It's absolutely possible to re-use it, although you will want to keep an eye on how salty it gets as you use it for successive batches. It will also, like any fat, degrade as you repeatedly heat it up, so you can't keep it forever. It should be good for at least three rounds of duck confit, though.

Just strain it through some cheesecloth into a clean and dry container and store it anywhere it will stay solid, i.e., preferably the fridge (if you need the space in there a nice cool (< 45˚F (7˚C)) and clean basement/larder will do).

Also, hang on to the jelly that ends up in the bottom -- it's like a salty aspic and makes a nice snack spread on toast, or diced up and tossed in a salad. You can also throw it into stews or make a sauce from it.


can I substitute greek yogurt for sour cream for a topping for baked cheesecake?

It's difficult to say without considering the details of a specific recipe.

Both items have a sour dairy flavor.  Obviously the two products often also taste different, because they may use different bacterial strains and temperatures in fermentation.  But if you are using them as an ingredient in a topping that has other strong flavors, the taste difference may not be that noticeable.

In general, the main difference is going to be the fat content.  Full-fat greek yogurt typically has about twice as much fat as regular milk, around 10%.  Sour cream generally has around 18-20% milkfat (though some varieties may be higher).

Aside from less richness in your topping, the lower fat content of the greek yogurt could impact the texture, perhaps making it more runny.  On the other hand, the thickness of greek yogurt is due to a higher protein content (rather than fat) which could also impact texture.  You might need to make adjustments in quantity and/or add thickeners or liquid to obtain a similar texture to what you normally expect.


In general, cooler temps mean slower fermentation, and, in my opinion, better flavor.  I would go for a cool, dark place.  Beyond that you'll want to make sure that you have the correct percentage of salt to pickle...3.5% by weight at least.  Too low a concentration, and bad bacteria will survive.  There are lots of internet resources, but Sandor Katz is the expert This is his site.


How long can flour dough sit on counter?

Everything in your recipe is safe at room temperature.  If you are talking about hours (even 24 hours), there is no safety issue.  If you are talking about a longer period of time (days?), your likely risks would be mold growth, or rancidity.


How do you get a dry surface on gummie candies?

Looks like I was on the right track with the corn starch: the secret seems to be two coatings (powdered sugar + cornstarch, then granulated sugar + citric acid). Details here.


turkey with beautiful browned skin that doesn't stick to the meat

When it's in a bag, the steam produced during roasting is trapped.  A layer of steam occurs between the skin and the meat, separating the skin from the meat.

The same process happens when cooking without a bag, just more slowly, as the steam fills the entire oven - and then some of it escapes through vents or out the door seal.

Turkeys release a surprisingly large amount of liquid when cooked, compared to other poultry, so the skin separation is more pronounced than in chickens.


How to know how many tablespoons of seeds correspond to 1 table spoon of its ground form?

It depends on how accurate you want, but based upon the book On Food And Cooking: The Science And Lore Of The Kitchen by Harold McGee, this is not possible to be 100% accurate. This is probably too accurate for your needs, but as you didn't state how accurate you want, I'll only explain why it can't be 100% accurate.

Measuring by tablespoons or the like doesn't take into consideration the size of the food on the spoon (the seed in this case). For example, not every seed has the same shape, size or mass. So when grinding to a powder, you're not working with consistent seeds.

This means, if you take 1tbs (or ever better, a cup) or seeds and then weight it, and then take another measure you'll have different results.

The problem with powder, is it depends on how fine you're going. The finer will allow you have more powder in the same space compared to something 'grated' a little thicker. There is also the issue of air which gets into the powders which will have some factor.


Skills that are only learned by professional chefs?

I don't think the skills are any different. The same basic skills apply and can be put to use at home or in a restaurant.  It's just that pros have a lot more practice, repetition, and refinement of those skills, and can thus execute at a  higher level, and consistently. Additionally, they have access to tools that might be too costly for most people to keep in their own kitchen...like a pacojet, or quality extrusion past maker...etc.

They also accumulate more tacit knowledge accumulated from time in the industry, so that the skills can be employed in creative ways.  There are what you might call tips and tricks that are employed...something minor like placing a wet paper towel on top of herbs that have been prepped for a garnish comes to mind as a simple example...but I really can't think of anything out of reach for a curious home cook in terms of skills.

However, the other thing to know is that pro chefs also must consider efficiency to a much higher degree than home cooks.  Not only efficiency in terms of speed and reduction of wasted steps, but also economic efficiency. I suppose many home cooks have to consider this as well.

Maybe the bottom line is that pro chefs learn skills because they have to.  Home cooks can learn the same skills, often because they want to, but they aren't out of reach.


How much salt does pasta absorb compared to rice?

If we assume that neither has any significant salt to start with and you cook them in equally salty water then to a good approximation they will absorb salt in proportion to the water they absorb.

White rice apparently absorbs twice its weight in water, while for pasta the figure is more like 1.1-1.4 times. That would suggest that rice absorbs more salt than pasta does. The effect on the flavour may not be quite the same as the effect on the concentration.

If you're trying to get add much salt in as possible, you need to start with as much as possible dissolved in your water.


Meringue powder is a pasteurized egg product - "dried egg whites with stabilizers and anti-clumping agents such as cornstarch".

It is used to stiffen recipes and I think there are two main reasons for using it (as opposed to egg whites):

1) Reduced risk of salmonella

2) Less time/labour/effort used - you don't have to beat the egg whites for a long time to stiffen them

I would guess as well that it would have more consistent results. When making meringues with egg whites you have to be careful not to get any yolk or other fat into the mixture or it won't stiffen properly. There is no real risk of this with meringue powder.


Can you cure pork belly with skin and not replace the water?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "not replace the water".  Pancetta is cured using a dry cure process.  This does result in water/liquid leaching from the belly.  It does, of course, become part of the cure, but it is a dry cure, as opposed to a brine cure.  In any case, skin on or skin off should not matter. I prefer the flat pancetta (and leave the skin on) to the rolled when home curing. Add your salt/spice mixture.  I usually use the "salt box method".  I place mine in a ziplock bag.  I like to place a pan with a pound or two of weight on top, this keeps it flat.  Flip the bag every day until the belly is firm.  Rinse, pat dry, and proceed with drying. I find it one of the easiest, most reliable, home cures to do.


Why does readymade food always have so much flavor to it?

Readymade foods use flavour enhancers, artificial flavours and other additives that improve the mouthfeel and appearance of their product. Most ingredients lose much of their appeal during industrial processing so this kind of trickery is necessary.

Undoubtedly you can make food that tastes much better than readymade. There really is no substitute for freshly made food made from in-season fruit and vegetables. It's difficult to give general advice on how to do this. There is a great deal to learn before you can cook flavourful food consistently. I have been serious about cooking for about four years now and my cooking, if I'm to be honest, is still a bit hit-and-miss.

I suggest you start with some good, dependable recipes. The recipes on the America's Test Kitchen site are developed with simplicity in mind and don't compromise too much on flavour. I started cooking with a recipe book from Heston Blumenthal which was technically challenging but also a great way to learn a lot about cooking in a short space of time. There are more cookbook ideas in this (closed) question.

Try a recipe. If it doesn't turn out as you had hoped, do some research and try again. If you are still having trouble you can always come back here for more specific advice.


Substituting cayenne for red pepper flakes

Crushed red pepper flakes and cayenne come from the same types of peppers, and you can definitely substitute one for the other in terms of spiciness (most resources I've found say that you add about 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne for every 3/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes, or vice versa).

However, beyond the spiciness level they may not give the same flavor to the dish. In the particular recipe that you're citing, since it calls for sauteing the flakes some of the spiciness will be drawn out of the flakes and carried with the sauce, while some of it would stay with the flakes and provide those bursts of heat that your wife doesn't seem to like. As Willem says, you can use fresh chile peppers, add them like you would the flakes, and then take them out before serving. That is probably the closest you can get to the same flavor without having those "surprise spicy" moments. (1 red chile per 3/4 teaspoon flakes).

Adding ground cayenne pepper towards the end of the sauce would allow the sauce to have a pretty uniform spiciness, without any surprises, but may not give it the same flavor. Cayenne pepper is usually just the ground up cayenne pepper (a specific variety). Red pepper flakes may consist of a couple different types of dried red peppers, and they often include the dried up seeds in addition to the the dried peppers themselves. So, the cayenne will add the spice, but probably not the same complexity.

My suggestion: Make half the sauce with cayenne and half with red pepper flakes and see what you think!


I assume you are referring to standard, grocery store, cavendish bananas-

They have a ton of water and sugar and have a very delicate texture. This makes them easily disintegrate and get gummy instead of crisp. The key is to deep fry them at a fairly high heat until they are dark and crisp. It also helps to use greener bananas that will hold together better.

Butter is not well suited to this because of the necessary oil depth and high heat. Not only would it take a fair bit of butter but the butter would start to burn. Even clarified butter wouldn't be ideal.

Vegetable oil or shortening would be the way to go.

Additional notes:

To make frying them easier bananas are often coated in something starchy- like a tempura batter. Recipes abound and they are, in my opinion, much better than frying the bananas on their own.

Plantains are more often fried because they are much more starchy than Cavendish bananas. Plaintains actually become sweeter when fried.


How do I reduce the heat in my white bean chicken chile

Dairy products have the impeccable ability to dampen heat from peppers, hot sauce and other spicy items. This includes milk (often drunk along with very spicy foods and peppers), sour cream, and cheese, among others.

I find Sour Cream not only adds to the complexity of flavors in most chili's (a great thing!), but also quells the heat quite a bit.

I'd leave your chili how it is, and then as you serve it, allow the individual to add sour cream to taste.

You can also top your chili with a healthy dose of your favorite cheese. This will help tame the heat a bit too. For white chili, jack or pepper jack cheese would be a good fit.


How can I make bread within one and a half hour?

I have made bread at home for 45 years, that's my only experience, I  have found that if you use very fresh yeast, allow the bread to rest for a few minutes after you get most of the flour in, and don't keep adding flour once you begin to knead, leave the bread slightly sticky, it will rise faster. there are single rise recipes, I have one using yogurt ,but if I am in a hurry, I add extra yeast.


While using a pan on the stove top can result in roasted hazelnuts (or any nut), it does require constant movement and attention.  It can be quick, but it can also go wrong quickly if your heat is too high...or you stop shaking the pan for too long.

Alternately, roasting in a 325 to 350 F (163 to 177 C) oven, on a sheet pan, in a single layer, results in a much more predictable outcome and requires less direct attention.

Ten to 15 minutes would do the trick, but use your nose and eyes for guidance.  Once nuts begin to roast, they can quickly go from perfect to burnt.  Start checking after 8 or 9 minutes.

If you are working with hazelnuts that have the skins on them, after roasting, you can dump them onto a clean kitchen towel.  Fold the sides over and rub the nuts between the towel.  This should quickly remove most of the outer skins. I remove the cleaned ones to a bowl, and give the remaining ones another rubbing.  You may have to work at (or ignore) the few stubborn ones.


Convert grill recipe to broiler and/or oven

I don't know that it's going to work with a broiler, as you'll likely brown the top too much.  You might be able to get away with your oven as hot as it'll go and a pre-heated pizza stone.

As for broiler temperature -- I don't think I've ever set mine to anything less than all the way up when using it.  (but then again, I have an electric oven)


Thick layer of egg formed at the bottom of sponge cake

From the video, it looks like medium eggs (about 50g) were used. If like me you usually buy large eggs then the extra yolk could be as much as 50g. So I'd suggest cutting back on the yolks slightly. The water bath should help cook the base. Also definitely use a metal tin, as in the video: glass or ceramic containers do not conduct the oven's heat to the bottom of the cake so efficiently.

Finally you mention whisking: definitely whisk to stiff peaks for the egg whites. But for the batter, you don't want so much air. Instead the aim is to make a stable emulsion.


Hmmmm very interesting idea.

You would need very thin flexible slices of meat of a consistent thickness, possibly tenderized. I can't see this being easily done at home unless you happen to have a meat slicer - or can access meats prepared like this.

I suspect that cured, readily sliced meats would work best in terms of consistency for the meat; something like Prosciutto could work just fine, because it is thinly sliced and fairly consistent in thickness. It would perhaps work with sushi grade Tuna or other fairly firm fish (salmon) that can be sliced thinly - the only difficulty then would be cooking it, which would ruin the texture I think.

I don't think that raw meats would work well at all, though carpaccio?? - it would be very difficult to slice them and you would have problems with contamination of your pasta machine, even if things went perfectly.

I can see some pretty interesting pasta coming out of this - imagine having alternating pieces of prosciutto with herb in a wide noodle, or even layered herb and meat.


Nutrient composition of milk vs. home-made kefir

It could just be the difference in milk sources. Different cows, receiving variable types of feed, produce milk with varying nutritional content. They probably only tested kefir using milk from one or at most two sources. In comparison, the figures for normal milk could be drawn from hundreds of dairy farms across the nation.

I would expect there to be changes in the carb/protein/fat content of the milk, as well as vitamins produced/consumed by the kefir.  Specifically, the carbohydrate level should be lower from lactose being digested into lactic acid.


Making large batches of syrups and sauces without reducing the majority of what I originally started with?

Follow the recipe and increase everything by the same proportion if you want to make more instead of just adding more water. You've octupled the water but kept everything else about the same. Of course you'll have to boil off all that extra water before the consistency is correct. If you had a recipe for a gallon of lemonade but wanted two gallons, would you add an extra gallon of water to the original recipe and expect it to taste the same? Or would you add more lemon and sugar in addition to the extra water to keep the flavor the same? Same thing here, adding more water will water it down, you need to increase everything to increase the yield and keep the consistency the same as the original.
Interestingly that page even has a button to scale up the recipe. Click it and you'll see it does exactly what I say here: it doubles or triples all ingredients.


Baking powder, especially if too great a quantity is used, adds an unpleasant flavor to a baked good.  Even in an appropriate quantity it can be noticeable and it certainly doesn't do anything to enhance the flavor.  Many baked goods traditionally don't use a chemical leavener at all, but instead rely on technique.  Creaming butter and sugar together or whipping egg whites was historically used to make cakes which rose solely based on the bubble network that was created.

Yeast, on the other hand, creates a delightful flavor that you associate with your favorite crusty loaf of bread.  Yeast can be used not only in making bread but also in some excellent cakes (St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake, for example, although many "knock off" recipes cheat here and miss out on the true goodness).  Yeast also provides a significantly different texture during the rising due to the intentional creation of a gluten network (usually something you absolutely don't want in a quick bread or quick cake) — you don't get a crumb with big, airy holes from baking powder or baking soda with an acid.

Also, in my experience baking powder lasts six months in the pantry and yeast lasts at least six months in the fridge.  The shelf life is not so different.

If yeast scares you, you may want to check out some of the proponents of the no-knead bread technique.

For a lot more information on this subject, there is a recent publication that covers all sorts of leavening agents.


What can I use as a substitute for grated coconut in heavy syrup?

Typically when things are "canned in syrup" it's cane sugar and water.

I'd guess soak dried coconut in water (or coconut water) to rehydrate it; drain & save excess water, add twice as much sugar (volume or weight as you like, close enough to the same) as water, heat to dissolve, add coconut back to it, stir - should be close-ish.


How do I get my chocolate chip cookies to turn out thick and soft?

I've found the key to be chilling the dough. If you can get it really cold, put it on room temperature baking sheets, and put it in a well preheated oven, you get a lot less spread and therefore a considerably thicker, cakier cookie, which I also prefer. If I mix the batch in my KitchenAid, I'll put the metal bowl in the coldest part of the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour before portioning and baking, with great results.


What does the date on eggs mean if it does not say sell by or expires by in the United States?

In the US, the most important thing to look for on the carton is the number which shows the day of year that the eggs were packed. If the number is 1, that's January 1st. If it's 365, That's Dec 31st. In other countries the system may be different, so find out what system in your country indicates the pack date, if possible. Note: apparently some states in the US don't regulate this, so you would have to see what your state's protocol is, if not. All the good states do, and the others can go suck an egg.

Eggs last a very long time (a few months at least) properly refrigerated and are safe to eat long after the sell date. The egg will lose water, and the air bubble in the end of the egg will continue to grow, so if you put the egg in water and it floats, it's pretty old, but can generally still be eaten if the eggs is not crazy old.

The membranes will also thin over time, making the yolks easier to break if you're trying to separate them or use them for sunny-side up eggs, e.g. The whites will also thin and the thicker part of the whites won't be as pronounced from the thinner parts.

Some recipes actually call for aged eggs. Also note that in the US eggs are washed and the outer membrane is removed, so they must be refrigerated. In some other countries the outer membrane is left on and the eggs can be stored safely outside of the refrigerator.


What can I substitute for Gruyère in quiche lorràine?

There are a couple variations that if you're lucky might be cheaper: Beaufort and Comté. (I've only actually tried Comté, but I've seen Beaufort listed along with it and Gruyère.)

A bit farther away are Emmentaler and Jarlsberg. They both have the Swiss cheese flavor but aren't quite as firm nicely aged. Beyond that there's simply all the varieties of (American) Swiss cheese, which are generally roughly like Emmanteler but likely even softer.

If you use one of the farther away substitutes, I'd suggest adding in some hard aged cheese as well to make up for the difference. For example, I've used (American) Swiss cheese plus dry jack and parmesan and been pretty happy with it. The specific hard aged cheese probably doesn't matter a whole lot, as long as it has some nice aged flavor and not a lot of overpowering other flavors.


Beef rib roast - how much do the bones weigh?

The key factor is going to be the breed of cattle. Angus, a very high quality beef, also has heavy bone structure and a less favorable bone-to-meat ratio, where as limousine has a lighter bone structure with more meat-to-bone. Other breeds will vary as well, with hereford being (IMHO) the 'happy medium'. But, of course, each individual steer is going fall with a range of possible values rather than a constant factor.

Such value propositions really come down to individual taste and priorities. I suggest to that the comparison is really not just a xLb of bone-in vs. yLb of bone-out. The quality of getting bone-in (again, IMHO)is far superior. The attached rack provides for a degree of insulation and allows for a slower roast protecting the whole rack from over-cooking (a sin to be sure).

If you are stuck on just 'doing the math' if you are looking at a whole (7 bone) prime rib, the rack, the bones, along with the meat & fat attached to the bone that would remain if the rack were to be removed, will account for about 15% of the overall weight (give-or-take all of the variables mentioned - and more). For something 'more or less' than the whole prime (ribs 6-12) as you can see the bones will vary in size depending on whether you are at the short end or the large end of the rack.

This article, from Weber, offers a good deal of analysis of the rib roast in general and may provide some good additional information for you.

  Bone-In vs. Boneless

  Beef rib roasts are sold two ways—bone-in or boneless. There are
  several advantages to cooking a bone-in beef rib roast:

  Fat and connective tissue that surround the bones add moisture and
  flavor to the meat as it breaks down during cooking.
  Rich flavor from bone marrow may migrate into the meat during cooking.
  Bones slow the cooking of meat and limit the evaporation of moisture.
  Bones are easily removed after cooking and make a tasty treat for the chef!

  Buy a bone-in beef rib roast whenever you can.


Forgot to add salt to french fries while soaking it in hot water

Any salt added during the soaking step won’t make your fries significantly salty, during blancing the potatoes will precook and absorb some water and if salted, some salt (a 3% brine is suggested here). But the average French fry recipes I am familiar with typically don’t salt the water and many don’t parboil. - I never salted any soaking water and still got good results.

Fries are usually salted (or spiced, if you prefer) right after the last frying step when the remaining frying oil helps the salt stick to the fries.

In short: Yes, there are sources that insist on salted blanching water, and maybe it’s the way to perfection, but if you didn’t, simply salt afterwards.


What job is the fat doing when I prepare bread dough, and what to expect if I use the wrong amount?

Amongst other things, fats help moderate/impede gluten development, by not allowing water to activate the proteins.

Too much yeast and your dough will be flabby and over-risen.


How can I keep extra virgin olive oil cool and usable, while it's hot in the summer and when the fridge solidifies the oil?

As @GdD said in his comment - you can't, unless you have a way to cool it to a defined temperature such as a cooling water-bath. Olive oil is perfectly fine at higher temperatures than 25 - this would be on the cool side for a Greek (as big users and preparers of olive oil) summer, especially before the presence of air-conditioning:

Although summer in Athens began in June, on average the weather reaches its highest temperatures in July. The average temperature this month is 27°C (81°F), while the average low is a warm 22°C (72°F), and the average high is a stifling 32°C (90°F).

From here.
As to slowing down oxidation from the free-radicals, yes, keeping it in the fridge will work to some extent as in the crystalline phase the oils will be less susceptible to oxidation. Indeed I found one study that looked at oxidation and storage of olive oils at different temperatures and with different packaging types, who found that the shelf-life of the oils was best in green glass (GG) and at 6 Celsius - see quote below (EVOO is Extra virgin olive oil, TT is tinplate tin).

While shelf-life of EVOO was differently affected by packaging and storage temperature, the latter being critical for the oxidative changes taking place in oil, at the end of the observation period none of the oil samples showed significant changes in the visual descriptors of clearness, green and yellow reflections, and the basic positive sensory notes of bitterness and pungency were maintained. In particular, the oil stored in GG at 6 °C mostly preserved positive attributes, whereas the one stored in TT at 26 °C showed an enhancement of oxidative processes leading to a significant presence of the rancid flavour. Moreover, GG6 maintained the highest BI and did not show defects at the end of storage, further suggesting that storage in GG at a low temperature (6 °C), could represent a promising storage condition to slow-down the oil degradation during market storage.

Incidentally they found that storage under any conditions for more than a month meant that the oils no longer met the legal requirements for extra virgin oil. This would imply that your best bet for keeping oil is indeed to store it in the fridge and in a green glass bottle, and use it rapidly.
However, as you noted, storage in the fridge results in the oil becoming solid, so you either have to live with some solid oil and re-warm it each time you want to use it, or come to some compromise such as just storing it in the dark but not cold.


I used to do it all the time.  (but then I cut out gluten ... blah)

Make the dough
Let it proof once.
Roll into smaller balls
Place in a zip-top container
Freeze

It's easiest to let it thaw in the fridge overnight when you want to use it ... but because I make lots of small balls (maybe 2" / 5cm across), and then freeze them in sheets (16 to a gallon zip-top bag), if I have to I can break it apart into smaller amounts ... or spread it out so there's additional surface area for thawing.

Once it's thawed, you can easily shape it, and then add toppings and bake.  (or bake, add toppings, and bake ... or cast iron skillet, flip, flip again, top & broil ... however you like baking pizzas)


Both CO2 and N2O should be sold as "food safe". N2O is commonly used for whipped cream. I can't vouch for mechanical compatibility, though.


There is a tradition in southern cooking for boiling Crayfish (crawdads).  Boil them in seasoned  water, then tear them in half, suck out the head, and eat the tail.  So this is possible for shrimp as well.  I have done it and seen it done at some seafood restaurants.  I don't know that the heads are ever eaten, but they do contribute to the flavor.

I have also seen people from SE Asia (Vietnam, Laos, etc.) that would eat whole shrimp, shells and all.  So it is culture dependent.  This is true of many foods.  While we balk at shrimp heads in America, we love our cinnamon and cumin (sweets and tacos).  A lot of asian people I've met, specifically Japanese, find these flavors too strong or 'dirty' tasting.  Culture has a lot to do with what foods you find enjoyable, mostly through comfort and familiarity.

Here is an article on taste preferences.  It points out the familiarity angle, which is pretty interesting.  The more foods you're exposed to before two, the more foods you'll like.  After that, you tend to dislike anything new until you 'train' yourself to like it.  Except Lima Beans because they are always icky.

The Psychology of hating food and how we learn to love it

While there is a lot of flavor in the head and shell of shrimp, the texture is probably an aquired taste.  I also get a bit grossed out when the vein (digestive tract) is still in the shrimp.  Depending on how it's processed, this may or may not be an issue.  Whether it bothers you or not, you can always process whole shrimp yourself and save the heads and shells.  Boil it in a stock pot with some arromatics, and you have a quick, flavorful seafood stock in about 20-30 minutes.  Add some seared scallops, clams, chunks of fish, etc.


How long does cheese last out of the refrigerator

At what temperature was the freezer when you discovered the problem?  If it was below 40 F / 4 C, the cheese remained at refrigerator temperatures....  if it was warmer, you have no way of knowing for how long, and should discard the cheese.


When should one knead dough in a food processor vs. a stand mixer?

It's not preferable to use a food processor over a mixer with a hook, it's just a bit faster - food processors spin very rapidly and put a lot of energy into the dough quickly. A dough hook does the same thing, it just takes more time. A lot of it is personal preference, in my case I don't like either and prefer to knead by hand as I enjoy the process, if I am going to use a machine it's going to be my mixer with a hook as I can see the dough develop. With a food processor I'm constantly concerned it will self-destruct and take me with it in an explosion of polycarbonate shards, plus it turn dough rubbery very quickly if you leave it on too long.
So, use your hands, mixer or food processor, they will all get you there in the end.


Why is a tablespoon defined as 20mL in Australia?

The following snippet from Wikipedia doesn't fully answer your question, but it's at least suggestive of what might have happened: the UK standardized the tablespoon as a volume measure using its “eating spoon” meaning while Australia used its “serving spoon” meaning.

Before about 1700, people generally brought their own spoons to the table. Spoons were carried as personal property in much the same way as people today carry wallets, key rings, etc. From about 1700 the place setting became popular, and with it the "table-spoon," "table-fork," and "table-knife." The 18th century witnessed a proliferation of different sorts of spoons, including the tea-spoon, coffee-spoon, dessert-spoon, and soup-spoon. In the UK, the dessert-spoon and soup-spoon began to displace the table-spoon as the primary implement for eating from a bowl, at which point the name "table-spoon" took on a secondary meaning as a much larger serving spoon. At the time the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published, "tablespoon" (which by then was no longer hyphenated) still had two definitions in the UK: the original definition (eating spoon) and the new definition (serving spoon). By the time of the second edition, the first definition was relegated to "also, occasionally". However the term "tablespoon" referring to a serving spoon has been on the decline in the UK since cooking books became common; it has more and more been used the same way as in the USA due to the measurement system outlined below.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablespoon

Here's a list of the definition of the tablespoon measure from older recipe books published in different English-speaking countries. It's a short list, but it does somewhat show that the Australian definition evolved to be generally higher (20ml-25ml) than the UK one (around 18ml), with the South African one on the lower end (12.5ml).

Margaret Powell (British) 1970 Tablespoon = 18 ml
Australian and New Zealand Complete cooking 1973 = Tablespoon = 25 ml
Best of Cooking (Hamlyn) - Tablespoon, (Australia) = 20 ml
Best of Cooking (Hamlyn) - Tablespoon, (British) = 17,7 ml
Best of Cooking (Hamlyn) - Tablespoon, (America) 14,2
Indian Cooking, Chowhary 1952 - = Tablespoon = 25 ml
Cook and Enjoy, De Villiers 1971 (South Africa) = Tablespoon = 12,5 ml
Complete South African Cookbook (South Africa) 1979 Tablespoon = 12,5
The Australian Women's weekly 1978 = 20 ml

Source: http://whitegranny.blogspot.com/2008/11/beware-of-tablespoon.html

The proliferation of spoons mentioned in the Wikipedia snippet above is still evident in recipe books today. British recipes occasionally still use a “dessertspoon” to mean a 10ml measure. In Dutch recipes (link to a page in Dutch), a 5ml measure is referred to as a “coffeespoon,” while a “teaspoon” refers to a 3ml measure.


It looks like either Pepino Melon (which I'm growing this year, and I tried to grow in 2015) or Tzimbalo, by the color, the dark striping and the leaves. Eggplant is related to both, but eggplant leaves leaves are broader and bigger than I see in the picture, usually (if not always). Pepino Melons are typically (not always) bigger and longer than Tzimbalo, but it's hard to tell from your picture which it is. I personally think it looks more like a Pepino Melon by the color, lack of sheen, and the way the leaves look.

It looks like the plant might have spider mites, by the speckling on the foliage. Mine had spider mites in 2015. If you do have spider mites, showering the plant with a shower nozzle on your hose every two or three days may help, at least if you're in a semi-arid to arid climate.

Pepino Melons are not melons, although some people think they taste like them. They're in the Solanum genus of the nightshade family.


Why don't the single serve coffee cream cups need to be refrigerated?

Those single serving 'creamers' have been manufactured using Ultra High Temperature (UHT) processing. According to wikipedia (the most reliable information source in the multiverse!), milk treated by UHT has an unopened shelf life of 6 to 9 months.

The reason there is no 'best before' date is that they are purchased in bulk by the merchant, the container for a bunch of them (which the retail buyer will rarely see) would have the best before date on it.


Why doesn't my whole wheat dough pass the Poke Test?

The "spring back poke test" is a function of gluten content. Whole-wheat doughs have a hard time building gluten networks, because the sharp edges of the bran cut through the gluten strands as you knead. In general, you should never use more than 50% whole-wheat flour in a standard bread dough. Cook's Illustrated successfully increased that to 60% by soaking the whole-wheat flour in milk for at least 8 hours before making the dough, and using bread flour instead of all-purpose for the other 40%.


meal planning software with collaboration and sharing

I use Paprika for recipe database, meal planning, and creating shopping lists. You could both log in as the same user and so your recipes, plans and lists would sync between any instances of the application you use. The software also categorizes your grocery items into 'isles' so hopefully it'll be in a logical order when you get to the supermarket.

I have found the software to be very reliable and the developer is very approachable if you do have any issues or feature requests.


Are shallots less gas-producing than yellow onion?

This is pretty subjective but I find shallots are right up there with onions (particularly red onions). Of course, not all shallots are created equal, e.g. banana shallots tend to be stronger in both flavour and 'gaseous effect'.

(If you haven't already) I'd suggest trying:

Leeks
Scapes
Wild garlic (if you are in an area where it can be foraged)
Even fennel when cooked long enough (it loses the anise flavour) has been known as a decent substitute


How much brown sugar should I substitute for white sugar?

Dupe, but a good question. See Satanicpuppies answer here: Brown sugar instead of white sugar

I know you asked re: cranberry sauce specifically, but this is a great article regarding the differences in sugars, generically, which might help in the future:

"Sugar can be a single molecule made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen—like glucose and fructose. Other sugars, like sucrose, or white table sugar, are made up of multiple molecules (in this case, one glucose and one fructose), tied together with chemical bonds. Now, when sucrose is heated with an acid, it breaks back down into the two smaller sugars, glucose and fructose, resulting in something we call invert sugar. This small chemical change makes a big difference: While sucrose is hygroscopic, invert sugar is even more water-loving.

And this can make a tremendous difference when, say, you want to bake a chewy, rather than crunchy, cookie."

http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/cooking-science/2012/10/we-prove-it-sugar-changes-texture-and-sweetness/


When should I add the garlic to a roasted leg of lamb?

There's no benefit to putting the garlic in as slices from a flavor point of view, it's the cooking that brings the garlic flavor out. I've found that no matter how you do it the garlic flavor pretty much stays with the garlic rather than spreading throughout the meat - you don't get some even garlic hum throughout, instead you get parts with intense garlic flavor, which if you like garlic is a good thing. The only way to get it more even is smaller garlic slices in many more slits, however loads of slits will lead to the meat drying out.
From a food safety point of view cutting the slits and putting garlic in them that long before cooking can introduce bacteria or botulism spores deep inside the meat, and the temperature you cook it to may not be enough to make the food safe. If you use this method it's prudent to wash the outside of the meat, the knife, the garlic and of course your hands before you do it to reduce this risk.


How does the carrot in deep fryer trick work?

As to the science behind why this works, I can only guess.

However, as to other things you can try for this trick, I managed to find some references from old cookbooks about using slices of potato for clarifying their deep-fryer oil. Other suggestions were a slice of bread or lemon peel. Weird — but interesting.

The Young Woman's Journal, Volume 12 (1901)

Mrs. De Graf's Cook Book (1922)

Olive Oil: From Tree to Table (2007)

  When you have finished frying, clarify the oil by frying a piece of bread, a strip of lemon peel, or a slice of potato in it.


MiracleWhip, of course...

If it's just the taste of the oil that bothers you, you can easily make your own mayo using whatever oil you wish. A cheap extra-virgin olive oil makes a delicious mayonnaise, IMHO.

Otherwise, use vinegar. It's a great general-purpose condiment, can be flavored easily, and there are plenty of varieties to choose from. Naturally, this won't work well if you need the body of mayo, so go with some form of prepared mustard in those cases - it's like emulsified vinegar (in that it's emulsified vinegar).


How do I prevent salmon sticking to the BBQ grill?

If you don't fancy cooking in aluminium foil (kind of takes the point away), you need to make sure you have a super clean, extremely hot grill.

Why?

Clean (No tasty burnt fat from the burgers), flesh sticks like #### to a blanket. You can get away with it when cooking steaks because they are just so much stronger. So get a wire brush and clean an area for fish cooking and keep it clean :).

Hot, as hot as you can pretty much. You want the second that Salmon (or other fish) hits the grill for it to blacken. It'll help make sure the flesh is no longer 'fleshy' and again less likely to stick. Don't try lifting it till' you know that underside is like a pink and black Zebra on it's underside (3-4 min).

When it does come to lifting you could really do with a nice sharp fish slice, not a blunt fat ended egg slice.

Good luck.


When a recipe asks for 1 cup of sugar, should I assume powdered or tiny crystals form?

"Sugar" without any other description refers to granulated sugar. Granulated means crystals somewhat larger than the crystals in caster sugar, which is another commonly used crystal sugar in the UK. In other countries these smaller crystals may also be called superfine sugar or baking sugar. You can generally use granulated or caster/baking/superfine sugar interchangeably, but the volumetric measurement (spoons or cups) will be slightly different since granulated sugar is coarser than caster sugar. You might find this Sugar Conversion Tool helpful.

If the recipe wants you to use the powdered form of sugar, it will specify powdered, confectioners or icing sugar, which are all the same thing.


Should I be concerned about drinking tap water?

It really depends on the location. Sciencemag.org has an article on this, which is backed up by this paper. To quote  a relevant part from sciencemag:

  Allaire and her colleagues downloaded EPA’s data and looked at the number of health-related water quality violations for 17,900 community water systems in the continental United States over a 34-year period. Some were for elevated lead levels, the problem in Flint, but the data set also included violations for coliform bacteria—a group of microbes that is easy to detect and serves as an indicator of bacterial contamination in general—nitrates, arsenic, and other contaminants. The researchers combined those data with information from the U.S. census such as housing density and average household income, to figure out which communities were most vulnerable.

The following sentence from the significance page from the scientific article's website leads me to the conclusion that you shouldn't be worried per se, but that it is certainly worth looking into the situation in your area:

  Here, we show that health-based drinking water quality violations are widespread, with 9–45 million people possibly affected during each of the past 34 years. While relatively few community water systems (3–10%) incur health-based violations in a given year, improved compliance is needed to ensure safe drinking water nationwide.

If there is something wrong with the water (as you might find after your research) then see what the specific advice is. Some things may go away after boiling, others may not.

Use this website by the EPA to search for the 'Consumer Confidence Report' on drinking water quality by the EPA.


Flour-free breads are, in my experience, very hydroscopic: they absorb water from the air even faster than regular bread.  However, since the bread you're using is presliced, there's a simple solution: store the bread in the freezer.  Just separate the slices (so that you can pull them apart after it's frozen), and put it in a ziplock freezer bag.

This does mean that you'll need to toast, or at least thaw, the bread before using it. However, I've found that freezing bread results in less of a "stale" flavor than refrigerating it.


You want your rice to be fairly dry for stir frying.  If you cook some rice specifically to fry, put in the minimum amount of water for whatever method you're using.  As others have mentioned, it works well if you use leftover rice that's a day or two old.

Then, when you're actually frying it, it helps if the rice isn't clumped together (as it usually is when you use a rice cooker), so break it up before putting it in the pan.  Use very high heat, a good oil (I like grapeseed), and be sure the oil is very hot before putting the rice in.

If you want that nice yellow colour, when the rice is almost done, make an opening in the middle of the pan, crack an egg into it, and very quickly stir the rice into it.


How to keep a cheesecake layer seperate from filling during baking?

Hmm.... I'm not sure if this really deserves to be an answer, because I haven't done this specifically, but one thing that comes to mind is an Apple crumb cake I made from this recipe right here. Yes it says strawberry, but apples are if anything better.

The point is I think there is at least one thing you could try that might help without changing your exact recipe.

You could change the way you cut your apples, or at least part of them. If you slice the apples very thinly, you can layer them together to form a kind of platform, which can help to prevent uneven sinking/mixture. You could either stick to that method, which can lead to a very pretty, layered pinwheel presentation if there's no other topping, OR once you've got a decent layer of sliced apple to provide this platform, you could put the rest of the apples, in chunks, on top if you want that look to it. If you use the sliced apples, you will get a different texture though.

Beyond that, you'll have to modify your recipe. As a commenter stated, you need to consider things like density and surface tension. My suggestion above is a way of playing with surface tension--Less weight distributed across a broader surface means less sinking, but if your cheesecake batter is as liquid as my usual recipe is, it might not work regardless. If you switch to a simpler, denser recipe (possibly just by leaving out some or all of the cream), you should have no trouble regardless of how you cut/place your apples.

In the recipe I link, the cake batter and cream cheese layer are both very, very thick. This is what prevents a great deal of sinking/mixture and produces those pretty layers in the final product.

To sum up: Yes, I think this should be totally possible, but I can only offer suggestions, not actual experience with this precise cake here.

EDIT: Looking at the recipe, it already seems to be a fairly dense cheesecake-- no cream. The only liquid is one egg to hold things together, so you wouldn't need to change anything there, I don't think. The only reason there seems to be sinking and mixture is because of the way the apple is cut and the amount of it compared to the cheesecake. The apple layer is 1500+ grams, while the cheesecake layer is less than 1000. You'll still have to experiment, but I would think you could pretty easily cheat by using a thin layer of sliced apple.


How does one remove the "fishy flavor" from seafood?

Fresh seafood shouldn't be overly "fishy".  It's generally older seafood that will get a stronger "fishy" smell and flavour.

That said, there are 3 approaches to a "less fishy" result:

Absorb/reduce fishiness:  you can always try something like soaking it in milk (which you can then save to use for a fishy bechamel when your sister isn't dining with you).  You could then rinse it off and cook it however you want.  This should help "absorb" some of the fishiness and make it milder.
Disguise fishiness: The other angle is to "cover up" the flavour with lots of spicy glaze or garlic/lemon flavours instead.
Pick mild seafood: The other thing to try is to pick a more mildly flavoured fish (e.g. a white fish instead of something like tuna or salmon).  Avoid oily fish as they tend to have a stronger flavour.  Choosing something really fresh also falls into this category.


What difference do microwave power settings make for reheating food?

Most microwaves will not reduce their power.  They will reduce the percentage of time the power supply or the magnetron is active. In other words, longer rests in between shorter blasts.

The actual microwave "heat" is applied in a fairly narrow beam (about 2" in diameter).  This is why some microwaves have a turn table.  So, placing the food off centre is better.

When part of the food gets really hot, it starts warming up the surrounding parts as well and eventually reaches a sort of an equilibrium.

If you have a thermal imaging camera, you can place a damp paper-towel on a plate and see the heating pattern for yourself.  This is where you can do the rigorous experimentation. While I did use scientific equipment in my tests, it was just for my own curiosity.

When you run the MW at 100% you're overheating parts of the food to help warm up the other parts of the food.  Overheating food has a great chance of reducing flavour and breaking down some of the longer molecules.  Usually, the water in the food buffers this, but it does depend on the what you're heating up.

To answer your question, yes, you are better off reducing the power. Regardless of the total wattage of your specific microwave oven

Running at lower power, reduces the peek temperature of the areas that are blasted by heat.  Yes, it will take longer, but you keep the temperatures of parts of the food more even.

Again, if you're really curious, warm up food in short time intervals and take a look it with a thermal camera.

You may end up opting for a toaster oven after you see it all.


What part or kind of geoduck gives crunchy slender slices?

I suspect you cut your geoduck “the wrong way” (to get the specific shape, that is). If you want crunch, you should use the syphon, so that was a hit already. For the wavy slices, I suggest watching the first recipe in this video by chef Hung Huynh. In short, he

uses live geoduck
quickly blanches the neck by immersing it in hot water
peels the outer skin off and cuts the neck from the body. Then he
slices the neck lengthwise and washes it in cold saltwater.

When he thinly slices the halved necks at a bias, he gets longish strips that curl “due to the contractions of the muscles”.

While you can still cut your frozen geoduck neck in thin slices, I doubt that they would curl the same way fresh do.


As it says, you chop the bulb - the white part at the bottom. The core of the bulb can sometimes be a bit tough, especially at the bottom, and you may have to remove the drier outer layer, but otherwise, that's the part you really want to use.

The bulb is juicy and easy to eat, while the green stalks are usually much more fibrous - think celery, except tougher. If you do want to eat the stalks fresh, you can try slicing them relatively thinly, so you don't have long strands of fiber to try to chew. Alternatively, they're great for adding flavor to soups and stews; you can just fish them out after they've released their flavor.


I've infused jalepenos for 1-2 weeks successfully, I don't know if there is an upper limit past that. The alcohol should prevent spoilage and the pH is too low for botulism to be a concern.
Infusing them whole is ok. There will be a lot more heat if you leave in the seeds and membranes.
Cooking them will change the flavor. Only do this if you want the flavor of a cooked chile.


What would the drawbacks/benfits be to making French toast with egg alternatives (Egg Beaters, etc)

There's not a lot of difference between egg substitute (e.g., Egg Beaters), and egg whites. So the options you mention, they are roughly equivalent to one another.

The obvious thing both of these substitutes are missing is the yolk. An egg yolk adds a LOT of flavor to this sort of cooked egg dish.

In a french toast, whereas egg white is soaked up by the bread and creates a fairly unique texture, the egg yolk is the key to the flavor and it is what makes it rich. I think the egg white french toast is doable[1] but I don't think it will taste wonderful.

In other news, may I quote Thomas Keller in relation to a recipe of cheesecake (again, paraphrased by me) - If you are worried about the fat, have a smaller portion, and don't do my recipe with low fat alternatives.

I think it applies to cholesterol too.

[1] I certainly haven't tried this since I'm already way too fat to eat any french toast anyways...


The way I have achieved this is by gently simmering the potato cubes until they soften. (You want them pretty much cooked, but not so done that they won't hold together well.)

I also lightly salt the water so they take on a little seasoning while they cook. This, of course, is optional.

Next, I drain the potatoes very well. I want them to essentially be dry for the next step. Lastly, I lightly coat the surface of a non-stick pan with oil and cook the cubes on a medium heat, tossing as needed, until they are browned to my liking.

This results in potatoes that are crunchy on the outside and still creamy on the inside.


How to clean smell from granite mortar and pestle

Should be fine, in fact some people argue that a pestle and mortar is suppose to have remnants of past spices and that it adds to variety and such.

If you're really concerned of the taste, smell or if you ground nuts (allergies), etc. or just don't want the smell/taste then soak it for a long period of time, then rewash it and repeat till it fades.


That sounds like a beef Pirog, a Russian (and other surrounding areas) pie with meat (or other fillings) wrapped in pastry or dough and baked.

There are also smaller stuffed pastries/breads called "pirozhki" in Russian (literally: little pies) that may be baked or fried.

Polish pierogi are small filled dumplings. Similar in concept and pronunciation to Russian pirogi and sometimes similar in filling as well, but with a different dough and generally steamed (or steamed then pan-fried) -- those are also called vareniki (Ukrainian) or pelmeni (Russian).

I would say that Russian pirogi and Polish pierogi are distinctly separate foods. Russian pelmeni and Polish pierogi are different regional variations of the same dish.


Are there food safety issues with sous-vide cooking?

If you do it properly, no there are no health issues.

A combination of two things are required to kill beasties: heat and time. The higher the heat you expose them to, the faster they die. Generally any temperature above 130 F is enough to kill most beasties, it just requires a significantly larger amount of time compared to a higher temperature.

I go into a lot of detail regarding Salmonella in this answer of mine:

Is it safe to eat a cooked steak that (briefly) touched the plate that was holding the raw meat?

I have several tables there to show exact timings, etc.

If you think I should copy/paste that here, then let me know in a comment


The bread improvers that I have seen simply encourage gluten development to improve bread texture. They are often called for for use in bread machines because those machines are not as effective at kneading. Many bread improvers are as simple as extra vitamin C.
Without knowing the details of the machine you are planning to use it is difficult to say whether a bread improver would help. I would try without it. If the bread is too crumbly then add some Vitamin C.

Bread improvers do not change the flavor of the bread so much as the texture. I don't think the slight change in acidity would make much difference to the shelf life but I've not read anything about that.

Whether bread will mold in one day depends greatly on how the bread is stored and what you climate is. If it is very humid and the bread is stored uncovered then it could possibly mold after one day. If the climate is too dry then the bread could be quite stale after a day.
There is a reason that preservative-free bread is usually sold the same day it is baked.

Note although not part of your question, brown sugar (and the soda to neutralize the brown sugar) are not at all required for bread to brown. A quick search for pita recipes shows either no sugar or just enough to activate the yeast in the recipe.


When I make home made bread, I decide how much I'm going to eat in the next day or two and leave that out on the breadboard, usually just covered with a tea towel. I usually put the cut side down on the board to help prevent it from drying out.

The rest gets pre-sliced, put in a zip-top bag, and stashed in the freezer. A few minutes in the toaster oven, and the bread is good as new. Pre-slicing it allows you to just use what you need instead of thawing the whole loaf. It lasts pretty much indefinitely in the freezer.


Advantages:

You can make pasta in your water boiler.

Disadvantages:

Hard to clean.
Waste of energy, a water boiler is on or off, it will
expend full energy keeping the water boiling.
Incredibly dangerous, a big fire hazard. Because it's modified to ignore the internal temperature sensor it will keep heating and
heating even if all the water is vaporized. Once this is the case, it
will start getting so hot it will melt the boiler and the metal of
the heating element at which point your stovetop may catch fire.

Story about faulty kettle.


How to get rid of plastic and residual weird taste from food stored in tupperware?

There are many different types of plastic, but it sounds like your tupperware is made of the porous kind, which will hold on to food particles and explains your note.  Heat will expedite the leaching of chemicals into your food, so you should use the containers only for storage, and heat up and eat food from an actual plate or bowl.  If you have to continue using them, you could always wrap your food in paper to minimize contact.

Here's some more info


How to cook and store fresh okara for safe consumption?

I have never heard that uncooked okara is toxic to consume, so I don't know about that part, but you could try dry roasting it in a pan until it is dry and golden brown, that would cook it and also dry it out for storing. I have made muffins and brownies with okara with success (more or less), and I've also added it to scrambled eggs for a bit of protein boost.


Reducing sweetness of packaged cookie mix

Probably there is no such way, at least not one that's worthwhile.

First, there is the problem that designing a recipe well is a skill which very few people have. Experienced bakers can progress to it, but inexperienced ones can make 100 trials but won't understand what went wrong with any of them. Unless you're in it for the fun of it, it's easier to find another recipe which works for you (you might have to bake through 4-5 failures to find a good one) than to redesign an existing one (might have to bake through 25-30 failures to make a good one).

Second, you're not starting from a recipe, but from a mix. With standard ingredients, you know what went in, and can change the ratio easily. With a mix, you have no idea how it works and how changing something will tip the balance. A simple addition of one more ingredient (e.g. flour) will certainly not cut it. If you add enough to make a change in sweetness, you won't like the change in texture, which, for flour, will be rock-hard cookies.

And this brings us to the third problem. Sugar is not a sweetener in cookies. It is a bulk ingredient which gives them a cookielike texture, and the sweetness is a side effect. If you combine the same ingredients but with less sugar, you'll end up with tiny cakes instead of cookies.

Proposed course of action: forget these cookies. You don't like the taste, and you can't keep the texture while changing the taste. Baking cookies from scratch is not much harder than baking from mix. Go to a good recipe site, find a well-reviewed recipe for the type of cookies you prefer, and bake away!


How to sweeten pickled ginger to be served with sushi?

There are two common varieties of pickled ginger in Japan (and a bunch of less common ones). The "gari" is "amazu-shouga" (甘酢生姜 or 甘酢しょうが) it's usually thinly sliced and often, though not always, left uncolored, or just colored enough to leave it slightly pink instead of yellowish-white. Due to generous use of sugar or other sweeteners, it's usually somewhat sweet, and that's right there in the name,  which roughly translates as "sweet vinegar ginger". It's generally made with a young ginger that has a pretty thin, moist skin.

Another variety, which typically comes in the shape of thick matchsticks, is a bit saltier and, because of the thickness, a bit firmer. It's called "kizami-shouga" or (きざみ生姜 or きざみしょうが). Kizami refers to the shape, not the flavor. Occasionally this will be labeled "beni-shouga" (紅ショウガ), which means red ginger. I believe that more mature ginger is used for kizami-shouga than is used for amazu-shouga. It's generally used to garnish and season things like yakisoba or okonomiyaki, but is not typically served with most types of sushi. The amazu shouga is more common for most sushi.

So it's possible that you've picked up kizami-shouga instead of amazu-shouga. While there's nothing stopping you from adding sugar or other sweeteners from the brine, that probably won't help that much. If you do have amazu-shouga, it's also possible you've just found one that doesn't taste that good. The quality of packaged Japanese pickles I've found in the US isn't all that great, though I've occasionally found decent umeboshi.

You might try a different brand, or consider pickling your own ginger. The basic process for pickling the ginger is a hybrid between salt pickles and vinegar pickles: You peel and thinly slice the ginger, and rub it with salt, leaving it for at least an hour or overnight to sweat. You'll then add a solution of sugar and rice vinegar, occasionally with a little bit of ume-zu, which is the salty brine extracted from umeboshi-making, or beet juice, if you want to guarantee a pink color.


How do I convert a British biscuit recipe to a moister American style cookie?

You will need to make some experiments if you need to add something or to change an igredients.

Cookies are chewy because they are moist. Easiest trick in the book - bake the cake for the first 1/10 of cooking time with temp 20% higher than in recipe WITH a bowl of water.

Other methods:

split sugar into two types. White and brown sugar. Let say
50/50.  Brown sugar have molasses so it have more water in it.
Try adding soda. What you wrote down is very similar to
black cake I made with the change of oil for butter and few tbs of
soda. Mine is not very chewy but I prefer to add more cocoa than
chocolate.  Soda help keep the moisture in.
lower the amount of flour or/and let the dough rest for a
bit to develop gluten.
add wetness - so add extra egg white, or a spoon of
yoghurt, or some water.


Is lots of red juice normal when making sous-vide steak?

Pretty much...yes, but you can fix it!.

When you properly sous vide or very slow cook anything, you'll retain more of the myoglobin color because of the even cooking that often doesn't go above 140 at all.  So a properly cooked steak like this will retain much more of its red colored myoglobin.  Simply put, the meat will have more red juices to release! (Its a great, great thing about sous vide.)

As @Ronald mentions, the other thing is the resting of the meat.  It's an important step as the muscle fibers relax after the heat is off and hold juices better then.  An often misstep for the home cook is they allow a hot piece of meat to rest on a flat, solid surface.  This causes the bottom of the meat to steam against the board, open the fibers in the meat more, and release the juices on to the board.  Rest your meat on a raised baking rack so that it has air circulation all around it.

After a short rest - for most steak 10 minutes is fine, then you can cut into the steak.  Use a very sharp knife to slice.  The meat here is essentially a sponge and you don't want to compress it and squeeze out the juices.  A dull knife will do this and you'll lose more juice on the cutting board again.  Use a sharp knife and apply steady, even, but light pressure while slicing - let the edge do the work (if it won't, sharpen the knife more).


What are ways to extract the juice from a pomegranate?

Luckily you asked for an efficient way and not a clean way!

My brother in California has numerous mature pomegranate trees on his property and squeezes the majority of the fruit each year to use for jelly.  He uses a manual Hamilton Beach Orange juicer which he says does the best job of anything he's tried.  He usually has between 16-20 gallons of juice a year so he has definitely put it to the test.  His local restaurant supply wanted around $250 for one but he got his on ebay for $150.

To minimize the mess he does it on an old table outside and covers himself with a large garbage bag by cutting a hole in the bottom for his head and the sides for his arms.


Differences between the oven stone and the pizza oven?

A pizza stone in a normal oven will only get the maximum temperature of the oven (probably not more than 280 ºC / 530 ºF).

A specific pizza oven will gett hotter (the one you linked gets 390 ºC / 735 ºF and, indeed has a stone inside).

If you want to get Italian style pizzas, go for the pizza oven. They need that high temperature in order to be ready in (ideally) 90 seconds. Those Ferrari ovens are one of Italian's favourite ones, albeit they'll need a bit more time than 1.5 minutes achievable in wood fired traditional pizza ovens.

You (probably) won't be able to achieve those high temperatures with a normal home kitchen oven, unless you have a pyrolytic home oven, and hack it in order to cook in it during the pyrolysis cycle.

As for the waiting time between pizzas using a stone, consider it as a capacitor (or a rechargeable battery): It takes heat (until is soaked up), and then gives it back. Once you make 1 pizza (or a loaf of bread), it needs to soak (a bit) again.


Will adding more yeast to a dough mean I need a longer time in the proofer?

Yeast is a living organism, and the rise in the dough is a result of its metabolism.  As it lives and grows, it emits carbon dioxide as a waste product, which metaphorically blows up the dough.

This means that more yeast you have, the faster it raises the dough.

The rate at which it does so is a function of the absolute amount of yeast, but the amount of yeast grows exponentially over time, where the rate of growth is related to the temperature of the dough.

This means that for dough held at a constant temperature, the amount of time it will take to proof would actually be less if you double the initial quantity of yeast, as each generation of yeast would have more cells in it given the larger starting quantity.

The proofing temperature is extremely important; what make take a given amount of yeast an hour on a hot summer day might take 24 hours at refrigerator temperatures.

The flavor of the dough is also related to how fast it proofs; longer proofing times generally develop a deeper, yeastier flavor.  So bakers tend to control the flavor development by adjusting both the initial quantity of yeast as well as the proofing temperature.


Sourdough starters with different smells - is this normal?

One is on the heat pad and the other is...where?  Different temps will facilitate the growth of different yeast and bacteria.  Also, your kit is likely populated with different micro flora than the starter you created.  Finally, which "smell" would you rather use to bake bread?  I would go with yeasty.  Starters get acidic fairly quickly.  This inhibits the growth of micro flora.  That is why feeding requires you to remove a significant amount before replenishing.  If you want to play, remove most of the "stomach-acid" starter, and feed the rest with flour and water (maybe remove it from the heating pad as an experiment...or try two small versions...on on and one off).  Build up again, and see if you can achieve a more pleasant aroma.


Can you use cookie cutters on sticky dough?

That looks like a delicious recipe, but not one that will hold a cookie cutter shape. When a recipe says to space the balls of cookie dough four inches apart, you can expect them to spread in the oven. Cookies that spread will not hold a definable shape. There's no hope of getting this recipe to make cookies that hold a shape.
There are oatmeal cookie recipes designed to be rolled out and cut into shapes. For example, Chewy Oatmeal Decorating Cookies and Oatmeal Rollout Cookies. You might be able to add miniature chocolate chips, but they may make the cookies crack and fall apart. Finely chopped or grated chocolate would probably work fine.
If you feel like experimenting (and are willing to risk having some "failed"* batches of cookies), you can experiment with increasing the oats in your recipe. I haven't made this exact recipe, but I've made many batches of oatmeal cookies with varying levels of oats. I've found that you can use up to double the oatmeal called for in a typical oatmeal cookie recipe before the dough becomes too dry to hold together. Additional oatmeal gives a stiffer, dryer dough that will come closer to holding a shape. The finished cookies will be a bit dryer and a bit less sweet. The large oat flakes in your recipe (since it uses old fashioned oats) will still give the shapes slightly irregular outlines, so don't expect to get a lot of detail. But simple shapes like a heart, star or diamond should still be identifiable in the finished cookie.

*Where "failed" means not perfect, but your kids/coworkers/classmates will still eat them. If you are the only one eating your cookies, baking experiments can be hazardous to your waistline.


What kind of bourbon is best for making whiskey balls?

Honestly, "whatever you want" is the only answer :)

I have a similar seasonal recipe, and in various years, have tried:

expensive bourbon
cheap bourbon
rum
Drambuie
Kahlua
And so on...

The flavors of your chosen liqueur will be somewhat muted by the chocolate, and so something with the complexity of Drambuie was a bit of a waste. However, ultra-cheap bourbon was a little disappointing, as it provided booziness but not much other taste. Kahlua, Grand Marnier, and similar choices with their own flavor profiles can play very nicely with the chocolate, so it's also OK to get creative.

The best choice is a bourbon (or other) that you might enjoy sipping on its own, ideally one that is already on your shelf (if you don't mind sharing 1/2 cup of it). If you hate a particular liqueur, you won't enjoy this dessert as much! If you don't know much about whiskey or have much interest in it other than as an ingredient, a mid-range price is probably the way to go. Asking the proprietor of a liquor store can often result in a good brand recommendation.


My recipe, from the originators' Nigel Mackenzie and Ian Dowding cookbook, The Deeper Secrets of the Hungry Monk, has the bananas sliced, arranged over crust, and the caramel poured over the bananas. The only part that is cooked is the sweetened condensed milk and butter, boiled down to make the caramel.

Since we don't do recipes on SE, I've given you the Wikibooks link which has the full ingredients and directions.


Why does dried pasta say "Do not reheat" on the packet?

Consider this as not backed by authority, more opinion, but I believe this is a case of caution because once hydrated and warm pasta can become a prime breeding ground for bacteria.  On reheating, you may well not get it high enough or high for long enough to kill any bacteria, and its density makes it even more difficult to remove any built up toxins those potential bad guys may have produced.

Now, is it a case of CYA?  Yup, more than likely, but I know in the case of rice there are many reports of food poisoning from cold and re-warmed, and I would think it is possible with pasta as well.  I still do it myself, but that is my choice.  I have also never noticed packaging that said not to, so this might be a labeling requirement not adopted in the US.

As for things like fried rice made from cold rice, not sure that one really applies.  To me that is cooking a new dish, not reheating and to me it seems like that is heating enough it should be safe.  Thoroughly reheating a dish like lasagna to normal serving temperature, especially if the original dish was not left in the danger zone for an extended time would seem safe to me also.  But those are opinions, not facts backed up by lab tests and it is possible UK health agencies have tested and do not agree.

ETA:  Pasta Safety is a posting I found after stating my opinion, and it details the risk.  Their claim is basically as long as it is refrigerated, 2-3 days should be safe, but not longer.  Bacillus cereus bacteria is the sited culprit.  Hmmm.  I personally would say refrigerate promptly and the 2-3 days is likely conservative, but again, that is opinion not backed by tests.


How to compensate for the unavailability of Italian basil in authentic Italian pasta sauce?

Okay so let me first say I'm a novice with Italian food. However I have faced the exact same issue.

Follow these steps that I've created:

Put a teaspoon of dried rosemary in a mug of water and microwave for two minutes. Pour the water into the sauce. Discard or re-dry the rosemary sticks.
Put a tspn of dried oregano straight into the sauce.
A pinch of sage OR thyme won't hurt but a tiny, tiny pinch.
Add the Tulsi - one handful of the leaves or more - it will be fine, trust me. Just make sure there's nothing sweet in the sauce as it'll make it taste a tad Thai.

And yes - lots of garlic!!
Always garlic


When is MSG suitable and when is it not?

MSG does have a taste on its own - umami. ElendilTheTall says in another question:

  As you are no doubt aware, there are 5 basic tastes - salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami. Umami is the savoury flavour of mushrooms, cheese, cured meats, and so on. MSG is essentially 'pure' umami. In other words, MSG is to umami what salt is to salty and sugar is to sweet. So if you add it to savoury dishes [...] it enhances their savouriness.

MSG improves the savoriness, therefore it can be used in savory dishes in general.

EDIT: For example savory foods are meat, vegetables, mushrooms, cheeses (if not used for sweet dishes / desserts). I think everything which has not a focus on its sweetness [*] or its ... uhm ... neutral-ness [**] can be considered as savory.

You might have a look this this question here on cooking.SE: What is the formal definition of savory?

[*] like fruits served as a dessert, mousse au chocolat, cookies etc. However, I would consider tomatoes, caramelized onions, paprika etc., which might be sweet but not "sugary", as savory.
[**] pancakes, "common" bread (nothing fancy), rice, ...


Ideal pan temperature for frying meats (kangaroo, chicken etc.) using IR thermometer?

I was looking at this same question awhile back when I got an IR thermometer, what I found was 2 things. The first thing is that there are too many variables to have a single answer that would work. The pan temperature you want at the start depends on a number of factors including:

Material of the pan: how much heat it conducts
Mass of the pan: how much material is in the pan
Type of burner/element
Heat output of burner/element
Food being cooked

So you would have to develop all these numbers for each pan on each burner, with different heat settings through experimentation. Other people's numbers would mean nothing unless you are using the same equipment.

Another reason is that the pan's starting temperature isn't actually that important. When you put food in a pan the temperature is going to drop, how quickly depends on the factors above, however the total amount of heat it will take to cook your food and the rate you want to apply heat remains about the same no matter which pan and material you use. It's a question of heat supply to the pan over time, all you really need to know is that your pan is hot enough to start. It's the temperature of the pan while the food is on it that is important. You can measure it quite a bit but at the end of the day all you conclude is you need to have your burner set to a certain level.


Why are some foods preferentially eaten at certain times of day?

rumtscho's answer is right (upvoted it), it's more custom than anything. In parts of Holland, they eat cheese at breakfast, quite a lot of it. Most Brits these days eat cereal grains of some sort, replacing the old, common breakfast of bacon and eggs. From a nutritional point of view, eating protein in the morning isn't a bad thing to do - it keeps you from feeling hungry for up to four hours, and if you suffer from that sluggish, I can't get going feeling when you get up, eating protein (preferably without carbohydrates such as bread) will help with that. The protein doesn't have to be eggs, can be fish, meat or cheese. Some dieticians argue that we eat the wrong way round - we should have our largest meal in the morning, then a good lunch, with a supper or tea which is significantly smaller than the other meals at the end of the day, on the understanding that you'll be active throughout the day, but not particularly active in the evening.


Is it bad to cut onions and other vegetables on the same cutting board?

No it isn't bad.

It's all a matter of flavor. I don't really mind getting some onion juices into my next dish, unless I'm making something sweet like fruit salad - in this case I would rinse the board before moving on.

My advice to you about boards is: Get yourself a proper wooden or bamboo board or butcher's block, treat it with care (clean it an soak it with mineral food grade oil every now or than...) and that's all you'll even need.

I've been using my favorite board for over 10 years now. And it doesn't smell of onions.


If you are simply looking to convert gluten contents then you can certainly always go higher by adding the correct proportion of vital wheat gluten to dough to get the percentage of gluten that you want.

However there are many other differences between flour bags in terms of processing.  How is the flour ground?  What wheat variety is it from?  Is it white or whole?  There are a lot of variables.

I do speak as someone who has found that Gold Medal is perfectly acceptable for all my baking needs and also routinely uses store brand flour.  Personally I suggest simply trying whatever flour you want to try (not including substituting  bread for cake or something along those lines, that definitely will cause issues) and seeing how the recipe goes.  Determine if a higher-end flour brand is for you yourself.


Is there a difference in the taste/seeds of egg-sized eggplants, and long and slim eggplants?

The varieties of the 2 eggplants shown in the pictures are not actually given, but to me the long variety looks like the Japanese/Chinese eggplant and the round variety looks like The Indian eggplant. By the way, there are many different eggplants out there. If you want to have a look, check out this: website.

The Chinese eggplant has a thinner skin, more delicate flavour (I think sweeter) and less bitter seeds, although most modern varieties have bred these out anyway.

The Japanese eggplant is very similar and again has a thin delicate skin and sweet flavour.

The Indian eggplant is similar to the American eggplant with a thicker skin, more seeds and a stronger flavour.


What is the best substitute for Provolone?

There are two main types of provolone: piccante (sharp) and dolce (sweet).  Most braciola recipes I've seen call for the sharp version.  Sharp provolone tastes very similar to cheddar, which I assume is abundant in the UK.  The issue is that "real" cheddar is a hard cheese and provolone is only semi-hard.  Here in the US, we have a softer version of sharp cheddar-style cheese that is made in Wisconsin.  If a similar semi-hard sharp cheddar variant is available in the UK, I would recommend that.

It should also be noted that the term "braciola" (or sometimes "braciole") means a lot of different things to different people.  To most Americans, likely including the author of your book, it takes on the Sicilian meaning of an involtino.  Sometimes the meat will be filled with a soft cheese mixture like mozzarella mixed with grated pecorino romano.  However, if the recipe calls for a harder cheese like provolone, it is likely referring to a variant that is very popular in the US in which the provolone is cut into thin slices (usually using a deli slicer) and layered on the meat before the meat is rolled.  Therefore, any substitute for the provolone should ideally be thinly sliced.


How to make pancakes/crepes without eggs nor any liquids besides water?

Given your updated criteria, what about using powdered milk for crepes and pancakes?  Powdered milk tends to be very inexpensive.  You can usually find in in the baking aisle at groceries in the U. S.  The powdered milk will last you for a long time.

You can also get powdered eggs.  Just google for them.

As Martha astutely commented below, look for recipes for pancake mixes that require adding only water and pack those.


Creme filled doughnuts? Ok at room temp?

Per https://s3.amazonaws.com/kkd-e1-images.kktestkitchen.com/ecomm/nutrition/11329-nutrition.pdf, everything in the 'creme' (ugh I hate that word; it is a cream, crème is French) in a Krispy Kreme doughnut is shelf-stable. You're fine.

Also, you don't in general want to refrigerate bready/cakey/pastry-y products, unless you will be warming them before eating, due to how moisture and starch interact--you'll end up with a very dry-seeming product.


A general reconstitution of milk with dried powder is 1/4 dry milk and 1 cup water to reconstitute milk.  So 2 tablespoons is 1/8 cup to 1/2 cup of water.

If you want to replace 2 tablespoons, replace 1/2 cup water with milk.  1 Tablespoon is 1/4 cup milk instead of water.

I have done this as a replacement for dried milk in bread many times with success.


Chicken Pasta Left on Counter 2+ hours...safe?

Food kept at warm or ambient temperature for over 2 hours is supposed to be discarded.

However in this case the food was too warm for the danger zone for the beginning of this time, in fact for quite a bit of it, and you were only a little over the 2 hours, so it's highly unlikely that you actually exceeded the 2 hour limit. That wouldn't be good enough in the restaurant business but at home you don't have to prove it.

I do this routinely, as I've measured in my (rather cool) kitchen that the things I freeze stay out of the danger zone for over an hour on the surface, the coolest part, and I don't want to add lots of heat to my freezer and spoil the quality of the nearby food.

It's still a judgement call, and remember that time in the danger zone is cumulative, so defrost in the fridge and reheat quickly and thoroughly.


Look at similar recipes on the internet and tweak ingredients to match what you want.

A lot of it is intuition from experience cooking and tasting a variety of dishes.  Also, a willingness to experiment is important.  You're not going the nail the recipe perfectly the first time.

Knowing the cuisine of a restaurant and typical ingredients and techniques of that cuisine can help. If you don't know much about the cuisine, google example recipes for that cuisine.  Keep an eye out for common techniques and flavor combinations. If you're looking for a certain sauce, again look to similar recipes from the same cuisine as the restaurant and swap in herbs, different wine, etc as necessary.

For a specific, well-known dish, look at several recipes for the same dish. You can usually tell which ones have been simplified or had more commonly available ingredients swapped in, and which ones are the original.

For ratios, intuition helps. For stuff like pasta to topping ratios, you can kinda guess based on what you want your finished dish to look like. For spices and the like, look at other recipes from the same cuisine for a starting point and then tweak to taste as you iterate your recipe.

You should also learn how to adjust sauces by adding salt, acid (vinegar, lemon, lime), and possibly sugar.  In the Zuni cookbook, Judy Rogers suggests experimenting by tweaking a little bit of the sauce on a spoon to see if your change will work, before adding anything to the pan.

And finally, remember you don't really want to exactly reproduce the recipes in the restaurant.  You want to make something similar, but make it your own and make it better.  One of the great things about cooking at home is that you get to tweak things to exactly match your tastes and preferences.

Example:

I had a dessert with rosemary ice cream at a local restaurant. At the time, there were no rosemary ice cream recipes on the internet. But I found an infused ice cream (basil) in a cookbook and looked at the technique (infuse cream and strain, make custard base with it).  I replaced basil with a little rosemary, tasted it after infusing to see if I needed more (it was fine) and then proceeded with the rest of the recipe.  (The original was paired with tarte tatin, I paired mine with an apple cake.)


Most cocktails use sugar syrup (e.g. simple syrup with a water to sugar ratio of 1:1 or 1:2) instead of granulated sugar. This eliminates the need to dissolve the grains in - typically cold - liquids.

When you consider powdered (confectioner's) sugar because of the smaller grain size, remember that they will most likely contain anti-caking agents like starch or tricalcium phosphate. I'm not entirely sure how much this would influence the final taste, though.


Does adding salt before cooking toughen scrambled eggs?

Per Harold McGee, in On Food and Cooking (page 86 of the 2004 edition), there is no truth to this common assertion.

  Acids and salt do pretty much the same thing to egg proteins.  They get the proteins together sooner, but they don't let them get as close together.  That is, acids and salt make eggs thicken and coagulate at a lower temperature , but actually produce a more tender texture.

McGee explains that the salt separates into ions, which cluster around the charged regions of the egg proteins, allowing them to get closer before being denatured because they don't repel each other.  This causes them to bond together earlier, before they become unfurled and could form tighter (and thus tougher networks).

McGee concludes:

  So eggs end up more tender when salted, and especially when acidified.

So salt them when you beat them, or in the pan, in practice it will make little difference compared to many other factors, such as the temperature and technique with which you cook them.


Proper Technique for Rolling Sugar Cookies

There's a lot of things that can throw off baking recipes --

Regional variations in flour hardness.  'All purpose' flour from the US South tends to be softer than brands from other areas.
The humidity and temperature.
Altitude (affects the boiling point of water, which will require adjusting baking times and possibly leavening agents)
How you measure your flour -- I'm lazy and use scoop & sweep -- my mom, however, would use spoon and sweep.
Size of your eggs.  Most recipes in the US assume 'Large' eggs unless otherwise specified.
Type of salt used.  Most recipes in the US assume table salt unless otherwise specified.
How you mix the dough, and how long you mix it.
How long you rest the dough before rolling out.

In your case, for rolled doughs:

temperature of the dough. (you want it chilled, but not so cold that it crumbles)
work surface / rolling pin material (specific to your problem, will affect how much things stick, and how they retain/transfer heat)

You might also want to see Baking 911 : Cookies Problems and Baking 911 : Rolled Cookies


Beer Batter - let it rest before using or use immediately?

Yes, it changes the texture.  If you want it light, you need to use it quickly, as the bubbles will disappate over time.


Does chocolate ice cream tend to have more salt than strawberry or vanilla?

Not at the supermarket I'd buy mine from. I've checked a couple of chocolate and a couple of vanilla ice creams (one cheap and one mid range of each). They all have about 0.1% salt, and most of this will come from the cow's milk (that contains some naturally occurring salt). Only one has salt on the ingredients list. It's a chocolate one but has no more salt in the nutrition information than any of the others - probably because there's less milk in that one.

This is in the UK, and you may not be, so I suggest you check the brands available to you. I wouldn't be at all surprised if American ice cream, for example, was more likely to have added salt


Through experimentation, I got the answer. The answer is rice vinegar, a little sugar, a little salt (not so much salt and sugar as to make the vinegar seem like "seasoned rice vinegar" as for sushi, just a pinch of each) and time. After two days in the fridge the sliced fresh jalapenos mellow a bit, but they seem even a little crunchier than when they were first sliced. To me they are superior in every way to any jarred jalapenos I've ever had. After four days, they seem more like "pickled" jalapenos and start to lose some of the crunch that makes them so nice. I suspect that they might use a different vinegar, but the slightly seasoned rice vinegar works just fine.


Olive oil instead of peanut oil to air fry potato?

According to this chart, the smoke point of extra-virgin olive oil is 160 C or greater, equal to that of peanut oil, although there seems to be a wide variety in the temperatures reported. In this case you should be able to substitute the oils for cooking purposes. Personally I prefer a higher smoke point oil, such as canola, for frying and baking


What is the difference between microwave and convection microwave combo?

Most of this has been asked and answered, just not all together in one place.  See:

What are the pros and cons of Convection Microwave Ovens?
Is it wise to use an aluminum foil in the microwave? Is there a substitute for the aluminum foil?
Why is some metal safe to use in a microwave, but others not?

The combination oven by its very nature has a two different cooking modes:  microwave, and conventional heating.  Some can do both at the same time, to speed cooking while mitigating the disadvantages (no browning or crisping) of microwave cookery.

The mode you choose to use when reheating food will determine  how it gets reheated.  Some foods are best done by microwave (such as soups, stews, braises, saucy curries), and some by conventional cooking (fried foods, some breads or toast).  This is not to say there is an ideal way to reheat everything:  some foods (like pizza or deep fried foods) are notoriously difficult to reheat well.


Adding salt and lemon should do it, or at least help a lot.

What you want to do is to chop them up and rub in a little salt and a splash of lemon juice (vinegar should work too). Obviously you don't want to add so much of either that you won't want to eat the onion.
Leave to sit in the fridge overnight and enjoy.


There are three things to watch out for regarding long-term storage: moisture, oxygen, and light.

Too much moisture and your product is potential food for spoilage organisms. If you are making onion strings, it is likely that the frying process will have already dealt with that and the moisture is down to an acceptable level. Larger onion rings might be a problem as the onion pieces would typically have a lot more moisture - the reason that those thick crispy onion rings from the burger joint you put in the refrigerator are never as good the next day. I have been unable to find an actual number for this value for percent moisture, but if you have the equipment to measure this as a number it is highly likely that you would not need our assistance to answer your question.

Second, are two factors that impact your product going rancid: light and oxygen. If you are frying in any oil that is less than fully saturated (pretty much anything other than lard or fully hydrogenated vegetable oils), you have double-bonds in the fatty acid chain susceptible to oxidation or UV degradation, and in sufficient quantities the resulting compounds are highly unpleasant (butyric acid being one example).

Rancidification wiki link

You will need to either 1) replace the oxygen in the container with something like dry nitrogen, or 2) put an oxygen scavenger into the container (those little "do not eat" packets in some bagged foods you purchase). Also, the reason that many potato chips are sold in mylar bags is to prevent spoilage related to light exposure, so using a brown glass bottle would be better than clear, although not entirely protective.

I do not know that "canning" would be a great idea, as surrounding the jars with a water bath would risk introducing more moisture and there may be insufficient water remaining in the jars to purge the air by boiling off, which is how the vacuum is formed with canning. It might be better to use a canning jar in a vacuum chamber (yes I have one in my kitchen, but I'm not normal). The side effect of this would be that prolonged exposure to a vacuum would remove additional moisture by boiling off residual water, and you could then refill the chamber with an inert atmosphere (the dry nitrogen) afterwards, so less of a need for the little oxygen scavenger packets.


Can you use both melted and creamed butter for cookies?

The process of mixing butter and sugar is called 'creaming' and the purpose is "Creaming adds air. Air is fluffy." so you are on the right track, but unlikely to get consistency out of just using 'melted butter'. The creaming process is time sensitive, that is, the more you do it, the more 'cake like' your cookies will be. Rather than using melted butter, which will not mix well with your sugar, just cream for a shorter period of time. In this picture you see the results of creaming over time...

  These are from the linked article [above] showing minute-by-minute
  progress of creamed butter, with the egg added in the last stage.

You are probably looking to only reach #3 or #4 to consistently get the results you seek. (Have fun experimenting to get it 'just right')


Increase re-heating oven temperature for cooked ham

Yeah, 25 degrees extra shouldn't make a big difference to dryness. If you have an extra roasting bag, that'll help it stay moist. A gas oven will give you more moistness than an electric oven and you might get away with an even higher temperature. I doubt it'll make a big difference to the total time, though. In an emergency, the easiest way to quickly heat a pre-cooked ham is to slice it and use moist heat on the slices.


What is important to keep in mind when making a white sauce?

A white sauce, also known as Béchamel sauce, is butter, flour, and milk. The flour and butter are cooked together to make a roux, and that thickened base is thinned out with liquid (in this case, dairy) to make a sauce.

It can have different thicknesses depending on what you want to use it for — varying the ratio of roux to milk results in a thin, medium, or thick white sauce.

Béchamel is a "mother sauce," meaning it is the basis for many other recipes: you can add cheese, herbs, seasonings, etc., to create a variety of sauces. However, a basic white sauce just has salt and pepper (white pepper if you want to avoid dark flecks in the sauce).

Suggestions for the best way to make the sauce can be found in this related Q&A: What's the best way to make Béchamel sauce?


I can't say what you did wrong or if it was the yeast at fault as suggested as we can only go by your results. I'm not so sure the yeast would be faulty though since you said it doubled in the first rising.

They look like they 'sort of' rose but more sideways since they're melded against one another. Or did you put them touching each other to begin with? The baked buns in the link have a wide spaces between them so if you spaced them that way, the did rise but not properly.

If you left spaces between them and they spread out when rising but didn't hold their shape, how soft was your dough? Softer dough with higher hydration don't rise high and keep their shape as well as lower hydration doughs.

If that doesn't fit your dough, is it possible that the temperature used in your first rising was too warm? A couple of times when I was trying to hurry the process (even though I know better), I've subjected the dough to too much heat. It rose quickly and doubled in bulk but most of the yeast was killed. The second rising didn't go well with most of the yeast dead. Is it possible you did something similar?

Sorry to ask questions instead of giving a concrete answer but all we can do, from our end, is guess and hope something fits. Looking carefully at your photo, there are air pockets like bread should have but with a mix of small and big spaces like dough with high hydration has. The surface of the buns are uneven too. When you shaped the buns for the second rising, we're they rounded and smooth like the unbaked buns in the link?

Hopefully if you provide more information, others may see other possible reasons.


Is horseradish and Wasabi the same thing?

They are different plants -- two different members of the mustard/cabbage family. Both have a similar sharp, pungent flavor and penetrating aroma, but wasabi is generally considered to be  more potent. In prepared form, horseradish is somewhat coarsely grated, while wasabi is ground to the finest possible paste. Some (but not all) cultivars of wasabi are green; for others, green coloring is often added during processing.