Can I substitute yeast with baking soda/powder for my bread dough?

Yes, it is possible to make bread using baking powder or baking soda.  However, I would strongly recommend that you find a recipe using those ingredients rather than trying to convert a recipe that is supposed to use yeast.

Soda bread made with baking soda, for example, is a very traditional type of bread.  Baking soda requires an acid ingredient to react with, though, so typically soda bread includes ingredients like buttermilk.  Sometimes soured milk or milk soured for vinegar or lemon juice is used instead.  I've occasionally seen recipes that even dispense with the milk altogether and just use lemon juice or another acid to react and allow the soda bread to rise, but typically milk of some sort is used to soften the crumb and give flavor.

Plain bread recipes using only baking powder are a bit more rare; that's more typically the domain of so-called "quick breads" that tend to be more flavorful and cakelike (often with higher sugar content).  But a quick internet search will pull up many recipes for plain bread made with baking powder too.  Again, I would encourage the use of some sort of enriching agent (milk, butter, eggs, etc.) to avoid a dry, bland, crumbly bread.

Bread made with baking soda or baking powder also needs a completely different procedure.  Most importantly, it will need to be baked as soon as mixed, without time for a "rise."  (Delaying putting it in the oven will actually result in a flat, dense product.)  It will also generally have a much more crumbly texture, without the gluten development one obtains with longer fermentation.

In sum, it is possible to make bread with only baking powder or baking soda, but it's best to use recipes that have instructions specifically intended for those ingredients.

If you insist on making the substitution yourself:

Use baking powder, unless you already have an acidic ingredient in your recipe to react with baking soda or are prepared to modify your recipe to add acid.
The amount of baking powder needed will vary, but a good place to start might be about 3/4 tsp. per cup of flour.  Some bread recipes may need a bit more, but using too much baking powder can risk giving the final product an odd flavor.
You don't mention anything about your recipe except that it is "high gluten."  Typically, high gluten breads are chewy and elastic in texture (like bagels or pizza dough), and they also can have a high rise.  Be prepared for the fact that your bread will now likely be crumbly and more dense instead.
Depending on your recipe, you may need to add more liquid to get a satisfactory result.  Baking powder/soda breads often work best with a relatively high hydration level (i.e., ratio of water to flour by weight).  Aiming for a somewhat sticky dough is probably best; less liquid than that, and the final result may be quite dry.
Modify your mixing procedure to mix in baking powder with most of the dry ingredients toward the end.  Kneading for a long time is not necessary (and may actually be counterproductive, as baking powder typically releases a lot of gas when first mixed with the dough, so heavy handling can actually deflate the dough and lead to a denser product).  Instead, mixing (and gentle kneading) only until all the dry ingredients are absorbed is best.  Then form into a rough loaf or put in pans.  Detailed and extended shaping of this sort of bread will generally not be helpful.
Get the bread into the oven as quickly as you can after shaping.
You may need to modify baking temperature and time.  Unlike some lean yeasted breads that are baked at high temperatures (450F or above), baking powder breads are probably best baked at somewhere between 325F and 400F to allow time for the reactions in the dough to create lift before the crust hardens too much.


How long should Lamb leg steaks be cooked for?

Treat it like beef steak. Super-hot pan, slap it on, keep pressing it with your finger, when it feels very firm, it's well done; about 5-6 minutes a side in general but it will depend on thickness; the finger test never lies. Let it rest for a few minutes after cooking.


Try a small amount of cream of tartar instead of xanthan gum. Cheaper, more readily available, and the acid stabilizes the protein matrix.

Also, some tips from Better Homes and Gardens: use a collar, beat your egg whites to a stiff peak but remember to GENTLY fold them in, and don't open the oven door for at least 20-25 minutes to prevent cold air from collapsing the rising souffle.

And yes, even properly cooked souffles do deflate somewhat. Serve immediately and be gentle when removing from the hot oven - no banging the pan down onto the table.


You should be aware that it is perfectly normal for meat to oxidize and become grey in color. In this case, it is still safe, provided it has been stored properly.

I cannot be completely sure that this is the cause based on just your picture. If you have seen the oxidation-grey meat I am referring to and know this is not the same, then this is something different, and possibly dangerous (although Carey Gregory's bile hypothesis has some merit).

But nowadays supermarkets try to hide this process, afraid that their meat will look unappetizing to customers. They package meat in individual containers with low oxygen content (which also has the benefit of keeping it safer). If they still sell raw meat from the display, they only keep a small amount of display, preferably not pre-cut, and stacked tightly, so there is little surface exposure to oxygen. I've also heard that they use nitrites on the surface to prevent the grey-green tinge, but I am not completely sure this is true (it could be illegal, or the amount necessary to prevent the color change could be high enough for the meat to start feeling cured).

So, if you have never seen the grey meat I refer to, this could very well be an example of it. If

you stored the meat properly
the green surface is not slimy (at least, not slimier than the normal parts of the raw meat)
the green surface doesn't smell unusual
there is no texture difference, just the discoloration

chances are that this is not dangerous. You could still decide to be extra safe and discard it (nobody can prove that this is nothing bad), or you could accept the oxygenation explanation and eat it. Or maybe show it to a butcher or an older relative who was used to shopping meat before modern technology made oxidized meat surface a rare sight.


The comb, which is beeswax, holds the honey.  Honeycomb is used for decorative desserts, placed on or along side nicely arranged fruit, is used as a spread on toast or bread or crackers and is served with cheese platters.

As a child I loved honeycomb, would pop a hunk in my mouth and chew like gum until all that was left was the wax, and either spit the wax out or swallow it.

You say the wax is unpleasant and chewy.  The wax will remain chewy, the melting point of beeswax is somewhere around 60 C/140 F.  If the wax has a bad flavour, would suggest tossing the whole thing and trying again.

Don't know of any use other than eating it raw.  Was in the US capital a while back eating across from the bar association national headquarters and had an excellent appetizer platter which had bits of meat, cheese, preserved and fresh fruit, olives, different breads and honeycomb; it was very good.

Bottom line is if you eat it plain, you wind up with hunks of wax in your mouth that you have to do something with.  If you eat it with other foods, the wax isn't really noticeable, kind of like eating the rind on cheese; it just gets ate up.


What is the shelf life for chocolate chips?

True chocolate, made with cocoa butter, especially of the non-milk variety has a very long shelf life when stored in dry, cool conditions.  The fact that the shape is a chip rather than a bar or disc or callet is not really relevant, except for the total surface area on which blooming can occur.

Chocolate is very, very dry, which discourages mold, bacteria, or other micro-flora or micro-fauna from growing, not even counting the preserving effect of theobromine and other alkali in the chocolate.

It also resists rancidity very well.  Stored properly, it can last for many years safely.

Many brands of chocolate chips are not true chocolate, because the manufacturer may have used less expensive fats than cocoa butter, which do not have such excellent storage properties.  Assuming you have a quality chocolate chip made from real chocolate, the issues you may find include:

Sugar bloom, where the sugar comes to the surface due to moisture dissolving it and then leaving it on the surface when it evaporates
Fat bloom, where the cocoa butter separates out onto the surface for reasons not thoroughly understood
The chocolate can lose its temper from warming and cooling cycles, if it gets too warm; this will change its texture to softer, more gritty, and less pleasant
The cocoa butter could go rancid (which I have never experienced)

The first three are aesthetic and cosmetic issues, but the chocolate can still be used in recipes or melted down and re-tempered.

Having it go rancid would be cause to throw it out--but chocolate is very hardy, and resists rancidity--so if it tastes fine, it is still usable.

After two years, you are quite likely to have experienced bloom.  The chips will look like they have a white coating, and may feel gritty.  While this makes it less pleasant to eat out of hand or in applications where it won't be melted down, it will still perform well in recipes where it is melted.

They are certainly safe to eat (again, assuming real chocolate, and no rancidity), but they may not have the same pleasant texture and crispness that you would expect. This is why manufacturer's give them a best by date.

Note:  you can tell whether they are real chocolate by the ingredient list (at least in the US, and other places with comparable labeling laws).  Real chocolate will consist of:

Cocoa solids, cocoa, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, cocoa nib, or chocolate liqueur (all words indicating products of the cocoa bean)
Sugar
Flavoring (such as vanilla or salt)
Perhaps lecithin as an emulsifier

Signs that the product is not real chocolate include other ingredients, especially other fats in lieu of cocoa butter (which is comparatively expensive, and marketable to the cosmetics industry).

Milk chocolate, which also contains milk solids and milk fat will not last as long, but still probably has a shelf life measured in years when stored under proper (cool, dry) conditions.

White chocolate chips do not have the additional preservative effects of the cocoa solids and their alkali, and also have dairy solids and possibly milk fat, so they have the shortest shelf life of all.  It also tends to pick up off flavors if not in a perfectly sealed, air tight container.  White chocolate, I would not keep more than year or so.

Of course, chips that are made from other ingredients than true chocolate are going to have a shelf life based on their ingredients, but I cannot speak to that, and anyway, in my mind, they are not worth storing.

See also:
Why does dark chocolate turn white after being in cold for some time?


What temperature and time do I need to bake a 35cm Madeira cake?

It's very difficult to cook a cake that large without a heating core.

Basically, it's a metal cup that you put in the middle of your cake so that you can get some heat conduction in the middle of the cake, like you would with a bundt pan or other ring-shaped pan.  Unlike the ring pan, as it's a cup, you also fill it with batter so you have a plug to fill the hole that's created.

(and you generally need to fill the cup with either batter or something else heavy so that it doesn't float in the batter).

You also want to go with a lower temperature and bake it for longer -- this is not only because of the size of the cake, but you also want it to be more dense; if you're going to be stacking on top of it, you do not want it spongy, and you need to reduce the amount of open spring from a high temperature.  I'd highly recommend looking for recipes specifically intended for large stacked cakes.

As medeira cakes tend to be slow cooking to start with, you might be looking at 1.5 to 2hrs to get it fully baked through.


Does one really need to add sodium bicarbonate if one already uses baking powder?

If the recipe calls for both (and it's a good recipe), it actually needs both. A common reason is that the baking powder provides leavening and the baking soda helps neutralize a bit of the acid.

It's a little surprising you're finding that baking soda ruins the taste and not baking powder; baking powder contains baking soda. I wonder if "ruins the taste" is an exaggeration or if you had a bad experience with baking soda and are a little more sensitive to it now. But if it's really ruining the taste, it's just a bad recipe. There are a couple possibilities:

the total amount of chemical leavening is too large in the recipe (it doesn't matter whether it's soda or powder) - make sure teaspoon hasn't been changed to tablespoon by accident!
there's not enough acid in the recipe to react with the baking soda so you actually have baking soda left over


Is safe to reuse plastic bags used for sous vide

There is not safety issue as long as you clean well. It shouldn't be a problem after most cooks.  If using high heat...or very long cooks, you might check the integrity of the bag.  Otherwise, I suppose you could wash and dry.  I mainly use zip lock-type bags and discard after each cook, simply because they are a p-i-t-a to clean.


How can I make my own Super Noodles/instant noodle seasoning?

Find a good Asian food market. They should sell small jars, tins, or liquid in sachets of soup flavours.

I find the jars most convenient. About a teaspoon per serving is plenty, store in the fridge after opening.

Some of the liquid in sachets can be the most authentic for the Asian style, but for just a beefy broth, one of the jars will do fine.

If you like a more tomato flavour, buy bulk cans of tomato paste, freeze in ice cube trays, then bag in zip style freezer bags. One or two cubes per serving works fine, and they just melt into the hot noodle soup base.

Use low salt noodles, as most of the soup flavours are very salty for preservation reasons.

Here are some examples I use. Click on pictures for full size view.


Keep the heat low. "Dum"ming the biryani is steaming it rather than cooking it with high heat. You'll also need to seal the container.
Burning happens because of the lack of liquid and the high heat. Mainly because the water evaporates while cooking. So yes, a little water will indeed help, but make sure you keep the heat low. Don't worry if the rice at the bottom becomes sticky. It's called "kurchan" and some people find it very tasty. Another alternative is to prepare the biryani in an oven (when you start with uncooked meat) in a very thick, covered oven pan with no foiling at 200 degree Celsius for approximately thirty minutes.


How many years does canned jelly stay safe to eat?

Canned food basically never expires. That being said, check to make sure there isn't any rust, dents, or swelling on the can, and make sure the food smells okay and there are no cloudy, mushy, or moldy bits of food. It should be safe if it passes all these checks.


An article on  Never Too Curious  states that the silicone garlic peeler was patented in 1998.
From the article:

However, I have a neat workaround in my kitchen, a silicone garlic peeler. It is essentially a rubbery tube that comfortably houses a clove of garlic – roll it back and forward on the counter a few times, and the garlic skin slides right off. Genius. The thing was patented in 1998, and the invention “aims to allow the skin to be removed from the individual garlic clove in a safe, speedy, hygienic and odour-free way using, if necessary, only one hand.” I peeled my 20+ cloves in mere minutes. Thank you genius person who invented it. In fact, I know exactly who that is.
The silicone garlic peeler was invented by Ben Omessi, a retired American architect who had taken to designing home items for people with disabilities. When he was recovering from a major operation in 1991, he found he was too weak to stand and peel the amounts of garlic his wife used for cooking. This lead to the idea that handicapped people would have trouble with this task, too. A few years later the E-Z-Rol garlic peeler was born.

I have to admit that I thought it had been around longer.
Edit: Per this article in  The New York Times  from Feb 1996, the garlic peeler was available for sale at that time and had a patent pending.


Compound butter is a very nice accompaniment for fish.

"Compound butter is a mixture of softened butter and at least one other ingredient.  Some ideas for compound butter are: herbs, spices, citrus zest/juice, honey, fresh mint, soft cheeses (like goat), fresh or dried peppers, and nuts…you get the idea – this list could be endless!"

You can cook the fish on its own and then put the compound butter on top to melt over it. While soft the butter can be put into a piping bag and piped as rosettes and refrigerated until ready to use. Makes for a nice presentation.

Another common accompaniment to fish is mango salso or a combination of tropical fruits (mango pineapple for example).

This seemed like a good link for ideas for sauces for Haddock:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-different-types-of-sauce-for-haddock.htm


Why does Tomato Sauce (ketchup) require refrigeration but Barbecue sauce (like Worcestershire sauce) does not?

You don't actually have to refrigerate ketchup. Once it's opened it's good for a month or so with no appreciable change. After that the flavour and colour starts to degrade, but it's still safe to eat.

Worcestershire sauce is fermented for more than a year before it's bottled, so it will change at a much slower rate than an acidic, but unfermented sauce like ketchup. Still, it's only good for a few years after it's opened.


What types of cured meat are ethically sourced?

Some people might claim that there is no such thing as ethically sourced meat, because animal husbandry is inherently unethical. But if you are looking for meat from animals which were treated better than usual, then you can look for certified organic products. The EU regulation on organic products mandates standards for animal welfare which go beyond what's requested by national animal protection laws alone. A product is certified organic if:

The product has the protected word "Bio" in the name (as in "Bio Schinken" for "Organic Ham").
The product has either the official German organic label or the official EU organic label on its packaging:

But perhaps the most ethical form of meat you can get is if you buy meat from a hunter ("Wildbret"). Hunted animals lived their whole life in nature. You won't get any more organic than that. But hunted meat is usually hard to find in a supermarket. Most game meat you can buy there is actually factory-farmed. So you might have to either get to know one or buy from a specialized store. Also, game meat is not necessarily as healthy for you as factory farmed meat. Factory farmed animals are fed with controlled food, wild animals ate whatever they found. They might also have parasites, which can infect you if you don't cook the meat properly.


Why don't filled doughnuts have compressed dough around the filling?

Donut dough is extremely fluffy, it's mostly air. The filling takes up a very small volume in the donut. The dough does get squished a bit, but that doesn't look all that different from non-squished dough.

If you don't believe me, take an unfilled donut, or a roll of fluffier bread, tear out a piece so you can see the inside, then squish the whole roll/donut between your fingers until it's 1-2 cm less tall than without the pressure. That's what compressed yeast dough looks like.

The baked donuts are simply injected with the already prepared filling from a nozzle, there are no secrets to it.


There are several hits on google, and many videos illustrating how to de-seed a watermelon.  Most have you cut the watermelon length-wise to expose the rows of seeds, which are generally in a circle down the center of the melon (imagining the pattern if you were to look through the end).  When you cut lengthwise, you expose the rows of seeds.  I prefer to remove both ends, and the rind first.  Then, slice in length-wise wedges.  You can often hold a wedge in both hands and gently break it along the line of seeds.  You can also cut the seeds out fairly easily this way, and create seed free pieces closer to the peel.  However, there is quite a bit of melon surrounding the seeds.  That, you just have to work at.


Why is it recommended to blanch onions before pickling them?

From  indiacurry.com :

  Blanching Vegetables for freezing or pickling

  Vegetables have a natural enzyme that continues to effect texture, color and flavor. Blanching stops the enzyme action
  The natural enzymes help vegetable to grow and mature until they are harvested. After the vegetables have been harvested, they continue to remain active even when frozen or pickled making the pickles to be tough, effect the color and flavor. Blanching stops the action of the enzymes.
  The purpose of blanching is not to sterilize or pasteurize vegetables. It may kill some but not all the surface micro-organisms

  Blanching is done by either scalding vegetables in rapidly boiling water, or in a steamer for a short time period. The vegetables must be scalded just long enough to stop the enzyme reaction, but not too long to make them soft and mushy by breaking up the cell-walls.
  Under-blanching stimulates enzyme activity and is worse than not blanching
  Over-blanching causes loss of texture, color, flavor and vitamins.
  Vegetables are blanched for freezing or making Indian pickles.


I think you got a bunk pear.

I've never had a bitter asian pear. The grocery store sign is correct; they are sweeter and juicier than other pears.

Unlike other pears, asian pears are typically picked when ripe. They also are supposed to be quite firm and crisp when ripe. You should be able to smell the sweetness of a ripe asian pear. Maybe your week "ripening" it spoiled it? Not sure what the conditions were, but it is strange because they have an excellent shelf life.


How can I counteract the to bright tomato taste of a beef stew?

The thing to avoid with stews is boiling them as this tends to make the meat tough and drives off the more subtle aromatic flavours, cooking too hard can also make tomatoes taste a bit metallic.

If it tastes a bit too sharp there are a few this you can do to help it.

seasoning : just basic salt and pepper flavours will help as well as plain salt anchovies and fish sauce can work well with beef, if used moderately  these don't give the dish any sort of fishy taste. These also tend to enhance the savoury flavour of the beef but you do need to be a bit careful not to over-salt stews as this is difficult to fix.
sweetening : a bit of sweetener can counteract harsh flavours and enhance aromats. Something like honey or caramelised onions is generally better than refined white sugar, black treacle also works well with beef as it has a bit of bitterness to balance the sweetness.
Spice : even if you don't like hot food, paprika or black pepper can add extra depth to a stew without making it too hot as can fresh peppers. Aniseed flavours like tarragon, star anise and fennel seed also work  well with beef.

Smokey flavours can also work well and can be a good emergency fix for a stew which has gone a bit wrong eg smoked paprika or smoked oysters.

The key thing is to add seasonings gradually and taste as you go along, taking careful note of how they change the flavour often it sis not so much a case of tasting the seasoning itself as how it changes the whole balance.

Also stews get better with slow gentle cooking (not boiling) it's normal for a meat stew to taste bit weird after 30 minutes or so but after 45 minutes to an hour of gentle simmering is should start to come together so it's important not to season too much too early.


Is there a basic ratio for dill pickle brine which will be safe for any vegetable?

Essentially, food pathogens cannot grow below 4.0 pH and vinegar is significantly more acidic that that.  If you go here and scroll down a bit, there is a good, succinct explanation.  They use brines of 38 and 44 percent vinegar "for taste and safety".  With this basic information, it would be easy to create brines that are safe and suite your taste. You really don't need salt, sugar, spices or herbs for safety for vinegar pickles (though you do need salt for lacto-fermented pickles).  The acidity alone will do it.  Of course, you probably want your pickles to taste good, so those other ingredients will be necessary.  I should also add, that the site I linked to adds a cook step.  This makes the pickles safe immediately after cooking.  Without a cook step, the pickles will become safe over time, as the vinegar permeates the product, but may not be safe immediately.  It seems that the addition of a low temperature cook step is an interesting innovation that improves safety and the ability to maintain a crunchy product.


Please help me to fix my bread to be more soft and smaller hole

The bakery is probably selling bread produced using the Chorleywood process, which is a high-volume, high-speed process that uses low-protein flours and additional ingredients (emulsifiers, gums, enrichment) to produce bread that is very light and easy to slice compared to home-baked bread. It's challenging to replicate in a home kitchen, and there's good reasons not to try as home baked bread tends to taste better and may be better for you.

If you are getting really dense bread:

you may be over-kneading. You said you kneaded for 60 minutes, which is far too long. I rarely ever knead more than 10 minutes. Over-kneaded bread has too much gluten developed, and will be tough
it may be too dry. Much of the air in bread comes from water turning to steam, dry dough will end up with a close texture. Try adding more water and kneading with oil instead of flour
It may be under-proofed. The yeast may be retarded by too much salt, not enough heat, or being too old. It may also be you just didn't leave it long enough. If you want a light and fluffy loaf let the first rise go until  trippled
You may have knocked the dough back too much after the first rise. Many people beat the heck out of their bread after first rise, but this will undo much of the work the first rise did in creating air. Handle the dough gently when shaping and moving it into the baking pan, or you may end up losing your air


Although this is partially personal preference, in general you should have the uncut ingredients on the side of your non-cutting hand. This will set up a logical flow of material which keeps you from having to reach over your cutting hand.

If you chop with your right then you'd have the uncut ingredients on your left, as after knife work your chopped ingredients will be on the right of the knife. Everything else comes from this. If you are chopping a lot of ingredients it makes sense to have a few bowls handy to put the chopped ingredients into so you can keep your board clear.

My workflow is based on the assembly line principle - that is do all of one type of task before moving onto another to limit the amount you have to move: before chopping I get bowls for each of the chopped ingredients (stackable stainless steel bowls from a kitchen supply store are great for this as they clean easy and take up little space), and array the bowls to the right of the board. Then I wash all the ingredients, peel them, and prep them at once rather than doing it individually per ingredient and place them to the left of the board, so I have all my ingredients ready to chop. Then I take each type of ingredient and chop them one at a time, saving any messy (tomatoes, cheeses) or possibly contaminating ones (meat, seafood) for last, as I will have to clean the board, my hands, and the knife after possible contaminators to prevent cross-contamination. As the board fills for each ingredient I will transfer the chopped ingredients to the bowls, but I wait until I need the space to continue cutting - if you move the chopped ingredients each time you finish chopping one of them then you waste time moving your arms and body around.

This is the fastest way I have found to get a lot of ingredients processed. If you wash, prep, peel, chop and move each ingredient individually you spend a lot of extra time moving around the kitchen.


Why do I need more time and liquid than my risotto recipe calls for?

It doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong. I've found risotto to be one of those recipes that can vary up to 50% (usually less) from what the author calls for and still turn out great. I've even used recipes that call for "2-4" cups of broth. You may be overcooking it though, the rice should be al dente. It's not uncommon for people to overcook this until you have a mushy risotto.


How to avoid stiffness and crispness of toasted/oven baked bread sandwiches

Wrap the sandwich in foil before baking so the moisture stays in the bread. That will prevent it crisping up.


Does dairy (e.g. crème fraîche) spoil faster if using the same spoon in older and newer product?

Food in general spoils when bacteria, fungus, and other little bugs eat the food, multiply into more, create waste, and then die. I would imagine that the increased population of "bugs" found on a old, used, not washed spoon would cause the decomposition of new creme fraiche to accelerate, but if you wash the spoon, then no-problem.


What is the white foam that builds up when I make tea?

When you boil water in a cup in a microwave, it will often boil without forming bubbles, because unlike a kettle with a rough heating element or inner surface, a clean ceramic cup has few nucleation points. Nucleation points allow pockets of gas to form, which become bubbles as the water boils.

When you add the teabag to the hot water, you are essentially introducing thousands of nucleation points very quickly, and so lots bubbles form very quickly - your foam. You should exercise caution when heating water this way prior to adding a teabag, as if you heat it for too long it can superheat, and will boil explosively out of the mug when you add the teabag.


Why am I not getting any smoke out of my smoking pouch?

It is possible that you didn't poke big enough holes, or that the heat from the burner was not enough to cause the pellets to smoulder. You need to place the packet on the burner directly (actually on the rack above the burner, removing the diffuser), not on top of the diffuser (see Step 2 in these Step-by-step instructions). One way to test would be to fire up your grill, place a packet on the grill and visually check what setting you need to use to see smoke coming out of the packet.
Hot smoking is usually only done for a portion of the whole cooking time not the whole time. Generally you only need 30 min to 1 hour of smoking at the start, along with a long slow (~225 F/~110 C) cook for the rest of the time.
Also note that the temperature on the grill thermometer in the lid is not measuring the temperature at the cooking surface. The temperature on the lid is an indicator of the heat inside the grill at the point of the probe only!  Ideally for smoking/slow cooking you need the temperature measured at the meat. This is especially the case with gas grills as they are not well sealed (won't work if they are), so a lot of the heat and smoke escapes out the gaps, but the probe is usually near the top of the lid, where heat accumulates.  If you are inexperienced at smoking I wouldn't be too concerned about fine temperature control at this point - a little too hot at the start shouldn't matter too much in the long run.


Keeping crushed ice from melting, without it joining back together

As far as I know: No, there isn't. Because is some cases that is the purpose of crushed ice: Melting faster than an ice cube.

I don't know how many guest you have, but I would just keep ice cubes in the freezer. When making a drink, just take some out, hold it in your hand and hit it hard with the back of your bar spoon. Voila, crushed ice.

Please note that this only works with heavy bar spoons, so not every spoon available is made for this purpose.

On another note: You can also buy crushed ice. It comes in large bags. Of course the pieces also join a bit together, but here is a trick. Just throw the closed bag on the floor so the pieces separate. Then take a champagne cooler or something and put your ice in there. Put it in the freezer. It will join a bit of course, but somehow you can still take some out with an ice shovel. This how some bartenders I know do it all summer long during outdoor-events.


Should I store root vegetables with or without the dirt?

Not really, the dirt's there because of:

Authenticity: dirty veggies make people think "garden-fresh"
Laziness: farmers don't want to spend much time cleaning their vegetables

Washing to remove dirt won't shorten the shelf life, but mechanically removing dirt (as in with a hard brush) might in some cases as it could remove or puncture skins or peels.


Puff pastry is a laminated dough, with very strong gluten development, so an extra couple of days in the refrigerator should not have caused problems.

450 F seems like a typical temperature, and the time seems in the normal range.

The only thing you have mentioned is that is definitely outside the standard treatment is trimming the edges with a butter knife.  Normally, you want to trim or cut puff pastry with a very sharp knife or pizza cutter, in order to cleanly cut through the layers.  A blunt knife like a butter knife can mash the layers together, making it hard for them to separate at the edges of the pastry.

Still, this should have lead to lopsided or strangely risen pastry, rather than a complete failure to rise, especially in the center.

The other possibility is that the dough was too warm when you rolled and worked it, or that you rolled it too much, which would work the fat or butter layers into the dough phase, rather than keeping discrete layers of flour then fat, which is what allows the rise.


Mexican Achiote (annatto) Chicken - alternative to achiote

Achiote, commonly known as annatto (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annatto), is  seed from the achiote fruit.

The seed is used for coloring more than for flavouring, often to mimic the colour of saffron. The flavour is very subtle - slightly peppery and lemony.

Saffron would, therefore, be a suitable subsitute for the colour. It would introduce a new flavour to the dish, but generally not one that would be out of place. Alternatively some yellow/orange food coloring or leaving the achiote out altogether would be easy replacements.

Subsitutions for the flavour could be pepper, pink peppercorns or nutmeg, in very small amounts

The spice paste known as 'Achiote paste' is different, but includes achiote seed as a main ingredient. Here (http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/achiote-paste) is a recipe for it. The annatto in the recipe can be replaced as described above


If the package of cake mix got smaller (and otherwise didn't change) then you could try reducing every ingredient by a similar amount, to keep all the ratios the same.

If the package decreased from 18 to 15 ounces, that's makes the new package 83.3% (15÷18) the size of the old one. You'll want to reduce other ingredients similarly.

Your "18 oz recipe" was:

18 oz cake mix
4 eggs
½ cup sugar
1 cup oil
8 oz sour cream

With the eggs, an exact reduction would be 3⅓ eggs, and ⅓ egg is just silly. I'd suggest rounding down to 3. To keep the other measurements at round fractions, the ratios will get thrown off a bit.

If you keep all the measurements even fractions for a "15 oz recipe" you might try:

15 oz cake mix
3 eggs
⅓ cup sugar
¾ cup oil
6 oz sour cream

I've rounded everything down on that... Which means I think it might be a touch dry compared to the original.

A slightly fussier attempt at a "15 oz recipe" would be something like this:

15 oz cake mix
3 eggs
⅓ cup + 1 Tablespoon sugar
¾ cup + 1 Tablespoon oil
7 oz sour cream

That still might need some tweaking to get it "just right"... And of course, if Duncan Hines changed more than just the size of the box, your recipe might need more careful adjustment.


According to Still Tasty (a site that looks at USDA, CDC and FDA data), nori lasts 2-4 months in the pantry and 4-6 months in the fridge. Also it says:

  Store in airtight glass or plastic container or in sealed plastic bag. Refrigerate to extend shelf life.

Still, nori is completely dried. I imagine that the concern beyond that time frame is staleness, not safety.

I have nori that's years old. I would check to be sure that it is somewhat brittle, not leather-like before I used it, but for quality, not safety.


Is there a reason to have a plastic bowl?

For your average mixing task, pretty much any bowl (of the right size, shape) will do. Also, "plastic" isn't one material, it's a bunch of different materials. For example, some advantages of polypropylene bowls do not apply to melamine formaldehyde bowls, but both are plastic.

So, here are some advantages of a polypropylene (PP) bowl over a metal bowl:

microwave safe
high elasticity (can be bent, and will go back to its original shape. E.g., if you drop your PP bowl, it won't dent)
extremely acid-resistant
extremely resistant to other chemical attacks (e.g., will not corrode)
plastic bowls are often made in a mold, so can be cheaply made in a variety of shapes. You can get bowls with nice pouring spouts, etc. because of this.

Of course, they have disadvantages too:

fats stick, almost impossible to remove all traces (a problem when beating egg whites)
can't be used over a pot as a double-boiler
can't hold very hot things (e.g., you can put hot oil in a metal bowl, but PP would melt. Different plastics have different melting points, some can't even hold boiling water. You never have to worry with stainless.)
can't be used in the oven

And there are things which are just different, like metal conducts heat better (so it works better when cooling in an ice bath, but also you're much more likely to get burnt on it), metal is denser (PP floats, metal doesn't).

If you get metal bowls, except for a few applications where copper is nice (those egg whites, again), you want stainless steel. Stainless is fairly resistant to acid and also corrosion (plain steel is not). Note that stainless comes in different grades, which vary in their corrosion, rust, and acid resistance.


How can I know if it's worth cooking a Very Old (10 Years) Chili Bean Mixture Containing Red Kidney Beans?

I have had some luck cooking old beans in a pressure cooker. What have you got to lose by trying? if they don't get soft then toss them, which is what I assume you will do if you don't try.


What determines how hard or soft a cheese will be?

It is mostly about how much water is left in the curd- how hard and long you press it, aging, and sometimes microbial growth.

Soft cheeses like cream cheese are only barely pressed. Fresh soft cheeses like queso fresco and paneer aren't even pressed at all- just hung to dry.

Cheddar is pressed firmly and aged for a relatively short time.

Cheeses like parmesan are pressed firmly and then aged for months to over a year. Most of the liquid leaves during pressing and then they also dry considerably.

Some cheeses like Camembert are unique in that the mold that grows on them softens them as it digests compounds in the cheese. This is what gives Brie, etc, their unique texture.


They are little blood spots, perfectly safe to eat but often a sign of cheap and/or poor welfare birds. As long as you cook it properly (take it to at least 140f) its fine to eat.


What's this discoloration in my saucepan?

If Your Sauce Pan is Stainless Steel
All grades of stainless steels are iron-based alloys with significant percentages of chromium. Typically, stainless steels contain less than 30% chromium and more than 50% iron. Their stainless characteristics stem from the formation of an invisible, adherent, protective and self-healing chromium-rich oxide (Cr2O3) surface film. While stainless steels are resistant to rusting at room temperatures, they're prone to discoloration by oxidation at elevated temperatures due to the presence of chromium and other alloying elements such as titanium and molybdenum.

Factors that contribute to increased oxidation include high dew points, high oxygen and oxides of lead, boron and nitrides on the surface. For bright stainless steels, process them in a highly reducing atmosphere with a dew point lower than –40oF and a minimum of 25% hydrogen.

How to treat Heat Stains
A quick dip in an HCl solution followed by a thorough rinse should remove the oxide "stain", providing it only has a slight "heat" discoloration.

Hard Water Stains
Hard water stains. These result on metal surfaces like sinks and faucets and come about when those areas have been exposed to a large amount of affected water. Read on for some tips on removing hard water stains from metal surfaces in your home.


There are only two methods I found fool proof:

If in doubt, assume it gone bad.
Break the shell, open it, and see & smell. Pour content into a glass, not directly on the pan or whatever. That way, if it's good you can still add it, and if it's bad, your dish is not ruined.

I prefer method 1. if I can afford it. On the trail, or in a camp in woods, or when I was short on money, I used 2.


On this site, we will not and can not give medical advice and that includes answers about “should I be worried” or judge whether a food is spoiled (apart from blatant cases like “it’s covered in mold” or “it smells foul”). What we can and are happy to do is answer questions about food safety based on the recommendations of government sources or other qualified authorities.

In your case, see the Food Safety Authority of Ireland’s webpage, which basically states that you yogurt is no longer safe after the use by date.

Now, you may want to remember that food safety and a food being spoiled are not necessarily directly correlated. Food safety deals with statistics, so that the manufacturer can basically guarantee that before that date the risk of food poisoning from consuming said item is near zero (it can never be zero), even for very sensitive consumers like small children, pregnant women, the elderly or people with a weak immune system and this will typically include a bit of a safety margin as well . After that date, the “safety” can’t be guaranteed. The food may or may not contain a critical amount of microorganisms that can cause food borne illnesses.

Many consumers are willing to take a small risk by consuming foods after that date, especially for products that are not in high-risk groups like fish, shellfish or meat or that have a bit of “protection” built in like live “good” bacteria. And many will do so without negative consequences. The longer the time difference, the higher the risk, obviously, and of course any visible sign of spoilage should always be a warning sign.

Bottom line: The basic rule of “When in doubt, throw it out!” still applies.


How should I prepare a whole (already roasted) leg of lamb bone for stock?

It is good to roast the bone before using it for stock in order to get color on it. Color adds flavor, so it is worth it. Only the bone exposed in the oven in the original roasting will have gotten any color as the rest was covered in meat. Don't worry about cleaning it completely, a bit of meat here and there isn't going to hurt your stock.


What are common techniques for adding eggs to soup?

In Poland some soups (notably żurek or a sorrel soup) are served with a hard boiled (separately) egg added.


Tricks for knowing when a cheesecake is correctly done

I use a therometer.

King Arthur flour suggests measuring 1 inch away from the edge of the cheesecake and looking for a temperature between 165F and 170F.

Americas Test Kitchen/Cooks Illustrated has recommended 165F in the center (checked in 20 minute intervals, provided that you're not close to 165F). However, I remember on the television show that they said 150F many years ago (their blog uses 150F in the center for some recipes too; others say 150F but don't say where to measure it).

I find that the King Arthur method comes out a little bit overdone, so I generally err a bit lower to 160F for 1 inch away from the edge of the cheesecake.

This is all assuming a 9 inch springform (certainly, this will make a difference for the edge based methods, not sure for the center based methods if you change the size of the pan); Your desired temperature will vary based on recipe, but I've tried this with a few recipes and had good results. I generally use recipes which have just cream cheese, eggs and sugar (and maybe a bit of flour) along with add-ins (pumpkin puree+spices for pumpkin cheesecake or lemon zest + berries for a berry cheesecake) for the filling (no sour cream or ricotta or other stuff). Some of the recipes I've tried don't use water baths, others do.

As for aesthetics, I always poke in the same place, and make sure when slicing that I cut through the hole. People don't notice -- they're too busy stuffing their face with cheesecake.


If you're getting your eggs from a supermarket, they won't hatch. This is the case with eggs you get for eating from almost any source.

Hens lay eggs even if they haven't been, umm, mating with a male. Any egg laid in those circumstances will never hatch because it's unfertilized, and that's the standard practice for any commercial egg operation.

Now if you have a free ranging hen and a rooster too, and they're not kept apart, then yeah, you could get a fertilized egg. And that egg needs to be kept properly warm to hatch.


Why would a steam rice cooker suddenly make my dad sick?

The big question is: what changed? Some possibilities:

The rice cooker isn't being cleaned properly. Doesn't seem likely that the residue on an even poorly-cleaned metal pan would significantly contaminate the results.
The water or other cooking ingredients. Doesn't seem likely since the water is probably the same stuff you drink, and generally there aren't any other ingredients when using a rice cooker.
Your dad. Has he developed some sort of allergy or reaction to the rice?


Two suggestions, one practical, the other probably less so.

1) Hold the cup directly, instead of the plate the cup is on. I don't know if that's allowed by health code or restaurant policy, but if it is, you get much more stability from cupping the cup in your hand than balancing it on a small plate. If you're already doing that: practice will get you there.

2) A good cappuccino should be fairly stable. I know there's disagreement about the proper way of layering cappuccinos, but the best ones integrate very finely textured foam into the milk, instead of just layering coffee - milk - foam on top of each other. Milk foamed this way is more stable than regular milk; I've carried cups filled to the brim up the stairs without any spilling. But: this is a barista-side issue, and to be honest, I wouldn't touch it ... the barista is going to make the cappuccino how s/he feels it's best, and being told to do something differently won't go over well.


Extra thickness can be useful, but it can be quite annoying too.  We have some real knife experts here who will probably go into more detail, but as a kitchen amateur (using the sort of grade knife you're looking at) I tend to use a thinner knife for most things.  Much of what you use a knife for is slicing, and a thick knife adds nothing there. It can even mean that slices break or fall away before you're ready.

A thick, heavy knife is useful for various  things, like fine chopping at one extreme, or getting through a butternut squash at the other, but I wouldn't want to only have thick knives (my thickest knives are tucked away in the second knife block).


Modifying your original terms:

Size: 2-3 quart/liter.  I consider 2.5 quarts to be ideal.

Material: Two options: hard-anodized aluminum nonstick, OR  stainless-steel interior/exterior. With stainless, it should have either an encapsulated aluminum disk base or a tri-ply construction (aluminum layered with stainless)

Bottom: Thick is good, and you absolutely must have aluminum here for conduction

Handle: stainless is good, as long as it stays relatively cool.  The handle absolutely must be riveted on, with thick rivets. Screws, glue, or welded handles do not last long-term.  Tack-welded handles are the bane of the restaurant I work for right now; we've had several handles snap off in the last year.

Additional things to look for:

Weight: HEAVY. You want fairly thick cookware for even heating, but most of that weight should be from thickness of the aluminum disk.

Design: A flared lip around the pot, to facilitate clean pouring.

Shape: I'm partial to shallow designs, which flare out at the top.  Although it's nonstick and not stainless, I love my Calphalon Contemporary shallow 2.5 qt saucepan for it's extra-flared design.  This lets it transmit heat more efficiently from the range, and allows it to safely hold a larger capacity of food.  It also allows for faster and cleaner reduction of sauces.

Lid: TEMPERED GLASS with a handle on top, and a flange to help seal tightly on the pot/pan.  Tempered glass is very durable and lets you see the progress of your cooking without releasing the steam.  The handle also remains cool, so you don't burn yourself on it; this is the second problem I have with solid stainless lids on many premium cookware lines (All Clad, and most manufacturers' tri-ply products).


Why do recipes often use ingredients of a similar color together?

Occasionally, sure. Green goddess dressing wouldn't be as much fun with tomato paste added, and strawberries would look awful embedded in blue Jell-O.

In general, though, recipes tend to derive their color almost entirely from one or two ingredients. A ragu Napoletano has a ton of ingredients of different colors, but the dominant color is red from the tomatoes and adding some more thyme isn't going to change that.

That's not to say that color isn't important to food. One reason a beurre blanc matches so well with white fish is because the light color implies a subtlety of flavor which works with the delicacy of the fish. Dark brown suggests more of a roasted, savory flavor; greenness suggests freshness; blue suggests artificiality. To a certain extent, these associations happened naturally rather than through developed convention, and as a consequence recipes will often have the "correct" color automatically. But it's common to adjust a recipe to perfect the color, particularly in this era of Instagram.

One thing you might notice is various green ingredients being close together in the recipe. That's not the green section, though -- it's the herb section, since the author chose to group the herbs together.


How to stop mushrooms from discoloring everything?

Based on comments, the likely culprit is moisture cooking out of the mushrooms and into your other ingredients.  Mushrooms contain a surprising amount of liquid, and when cooking them you'll see that they shrink down significantly due to moisture loss.  If you're adding them to other ingredients, some of the resulting liquid is hanging around in the pan long enough to discolor other, lightly colored items like eggs or tofu.

What I would suggest is sauteeing your mushrooms by themselves for at least a couple minutes, to release their moisture prior to adding everything else.  Here's a good step-by-step guide.  Be sure you salt them to draw out moisture, and make sure that you don't crowd the pan (see this question) so that the moisture can cook off effectively.  Both eggs and tofu should cook fairly quickly, so you can add them after the first couple minutes and the mushrooms can continue to brown and cook afterwards.  If you have other ingredients that need to cook for an extended amount of time, you may want to cook your mushrooms  separately if the color bothers you.  If you're using a separate pan, this won't really add additional time, but you will have extra cleaning to do.

Mushrooms are funky that way - common sense might indicate that they be cooked like vegetables, but there's a reason why Alton Brown suggests treating them like meat instead.


Whenever beans are cooked, they release a good bit of starch into the cooking liquid.

The longer you cook the beans, the more starch they release. Boiling, breaking or otherwise roughing up the beans will release more starch.

Also, canned beans release a good bit of their starch into the water in the can.

If you have more starch, you'll probably get more of a skin.

Puddings (also liquid + starch) form a skin the same way your soup does.


How many ounces is a British "tin" of tomatoes?

It is likely the same as a 14 oz can of tomatoes.

From the Wikipedia article on Tin Cans:

  A standard size tin can is roughly 400g; however, the weight can vary between 385g and 425g, depending on the density of the contents.

UK shops selling tins of tomatoes quote 390-400 grams based on what I'm seeing.

This is equivalent to 14 oz.  American cans will generally say the weight in ounces and in grams if you want to double check.


Cheese is a durable food, and the date printed on it is more of a best-by date than an expiration date. While brie is rather soft (which is normally a problem because soft cheeses are more welcoming to bacteria), its colonisation by noble mold fills the ecological niche which would be otherwise claimed by pathogens. So, especially if you kept it in the fridge, eating it a few days or weeks after the date printed should not be a problem food safety wise.

As with most mold cheeses, you may find that it has overripened. Overripened mold cheese will have a gooey to liquid core and a somewhat funky smell. It is still safe to eat, but you must decide if the taste is still good enough for you.


How to slow down evaporation when cooking?

Covering (using a lid) will greatly reduce evaporation, whether at the full boil or just simmering...or sitting on the countertop.


You can't cook "past the boiling point" , unless you are using a pressure cooker...and a simmer is, technically, just below the boiling point.
You can learn about bean foam here.
Soybeans need to be cooked for human consumption in order to destroy the tripsin inhibitors. According to the information in the linked page, boiling soybeans for 14 minutes inactivates about 80% of the inhibitor...for 30 minutes deactivates 90%.  You can reduce this time with the higher temperatures of a pressure cooker.  However, while the inhibitor will be taken care of, as far as I can tell, your beans will not be "cooked", or pleasant to eat yet.  The recipes I find suggest 3 to 4 hours of cooking on the stove-top.  Again, this can be shortened dramatically using a pressure cooker.


The hardness you're experiencing is a sign that you've undercooked it. It isn't really "hard" in the sense that dry pasta is hard. It's not brittle, just very tough and difficult to bite through.

You can continue to cook it, but it's going to start becoming mushy on the outside before it becomes cooked through to the inside. That's why pastas are rolled out thin. Rolling it out thin with a rolling pin is enormous effort, so new pasta makers always give up too early. And they get this effect of tough pasta.

We all go through it. Stick with it. And then invest in a pasta roller, which makes it a bajillion times easier. But it's good to have done it the hard way a few times.


How to know when pickles are pickled correctly

"How can I know if the pickles were pickled correctly": Based on whether they taste good to you. With refrigerator pickles like this, you don't need to worry about them fermenting incorrectly or growing the wrong kind of microorganisms. If you think they're too vinegary, reduce the vinegar content.

FWIW, a 1:1 ratio of water to vinegar is much stronger than I like... I prefer something closer to 3:1 or 4:1. Keep in mind what you'll be using them for, and in particular how diluted they'll be: If you'll be popping one in your mouth, you'll probably want a less vinegary brine than if you intend to distribute slivers of them around a sandwich.


Short pastry is fragile in the freezer, and tends to crack from even minor impacts

For meat pies try a flaky pastry which is more resilient to shock when frozen. Blind baking will not be as necessary with flaky pastry too

Partial pastry cooking pies with their pre-cooked filling works well (say up to 50% to 75% done). This allows for proper reheating time from frozen without killing the pastry


How can I prevent my ice cream bucket from drying out?

Well, if it was a boat, you'd swab it every few days ("swab the desk") so it stayed wet and swollen.

You could also treat the bucket with a food-grade mineral oil.  You can find it in most kitchenware stores for protecting cutting boards.  The oil will evaporate much slower than water will, but it will still evaporate.

You might try putting the whole thing in a large plastic bag or similar container, so whatever moisture evaporates stays in the air surrounding the bucket, slowing further moisture loss ... but moist, stagnant air isn't good for long periods of time, either, as you could end up with mold that would be even more annoying to deal with.

Or, as the bucket's only touching the ice & salt mix, and not coming in direct contact with food, you could always use wood treatments available from any hardware store.

update : I was reading up on walnut oil, and wikipedia linked to a woodworker who recommended a walnut oil & beeswax finish (1:2 blend) for finishing wood that would come in contact w/ food, but that you should re-coat each year.  I assume the beeswax would give it longer durability as compared to straight mineral oil sold for cutting boards.


Rose petals are edible.  If you look for rose petal recipes, you will find many creative uses of them, including rice pudding with roses - so your pudding intuition was correct.  During colonial American times they were considered a treat.  You can candy rose petals with egg whites and sugar - typical cautions about appropriate raw egg white useage applies.

Before using your rose petals in culinary applications, make sure to remember what chemicals you used on them.  If they've been sprayed with pesticides, you don't want to be eating them.


Boiled chicken: coloured parts of the meat?

Your chicken is fully cooked after simmering for an hour.  The red bits are from the bone marrow and don't indicate that it's undercooked.  You'll see the same thing if you roast a chicken, and you'll notice that the red bits are always in the meat surrounding bone joints.


How do I know if food left at room temperature is still safe to eat?

When in Doubt, Throw it Out!
You cannot always see or smell bacterial contamination. Mold that appears to be growing only on the surface may grow invisible roots into softer foods. Do not rely on a visual inspection or "smell test" to tell you whether or not a food is safe. It's not worth the risk - food poisoning can be much, much worse than an upset stomach.
The Danger Zone

Per the USDA guidelines, potentially hazardous food that stays in the temperature "danger zone", 40-140 °F (4-60 °C), for more than 2 hours should be discarded. For temperatures above 90°F (32°C), the limit is 1 hour.*

Potentially hazardous foods are those foods that spoil most easily, such as unshelled eggs, raw meats, fish, shell fish, dairy products, almost all cooked foods.

This time is cumulative, so it includes time bringing the food home from the grocery store, time before cooking, time after cooking, and so on.   The reason is that while cooking may destroy bacteria or other pathogens, it doesn't always destroy the toxins that they have produced.

In general, regarding perishable foods like meat, most dairy, unshelled eggs and shell eggs (in the US), cooked casseroles, and so on:  if the food (or its perishable components) have been at room temperature for more than two hours, you should discard that food.

To avoid the danger zone, keep cooked food hot until ready to eat, then refrigerate immediately. Separate large items into smaller containers to help them to cool more quickly. If you’re defrosting something, do it in the fridge or under cold running water.

If you can be certain that the food was not in the danger zone, then yes, it is safe. For example, if you left a large chunk of frozen meat out and it is still frozen solid (including the surface) when you come back to it, it was not in the danger zone.

Why is it so strict? / Why didn't I get sick?
These guidelines are about making sure you don't get a foodborne illness, i.e. reducing the risk to where it's so small as to not be an issue. So if you break the rules, e.g. eating food that's been left at room temperature for 8 hours, that doesn't mean you will get sick, just that you're taking a risk.
Why does cooking not completely "reset the clock"?

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

Cooking is pasteurization, not sterilization. Pasteurization means killing most microbes, so as to render the food safe for human consumption.  Sterilization methods (e.g. pressure-canning and irradiation) are the only safe methods for longer-term room-temperature storage. Otherwise, the danger zone rules always apply.

Even sterilized food can only remain sterile under an airtight seal, e.g. when properly canned or vacuum-sealed. Once it is opened, it is no longer sterile. Air contains countless bacteria and molds, and their spores, which will readily re-colonize any suitable environment they encounter. Cooked food tends to be an ideal medium for growth.

What can I leave out longer?
For foods that aren't potentially hazardous as described above, there's no solid rule, but things are generally safe for much longer than the 2 hours given above. For example, things which are sold at room temperature (e.g. fresh produce, bread, or cookies) are most likely safe at least all day or overnight if not for days or even months. You can find guidelines for common things at StillTasty.
Regulation and Risks
Follow the guidelines set out by reputable regulatory agencies, especially when serving others. Local organizations include:

FDA Food Code (USDA)
CFIA (Canada)
Food Standards Agency (UK)

Other regulatory sources apply in other parts of the word, but major food safety organizations usually agree in essence (if not in complete detail) on most issues.
Failure to follow reputable guidelines is irresponsible if you are serving guests, and failure to follow your specific local codes is likely to be illegal if you are serving customers.
Health codes tend to be very conservative, to fully protect the community.    You have the right to take risks on yourself by ignoring their recommendations, but please do not risk the safety of others.
Again, When in Doubt...
Once again, if you suspect spoilage or contamination, please, throw it out.
* Note: this is the USDA's rule. Other agencies may have variations on it. Additionally, government agencies generally make very conservative recommendations - they're trying to make sure that no one who follows the rules gets sick. Breaking the rules means maybe taking on some risk. That's up to you - just remember, eventually someone gets unlucky, and food poisoning is not fun.
Helpful Resources

Wikipedia: Food Safety
USDA Fact Sheet
Still Tasty - has information on storage methods/times for almost every food.

Further Reading/Frequently Asked

Why is it dangerous to eat meat which has been left out and then cooked?
How long can I store a food in the pantry, refrigerator, or freezer?
What Do I Need To Know About Temperature and Food Safety?
Is there a problem with defrosting meat on the counter?
How long can cooked food be safely stored at room/warm temperature?
Is it safe to cook a steak that was left out (raw) for 7 hours?
How long can eggs be unrefrigerated before becoming unsafe to eat?
Should I refrigerate eggs?


I'm unsure about an English term, but in German it is a "Quirl", related to the "whorl" of twigs on a stem it was originally made of - for example from old Christmas trees:

(source)

Later versions mimicked this with a star-shaped wooden or porcelain "head" on a wooden handle,

(source / source)

the plastic head is a more modern twist:

(source)

In Central Europe you should be able to buy them from either kitchen stores or - if regionally less common - from various online retailers.


Do tinned anchovies need to be sold cold for food safety or quality reasons?

I found this very informative article from the Crown Prince company, an anchovy canner and distributor.  Apparently the reason for cold storage has to do with the preservation process and product quality:

  Anchovy Handling

  Anchovies are a "semi-preserved" product. This means that they are not
  sterilized by either cooking or pasteurization. Instead, anchovies are
  preserved by a salting process whereby salt is used to control
  bacteria which would otherwise render a canned product unusable.

  The anchovies remain in the salt until just before canning. Therefore,
  suppliers do not pack ahead of order. Our anchovies are not packed
  until just prior to shipment.

  Because they are "semi-preserved", anchovies will eventually break
  down and become mushy. The cans may even puff. This occurs because
  there is a non-harmful bacteria that survives in salt. This bacteria
  can be inconvenient because when it grows it can eventually form a gas
  which will puff the can. We repeat that this is not harmful to humans,
  but is most inconvenient.

  Heat will hasten the growth of the non-harmful bacteria. Anchovies
  should always be stored in a cool place, preferably in the
  refrigerator. Their shelf life when refrigerated is about 18 months.
  If you do not plan on consuming the anchovies or paste immediately
  after purchasing, we recommend storing them in the refrigerator. It is
  important to note that puffed anchovy cans are not indicative of a
  faulty canning procedure, but rather of improper storage subsequent to
  canning.

  Occasionally, customers complain of a white substance in the can.
  Often, salt collects around the edges of the fish. This is harmless,
  as it is only salt.


Reheat coated fried chicken (salt and pepper chicken)

From a food safety perspective, if the chicken is hot throughout after cooking, you're almost certainly good to go. Do make sure you cool down the chicken quickly enough to avoid spending too much time in the 'danger zone'. Especially if after re-frying, the chicken gets heated more ("with veg and seasoning"), there is a good chance you can follow the recipe without changing the timing.

To give a more precise answer, it would help if you could share the details of your recipe. How big are the pieces of chicken?  Depending on the size of your chicken pieces, frying from frozen could result in the outside of the chicken burning while the inside is still too cold. How long are you supposed to let the chicken rest? Do the pieces cool down to room temperature, or are they still hot? If the recipe is based on re-frying room temperature chicken, having the chicken at fridge temperature instead will not have a huge effect.


gooseberry "turnover" filling very thick

I can't find any resources on what to do when you have food with too much pectin in it, but you could combine the goose berries with something which has a low amount of pectin, check out group II or III in this pdf. Don't puree your other ingredient totally and you'll get a thicker filling, as well.


How can I replicate the flavor of Mountain Dew?

OK, this is dangerously close to a recipe request, but far enough away that I feel OK to answer.

Use the rule of two.

2 cups of sugar
2 two oranges
2 limes
2 lemons

Juice and zest the whole fruit.

Strain and and fill to 1 gallon with water. Filter if you want it to be clear.

Carbonate using whatever technique you normally use whether that's a Cornelius keg or soda stream.


Cookies are soft in the middle, even though the edges are browned

If the edges burn and the center is undone, it means the heat didn't have enough time to reach the relatively cool center before the edge was too hot. The temperature gradient depends on the amount of heat from your oven and the size of your cookie - and to some degree on the thermal properties of your cookie sheet.

You have mentioned the two "usual suspects" in your question:

Oven temperature and convection.

Ovens thermostats are notorious for being quite a bit "off". A good oven thermometer placed on the middle rack can give you a precise measurement and even helps you to recognize whether it's a "fluctuating" issue or whether your oven is generally running high or low.
Convection can change the way the oven heat is distributed to your cookies. Most recipes I'm familiar with suggest lowering the temperature by 25C / 50F if using the convection feature. This is not necessarily always the ideal solution, some types of cakes simply turn out better without the convection feature. (But that's a gigantic can of worms that I won't be opening here: Many bakers have their own view on this.)

If those two don't help, look into the type of cookie sheet and the temperature of your dough when it's put in the oven - chilled dough will behave differently from room temperature dough, for example.


I found a tamarind that was mostly powder, how do I avoid buying these?

It sounds like you’re describing mold spores, which I’ve occasionally seen in tamarind. I don’t know of any way to check for this, short of cutting them open to check, but tamarind isn’t particularly expensive so you might just buy a bit more than you expect to need. Often people buy tamarind extract instead, which of course isn’t subject to this problem. (Except for beverages, you really don’t lose anything by using the extract, IMO.)


How long will Jalepenos last in the freezer?

First off, pretty much everything stored in a properly cold freezer (0°F/-18°C) will be safe to eat forever.

The flavor will eventually go, e.g., by getting freezer burn and also by enzymatic degradation (if not blanched). How long this will take depends on exactly how you've stored them. In general, airtight packaging with no air inside seems to be best. For example, vacuum-sealed thick bags work well. Cheap, thin plastic "storage" bags don't work well. You can get around 8 months according to UNL. Colorodo State believes you can get 12 to 18 months.

edit: It also occurs to me that it matters what freezer you're using. The one on my fridge, for example, has fairly large temperature swings (yet mostly stays below 0°F) and automatic defrost, it freezer burns things much quicker than my chest freezer (which has a temperature variance of maybe 2°F, staying in the -3° to -1°F range)


Vacuum Seal Meats with Bones that could be sharp

Wrap the bone ends with a layer of foil, plastic wrap...or even folded paper towel. Then seal.


Can I use cottage cheese instead of cream cheese when making a cheesecake?

I've made cheesecake with many different types of cheese and it pretty much always worked.

Of course texture and taste vary, but that's the beauty of it. Try a single cheese, see what it gives and then start experimenting mixing them.

For instance cottage cheese tends to give a slightly more "crumbly" texture. To compact it you can add some fresh cream.

Sour cream also makes a wonderful addition, and marries well with some lemon zest, taken that you like a bit of acidity in your cake.

I've also tried to add mascarpone and even gorgonzola, they all work well, and give you very peculiar mouth-feelings to combine and mix as you please, but obviously add in calory content quite a bit...

As for the amount, you an just keep the same as cream cheese.


It seems that B/E is a corruption of ¼ (as MaxW has suggested in a comment).

A Google search for "B/E- inch slices" finds https://www.drperlmutter.com/recipe/zucchini-yogurt-gazpacho-saffron-marinated-chicken-breast/ (which I guess is what you are trying to follow), but it also finds the PDF file http://www.fasttracktohealth.net/members-only/grainfreerecipes.pdf (which contains exactly the same recipe). If you download that PDF file, you’ll find that the text actually says "¼-inch slices" - but copying and pasting that piece of text gives "B/ E" instead of "¼" (due to some peculiarity of the font encoding).


why does my microwave beep half way through a defrost?

It's reminding you that flipping meat halfway through the defrost cycle will help prevent the bottom half cooking, while the top remains frozen solid.


How can I hold a battered Mars bar in a deep fryer without leaving any chocolate exposed?

Put in on a stick. Depending on the size of the bar a toothpick may be sufficient. Just make sure the batter covers the stick a little where it goes into the bar.


Bbq pork ribs accidentally started cooking in crock pot on warm for 2 1/2 hours before noticed

It depends entirely on what the actual temperature for "warm" is.  If it is above 140F (i.e. outside of the "danger zone") you should be fine.

The limited research I've done on the "warm" temperatures of various crock pots seem to range from 145F to 200F, so it largely depends on the model.  You might want to read the manual or go to the manufacturer's web site and find out what the actual temperature for your specific model is.

However, if you can't actually find out what the warm temperature of your crock pot is, my usual rule with food safety is the proverbial "if in doubt, throw it out".  It's not worth the risk.


If it's only rust, you should be fine. Rust is oxidized iron and harmless. Check for other discolorations or changes in surface texture, that means something else is happening there
If in doubt, ditch it.

Here's what I'd do: I'd cut off (rather generously) the rusted parts, sample a bit of pudding from the inside and decide if the recipe is worth another try in a new mold. Then, get yourself a new mold. This time, make sure it's appropriate for your intended use: Some puddings are cooked in the mold, then served right away (so no danger of excessive rusting), some , like your plum pudding, need longer time to "ripen". Maybe you coud get a porcelain mold?


Can I mix all-purpose flour with high-gluten flour to make bread flour?

Yes, you can mix them at basically a 1:1 ratio to achieve a flour with roughly 12% protein content (mimicking bread flour).

Bread flour is milled from hard spring wheat, which has a higher protein content than the hard winter wheat used in all-purpose flour. Protein adds strength to dough and enables loaves of bread to rise high.

Mixing them together to achieve a roughly 12% protein content will ensure you don't end up with a bread that's way too dense/soft or rises far too much/little, basically.

There's no issues mixing flours, and in fact this can be a great way to create the mixture you need when it's sold out (such as during this pandemic).


How do I make authentic Russian black bread?

The primary coloring agents in a traditional black Russian loaf are molasses and dark rye flour.


How to ensure that the salt is very homogenized in a given food?

There are a few things I can think of that would help:

Sprinkle the salt over the surface rather than dumping a blob in one place.
Add the salt in multiple additions, stirring between each.
Stir sufficiently to distribute.

I made pancakes a few months ago and forgot the salt. After eating the first couple, I realized the mistake and added salt to attempt to give it some flavor. Unfortunately, I didn't follow the three points above and ended up with salty patches in my pancakes, so some pancakes were still unsalted and others were so salty it (literally) made me feel like I was going to throw up.

Other than promising myself to never wait so late to add the salt in the future, I thought about solutions and came up with the points I mentioned.

If you add the salt to one spot in the mixture, it will be much more difficult to evenly disperse the salt throughout. So, sprinkling it on the surface makes it less likely there will be clumps of overwhelming saltiness.

With something like mashed cassava or potatoes, you can taste for saltiness, so adding small amounts and tasting between additions is a great way to be sure you get the level of salt you want and since you stir between the additions, the part of the mixture that the salt is applied to, is likely to be different with the subsequent additions.

Stirring sufficiently is the final point... if you only stir once or twice, it's unlikely that the salt will reach all points in the mixture, likely remaining towards the top. Be certain to stir enough and do it well, being sure to pull the mixture from the bottom to fully incorporate.


Can I store dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, etc) together?

As long as they're all dry ingredients, then you should be just fine — after all, that's exactly what a box of packaged cake mix is.

Again, if it's just dry ingredients, I see no need to refrigerate it. I would put it in an airtight container — preferably a glass jar*. Placed in your pantry, it should have a shelf-life of a least a couple of months.

* Glass jars are my preference for storing dry ingredients — they're easy sanitize, and the twist-off cover makes an airtight seal:


Simple answer:  fewer briquettes.  Space them out a bit.  You can make fine adjustments by raising the cooking surface or lowering the briquettes.  I know my kettle has a lower briquette grill, if you take out the main one.  I've also seen briquette grills with sunken channels to create small pockets of heat.  I also have a couple of trapezoidal briquette holders, which I can use to position briquettes and create warmer or cooler spots.

Charcoal briquettes are designed to be a consistent temperature.  Of course, poorer quality briquettes will be less consistent or burn for less time, but in general any single briquette will burn as long and as hot as any other.

Trying to douse or smother the briquettes may cause smoke or steam, but it's not going to have a good, consistent effect.

Interesting comparison info from Dutch Oven cooking:  with a standard 12" Dutch Oven, 12 briquettes in a ring under the oven and 12 spaced around the edge of the lid will give you approximately a 350 degree oven for about an hour.  Temperature is adjusted by adding or removing briquettes.  This means, in a grill, 24 briquettes could give you a grill temp near 350, if the food is about 2-3 inches away.  (The linked chart has a slightly different arrangement; 12/12 is what I learned as a simple rule of thumb, but everyone has different practices...  or may desire top browning or bottom boiling.)


How to make pizza not stick on ceramic stone?

I'd use parchment paper. Foil might work, but it's not actually that great a nonstick baking material. Parchment paper is pretty much designed for that, though.

The purpose of the stone is to hold a lot of heat. Parchment doesn't "void" that purpose at all. I've baked plenty of pizza and bread on a stone with parchment, and it works great.

There's no need to worry about seasoning. It doesn't matter for the pizza. It's pretty much just an appearance thing; a well-used pizza stone won't be all pristine and clean like a new one.


how to disarm a potentially pressurized whipping siphon?

I don't know how to tell what the pressure is on a whipper, but from the results of a blocked one, I'm going to make the following suggestion for attempting to safely disarm it:

You need containment.  If you open the container too quickly, you're looking at a massive mess to clean up.  I'd suggest possibly a cardboard box (disposible) or a large plastic container (cleanable), with a clear plastic trashbag over it, so that only your arms are going in.  If you don't have a large clear plastic bag, you'll either need to make a window (we can cut a cardboard box, then tape the bag down) or find something else clear (shower curtain liner?).  Containment also reduces the odds that the head will fly off and damage something.
Goggles or other eye protection wouldn't hurt incase something goes wrong.
Place the containment vessel on its side, with the whipper inside, and the opening so that you can see into it.
If you have assistance, tape the bag around your arms, so you have a good seal.
Slowly open the container ... if it's like the case when my mom did this, a little will leak out after a while.  Give it another partial turn, and some more will leak out ... go slowly.  Suddenly, the whole thing will release, making a complete mess.

If you're like my mom, and insist on attempting to save the whipped cream, you can place a bowl & spoon into the containment with you, and scoop it off as it oozes out the side ... but risk knocking the bowl over when it suddenly pops open on you.

...

That being said, if you're not in a rush to open it, I'd let it sit for a day or two, with the nozzle up, (possibly after rapping it hard on the floor a couple of times) then attempt to spray ... if you get a gas release, you might be able to depressure it some before attempting to open it.


Problems with rising sponge in larger tin

I see nothing wrong here. The two 7 inch tins have a total area of almost 310 square inches, while one 8 inch tin has a total area of 200 square inches. So your batter is 1.5 times thicker in the one tin.

Baking time does not increase linearly with thickness, so a doubled time is not out of the ordinary. Time is not a prescription in baking anyway, you have to bake it until done and not until the timer goes off.

The "hard on the edges, gooey in the middle" is a classic sign of too high oven temperature. Reduce the temperature to bake the thick cake.

Alternatively, make only 2/3 of the batter, or find a 10 inch tin (314 square inches area).


Difference between French bread and Japanese bread

One of the best known (if not the best known) breads in Japan is, in fact, very much like a brioche. Japanese Milk Bread contains butter and egg, it also contains a fair amount of sugar. The Japanese think of bread more like a sweet than a staple. Another sweet bread known in Japan is Maple Bread, it's even sweeter and really does taste like maple syrup.

If you are looking for something more like a French Baguette, Catija's advice in comments is excellent. The Japanese aren't big into sandwiches. The Vietnamese, however, have a huge French influence (whether they want it or not). The bread traditionally used for Banh Mi is a short baguette. If you ask for Banh Mi in Tokyo, someone will know just what you mean.


I have made my own experiments using Transglutaminase (TG), aka Meat Glue, which is a natural enzyme that has the ability to glue protein-containing foods together.
I have recreated steaks from trim cuts, added to burgers, re-shaped hanger steak into filet mignon "coins".
From everything I've read, there is nothing unhealthy about this process.
As to doing it on a large commercial scale… I don't know if they're doing anything beyond using TG, so might be worth seeking more info.
Also, try the meat. From the photo, it looks fresh and clean. I'm sure it'd taste great.


If the smoked beef you tried tasted of ash then it was not done right.
If done correctly and cooked to a safe internal temperature then, "YES" it is 100% cooked.
You should note that it is the internal temperature and not just "smoking" that is the rule for "doneness". Smoking can occur at a lower temperature. Smoking can be used to "cure" or preserve beef, as @TFD & @Aaronut point out. These process yield a product that is 'ready to eat' so I would say it is "100% cooked".


Baking in a salt crust: What type of fish?

James Peterson, in his book Fish & Shellfish, recommends char, blackfish, grouper, ocean perch, rockfish, small salmon, trout, steelhead, and striped bass, but not pollock.  However, he does say "almost any round fish can be prepared this way", and pollock is a round fish.
I suspect that the reasons that you don't see pollock suggested for cooking this way, or for that matter any way other than fried, is because the fish has a reputation for being delicate, but also slightly fishy, and drying out easily.  So the risk of cooking it in a salt crust is that it could end up both dried out and extra-fishy tasting.  On the other hand, salt-dried cod is its own staple ingredient in a lot of cuisines, and pollock is closely related.
In my personal experience, freshness and quality count for a lot, regardless of fish variety.  If I had a couple really good, fresh, whole pollock, I'd probably try it, particularly if they are Alaska instead of Atlantic pollock.


If it's been fully cured (smoked, then hung for a few months), it likely just needs to be warmed through for serving (or even just sliced).

If it's soft, you might need to cook it, and then you could roast it in the oven ... a crock pot might be okay; it's hard to say without having seen it.

But if it's quite firm, I'd likely just slice pieces off like you might other dry cured hams like Prosciutto, speck, jamón or country ham.

If it's heavily salted, I'd be more likely to use it as a flavoring than a meat -- cut off bits, and add to vegetable dishes when cooking.  It goes great with dark greens or in bean dishes.  (I just had an excellent bean & ham soup last night at a meeting that a few of us treat as a pot-luck)


Sprouting Potatoes in Fridge? Safe to eat?

They are okay to eat. The sprouts on the other hand can be very acidic and SHOULD NOT be eaten. As long as you make sure you wash the potato thoroughly you shouldn't have to worry.


Why will my dense, concentrated stock not solidify to jelly?

Sounds like the temp of the Aga was a bit low. From the GMIA Gelatin Manual (page 11):

  As a dry powder, gelatin is very stable, and can be stored in air tight containers for years with no loss in quality. Gelatin in solution, or soaking in water, should be left in this state only if kept very cold, or hot enough to destroy or inhibit bacterial growth.
  The nature of the organisms which grow in gelatin solutions and gels depends upon a number of factors. The pH has a most important influence. At pH values less than 4, bacterial growth is suppressed, while yeasts and molds grow abundantly. Above pH 5, proteolytic bacteria can become active.


Induction just heats the pan using magnetism. Aside from very high efficiency, it isn't so different from any other method, and how hot the oil gets is an issue of power output and heat transfer/conductivity of the pan itself. There isn't an appreciable difference in how the physics work inside the pan.

Clearly your oil is not hot enough for frying/sautéeing. Most induction cooktops say they draw at least 1000 W to produce temperatures in the 350-400° F range, which is a somewhat typical frying temperature, being just at or below the smoke points of most oils. However, that number is based on a lot of assumptions, and 1500 W is not necessarily a generous margin of error for a portable hot plate. A lot of things could prevent you from reaching even a modest 400° F:

The pan is too dense. Are you using cast iron? It responds well to induction but the thermal resistance is also a lot higher.
The pan is very large and/or you're stuffing a lot of food into it, a result of which could be that the heat is escaping faster than the hot plate can pump it out.
The pan does not actually have the right amount of magnetic permeability for high-heat cooking. A magnet may stick to it, but how hard does it stick? If there isn't a very strong attraction - i.e. you have to put some effort into pulling off a permanent magnet - then you're not getting anywhere near the efficiency the unit was designed for, and even the full 1500 W may not be enough to reach the desired temperatures.
The cooktop is not really pulling in the full 1500 W, either due to a poor power source or simply poor design. Some manufacturers might quote 1500 W as a peak in order to sell more units, knowing full well that they can't sustain more than about 60% of that. If you've got a power meter (e.g. Kill-A-Watt), plug it in and see how much it's really drawing.

There are some portable induction cookers that go up to 1800 or even 2000 W, which is the bare minimum for the large element on an electric or induction stove (2500 W is typical for those). If you want to use a portable hot plate for high-heat cooking, check your pans very carefully, don't overcrowd them, and if all else fails, you might just need a better hot plate.


If I make a big batch of blueberry buttermilk pancakes and freeze them, how long will they stay fresh for before getting freezer-burnt?

Its going to depend on the type of packaging and also the freezer.

Lightly wrapped in plastic wrap (or worse, paper) will freezer burn fairly quickly. Vacuum-sealed will last much longer.

A self-defrost freezer with wide temperature swings will burn quicker. A manual defrost chest freezer much slower.

Worst case is probably around a month or less (not really sealed, freezer with wide temperature swings), best case (vacuum sealed in stable temperature chest freezer) over a year.


What is this powder served with fried dango?

There are all kinds of powders served with dango to give them different flavors.  The image you have included looks like kinako (roasted soybean flour) which is traditional, but it could also be peanut butter powder which is a more modern addition to dango.


What can I substitute for Rice flour in a gluten-free pizza?

I would go out an buy some.

Dough textures for gluten-free breads are fragile and the result of extensive testing with various non-wheat flours (at least, good ones like Serious Eats are).  None of the other flours you have available will have the same water absorbsion or starch content which rice flour does.  If you substitute, you'd have to make the recipe several times in order to recalibrate it.

Besides, rice flour is generally pretty useful if cooking for someone who can't eat gluten.  So you'll use the rest of it.  And if you can find it in a bulk foods store, it's quite cheap.


Two things hold cornbread together:
Egg and gluten.

Gluten forms from the wheat flour interacting with the liquid. In general you don't want too much gluten or the bread will be tough and chewy instead of the characteristic tenderness of cornbread.

The egg in your recipe is similar to other recipes that call for 1 egg and 2 cups of flour. The 1/2 cup of milk is about half of the low end of what is typical.

Many recipes, especially those that add interfering ingredients like canned corn, add an extra egg for binding.

Browsing recipes online, it is common to see more liquid than you are listing here. Even if you get another half cup of water from the canned corn it would still be the low end of liquid. More liquid in the batter will give the flour more binding ability.
Don't overdo it. A good way to get tough cornbread is to mix it well and make a lot of gluten.

Some well rated examples:

This recipe with creamed corn, after scaling it to two cups of flour+cornmeal, calls for both more milk and butter than yours.
This very popular recipe, while not including creamed corn, contains an extra egg and more liquid.

I would add an extra egg and increase your milk to 1 cup in your recipe.


What is the correct temperature when extracting saffron flavour?

From personal experience, I did not know how to cook with Saffron. So, I would soak it in a little bit of cold milk before adding it to my dessert and it never brought enough flavour or colour into my dessert. Then I started to infuse saffron in a small amount of warm water or milk, for approximately 15 to 30 minutes before adding it to the other ingredients, usually towards the end of cooking. This really draws out the beautiful colour and that royal flavour from it.


Would one use holy basil to make pesto sauce? Are there other culinary uses?

Use it the same as you would thai basil, or even "normal" basil.   It's a little more strongly on the licorice flavor side of things than lettuce leaf basil, but it still works nicely in conjunction with tomatoes, garlic, and other "italian" flavors.


How to go about reducing sugar in a butter cake recipe?

According to Shirley Corriher, as reported in Fine Cooking, the sugar should weigh slightly more than the flour:

The sugar should weigh the same as, or slightly more than, the flour.
Remember that this is weight, not volume. A cup of sugar weighs about
7 ounces, and a cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 4-1/2 ounces.
So, if we're building a recipe with 1 cup sugar, we'll need about
1-1/2 cups flour (about 6-3/4 ounces).

Sugar plays a very important role in creating the structure and bite of cakes, and also helps to retain moisture and inhibit spoiling, so you cannot simply reduce the quantity without limit to control the sweetness.
That being said, most recipes have a certain amount of tolerance. You can probably reduce the sugar by about 20 to 25% without completely altering the nature of the recipe, although the crumb may suffer a little.

Vanilla and rose are delicate flavors. If you are making a yellow cake with butter, and egg yolks, they may be competing and masking the flavor.
Using a white cake base may allow these flavors to show through more clearly.


How can I examine fruits or vegetables in a market, while minimizing mechanical damage?

The first step is to only pick up items you're likely to buy. Then you should only have to put down items that have an actual problem already.

For some things you want to check for ripeness, but under-ripe items are more robust, so it should be possible to pick them up gently without damage and put them down again. After all, it's handled by people and machines quite a lot before you ever see it. If on the other hand you're looking for something underripe so it keeps for longer (and you can't go by colour as with bananas) you will need to be very gentle indeed handling potentially ripe items.


Should I boil canned sweetened condensed milk before using like I do for different types of canned food?

The whole point of canning is to produce food that won't spoil.  The only reason to boil canned food is if you think it was improperly canned, and if that's true, it may not be safe to eat even if boiled.  Botulism bacteria, for example, will grow in many improperly canned foods, and it will not be completely destroyed by boiling, though most of the botulism toxin will.  Some molds and bacteria can also produce persistent toxins that won't be destroyed adequately by boiling.

In general, if you're afraid to eat any canned food without boiling, I'd throw it out rather than eating it.

Also, I'm not certain if you were implying that you would boil food in the sealed can.  I wouldn't recommend that.  Boiling sealed cans is potentially dangerous (if not closely monitored); they can explode if not kept complete submerged.

Assuming your condensed milk is sealed and was canned properly, there is no reason to boil it, nor any other properly canned food.


Cinnamon adds a different spice profile than chili powder or red or cayenne pepper would. It is a common savory spice in Indian food and I believe it's also used in savory dishes in Chinese cooking. It's a very versatile spice :).

We also use cocoa powder in our chili as it provides a real depth of flavor (dark bitter flavors which are quite good in chili).

Both of these add some curiosity and difference to the chili without themselves adding sweetness. Usually they get added as a fairly safe way to add something "different" to standard chili.


One possible use would be as finger protection in case you lose control of the knife and slip forward.

Quote from zknives.com, considered a reputable source on knife technology:
"Thus, the only time when the bolster acts like a finger guard, is when the blade is very narrow, such as one found on the boning knife."

Given the blade IS narrow and recessed, the same intent is likely - make it less likely to slice your fingers open if you eg forcefully stab forward and hit an unexpected obstacle in the cutting medium, with momentum making your hand go further forward than is safe.


Yes, according to the common food-handling procedures, having food in the 'danger zone' for some time is bad ... however, you've likely pasteurized your meat, as you only need to hold it at 140°F for 12 minutes to pasteurize pork against its normal pathogens.

Mind you, it's more than 12 minutes to get the middle up to 140°F, so it's not simply 'it needs to be cooked for 12 minutes'.

As you had pasteurized it for 24+ hrs before it was in the 'danger zone', you would've had a significant reduction in microbes, and the vacuum seal would've prevented it from being re-contaminated.

The only problem might be botulism, as you have to hold it at 185°F to kill the spores and destroy the toxin:

... so if there's garlic in the bag, and it's not in an acidic environment, you're at an increased risk.

You might be able to 'test' the contamination by holding it the warmer sections of your fridge for a week, and if the bag doesn't puff up, assume it's not at risk of botulism.  Of course, if you hold it too cool the botulism won't give off enough gas to indicate that it's a problem, so I don't know if it's a 100% accurate test.

I'm not going to say that it is or isn't a problem, as everyone should make their own decision on risk.  I wouldn't recommend serving it to others, especially not without informing them of the situation.  You should be able to ensure safety by holding it at 185°F for 15-20 minutes, but that would likely defeat the purpose of your sous-vide cooking.


When you simmer certain spices in fat and water, where do the spices/nutrients go?

Chemically fat and water are much different.  Fat is an organic with very little polarity.  Water is a non-organic and very polar.

Polar means one side is positive and another side is negative. In water the oxygen is dominate and pulls in extra negative charge.

Most spice (if not all depending on your definition) is organic. Spice will concentrate in fat. If you don't have enough fat the spice will just fall out of solution and be a solid at the bottom of the pot.

Salt dissociates into positive and negative ions is soluble in water as what happens is negative oxygen in the water hugs the positive (NA) and the hydrogen hugs the negative (CL). Again if you don't have enough water (huggers) the salt will just fall out as a solid.

I know a strange analogy. Alcohol is out of your system in 24-48 hours as it is not fat soluble. Marijuana is organic (spice like) and is fat soluble. It can be detected up to 30 days.