How can I recreate the flavour of instant ramen without the salt?

The Japanese use a stock called Dashi for the base of many soups, sauces and dishes including the famous miso soup. Dashi is made like tea by seeping several different varieties of dried ingredients such as dried bonito flakes, dried baby sardines, dried kelp and dried shitaki mushrooms in varies combinations.

What you can do is boil water and use a teabag to seep the ingredients for a while then just remove the teabag. It requires quite a bit of bonito flakes to get any flavor. Rather than using Ramen noodles you might opt to use cellophane rice noodles or mung bean noodles instead. Finish with a dash of soy sauce, sambal or saracha. All these ingriedents can be ordered online, found at an Asian market or Whole Foods. You might also find several other types of mushrooms (watch out for sand), fish and vegetables that have been dried which will rehydrate nicely in the soup.


The stems are edible too. They look nicer in the food though if you chop them up a little, instead of leaving the long stems intact.

If you are in the habit of making any kind of brothy soup (chicken or other) you can dump a bunch of whole cilantro stems in and then remove after they have imparted their flavor contribution.


Adjusting baking time and temp for small cupcakes?

The general rule of thumb with cakes and quick breads is that within certain limits:

The larger the cake the lower the temperature
The smaller the cake, the higher the temperature

The reason is that you want to get nice crust formation and browning in the time in takes the muffin or cupcake to cook through.  However, mini-muffins or cupcakes have so little mass that they will bake through quite quickly, and may be easy to over bake at higher temperatures.

This article at Baking Bites, in regards to converting standard cupcakes to mini-cupcakes recommends:

  While most cupcakes take about 15-20 minutes to bake, most mini
  cupcakes take from 9-14 minutes or so to reach donenss. Check your
  minis at 9 or 10 minutes with a toothpick and bake longer as needed.
  The only thing you really need to look out for is the fact that it is
  easy to overbake these miniature cakes, so keep a close eye on them
  while they’re baking and check them at very short intervals when
  they’re close to being done.

This matches my experience for full sized muffins and cupcakes:  full sized muffins should bake in about 18-22 minutes—if they take longer, raise the oven temperature on the next batch slightly.

They do not suggest changing the temperature for minis.  The tips at Cupcakes Take the Cake concur:

  If recipes don't specify mini baking times, note that minis will take
  more than half of the baking time recommended for standard size
  cupcakes.

My survey of a number of mini-cupcake recipes shows the general consensus is about 10 minutes, or half the time of a regular cupcake.

Remember, however, the smaller the cake, the more little factors like your actual oven temperature, how much batter you put in the tin (and how consistently you fill each cup), the moisture level of your batter, and so on affect the outcome.

All of my experience is with standard sized cupcakes and muffins, or muffin tops.  If I had a mini, pan, I would determine the best baking time by:

Doing a half-tray, and checking it when they start to smell done (if you are an experienced baker, you will know what this means), or at about 8 minutes.
Continue checking every minute or so, until you find they are done with the toothpick test.
Bake a second half-tray to that time without all of the door opening, to confirm your findings.
Adjust as necessary, and you will then know the best time for your oven and that particular recipe—assuming you fill the tins consistently.  (I use a food disher—like an ice cream scoop—for this purpose.)

Note:  the purpose of the half tray is to have less cakes with a less than perfect bake.  Once you dial in the ideal baking time, go for full trays for less work.

I also suggest not doing multiple trays at the same time, as they will change the way the air circulates in the oven, and mask the radiant heat from each other.  This makes for less consistent results.


Very simply, all of them work.

The major driver of what tastes good to you is expectations. If you are accustomed to eating soup with a certain taste, and expect it to taste that way, then any time you prepare the soup with something different, it won't taste good to you.

But there is no rule to define that some liquids taste good as a soup base and others taste bad, universally. And without knowing how you like your soup, it is impossible to predict which ones you will like personally.

Update In the edit you mention that it is the concentration that is wrong for you, not the flavour profile altogether.

What gives the soup flavour is not the liquid part. In fact, the liquid in both sauces and commercially available "soup base" as well as fond, stock and other similar stuff is pure, tasteless water. The taste comes from whatever is dissolved in the water.

Whatever you are using as a soup base seems to be just much more concentrated than the sauce. It is very probable indeed that one of the things which don't have enough concentration for your taste in the sauce is salt, another one is probably MSG. But also other flavour bearing compounds are probably provided in less concentration in the sauce. After all, the sauce is supposed to be poured over solid food, and shouldn't taste bad when you lick it off the food surface, it is at a concentration which doesn't taste too bad when it comes in contact with your tongue. The soup base is at a concentration which after dilution falls in the commonly acceptable range (but at a lower concentration than undiluted sauce).


Is it ok to cold smoke steak before freezing?

No issues, as long as you control the temperature and remain outside the danger zone.  In other words, can you cold smoke below 40F (4.5C)?

Time in the danger zone is cumulative.  Freezing does not re-set the clock.  If you can't stay out of the danger zone during the smoke step, I would smoke, sous vide, then freeze.  This is probably a more common approach.  You can then re-therm the steak directly from frozen when you are ready to eat.

As an aside, 6 hours seems like a long time to sous vide a rib-eye...even from frozen.


They're just roots.

Don't forget that carrots are a taproot and this one seems to be trying to grow.

The carrots are still fine to eat, though they use the internal sugars to grow the roots, so they may not taste as sweet. They'll also get soft really quickly, so if you're going to eat them, do it soon.

Related question here.


How do you minimize the heat loss from adding meat to a hot pan?

Yes, you need to place the meat in a system which can keep more heat. This means 1) more mass, and 2) less conduction.

This is generally done with cast iron pans, because they are great for that purpose. You have to wait until they are properly heated, but once they are there, adding food does not faze them and they keep the original temperature pretty steadily.

Also, if you use too little oil, the oil itself will cool down quickly. Fill the pan generously, to come a bit above half of the chicken breasts, and then you will see much less heat loss. You can also deep fry them, which keeps the temperature really stable, but then you need something much deeper than a pan for safety reasons.


No matter what you do in this situation, you are likely to end up with soggy sandwiches.  This has nothing to do with light.  Firstly, the bread of pre-made sandwiches will naturally pick up moisture from the filling and condiments.  Often, even freshly made sandwiches will become a bit soggy by lunchtime.  You've also created a further disadvantage by freezing.  Freezing and thawing disrupts the cell structure of foods.  When this happens, moisture is often lost. Of course, the bread will absorb this moisture.  A microwave will thaw and warm, but will not remove much of this moisture. You would have better luck with an oven, but that would be more time consuming.  Really, your optimal approach is to prepare the ingredients in advance, then take 2-3 minutes before you leave for work, and make a sandwich.


A soffritto is the Italian cousin of the French mirepoix. Both consist of small cubes of root vegetables and onions.

The gentle “sweating” in fat enhances the sweetness of the vegetables and brings out the “umami”, an almost meaty flavor. In the onions it also breaks down the sharp pungency. The process will form a flavor base that brings a certain “heartiness” to stews and sauces.

You can skip the step - many soups will use the raw, coarser chopped vegetables - but the results would not have the properties listed above.


How do I know when my avocado has gone bad, and how can I keep it fresh?

An avocado will keep a few days in the refrigerator after it has been cut. The cut portion will turn brown/black due to oxidation, you can just cut that off, it is not harmful.

From California Avocado Commission to keep the avocado from discoloring sprinkle it with lemon/lime juice or vinegar and wrap tightly in plastic wrap or place in an airtight container.

From thekitchn storing a cut avocado with a piece of cut onion in an airtight container will stop the oxidation.

  I don't know why this is, but I suspect that it has to do with the sulfur compounds that the onion releases. This is the same sulfur that makes you cry when you chop onions, but it is also used as a preservative. The onion's smell and taste don't seem to transfer to the avocado, as far as I can tell. But I'm not overly sensitive to onions, so you may want to check this out first if you are.

When not to use, from WebMD

  if your avocado's flesh has become very dark or the flesh has become stringy you should avoid eating it, particularly if there is any sign of mold. Avocados have a very high fat content, so they oxidize and become rancid very quickly at room temperature and will need to be thrown away.


Is cheese or pasta a good source of protein?

Both contain protein. The amount varies by the type for cheese, although it appears to be about 20% - 35%. All dairy contains protein. There may also be milk or cream in the sauce, which would also be a contributing ingredient.

Pasta also contains protein, but less than cheese. The amount depends on the type of flour used. It will also increase if egg is used in the pasta. If you look at Barilla, their normal penne has about 7g of protein in a 56g serving, or 12.5%.

Looking at the ingredients, there appears to be a couple of different types of cheese in the pasta as well as milk and cream. They would all contribute protein.

Beef is about 29% protein. So dairy is on par or better than meat as a protein source, but pasta falls well short of it.


Simple things to do with very tart plums?

Tart fruits work well in jellies and jams, or as candied fruit. These all allow you to vary the sugar content to get the level of sweetness you want, plus you don't have to worry about botulism as much.

You could also try a fruit-infused brandy: cut fruit into slices, and layer fruit/sugar/fruit/sugar into a tall lidded jar. Cover with a spirit of your choice, usually vodka, although a milder brandy or white rum also works. Let this sit for several weeks to infuse, strain, and use as a flavoring in cooking or as a mixer in cocktails (or just drink it).


Oven baked cod fillets get soaked in their own liquid

As the cod fillets were two different batches, chances are you just where unlucky with the second batch. Even within expiry-date, the amount of water food loses while cooking can vary vastly with age and quality. And even good fish shops can have watery batches at times.

To generally avoid this soaking happening, I would rest the cod on a cooking grate or - this is a personal preference - on some pre-cooked potatoes.

A small factor may be oversalting, but chances are it is actually the cod.


Will a pineapple marinade reduce a beef roast to paste?

Pineapple contains Bromelain, which is "one of the most popular proteases to use for meat tenderizing."  Since it's sold as a meat tenderizer, I'd say it really just depends on how long you marinate with it -- it's possible to over-tenderize something.

This warns about over marinating, and mentions recommended times:

  The same process that tenderizes steak can also break it down into mush if you marinate it too long in the pineapple, and it'll start distorting the meat's color and taste. For cuts thinner than 1 inch, stick to about 10 to 15 minutes of soak time; for moderately thick steaks of 1 to 1 1/2 inches, marinate for roughly 15 to 20 minutes; and for thicker steaks, marinate for about 30 minutes.


How should I store eggs in the refrigerator?

Keeping Food Fresh by Janet Bailey says:

  Keep stored eggs covered. Eggs readily absorb odors from, and lose
  moisture to, the air circulating in the refrigerator. The best
  container for them is the carton you bought them in. Don't use the
  open egg racks in the door of the refrigerator. The rack is too warm
  and unprotected.

  Store eggs with their broad, rounded ends up. This position helps the
  chalaza keep the yolk centered in the white, away from the air pocket
  where it might encounter unfriendly bacteria. The rounded end of the
  egg is also less likely to break when accidentally bumped.

  Don't wash eggs before you store them. If they have been coated in
  oil, you would be washing away that valuable protection.


Is there a name for this French Toast variation?

What you made is generally called batter dipped French Toast, which a lot of people say is better than regular French toast, and you seem to agree. I may have to try it!

There's one person calling the recipe German Toast, so you aren't alone, but it isn't a common name for it. German Toast is one of the alternate names for French Toast no matter how it's made.


Salt 'n pizza (how much salt should be in the dough)

Ratios are always by weight. In bread-making, percentages are made from the amount of flour (if you see a 70% hydration bread, the weight of the water is 70% of that from the flour). So it was meant to say "3% of the flour weight". So it should be 9 grams in your recipe for pizza dough.


How long can my smoked brisket stay in holding?

Well, I might as well answer my own question.

After 4 hours holding inside of a beer cooler, wrapped in towels, the internal temperature of my brisket went from 200 down to 146. I have read that 140 is the danger zone for bacteria growth. So I turned on my oven to 200 and placed the brisket (still wrapped in foil) in for the remaining two hours. By the time we were ready to eat, it came out in the 150s. While it's not an ideal situation to be in, this worked for me. The brisket still tasted amazing, it was a huge hit with everyone, and quite literally people ate every last crumb of brisket they could find.

After initially posting this question, I continued to search. It seems that one method people use is to heat up a brick in the oven and stick in the cooler with the brisket to try and keep the temps up. I didn't have a brick available. I'm sure I could have use a rock instead, but I didn't attempt it.


How to make boiled and partially fried vegetables palatable?

If I was frying vegetables like beans and carrots for twenty minutes, I wouldn't bother boiling them at all: you are simply boiling out the nutrients and flavour.

In point of fact, I wouldn't fry those vegetables for twenty minutes anyway. I would slice the vegetables so they were roughly the same size, on a diagonal to maximise surface area, then stir fry them quickly over a very high heat. Sprinkle in any spices in the last few minutes, and perhaps add a splash of water if you want a little sauce.


Can I make a cake with finely ground coffee instead of cocoa powder?

Coffee cake is good, but it's better to start from a recipe for coffee cake than try to adapt a chocolate cake.  Cocoa powder brings an appreciable amount of fat and bulk to the recipe.

You need to be very careful about terminology.  Coffee powder in many places refers to powdered instant (soluble) coffee, which isn't the best coffee drink but is very suiatable as a flvouring.  It should be dissolved in liquid before adding tot he cake mix (following the recipe).  I have seen coffee powder used to refer to finely ground coffee beans.  It's not unknown to add these to food, but it's not common.  We discussed this recently.


How to prevent bread sticking to cast iron pan?

If you are having trouble with honey-wheat bread sticking in your cast iron pan, there are several things worth trying:

Make sure the pan is well seasoned.   There should be a smooth, continuously black surface over the entire food contact area of the pan.
Spray the pan with oil before adding the bread.  This may or may not work but is probably worth a try.
Do not add the loaf directly to the cast iron pan.  Put it in on a parchment sheet, so that it is not in direct contact with the oven.  You will have to peel off the parchment afterwards, but it should reduce sticking.

In fact, in some versions of no-knead bread, this is the recommended method until the loaf is well set, then you remove the parchment for the latter part of the baking to facilitate bottom crust development.

Honey-wheat breads are going to be inherently more sticky than a pure white bread, especially because of the sugar, and because the whole wheat bran in the loaf tends to cut the gluten strands, making it hard to get a tightly stretched gluten network on the outside of your loaf, which is one of the things that makes it less likely to stick.


How to clean my unanodized aluminium pot?

If it's a small spot you can rub half a lemon on it till it's gone. If the entire inside has darkened you can fill it with water, add several tablespoons of cream of tartar (2 per quart) and boil it for 10 minutes.

You can also buy aluminum cleaner, but the do it yourself is typically cheaper.

In case you're wondering why I'm suggesting an acid for cleaning. It's actually alkali foods that stained your pot, not acidic. e.g. boiling potatoes. Acid actually cleans the spots put there by alkali foods.

The common warning against cooking acidic foods in an aluminum pot is to prevent excessive amounts of aluminum being leeched into your food.


How to use a pressure cooker for frozen chicken?

Based on the recipe to which you linked, I'd guess about 10 minutes after the pressure cooker starts steaming. (Until the chicken thaws and starts cooking you shouldn't get much steam.)

Since you're going to shred the chicken and put in a sauce anyway, overcooking might not be a problem.

Frankly if you have an extra hour put the chicken breast in a plastic bag and fill the pressure cooker with hot water from the tap. Dunk the bag in the pot to thaw the breasts so that you can control the cooking time more closely.


Can I get botulism by using 2 cups vinegar to 8 cups water when canning pickles - as most recipes require 1:1 ratio of vinegar to water?

While no one will tell you if you will get botulism or not, it's the acidity in pickles that makes them safe.  According to Douglas Baldwin
"Food pathogens can't grow below a pH of 4.0.  5% vinegar is 25% more acidic than this."  He goes on to talk about the pasteurization step.  You'll have to scroll a bit to read the section.  We don't know your vinegar's starting acidity, and you diluted it significantly....So, you would have to calculate the total acidity of your brine, beginning with the acidity of your vinegar, to determine if you are within the correct safety parameters.


Is there any way to make single cream to double cream?

Adding butter to cream will not work because you're not actually increasing the fat content of the cream-portion of your mixture. Cream is made up of microscope globules of butterfat surrounded by phospholipids (membranes of fatty acids that act as emulsifiers). This is what prevents the fat in the milk from congealing into a fatty mass (i.e. butter). The butter-making process breaks down these membranes and allows the butter to form. Butter is also a water-in-oil emulsion, but you can't re-emulsify it into cream by simply adding it back to a lower-fat cream base.

An experimental solution

(This is highly experimental, so I'll remove it if someone says it doesn't work.)

If you can only get 25% homogenized cream, try freezing and then thawing it. This should undo the homogenization to some degree, so it should separate when defrosted. Let the fat rise to the top, and pour off the excess cream (or drain off the whey from the bottom) to get the total milkfat content up into the "whipping cream" range.

(This may not work. My concern is that this separate-by-freezing process won't actually give you whey + cream… for the same reason cream + butter won't work. The emulsion may be destroyed by the separate-by-freezing process. It may indeed create a higher-fat solution… but the resulting concoction may not be "whippable". Try it and report back. Thanks.)


What to do with butter that has been mixed with baking soda?

Honestly, if you really don't want to throw it away, I would suggest sticking it in your freezer, and slowly using it up when you need baking soda and don't mind a bit of added butter.  Baking soda is water soluble, so the butter shouldn't change it too much or activate before its time, I hope.

Maybe you can mix thoroughly before freezing, and separate into chunks or portions based on about a teaspoon of baking soda - that will make it easier to measure (or guesstimate) the baking soda portion into recipes, and either adjust any fats... or just leave it be, the additional butter may not be enough to upset the recipe, most recipes I can think of that need a teaspoon of baking soda can absorb up to a few tbs of extra butter without much difficulty.  It's just much more likely to find baking-soda recipes that don't mind extra butter than finding places you can use butter that don't mind the extra baking soda.

Alternatively, you might take Joshua Engels's suggestion and trying to make ghee out of your butter - it would probably settle out with the milk solids and be left behind, though I couldn't swear there would be no residual taste.  Probably best to keep any ghee produced this way for very aromatic or spiced dishes to cover up any minor off flavors.  This will likely kill your baking soda, though, between the heat and the water content of the butter (before it is clarified) and the milk solids getting mixed into the residue, so it's still a waste of one ingredient.

As for your cookies, you should probably just go get some more butter.  I don't think you can salvage the butter for this batch, or icing, or any other purpose that puts butter first - the amount of baking soda is just too much, the butter will almost certainly taste off and likley ruin any ingredients you're using to try and cover it up.


Closest substitute for alder wood chips when smoking?

Peach and Apple wood are readily available, and I use them regularly for fish.

You may find that since the wood is in fact considered treated, you may find it is in fact available...

Try here: http://www.smokedandcured.com.au/alder-wood-chips-350gm/


How to rescue a Hollandaise with too much lemon

Yes, do it. Making the second batch is your best way to get something good.

First, keep your first batch warm, don't let it cool down. Second, you don't have to wait them to get ready to mix them. Start with the new yolk with a bit of water, beat until foamy. Then, instead of drizzling oil, drizzle the old batch, until incorporated. Then add more butter. Use a lower temperature than for the normal beating process, so you don't overcook the yolk from the existing batch.

Alternatively, if you don't mind having a fattier sauce, just add more butter to the existing batch. The fat absorbability of hollandaise is not limited by the yolk emulsifiers, but by the available water. A single yolk can absorb liters of fat, if you started with a bit of liquid before adding the butter.


Beet stock (the cooking liquor left over after boiling beetroot) contains plenty of nutrients, and hence it's a good breeding ground for mould and bacteria.

I would treat it like cooked vegetables, and throw it on the compost heap (or down the drain) if not consumed after a week in the fridge.

Of course it could be preserved for longer if steps were taken to combat mould/bacteria:

reduced to a syrup, perhaps with added sugar
with lots of added salt, as in a pickling brine
sterilised in an airtight container


Is it possible to subsititute nutella for peanut butter?

Nutella is over half sugar by weight; peanut butter might be more like 5-10% depending on brand/style. That already sounds like enough that it won't make a good one-for-one substitution in most things, especially anything that's not already pretty sweet.

It probably also means that it'll have a slightly different resulting texture; nutella is already a bit less thick (probably again affected by the sugar), and I believe this is pretty obvious when heated, though it's been a while since I tried.


Yellow bell pepper with brown spots inside

Same texture as the rest of the pepper?  ie not raised slimy etc? My guess is sunburn from it's earliest stages of development if from desert or frost if from temperate climes.

At any rate, I have eaten imperfect peppers all my life.


How to avoid smoke during pan searing meat?

There is absolutely no way to completely avoid smoke while searing meat in olive oil. The process happens far above the smoke point of the oil (not to mention, of the meat itself). Smoke is going to happen.

With that said, if you use an oil with a higher smoke point (canola or grapeseed come to mind), and use very little of it, the smoke output will be minimized. You really don't need much oil for searing.


Rubbery chicken is normally a sign that it is overcooked.

Frying is a challenging method to cook chicken, because it is very rapid, and easy to overcook the chicken.

Some of this, you will simply learn by experience, based on the typical size of the parts you are frying, and the type of breading you use.  You will learn to recognize from the pattern of bubbles and how the breading looks when it is done.

In the mean time, if you have a quality instant read thermometer, you can take a piece out and measure its temperature.

White meat should be about 158 - 160 F, dark meat about 165 - 170 F (depending on your preference).


Cook a smoked ham and scalloped potatoes

Your question is a little bare, I'm going to assume you are asking whether you can cook these together, and if so which temperature you should pick. Keeping in mind you should take the ham out 30 minutes before you serve it to let it rest the potatoes will be in the oven for 30 minutes by themselves, so start the potatoes in the 375°F oven, then turn it up to 400 after the ham is out. A 25 degree difference isn't going to make much difference to your potatoes, maybe 5 minutes extra cooking time, if that.


Why does the instant coffee that I store in little plastic tubs go bad?

In a word, humidity.
Instant coffee absorbs moisture from air rather well. I suspect that your container isn't perfect airtight, and it's in a humid place.  It's possible that the container is airtight, but enough water vapour gets in each time you open it to cause problems.  This will be more of an issue for small amounts in a big container.
To test and possibly address this, try a small, definitely airtight container, such as a glass jar with a screw top.  Even plastic boxes with an O-ring seal and clips aren't always well-designed; especially if the lid had been hot it may not actually seal perfectly.
You can also use silica gel sachets (food grade versions are available) in the jar with the coffee.  These don't last forever, but they can be dried in an oven and reused, also they're cheap.  Don't forget to store the spares tightly sealed.
Of course, if you're spooning some out with a damp spoon that will get water in. I have seen people sprinkle the coffee directly into a mug of steaming water - and the steam collects in the container.  Don't do that - if you want to sprinkle it into your mug, do so before adding hot water.


Gyuto knife - What it can & can't cut? What cutting techniques?

You can do anything with this knife that you would do with your santoku or Western-style chef's knife. These are real tools, and they are not especially delicate. It is certainly possible to chip the edge or tip (which requires an annoying amount of work to fix), if you drop the knife or, as the manufacturer warns, whack it against bones. This is a consequence of the relatively high hardness of your blade -- not of the fact that it's a gyuto -- but the flip side is that it should retain its edge very nicely for normal work. (A softer steel would end up with a rolled edge or dent rather than a chip.)

I guess that by "chopping" you mean quickly lifting and pushing the blade down through food so that it hits the cutting board. That's perfectly normal usage, and a plastic, wood, or rubber cutting board should not hurt your knife at all. (No glass! Do run it over a steel it often as you use it, though.) The foods you mentioned -- potatoes and fruit pits -- may seem hard, but they are much softer than the edge of your knife.


Why don't some Italian tomato sauces and pastes use citric acid?

Citric acid is added when the PH of the overall product is too high. Most of the time a product with pure tomatoes doesn't need any help with PH as the tomatoes should be acidic enough, when you see citric acid added you will usually see water added as well in some form. Water is added to bulk up the product and make it cheaper, some companies add tomato juice instead of water as it looks better on the labeling , but at the end of the day tomato juice is just flavored water. Water increases the overall PH level, so you have to bring it back up.

When you don't see citric acid in a can of tomatoes or a tomato product it's usually a sign that they are really good quality.


Can i make ice cream with artificial sweetener

Weeeellll...remember, the sugar in ice cream helps it not form into a solid chunk of ice (as does the fat). Often reduced-sugar recipes call for alcohol, which can help do the same thing. You're really going to need something to keep all those ice crystals from forming.

If you want to play with artificial sweetener, I'd be tempted to suggest going more towards a frozen custard. My first trial for such things would be milk, a sweetener, and cornstarch. Once you have a custard that you're ok with, try running through your ice cream maker. I've tried something similar, but I didn't have an ice cream maker at the time. I ended up with something like a pudding pop. It was still yummy.


Can I cut up chicken and store it in the fridge until the use-by date?

In general, assuming that the date on the package still applies after the package has been opened is not safe.

If an item is packaged under special conditions (sterile, low oxygen, the strange diaper thing, etc.), or treated after packaging (irradiated, pasteurized, etc.) then the time from when you break the seal on the package becomes more significant than the 'best by' date on the package.

As a comparison, we have bottled liquids like juice or various 'milk' (plant milks or UHT treated cow's milk) -- they might have a 'best by date' that's many months from packaging, but they'll often have a warning to use it within a given number of days from opening it.

If you buy cryovaced packages of meat, it will have some sort of a date (eg. 'sell by' or 'use or freeze by') on it that might be up to a month from when it was packaged ... but once you open the package, you should treat it like any other raw meat that hasn't been specially packaged.

Now, is there a bit of a safety factor built into the normal 1-2 day advice?  I would hope so ... to deal with the time that you're walking round the store with the chicken in your basket, time to get it home, etc.  So it's possible that it might be a little longer than the 1-2 days, so 2-4 days is likely acceptable provided that you've held at the proper temperature, you cook it thoroughly and it wasn't showing other problems signs (smells, slime, etc.) and you're not cooking for immune compromised people.

Much past that, and you're just compounding your risk.  Now, there might be extenuating circumstances (eg, you're trapped at home with no way to resupply because of mass quarantines) on why you'd be willing to take the risk, but in general, I wouldn't recommend consuming the chicken from a package that was opened a week ago, even if it was within the date on the original package.


Are all emulsifying agents created equal

From a chemistry standpoint, yes, there is a difference. That depends on the desired effect and composition of your emulsion, so there are more appropriate emulsifiers for water-on-oil than oil-on-water, and also depends on what size of micelles you want forming, texture and etc.

A complete explanation is a whole course in university and depends on a lot more details, so that's the condensed general version.


It sounds to me like the seal on the lids may be very slightly compromised. For example:

lids start down with a good seal
pressure can't escape and starts building up like usual
imperfection in lid seal gives way a vents out pressure/heat, lid pops up
jar/contents starts to cool, constricting, again like usual - this is what seals the jars in a normal procdure
Lather, rinse, repeat

Edit

A thought occurs: it's equally as likely, if not more so, that the opposite of what I described above is happening: i.e., the stock is cooling down and contracting, which creates a negative pressure on the jar, sealing it. However, in a similar fashion to the above, a slight imperfection in the seal holds to a certain level of pressure but gives way past that threshold, allowing the pressure to equalize (which causes the top to pop up).

If they settled in the lid-down position after they completely cooled, they are probably okay (note the probably). What causes a lid to 'pop' after it cools is usually due to bacteria being sealed inside the can and/or compromising that can afterwards. Bacteria starts to eat the food, produces gas which expands and POP goes the lid, and your delicious canned food is no longer safe to eat. So if the lids stay down until you open the jar and the stock still smells okay, you're probably safe.


Well first off, most slow cookers don't have a gasket.  So its not a problem for them.  Rubber can often times take on strong smell.
I would consider buying one without a gasket - I don't think its a majorly useful feature personally.  Or, consider buying the more versatile enameled Dutch oven (there are some very affordable, excellent ones) .
Yes, most don't have a rubber gasket.  And it would solve that problem.
Yes overcooking will lead to bad/different smells, even in good food otherwise.  It will often lead to bad tastes and textures as well.


Browning reheated food with only a microwave

The CorningWare browner works on a simple principle. It is lined with a material that can absorb microwave radiation (just like water does) and therefore become hot. Then when you add your food, the hot surface of the pan browns it. Seems like an effective solution in the situation you describe, where you really want to cook with a hot surface but can't use normal means in the enviroment you are in.


@Cos is right, a pizza stone is great - so is a pizza screen in the oven.

If I don't want to heat up the oven (big oven, little piece of pizza aways seems like a waste), then a cast iron pan over medium heat on the stove with a lid does pretty well.


How to make meatball style food that keeps its shape

Overworking the meat is generally what you want to avoid for a burger, but in the case of kebab meat it may help. It will give it a denser and bouncier texture.

To do this, when mixing in the other ingredients, just mix for a bit longer than you normally would, especially with your hands as the heat will probably melt the fat slightly and help to bind it. Keep working it until the texture is smooth.


You should not put the bands on "tight".

From Fresh Preserving Water Bath Canning

  CLEAN mason jar rim and threads of jar using a clean, damp cloth to remove any food residue. Center lid on jar allowing sealing compound to come in contact with the jar rim.  Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight. Place filled jars in canner until recipe is used or canner is full. Lower rack with jars into water. Make sure water covers jars by 1 to 2 inches.

Fresh Preserving Problem Solver

Condition: Lid buckles, appearing to warp or bulge upward under the screw band. If spoilage is evident, do not use.

When buckling is apparent immediately after heat processing, cause is overly tight application of screw bands.  Using your fingers, screw bands down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip tight. Do not force. Do not use a lid wrench to apply bands.


How do I work out the use-by dates for my own cooking?

The US FDA has a handy Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart that might help you.  In general your "leftovers" have a 3 to 4 day shelf life...I would think that includes your thawed strawberries.


Why does my glaze soak into my doughnuts?

Okay, I did some more thorough searching and found Beki Cook's donut frosting recipe. Apparently my mistake was that I was letting them (the doughnuts) cool off, and according to the article:

  Glaze is the easiest way to sugar-up a donut. But there are a few things you need to remember. First and foremost... only glaze donuts when they're warm. If you do it when they've cooled the glaze just soaks in and get goopy.


What can I use as a substitute for hoisin sauce?

Hoisin has a few primary flavors: salt, sweetness, and umami. If it's a significant part of a recipe, leaving it out isn't really an option; you'll notice the lack of all three of those.

If you can find a fermented soybean paste that has less salt, that'd be the closest substitute, possibly with some added sugar. Otherwise, you'll have to look for other umami-rich seasonings, and again likely add sugar. See What is a good vegetarian source of umami flavour? for some ideas. You could also use things like bacon or anchovies since your case doesn't have to be vegetarian. Of course, anything with a distinctive flavor of its own isn't going to be an exact substitute (anchovies don't taste quite like fermented soybeans), but at least you'll have a sauce in a similar direction.


Salt.
Salt masks bitter flavors. However, (and unfortunately), the burnt flavor is not something easily masked. It's a typical flavor you might find in grilled meats, but not so much in breads and fried items.

You could also mask the burnt flour taste by refrying. Scrape off the burnt bits if you can. Change your oil, and refry the chicken. It's the best bet for eliminating that burnt flavor.


I have mede pasta years ago with regular corn flour (not cornstarch, but just a non-nixtamalized version of maseca or very finely ground cornmeal if you wish) and I don't remember much in terms of the recipe, but I remember that it worked well in the roller and that the result was awesome. And I don't see a reason why you couldn't do the same with masa harina to add a little bit of the delicious nixtamal flavor (like they did here) =)

I tried to google a corn pasta recipe to link to (as I couldn't remember mine) ... and one of the first hits was - guess what - with masa harina. Here is the video, where it seems like they also use a pasta roller with no problems, but they were trying to make something gluten free, but there are a lot of other cornmeal pasta recipes online that use regular flour mixed in.

Just some thoughts on masa flour: in my experience when you making a firmer dough it often tends to come out a bit more crumbly ... but I had good success (if I wanted a bitt more compact workable dough) by mixing it 1:1 to all-purpose flour. The nixtamal flavor is strong enough that you still taste it well even if you use more wheat flour. Sometimes I also add a couple of drops of oil so that it isn't so sticky (you can also use other fats ... like the masa for tamales often calls for lard).


At what temperature does simple syrup freeze?

It is pure water and pure sugar (glucose+fuctose) then it will freeze at or about 22F or -5.5C.  At 2:1 it will freeze at 12.5F or -11C.  Use a deep freeze as a normal freezer cannot get it that cold.   This is why slush is made from sugar water as at the freezing point of water the water will freeze while the sugar will not.


During roasting, carbon dioxide is generated (the beans are burning, after all) and trapped in coffee beans. According to the book Espresso Coffee, a kilogram of freshly roasted beans contains as much as 10 liters of carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide is the main gas component of espresso foam. Over time, unused beans will release that gas into the air, or de-gas, leaving less to create the crema on your espresso.

They say that coffee is not best immediately after roasting, but needs a few days to reach its peak. I've heard that this is because of the excess carbon dioxide, and I've heard that the "flavors need to develop." I'm not sure what the truth is. I don't normally get my beans that soon after their roasting, so I can't speak personally to the differences.

I don't know much about tea, so I can't help you there...


Paneer is the obvious one. It can be used as a primary ingredient in a curry.


You 'can' cook it from frozen, knowing that a few things will suffer. First, the outside will be somewhat dried out and over-cooked before it is done in the center, depending on how hot the oven is and the cooking time. That being said, if your Haggis is pre-cooked, it should be OK.

You can also 'Hurry up ' the defrosting process by putting it under running water. This can affect texture, depending on what you are defrosting.

Finally, you can speed-defrost something by using warm running water, but this carries SOME SERIOUS RISK if you don't cook it right away. The bacteria will love the warmth and will start to multiply, but I have done this many times when I knew I was using a meat immediately.


The bottom line: yes, you are crazy.

Botulism arises when you have a substance which carries clostridium botulinum and keep it for a while (timescales of days rather than hours or minutes) in an anaerobic environment (like a bottle of oil).

The bacteria cannot burrow into the bottle from the outside, nor can it swim against gravity from your vegetables into the oil. The problem arises only if you end up with some of the vegetable matter inside the bottle.

If you are still concerned about this, you can decant some oil into a measuring cup and pour from there.


How to apply ascorbic acid ppm in bread baking?

I did more googling of research papers and of all three sources accessible by me, ppm is actually per flour basis. Quite a shocker to me.

Here are the links:ISSN No. (Print):0975-1130ISSN No. (Online):2249-3239TheEffect ofAscorbicAcid andGlycerol onQuality ofFrozen BarbariBread

Effects of Gliadin/Glutenin and HMW‐GS/LMW‐GS Ratio on Dough Rheological Properties and Bread‐Making Potential of Wheat Varieties

Method for producing danish dough

I have also sent an email to Georgiana Gabriela Codina for good measure, though I am not sure if she responds to public queries.


Normally, acids will turn broccoli a dull grayish color, and I don't recommend adding the lemon juice until right before you serve. For one thing the lemon juice will lose its flavor when cooked.

Acids affect many, many foods when cooked — some for good and some for bad, so you do need to be careful when you add it. For example, acids added to beans before cooking will toughen them quite a bit. Acids added to proteins will denature them. And we all know what happened to Timothy Leary.


Is there something wrong with the corn kernels that don't pop?

Popcorn kernels pop because moisture is trapped inside of a relatively gas-tight shell. As the kernels are heated, the water inside the kernel turns to steam. The shell of the kernel keeps the steam from expanding, so pressure builds up inside of the kernel until the whole things blows open.

If the kernel doesn't have enough moisture inside of it or if the shell of the kernel is permeable enough to allow the pressure inside the kernel to dissipate before it reaches the critical pop pressure, then that kernel won't pop. Ever.

So to answer your question, no. Take the popcorn off the heat before the popped kernels burn.


What you are seeing is called oxidation (in most vegetable matter this is the enzyme breakdown of the phenols into melanin)

Some of the chemicals in the chilli powder have reacted with oxygen in the air, and over time have therefore changed colour. This is quite normal, and many foods exhibit this change

It most foods it does indicate a loss of flavour as well. This can be a good thing, as it may take away sharp tannin tastes for instance

In my experience chilli, whole or powder, changes in a good way with aging

The only way to reduce this effect is to pack the chilli powder in air tight containers, and use oxygen absorbers (pure iron) and a vacuum pump or flood it with nitrogen gas. Another way is to store it in the freezer, but this may have other undesirable side effects

Commercially some powdered foods are protected by coating them with a preservative, in this case citric acid. To be effective the surface of each grain of the chilli powder needs to be coated in a citric acid "film". The techniques for doing this are not generally possible, and may involve "secret" machines using ion-deposition, or centrifuge drying


Is there a replacement for cheese on pizza?

Depending on how much she doesn't like cheese, and what she doesn't like about it, you have a few options. You may even be able to preserve the appearance of pizza.

Ricotta is sometimes used (even without tomato sauce and with a green vegetable); while technically cheese it doesn't have the texture or the taste you'd normally think of as cheese, but will help things adhere.
Some of the vegan cheese substitutes now melt like cheese, and some taste like cheese, but few do both - a careful reading of reviews may find one that fails to match cheese in the way she doesn't like.

But assuming they don't go far enough, you'll have to get more creative. Folding over the edges of the dough will help stop things falling off. A much thicker sauce is also useful; with some (e.g. corn) starch in it, it will thicken further around the topping as it cooks. Mixing the toppings into the sauce will help stop them overcooking. Flatter toppings like sliced tomato/sausage, or bacon cut from rashers rather than cubes, will also stick better than round things. Or go cross-cultural, and use refried beans under salsa for a "Mexican pizza" that's neither Mexican nor pizza.

A fairly thinly topped base with more on the side than you'd normally expect would be a practical way to serve it, if you're still worried about things staying put.

There are plenty of ideas for pizza without cheese. Most are vegan, but you can adapt them assuming you're not.


How long does beef stays good after turning of refrigerator?

Nobody can tell you that the beef is still safe, there are just too many variables. However, if you didn't open the refrigerator during the time it was off, and it looks and smells fine; I'd still eat it. However, I wouldn't serve it to anybody else without full disclosure. Obviously, the standard caveat of not serving it to pregnant women or anyone immunocompromised applies.

The safest route is always When in Doubt Throw it Out!


What is the difference between a spring roll and an egg roll?

春卷 (Chūnjuǎn, Spring rolls) are julienned vegetables, sometimes with a bit of noodles, sometimes with a bit of minced meat, wrapped with a flour dough skin and pan- or deep-fried. They are a filled roll.

You can see the different varieties by country here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_roll

Spring roll:

鸡蛋卷 (Jīdàn juǎn, Egg rolls) are many different things around the world. In Chinese communities, these typically refer to a sweet biscuit type roll, of hollow flaky egg pastry (not filled.) However, there is also another variety (common in American Chinese cuisine) where a flour dough wrap is filled with "pork, shrimp, or chicken, adding cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts and other vegetables, and then deep fried." In the American Chinese respect, I believe it is very similar to a Spring roll really, although the flour dough looks thicker and of a different composition than a typical Spring roll (the dough bubbles when deep-fried, with Spring roll skin it does not.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_roll

Sweet egg roll:

American Chinese egg roll:


Beef Steaks : Cooking older-grade meat (C-Grade)

Older animals will have much more flavorful meat, but the only way to get the meat tender is to cook for a long time with moisture, at a relatively low temperature. This means braising or steaming. It is unlikely that sous vide methods will provide the temperature necessary to break down the collagen proteins, nor does it usually provide enough moisture. It is really not appropriate to use this grade of meat for steak, or any quick cooking method.

A possible alternative would be to use a marinade which includes fresh pineapple juice or papaya juice. These juices contain enzymes which break down the protein structure of meat and make it more tender, but must be used fresh, as the canning/pasteurizing process denatures the enzymes, making them ineffective.


After asking this in multiple places and finding nobody with an answer I decided to test with the gunkiest cover.  The handle came through fine.  I'm not going to try the teflon pan.


What is the meaning of a circle on induction cooktop?

The most important part of it is to help decide where to put the pan. The second reason is to roughly decide what size pan will be OK on it.

With the size, it is very small pans which cannot work. For domestic movable units, the minimum size tends to be 12 cm. If the pot is smaller than that, the cooktop won't work.

The cooktop should always work if you place a too large pot on it. It is still not a good idea to do so, since you will get uneven heating of the food, and your pans will warp. But cookware with a sufficiently large ferromagnetic bottom (which might not be the full width of the bottom for sandwiched models) should in principle work.


How much is a cup of graham cracker crumbs in crackers and weight?

It should be about 7 crackers per cup, maybe 8, depending how finely you crush them. One of the inner packages from your 14.4oz box should be plenty (there are probably three packages with 9 in each, or 4.8oz). If you need to go the other way, that's 1/7 to 1/8 cup per cracker, or more simply, 0.5oz or 15g per cracker.

I know this from making graham cracker crusts - and you can confirm it by looking at some recipes. You generally need 1.5 cups of crumbs for a pie crust, and it takes 10-12 crackers. I've seen recipes ranging from 9 to 12 crackers (and checked ten or so when writing this), but I don't think I've ever used fewer than 10. One cup is 2/3 of that, 7 or 8 crackers. (Some people do say 20 or 24 squares, but they're clearly half-cracker squares, not the whole crackers.)

For what it's worth, the Martha Stewart crust recipe says "6 1/2 ounces graham crackers (12 crackers), finely ground (1 1/2 cups)", and 2/3 of that is 4 1/3 oz, pretty close to 1/3 of your box, maybe a cracker short, so by weight this works out too.


Are the spices sumac, harissa and za’atar related in any way to capsicums/ chillies?

Sumac is not related to chillies.
Harissa contains chillies.
Za'atar is a spice/herb blend, it should not have chillies in it, but every blend can be different, check the ingredient lists before buying.


What cut of ground beef is ideal to mix with ground lamb for kofta?

Try half and half sirloin and chuck for your beef. If you're grinding your own or can otherwise get quite specific, use sirloin tips. Ground, they're just as good as the much more expensive top sirloin. Sirloin will be low in fat, but will still have great flavor. I have used a combination of 1/2 lamb, 1/4 beef chuck and 1/4 beef sirloin tips to great success in Gyros meat (the meatloaf type).
Avoid round. There's a reason that round is often sold as generic stew-meat. It's a cheesy way for stores to sell what is often not very good meat. It's good for a few specific purposes, this isn't one of them.
EDIT: I just learned something I didn't know. Since I don't know what terminology is used in the Philippines, I bring you this handy diagram from Wiki.

I use the American terminology for sirloin, top sirloin, sirloin tip, round and chuck.
From Wiki:

The sirloin steak is a steak cut from the back of the animal.
In U.S. butchery, the steak is cut from the rear back portion of the animal, continuing off the short loin from which T-bone, porterhouse, and club steaks are cut.The sirloin is actually divided into several types of steak. The top sirloin is the most prized of these and is specifically marked for sale under that name. The bottom sirloin, which is less tender and much larger, is typically marked for sale simply as "sirloin steak." The bottom sirloin in turn connects to the sirloin tip roast.


Why do crisp bread rolls have more water than soft bread rolls?

There's several things going on here:

Water itself doesn't really make it crisp or not...per se.  What may happen there is that the water will release in the oven as steam and that contributes to a 'crisp crust'.  More water will thus generally mean a crispier crust - because it steams more.  You can accentuate this by baking in a closed container like a dutch oven or by creating steam in the oven artificially (thats what 'real' bakery ovens do, inject steam).
The reason bread is soft on the inside however has a lot more to do with two major things.

The sugar content
The fat content

Increasing both of these will make your bread softer.  So if your softer recipe also includes more these, thats why they're softer - not the water content.
The flour type...kind of.  Softness and chewiness aren't quite opposites, but if you're looking for Wonderbread, you'll want to avoid high protein flours and go for something like all purpose flour. 'Chewiness' can be perceived as less soft.  Chewiness is generally a result of more gluten.  With all purpose flour, you'll end up with less gluten and as a result, less chewiness.  Using a high protein dough, you end up with something chewy like pizza dough or such.  Since gluten forms easier with wetter doughs (thats what the whole no knead movement is about) - the water content also plays a factor here.  It will make it chewier - which can be interrupted as less soft.


When making bread, should I add salt early or late? Pros and cons

The main challenge with adding salt in a bread recipe is:

Getting it distributed evenly throughout the dough
Not inhibiting yeast growth

Most recipes are 2% salt or less, which does not have a huge effect on yeast growth so that is not the primary concern.

Therefore, the easiest way to do it is to mix it with the flour, or with the wet ingredients early, so that it will be well distributed.  That is much harder to do once a dough has formed and started to develop structure.

However, if you are using a preferment (also called a biga, paloush or several other things) where you start fermenting some of the flour and water with the yeast early, you don't want to put salt in the preferment, as it would be much more concentrated, and the only purpose of the preferment is yeast development.


Why can't this ice cream scoop go in the dishwasher?

I've accidentally run my scoop, a Zeroll with conductive fluid inside the handle, through the dishwasher. I don't know this for a fact because I didn't cut mine open to check, but I believe what happened to mine (and what's happened to yours) is that the fluid is meant to work at normal body temperature and when it gets too hot, like in a dishwasher, it solidifies. That's the clunking sound, the now-solid conductive liquid. So while it still works as a scoop, the conductive fluid is no longer doing its job and scooping will be a little harder. I definitely noticed that after mine went through the dishwasher.


Benefits for different fats for flour tortillas?

I use lard or butter, because both are solid at room temp and will bind strongly to make a tortilla that can be moved and handled easily. When I use oils (which I prefer), the tortillas turn out too delicate to handle without special care. If I'm just using the tortillas as a layer in an enchillada casserole or the like, I'll make the delicate ones (I use grapeseed or roasted hazelnut oil), but if I'm making wraps or burritos, I stick to fats that are solid at room temperature. I have a pathological dislike of shortening (too many have hydrogenated ingredients), so I can make no guesses as to how that would work, but I'm guessing that with it being solid at room temp, it will make the same sort of wrap as would lard, suet or butter.


When should I not use a cornstarch slurry?

Reducing a mixture is simply boiling out water present in the solution.  Adding a starch (either cornstarch or other flours) doesn't remove that water but instead causes the starch to expand and "trap" some of the water.

Cornstarch in particular doesn't work especially well when there isn't enough moisture in the base mixture, or if there's too much fat or sugar present, so it's not suitable for really rich sauces, for example pepper cream sauce.  It also doesn't work well in acidic mixtures like tomato sauce.

The worst thing you can do for a cornstarch-thickened mixture is to cook it at a high temperature (i.e. more than a moderate simmer) or for an extended period of time.  These will expand the starch granules so much that they pop, breaking the cornstarch and causing the sauce to thin again.  So, be very careful of cooking temperature when using a cornstarch slurry.

I have also found that cornstarch doesn't respond very well to cooling and re-heating, so it's not the best solution if you plan on saving some of the sauce for later use.


What are some kid-friendly dishes from Kenya?

The Kenyan Food Overview: 20 of Kenya’s Best Dishes by Mark Wiens should point you in the right direction. He lists ugali (cornmeal), irio (mashed peas and potatoes), githeri (beans and corn), pilau (spiced rice), stews (beef, goat, chicken, other animals), wali wa nazi (coconut rice), sukuma wiki (collard greens/kale), roasted maize (corn), bhajia (fried potatoes), mandazi (fried dough), Masala chips (french fries), chips Mayai (french fries and egg), coffee, and some cross-cultural items such as samosas and chapatis.

Masala chips might be very relatable to the children:

  The dish starts with a greasy plate of freshly deep fried french fries (chips). Tomato sauce, chili sauce, herbs, cilantro, and whatever else the chef decides are all added to the fries, coating them in a luscious sauce that will have you licking your fingers and the plate!


I didn't put the lid on my slow cooker(crockpot) for first hour of beef stew. Will it still be safe to eat?

It'll probably be fine. An hour isn't very long and I am willing to bet your food was getting hot anyway even if it wasn't getting as hot as quickly for the first hour.


Why is black pepper both grey and black?

Here is a photo of a peppercorn.  You can see why a ground one might contain both black and grey bits.


Fat contents from different types of ground beef when drained

I have heard that you can get the fattiest type, drain the grease as normal, and then rinse the meat with water in a colander to make it equivalent to the extra lean fat content. I'm not sure I buy that, and it seems this would rinse off any seasonings used also.

That sounds terrible. Cooked ground beef should be drained if necessary, but not rinsed. It will rinse away a lot of flavor, and I doubt it makes it the equivalent of having bought lean meat in the first place. There is still plenty of fat present in the meat itself.

If you want low fat get extra lean. If you want flavor get 80/20 or 70/30 and drain thoroughly for as little fat as possible. Do yourself a favor though and don't rinse it with water.


Making a dark, suspended chocolate sauce

1) Well, it happened because you used something that is rich in saturated fat.

Saturated fat liquefies when heated and solidifies when cool (this is why some places call the type of confectioner's chocolate that doesn't need to go to the fridge to solidify "hydrogenated chocolate", because it is rich in artificially saturated - hydrogenated - fat)

2) My recommendation for you would be adding milk or if you don't want to lose the "darkness" of your sauce, you could add in vegetable oil and food emulsifier (or if you have it on hand, pasteurized egg yolks)

3) You could also change the type of fat you're using, hence the vegetable oil (unsaturated fat) suggestion


Will collagen, gelatine and mineral nutrients be lost when fat is removed from broth?

Most of what you're interested is in the water/broth, not the fat.

This is especially obvious for the gelatin; the whole reason that broth has that nice mouthfeel and thickens or gels when chilled is that it's full of gelatin. The other proteins and nutrients are just as water-soluble.

You may end up with some particles mixed into the fat, so it might not be pure fat, but it's pretty close.


Resources that explain the science of cooking?

IMO, this really would have greater lasting value with a single detailed answer instead of a poll.  Here's an annotated list of all the recommendations so far:

On Food And Cooking (Harold McGee) is all science at a very detailed level, combining food chemistry and biology and explaining the interactions between ingredients and the mechanisms behind various cooking methods.  If you're looking for a pure science book, this is it.
Good Eats: The Early Years and Good Eats 2: The Middle Years by Alton Brown.  His books are less technical/scientific than other authors and tend to focus more on application, making them more accessible to less hardcore cooks.
CookWise (Shirley O. Corriher).  Written by a biochemist who has done a lot of consulting in the food industry.  This is more practical than McGee and more technical than Alton's books.  It also includes a ton of recipes, which can be a good thing or bad thing depending on your personal preferences. She has also written a baking version, BakeWise.
Molecular Gastronomy (Hervé This, translated by Malcolm DeBevoise).  This is more of a niche book (about - surprise - Molecular Gastronomy) and as you might expect is a little French-centric.  What's really great about this book is how it debunks a lot of popular cooking myths with actual controlled experiments and hard data.  It wouldn't be my first choice to recommend to a Food Science newbie, but nevertheless a good one to add to your collection.
The Fat Duck Cookbook (Heston Blumenthal).  Written by the founder of the Fat Duck Restaurant in the UK.  It's about the history of the Fat Duck and has a big recipe collection (from the restaurant, obviously) and a section at the end dedicated to food science.  This one's really for the advanced crowd as it involves a lot of molecular gastronomy, sous-vide and other esoterica - complex preparations, hard-to-find ingredients and unusual/expensive equipment.
Cooking for Geeks (Jeff Potter) is, as the title implies, written to appeal to geeks, and as such has a certain amount of science but tends to be quite a bit more basic as far as actual cooking technique goes.  It's more "applied science."  Honestly, I wouldn't recommend this for very experienced cooks, but it's great for getting into cooking and gaining an enthusiasm for it (if you're kind of a geek).
Cooking for Engineers is a web site, not a book, which has the obvious advantage of being free and searchable.  It's hard to really define this as its scope is so wide, but I will say that I've found it to be a surprisingly useful and detailed resource whenever I need to find out something quickly.
What Einstein Told His Cook (Robert L. Wolke) is also mostly on the science itself but is written to be more accessible to the layperson.  As one reviewer on Amazon put it, Wolke is like the Bill Nye of Food Science.  One part science, two parts entertainment.  Another member has criticized it for making unproven claims (particularly on nutrition).
The Cooks Illustrated annuals (from America's Test Kitchen) are less about the actual chemistry of food but do highlight a very scientific approach to cooking based on up-front research, experimentation and testing.  See David LeBauer's Answer for a more detailed explanation.
The Science of Cooking (Peter Barham) focuses on the chemistry and physics of why some recipes work and some fail.
khymos.org - on the surface it's about molecular gastronomy, but you'll find much of the science of cooking (e.g. the chemistry behind "working" flavour pairings etc) on there too.
The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science (J. Kenji López-Alt) is a collection of detailed recipes, tips and explanations.  It's written to be easily accessible to a chef without much experience.
Serious Eats is a website with both recipes and stories about how the recipes were developed (often with pictures of various attempts to compare how changing processes or ingredients affected things).  Especially see the 'techniques' section of The Food Lab


Why does some mayonnaise burn when toasted?

With the exception of the water and salt, any of those ingredients will burn if you heat them hot enough. If you're seeing it more with a particular brand, though, and if it's happening at temperatures below 200 degrees Celsius, it's probably the egg. Mass-produced commercial mayonnaise like Kraft has relatively little egg, while 'boutique' mayo (or homemade mayo) will have more.


Coconut Cookies have bitter underlying taste

Baking requires accurate measurements. In fact most people who bake seriously avoid volume measurements for anything but liquids, and use weight instead (with the exception of small quantities up to about a tablespoon, which affordable scales have only been able to measure accurately in recent years.

That said, there aren't any particularly bitter ingredients, except the baking soda, and you say the rise wasn't good. However baking soda needs to react with acid, and a shortage of acid would lead to both a poor rise and a bitter flavour. Coconut and butter are both slightly acidic, and even poor mixing  of the soda and acid can cause bitterness and a poor rise


Funnily enough I made some of these just a week ago. They're not at all difficult to make and you can use any rind, which your butcher should be able to supply.

Depending on your health considerations, you can oven cook them or you can part oven cook part fry.

Oven cook method:

Cut the rinds into 4 by 4cm pieces
Place in a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes
allow to cool, then place in the fridge until the skins feel 'dry' approx 2 hours
Preheat the oven to 220c(425f) and place the rinds on a baking sheet. Season and place in the oven
Turn the oven down to 180c(350f) and cook for about an hour. You will need to drain the fat a couple of times.
Let them cool and add more seasoning, if needed.

The Oven/Fry method

Cut the rinds into pieces that will fit on a rack over a baking tray (not small pieces)
Half fill a baking tray with water and place the seasoned rinds on a rack over they tray
Roast these in the oven at 220 to 230c(350 to 450f) for 10 to 15 minutes. When they've changed colour and start to bubble they're done.
Remove form the oven and cut into 4 by 4cm strips
In a pan half filled with very hot veggie oil or a deep fat fryer, cook in batches until they 'puff' up around 2 to 3 minutes.
Remove and let the oil be taken-up by paper towel. Season and you're good to go.

I tried both methods and I preferred the second, something about frying them just 'felt' right :)


Will I be able to cook my mac & cheese until it's brown if my cheese sauce is thick

I've made many varieties of mac and cheese, both thick and thin so I'm confident in saying that browning is a matter of preference. There's no reason you can't brown the top more if you like.  Use a higher oven temperature or you can put finish it under a grill/broiler to give it more color. I find a layer of breadcrumbs mixed with cheese browns well on mac and cheese.


If a utensil is safe for a 'normal' microwave, is it also safe for a flatbed microwave?

Yes it is safe, all microwaves work on the same principle, and use the same range of radio frequencies to heat food. All microwaves used to be flatbeds, most commercial microwaves are still flatbeds, so you have nothing to worry about.


Suggested chili peppers for steeping in alcohol (bourbon, specifically)

Jalapeño would indeed not be a good choice, but if you can buy them locally red Thai chilli peppers are great for this: I use 2 of these per bottle of vodka and then a dash of liquid honey, but I put the peppers in whole and leave them be for at least 6 months.

As you seem to be in a bit more of a rush:

Wear gloves!
Cut them in 2
Remove the seeds
Cut them up in small strips
Add them to the Bourbon a few days in advance

The  "I want it all and I want it now!" method:

Wear gloves!
Cut them in 2
Remove the seeds
Fry them in enough grapeseed oil to cover them all
Add as many drops of the spicy hot oil you now have into the bourbon until the taste is like you want it to be¹
Serve immediately.

Note¹: The alcohol will ensure the oil gets dissolved as long as you don't start pouring it in...


How can I smoke a large chicken on an outdoor grill and still keep the skin edible?

You need to first let the wood burn down to coals before adding your smoking chips and the bird.  The excessive smoke from the burning wood is what made it too bitter.  What type of wood were you burning?


According to the New York Department of Agriculture, fruit pies can be refrozen after thawing, but their quality will degrade. It's only apples and pastry when you think about it, so not much to spoil. It will probably dry out though.


Tips on cooking fish/meat when not even thickness

It's quite the challenge. The two things I do are lift the thin end off the hot surface with something spatula-like or the edge of the pan, leaving the thicker part on the heat. The other thing is sear relatively quickly and then move the whole pan with fish in it to the oven, this method good with very thick meat. There's also the option of sous vide.


The only way to tell if a pork roast has been cooked long enough is by taking an internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer in several places around the thickest portion of the roast.

The National Pork Board recommends cooking pork chops, roasts, and tenderloin to an internal temperature between 145° F. (medium rare) and 160° F. (medium), followed by a 3 minute rest. Since large cuts increase approximately 10° F while resting, remove them from the heat at 150° F. followed by a 10 minute rest.
Pork Cooking Times and Temperatures


The major difference between stove cooking and oven cooking is that on the stove you will have a hot spot on the bottom and a cooler spot on the top, and with an oven the heat comes from all sides equally.

When making a stew where the meat is in pieces submerged in liquid then you are absolutely right that there's no major difference in the flavor or texture of the end result as the circulation of the liquid due to heat imbalance and movement of the pieces within the liquid will cook things evenly. Where an oven gives a better result is when the ingredients do not have the opportunity to move around, for instance a big chunk of meat, where you will have one side hotter and one cooler for a long period of time as you will end up with one side more cooked than the other. In an oven you would get more even heat and more even cooking of the large piece of meat.

The only exception to the above is when you are going for a long slow cook. I have found that I don't get good heat and ingredient circulation on the stove when the temperature gets too low, I end up with overcooked ingredients on the bottom and undercooked on the top unless I stir often, which is why I will use the oven in these cases.

There are other advantages to oven cooking:

Better heat control: you can set the oven to a specific temperature and have it be consistent over long periods of time, with a stovetop it's much more guesswork
Frees your stove for other things: stews tend to be in big pots which take up a lot of space, cooking in your oven means more stovetop space

As for energy efficiency of stove versus oven there are many variables to account for: energy source, pan size and material, ambient temperature, etc. My instinct is that the oven would be more energy efficient as it contains the heat more while with a stove you lose lots of heat to your environment. I have no documentary evidence to support that.


Fruit Flies and Storage of Fresh Produce

I've never had luck keeping them out of food. Sealed containers work, but cause fruit to ripen and spoil quickly, and they are small enough to get in anything with an opening.

However, a simple fruit fly trap can keep them in check:

Cut a 2l soda bottle where the top taper ends (above the label). Add a few drops dish soap to a few tbsp of apple juice, beer or cider vinegar. Pieces of fruit can also be used. Invert the severed top of the bottle (sans cap), and seal with a piece of duct tape around the edge.

Set near the fruit and wait. Open it up to empty every few days.

Google will give you a variety of other designs that you can build if you are more ambitious.


How to know whether the oven's door has loosened and leaking out some energy or is as tight as it was when new?

Unless you have a measured baseline from before your child played with it there's no 100% way to know whether the seal is as good as it was when new - you have nothing to compare it to. If you want to determine if you have a decent seal you need to use your cheek and your ear.

Oven seals not only hold in heat but sound as well, while your cheek is sensitive to heat and airflow. Put something sizzly in your hot oven and then move your head all around the closed door. If you hear the sizzle (or the fan if you have a convection oven) and feel a blast of heat in an area that's a good indication your seal is not effective there anymore. Use your body weight against the door and see pushing it closed cuts the sound and heat. If pushing it closed works it's more likely weak hinges than the seal. If there's no sound or heat leakage you are still good.

Keep in mind oven seals do degrade and some oven hinges weaken over time, if you do have a leak it may have nothing to do with your kid.


Using Milk Chocolate instead of unsweetened chocolate in a pie

Milk chocolate is usually made for eating, not for baking. In any case, even if you are using a milk chocolate that is meant for baking, you need more than milk chocolate and eggs to make a chocolate silk pie.

Your desired result is light, smooth and consistent throughout. To get there you need to add volume in the form of air, typically by folding in whipped cream, but also by making a nice light custard of the eggs over a double boiler. You can't just mix the eggs into the chocolate and expect to get the right texture.

If you can determine the proportion of sugar to cocoa to milk solids in your chocolate, and if there is not too much else in the chocolate altering its texture, you should be able to tell if you are close enough to the proportions of your original recipe to pull it off.

Please share your result with us if you tried this for Christmas, or do in the future.


Substituting hazelnuts for almonds, baking

According to the Mayo Clinic, hazelnuts are somewhat more fatty than almonds, per ounce by weight (the range is for whether they are roasted or not):

Almonds - 14 - 15 g
Hazelnuts - 17 - 17.7 g

As might be expected, hazelnuts are slightly lower in starch.  These is unlikely to make any practical difference in the recipe, as both are fairly close.

You should be able to use them close to interchangeably in recipes, although their flavors will be deliciously different, of course.

As for peeling hazelnuts, there are many methods.  One of the more effective techniques, which will work if you are going to toast them lightly afterwards is to blanch them in a baking soda solution.   See, for example, this article from My Baking Addiction with a video of Alice Medrich and Julia Child embedded demonstrating the technique.


How long will a peanut butter sandwich last?

Generally, peanut butter has a fairly good shelf life. Putting it on bread doesn't change that.

Ordinary salted butter should also be alright for a day or two, as long as it wasn't in direct sunlight or high moisture or anything like that.

Most importantly, both butter and peanut butter will not spoil in a way that goes unnoticed. They will smell or feel wrong very obviously.

Disclaimer: This is not restaurant level hygiene advice, and probably contradicts public-health guidelines. It's certainly good enough for your own sandwiches though.


Will fresh strawberries make a cake soggy?

I also think that the strawberries won't be much of a problem. But if you use lots of them, or if they are frozen, or if you want to use other, moister, fruit in the future, you could run into problems. And you would be relieved that there is a solution.

The solution against cake getting soggy from fruit is to simply seal the cake layers against moisture. The traditional way is to glaze with apricot jam - you brush a very thin layer of melted apricot jam on the cake layer, and put the fruit on it after it has cooled. The amount is so small that the taste is not noticeable, and it is also practically invisible. Alternatively, you can use other glazes, such as slightly thickened simple syrup (cooled, so it won't seep into the layer itself), starch cooked in water (evtl. with some sugar), other jams, or commercially available sealers (Dr Oetker sells them in sachets).


How long will glutinous rice flour keep unopened?

As per this website: it should last 6-8 months past printed expiration date.

However, this website says that when stored in a tightly covered container in a cool dry place, white rice flour may last indefinitely. You can also have a look at this answer which talks about bugs and rancidity.

I have previously kept rice flour in a plastic container inside the fridge and it's lasted me quite long, way past it's expiration date.


How to tell if shrimp is already cooked and what to do with it?

If you look at the label, you see "CKD SHRIMP..." which I read as "cooked shrimp".

Even without the label, you have two indicators for cooked:

the colour: raw shrimp are greyish-green, they turn pink when cooked
the body shape: raw shrimp have a more "stretched" body, they curl up during cooking.


I have a bottle of unopened 23 year old corked spanish white cooking wine

Yes, barring something really bizarre, it is safe.

It probably sucks, but the best way to know for sure is to taste it.

Know one thing, it is not any more "aged" in a positive way now than it was 23 years ago. It's just older. For more information check out the Wiki, Aging of Wine.


What difference does the bar pressure makes in espresso coffee machines?

Brew a standard espresso!
9 bar is the "standard", not 15. This number has been reached after lots of trial/error with other pressures, and is accepted as standard by Italian (page 7) and U.S.A. associations and guilds.
Some guys have even made devices to check how precisely their machines reach that pressure.

Professional (also called commercial) machines can give much more pressure, but control automatically not to give more. They kind of pumps they use are called rotary pump, and due to their construction, the flow rate is independent of the pressure (which will remain quite constant).

Home machines employ the cheaper vibratory pumps. In them, the pressure is indirectly proportional to the flow. To try to have a more constant pressure, and to make it independent of the flow rate, they are added overpressure valves. But they need to have pumps that give more than 9 bar, to assure that those 9 bars will get to the basket in the portafilter.

You can see both rotary and vibratory pumps dismantled in this video.
So, when manufacturers advertise their vibratory pump machines having 15 or more bars of pressure, they are just doing marketing using the not always true motto "the more the better".
But why do I still see many machines high pressure?
One of the signs of good quality espresso is the crema. If the coffee is good it will have a nice layer of crema on top. The marketing guys know you'll think If my espresso has crema it will taste good (which is not necessarily true). So they added a pressurized filter to produce crema even with stale coffee that was grinded one month ago. As their name shows, pressurized filters need more pressure than a 9 bar standard one.


Make Kiwifruit sauce less sour without sugar?

I made a sauce using the ingredient ratios specified in the question. The sweet and sour in this sauce actually balanced each other and I thought this might invalidate any experiments until I considered that they also dominated the flavour of the sauce. In other words the sauce was a little too tangy (or tart if you prefer).

For the purposes of this answer, I'll make the following distinctions:

sour: A taste where there is not enough sweetness to balance the acidic notes;
tangy: A taste where sweet and acidic notes are balanced;
tart: A taste that is tangy, but the sweet and acidic notes together dominate flavour.

Note that I don't suggest that this is the accepted nomenclature. I think it is possible that the OP confounded sour with tart which may explain the specification of no additional sugar in the question.

Colour as a sweetener

As the Wikipedia article on Sweetness says,

  The color of food can affect sweetness perception. Adding more red
  color to a drink increases its perceived sweetness with darker colored
  solutions being rated 2–10% higher than lighter ones even though it
  had 1% less sucrose concentration.

The colour of this sauce became much duller during cooking, so I tested the effect on taste of using a green food dye. I didn't notice any difference in a side-by-side taste-test, even though the sauce with food dye did look much nicer,

I did one more test adding more dye and this time, to my surprise, the sauce with the more vibrant colour tasted very slightly, but nevertheless distinctly sweeter than the original.

I didn't quite believe this, so I taste tested this several times with the same result.

This led me to suspect the food dye itself and, sure enough, it tasted sweet due to an amount of glycerol in the ingredients. Despite invalidating my experiment, glycerol is neither sugar nor honey and as such answers the OP's question directly (if indeed the sauce was sour and needed sweetening). Adding to that the fact that the sauce now looks more appetising, I can recommend using green food dye whether or not colour has any effect on taste.

Salt

I also tested the suggestion of another poster, where salt is used to sweeten the sauce. I didn't hold out much hope for this technique, having experimented with salt on all manner of fruits a couple of days back.

Once again, I was surprised. Salt made a positive difference, although this time the sauce was no sweeter than before. Quite the opposite; sweetness was reduced (which is consistent with my earlier experiments). The sour note was also reduced, so sweet and sour were still balanced leaving the sauce tangy but not tart.

I adding a pinch more salt and now the salty taste came through and ruined the sauce.

I recommend adding salt if the sauce is similar to mine and excessively tart rather than actually sour. It is easy to overstep the mark when adding salt. I suggest making a little more sauce than actually necessary and putting an amount aside before adding the salt so that you can re-introduce some if you do go overboard.

Dilution

Finally I tested the advice to thin-out the sauce with water. This was the least promising result and it seems to me that sweetness disappeared faster than the sour taste. I tried various dilutions, but nothing compared well to the original and flavour was lost.

Possibly this could work if you dilute the sauce with something more flavourful than water, but I would recommend the other two methods over this if you want to stay true to the original recipe.


Separate cutting boards: Cooked vs Uncooked meat

You can use the same board (I often do), but you must wash it in hot, soapy water in-between. Usually there is plenty of time to do this while the meat is cooking.  Because bacteria grows exponentially, I'd recommend washing the board soon, even if you aren't going to reuse it, to prevent accidental cross-contamination.

If you're using one meat board, you should also wash it between different kinds of meat.  For example, pork and chicken typically have different bacteria risks and different cooking temperatures because of those bacteria.  If you cross contaminate, then safely cooked pork may still have a risk of salmonella.

And, of course, you should wash your knives, spatulas, tongs, etc between handling uncooked and cooked meats.


Large quantities of sushi rice in a rice cooker?

Sushi rice in a rice cooker would be cooked using mostly the same ratio as other rices.  I tend to add just a touch more water than I would if making, say, basmati rice just to make it a bit sticky.  Since the standard rice-cooker formula is:

Rinse rice a couple times and mostly drain
Add equal quantities water as rice (e.g. 2 cups water for 2 cups rice)

... for sushi rice, I add just about 10% more water, e.g. 2 1/4 cups water to 2 cups rice.  This makes it just a touch stickier.  Optionally, you can throw a piece of konbu in the rice cooker for extra flavor in the rice, but I've never found it to make much difference.

Of course, if you're making sushi rice, you'll want to take the rice out of the rice cooker as soon as it's done, spread it in a large pan, and season it with vinegar, salt and sugar and cool.

I've made nori rolls using rice cooker sushi rice several times; it works fine, and most of the sushi you've eaten in restaurants was cooked in the rice cooker.  Making it the old-fashioned way (soaking the rice in cold water etc.) results in somewhat better rice texture, but it's a lot more time.


How to get rid of the taste of flour in homemade bakery?

Assuming you aren't very unlucky and happen to download a series of bad recipes I think it's one of a few things.

It's possible you could be undercooking your goods. Fully cooked baked goods should not taste like flour.

It's also possible that you could be mixing insufficiently. If this were the case though you'd  likely have some cookies that weren't floury.

The most likely culprit though is packed flour. If you are using volume measurements (most likely given the source) for flour, it's quite possible to use nearly twice as much flour as the recipe intends simply because your flour is packed down more than the author's was.

I recommend using either a food processor or a sifter to sift your flour adequately before measuring. Don't undo your sifting by rapping your measuring cup on the counter either! Simply scoop, scrape to level and dump it in the mixing bowl.

See Also:

What Kinds of Recipes Should I Sift/Aerate The Flour?
How can I make sifting easier?
What is the purpose of sifting dry ingredients?


Some forms of wheat are suitable for immediate cooking in a similar way to rice, such as Bulghur.  This is traditional in much of the Middle East, and has been par-cooked prior to sale.

Cracked wheat is also available, but requires longer cooking.  Note that terms overlap and even manufacturers can be vague.  Whole wheat seeds do exist, sold for sprouting; it's not clear to me whether you could cook these directly but they'd take a long time if so.

Pasta is a traditional staple food in some parts of the world, and perfectly suitable for eating every day.  Some dried pastas have nothing but wheat in them. Couscous, like many kinds of pasta, is made from pure wheat, but it's more absorbent and can be treated rather like rice and served with stew on top, or cold as a form of salad. It's an important part of the diet in some North African countries.

Bread is also an everyday (or even every meal) food in many places.  These staple breads tend to be rather plain, at least when eaten as an accompaniment to other foods, and unless you're on a low-sodium diet it's a good source of complex carbohydrates.

Neither wheat nor rice can be treated as providing a full range of nutrients.  this isn't the place to get into details but living on grains alone won't provide enough macro- or micro-nutrients.


What is this oddly shaped hinged device with indentations?

It's a lemon/lime wedge juice squeezer.
Only place I've ever really seen them used is in British Indian restaurants.
Pop a wedge in the gap, squeeze the handles, juice can be poured with reasonable accuracy from any of the fluted edges. No messy fingers.

Image from Amazon


Way to Differentiate between Necessary vs Additional Ingredients in Recipes

Get a stack of 10 or 20 trustworthy recipes for a dish - and compare.

Also take advantage of ingredient slots that seem optional in one dish - sometimes they are a way to use up something that you bought for another recipe where it is not optional.

Classify ingredients by the role they play in the dish:

What do they do to the balance of the basic six tastes? Can the balance be kept by using another, more generic ingredient (eg add vinegar or lime if you leave out a sour ingredient)?
Is there a functional reason for a sour/alkaline, salty, sweet, fatty ingredient? pH can matter to how something cooks; salt and sugar can interfere with liquid balance; sugar can be textural; fat can do heat transfer; fat or alcohol can put aromas into solution.
Is there an aromatic role - and is there something with a similar aroma?
Is there a textural role? If yes, is it ONLY textural because seasoning overwhelms the taste/aroma anyway?

Also - there are a lot of "exotic" ingredients that exist across ethnic cuisines in a similar form but under different names - though sometimes salt/fat/sugar balances can be different. One example would be korean doenjang and japanese dark miso. Experimentation might be needed at first.


Mothballs in the pantry: is it safe to keep food there?

Mothballs work by sublimating (evaporating) a toxic substance into the air. That substance, be it para-dichlorobenzene or napthalene, recondenses on whatever else is in the area around them, and makes those objects toxic to moths etc.
However, the sublimation takes a long time. You can leave mothballs in a closet for months, and still not see very little weight loss in the balls themselves. That means that not much will come off in 'a few hours' to wreck your food.
Tell your roommate that a pantry is not a good long term storage spot for mothballs, but eat the food with confidence. It hasn't had time to get contaminated.


How to wash vegetables without running water?

Let's call a spade a spade: if you're in one of many areas where people don't eat vegetables raw, it's because nightsoil or unsterilized animal manure is used to fertilize the fields. A quick rinse won't render these vegetables safe to eat, because you need to kill the pathogens.

To start out, you should wash all dirt and sand off produce; for this wash it is okay to use tap water as long as it is well-filtered, because you will be following it with a sanitizing step.  From here you have two ways to render the vegetables safe.

Blanching is probably the best solution to keep most of the flavor and texture, while still avoiding illness.  To do this, briefly immerse the vegetables in boiling water, and then transfer them to a (boiled) ice water bath.  The exposure to very hot water should kill most pathogens, but by only briefly exposing them to hot water you won't cook them much.

An alternate, but not as effective approach is to soak in sanitizing solution for 15-20 minutes. According to this source, there are a couple good options. One is a ionized silver suspension; in Mexico this is sold as Microdyn or Bacdyn.  Another option is bleach, prepared at roughly 1 1/2 tsp bleach (5.25% hypochlorite solution) per gallon (4 liters) water.  After immersion, bleach should not be rinsed off until just before use, and final rinse should be food-safe water.  Note that rinses will not kill all bacteria, but will significantly reduce their counts.

Use caution if you use an alternate sanitizing procedure: a lot of vegetable washes are just intended to remove waxes and pesticide residue, not kill pathogens.  Even ones with mild antibacterial properties won't cut it, since you need to kill a wide range of pathogens AND parasites: Ascaris worms in particular are common in developing areas and potentially lethal.

Finally, be extra cautious about cross-contamination.  Any fresh produce should be handled as if it's raw meat, because it can carry almost any food-borne illness.  Cleaning should be done before cutting produce, so as to avoid introducing pathogens into the interior.  You'll probably also want to take anti-parasite medications bi-annually to supplement this, since they harder to eliminate from food and may slip through.

Oh, and if you're ever tempted to skip the cleaning steps, remember: there's a good chance your vegetables have poop on them.

Final footnote: there is an EXCELLENT resource on food safety in the Yucatan, by a PhD who worked in public health and for the EPA.  The advice is broadly applicable to anyone living in developing countries.


Ideas to cook dry beans fast in halogen oven

The only way I can think of to cook beans faster is in a pressure cooker.


Can I soak dried fruit in sweet wine instead of liqueur for use in fruitcakes?

A good quality ($20 or so) sweet Port, Madeira, or Sherry could be lovely, and add a delicious flavor note of its own. Make sure it's something that tastes good by itself, with a flavor that appeals to you, complimenting a piece of cake.

Note that these are so-called "fortified wines" — they are distilled to a higher alcohol content. Historically, this was done to achieve a long shelf-life without preservatives, so they're more like spirits. Unlike regular "corked" wines, an opened bottle of fortified wine can last a long time, so the cork is made as a stopper that can be easily resealed.

I don't think you'd get good results with a moscato or such. I also wouldn't skimp and buy a cheap (e.g.: Taylor) bottle of Port — that would be like using cheap, imitation vanilla extract! Spending $30 to get a high-quality flavor that you enjoy, is money well spent.

This kind of wine typically comes in both sweet and dry variants. If you're making an entrée sauce, you probably want a dry wine. For fruitcake, be sure to select a sweet variety. Sometimes, they're not specifically labeled "dry" or "sweet", so you need to read how it's described the label, or ask your vintner for a recommendation.


Ratios of flour-egg-chicken? Simple breading

I'm not sure that's the answer you were looking for but maybe it'll be helpful:

Most cooks don't find a reason to measure breading ingredients.

A bowl of eggwash will give you the same coating wether two or twenty eggs are beaten in it. Two beaten eggs and two tablespoons of water go a long way and are usually enough. And the same goes for flour and breadcrumbs: The amount in the bowl doesn't determine the thickness of the coating. It's your hands that do it.

If you're just talking about economy, then allow me to suggest a trick I've seen in restaurants' kitchens: Use more flour and crumbs than you need, and after you're done strain them through a sieve. Pieces touched by eggs will clump and be strained out, and clean flour and crumbs will return to the fridge.


Yes, you can whip egg whites (or whipped cream, or....) by hand. There are a few things you need:

a reasonably large bowl
a good, sturdy whisk, again not too small
proper technique
a good amount of ellbow grease
patience

It will typically take longer than when using a mixer (for beginners, I've seen pros that could keep up with any measly old mixer, especially taking cleanup time into account) but lets you control the outcome better: less chance of overmixing or uneven results.

I myself have done it several times, either because I had no mixer at hand or because I was working in the middle of the night and didn't want to wake everyone and the neighbours.

For motivation, see this video and this video for technique and this video for fun or any other tutorial on the web.


How to preserve the "sugar syrup" without using a cold storage?

Sugar is a natural preservative and provided you store it in a dark, dry, cool place it should keep for a long time. You should store it in a sterilised glass jar or bottle.

To sterilise, place the empty, open jar in a pan of cold water and bring to the boil, boiling for ten minutes. Remove, pour in the syrup, then place the lid on and return to the boiling water for another ten minutes. Dry with a clean towel and store.


What type of Rice is best for Indian Style Rice Pudding?

In Kerala style cuisine (which is what I'm most familiar with as an eater, not a cook) the rice is a short, white variety that is fried in ghee first. It's very similar to the short grain rice used in Japanese cooking.

I have no idea how this would be packaged in the United States, it's just Rice (for the short grain), or long grain/Basmati rice here. I depend on Indian friends to help me identify the good stuff.

As a cook, I find both the short, white style and plain white basmati work very well. The texture with the short grain rice is smoother, and you can taste more of the milk (or coconut milk) and cardamom. It's also very good served cold. The basmati produces a heartier rice pudding that is enhanced by adding extra raisins and cinnamon. I like this best hot.


Typically "oven safe" indicates that none of the components will break down in high heats. As there are no plastic or wooden components, and the utensil is all metal, it would appear that it is oven safe. Assuming there are no other chemical compounds used in the fry pan that would break down you should be good to go and toss it in the oven as long as you wear a mitt when you pull it out.