I worked in an Italian place that occasionally did banquets. This is how we anticipated an adult serving:

Mains (meat / pasta with sauce / fish) 160 grams (or 100 grams of protein per adult, plus 60-ish grams of sauce, garnish, etc - this allows for a bit of extra)
Sides are 1/3 * 2 of mains, since people generally have more than one side. Roughly 2 servings at 50 grams each, for a total of 100 grams.
Bread you can do per person at just 1.5 * headcount, add more bread if you have more kids because kids tend to go for the bread.

I would strongly encourage you to drop one side dish, and suggest dropping the raw mixed veggies. You've got cole slaw there and corn, that's more than enough. Because at the number of items you have with absolutely no data on what tends to move the most, you're going to end up with a ton of extra food and likely fall short on what people wanted the most.

For the rest of this answer, I'm going to assume the mixed veggies are going away, because it really does simplify this a bit. You've got pulled pork and chicken, and sides that people (including kids) are equally likely to want. That's kind of important.

So let's say it's 50/50 when it comes to people that want pork or chicken (it never ends up being that, but it's a great place to start). You begin with:

Chicken * 160g * 50 / 1000 * 2.2 (conversion) is 17.6 pounds
Pork * 160g * 50 / 1000 * 2.2 (conversion) is also 17.6 pounds

Important: I don't know if your chicken is bone-in or not, if it's bone-in, add a third back into that number.

So say about 17 1/2 - 18 pounds of each protein. Ordering 20 of each isn't a bad idea.

Now let's calculate your sides assuming that people will want 3/5 of them regardless of what protein they want. That's simple, or 3/5ths of 100, or 60 grams per person of each. Do the math and the conversion and you get roughly, 13 pounds of each side.

Now again, factor the kids in. Kids aren't usually wild about potato salad, and if you're expecting a lot of them, ramp up on the mac n cheese. Likewise, if you know the crowd you're serving isn't really fond of things with gluten, ramp down on the mac n cheese. I wouldn't mess with your protein portions too much based on kids, it's better to have a bit extra and send food home with people than run out.

It's important that people RSVP and indicate any food preferences, allergies, etc - MAJORLY important if someone has a peanut allergy (make sure the folks preparing your meat know if that's the case). You may also find out that you need a lot more chicken than you thought.

In most cases I really recommend letting a caterer handle it, but it's not rocket science (in fact it's more guesswork than actual science). Make sure you handle the food properly (at 100 guests plus, did I mention that a caterer might be a good idea?) I don't know what's in your potato salad, but it needs to stay cold. Do you have the needed chafing dishes to do this, both hot and cold?

I never was responsible for banquets, though I did a lot of cooking for them to whatever amounts were needed - I have a lot of respect for banquet cooks and chefs because it really is an entirely different animal.


There are a few possibilities:

1 cup milk plus 1 Tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar, let stand for 10 minutes
1 cup milk plus 2 tsp cream of tartar, let stand for 10 minutes
2 parts plain yogurt to 1 part milk
Plain, low-fat yogurt
Sour cream
Molasses (if batter requires baking soda)

I have used the first two with success.

Source: Cook's Thesaurus


For big (standard) panettoni typical values are:

Mould diameter of 17 cm (6.7 in).
Mould height of 11~13 cm (4.3~5.1 in).
Dough weight about 800 gr (1.7 lb).

Albeit those values are not defined in the Italian "standard", nor in the howto. You can also find wider and lower moulds for the same dough sizes (or upt to 1 kg / 2.2 lb).

You can find those measures in most webs in italian. Also, if you buy an already made panettone it will quite probably have those or very similar measures.
In general, you can use the formula:

  Dough weight (gr) = 1,45 x Mould volume (cm3)

Formula calculated empirically. You can check some values in this italian forum.

When you pour the dough in the mould it will only be filled up to ¼ or ⅓. It needs to rise a lot: above the upper part of the mould.

Here you have a Youtube video on making a homemade mould.
And this page shows you how to do the mould yourself. It's in Spanish, but you can translate it automatically.

Sidenote: Orthodox stress they should be done with lievito naturale (sourdough), not yeasts. Non orthodox italian standard accept only up to 0.01% of yeast.


Why store food in an airtight container when it's in the fridge?

Airtight packaging doesn't slow down bacteria growth. There are a few myths about them which don't apply in practice:

Bacteria are not kept out, despite popular belief – the air within the container has as many bacteria as the air outside. The food in the container also has bacteria – cooking doesn't sterilize food! – so you cannot keep the bacteria out that way.
The container is still full of oxygen. You don't get the effect of lowered-oxygen atmosphere that is sometimes used in packaging from industrial food producers.

These two hold whether your food is in the fridge or not – so storing the food in an airtight container outside of the fridge doesn't change anything about its safety either. *
The one way it helps with food safety is an edge case: if you forget something until it molds or spoils, the now-high levels of pathogens won't contaminate something else, exposing it to more than the normal "background" level.
The airtight container doesn't help with food safety, but it is quite good for food quality and has other convenience aspects:

if you put fresh fruit or vegetables in it, or cheese, you get a nice level of humidity, and vegetables stay crisp longer/cheese and other stuff doesn't dry out
many foods either emit or soak up smells. The airtight container prevents it.
if you have a mishap and drop something in the fridge, or a fermenting bottle of something spills over, it won't land in an open bowl of something else
modern containers have an almost-rectangular shape, which uses up the space in the fridge very efficiently, and allows stacking.
modern containers, as well as humble jars, are mostly transparent – so if you store the food in them as opposed to the pot in which you prepared it, it is easier to see what is where without opening lids
if you prepared food in a reactive pan (or even something not-very-reactive like seasoned cast iron) and store the leftovers in it, you are giving the pan time to react with the food and corrode and/or change the taste of the food. Food storage containers are nonreactive.

So the airtight containers are best practice for quality reasons. And non-air-tight containers, which have a loosely fitting lid (no visible holes, but also no gasket, such as a stock pot or a skillet covered with a lid) will give you about 80-90% of the desired effect.
* to be pedantic, it can interfere in one way: if you intend to store hot non-shelf-stable food outside for a short time, and are afraid it will enter the danger zone, a closed lid will slow down the time it cools down. But I suppose not many people keep a wireless temperature probe in their airtight container, so the point is quite moot in practice.


Using pastry flour for standard sourdough bread recipe?

I have been making sourdough bread with a few kinds of flour. In my experience, bread flour (higher protein) really does make a difference in many qualities of bread that you look for -- texture, rise, chew, etc.  However it is incremental, maybe like 10-25% better, so it should still be possible to create good bread with lower protein flour.

I can give a few tips for your starter that I recently learned. The starter should be at least doubling if not tripling or quadrupling in volume each time you feed it. When I feed my starter I add 1/3 starter to 1/3 fresh flour and water.  So for example if I have 100g of starter, each time I feed it I take 33g of that starter (discard the other 67g) and add it to 33g of each flour and water.  After 2 or 3 of these feedings it at least triples in volume each time.  If it is sluggish, I make sure it is in a warm spot, ideally about 85F.  There can be a big difference in activity between this and a cool room temp of 65F.

Also the starter should be peaking in activity at the time it is added to the dough.  For me that's usually about 3-4 hours after feeding but it depends.  If it has fully deflated before you use it the activity will be less.

Something I have started doing is overnight fermentations of the dough, usually about 18 hours, at room temp.  This results in bread that is much more sour and has a wetter, stickier texture that I like, so might not be for everyone.  However it makes it easier to get a good rise. My dough will double or triple in volume overnight and there is not much harm in having it sit for a few more or less hours.  The activity and strength of the starter matters a bit less because it sits for so long.  When I'm ready to bake, I will "stretch and fold" the dough and it usually rises back up within an hour or two and is ready to bake.


What happens to my cheese when I overcook it

It's overcooked. Maybe not burnt, but it will be grainy, crunchy, or rubbery. Depending on the cheese. I've never eaten that kind of cheese, but you can still eat it, probably, but you probably won't like it.

What happened is you basically bubbled all the moisture out of it and you're left with the fat and protein clumps that are usually uniformly dispersed throughout the cheese.


Can I use cream of tartar in place of tataric acid

While normally I would hesitate to recommend this source, eHow has a good article on the difference.   Cream of tartar is ground, partially neutralized tartaric acid, and not generally a substitute.

In the end, they recommend:

  If your recipe calls for tartaric acid and you don't have it, using
  cream of tartar might work. For every teaspoon of tartaric acid,
  replace with two teaspoons of cream of tartar. However, using tartaric
  acid will produce better results.

However, there are very, very few applications of cream of tartar in cooking.  The most prominent is encouraging foaming of egg whites.   With good technique and patience in whipping the whites, it can simply be omitted with good results.

It is also used in some candy making, to interfere with crystal formation in sugar work.  In this application, substitution may actually be effective, but you might wish to use alternatives such as invert sugars or citric acid.

In the specific jam recipe, if you are canning, one purpose of the tartaric acid is to ensure the canned goods are sufficiently acidic as to prevent the growth of botulism, and keep your put up green tomatoes safe.  In this context, you should not substitute.  When canning, always follow trusted recipes precisely, to ensure a safe outcome.

Even if you are making refrigerator jam, this is not a good substitution candidate, since you may need the acidity to help get a good gel.   You might be able to use citric acid (I am not sure how the acidity levels compare), but don't try this if you are canning.


Can I use a waffle iron as a Panini press?

Maybe! There's one big potential issue: panini presses are hinged differently. There's a bit of variation exactly how, but the effect is that the entire top can lift up, so that it can press down flat on whatever you stick in there. Waffle irons are just designed to be filled, so they hinge at the back. If your sandwich is much smaller than the waffle iron, you can put it in the front part (as far from the hinge as possible), and it won't matter too much, but if it takes up a decent fraction of the area, it'll be squeezed pretty tight at the back compared to the front. This will probably make it cook unevenly, and depending on what you've got in there, might squeeze things out.

Some panini presses also have better temperature controls than waffle irons, but that's probably not as much of a concern.

So I'd give it a shot and see how it works, plan on possibly flipping your sandwich around halfway through, and don't be too upset if it's not pretty!

(rfusca's comment above is also good - if you're able to take off the hinge, you'd avoid the whole problem.)


What are the chunks of connective tissue on soup bones? (And can I use them?)

What ever it is, sounds like sinew or other hard tissue, it's done it's purpose now the flavour, sugars, geletine etc is now in your broth and you should probably discard them. I don't imagine they will taste of anything now and the texture is likely to be vile.

By all means taste a bit to see what I mean. It won't make you ill though you may possibly gag...


Cooking chicken, like anything else, is not about time, but about outcome.

In the case of meat, the most important factor is the internal temperature to which it is cooked.   This should be measured with an instant read thermometer.

White meat should get to about 155-160 F depending on your tastes; dark meat to about 165 - 180 F depending on your tastes.

Note that dark meat, depending on the cooking method, can tolerate a fairly long cooking time, even when the temperature does not rise:  during that time, the connective tissues (collagen) will convert to gelatin, and it will become more unctuous and almost silky in texture.

How long this will take depends on the size of the pieces (or whole chicken if cooking whole), the temperature, and the cooking method.  Thighs in a 375 F oven might take an hour to an hour and a quarter; being braised, maybe 30 minutes, for example.

See also:

What makes a moist steak (or roast)?
Temp and times for roast beef 2.3lbs
Is there a general algorithm for calculating the amount of time to roast meat for?


Should I wait until the oil smokes when frying eggs?

Considering that you're using Soybean Oil - which has a smoke point of 450°F, you might be using far too much heat for your eggs. Even if you were making an omelette, which typical recipes demand a higher temperature of ~ 400°F - you'd still be far too high if you're smoking soybean oil. In any case, I would recommend frying between 350°F and 390°F.

As for you hearing that in olive oil, bad chemicals emerge when the oil reaches the smoke point - this is true of any oil. Heating any oil or fat past its smoke point causes rapid oxidation (peroxidation) and more-or-less mimics the effects of rancidity. Think about whether you want to be cooking using burnt, rancid oil. At that, you shouldn't be using olive oil (which has a lower smoke point than most fats) for high-heat cooking. As for the bad chemicals, any oil or fat that is taken past its smoke point will oxidize, and as a result, different chemical reactions will occur which may or may not release/create carcinogens. This is a topic that you should explore more with your dietician/physician than on this board.

Ideally, you should monitor your oil temperature - either visually by looking for a slight shimmer/sheen, or physically by using a cooking thermometer or a wooden spoon (look for air bubbles).


Why would I want to pre-heat a pan before cooking?

That really depends on what you want to make! For example, the Spanish Omelette (potatos, onions, eggs, "potato omelette") needs to be poured in a pan which has had to be preheating for some time until it's quite hot (you can pour a little bit of olive oil, and if you move it and it moves VERY fast, that's usually a sign. Don't overdue it as you can "burn" the oil!). That is so you can "sear" the outside while the inside still remains with the liquids and flavours!
If you want to sear a meat (I asked a question about that a little ago, or in the case of the omelette, cook it on the outside so it can have a shape, and let the omelette be runny on the inside. Here you can see something I made the other day!

Another example in which I use it, if I'm cooking curry or something related with CHICKEN, I'd just toast a bit (in Spanish we call it "to golden the chicken", "dorar el pollo"), which basically is at high heat (PRE-HEATED!!) and with some olive oil, cook it quickly, so the outside is seared, but it still has all the liquids on the inside (still raw in most cases because of this quick cooking), and you can add it later!


If your goal is longer term preservation, freezing is one of the easiest methods and what I tend to do on occasions when I've bought a lot of ginger  at once (for whatever reason).  While you'll lose a little flavor with freezing, when used in cooking, I find it still works well and is often difficult to distinguish from fresh.  And it's quite convenient: you can actually pull out a frozen piece of ginger, grate off what you need, and just put the rest back in the freezer.

As a side benefit, peeling and grating frozen ginger can actually be a bit easier than doing the same to fresh ginger.  If you need chunks of ginger, though, you'll need to let it defrost a bit first (or, alternatively, cut before freezing if you have a standard recipe you want to use it for).


Toasting followed by blooming would not make spices "more potent" than either toasting or blooming alone, but would make them taste different.
Per Serious Eats:

Frying spices in oil gives them a completely different flavor than dry-roasting. When dry-roasted, a spice's flavor changes in fundamental ways: volatile aromatics begin to cook off, while compounds in the spice recombine to form new flavors that are often deeper, roasted, and earthier. Frying them in oil, on the other hand, tends to enhance the original flavors of a spice, making them bolder and more intense, almost as if they've become more sure of themselves. In short, oil-fried spices have a brighter and fresher aroma compared to dry-roasted spices.

For this reason, you might use spices that are dry-roasted but not fried, spices that are fried but not roasted, or even spices that are roasted and fried. In the last case, you're trying to spread the nuttier/earthier flavor of the roasted spice through more of the dish by infusing the oil.
There's a caveat, though, which is that spices that have already been roasted will burn much faster than raw spices, particularly if they've been ground.  As such, you'll want to add them to less hot oil, or to oil that already has other things in it bringing the temperature down (like chopped onions).


Just add some semolina and rice flour. This would help a lot to make your crepes crispy


As the comments seem to suggest, making food coloring from strawberries is generally not done because there is not enough red pigment in the strawberries to develop a concentrated red dye.

Food dyes generally need to be really concentrated to provide the coloration without introducing too much liquid(especially in baked goods). It seems unlikely or at least very impractical to concentrate the pigment enough to be useable as food coloring (unless you want a pale pink).

In this article, someone makes a dye from strawberries to dye yarn: http://knitting.about.com/od/dyeingyarn/ss/Dyeing-Yarn-With-Strawberries.htm by boiling strawberries and then simmering for 20 minutes. But the concentration of the dye needed to dye yarn is much less than what would be need to dye cake. The dye would introduce way too much liquid in the cake before it can really dye the cake the vibrant red. It seems likely that if you boil down the strawberry liquid enough, you might be able to produce a dye that gives a light pink but nowhere near the bright red that you seem to want.


Creating ideal temperature for dough to rise

I don't know if I'd qualify is as a machine, but they're called either a 'proofer' or a 'proofing box'.

You'll need to check the description, as some boxes are just plastic and are intended to go into a larger proofing room.


To compare, I made exactly half that recipe, also measured in grams. It wasn't liquid, it was dough-like, but it was absolutely whisk-able. As a matter of fact, I only used a whisk to mix this. For what it's worth, I have a lot of trust in Paul Hollywood. I imagine this biga will be much more liquid in the morning. I'll let you know when I get up.

EDIT I want to mention too that I used 00 flour (Caputo Rosso red), filtered water and instant yeast.

2nd EDIT As I thought I remembered, the biga loosened considerably overnight. It's now easily mixed with a fork. Not liquid, but much, much looser. And a bit bubbly.


Gas grill flames very high cooking chicked wings and vegetables

That's pretty typical for any sort of fatty meats -- as you cook them, the fat renders out, dripping into the flames below and igniting.

This is often referred to as 'flare ups', and some people recommend using a water bottle when grilling -- but don't do it, as this is actually a grease fire.

You'll typically want to move the food to another area until the flames die down, as there's not much else you can do unless you want your food to taste like a fire extinguisher.

You can take some preventative steps on a charcoal grill, by putting a container of water on the grate beneath the food being cooked (you'll be cooking using indirect heat), so that the grease drips into the water and doesn't flare up.


What's the different between the sides of aluminium foil (shiny/matte)?

Appearance is the only difference! There is no performance differance between the shiney side and the dull side. Two sheets are run through the rollers in the mill to acheive the desired thickness then sized, separated, cut to length and packaged.


The color should not be a problem for you as long as red coloring in beef packaging doesn't bother you.

That's right, that blue dye is blood. Crustaceans, like the prawn, crab, and lobster, and horseshoe crabs have hemocyanin in their blood to transport oxygen instead of hemoglobin, which we have. Hemocyanin has copper in it to give it its color rather than the iron hemoglobin has.

So to answer your question specifically: Yes, it is normal.


Assuming you have a frost-free freezer (which dehumidifies the cold air), I'd experiment by laying sliced fruit on a sheet (maybe on a layer of waxed paper) and putting it in the freezer. Pull out a slice every day or two to check its crispness. The time necessary will depend on the type of fruit, its moisture content, the slice thickness, and the room's humidity.


What is the substitute for pastry blender in cookie making?

No, the device called for, a pastry blender, is not what you have linked in either picture.

The first is a simple hand mixer with standard beaters.  The second is the paddle attachment for a stand mixer.

A pastry blender is used to cut butter into flour and looks something like this:

(Image from crate and barrel)

It is used to cut butter into flour, while leaving it in relatively large solid chunks.

If you don't have a pastry blender, alternatives include:

Using two knives, criss-crossed, to slowly cut the butter up with the flour mixture in a scissors-like motion
Pressing with the back of a fork
With skill and cold hands, you can even press the butter and flour together with your fingers, which is very old fashioned, but hard to describe in text

(All of these methods require butter cool enough to not blend into the flour, but warm enough to cut easily, about 65 F, 18.3 C.)
If you have one, cutting in butter is also very easily done in a food processor with the knife blade; in this case, you want cold butter.  It usually takes not very many pulses, so monitor the texture after each pulse or two once you have done four or five.
If you have a large holed grater, you can even grate frozen butter, and then simply toss it with the flour

This video from Dear Martini Kitchen has an excellent demonstration of the pastry blender method that clearly shows the desired texture, an inset which shows the two-knife technique, and at the end a brief food processor demo.


What's the minimum amount of oil for making popcorn?

The way I do it is put 1-2 tbsp of oil in my pot, add 1/3 cup or so of corn, cover, and heat on medium until it starts popping, then turn down a bit and shake the pot occasionally until it is all popped. So, not oil free, but not a whole lot of oil either.


How can I make the most of this stewing hen?

I'm from the company you got your hens from.

Water cooking is the traditional method, the size of this bird is representative of the breed, which is leghorn fowl.  This is the breed used both in commercial and backyard egg layers.

The stock made from the stewing hen is far more flavorful then any other chicken you will find anywhere.  The meat is also rich in flavor, however as the age of these hens is significantly older than that of a broiler, (8-10 weeks vs 90-130 weeks for a stewer), the meat is tougher.

Our inventory is very current, in fact none of our inventory is beyond 15-30 days at this time, and our distributors are also working with very current inventory.

The color of the skin returns immediately, even running a little tap water over it will bring the white/yellow color back.  The skin tends to be fairly lean, leaner than a meat chicken, so once frozen it becomes almost translucent.

Thank you for trying our product, and I hope your chicken soup was as delicious as we have come to know in our own kitchens over the past 70 years.


Chosing 2 pans - the most versatile solution

If I could only have two pans, those pans would be a high quality 12 inch stainless steel skillet, and an enameled cast-iron Dutch oven. Both pans would have a lid. Tempered glass lids are nice on the skillet/fry pan, but the quality of the skillet is more important.

Fantasy Skillet

Fantasy Dutch Oven

Dutch ovens come in a huge range of sizes. Consider the size you want carefully, this pan should outlive you. Are you likely to be cooking for a larger number of people at some point in time? For someone to whom both are available, there is no way I would recommend paying $300 or more for the Le Creuset brand, when Lodge makes virtually the same pan for $60. I'll have some more info for you in a bit (note: we later discussed it at length in chat), but I probably won't recommend a specific brand unless I happen to find a credible source for such a recommendation.


I'm going to copy/paste my answer from https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/93753/42066 because I still disagree with the usual methods posted...

TL:DR - use less water, allow 'drying time' afterwards.

I'm going to go contra to pretty much all the advice so far, but this is how I've been cooking rice for 25 years...

Clear-lidded pans make this far less guesswork.
Use a heavy-bottomed saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, 3 times the volume of your finished rice.
Don't rinse the rice, you don't need to.

Use your coolest, most even burner - this is not necessarily the smallest. Sometimes the tiny ones generate bad hot-spots that a medium one wouldn't.

Boil the kettle.
Pre-heat the pan on high.
Add rice to your pre-heated pan.  Salt as required.
Immediately add 1.75 x the volume of water, not double.
late addition - this is a 'learned' variable, dependant on the solidity of your pan & how low you can get the burner. It could be as low as 1.6x if you have a very heavy pan & a good low heat.

That should immediately hit a rapid boil because of the pre-heating.
Stir once, just enough to ensure the grains are separated.
Drop the heat to minimum [on gas this is near instantaneous, you might need to wait a second on electric]
Put the lid on.
The contents should foam almost to the top but not go over - lift & replace the lid if it looks like it will go over, otherwise leave alone.
Simmer at this minimum temperature for 12-15 mins [depends how low you can get the heat]
Don't lift the lid to "see if it's done". Learn when it's done by repetition.
'When it's done' btw, is when all the water is gone; you might be able to hear a slight crackle as the last bit dries.

After the required time, switch off the heat, leave the lid on.
Allow to rest for another 15-20 minutes.

Fluff briefly with your spatula; no great effort should be required at this stage.
Serve.
The rice will be separate & fluffy, none will be stuck to the bottom.

This works for pretty much any rice type - long grain, basmati, or short-grain, glutinous [short grain, of course, will not separate in the same way].

*Almost copy/paste from my own answer at https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/93672/42066

I must add, this is for 'white' rice types  - standard long grain, patna, basmati, jasmine, & even mixes or pre-frys like Turkish orzo/rice etc. It even includes bulgar.  [It excludes quick-cook or par-boiled, as I never use those]
I also never cook brown rice so have no ratios in my head & I'd have to look it up or read the pack. Risotto, of course, you just keep adding more until it's done ;)

Late edit
I only just noticed the purpose is for fried rice - in which case the last step is to allow it to cool completely then put the pan in the fridge overnight. If you have the method correct so far, then tomorrow it will separate even more & be just right to stir-fry.


You'll want a commercial oven or high heat thermometer.

This one goes to 750° F (about 400 C):

My Big Green Egg Temperature Gauge goes up to 750° F (about 400 C).

But if I want to monitor the internal temperature of what you are cooking in a hotter oven/broiler, I usually use a remote thermometer which has an all-metal wire and probe:


Should I boil the alcohol out of marinade?

Unless the recipe specifically directs you to cook the marinade, you should just use it as is.

The only time you would normally cook a marinade is after it is used, in reducing it for use as a sauce—and of course, not all marinades are suitable for such use.


There are no safety concerns here. Baked and shelled peanuts are shelf stable, no matter if they are pulverized or not. Just smell before each use and discard once it turns rancid.


When a recipe calls for Wine, does it make a difference what wine to use?

As a corollary to the excellent advice from Aaronut, there is an important rule of thumb when selecting a wine to cook with:

If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it.


Allspice is, indeed, the only commonly used spice* native to North America.  It is also very commonly used in various Arabic, Central Asian and Middle Eastern cuisines.  It is a standard part of the cuisine-defining North African spice mixes baharat and ras al hanout.  The vast majority of global Allspice is still grown in Central America.

You ask a good question, because I can't find any information about how it got to North Africa and the Middle East.  Allspice was original brought back to Europe by the Spanish and Portuguese as "Jamaican Pepper" or "myrtle pepper", back when they were still claiming that North America was China/India.

Given this, I have two theories about its introduction into those areas:

Allspice was traded to North African slave traders as part of the slave trade into the Americas in the 17th century.  From there, it spread through the Arabic-speaking world.
Allspice was traded to Indians (who also use it) in exchange for black pepper (just as capsicum peppers were) by the Portuguese.  From India, it spread through the Arabian trade routes of the Indian Ocean.

I don't have any documentary evidence towards either of those theories; my books on the history of spices largely omit allspice.

References:

https://iwp.uiowa.edu/silkroutes/allspice-jamaica-pepper
https://www.britannica.com/plant/allspice
http://theepicentre.com/spice/allspice-2/

(* spice, as opposed to herb or fruit)


Making bread in a bread maker using regular yeast not bread maker yeast

A packet of instant yeast is approximately 2 and 1/4 teaspoon of yeast.

Please note that instant yeast used in bread maker is slightly different from active dry yeast. Instant yeast will generally be much smaller granules and can be mixed directly with the dry ingredients without proofing. Active dry yeast will be larger granules and often times require proofing. However there are several brands that does not require this extra proofing step.

Note that not all instant yeast come in small packets. I have used SAF Instant Yeast with very good results.


Colour of the egg shell does not matter. Pigmentation is deposited, or not, depending on the breed of the bird.

There is in fact an astonishing amount of research devoted to egg cookery, as it is such an interesting topic. Whites coagulate at around 54C, yolks at about 62C. Which presents some interesting problems of course.

Here are some links that will be of interest. One is to a collection of links, often with further information in the comments.

http://www.metafilter.com/69134/Herv%C3%A9-This-the-man-who-unboiled-an-egg

http://blog.khymos.org/2009/04/09/towards-the-perfect-soft-boiled-egg/

http://openkitchenconcept.blogspot.com/2010/08/for-perfect-soft-boiled-egg.html

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/FoodSci_p046.shtml


What is the practical way to peel off zest of an orange?

The ideal tool depends on what you're trying to do with it.

If you want something nice and fine, which will release as much flavor as possible, avoid getting any of the pith, and not add distracting texture to a dish, use a fine rasp grater (sometimes known by the brand name microplane):

(There are also coarse rasp graters. That won't be any better than a standard grater. You want one that looks like the picture.)

If you want something small but visible, use a citrus zester:

You can get skinny little strips that tend to curl with the small holes at the end, and bigger curls like you've seen on the rims of cocktails with the wider hole in the middle. (Edit: added the second picture. That looks like it was fun.)

Finally, if you want big pieces to put in something to cook in something, then maybe fish out later, you can use a normal vegetable peeler:


What method of coffee preparation gives the most caffeine in the finished cup?

This question is nearly unanswerable. Typical caffeine content data is given as a range based on the normal brewing factors of each method, there isn't data for abnormal methods i.e. french press with fine grind or espresso with coarse grind.

Typical caffeine contents:

3oz Espresso double shot: 70-200mg
8oz drip: 60-100mg
6oz French Press: 80-100mg
6oz Aeropress: 60-80mg

On average the espresso or moka pot coffee would have significantly higher caffeine concentration than other methods (with the moka pot maybe edging out the espresso because it uses higher temperature for extraction). There is so much variability that I don't know if there's any point in trying to answer this question. The article linked below shows that one method alone (espresso) can yield shots with caffeine concentrations that are radically different:

  The extended range of caffeine values found in retail coffees in this study suggests that it is presently not possible for individuals interested in assessing the caffeine content of their diet to do so if the intake includes retail coffee. Our data highlights that, if just two retail coffees are consumed in a day by the same individual, that a variance of more than 290 mg can occur if both of these espressos are purchased from either the highest or lowest 10th percentiles of all the beverages sampled

If you control for volume by diluting everything with a typical serving size less than 200mL, all the methods are going to yield caffeine doses in the range of 60-100mg.  A typical espresso based Americano (1 shot + water to make 5oz) would also fall in that range.

http://www.aseanfood.info/Articles/11020406.pdf


There are two ways to thicken gravy:

simmer down
Requires time, patience and a wide pot to get a large surface area for optimum evaporation. Simmering down results in very concentrated flavours (including salt, so be careful with salting in the beginning).
use a thickener
This is often something starchy like flour or corn / potato starch that binds the liquid. Note that the flavours won't be as concentrated, sometimes even a bit dulled by the starch.

So try your sauce and depending on the flavour level you have reached now, you should simmer longer, use starch or do both sequentially.

(If your guests are hungrily gnawing at the tablecloth already, whip out the starch, adjust the seasoning and serve asap ^_^)


How to lower the melting point of a specific chocolate?

I don't think you can lower the melting point without melting the chocolate first.
Butter is very soft at room temperature and adds it's own typical butter flavor. A better alternative is hard coconut fat.
I always use this trick when I cover a cake with a simple chocolate glaze. If you simply melt the chocolate and slather it on top of the cake, it becomes so hard that it's hard to cut cleanly and (depending on the thickness) hard to bite. Of course that has to do with the ruined tempering.
Adding coconut fat to the molten chocolate makes it softer without turning it into a ganache or mouse. For a cake glaze I usually add half the weight of chocolate in coconut fat. The result is very shiny, still has a bite and unchanged chocolate flavor, but melts within seconds in your hand and wouldn't be able to hold its shape without the support of the cake. You'll probably want to add significantly less fat.
To the question of tempering: If you manage to melt the chocolate while baking, the end result won't be tempered anyways. Indeed, untempering can lower the melting point of chocolate without adding any oil or fat. Here's a very detailed blog post about tempering chocolate that explains the different crystal types cocoa butter can form and what their properties are. Tempered chocolate has only one type of crystal that is very stable. If you don't temper chocolate at all you'll end up with a mix of different crystals that might make the texture more gritty, but also lower the melting point.
Unfortunately I cannot offer any more detailled instructions, you'll have to experiment to find the best solution for you.


Figured I'd gather all the above into an actual answer.

First, the Kohaishu. It seems this is a marketing name made by QVC for their own creation for their store brand. It is in fact a registered trademark. That compounded with the fact there doesn't seem to be any reference to that type of knife on any of the major knife makers websites, or even wikipedia, suggests it is a one-off. It seems they came up with their own design and gave it a fancy Japanese sounding name. Curious if any Japanese speakers can tell us if the name has any meaning...

As for the actual knife, standard kitchen knives range in shapes and sizes. What we're concerned here is the curvature of the blade, as that seems to be the primary distinguishing feature. The extreme curvature isn't common, but I believe that is for a good reason. With a standard one handed blade, to use the curve, you are generally lowering and raising the heel in a rocking motion. With this knife you are doing that quite a bit to use the full curvature. The main curve is also right at the tip too, which isn't where you're going to be doing most of your "mincing" motion. Generally the tip would be used as an anchor point and this blade essentially doesn't have one. All this makes it seem fairly unnatural and for someone like me with a bit of RSI in my wrist, it sounds somewhat painful. Some rocking is okay, but if you really want a specialized mincing blade, the mezzaluna seems like a better tool.

My local Japanese knife store has a great description of the standard Japanese kitchen knives (both western influenced and more traditional). You'll notice none of them have a curve quite that extreme. Having been in and had a fairly thorough lesson on the various types of blades and the techniques behind them, I can't imagine a scenario where that extreme curve at the tip will be of any use. The Santoku on the other hand, while it still has enough of a curve to allow for mincing, rocking back and forth the same way, while still being straight enough throughout to allow for slicing and dicing and does have a good place.

In short, it is a one off invention. It might be usable, but probably not ideal. With good reason I believe, the design (or similar) isn't found in any of the major knife makers inventories.


What is the difference between whipped cream and whipping cream?

Whipped cream is whipping cream after it has been whipped.

Whipping cream is just cream with at least 30% fat content (that would be called Light Whipping Cream in the US). Heavy Whipping Cream contains at least 36% fat and up to 40% and rarely (in the US) even higher. Until these creams are whipped, they are just liquid. After they are whipped, they're fluffy. A way to know that whipped cream is "done" is that it holds "peaks", like in the first picture. Higher fat cream will thicken more readily, and hold its structure longer. Other countries use different terms for various levels of fat in cream. Wiki

Whipped Cream:

Whipping cream:


What is the "porky" taste in certain types of pork?

As I am sure you know, different species have different flavors...beef tastes like beef...chicken tastes like chicken...and, well, pork tastes like pork.  Further, when animals are butchered, we find that different parts of the same animal have different flavors.  Further still, the animals diet before slaughter greatly impacts the flavor we perceive.  Finally, after butchering and during storage and transportation decay begins, and meats can pick up flavors from storage settings.  Then there is cooking, where method and seasoning impact flavor.

All of this is to say, that it would be fairly difficult to pinpoint your particular version of "porky", what that means, and what to do about it.  I think the best advice I might come up with is to try a different producer of pork mince...or purchase a larger cut and mince your own.  Maybe, it will turn out, that you just don't like pork...so move on and use something else.


Can condensed milk be safely used after it's 'best before' date?

Yes, as long as it hasn't been opened. 'Best Before' dates refer to quality, not safety, and reflect the date at which the manufacturers believe that it is not up to normal quality standards. Have a taste, and if you think it's OK, go ahead.


You can generally make pasta on any surface.  I have seen it on:

Marble
Stainless
Wood

The key issue is having the surface well floured, so that the pasta doesn't stick.

You certainly would not harm a quality wooden cutting board by making pasta, although if your recipe contains raw egg, you will want to wash it well and sanitize it afterwards.


How to cook squid to get rid of the 'urine' flavor? What causes that flavor?

According to this site and confirmed by several others I found on the internet, the Humboldt Squid produces ammonia chloride as a defense mechanism, or as a side effect of asphixiation, or maybe both.

I couldn't find terribly reliable advice on how to avoid the contamination, but two points were repeatedly suggested on various bulletin boards:

When you catch the humboldt squid, cut its head off, clean and ice it immediately (on the boat).
when cleaning it, be careful not to puncture the swim bladder.

The other suggestion repeatedly offered was to catch some other kind of squid.

Hope that helps.  For more 3rd-hand advice, search the internet for "squid ammonia flavor" and you'll see lots of bulletin boards and similar sources.


Caramelization occurs at the melting point of sugar. When a sugar molecule hits the appropriate temperature, it melts. This is similar to ice turning to water above 32 F (0 C). It will take some time for all of a given amount of sugar to melt, but this is relatively insignificant compared to ice melting due primarily to the vast amount of heat involved to melt sugar. Once melted there is no need to maintain it at a specific temperature.

However, time is a factor in achieving the desired temperature for your melted sugar.

For sucrose:

At 356 F (180 C) you have light caramel - it's a pale amber to golden brown in hue
From 356 F to 370 F (180 C to 188 C) you have medium caramel - this is a golden brown to chestnut brown hue.
From 370 F to 400 F (188 C to 204 C) you have dark caramel - this is very dark, bitter, and smells a little burned - this is used for coloring only
At 410 F (210 C) you have monkey's blood - it tastes like burning and the sugar breaks down to carbon

Another thing to be aware of is that caramelization is often mistakenly attributed to the browning of meats, nuts, or bread crust. This is actually an entirely different process called the maillard reaction which requires specific enzymes to be present, and occurs at different temperatures than caramelization.


Homemade soy milk powder, or other plant-based milk powder

You are going about the process the wrong way - the milk powder in this case is made of pulverized soy beans. Once you add water to this powder to make the milk, it will be very difficult, time consuming and expensive to dehydrate it to make the powder.
The reason your dehydrating milk is turning sour is either that it has picked up some bacteria or yeast from the air or contact with a slightly contaminated surface and these are growing happily in the nice warm dehydrator, similar to making yoghurt from milk. The other possibility is that there are some (bio)chemical changes going on with the heating which result in a sour taste. I would put my money on the bacteria/yeast option.
Your best bet will be to buy some dry soy beans, soak them to remove any dirt, then dry overnight, roast to denature proteins then pulverize them yourself. You can use a blender/spice grinder to do much of the work, but to get it fine enough to work well as milk, you might need to do a bit of manual labour with a mortar and pestle. There is a recipe here.


Should a sourdough starter be left open/ajar after feeding?

It's actually a bit of an old wives' tale that the yeasts colonizing your starter are from the air. Almost all of the yeasts in a starter are from the grains used to make it. This is why starters are frequently started with either whole grain kernels or grains like rye that are left mostly intact when milled. All of the microorganisms on the outside of the grain kernel are then included in your starter.

As to leaving your jar open, I certainly wouldn't seal it up, especially if the jar is glass. The carbon dioxide produced by the starter could cause the jar to explode if it can't escape.


Microwave friendly utensils, what qualifies as

Here is a set of guidelines I found from a major manufacturer: http://www.geappliances.com/search/fast/infobase/10001216.htm

As you mention, any metal items or items with embedded metal are not appropriate.  Thinner and bendable plastics are probably not a great idea either since they can melt.  Most ceramics and glass should be okay.

When in doubt, check to see whether the item is labelled as microwave-safe, and if you can't tell, test it first using the method described in the linked guidelines.


What can I do about excessive lime flavor in a pork roast?

Since I assume it is too late to do anything to take the lime away, undermine excess flavor of lime with roasted peppers. They will bear a pleasant complement to the tartness while adding rich, smoky notes. Hotter peppers will further distract from the excess lime. A sweet corn salsa would also add sweetness to anchor the lime.


Jellies and jams: what is most important to preserve the food?

Jams and jellies most commonly use pectin, not gelatin. But in either case, the purpose is to make it set, i.e. gel up. It's just about texture, not preservation. Without that you'd have a thick liquid, not really much good for spreading on things.

The main ingredient that contributes to safety of canned jam and jelly are is acid: the natural acidity of the fruit you're canning, plus possibly added citric acid or lemon juice. They create an inhospitable environment for whatever survives the canning process. The sugar content does help too, but the pH is the primary concern.

The canning process is also critical. Primarily, it creates a vacuum seal on the jar so that no recontamination happens. Without that, pretty much anything would eventually grow mold. Additionally, pressure canning allows the contents to reach an even higher temperature, killing even more bacteria, allowing for canning of foods without high acid and sugar level like vegetables.

All of this is pretty hard to verify on your own, and the consequences of improperly canned food can be pretty bad (severe food poisoning, possible death), hence the usual recommendation to only use recipes from trusted sources.

If on the other hand you're talking about small batches of jam or jelly that you just keep in the refrigerator without ever canning them, you don't exactly have preserved food. It'll last a while, much longer than raw fruit, but there's a good chance it'll eventually mold.

It's still the acid and sugar that make the difference, though. I'm don't think air flow is really an issue here as you suggest. If you didn't use gelatin or pectin, that thick liquid would still only have air contact on the surface, which is already pretty much the best possible scenario.


How can I add flavorings and colorings to white chocolate?

Have you checked your food coloring to make sure it isn't water-based? The addition of any water into chocolate will cause it to seize. You might be better off looking for a powder like this one: https://www.ckproducts.com/categories/276/Powder-Color-Cake-n-Candy
Because it's a powder, it won't cause any harmful side effects to your chocolate. They sell it at most cake art stores, and potentially at places like JoAnn.


Would a cast iron pot work well for chili? If so, why?

I believe that the "clichéd image" you refer to is popular (and cliché) because of chili con carne's long history of being cooked outdoors in big cauldrons or at least over an open flame. As any camper will tell you, iron is the traditional material of choice when cooking with fire.

As for what actually happens - cast iron is a porous material, unlike stainless steel or aluminum.  The seasoning in cast iron is essentially a layer of baked-in grease that fills those pores and over time absorbs the flavor of everything you cook in it.  It absolutely does impart a characteristic flavour, but what that flavour is depends to no small degree on what's been cooked in it before.  If you don't care properly for your cast iron, that flavour might very well be rancid fat.  So whether or not the flavour you get with your chili makes it better, worse, or just different is largely a matter of personal taste and habits.

As for the acidity: Yes, acids can react with the iron, but cast iron is fairly corrosion resistant.  Cast iron is also used for pipes, so this is pretty well-documented by engineers; you need a pH of 4.3 or less to corrode cast iron to any significant degree.  Pure tomato juice is not a strong acid; it has a pH of anywhere between 4.1 and 4.6, which is just at the threshold; when you consider that this is being diluted with tomato purée, water, meat juices, and various other lower-acid substances, it's evident that you're well within normal tolerances and can cook chili and other tomato products for as long as you like.

Also, the seasoning itself provides some measure of protection for higher-acid foods, since the acid has to penetrate the grease, and water is not good at penetrating fat - that's why food rarely sticks to well-seasoned cast iron.

Now this is not to say that the iron won't react at all, it just won't noticeably corrode or make your sauce/chili taste like metal.  Consensus seems to be that you'll end up with up to 5 mg of iron for every 3 oz of tomato sauce, which comes out to about 160 mg for the whole 3 quarts.  That's not good for you if you eat it all at once, but toxicity doesn't happen until you hit 45 mg or so every day for a prolonged period of time, so unless you're eating an entire quart/litre of chili or tomato sauce a day, it's not going to be a health hazard.

So don't fill your cast iron pot with lemon juice or dump half a cup of vinegar in there - but don't worry about a few tomatoes either.  If anything, it just improves the nutritional content.

As far as heat distribution is concerned, cast iron really does not heat very evenly.  It's far more prone to hot spots than reasonably-priced aluminum- or copper-bonded stainless steel.  What it does do is retain heat very well, so it's excellent at maintaining just the right simmering temperature for something like chili, which you would otherwise need some fairly expensive stainless steel to achieve.  But you have to be very careful of scorching when you cook chili in cast iron; stir often.  A few times I've left my cast iron chili pot sitting around unattended for just a little too long and found some of the meat stuck to the bottom.

Last but not least is the seasoning and the answer is no, you wouldn't season it any differently.  As I alluded to above, the seasoning really doesn't have much an effect when you're cooking a sauce or stew as opposed to a piece of meat or something else that has a tendency to stick.  The only function it really has here is to impart a tiny bit of flavour and insulate the iron from some of the acidity of the tomato juices, which isn't necessary anyway.

All in all, I find cast iron to be very good for chili and other stews primarily because of its heat stability, but it's no panacea, and if you're only using the pot for chili then you won't get many of the benefits (in particular the beautiful "black" seasoning that accumulates after hundreds of rounds of greasing and cooking).  So by all means use your existing cast iron for chili and stews, but I wouldn't recommend for anybody to run out and buy a cast iron pot just for that purpose.


The problem is the organic milk. Or rather, the fact that organic milk available in grocery stores is high-temperature pasteurized, rather than conventionally pasteurized. That helps it keep a lot longer, but it disrupts the proteins so that they don't coagulate well enough for cheese.

I'm told that there are brands of conventionally-pasteurized organic milk, but I've never seen one. You might try it with plain old grocery store milk, and it should work. Or you could try to find a local producer, who won't use HTST pasteurization. (You might even be able to find unpasteurized milk, though the USDA definitely frowns on that: even though you're cooking it you won't have aged the cheese long enough.)


Two things come to mind
     1. Do you peel your carrots?
     2. Metal pan reaction .
Try peeling your carrots.  I have gone as far as cleaning my fresh carrots with a green scrub pad. But have found nothing works as well as peeling them. Even if you never peeled them before, when you said you did not have this problem, It could be a reaction to something thats being "added" to the carrots now days.
The other thing I had a problem with in the past was the type of pan I used. I found that some metal pans would discolor my cake. And the longer the cake is left in the pan it would effect the flavor as well.
Hope this helps someone. Have a great day!


How can I safely re-heat a chicken pie without burning the crust?

Foil is the way to go, combined with not too fierce a heat. You want to cook at about 160°C (320°F) until the centre of the pie is piping hot. To lower the chances of burning, portion the pie prior to reheating. That way the centre will get hot more quickly.

Reheating more than once is generally not a good idea for safety reasons. You can however portion one night's pie and keep the other in the fridge.


I have eaten a salad that included watermelon, tomatoes, feta and black olives. I thought it was... ok, not earth shattering. Also I made this Cherry/Tomato bite, which is in that genre, and certainly was interesting from a taste perspective. There are no rules, you can do whatever you like, you just have to determine if it will taste good. Personally I don't think I'd like tomatoes in a "standard" fruit salad.


How to infuse black layer of peppercorn into an oil?

If you insist on an oil, it can be done by taking black peppercorns, infusing them in high-grade alcohol for a couple of weeks at room temperature and then evaporating 90% of the alcohol and infuse the last 10% of the alcohol into the oil.

The easy way would be to infuse them in the cheapest moon shine vodka you can lay your hands on for 3 months and then using the vodka $instead of oil.*

If you insist on only the outer part, you can use an electric potato grater to peel off the outer skin only and infuse the "black powder" :-) in a neutral oil like grapeseed oil heated to below its smoke point for as long as possible.


Unrefrigerated Mashed Bananas: Are they safe to bake with?

I hate wasting, so I get why you are asking this, lol!

I agree with "osp"... SMELL it. Sour or fishy or not like banana, well, then your banana bread might taste like something sour or fishy or not like banana.

Easiest solution is to just scoop off the top layer of the mashed banana that was exposed to the air!


Whether you choose to cook the noodles in the soup, or separately, once they are in the soup, you want to serve it immediately.  Either way, they will continue to absorb water and begin to grow mushy.  (this is why it is better to refrigerate or freeze soup without the noodles, and add them a la minute when you are heating it to serve later).

Because of this, if you do choose to cook the noodles directly in the broth, you would do so about the same amount of time before it is done, and then serve the soup immediately.

As long as the soup is above about 180 F / 82 C the noodles will be cooking at close to full speed, so if you are going to have hold time before service, you should count this in the cooking time.


Best method of cooking an Almond PearTart decoration/top layer

Personally, I would prepare it by slicing the pears and placing them decoratively on top of the batter in some pattern. Then I would add an egg wash to help it brown nicely during the bake. A pear compote would, in my opinion, not add enough texture to the finished product. If you use whole pear slices, you will get a bit of a contrast between the smooth custard of the tart and the (hopefully) slightly firm pear slices on top.


How to bake frozen chicken without setting off fire alarms?

If I understand you correctly, you're putting frozen chicken thighs in a glassware dish that's been sprayed with Pam and then putting that into a 350F oven.

Since the chicken will take quite a while to thaw and begin emitting juices that will cool the dish, that dish is going to rise to 350F fairly quickly.  350F is hot enough to begin smoking with many oils. Not sure about Pam's smoke point, but I would bet that if you looked in the oven when the smoke alarm is going off, you'll see smoke rising from the pan itself, not the chicken or the oven.

Solution: Thaw the chicken before cooking or apply oil to the chicken but not the pan.


The steam released by cooking the foods you mentioned, and boiling water outright, would probably damage the wood. Foil might prevent that, if you seal it completely (using some sort of moisture/heat resistant tape). However, that wouldn't eliminate the fire hazard from cooking in an enclosed wooden box--nothing short of adding a layer of fire-retardant insulation would.

Your best bet is to cook on the floor in the middle of your room (open a window if it gets steamy) and then store your cleaned and cooled implements in the wooden enclosure, provided that your floor is not carpeted. If it is, then I would recommend finding someplace else to cook that isn't a tinderbox.


Is there a difference between infused oil and adding the ingredient?

There certainly are differences. Specifically regarding lemon there are differences not only in taste, because the lemon olive oil is flavored using the zest of a lemon, but also in acidity. Lemon juice is very acidic, olive oil is not. There are plenty of times where it is completely inappropriate to add an acid.

A better comparison would instead be lemon infused olive oil compared to olive oil and lemon zest. There would still be a difference, but it would be less noticeable. The infused olive oil has had more opportunity to capture the fat soluble flavor compounds in the lemon zest, however the flavor compounds that aren't fat soluble will be forever lost.

That is generally the trade-off when it comes to any infused oil. You will get lots of the fat soluble flavor compounds, but you will lose the non-fat soluble flavor compounds.

As for difference of use in the olive oil and lemon juice case, yes, definitely. You can't always add acids to foods. In the lemon zest case, apart from the slight flavor difference, there's also a texture difference. Of course, if you want something very smooth, pieces of zest wouldn't be a good thing. Apart from those though, not really.

All of these differences still apply both in uncooked as well as cooked preparations.


Pasta maker: Spaghetti sticking after rolling

I make a lot of pasta; I can tell by looking that your dough is just too moist to cut. Take the water out and just incorporate the egg in the dough more slowly, allow it to become a 'shaggy mess' while you mix it - don't add more moisture, just keep kneading, it'll hydrate evenly and turn into a well-behaved ball. I'm guessing you got to the 'mess' part and added more liquid, that was probably your mistake.

I'd also cut spaghetti on the #5 setting on your pasta machine (it looks like you did #4, but that could just be due to the dough looking 'sticky' and a little thicker than you rolled it).

Don't give up! If you want a reference for a 'semi-foolproof' dough, I put mine on Github so it could be useful. While mine is based on fine 00 milled standard flour, it would work equally well for durum with a little adjusting, and It describes the kneading and working in (way more) detail than would be appropriate to post.

Also, consider starting with simple 00 (double-awt) milled flour, or even AP flour so you get a feel for the dough, then tougher flours like durum / wheat / etc. Just get quality flour.


Why using both baking powder and sodium bicarbonate?

There are two reasons (that have also been discussed in many other questions)

Baking powder isn't just sodium bicarbonate + acid. It often also contains aluminum compounds that release gas when they are heated. That means they will make bubbles not just when the batter is mixed but also when it is baking.

Baking powder is ph neutral while baking soda is basic. Recipes will often include mostly baking powder with some soda to neutralize acidic ingredients.

See also:
What is the difference between baking soda and baking powder?


That is just the seasoning - the nonstick carbon that is formed after years of use - coming off. If big pieces are dropping in your food or you are freaked out by it, simply give your pan a good scrubbing with some steel wool and soap then re-season it.

To season the pan:

Take a paper towel and soak a bit of oil into it
Coat the inside of the pan with oil
Put in a 250F over for about an hour
Repeat each day until it has a nice shiny non-stick coating once again

Remember not to wash the pan with soapy water if you want the pan to stay non-stick. If there are bits of food in it from frying or such. Scrub it out with hot water and some coarse kosher salt, just nothing like steel wool, non-stick safe scrubbers are OK.

Adam


"Sweet milk" is indeed standard fresh milk. It is just how people used to talk about it, to distinguish it from "sour milk".

"Sour milk" is also "buttermilk". It seems that over the years, people stopped selling actual buttermilk (which is the whey left after removing the fat from the sour milk) and started using the name "buttermilk" for what used to be known as "sour milk".

If you can't find graham flour, whole flour of mid-coarse grind will be a good approximation.

Baking soda and baking powder are good guesses. You could go with the original amounts, but if the first batch comes out overleavened, try reducing it. In the decades since the recipe, producers have found out how to make baking powder which does not go stale too quickly, does not lose much of its action on touching the liquid, and so on. So maybe the amounts are better suited to weaker leavening. No way to know without trying.

The cans are not a good idea. I don't know about cans then, but the new ones could be lined with plastic (which will melt), or be rusty. The recipe is very obviously a cheap recipe from times of limitations, maybe Depression or WWII. Just use a baking pan. If you are afraid of bad leavening, using a wide one or two small ones is better than a single deep one.

Also, don't trust the "one hour" suggestion, not only because you're changing pans and because the ingredients might have changed in subtle ways over the years, but also because baking by time is always unreliable. Test them for doneness with a thermometer, or in the worst case with a toothpick.


Can I use fermented milk product as starter culture?

Yes. Whey, primarily a byproduct of cheese-making (but also from yogurt, kefir &c), can be used to inoculate a variety of ferments. In the book The Art of Fermentation, for example, there are instructions for using it as a starter for fermenting fruit, vegetable, seed/nut and sour tonic beverage ferments. The most important thing is that the whey not have been heated (most likely in cheese-making) to a point high enough to kill the bacteria present.

My experience is limited (I usually drink my whey or put it in a soup), but I'd imagine you wouldn't want to use anything milkier than whey to ferment veggies with. Fermented milk itself can be used to propagate a mother-culture (e.g. with sour cream, buttermilk, yogurt &c.) but I'm guessing you wouldn't really want to dump these into vegetables.


How to cook fried chicken gizzards that are tender?

According to my grandmother, chicken gizzards should be parboiled before being breaded for frying. She suggests a 10- to 15-minute parboil (clean your gizzards, put them in a pot, fill the pot with cold water until the gizzards are just covered, and time the parboil from the moment you achieve a hard boil). She also suggests thoroughly cooling and drying the gizzards before breading them.


Is it possible to make onion Bhajis without a deep fryer?

Yes, you can cook them in about 1" of oil in a steep sided frying pan or wok. Just turn them reasonably frequently to ensure even cooking.

If you're dubious about using a lot of hot oil, you can use less by making your bhajis a flat, patty shape and shallow frying.


Reduce the hot taste in a Cambodian curry

If it is about keeping authenticity, more coconut milk would be the answer. If you just want a toned down but well tasting curry, any emulsified fat - coconut milk, cream, yoghurt - will do, as long as you add it carefully in a way that doesn't make it split and become grainy (so whisk it, add it carefully with the heat turned off). Cream and/or yoghurt would be the authentic addition for a north indian curry.


What is the best way to pop popcorn on the stove?

Use a large heavy-bottomed pot (idealy 3-4 quart size) and place it over medium to medium-high heat until you can hold your hand about 6 inches above the bottom surface and feel the heat radiating off it.  At that point add about 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil to the pan, tilting to coat the bottom evenly.  Drop in a kernel or two and cover.  When the kernels pop, quickly add in the remaining, cover and shake the pan on the heat to keep the unpopped kernels on the bottom where they'll heat the best.  Cook and shake until the popping stops.

In order to have enough volume for the popped corn, you'll need to do it in batches of about 1/2 cup of popcorn kernels at a time if you're doing a large amount.


What are the pros and cons of using clarified butter as opposed to regular butter?

Pros:

Higher smoking point. Regular butter's smoking point is 325-375F while clarified butter is around 485F. But it can still smoke and burn! However the higher smoking point means it'll be much more applicable in terms of sauteing food without worrying about burning the butter.
100% fat. Often times its hard to calculate the exact replacements in baking when you want to replace a fat with butter because regular butter isn't 100% fat. Using regular butter, you would need to factor in how much extra water you are introducing into the recipe.
Longer shelf life. Without the water and milk solids, the shelf life of the clarified butter will be much longer. Can even be stored without refrigeration.

Cons:

Less buttery flavor. The milk solids that you are removing makes up a lot of butter's flavor. By removing this, you are removing flavor.


Can you dry out pickle brine to leave a seasoned salt?

Reasonable is subjective, but as to safe the answer is yes. The point of pickle brine is to create an environment that will kill foodborne illnesses, and as it gets more concentrated through evaporation it's just going to get stronger.

Things to consider:

it's going to take awhile for the liquid to evaporate. You can speed this up by putting it in a flat pan in order to maximize surface area. You could put it in a low oven, but before you do that read point 2
It's going to stink, and could irritate your eyes and mucous membranes. Your house may spell of vinegar for days afterwards, so you'd be best off doing this outside if possible
It's not going to save you money. Salt and vinegar are cheap enough that going through significant efforts to re-use them are a waste
It's not going to give you a product you can't easily and cheaply buy in most places. Think about salt and vinegar potato chips (crisps in some places). The flavoring is just salt and powdered vinegar (sodium acetate), which you can buy at low cost, or even make at home

So it's certainly do-able and will give you a safe end result although it may or may not be worth the trouble, that's up to your judgement. I'd certainly be curious, and if I had a warm, dry place I didn't mind smelling of vinegar for awhile I'd put it in a pan and see what happens. Remember, you are concentrating salt (an electrolyte) and vinegar (an acid) into something fairly corrosive, so I suggest using glass or a non-reactive material.


What types of cooking are pressure cookers most useful for?

For me, the best use is making beans. I find that home cooked beans have a much better taste and texture than from cans. The pressure cooker can make them in just about an hour from the moment you pour them in the pot to perfectly tender, and no presoaking is required, so I don't have to plan a day in advance.


What is the difference between bread dough and pizza dough?

You can use frozen bread dough, just fine.  You'll often see it suggested in recipes.  Pizza dough sometimes is made from higher gluten flour, or goes through a slower rise to make it more chewey and stretchy, but bread dough is definitely a major upgrade over pre-cooked crusts.

Another option is call around to some local pizza shops (national chains usually won't do this) - many of them will sell their dough for about $1 a ball (good for about a 14" pizza).


What's the difference between Yorkshire Tea (red band) and Yorkshire Gold?

Speaking very generally, there are three bands of quality when it comes to black tea in the UK Market.

Brown (Economy) is your lowest grade, it is the cheapest in the shops and usually very dusty and fibrous. The flavor is weak and the color with milk is a dull brown.Teas can come from central Africa, south India, Argentina and the middle east.
Red is the middle of the road tea, covering about 80% of the black tea market. This is your Tetley, PG, Yorkshire Red etc, that have good flavor and strength and is with milk the color comes out red (there's a pattern here).Teas for this type of blend usually originate from central and east Africa.
Gold is the premium quality blend, tasting full of flavor, strength and character. These blends are your Yorkshire Gold, Dorset Tea, Clipper Gold,M&S Gold using the highest quality gardens including Rwanda, Kenya, Assam (North India) and Sri Lanka. In case you haven't guessed already, the color with milk is gold.

There are no official perimeters in place for these categories which means some tea companies abuse this, but with Yorkshire, Gold is definitely better than Red.


"Let it rest" is advice for cooking large cuts of meat in one piece, especially if it's desirable for the end result to be on the rare side. So steaks, roasts, pork tenderloin, that sort of thing, you want to let the meat rest (== cool down) so that when you slice into it, you don't get a huge puddle of hot juices all over your cutting board, and no tasty hot juices in the meat where you want it.

Note that this doesn't depend on the type of meat, only on the desired end result. For an analogy, consider bread dough. Sure, you can cut it into little pieces and fry or bake them up individually, but that doesn't make bread, it makes fried dough or dinner rolls. (Mmmm... now I crave lángos.) If you want bread, you need to bake the dough in one piece, and then let it cool down before you slice it so you don't end up with a gummy mess.

The Teppanyaki chef is making the meat equivalent of lángos (= fried dough). Apart from using the same ingredients as a steak, it's a completely different dish.


How does one use cocoa butter in cooking?

Cocoa butter has an exceptionally high melting point for a vegan lipid.

For most baking applications, it probably not ideal; you would be better served with a liquid oil, or if you need something solid but malleable, a hydrogenated vegetable oil product like a vegan margarine.

The main culinary use (in general) is thinning chocolate in creating chocolate coated candies or similar, which makes sense as cocoa butter is one of the primary components in chocolate.  Of course, when it is hardens and is in temper, it is literally as hard as chocolate.

Otherwise, you can fry or saute with it, although it would be easier to do so if you purchase cocoa butter grated as it is normally too hard to scoop at room temperature.

If you melt it (and it will melt just below body temperature), you could bake with it, but you may get a different texture than you expect, as when cool, it is much harder than other typical culinary fats.  You will have to experiment and see what the results are like.

It will be too hard to use with creaming method recipes.


Making large quantities of tea with bags

Every black tea bag contains around 25-110 mg of caffeine per serving. If you want more caffeine and tannins, of course 5 tea bags would contain more caffeine than a single bag. The reasons are:

When you use a tea bag, caffeine, tannins diffuse out the tea leaves into the water. The longer you leave the tea bag/leaves in the water, the closer to equilibrium you will get. But if one tea bag, there would be limited amount of caffeine, tannins.

Besides, five tea bags would mean caffeine, tannins diffuse in parallel in the hot water. Diffusion rate depends on concentration as well as temperature of water as this paper shows.

The diffusion of these caffeine, tannins will be fastest in the first few minutes, where the concentration gradient between water (no caffeine, tannins) and the tea leaves (full of caffeine, tannins) are the steepest, as well as highest temperature.

While after optimum time, the slower the diffusion of caffeine and tannins into the water, because the concentration of the water(or maybe now tea) and the tea leaves are similar, and lower temperature. ie. the amount of caffeine, tannins that could be diffuse out the teabag is not much after long.

But if you add hot water to the tea bag again, you would find the teabag has flavor because hot temperature and steepest concentration happens again.


I think you'll be fine. I had some buttercream frosting left over from answering a previous question and did a simple test not long after you asked this question (about 16 hours ago).

I put a dish of frosting into the fridge with small royal icing and sugar/starch based decorations on top and I left a similar dish at room temperature. I pushed the decorations firmly into the frosting.

The decorations retained pretty much all their crunch. They didn't leak any of their bright coloring into the frosting either; not that that would be a problem if you're decorations are snowflakes. I'm not sure whether the opposite would be a problem, i.e. if your frosting is brightly colored and your decorations are white.

You can judge for yourself whether the ingredient proportions I tested with are comparable to yours by checking the answer I linked to above. You may see different results if the proportion of wet ingredients in your recipe is much larger.


Step 1: Hit farm markets and organic co-ops to locate local producers. If the ones who are there can't supply you, they usually know a producer who can. If they don't have omega-3- eggs, they may know who does/

Step 2: Do your research. Ask prospective suppliers about their feeds (lots of greens, alfalfa and fish by-products are desirable, as opposed to grains, animal fats and layer pellets) and certifications, if they have such. Also, ask if the producer allows client walkabouts, guided or otherwise; if the producer doesn't, it may be that the chickens are kept in unhealthy conditions or are not being fed what the producer claims.

Step 3: Be loyal and respect your source. If a producer purchases extra stock in order to supply your eggs, support that supplier. If the quality declines, warn the supplier that you will have to change sellers to get the same quality as you used to. If you need to leave and won't be purchasing for a few weeks, let the producer know so that he or she can sell the eggs elsewhere instead of keeping the eggs for too long. Either way, don't just jump ship. In particular, don't jump ship and then try to come back. Things talk their way around, and you might find yourself without any supplier at all.


All capers can be fried crunchy. If you're using capers that have been packed in brine, you should rinse off the brine and thoroughly dry the capers before frying. If you're using the salt packed capers, you can soak and rinse them, just rinse them, or just brush off the excess salt. They are very salty in the package.

The only common substitution for capers that I am aware of is the seed pod of the edible flowering plant, tropaeolum. In a pinch, I have also substituted diced green olives.

EDIT: Tropaeolum is also known as nasturtium, see Wiki link above.

Just for further information for those who might be interested:

Capers are the immature bud of the plant Capparis Spinosa. If the bud is allowed to mature and bear fruit, that fruit is called the caperberry. The berries are much larger than buds, the flavor of the berries varies widely and they're sometimes substituted for olives.

Capers come packed in a brine or packed in salt. They vary widely in size, with the smallest the most commonly seen in American grocery stores. Per Wiki the sizes are known as "non-pareil (up to 7 mm), surfines (7–8 mm), capucines (8–9 mm), capotes (9–11 mm), fines (11–13 mm), and grusas (14+ mm)".

Just for fun, you might enjoy these articles from Huffington Post Caper Recipes and So What the Hell are Capers?


Making Cream cheese and Mascarpone cheese at home

For your biggerbolderbaking cream cheese recipe, you aren't making cream cheese, you're making paneer - whole milk that's curdled by lemon juice that makes a grainy cheese, which is often strains quite firm, and it doesn't melt or stretch well.

That blog is making something else, a soft cheese substitute that's just very soft unstrained and blended paneer.  I suppose that can match texture if carefully curdled (I must imagine), and thoroughly blended with some water and whey to mechanically break up the curds, but it isn't cream cheese any more than scrambled tofu is scrambled eggs.

Cream cheese is made with cream (stretched with milk, often, but it does need the extra fat and the more cream, the better the flavor), and it's fermented much like yogurt is... you can often buy the cultures in the same place, and the procedure is much the same, and even sub them for the other in a pinch, though the flavors will be just a bit off.  I've made it before, it's pretty fun and tasty.

In truth, most cheese is cultured - cheeses curdled with just lemon juice are rarer and mostly of the grainy firm curds variety like paneer.  Cheeses often requires specific strains (the basics being mesophilic or thermophillic cultures for cheeses, and yogurt culture being the other major option), and often further curdled with rennet.  You can find these ingredients online most anywhere.

If you're really interested in making a cream cheese substitute, with what's easily available, I'd suggest making yogurt cheese or greek yogurt - heat and cool the milk, culture with a spoonful of yogurt, then strain very well so the result is thick and creamy.  You can find recipes all over the place with amounts, precise instructions, etc - and you can culture yogurt with storebought yogurt (with live cultures), so you don't need to be buying and shipping culture from all over the place.  It would be creamy, thick, and fresh-tasting, if somewhat leaner that a true cream cheese... a decent substitute if you just want something approximate.

I am much less familiar with marscapone cheese, it looks like it's closer to thickened cream than curdled cheese.  It looks some of the major factors are the fat content, the proportion of acid, and the handling.

Heavier cream apparently won't curdle like milk, since the proportion of fats to proteins is way off, so I'd guess the percentage would make a really big difference in this recipe.  This may be aggravated by the acid content.

The other thing is, the proportion of acid needs to be quite low - one of your recipes calls for 2 1/2 tbs lemon for two and a half cups cream, the other for just 1 tbs per two cups, that's a really big difference.  I'd guess lower fat content plus extra acid would make the cheese much grainier.

The third factor from what I can tell, is handling.  One recipe mentions the cheese becoming grainy when using active, rather than passive straining, another mentions graininess when the cream is mixed too hard or too much.  I'd guess it should be very gently or occasionally mixed once the lemon juice is introduced.  It may help to add less acid but let it have more time to thicken so the process goes more gently.

You might be able to  get a softer texture my mechanically breaking up the curds, mixing or blending, though there's no guarentee.

ps - you can't really "enrich" milk or cream with butter for higher fat content when it comes to recipes requiring cream, etc, they just doesn't combine on their own and emulsifiers are likely to mess with the curdling process.  You can often make do with a lower fat content, it will just taste a bit differently, a bit less rich, but it's often tasty in its own right.  You might, if you really want to try it, fold very soft butter into the cream cheese right when it's ready to store/serve/etc for a richer flavor... but I've no idea how it'd turn out and there may be other unexpected changes.


Make chocolate with a high melting point?

Chocolate chips made for baking have a higher melting point.

The typical tricks used by chocolate manufacturers is to change the viscosity of chocolate by adding a gel like xanthan gum or glycerine.  The other trick is to incorporate more water into the chocolate with the aid of an emulsifier such as lecithin.   All these techniques are hard to do at home as they require many hours of stirring the chocolate to avoid grittiness.  Patents often give recipes.

One can buy chocolate with higher melting points.  Callebaut Volcano melts at 55°C,  the highest melting point for a commercial chocolate that I know of, but is not yet on sale.  Many of the commercial chocolate bars, such as the wartime Hershey's Tropical Bar use chocolate that incorporate these techniques as do the Nestle Toll House morsels.


Can bad potato salad be made into something good?

Microwave it (or bake in the normal oven in a casserole dish), add salt to taste, perhaps some butter or cream, weird mashed potatoes? Will depend rather on what, exactly is in this "deli potato salad" (which varies IME from potatoes and dressing to potatoes, many crunchy veggies, sometimes eggs, etc., etc. and dressing.) I've had quite decent versions that fit the former description, and some of the latter were terrible...

If the potatoes are adequately undercooked and you want some serious self-penance for buying it, you could possibly scrape the dressing off them and reboil to finish cooking, with salt, while adjusting the dressing (or pitching it, but mustard might save it if you like mustard, and garlic is always an option at my house.)


What temperature should I use for sous-vide chicken breasts?

Go for 145. 2 hours.

Salmonella dies even at "low" temperatures (from 135) as long as you cook it for longer.

135 for at least 87 minutes, will kill salmonella.

However, I like it best when cooked at 145 for 2 hours.


Is it correct and safe to assume that "use by" dates are less precise the longer in future they are?

"Use by" dates are pretty imprecise to start with. They're designed to be conservative, and they have a huge amount of leeway.

To the degree that they mean anything at all, I'd say that their precision is proportional to their duration. They might be conservative by, say, a factor of 2: eggs that are good for "1 week" are likely to be good for at least 2, and a box of cake mix good for "6 months" will be good for at least a year. And so on.

The fudge factor may well be closer to 4, or even 10. I've certainly kept a lot of things much, much longer than the expected dates. The only things for which expiration dates even come close is meat and fish, followed by milk. Those are things that "go bad" in obvious and unpleasant ways. Everything else just kinda gradually degrades, rather than suddenly becoming toxic.


Vinegar will start changing the flavor and texture of your dip from the moment you add it. Putting your dip in the fridge might slow down the process, but it will still happen. Is adding the vinegar right before serving your dip a possibility?

Also, keep in mind that if you want your dip's texture to be just as when you made it, you need to bring it back to room temperature before serving it. Olive oil in particular can coagulate at low temperatures, so keep that in mind.


There are some specific food scent removal soaps. I keep some made by 'method' by my sink. https://methodhome.com/products/kitchen-hand-wash/


I am willing to bet the high acidity of the berries reacted with the baking powder component of the pancakes.

Pancakes are just barely cooked batter and the carbonates are still pretty active, which is what makes good swiftly fried pancakes fluffy while pancakes cooked on too low a heat become rubbery and floppy.

It's also why if you replace fresh milk with fresh butter milk  (not buttermilk pancake mixes), it makes fabulous fluffy and tastier pancakes.

I am willing to bet your pancakes are pretty darn good aren't they?


Why does my calzone crust lose its crunchiness within minutes of being removed from the oven?

The lack of vent holes would have been a problem.

Vent holes allow steam to escape, reducing the amount of internal moisture.  This moisture will both prevent the crust from cooking fully through, and will cause the crust to soften as after it comes out of the oven.

That's not to say that there wasn't also some other problem, just this is one thing that you should correct.


Is sterilized milk safe to use with a breadmaker's timer function?

Are these bacteria also present in sterilized milk?

If something is sterile, then by definition it does not have any live bacteria in it. That only applies while the milk is sealed in its original sterile container, though.

  Can these bacteria be introduced from the air or from the bread
  [flour]?

Absolutely. There are bacteria and yeast living in the air, flour, and on every surface in your kitchen (including your bread maker). Wild yeast and bacteria in the air and flour are used to make traditional sourdough bread.

  Are there other bacteria or toxins that will develop in sterilized
  milk when exposed to room temperature for a few hours?

I'm not sure how this differs from the above question, so: yes.

Speaking practically, if you are setting the timer for less than 4 hours, I think the risk of getting some sort of illness from this is rather low. The baking process will likely kill the bacteria before they have a chance to produce enough nasty toxins to make you sick. If you refrigerate the milk beforehand, you can even buy yourself a little extra time, since the milk would need to warm up slightly before bacteria could start reproducing in it. I still wouldn't make a habit of this, since there is still some risk of contamination. Leaving milk out on the counter just isn't a good idea, even if it was originally sterile.


What's wrong with my iSi soda siphon, and how do I fix it?

I'm fairly sure that you should be able to get a "rebuild kit" with all the rubber parts (and perhaps a few others.) Due to the wonders of modern commerce, it's anybody's guess as to whether you might well be able to find a complete new siphon for less cost. If you have a second-hand store or frequent tag sales you can almost certainly find one barely used for less cost - lots of people get them and don't actually use them.

It certainly appears that the main gas seal at the charging port is toast, at least.

The instructions on mine included complete tear down diagrams as far as I recall - many things unthread to expose innards (such as the big slot on the white plastic part.) I have not actively used it in a few years, but I don't recall the process being all that difficult (but it was a bit off-putting to find the accumulated bits of metal seals that had blown into the mechanism over time.)


Is it safe to store applejuice in an opened glass bottle outside of the fridge?

Most of the apple juice sold in the US at least is Pasteurized. So unopened, you should have no problem storing at room temp. Once you open the bottle, microorganism's can get in. With a sugary liquid like Apple juice, wild yeasts will find a happy home, and ferment up a bubbly alcoholic apple beverage for you. This can take a week or two to happen, and the result is usually tasty rather than deadly. Sometimes you'll end up with vinegar rather than an alcoholic ferment.
There's some small chance of picking up a nasty microbe in your apple juice over a three day period, but it was never enough to stop people from drinking unrefrigerated cider in the days before Pasteurization or refrigeration.


Question about mirror glazes and freezing

You want to glaze the cake when it's only just frozen: a couple hours should do, all you want is for the surface to be cold enough to fix the glaze in place.
 Once you've glazed it, leave it in the fridge just a few minutes, mousse doesn't take long to defrost.


That's a ridiculously huge question. So huge that you'd need a whole book to answer it! Fortunately, that book has been written:

What to Drink With What You Eat
The Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea —  Even Water — Based on Expert Advice from America's Best Sommeliers.
by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page

If you really want to understand this issue, this is by far the best answer. Worth every penny.


My cocoa powder is not dark. Is it still dutch processed?

Dutch processed cocoa is "washed" with a potassium carbonate solution to neutralize the acidity to a pH of 7.  While it does give cocoa a richer hue, the color can range quite a bit from a light reddish brown to a dark brown.  Color is less an indicator than the label on the product.  The process is used to provide a more mellow flavor.


freezing roquefort cheesecake cooked or uncooked

I would cook it first and store it in the freezer. Commercial entities that ship cheesecakes do it this way.  I would defrost in the refrigerator. Sounds delicious!  I hope it turns out well.


Why do you add couscous to boiling water?

You don't really 'cook' cous-cous, it's already cooked - you just need to rehydrate it sufficiently, without getting it too wet & going sloppy.

Starting with boiling water give you a better time-reference - 5/10/15 minutes from that known start-point, depending on the specific cous-cous type. You switch off the heat as soon as you add [or in many cases just pour water onto it fresh from the kettle then let stand.]

Starting from cold would introduce an unknown variable - how long does it take to boil?


As you note, the recipe I was able to locate for Nando's spicy chicken livers (with tagliatelle pasta) did the trick. While that version calls for veg (marrow/zucchini) and pasta, here are the directions for the chicken liver and sauce.
Heat 5 Tablespoons of olive oil or butter over a medium heat. Add the chicken livers and sauté for 4 minutes. Add one cup of Nando’s sauce to the chicken livers and allow to cook for another 2 minutes, then remove from the heat.
In announcing the new Mozambican Paprika flavor, Nando's head of food, Pascale Sobiecki, revealed that the recipe contains

coconut, lime, lemon, garlic, tomato, onion, parsley and rosemary and, of course, paprika – no less than three different kinds, one of them smoked.
Because it’s Nando’s, there is a touch of African bird’s eye chilli – but only a hint. On the Nando’s PERi-Ometer, Mozambican Paprika is slightly hotter than Lemon and Herb (which also contains chilli, incidentally), but milder than our Mild flavour.

Until it's available, you might have some fun trying to create your own version of the sauce.


Can I replace a food processor in this brownie recipe?

No, you can use the blender.  Use the slowest speed and manually do short pulses (1 second on, 2 seconds off).

You may have to use a spatula and mix it to get an even result. The pauses are so that the food doesn't get too hot (friction from the blades can actually boil things).  Stop early,  it's easy to make an unrecognizable paste in the blender.


I find it amusing that your range warns you the cooking ring will work as intended.  It's supposed to be heat trap, and focus heat on the bottom of the wok.

That said, they are also correct that it may discolor the burner grate.  I can't really say what your grates are made from, and many cooking materials discolor at high temperatures.  I think the main idea behind this paragraph in your manual is to save them from warranty replacements for discolored grates.

I also find it highly suspect that a wok could damage the burner itself.  They are usually ceramic, in direct contact with open flame, and any pan traps heat to some degree.  Burners get HOT and have to be able to take it.  Although the little decorative cap on the burner might discolor as well.


Matcha cheesecake can't keep the bright green color

Lemon juice / exclude air.

If gray outside only but inside is good I conclude the matcha oxidized from the air.  I am not sure why, but if it stayed green inside it must not have been any ingredient - they are all inside too.

Ideas to prevent oxidation are either preventing air from coming into contact with the cake, or adding antioxidant.

Some apples (not all types; not sure why) turn brown in the air.  Lemon juice prevents this.  I think it is the vitamin C in it acting as an antioxidant.  You could squeeze lemon juice over the top.  Lemon juice brings that flavor to a thing.  It seems to me like it might be OK on this.

You could cover it tightly with plastic wrap such that air is excluded.

Best of all, if you have any cake left,  would be if you would do an experiment with both methods and post images.  Take out a slice of cake, cut it in half, treat 1 side with lemon juice, then new pic next day.  Also take a slice of cake, cut it in half, cover 1 half tightly with plastic wrap and other half leave out.  New pic next day.


Can you reheat cooked calamari without thawing?

It is entirely possible to reheat calamari without thawing first, I would suggest boiling for one to two minutes, depending on piece size, longer if you are using larger pieces. Conversely you can cover the calamari with boiling water and let it sit for a little bit longer than one to two minutes, I would also suggest that you heat thoroughly, better safe than sorry. I am also not entirely sure the texture will be optimal. Good Luck.


In simple terms, meat is safe either at fridge temperatures or cooking temperatures. You cannot leave meat out all day in a switched-off oven, which is essentially room temperature: 2 hours at room temp is the maximum recommended time throughout the meat's lifetime.

Your various suggested methods of cooling involving ice are impractical at best and unsafe at worst. You might keep the inside of the chicken cool if you put ice inside, but what about the outer parts? Also, what would happen to all the water left behind by the ice as it melts?

Seeing as you can't keep the meat at room temperature and you can't practicably keep it cool, I suggest you instead cook it: get a slow cooker (they are very inexpensive), use joints suitable for slow cooking (such as thigh), put it on in the morning, and your chicken will be fall-off-the-bone tender, and safe, when you get back from work.

If you want to have both white and dark meat, joint the chicken (really not that hard - or your butcher could do it), cook the legs/thighs as above, and keep the breasts in the fridge. When you get home, roast the breasts in the oven while you are preparing vegetables or getting changed or whatever, and you have a whole bird cooked and ready to go.


Should I start timer immediately after adding pasta to boiling water?

You should start it as soon as you dump the pasta in the pot. I personally also turn off the heat at the same time, as you don't need your water to be boiling to cook pasta. Anything over 180 degrees Fahrenheit will do the trick. You could stick a thermometer in the water to make sure it's still hot enough, but I doubt it's possible to drop the temp by over 30 degrees unless your pasta is very cold. If you wait to start your timer and the water is still over 180 degrees, your pasta will be overcooked.
This is not true for ravioli. The pasta will get done at 180 degrees, but the filling will not. Using more water will cause the temp to drop less when you dump in the ravioli, and you should definitely keep the heat up so it starts simmering again as quickly as possible. Hopefully that's not long enough to make a difference one way or the other for your timer, as the pasta will become overcooked if it sits in hot water for a few extra minutes. I'd still start the timer when you dump the ravioli in and then check it when the timer goes off, but expect that it might take another minute to finish cooking.