maintain the pressure may increase.

Get used to leftovers.  You can cook several portions reserve the excess for later use.  This will save you time and money.  I usually will cook a whole chicken and shred the meat and use it for several meals until it's gone.


Is asking for a "Chinese menu" in a Chinese restaurant a common way to get more authentic dishes?

I am answering the question as I understand it based on our discussion in comments.

Step 1 - Choose the restaurant wisely. As a rule you don't want big fancy restaurants and you certainly don't want to even try in a chain restaurant. You want the holes in the wall run by members of the ethnic group that matches the cuisine. When you enter the restaurant, listen to the ambient sounds of conversation (customers and staff), the more you hear the language that matches the cuisine, the better your odds.

Step 2 - Be super friendly, smile a lot and ask lots of questions about the cuisine and the menu.

Step 3 - Be honest, upfront and clear. Tell your server that you really want to experience the cuisine that is the specialty of the restaurant. If the restaurant is Thai, for instance, ask what the most popular menu items are for Thai customers. Now ask if there is a special menu for Thai (or Chinese, or Spanish, or whatever) customers. There may be, if there is one your server will most likely be happy to get you one. You may or may not be able to read it. See step 2 again. Even if there is no special menu, by now your server most likely understands what you want.

Step 4 - Simply ask for what you want. Ask if the cook or chef can make you a meal that is like what would actually be served in the country in question. You may be able to specify, "Really authentic Pad Thai like I'd get on the street in Bangkok" or you may be even luckier and have no idea what you're going to get until it arrives. Either way, express your appreciation that they are allowing you to order "off menu", and be sure to mention that you don't mind a bit of an extra wait.

Step 5 - If you are in a part of the world that doesn't consider tipping to be strange or offensive, tip very generously.

Step 6 - Be brave.

If the restaurant has a bar, do all of the above but have your chat with the bartender.

That's it. I have quite a bit of experience getting authentic food in restaurants with dumbed-down menus. Those steps will work more often than not.

One final note. If the cuisine in question is often hot/spicy, be sure to tell your server about your preferences in that matter particularly if you're sensitive to heat. If you're successful getting authentic food, it would be a shame if you couldn't eat it. If you love heat, be sure to tell them that too. They may hold back a bit otherwise.


Do lamb kidneys require their cores to be removed and what is the easiest way to remove them?

The simplest way to remove kidney cores is to cut the kidneys in half (horizontally) then snip the cores out with a pair of sharp scissors. With practice this can be done in two or three quick cuts.


Are there home bread machines that can make baguettes or boules?

Edit: after posting my initial response I remembered a sandwich shop near me that has a 'bread machine' that produces baguettes. Lee's Sandwiches (an international franchise operation of French-Vietnamese cuisine) has a machine which indeed produces baguettes from raw materials. Mixing, kneading, shaping and baking are all accomplished in this one 'machine'. (I can't find a picture of it online, so I will have to go take one for you :) ) But the machine sets in a glass walled room off the dining room and is (estimate) 10 ft x 25 ft in size. It has various mixers and conveyors that move the dough through the process. I do believe the final output does have to be manually moved into a large (room size) oven where it is baked. I would hazard a guess that such a machine is runs over $100,000 (US)

The glass and lighting don't allow a really good view of the machine(s) -- it may be two separate machines doing the work.. but the first one gives you an idea of the scale. The second pic is the best of several (and still not very good) of the machines themselves. In the third photo if you look beyond the counter and the racks of fresh baked bread those are the ovens into which they can fit two or more of those racks at a time. That said, yes there are 'bread machines' to make baguettes, I doubt it will fit in your kitchen.

other than that:

If you want bread of a shape different that the built in baking pan then you are going to have to remove the dough from the bread machine after the kneading stage. Several bread machines have a setting (or settings) that accommodate this function. For instance these instructions from a popular Oster bread maker:

Dough Instructions
1 Put ingredients in bread pan and put the bread pan into the breadmaker.
2 Press the “Menu Select” button to choose either the dough or bagel dough setting
(if making bagel dough).
3 Press the “Start/Stop” button. The display will begin counting down the time on the Dough setting.
When dough is ready, the unit will signal and the display will read “0:00.”
4 Press “Start/Stop” button and hold it down until you hear a beep and the display clears.
5 To remove the bread pan, grasp the handle firmly and lift the pan out.
Note: The pan does not get hot when using the dough setting.

Preparing Dough for Baking
1 Lightly sprinkle all-purpose flour onto a pastry mat or board. Using a rubber spatula or wooden
spoon, remove dough from the bread pan and place on lightly floured surface. Knead by hand
2 or 3 times to release the air. If the dough is easy to handle without flour, shape on a lightly oiled,
clean countertop.
2 Shape dough into your favorite rolls, coffee cake, etc. (suggestions follow). Place on greased baking
pan. Cover dough with a clean cloth and let rise until almost doubled in size (about 1 hour).
3 Bake as directed in the recipe. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack or serve warm.

(found on page 32 of this manual available online)

At this point your 'bread maker' is really nothing more than a dough mixer but that can be convenient for many recipes.


How long does the cream in a freshly baked chicken pie last for?

(I am assuming the pie essentially contains chicken broth, either as an ingredient, or from cooking the chicken in the filling, and basing the hold time on that as the likely most perishable ingredient in the pie...)

Such a pie will be safe for two to three days (possibly more, but I like to treat safety conservatively....)

However, if you have a bottom crust, it will likely get quite soggy over that period of time.

If you need to prepare your pie ahead, it might be better from a quality perspective to prepare the filling stove top separately from the crust, and blind bake the crust.  Then on the night of service, you can combine the two and bake to heat through and crisp up the crust.  This will almost certainly give you a better product than making the pie fully in advance.


Check the cooking instructions - if it says to cook from frozen, and doesn't mention defrosting as an option, it probably isn't safe. Some foods are meant to be placed in the oven frozen, and defrosting them increases the risk of stomach upset because of various bacteria levels. If, on the other hand, it gives defrosting instructions as well as, or instead of, saying cook from frozen, it should be okay.


Extra Firm Tofu past expiration date: safe, but for how long?

Tofu is high in protein, with a neutral PH. And it (normally) doesn't contain any preservatives like salt, sugar or nitrates. Bacteria love foods like that. If it's past the date, chuck it out.


The bread proofer machine serves mainly one purpose:

Keeping a choosen temperature.

This comes to play whenever you want to let yeast grow and multiply. Yeast can develop at very different temperature ranges, from fridge to warm room. But "cosy & warm" is usually the temperature where it's most active.

The most obvious use is:

proofing dough, both during bulk and final rise

But looking closely there are other yeast-related uses:

refreshing sourdough
brewing (don't ask me for details here!)

And even non-yeast uses like

making yoghurt

Now, you are asking for a sourdough bread. I won't give you a fixed recipe, but encourage you to choose something nice from the vast realms of the WWW. Try The Fresh Loaf, Wild Yeast or whatever strikes your fancy. I'd assume a Sourdough bread to be made with - obviously - sourdough. But that doesn't exclude yeast, some recipes use both.

The main differences are that sourdough (which contains yeasts and strains of lactobacillus in symbiosis) is more the slow-and-steady type of dough with rather long rising times (as in hours up to days) whereas pure yeast-based dough may be ready to bake after only one to two hours or so. (But there are yeast-only recipes like baguette which take days of proofing  in the fridge.)

Choose a simple recipe to start and use your proofing machine whenever the recipe says something along the lines of "let dough rise in a warm place / oven with pilot light / ... for X time / until doubled in bulk.

Remember: When you start baking, it's a good idea to follow the instructions, note what you didn't like and work from there. Perhaps you'll be back here with a more specific question after a few trial-and-error runs - we'll be happy to answer again. And: Have fun!


Is neccessary to store christmas cookies in the fridge?

Butter biscuits (cookies) and gingerbread both keep well for days at room temperature in an airtight container.  Some gingerbread will keep for much longer. For most cookie recipes it's a matter of the quality spoiling rather than food safety. Pastry and biscuits tend to spoil by going soft absorbing water from the air, so they really do need to be sealed up.

Don't forget that the keeping properties of the finished product will be different from those of the base ingredients. So have a look at the recipe. A decent recipe book should have storage instructions for the recipes; if it's a family recipe and you don't have this information it might be worth consulting a similar recipe online or in a book. In addition it's a bad idea to keep soft biscuits (like some gingerbread) in the same tin as crisp biscuits (like shortbread or butter biscuits) as the crisp ones will soften and the soft ones dry out. So you might want to keep each type in its own container.


Do flavors remain on an enameled skillet?

Enamel is a very hard-wearing, non-porous surface. It's very similar to the glaze on porcelain. A well-washed mug doesn't make your tea taste of coffee.

As a more personal example, we've got a couple of enameled cast iron dishes. While we mostly use them for quite strongly flavoured foods we don't hesitate to use them for more delicate foods as well. They go through the dishwasher in between. Here's what one well-known manufacturer says (among other things): "vitreous enamel surface is impermeable and therefore ideal for raw or cooked food storage, and for marinating with acidic ingredients such as wine."


There are a few ways to achieve this technique.

1) Make the dough by creaming the fat (I always use butter for flavour) with the sugar then mixing in flour, not rubbing the flour into the fat which creates a crisp with a short texture. This is because when you rubbing the flour into the fat it traps the flour and coats the gluten preventing a tough texture, when you cream the fat and sugar this does not a occur and a softer texture results. Additionally adding more fat creates a softer dough although chill the dough first to prevent the cookies spreading too much.

2) This sounds a bit obvious but just bake the cookies less. Try baking them until only the outside is golden brown, leaving the centre soft. If you do want them to be golden all over before they bake give them an egg wash (an egg beaten with some milk) or milk and sugar wash if that's preferable. Remember don't over bake!

3) After you've made the cookies, put them in an airtight container with a slice of bread. The moisture from the bread keeps the cookies moist although change the bread every few days to prevent mould.

4) Finally if all else fails warm the cookies up in the ovens for a few minutes or even, if they're really tough, sprinkle a few drops of water on the cookies before warming up.

On a side note don't increase the proportion of sugar as this creates a crisp cookie. Have a look at this website for cookie troubleshooting: http://baking911.com/learn/baked-goods/cookies/problems-and-solutions.


Couple notes or suggestions;

Added in fat?  Typically for ramen adding in a copious amount of finely chopped pork fat is a must.  Usually boil a slab on top of bones for 4 hours and then chop and add.  Serve with a side of lipitor.
Where is the savory flavour or unami?  You need to either cook some veggies/aromatics to get the Maillard reaction or cheat and add some MSG and/or a unami super boost (mushroom, marmite, anchoivies or other).  Lots of techniques to get savory flavour; which I think is what you may be missing.  soy sauce, or miso are also classic; pending what your end ramen is going to be.

Overall the technique is good; just missing the flavoring step; the base broth itself is not going to have a lot of flavour since you are not roasting; along with blanching step.

Blanching for a clear broth does remove a significant amount of flavour; but is
more classical ramen approach.

Another trick you can use to extract more flavour is add a acid early to process; 1TBsp to 1/3cup or so of apple cider vinegar.  My goto when making a thai sour chicken soup or some other white broth soup that will be loaded with lime and cilantro later.  Drastic flavour change; so be-careful and test first.


How do I control the quality of a kombucha SCOBY?

If you want your Kombucha be strong, consistent, and to taste like a commercial one, then you need to use the same SCOBY contained in a commercial kombucha. Remember, making Kombucha, just like brewing wine, mead, or beer, is nothing more than glorified yeast herding. You give the SCOBY what it wants to eat, and it does the rest. It's really that simple. You just need the same starter as a commercial company.

Now, many companies spend years perfecting their strains of yeast/bacteria, and trying to raise your own or getting a starter from "some guy" often just won't compare because it is either weak, or it hasn't been fed properly, it contains too much acetalbacter, etc.

So, how do you do it? You use the SCOBY that commercial kombucha makers provide you in the bottle and propagate it. In homebrewing we use a similar procedure called "washing yeast," where you take a commercial beer, drink the majority, and then use the  dregs of yeast at the bottom to ferment your own beer.

Start with an unpasteurized, raw commercial bottle of Kombucha that you like that has not been sorbated or sulfited. Check the bottle for wisps of sediment in the bottle, indicating that it contains some mother, the more the better.

Then, you prepare food (black tea and sugar), and mix the two. Cover with some cloth, store in a warm (I would guess at 65-70 degrees F based on my experience brewing wine/beer and alsoo purposely making vinegar) and dark place, and let the mother start to grow. It'll take 2-3 feedings before you have a strong mother, but it should form. If it doesn't? Grab another bottle of kombucha and try again.

This link explains the process in better detail.

http://grist.org/food/mother-load-the-secret-to-diy-kombucha/

Once you have the mother, just continue feeding and do whatever you can not to break the cycle of feedings so it doesn't get stressed. You are dealing with living things, and so they will have a tendency to fall into cycles. If you break the cycles, they'll get stressed.


“For optimal flavor, open the package 30 minutes before eating” - only temperature or also chemistry?

Some food is indeed packaged in a protective atmosphere. This is done in order to prevent the outer layers of the food from changing due to oxidation.

I am not aware of any food that would be vacuum-sealed or packaged in a protective atmosphere which would benefit from the chemical processes after the package is opened.

The reason why manufacturers suggest opening the package is most likely just to facilitate heat exchange with the surrounding air in order to bring the temperature up to improve the flavor and aroma of the food.


What is the correct onion to tomato ratio for North Indian masala sauce?

I am not intimately familiar with the recipe but according to the recipes I have researched the ratio seems to run the gamut from 2-1 tomatoes to onions all the way to 1-1 tomatoes to onions. I would recommend starting at the 2-1 ration and adjusting according to taste.

Here are the recipes I reviewed:

http://www.food.com/recipe/onion-tomato-masala-194144

http://www.spiderkerala.com/kerala/recipes/ViewRecipe.aspx?RecipeId=162

http://nsushma.blogspot.com/2009/09/tomato-masala.html

I hope that helps! Ideally someone with more experience with this dish can eventually write a more comprehensive answer.


Boiling Beef Chorizo as part of a soup base?

Ive tried this a few times.  I think boiling the chorizo can be beneficial for some soups because it allows the flavor to penetrate the other components.  However, boiling it also makes the meat pretty indistiguishable and mostly just imparts flavors to the soup (in my case ive used mexican chorizo).  Maybe another thing to think about would be the oil content which could allow you to craft a flavorful rue.  rue is made from simering equal amounts of oil and flour on low heat (timing wise less is more) and will thicken your soup.


This doesn't answer your question directly, but spices are only a small part of the picture. Below are some techniques to get more flavor in your soup.
Longer Cooking
Depending on the type of soup you're making, you may just need more time. Some flavors just need more time to get out. This is especially true of meat and bones. It's possible to make a ham and pea soup in an hour, but simmer that ham for 3 hours and it's night and day.
Rest overnight
Many stews, chili, etc. seem taste "better" the next day. Give an overnight rest in the fridge a shot and see if the flavor improves.
Add volatile flavors later
There is a caveat to go along with longer cooking. Some items work over long cooking times, while others lose flavor. In addition to meat/bones, garlic, onion, bay leaves (and others) benefit. Many fresh herbs, pepper, vanilla, saffron (and others) lose their flavor from the heat. If you are cooking for a while, you might try adding some more volatile flavors later in the process.
Add salt early
Salt helps to extract flavors, so add it early on in the process. Do be judicious with it, however. Long cooking tends to concentrate flavors, so you can easily make it too salty.
Sweat vegetables / brown meat
Before getting any water involved, sweat your onions, celery, peppers, mushrooms, or whatever vegetables or playing in this game.
Likewise, brown your meat. The maillard reaction is necessary for developing great flavor from the meat.


No, you can't make a grilled sandwich, seal it and expect it to still be crispy later. You can reduce the mushiness quite a bit by letting the sandwich cool completely on a wire rack before you package it up. If you don't have a wire rack you can make a lattice out of chopsticks or skewers, the important thing is that the bottom of the sandwich can air cool.


The thing that makes bread chewy is gluten.  The easiest way to make chewier bread would probably be to use flour with a higher gluten content. You've said you don't want to "add gluten" so I'll assume that option is not on the table. For the same reason, I'll assume that replacing some of the whole wheat flour with white flour (which has a higher gluten content) is not an option.
So then, how do we get the most gluten formation out of your whole wheat dough?
Do not add shortening (fats and oils - or as you put it, milk, yogurt and olive oil). That will have the opposite effect. Shortening inhibits the formation of long gluten strands and will make your dough more cake-like (smaller, tighter crumb).
As you noticed, more kneading creates longer gluten chains.  Usually we're advised not to over-knead, because it makes the dough though. If you want tough dough, knead until you're blue in the face.  With this proviso:
Whole wheat flour contains sharp, hard pieces of the germ and bran. These sharp edged bits can break or "slash" your gluten strands (just like if you added a sharp pebble to the dough). To counter act this effect, you can try to soften the pieces of germ and bran using the autolyse method.
This technique has additional benefits and can or should be used when using white flour, as well.  Note the first bullet, which is especially applicable here:

using the autolyse method affects dough development in many positive ways:

The flour fully hydrates. This is particularly useful when working with whole-grain flour because the bran softens as it hydrates, reducing its negative effect on gluten development.
Gluten bonds begin developing with no effort on the part of the baker, and kneading time is consequently reduced.
Carotenoid pigments remain intact, leading to better color, aroma, and flavor.
Fermentation proceeds at a slower pace, allowing for full flavor development and better keeping quality.
The dough becomes more extensible (stretchy), which allows it to expand easily. This leads to easier shaping, greater loaf volume, a more open crumb structure, and cuts that open more fully.

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2017/09/29/using-the-autolyse-method
You should read that entire article if you're interested in developing your bread baking technique, but the very short version is: mix the flour and water and let rest for 20-60 minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients and kneed.
Another thing you can try to increase the toughness of the bread would be to skip the resting phases between shaping the breads.  Typically, when we make pitas, we do a bulk fermentation, then split the dough and roll it into balls, then let the balls rest before finally shaping them into the flat rounds. This rest period relaxes the gluten and makes the dough less tough. Skipping this step may result in a tougher pita. It will also make the pita harder to shape.


Where do I buy a large amount of dried vegetables?

Do you have a food co-op or health food store near you? Lots of them sell in bulk, including dried veggies or dried mixes (for example refried beans or falafel). Additionally, you can ask if they offer a case discount, which means you buy a 20-or-so pound bag and sometimes can get about 10% off the bulk rate. To see if you have a co-op in your area check coopdirectory.org


The effect of long retardation of brioche dough is going to be driven by the same basic processes as in any bread dough:

Slowed but longer yeast activity, producing more of the flavorful byproducts (lactic and acetic acids) which give bread the pleasant, yeasty flavor.
Gluten development through autolysation, as the glutinan and gliadin react in the presence of water, forming bonds that create the gluten network.

All of these processes will be modified by the extreme levels of enrichment, so there will be less gluten development and less yeast activity than in a leaner dough.  I suspect (but do not have a reference to document) that that the enrichment will place a ceiling on the absolute amount of gluten development possible, as the gluten sheets will not able to grow as long and strong as they otherwise would, being physically interrupted by the lipids.


Some nut flours have had oil removed from them (they're actually ground-up "oil cake", a byproduct of extracting nut oil). If your cashew powder doesn't say "defatted" or "oil cake" or "press cake" in the ingredients list, then no, there shouldn't be any difference.


Is it normal for flames to come up through the slots on each side of the bottom of the oven?

Depends on the design of the oven, but yes, this can be normal.  If you mean 'in the oven itself, some flames are visible below the plate at the bottom'.  If you mean 'outside the oven, flames shoot out of the sides', then you should probably avoid using that oven if at all possible.

An old gas oven I had did this.  When the auto-sparker failed, I lit it manually with a fire-lighter using the vents in the base of the oven, and it worked fine.


What is the most effective method for cooking a massive amount of sweet brown sushi rice

I'd cook it in a regular sauce pan, I guess you'll need a big one for your solution. Then add whatever additives you want (rice vinegar, Mirin ect). Then wrap the rice you're not going to use in cling film like onigiri and place in the fridge for the next day. This is a standard method for Japanese people who take lunch to work.

There are big rice cookers but unless you can rent one somehow (Japanese caterers perhaps?) then it'll cost you a couple hundred at least and you have potential problems with voltages and the language difference.

Definitely do not add oil or butter, I tried a similar thing once and it ruined the rice. Fat and Japanese rice do not go together.

The bigger issue are the dishes you are preparing the night before. Unless you wrap it in cling film it'll dry out also for sushi/sashimi you really should make sure it's fresh off the boat the morning it is served and never warms up.


There are many ways to make a sponge.  Probably no way is totally wrong (OK, maybe adding 10mL of water to 1000g of flour is totally wrong).

There are wet sponges and dry sponges. Supposedly the ratio of flour to water in your sponge can have different effects on the final product. I haven't paid enough attention or done scientific enough studies to decide whether this is actually true. These two general classes of sponge (wetter and drier) are often called poolish and biga respectively. There's a ton to learn about pre-ferments.  Here's a discussion on the difference between poolish and biga: Funtional effect of biga vs poolish

So, is your ratio of flour to water wrong? Not necessarily. I'd imagine you can find a recipe for a biga with that exact ratio. I just pulled a cookbook off my shelf (Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast) and found that the ratios in the biga recipes are similar to your recipe: 340g water to 540g flour and 544g water to 800g flour (that's 68% in both cases).  In both cases the biga is a larger percentage of the total dough than in your case (50% and 80% respectively), but that probably doesn't matter too much.


"Pasteurized" means that it was kept at temperatures below cooking for a prolonged time, which kills most pathogens. Pasteurized food is reasonably safe for consumption without further cooking, provided it has been kept well refrigerated since the pasteurization.

However, I doubt that the taste will be especially good after just a pasteurization. For the sake of taste, and also to further reduce food safety risks, I would cook it before eating.


Apple cores contain more pectin than the rest of the apple, so including the cores will likely get you a thicker, more gelled chutney.

With enough cooking they'll indeed soften, as long as it's an apple variety that softens when cooked (as opposed to baking varieties that hold their shape) so it's really just the seeds you'd have to worry about. Sounds like the recipe doesn't really deal with them, so I guess you'd have to pick them out after chopping, or strain or pick them out at the end.


Bread and butter pickles without mustard seed?

if you have any really chunky deli mustard just throw a spoonful of that in there.


The problem is the “small amount of oil”. If you measured wrong or just eyeballed it, you now have a chocolate spread instead of a solid coating.
Storing the cookies in the fridge may or may not be enough to solidify the chocolate coating, but apart from that, there’s nothing you can do to change the chocolate. Depending on what matches the cookie flavor, dipping the sticky part in something like grated coconut or ground almonds may at least protect your fingers somewhat.


What kind of frosting has similar texture to the major grocery brands?

It sounds like you might be happy with Wilton Buttercream ... which is mostly whipped shortening and powdered sugar.  I don't have the recipe on me right now, but I did post a variation of the recipe to a related question a few years ago:  https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/4869/67

Depending on how soft you make it (how much water you add) and how humid it is, after a bit of drying, it'll form a crust that you can use to your advantage (lay on some waxed paper, then press out any ridges).  You can then cover it so it won't dry out too much.

The important part of the process is a stand mixer, so you can leave it mixing for a really long time.


How to salvage a cookie dough that is too sweet?

It is almost impossible to reduce the sweetness of cookie dough once made, without further reducing the quality.

The closest you could come would be to create a second batch of cookie dough ingredients with reduced sugar, and combine it with your existing dough.  However, it will be difficult to achieve good integration of the two batches, and even if you do, the extra working of the first batch from the mixing will create additional gluten, making tougher cookies.

In this case, you might want to try some sort of tart lemon glaze or perhaps a very bittersweet chocolate icing to compliment your cookies and reduce the impression of sweetness.  On the other hand, except for butter, sugar cookies contain no expensive ingredients.  It may not be worth trying to salvage this batch.

In the end, this is probably a lesson learned that your particular recipe is not to your liking as is.  Next time, you will want to either reduce the sugar, or use another recipe.


Why do brisket recipes move to the oven to finish?

Convenience: It's more convenient and easier to monitor the temperature inside the home.  The oven has a thermostat, where the grill temperature needs to be monitored and adjusted manually.

No smoke left: Is could be assumed that the smoke has been exhausted.

Too much smoke: The smoke flavor could become too strong if finished on the grill.


I'm pretty sure these aren't scones, but what are they?

This is a staple of Balkan cuisine. You will see it named Lángos (and derivatives) in Hungary and Mekitza (and derivatives) in Slavic languages. Either of these words is used in Western Europe, depending on which group popularized it there.

I am not sure this wording has spread outside of Europe, and cannot say if it was imported in the USA or developed there independently, but it is certainly the same end result.


While I haven't heard of it happening for the specific ingredients you list, yes, the blender can make stuff really bitter.

There are two ways this can happen. First, a chemical reaction. A blender really churns the stuff through, driving lots of air bubbles into the mixture with some force. It also causes friction heat, especially professional grade blenders like vitamix. The heat, force and large reaction surface can cause the oxygen in the air to enter a reaction with the ingredients which doesn't happen when using a milder method for cutting up. Olive oil is a known culprit here, it usually turns bitter when blended, but it can happen with other stuff too.

Besides oxygen, a chemical reaction can also happen between two ingredients coming from two different vegetables, which would not have been mixed well enough in the knife scenario to produce noticeable amounts of reaction product.

The second possibility is releasing stuff which would have stayed "packed" without the blender. A knife will only damage the plant cells at the cut surfaces, and a blunt knife, if used with a somewhat inefficient technique, might even break very ripe vegetables along the cell walls instead of cutting through the cells. If there are mini-droplets of something bitter within the plant cells, it is possible that the blender (which really cuts cells into pieces) released these things. On a more macro level, it is also possible that we are not talking mini-droplets, but just plant parts which didn't get cut with the knife. Stray pepper seeds come in mind: you probably didn't cut any with the knife, they tend to be pushed by a knife instead of cut when you are cutting the pepper. The blender pulverizes everything that hits the blades, including these seeds.

I cannot know which of these is the most probable source, or which plant contained the bitter matter exposed/created by the blender. But the different methods of mincing vegetables are not equivalent, and can have very noticeable effects on taste and texture beyond the obvious chunk size. The bitterness you encountered is only one example. In general, use the method specified in a recipe. If you are not working from a written recipe, try out a few and see which works best.


Can couscous substitute for acini di pepe?

Overall, you should be fine. Those two are closely related, both pasta-like little pearls from extruded dough.

The main difference is that Israeli couscous / Ptitim is toasted, giving it a slightly nuttier flavour. For most use cases they should be useable interchangeably.


I'd use a microwave but you've ruled that out. Taking "warmed" literally as meaning made warm but not hot, you could put them in a bowl, cover with boiling water and wait a few minutes. I suspect that you actually want them hot, in which case you could put them in a small pan, pour over boiling water, cover, and return to the boil for a few minutes. If you don't have an electric kettle, just boil a small pan of water and tip the beans in.


How can I intensify the chocolate flavour in my yoghurt?

I almost do the same thing. I simply mix a scoop of cocoa powder into my (usually vanilla flavored when I decide to add cocoa) yogurt, and that's it.
But then again, I use sweetened yogurt, so maybe add some natural sweetener, like honey or maple syrup into your yogurt as well.


How to make saffron really color my risotto?

How yellow were you expecting it? How much saffron did your recipe call for?

Generally, when a recipe calls for a "pinch" of saffron that can be anywhere from 15-20 stems (expensive, I know).

Saffron can take time to impart it's yellow coloring, and the depth of that yellow can vary based on the quality, age, or phase of the moon (not really). Some things you can try include:

Soaking the saffron in hot water/stock for 20 minutes to an hour prior to adding.
Grinding the saffron with a mortar/pestle
Using more or a higher quality

Another thing to keep in mind is that a lot of images aren't purely saffron induced coloring. Often turmeric is used for an additional punch, or even food coloring. Here is an example of an accurate image of a saffron risotto.

Finally, your primary reason for using saffron should be for it's remarkable and unique flavor. The yellow is just a bonus. If you want more than what your batch can give you, well... cheat. :)


yeast-less pita bread sometimes inflates

Puffing is caused by steam evaporating inside the dough. The gluten matrix holds the steam in, especially after you've cooked it on one side. If you cut into the puffed dough, you'll notice that a lot of hot steam escapes.
Be careful when you do that. You can burn yourself. I speak from experience. Besides, the texture is better if you give it a few minutes to set up completely: cut it too early and the cutting force can glue the edges together.
You get similar effects in naan, tortillas, and chapatis. These are also generally un-yeasted. The yeast doesn't have time to produce that much air, and it's quickly killed. (I use yeast in mine anyway because I like the texture and flavor.)
As for getting it to puff every time... it seems to be a knack. Preferably learned from one's grandmother, I gather, but I didn't. The way I do it is to mimic a tandoor. While I shape the dough, I preheat a cast iron pan and the broiler. When ready, I put the dough on the pan and pop it into the oven. Cooking on both sides simultaneously means it cooks on the outside, making a steam-proof seal.
It can be done just with the frying pan. It's a matter of timing, flipping it when it's sufficiently cooked on one side to set, but not cooked through. I haven't mastered that, I'm afraid, but many others have.


Cooking pizza in tiny gas oven with pizza stone

I realize this is an old question, but here goes. FWIW, I used to bake pizza w/gas, but for the last 15 yrs, it's been electric. Lots of variables, such as thickness of dough and baking stone, etc. but experiment with some of these tips:

Make sure baking stone is hot enough (I use an inexpensive laser remote thermometer).
Place stone on top rack. Heat rises and the roof of the oven will then emit enough heat to thoroughly cook the sauce and cheese. This will emulate a pizza oven. (And no need to par-bake crust.)
I usually crank up the temperature to 550F.
Slide the prepared pizza from a peel onto the stone (I use rice flour or parchment paper to prevent sticking). A peel could be an upside down cookie sheet, thin plywood, or even cardboard if you don't have a real peel.
Baking time should be around 5 min., and a little char on the bottom adds taste.
The above is based on NY-style pizza, but thicker crusts may need longer times--possibly at a lower temperature.
Good luck. The doorbell may be me. I'll bring the beer or wine.


What is this clear liquid after braising?

I believe the liquid looks like fat that has been rendered out of short ribs, which are quite fatty. Most of the water-based liquids you added (red wine, stock, vinegar, etc.) seem to have evaporated and/or burned, and what's left of them has sunk to the bottom of the pan. Naturally, oil would float on top.
As to what to do with it, you could use it to cook, but keep in mind it will carry some flavours of this dish.

Update: OP just edited the original question to say the liquid solidified, confirming that it is indeed fat.


You cook it the same way as you cook "regular" pasta.

As for the sauces, try to keep it related to the flavor of the pasta.

Squid ink pasta should be used with seafood sauces (vongole...)

For tomato pasta or spinach pasta, I tend to keep the sauce as light as possible; just olive oil, garlic, little bit of herb as to not hide the pasta colors; no cream sauce, no full-on tomato sauce or ragu sauce.


Why are most enamelled cast iron dutch ovens only rated up to 400-450°F?

They sometimes have plastic (cast phenolic resin) knobs on them that are only rated for just over 200°C (400°F), or other decorative trim that is not suitable for high heat due to deformation etc.

They do tend to start crazing (surface cracking) at over 200°C too

The enamel (a special soft glass powder) is fused on at over 800°C (1470°F)

You cannot melt glass enamel on a domestic stove. It would have to get to over 1100°C (2000°F) to melt!


From Greenfootsteps' "Elderberry Recipes for a Healthy Winter Edinburgh":

  Pick elderberries when they are fully ripe in early autumn. The bunches should be starting to droop downwards with the weight of the fruit. Use a fork or your fingers to gently prise the fruit away from the stalks. This can be a bit fiddly but you don't have to be too perfect with it - a few bits of stalk will not matter.


How do you halve a recipe that calls for 1 egg?

Crack the egg into a cup or bowl, whisk it, and measure out half of the contents. If you use eggs frequently, you could probably save the other half for a day or two – otherwise, it's like 8 cents out of your pocket.


Short answer: I'd look at the ingredient list.  If any sort of partially hydrogenated oil or random fats appear, they are the likely source.  If not, I'd look to see if the chocolate contains cow's milk or butter (sometimes labeled "milkfat" or "butter oil" on chocolate ingredients), since that may also be a small source of trans fat.  Almost all oils/fats, even cocoa butter, will contain trace amounts of trans fat.  Processing can affect amounts of trans fat too, since heating fats will cause large fat chains in molecules to move and sometimes convert to trans versions.

More details:

There are trace amounts of trans fat found in most oils.  Labeling laws tend to make this issue confusing, as in the U.S. where FDA regulations allow nutritional labeling to state "0 grams" when the amount per serving is less than 0.5 grams.  (In fact, that link implies that manufacturers are actually required to state "0g" when the amount is less than 0.5 grams per serving, presumably rather than saying "0.1g" or whatever.  I don't know if that's true.)

A decade or more ago, many foods (including chocolate) often contained significant amounts of partially hydrogenated oils (often as high as 50% trans fats by weight).  Many US manufacturers have since dropped the usage of hydrogenated oils or lowered the amounts so that the serving size ends up under the 0.5g threshold for reporting.

Chocolate may still sometimes contain partially hydrogenated oils, which may be the source for trans fat in some brands.  However, when you're talking about amounts like 1g or less per 100g of chocolate, there are plenty of other possible sources.  For example, cow's milk contains small but not insignificant amounts of trans fats, as does butter (about 5% trans fat).  This is true of all milk and meat from ruminants.  You may not know it from many labels, because the serving size may fall below the reporting threshold, but it is there.

Moreover, it's important to note than "trans fat" is a very general chemical category.  While the majority of added trans fats in processed foods are regarded as problematic, there are natural trans fats (such as those found in milk) which do not have the same effects on humans.  One notable example is conjugated linoleic acid, naturally found in ruminant milk (in both cis and trans fat forms), which some claim actually has beneficial effects.

So when you see a trace amount of trans fat showing up from milk or butter as an ingredient, it may not have the same stigma as the "partially hydrogenated" types of trans fats.  I would assume this may be one reason behind the FDA's rule about trans fat labeling: putting tiny amounts of trans fat would show all of these random trans fats (some of which are thought to be harmful, some perhaps even beneficial) in all sorts of foods. The "bad" trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils were the main target of the regulation.  (Some countries only require labeling for trans fats which come from "artificial" or "industrial processed" ingredients.)

Again, the chemical composition of most oils/fats have some trace amounts of trans fats.  (See the table in this pamphlet from a chocolate manufacturer.)  Even cocoa butter has some tiny amount like 0.1g of trans fat per 100g.  That's unlikely to be significant source of trans fat in a chocolate bar, but if you're measuring tiny amounts (as asked in the question), it's a possible contributor to a fraction of a gram amount in a large chocolate bar.


What does cleave mean with regards to a pan of batter?

The English definition of "cleave" is to split or sever something (at least according to Google, Webster has a slightly different take on it).

So, in a cheesecake recipe, it makes sense to me that it is asking that you pour the batter continuously, not in parts. I doubt such a thing would make a huge difference, but consider that it is a Japanese recipe. If such a thing could be expected in a recipe, I would expect to see it in a Japanese recipe.


Can I tenderize my chicken before I vacuum seal it

This question is similar to better to marinate in vacuum? but is not a duplicate as the other question is very specific about how the chicken is to be used and this is more of a 'general' question.

This is actually (IMHO) a 'very good' idea, especially if you plan to freeze these cuts in order to use later. Marinating is a 'surface process', it does not deeply penetrate the meat. Tenderizing significantly increases the surface area thereby increasing the contact with the marinade. Freezing continues this by disrupting the cell walls of the meat, again improving surface area contact. As it thaws the marinade will continue to coat the meat and improve the flavor, you would not need to thaw and then marinade.

I would caution against using a strong alcohol in your marinade (say, stronger than beer or wine) as it may not actually freeze and it could also inhibit the freezing of the breast where it is contact, causing freezing to not preserve the meat as well. Whatever you use, try to freeze some of it first, just to make sure.


What should I use to produce the hotness of Hong Kong-style borscht?

Of the recipes you link to only one contains paprika, another one lists "Chinese chili paste, chili oil, hot sauce or dried red chili flakes to taste". The one that specifies paprika doesn't mention a specific type of paprika. Without further distinction, that generally means the sweet, non-smoked variety. Sweet paprika is just dried, powdered pimento, the type of pepper seen most often (here in the US anyway) stuffing cocktail olives. It's not hot at all. Hot paprika usually gets its heat by mixing in another, hotter, pepper. Even those paprikas are not generally overwhelmingly hot.

Paprika of any type (hot, sweet or smoked) from any country (Hungary is known for it, as is Spain) is going to bring you closer to a flavor profile more reminiscent of borscht's Eastern European roots. You may want that, but I wouldn't count on paprika to to provide the kind of heat you're talking about.

For Chinese hot and sour soup the best sources of heat are white pepper and chili oil. Nothing else tastes "right" in my opinion. With that in mind I lean toward those ingredients for your borscht as well. You can buy chili oil in any big grocery store, but Asian markets will have a greater variety at probably a much lower price. You can also make your own.

So I'd recommend starting there. White pepper, chili oil and paprika. Make a batch of soup with none of the above and add each spicy ingredient to samples of soup until you hit the combo you like. For best results, once you got the ratio of spicy ingredients figured out, scoop out a bit of your broth and simmer the spices for a good 30 minutes or so (the pepper and paprika especially, it doesn't matter so much with the oil), and add the simmered spices into your cooked soup. They're just better cooked a while. Next time you make the soup you can add the spices in the beginning, since at that point you'll know what you like.


How to thicken a white wine sauce to drizzle over prawns?

I'd just simmer and thus reduce it. No added thickener required.


Mondernist Green Tea Microwave Sponge Cake - Siphon charging

This type of "modernist" microwave sponge cake is usually charged with NO2.

One tip, since they can collapse rapidly after cooking: It is best to flip the cakes over when you remove them from the microwave, so that the cup is upside down.  Let them cool a bit that way, then release them from their cup.


What will happen if i remove seeds from a chilli pepper before cooking?

You remove the seeds for texture. You remove the white pith to reduce the capsaicin content. That way you can get the benefit of the flavour of various peppers while managing the heat.

From the "Wiki page" on Capsacin:

  Capsaicin is present in large quantities in the placental tissue (which holds the seeds), the internal membranes and, to a lesser extent, the other fleshy parts of the fruits of plants in the genus Capsicum. The seeds themselves do not produce any capsaicin, although the highest concentration of capsaicin can be found in the white pith of the inner wall, where the seeds are attached.[5]


No, there is no benefit from resting brownies, and there would be a couple of small disadvantages to doing it.

Time will decrease the effect of baking powder since its work begins as soon as you add moisture.

Time will also cause gluten to develop in the flour, which isn't something you want in brownies. Gluten development will cause brownies to be tough instead of fudgy/chewy.

You aren't waiting for yeast to get frisky; you don't need or want gluten development; you're not shaping dough. You can and should just go straight to the oven after mixing the batter.


Added more flour than what the recipe calls for to make butter cookies

If you added too much flour, you could increase the rest of the ingredients, so that the ratios are more or less equal than in the original recipe.

In your case, in theory, you have about 125% flour, so you would need 125 gram of butter, about 4/5 cup of powdered sugar,  3⁄20 of vanilla extract and 3.75 egg yolks.
However in practice, I think you would be fine if you would leave the other ingredients as is, or if the egg yolks are rather small, add a fourth one. A small increase of sugar would work though.

Nevertheless, as your batter was in the fridge for three days, I would throw it out because of the egg yolks.


Why stir sourdough only with wooden spoons?

This is not true anymore, and modern recipes omit that part.

Back then, when silverware was made either from silver or pre-stainless-steel-alloys the acid in sourdough (and other foods*) would interact with the metal and corrode/color the metal and/or spoil the food.

So put your sourdough in your (stainless steel) mixing bowl and knead it in your kitchen machine as you like.

  *examples (thanks to @Stephie): eggs (there were special egg-spoons made from  horn or tortoise shell and later bakelite or plastic to
  prevent the sulphur in the eggs interacting with the metal),
  marmelade/jam (special spoons, jam would get runny if it got in
  contact with the wrong spoon), potatoes (there is a rule to not cut
  them with a knife).


I am definitely not a vegetarian, but I do love vegetables. The flavor of meat cannot be reduplicated by vegetables, but there are definitely certain things you can do to help.

Smoke Seasoning
Two common varieties are liquid and powdered. Usually, when I think hamburger, I think char-grilled. Liquid smoke can be incorporated with certain things to enhance the flavor. I suggest to use liquid smoke sparingly as it is quite concentrated. Also, grill seasonings often contain smokey elements of flavor.. for example, mesquite seasoning and a plethora of other of other grill like seasonings are very common in your traditional American grocery store spice aisles (including liquid smoke). Alternatively, grilling your veggies and using good wood (mesquite, hickory, etc.) will impart a nice flavor.

Veggies and vegetable products
Of course, with any non-meat entree choices, it may be hard to feel 'full' after eating a meal. I'd recommend vegetables with a relatively high protein content to offset this. Garbanzo Beans (chick peas), and really any derivative of a bean are good choices. If you can acquire a taste for tofu, it is an excellent medium of absorbing flavors. Zucchini, asparagus, string beans are also great additions to any vegetarian meal.

Texture
When I think of something meaty without the meat, go with fungus! Mushrooms are excellent options, provided you have a taste for them. I sometimes make sandwiches with thick cut slices of portabello mushrooms that are stir fried with a savory sauce. Mushrooms provide a meaty/chewy consistency and are also great conduits of absorbing flavors. There's always much room for mushroom in my cooking repotoire!

Dairy
Provided you are not going "vegan", using cheese as you would with meat is excellent in providing that extra "oomph", especially in sandwiches. I do not know many people who dislike a grilled cheese with tomato soup. Mozarella paired with basil, tomato, and other herbs is also great on sandwiches. Also, think of mac & cheese and alfredo sauces for pastas. Throw in some versatile veggies you like and you have a full meal right there.

I'm not opposed to vegetarians, but I do feel that meat has played a huge part in the evolution of the human species. I believe it is your freedom to choose whatever you want to eat. In the end, my advice is to really expand your horizons for flavor and adapt to all the wonderful veggies this world has to offer. Indian, Middle Eastern, and Asian cuisines usually have great choices for vegetarian options. Also, if you are philosophically okay with being a pescatarian, seafood options are plentiful.


Why is there a small piece of iron sponge in my electric water boiler?

They are claimed (I don't know what research has actually been done) to prevent the build-up of limescale.


Is food immediately taken out of the microwave safe to eat?

Yes it is completely safe. Microwaves do not linger in food. The microwaves stop as soon as your microwave stops.

A microwave is just an electromagnetic wave similar to a radio wave, but at a higher frequency. It works by exciting molecules, particularly water, in the food and giving those molecules some of its energy as heat.

Microwaves do not alter the structure or composition of molecules or atoms directly, which is what happens with ionizing radiation (gamma rays, x-rays, and UV-rays). You could cook your food with gamma rays, but you would ionize many of the particles making them radioactive.


How to decide between a French or a German pattern chef's knife?

It really is an issue of personal preference.

If you prefer a rocking motion, the German profile suits your style better; if you are a push-and-slide person, the French profile is more suitable for you.  It also possible to find models at various points within the range.

See this Chef Talk thread for an in depth discussion (with diagrams at one point). The original poster concludes, quite correctly in my opinion:

  But... let's keep our senses of perspective and humor.  A German knife
  won't turn a good cutter into a bad one, and a French knife won't do
  the opposite.  Both profiles suit the classic, European and American
  styles of food and knife skills.  It comes down to taste and training.


Grinding dried chiles in a mortar and pestle?

That sort of grinding only works with seeds and such.  Chiles are too fibrous.  I use a cuisinart mini mate chopper/grinder for all my spice milling needs.  There's a dull side to the blade for grinding stuff like peppercorns, and a sharp side for stuff like chiles.  About the only thing my mortar and pestle ever gets used for is grinding kosher salt to a more useful grain size.