Leafy veggies such as lettuce and arugula should be kept in the high humidity drawer so they don't wilt.  Some peas and beans also.

Fruits generally go in the low humidity drawer as they can emit a gas that causes other fruits and veggies to rot faster.   Strawberries are susceptible to this gas and should be kept in high humidity.

I'd recommend a Google search for an exact list but I always just did V-High and F-Low for veggies and fruits respectively.


How to cook grass-fed, high-fat hamburger on electric stove?

Summary or "detailed" instructions: flip frequently, and if it's still cooking too fast on the outside and too slow on the inside, adjust the temperature down a little. Maybe you'll take two or three tries to get it perfect, but such is life.

Medium-high probably means somewhere between halfway and maximum on your stove. There's no temperature, don't worry about obsessing with a thermometer. Just try something 4-5, see how it goes, and adjust if necessary. (A thermometer doesn't really help, in any case, because what you care about in the end is the power output of the stove, not the temperature the pan is at.)

Flip as frequently as you want or need to. It'll make it cook more evenly, because you're effectively heating from both sides, instead of letting one side stay cool while the other side cooks. It will also reduce the total cooking time. Notably, Harold McGee has been advocating this for a while, and it really does work - see this blog for some nice plots and cross-sections from simulations, or this Food Lab post for a nice hands-on test with burgers. You can flip as often as every 15 seconds if you want to pay that much attention to it.

If you still have trouble with the outside being too cooked (or the inside not being cooked enough), simply reduce the heat. This is universal advice, not at all specific to burgers. Alternatively, for burgers, you could make them thinner.


Both refined sunflower oil and refined soybean oil are generally considered flavorless.

Also included among these are:

Canola (rapeseed) oil
Corn oil
Peanut oil
Safflower oil
Vegetable oil

The most reliable method of course is to taste the oil :). I'm sure you can actually taste the flavor of extra virgin olive oil.


I find the site startcooking.com particularly useful for some quick videos that are narrated clearly, photographed neatly, and generally are better in quality than those found on Youtube.

Here is the video at that site: http://startcooking.com/video/295/Crack-and-Separate-an-Egg

That said, there are many such videos on Youtube that might be useful also:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-OwbEy-Vxk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAGX-54iR30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04jY7A1yy_g


Ripe pears range from as firm as soft wood (think balsa) to as soft as a sponge when ripe, depending on the variety.  If your store-bought pears are hard for more than a week, then you bought ones which were picked too young and will never really ripen.  This is a common issue with supermarket produce.

Ripe apples are generally always firm, even when ripe. Soft apples are generally rotten, except for a few varieties which are primarily meant for cooking into sauce or fillings.  This makes it more complicated to tell when they are ripe.

Both apples and pears ripen much more slowly when refrigerated.  Most fruit will ripen faster when put in an enclosed space with ripening apples, including other apples.


Flavor and Chemical Composition of Thyme

Thyme is dominated by the phenolic compound thymol, with the terpenes pinene, cymene, and linalool adding additional pine, citrus, and flowery flavors, respectively.

Source: On Food and Cooking (revised edition), pp 391, and table on 392.  If you're into the chemistry of flavor, I highly suggest buying a copy, because the same table lists main flavor compounds for dozens of common ingredients and flavorings.


Braided bread: how to prevent ropes from springing back

Patience, my friend!

If your dough springs back, you are in fact doing everything right. A good dough will be elastic, that means you can stretch the ropes to a certain point and beyond that, it will return to the original length - and after that, start tearing. If you leave the dough alone for a few minutes, the gluten strands in the dough will relax a bit, allowing you to stretch the ropes longer. Rinse and repeat...

Now I can see why working in intervals over, say, twenty minutes is not what you want. We want to get things done and probably have other stuff to do, right? But there are a few things that help:

Don't start with balls of dough, but with longish rolls. Take your dough portion for a strand, flatten slightly and roll it up lengthwise. If the dough is still flexible, hold your (left) thumb parallel to the long axis and (with the right hand) pull the dough over it section by section and seal the edge by pushing down. This will give you an even narrower strip to start with. (I posted some pictures in another answer, but work lengthwise, not crosswise as in that answer)
Alternate working on the individual strands. Always roll one only until you get just to the border where it starts to spring back, then take the next. By the time you are through your three / five / ... strands, the first will have relaxed enough to allow more stretching. Bonus: it's a lot easier to get all strands to the same length.


There are a couple of cookbooks by Anne Byrn who has built a franchise on this subject.  Her best known book (and the one I have) is titled The Cake Mix Doctor. written specifically on this subject.

Go to her website http://www.cakemixdoctor.com as there are several recipes and articles as well a listing of her books.


How can I store chopped onions in the fridge without the smell?

I regularly store chopped onion in my refrigerator (or at least halves & quarters).

I either use tight-sealing plastic containers or zip-top bags. You may want to double-bag in zip-tops to be sure to avoid a smell.

One problem you may be having is onion-ness getting on the outside of the container. Be sure the outside is all clean and dry - no point in having a nicely sealed packet of onion when the outside can get all stinky anyway.


Why does packaging indicate that a ribeye cut needs to reach 165 F?

Without more information, it's not possible to give a definitive answer. The two main possibilities are:
The producer is unusually risk-averse. They are erring on the side of extreme caution in their labelling, because for whatever reason they believe if they label the beef with a lower minimum temperature they will have more trouble in some way unrelated to the actual safety of the beef for consumption.
There is some reason this beef should be cooked to a higher temperature. For example, perhaps the beef has been tenderised using needles which could transfer pathogens from the surface to the inside of the meat. The manufacturer knows their product and has deviated from FDA guidance for the reason of food safety or quality.


Is it possible to create this low calorie high fiber brownies?

It depends a lot on what you expect. I wouldn't call it a mess. The result will be edible, and will have a similar flavor to a brownie. The texture will be very different from a brownie. It will be dry and dense. Personally, I wouldn't eat it.

First, the fat plays important roles in baked goods besides taste. I am surprised to see a recipe which uses melted fat (so no creaming) and no baking powder. This thing (the original one) is going to be denser than chewy cookies - maybe OK for you. If you reduce the fat from the original recipe, you will get a very dry result. An airy cake which is dry is not too good, but can be eaten when combined with e.g. yogurt or other wet things. Something which is both dense and dry will taste like chicken food mix run through a dehydrator. If you have a recipe for baking, don't reduce the fat. Also, never use spreads or margarines or anything else which is not real fat. It does not act like real fat, so it doesn't work the way it should. It is likely to contain lots of water and gums, and melt into them when baked. For baking, always use butter, lard or shortening. (It is OK to use vegetable oils for dense recipes which direct you to melt the butter). You will need your full share of fat. Some people replace part of the butter with applesauce, but you can't replace all of it. Also, I don't know how it will act in a non-leavened recipe.

Second, you need the sugar the same way you need the fat. It retains moisture and makes the brownies soft. Honey is already a risky proposition, but partial replacement will work. But do not reduce the sugar by half, it will make dry, unpleasant brownies. Also, I don't know what "no calorie sugar" is, but it sounds like some artificial sweetener dispersed in a filler. I don't know what the filler is made from, but it may not be good for baking.

You can't always replace wheat flour with other flours, but finelly milled oats should work for brownies and cakes.

Using a vegetable or fruit puree in place of the liquid is normally a good substitution, but your recipe doesn't have liquid. Just adding cabbage will destroy the liquid balance. You could theoretically replace part of the eggs with an equal amount of cabbage puree by weight, but because eggs also have important roles in baking (they lubricate and set the dough), you shouldn't nomrally replace them.

So, the replacement will bake into something you can bite and chew and swallow, but I wouldn't call it brownie. It also wouldn't be a tasty non-brownie, at least not in my eyes. Also, if you go ahead and make the stuff, you don't even win much in calories. Your original recipe is about 2950 kcal, and you get 820 g of brownies, resulting in 359 kcal/100 g. Your replacement recipe is 1610 kcal but only 530 g of brownies, which makes it 302 kcal/100 g (still a very caloriedense food) - and that if you use these substitution products, which are bad for baking. So, you only lose 15% of the calories overall, but you get something which tastes nowhere near the original. It will have cocoa flavor, but it won't be moist and creamy. I would rather eat 100 g of real brownies than 115 g of brownies made with your recipe.


Why do flames shoot up from restaurant pans?

There's no optical illusion, what you are seeing is real flame shooting up. In a kitchen flare-ups have 2 common sources - alcohol and fat. Alcohol in concentrations 50% and above is flammable when cold, you add some brandy, vodka, etc and away you go. When heated 40% alcohol will burn in the pan, anything above 40% can be used for flambes.

Fats (ie lipids as in oil or fat from animal of vegetable sources) can also burn when very hot and exposed to an open flame as anyone who barbecues will know all too well. Fat flares can happen in any kitchen in the right conditions (even at home), say when something is being vigorously stirred and a bit of hot fat splashes down the side of a pan and ignites, trailing back to the pan itself and giving a quick burst of flame.

As for how often it happens it really depends on what is being cooked, the equipment and method used. If there's a lot of steak action happening then some flames are pretty normal, if they're making vegetable stew ... not so much. It could be a bunch of chefs being showy for the camera, or just going about their normal business, it's very hard to say.


What caused smooth homemade nutella to become grainy in refrigerator?

You're right, it's the coconut oil. Notice how shiny the batch was fresh? That's the oil separating. It would need constant stirring while cooling to keep droplets from forming. Steady cooling  - I got that graininess in ice cream once by freezing too quickly from room temp.

Got an ice cream churner around to try with just fridge temp?


What do you call the eggplant cultivar commonly found in American grocery stores?

"The most familiar Eggplants to us, the large dark purple ones, are called "Black Bell" or "Purple Globe." They're also called Globe Eggplant, Western Eggplant and American Eggplant. It's not known who exactly it was that thought this Eggplant was shaped anything like a globe."

http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/pages/eggplant#ixzz0yQtZ0gpf


Is it better to freeze crepe batter or cooked crepes?

It is a compromise either way.  Neither will be as good as freshly made, but both methods will work.  As far as frozen batter, you will either need to plan ahead, or be willing to wait for it to thaw.  If you go this route, I would suggest zip style freezer bags, and freeze flat, so that it will thaw more quickly.  Also, some of the leavening power will be reduced.  So, if you enjoy fluffy pancakes, you might not be able to achieve that.  On the other hand, frozen pancakes are fine too.  However, you also lose some quality here as well.  The issue is reheating...unless you have a combi-oven, where you can use steam to bring them back to life.  In terms of length of storage, as long as they well packaged, the shelf life is about the same.


What oven should I buy, which is appropriate for baking?

You probably have already purchased an oven at this point, but this video from America's Test Kitchen seems to explain a lot of things and offers some purchasing suggestions.

The model they recommend is the Breville Smart Oven, however it is made for the US and I could not seem to find a version made for 230V outlets. A reviewer suggested using a "step down transformer," but I don't have any experience with using US appliances in other countries so use your own judgement here.

If you've already purchased an oven, please let us know what you got and how it turned out! I find the idea of using a small toaster oven for heavy duty baking fascinating and would love to hear if you were able to make it work.


Is it possible to re-use pickling liquid?

I would say you could use it once, and probably just to make refrigerator-type, quick pickles.  The problem is that you have no way to determine acidity or salt levels once you remove the previously pickled items. Of course it should look clean and clear.  If you were previously doing a lactic acid fermented pickle, some of the liquid could be used to jump start your next ferment.


What type of sauce is appropriate for a dry-aged prime steak?

This sounds yummy!

I'd recommend cooking sous vide (SV) as you suggest (130 F for 1-3 hrs). I tend not to season in the SV bag at all because salt & spices often turn out oddly; for example, raw herbs/onion/garlic are far stronger and taste "uncooked". Figuring out how to spice SV takes a fair amount of experimentation and is best done with dried & powdered herbs/spices instead of fresh ones.

VERY IMPORTANT:

Before cooking SV trim excess fat from the steak
After cooking take the meat from the SV bag and DRY it thoroughly before searing!
If you're planning to use bag juices, first bring them to a full boil in another pot and skim off the scum (myoglobin "blood"), then use whatever is left as your meat juice.

To sear, pre-heat the cast iron sear to a very high temperature (~500) and use a high-temperature oil like peanut.

The sear should be at VERY high heat for only 30 seconds or so per side - if you leave it on much longer you'll lose the beautiful 130 degree edge-to-edge miracle that should be your reward.

Using butter for the sear is not a good idea as either the butter will be destroyed by the properly high heat OR the steak will be destroyed by keeping the cast iron's heat low enough for the butter.  Rather, use compound butter as a topper for presentation.

As for using a torch, I've used a brulee torch a few times and the heat & coverage is insufficient to sear a steak well with my limited experience. You can sign your name on the steak with it, but getting a good, even edge-to-edge Maillard crust is very tough.  Using a MAPP torch is quite a bit better; MAPP gas is flavorless, it's hotter than propane or butane, and MAPP torches tend to fan out broader flames, but I still don't think they create as dense or flavorful a crust as a pan-sear. Moreover ANY torch runs a likelihood of flat-out burning areas of the meat, and that's especially true for a first-timer!

Let's talk about salt before going any further. I've always salted meat before grilling. But SV is a completely different ballgame. Salting before SV doesn't add much flavor for you on short cooks and hurts badly on longer ones (cures the meat). There are online arguments about this, but I prefer salting only after SV and preferably after searing. Taste tests support this post-SV salting approach - check out http://www.cookingissues.com/2011/10/12/to-salt-or-not-to-salt-%E2%80%93that%E2%80%99s-the-searing-question/ for a great take on the subject.

If you keep the searing time appropriately short you won't have to rest the meat before serving.  The meat is still incredibly juicy and doesn't need time to reabsorb fluids.

As for what to do with a sauce, I'd go for the butter instead and incorporate a steak-friendly sauce into a side dish.

A quality hunk of well-marbled dry-aged beef should sing with this preparation and I'd put it center-stage to sing solo, with the side dish's sauce grooving nearby ready to join in on the chorus.


For capsicum type peppers (any of the chili peppers including red pepper, jalapenos, serranos, habeneros and so on), you can reduce the heat by cutting out membranes and ribs (which hold the seeds), where most of the capscaicin oil is found.  Of course, you would have to do this before cooking.

Again for, capsaicin, which is fat soluble, having a lot of fat, especially from dairy like cream or sour cream, can help reduced the perceived heat.

Of course, the very best method to control heat from any of the sources is to not put it into the dish in the first place, by reducing the amount of the hot ingredients.


Could coconut cream be used to create a non-dairy ganache for whipping?

Abstract: Ganache is delicious, but not everyone eats dairy. We examined whether coconut milk can be used for the creation of a non-dairy ganache. We ran a series of experiments. The answer is that, with some creative techniques, you can use it, but it does not come anywhere near to the real thing.

Introduction. Someone wrote a question on Seasoned advice about coconut based ganache and we got curious.

Background. We love ganache even more than pure chocolate, and make it often ourselves, so we think we have all the prerequisites needed to create and judge a coconut based ganache recipe. Our favorite ganache recipe 1 (which we used as a starting point) is: 100 g chocolate, 72% cocoa (only made from cocoa, sugar, and cocoa butter, no vegetable fat or emulsifiers); 100 g cream, at least 30% (non-UHT), 25 g butter.

Method. We prepared the base mix as follows: 25 g coconut milk were heated until boiling. They were removed from the heat. 25 g chocolate (72%) and 6g cocoa butter were added. Everything was left to dissolve. After 5 minutes, the mixture was whipped with a handheld mixer at the second-to-highest setting. This was Version 0. It was divided in two batches. Different versions were made from each batch by gradually adding guar (a knife-point-ful), egg yolk (1, in lieu of lecithine) and sugar (8g per batch). Each version was whipped for at least 3 minutes. The final versions (1c and 2b) where put for 30 min in the refrigerator, then taken out and whipped again. As there were no observable changes after the cold whipping, we do not treat them as a different version. We also made a small portion of dairy ganache for comparison purposes.

Results. These are listed in Table 1. The numbers in the ingredients columns of the table represent the order of adding the ingredients to the mixtures.
Table 1. Experiment results.

The final consistency of version 1c is documented in Figure 1. Note that the peaks do not drip and you can rotate the bowl at 180° without anything falling out. The piece of chocolate was added for color comparison.

Figure 2 shows a zoom of the blue bordered area in Figure 1.

Discussion. It is possible to make a profiterole filling with coconut milk based ganache, but it isn't quite like the real deal. Also, it resembles non-whipped ganache more closely than whipped ganache.

The basic ganache recipe can be done with coconut milk instead of cream and cocoa butter instead of butter. However, it tastes fattier than real ganache, and it is runnier. Unlike dairy ganache, whipping does not result in aeration.

We think that eliminating the cocoa butter altogether will somewhat alleviate the fatiness problem, but we did not test this proposal yet.

A thickening and or emulsifying agent can improve the ganache texture. Even though egg yolk improves aeration, is not a good choice, as it results in a slimy feel. Guar is a better solution.

The addition of sugar ruins the chocolateness of the taste. If bitterness is not desired, a sweeter chocolate (50%) should be used. Only dedicated sugar lovers or Americans should resort to adding sugar. In that case, it should be added before the guar (we would suggest dissolving it in the coconut milk before boiling it) as not to interfere with the texture of the final product.

Threats to validity. First, there was a single tester (the quasi-royal we). Second, this tester is already biased in favor of dairy products in general and specifically for dairy based ganache. Third, many interesting combinations (including xanthan gum and corn starch) could not be tested due to lack of resources.

Conclusion and outlook. We found the experiment very inspirating. It was also yummy. But we'd like to issue an warning: This experiment is dangerous. In the preparation phase, we discovered a penchant for guared coconut water deep fried in coconut fat we'd rather not have known about. Nevertheless, we are looking forward to offering the results for peer preview to a chocolate-loving lactose intolerant co worker.

References: 1 My own recipe book


Can I brine chicken in buttermilk after I boil the chicken?

Short answer: Brining after boiling won't do much (if anything), and you probably don't want to boil all parts of the chicken anyway.

One primary purpose of brining is to hydrate the cells of the muscle tissue before cooking, which allows the cells to hold on to more moisture during the cooking process via denaturation of the proteins.  If you cook the meat first, then the heat will permanently denature the proteins first, so the brine will essentially be useless.

The reason why you want to pre-cook chicken wings is that (a) they have a lot of fat which melts off into the cooking liquid, and (b) they have a good amount of connective tissue (collagen) which needs to be cooked low and slow to soften into delicious gelatin.  Most of the other parts of the chicken don't have nearly as much fat and collagen, so boiling them would likely only serve to overcook them.


Fat + flour form a roux, the base for creamy/starchy soups and sauces.

You don't give details, but Cajun recipes often let the flour/fat mixture get rather dark, which will contribute more flavour while significantly reducing the binding properties, so I suppose this is the case here, too.

Rule of thumb: Lighter for thickening, darker for flavour.

The moment you add the liquid in your recipe, a sauce forms, which will then coat the rice and let the veggies and spices "stick" to it.


Mold forms on sweet miso -- can I still use the miso?

The mold is the indication that the content is compromised with substances that the mold can grow on or with mold that does not mind the environment. This will happen for example when you use a spoon that is not clean. Unfortunately, there is no way to know if this substance is only on the top of the miso. So, whatever it was that the mold grew on, could be in lower layers, too, where non-visible mold with non-detectable toxins could have developed.

So, while a lot of food stuff lasts nearly forever, this is only true while it is uncompromised and proper hygiene is followed.

So, my recommendation would be to toss the whole jar and learn from the experience and not treat fermented food as invincible and reconsider package sizes.


Does flax seed lose its nutritional properties after it's ground up?

Any seed that has been damaged, cut, smashed, milled, or ground starts to lose flavour, texture, nutrition, and eventually will go rancid due to oxidising oils.

Four hours is too short a time for anything noticeable to happen. Some types of nuts and seeds show a noticeable change over a day or two, but most take many days or weeks.

Milled flax seed is reasonably tough; it should last for a week or so without a noticeable flavour change, and many weeks before going rancid. For more information and sources, please see: https://www.goldenvalleyflax.com/flax-facts/health-research-articles/flaxseed-storage-baking-stability/


As a rule, potatoes that are colored (red, gold, blue) tend to be waxier than white potatoes (red being the waxiest), and fingerling potatoes are the waxier than other sizes. A more complete list can be found here.


When baking quick breads and cakes, can I premix wet ingredients the night before?

Sure.

With quick breads you just don't want to activate your leavened prematurely. That happens when the wet and dry mix so you're fine.

Two things to watch out for:

The eggs and buttermilk are going to be more prone to spoiling after they are removed from their containers. Additionally, the batter could pick up funny flavors from the fridge. Storing in an appropriate container in the fridge and using it the next day would avoid any issues.

The wet ingredients, including the eggs, are emulsified when they are mixed. The oil dissolves into the buttermilk with the help of the egg yolks. This emulsification is important for the texture of quick breads. The emulsion is not indestructible. If you find your oil has separated in the morning you may need to beat it again to reemulsify before combining with the dry.

Note: your title says "and cakes". Cakes are assembled with different methods such as creaming or beating egg whites. These could not be done in advance without destroying the texture of the cake.


How to choose good quality Chinese slicer knives?

Short answer:
 I've only heard good things about the CCK #1 small slicer, and would suggest that.  If you're new to the style of knife, pick up a cheap carbon-steel Dexter Russell one for like $20-25 at your local Chinatown.

Long answer: Chinese slicer knives (more commonly called Chinese cleavers) are multipurpose knives, so they fill the same niche as French-style chef knives.  They're common options for cheap restaurant knives, and I've seen them used professionally.  I now use a Dexter Chinese Cleaver as my primary knife at home.

The common features of Chinese cleavers are a squared-off, deep, often carbon steel blade, bamboo barrel-style handle, and pure awesomeness.  Generally the blades are around 200mm long x 75-90mm deep, or about 8" x 3".  As you note, the blades are not as heavy or thick as German-style cleavers, so they can't handle bone.

Although they get mentioned a lot for vegetable chopping, Chinese cleavers are remarkably flexible for both meat and vegetables. You can find videos of Chef Martin Yan deboning a chicken in under 30 seconds with a Chinese cleaver. The deep blade makes chopping thick objects simple, where the squared corner is remarkable for fine detail work.  The spine of the knife can be used to tenderize meat or scrape cutting boards. The broad blade is perfect for transferring cut product to a pan.  You can even use the handle for crushing spices!

The carbon steel blades can be love or hate for many people.  Personally, I love how mine takes and holds an edge comparable to the most expensive stainless steels.  The fly in the ointment is that they can rust right before your eyes if you cut lemons or acidic tomatoes.  They should always be cleaned and dried PROMPTLY after use, to avoid rust. Between use, I oil mine lightly with vegetable oil, as an extra precaution. Between this and the water-intolerance of the bamboo handle, they do need some special care.

Although stainless-steel cleavers are becoming more common, I really think it defeats the point if you use one.  They're supposed to be cheap and ugly, but workhorses. A good Chinese cleaver shouldn't set you back more than $50 in your local Chinatown or online... mine was about $25 and it does dang fine, though I will probably upgrade to a CCK #1 eventually.


Mortar used to process paste containing candlenuts - risk of contaminating raw foods?

Didn't even know they were toxic uncooked, and survived 40+ years of home cooking (both by me and my parents) without any ill effect, I would say 99% of the times ground uncooked.

That is, however, not an answer, so I will just explain my point of view, and why I won't bother with extraordinary cleansing after grinding candlenuts.

I can't find anything on the toxicity levels, other than "mildly", and never saw any warning on any bag of candlenuts. I did find it on some other "exotic" ingredients, most notably mustard oil.
Not a very strong argument, but: Usually, somewhere between 5 and 10 nuts are used, tops. For a mildly toxic ingredient, this seems quite a low number to make it dangerously toxic.
It seems unlikely to me that after grinding you end up with 99% of the stuff going in to the dish, and yet somehow, a significant, if not most of the amount of toxins remaining in the mortar.
Recipes sometimes do tell to toast the candlenuts first. None of the ones I know of say it is because of the toxicity. All of the ones I know of, tell to toast them lightly, a few minutes max. Given the size of a candlenut, it seems unlikely to me (but I'm not chemist) that toasting it for around 2-3 minutes will kill the toxins. Come to think of it: None of the books, recipes, or sources otherwise ever even mentioned their toxicity.
Lastly, and completely irrelevant, I may be the lucky one of course: I'm still here breathing.

All in all, I personally group it into the "Tomatoes and potatoes are toxic" category. Both nightshades, but you'll have to eat a ton of them in one sitting before you'll have to start worrying.


What types of wine are suitable for Dijon mustard?

I looked at the first 8 recipes that came up on a Google search. All but one just said "Dry White Wine". One said, "dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc".

So, I would say that's your answer. Any dry white wine will do, perhaps Sauvignon Blanc might be ideal.


Do I need baking powder/baking soda for my flourless corn bread?

I assume from the ingredients you didn't end up making a corn flatbread. The raising agents will give some rise even without gluten from the flour to form a structure, and the egg will help bind the cornmeal into its raised shape. But its probably rather crumbly (the similar cornbread I make is quite crumbly even with the flour).

One important point though: if they (and you) liked what you made before, I suggest you don't change it.


How to know whether the whole unpeeled garlic is still edible or not?

There are three signs you want to look for on garlic that indicate you may not want to use it:

Signs of mold, especially black mold.  Discard the garlic.
Soft to finger pressure.  It is rotten.  Discard.
Sprouted.  While it is still safe to eat (if it doesn't have other issues), it may be bitter.

Good garlic should be quite hard when pressed with your fingers, and preferably is not sprouted.  Some people even remove the green core of partially or beginning to sprout garlic when they prep.


Is it possible to create good hummus without a food processor?

While you can make a decent hummus with a blender, it will be thinner than the hummus you would make in a food processor (at least thinner than my recipe).

If you have a potato masher or ricer, either would do the job nicely, giving you a texture that is less smooth than you might get with a food processor, but definitely good.  I like the texture when done by hand (think lumpy mashed potatoes) and the flavor, of course, is the same.  You can accomplish the same thing a little easier with a stand or hand mixer.

Keep in mind that hummus has been around a lot longer than the food processor, so if you do it by hand, it will probably be more like "real" hummus.


Carbonation produces the textural effects associated with effervescence, first of all, and a lot of people find that texture enjoyable.  Texture is a huge part of the culinary experience and affects how flavorful compounds contact your tongue, thus affecting its perceived flavor.

Carbonation also raises the acidity of a beverage slightly, due to the presence of dissolved carbonic acid in the solution.  As @Joe mentions in comments, this can promote the release of gasses with additional dissolved flavorful compounds.  All of this can have a suppressing or enhancing effect on other flavors (a topic which is absurdly complicated and still being explored by food scientists much smarter than I).

Basically, the point of carbonating is similar to the point of pureeing something, or the point of dehydrating it.  It's a fun and easy way to change how you experience the food--or beverage in this case.


What, other than popcorn, can be made in a popcorn maker?

Many popcorn makers can be used to roast coffee...you will likely destroy it as a popcorn popper over time, however.


I love a bit of thyme in bread. Pairs well with the rosemary, too.


Has anyone ever tried birch sap as a tonic?

I've tried unfermented birch sap before (I got it at a local Russian supermarket). I was expecting it to taste somewhat like Birch Beer. Instead, it was surprisingly tasteless; like maple, I suspect one would have to reduce/concentrate it quite significantly to get a pronounced birch flavor. It had the taste and consistency of a thin/diluted simple syrup with only a faint hint of birch flavor.

I made a cocktail using birch sap and ROOT: a liquor modeled after a pre-temperance liquor called "root tea" that was the predecessor to root beer (which is, ironically, non-alcoholic), one of whose primary flavorings is birch bark. I forget what else (if anything) I put in it, but I seem to recall that it worked quite well.

I asked a Russian friend of mine if he had ever heard of fermented birch sap.  He said that, although birch sap ("берёзовый сок", if you ever want to find it in a Russian store) is very popular in Russia, he has never heard of anyone fermenting it.  However, he did add that "Russians would ferment anything…"

On a somewhat related note (at the risk of going off topic), there is an extremely popular low-alcohol drink in Russia called kvas (квас) which is made from fermented rye bread.  Despite the fact that birch sap is also popular, every Russian for whom I've served root beer or birch beer absolutely hates the stuff.  Likewise, I love root/birch beer, however, I hated kvas the first time I tried it (but I have since developed a taste for it, over time).  I have developed this theory:

  Anyone who liked the taste of kvas the first time he/she tried it will undoubtedly dislike the taste of root/birch beer the first time he/she tries it.  Likewise, Anyone who liked the taste of root/birch beer the first time he/she tried it will undoubtedly dislike the taste of kvas the first time he/she tries it.

I have surveyed dozens of Eastern Europeans and Americans alike who have tried both, and I have yet to find a single person that invalidates my theory.  Is there anyone out there who has tried both?


Pressure Cooker "Safety Fuse Plate" Bubbles During Use

Beans and legumes produce a lot of scum/foam (it's a mostly denatured protein mat) while cooking.  For a pressure cooker, this can clog your vents (a bad thing).  So you want to ensure that not too much is produced.  Your user manual should have a section describing the cooking of beans and/or legumes with appropriate instructions.

An example is on page 23 of this manual.  To summarize:

Don't fill cooker more than 1/2
Adding a tbsp of oil per cup of legume can reduce frothing [I haven't tried this]
Bring the legumes to a boil and skim the initial scum before closing the cooker


Is it possible to use casserole dish to make no-knead bread?

i STRONGLY recommend against it. i can speak from experience that the sudden change in temperature can cause glass baking dishes (particularly when they go from as high of a heat required by no-knead bread to a cool room temp) to shatter and explode! i had a pyrex dish go supernova on me once, sending hot flying glass shards all over the kitchen. how i didn't get hit i'll never know, but it melted holes in our floor and left scorch marks!

more information from Consumer Reports: http://tinyurl.com/33dz9o5

you can pick up some heavy pots suitable for no-knead break baking at thrift stores and garage sales for a song. if you can find a cast-iron dutch oven, even better! i urge you to dig around a bit. the results are really worth it.


Why do we slice some meats thinly and not others?

Some meats are sliced thinly to break up the muscle fibers that run through it.  A properly sliced flank steak is tender, while unsliced or improperly sliced it's tough and chewy.

Not all cuts of meat require the slicing, however.  If it doesn't have long, strong muscles, it may be fine without.   And this is a function of cooking.... tougher working muscles can. E slow cooked until it falls apart on its own, such as for pulled pork.

Most cuts of meat from larger mammals may be sliced thickly or thinly, but the decisions soon often comes down to tradition more than anything else.  There may be national or regional dishes that prepare a specific cut of meat in a specific way.  Not only in how it's cut, but how it's prepared and possibly how it's presented and accompanying dishes.

When it comes to sandwiches, I'm of the opinion that shaved meat is always superior to sliced (except possibly when we're dealing with some that weren't a whole muscle to start... meatloaf, liverwurst, etc.... although salami, bologna, formed ham and many others are still better shaved). But I agree with Cindy that thick slices are often better when served on a plate.  (and more convenient to turn the leftovers into a casserole)


Not sure if this is the situation in your case, but here's a possible stab. I hope it's informative (and correct!) anyway. :)

Depending on the look of the leaves (can't tell from your link), you might have just the tips and buds, rather than fully formed and unfurled leaves.  If this is the case, this can indicate higher quality (or at least more desirable, commercially speaking) tea, and perhaps the time of year of harvest. If very young, these buds won't unfurl much (or at all).

When harvesting tea, one could pick the more mature (older) leaves further up the branch (toward the trunk of the tree), or further down toward the end of the branch (toward the newest buds), which will be smaller and more delicate.  The latter (buds and smaller leaves) are "better" in various respects, and are generally more expensive in respects of harvesting, processing, etc., and correspondingly less common and more valuable.

Take a look at tea leaf grading guides; the Wikipedia article on tea grading for more on the concept. There are many more guides if you search on that term.  Though usually applied to black teas, I hope it illustrates the point I'm trying to make.  Grades of "FOP" ("Flowery Orange Pekoe") and higher will have some quantity of the buds; more words means "better" in some regard (Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery... I have heard of SFTGFOP1, but I am certainly not refined enough to appreciate it). Good white teas (e.g., the picture on this page is an example of leaves that are "hairy" because the buds are just opening) sometimes have lots of buds, which won't unfurl when steeping. Again, you're talking oolong, but hopefully this illustrates the concept.

Other teas are mechanically rolled (e.g., gunpowder green tea) so the look of the leaves before steeping could be similar between buds and processed teas.  Gunpowder tea (the stuff that that I get, anyway) is relatively lower quality, made from more mature leaves, which unfurl completely into large leaves after steeping.

As an aside: For good quality tea, I find using too-hot water yields less desirable tea. YMMV.

I hope you've got a great tea!


How should I prepare Bok Choy before I cook it?

I've never tried steaming bok choy, but yes, the ribs and leafy bits cook at different speeds.

For stir frys I trim the bottom so the ribs come free, clean off any dirt that's gotten trapped in between, then stack up the leaves and cut the leaves from the ribs.  I slice the ribs into about 5mm / 3/16" slices, and add them towards the end; the leaves I cut into ribbons (perpendicular to the ribs), and stir them in at the last second, so they barely cook.  The center I just chop the top off the leafy bit, and slice the more rib-like bits a litte larger than the rest of the ribs (they're thinner, so cook faster).

As I've never tried steaming it, and I don't tend to cook in bags (except for silver turtles when camping), this is going to be a complete guess.  Now, it tastes fine al dente, so you could leave the ribs as large as I use for a stir fry, but en papillote tends to be fancier cooking, so I'd probably try for maybe 1/6" slices or a little thicker (maybe 2-3mm), and if you had a mandoline so they all came out even, that'd be great.  I'd still cut the leaves into ribbons, just because it's easier to eat than a huge intact leaf.

I'd assume that the leaves would cook at a similar rate as spinich, and the ribs closer to fennel, if that helps at all.


Use a bucket.

Lid sold separately, about ~20 for the two of them. Alternatively, you can pick up an oak barrel. They tend to be much more expensive in the 150-200 range. You could make your own container out of clay, though price effectiveness is questionable

More to the point, I think you underestimate the utility and glory that is plastic. Any container will flavor the water, plastic least so. Plastic is the lightest especially for its durability. It's incredibly cheap. It's safe (Don't let BPA alarmists mislead you, containers exhibit safe levels or they wouldn't be approved by the FDA. It's far more worrying how much of it winds up in other places.) It doesn't rust, and is non-porous. It is transparent, which allows natural sunlight to decontaminate drinking water from harmful microbes. It is hypoallergenic.

Overall plastic is pretty neat, and I strongly recommend you reconsider your aversion to it.


I'm an American cornbread lover living in the UK, so I have some experience with this. In the UK and commonwealth corn flour = US cornstarch, and in the UK corn meals are coarser then their US counterparts. Coarse polenta is like ball bearings, fine polenta is still too coarse for decent cornbread and fritters. You can get fine corn meal in the UK now, which is slightly finer than your average US cornmeal, but not as fine as US corn flour.

So if I'm in the US using an American recipe that calls for fine corn meal I'd just use regular corn meal, if I'm in the US using a UK recipe and it calls for fine corn meal it would probably mean fine polenta, which is what you generally get in the US.


flexible food grade plastics that won't melt at 105 C

Most food-grade gaskets for boiling+ temps and steam applications are Silicone or EPDM, because they are flexible, inexpensive, take very high temperatures, and won't leak weird flavors. EPDM is considered the best for true steam applications. Buna-N (nitrile) and Viton would work as well, but may not hold up as long under steam pressure. For intermittent use, any of the four materials would work.

There are official "food grade" gaskets, but unless you are making product for commercial sale then you don't need products that have been FDA approved - just wash the gasket before installing to remove the packing lubricant.

I wouldn't bother with any big-box hardware stores, though some "specialty" hardware stores or home-brew shops may have what you need. Online is probably your best bet, however.

You might find these guys handy, retailers of many gaskets needed for the brewing industry, many of which may be applicable to you (particularly the standard DIN-style gaskets): http://www.brewerygaskets.com/

Also useful, EMI Supply sells these little tubes of FDA approved silicon sealant (more like a caulk): http://www.emisupply.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=9742

And for general purpose gaskets of every type imaginable, McMasterCarr: http://www.mcmaster.com/#gaskets/=gc516x

If you have more details on the dimensions needed, or the types of surfaces you are mating (including a picture?) it would be easier to choose a direction to go.


Treat it like any liquid.  You don't need much.  Just put some in a 100 ml plastic bottle if carrying on.  Alternately, if checking your bags, put your starter in a larger plastic container with a screw cap...like a Nalgene bottle, for example.  You can build it back up once you get to your destination.


Safe to leave oven on at 180F while at work to cook ribs?

Yes, there's a risk, but it's not significantly higher than having most other home appliances turned on  (eg, a lamp, dehumidifier, dish washer or dryer).

Although it heats up, a full-sized oven is insulated, and you're not operating at a very high temperature.  Provided it seals well, even if there's a fire, there would be little oxygen to sustain it.  I would not trust a toaster oven or desktop oven. with this sort of thing, as they're not as well insulated, nor do they tend to seal well.

As ovens are based on temperature, and will cycle on an off, rather than just feed in a constant amount of power (such as a cook top) ... so it won't get so hot that it causes other issues.

Update: I made the (possibly incorrect) assumption that this was an electric oven.  I don't know that I'd trust a gas oven the same way (as I would assume that it is not well sealed) ... although people leave their home heating systems and water heaters on without shutting them off when they leave each day, so it's probably not an issue.


How to keep dust and cat hair off cast iron pans?

First off, cleaning isn't necessarily bad for seasoning.  "Soap removes seasoning" is largely a myth; Serious Eats discusses this at length.  The seasoning is actually a polymer chemically bonded to the iron, not just something coating the outside that will easily wash off, so anything that isn't able to remove the iron shouldn't remove it.  Certainly a light wipe with a wet or soapy cloth is perfectly fine.

Second, a few options you might consider:

If you're hanging it on the wall, hang it so the main part of the pan faces the wall.  This will mean less stuff gets on it (and more gets on the bottom, which is irrelevant).
If you crochet or knit, or know someone who does, make a cast iron pan cover.  I know a friend who did this.  You can make it out of a relatively heat-resistant yarn, so that it isn't damaged by the pan being warm.  You might also be able to reuse an old sweater, as long as you confirm the fabric is something that can stand up to the heat (100% cotton is probably best since it's hard to say what different polyesters will do).
While the pan cools from your seasoning, keep it in the oven, or turn it upside down.  That way it can be cooler before you cover it.
Buy enamelware.  Maybe cast iron isn't the best idea in a long-hair cat household.
Before using the pan, heat it up a lot (20 minutes or so in the oven or over high heat).  Then brush off whatever is on it (carefully).  This will remove the cat hair effectively without risking any damage to the seasoning.


How to make the bottom of breads bake a little slower so that the whole bread could stay longer in the oven?

First, you can bake the bread on a higher rack.

Second, you can turn up the temperature of the top heating element.

Third, you can use a less heat conductive pan.

Fourth, you can use a wash on the bread which turns brown quicker than normal dough. Egg yolk browns very nicely. On lean breads, a milk wash also does well.

The way you describe it, you indeed have to address the issue. But be careful not to overdo it. To get well risen bread, you want to have higher temperature on the bottom than on the top, so the upper crust won't set too early. You will have to test your way changing the conditions towards the optimum.


Some chemicals and flavours dissolve or bind to water differently from oil. For example, chili binds with oil much better than with water and the honey in your recipe will dissolve into the water which it would not do in oil.


How can I prevent pastry becoming soggy when it has a filling and is stored overnight?

At work the butcher makes 100's of sausage rolls in batches. We then cook 1/4, fridge 1/4 and freeze 1/2. We never have any issue with them being soggy, regardless of storage method. To be honest in a taste test you'd have no idea which was which.

Also once cooked (as long as cooked properly) they don't go soggy for at least 2 days in the fridge.

I'm assuming you will be using puff pastry as per tradition. If so don't forget to allow the rolls to stand at room temp for 15-30min before cooking as it will help with the "puffing".


Is tomato sauce safe if the water evaporated in the canner?

If the water was boiling the whole time, you are fine.

There is research-supported (finally) evidence that "Steam canning" is actually just as effective as boiling water bath canning, if done properly. Unfortunately, the folks that have been insisting that you must have everything submerged are rather slow to change recommendations based on the research, after decades of claiming that they didn't recommend it since there was no research. It makes me wonder what in heck their actual agenda is.

In any case, if your boiling water bath was boiling the whole time, the portion of the jars that was "steam-processed" would have been steam processed properly, so you're good.

Note that while the research was aimed at the "steam canner" pots, a partially full boiling water bath in a normal pot is exactly the same above waterline when the lid is on.


The Malliard reaction is quite complex. The article I linked defines it as

  many small, simultaneous chemical reactions that occur when proteins and sugars in and on your food are transformed by heat, producing new flavors, aromas, and colors.

Oil does not necessarily need to be present, though, especially with regard to meats, fat is often there.  If you scroll down to the comments, someone does ask the author about oil and marinades.  He replies that "fats, under high heat, produce their own separate browning reaction."

Maillard is not a reaction of fats, but the browning of fats works in tandem with
the Maillard reaction to produce flavors and aromas.

Oil does promote caramelization of vegetables in a roasting situation, which is what it appears you are missing. It doesn't take much for the desired effect.


Can I eat an eclair which has been at room temperature for almost 2 hours

EAT IT NOW!IT'LL BE ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! No worries about food safety at this point, but time is of the essence!


I'd imagine these are being stored in a simple glass / plastic display similar to what you'd see at a sari-sari store.

Shalryn's suggestion is good, but it compromises the quality of the cookie a bit. I'd look at using some sort of desiccant first, and a simple electric fan behind the display to move the air around in order to take advantage of it. Humidity and lack of air movement is definitely a big problem here, and if you can find a way to control that, you might not have to alter the recipe (which sounds positively delicious and I'm going to try it).

Some rice flour in a small shallow tin might just be enough to do it. You'd have to experiment a bit, and ultimately you might have to alter your recipe, but those cookies are surely a hit and I'd hate to see you have to make them harder for logistic's sake :)

If they're being sold in boxes, just add a silica gel pack and let folks know that they can't hit direct sunlight for too long. They are incredibly cheap (they run around 1.25 pesos from anywhere between 2-3 gram packets).


How long does it take garlic to germinate in the fridge?

Germination of garlic is a gradual, slow process, and how long it takes depends a lot on how close to sprouting the garlic was when you originally bought it. Seems to me it would have to sprout faster at room temp, than refrigerated, anyway.

I routinely keep garlic in the fridge (shame on me!), and sometimes the garlic will keep in the fridge for at least a month without sprouting (That's about how fast I use it, so I don't have data past a month). On the other hand, I have seen nubby little green/purplish sprouts (abt. 3mm long?) on garlic which I had just purchased; cut them off; garlic was fine - just like your experience.

I guess the reason you want to keep the garlic in the fridge during your stay at your friend's house is to avoid unnecessary rancourous arguments - yes? So here's the thing: your friend may be wrong, but for the layman, it's not a huge deal to keep the garlic in or out of refrigerator, as he likes.


For grapes you don't make oil from the fruit, you make it from the seed. The only entries in this table for fruit "flesh" are for oil palm and olives.

Assuming the price of some oils correspond to the difficultly to get a reasonable yield,
I think their will not be enough oil in grapefruit (or grape flesh) to extract, otherwise it would probably have been done so commercially already.


Why Alcohol?
Alcohol is used for extracts because the flavor compounds (plant oils) you are trying to extract do not easily dissolve in water. Alcohol (typically bourbon or vodka) will do the trick. Make sure you use +80 proof because it also acts as a preservative.
Making Mint Extract
To make an extract, tear up or coarsely chop and bruise washed mint leaves into a measuring cup (you'll end up with about twice the volume of extract as you have leaves). Transfer the leaves to a glass container with a tight-fitting lid. Add about twice the alcohol (by volume) as you had leaves. Cover and shake.
The mint leaves will tend to float to the top, but give it a chance. After a few days, they'll start to bog down with alcohol and sink. Shake it every few days or so. After a month, you'll have mint extract. Strain the leaves and store.
Adjusting the Strength of Your Extract
The longer you let the leaves steep, the stronger the extract will become until all the oils are essentially spent. You can sample the extract along the way until you get something to your liking. If you want something stronger, you can add fresh leaves to your strained extract and continue the process. There's a limit though; as the alcohol become saturated, you'll get diminishing returns by adding more leaves.
Freezing the extract will not congeal the oils for further separation. They're essentially dissolved in the alcohol (unlike water + oil) and the alcohol will not freeze. Extracts are typically too concentrated to drink straight. For all that effort, it's better just to crush a few leaves directly into a drink with whatever ingredients will make it a proper cocktail.
Boiled Leaves isn't Really Mint Extract
The boiling water method you mentioned above wont achieve the same results. Even if concentrated, the flavor compounds in extracts are typically somewhat volatile (which is why you add them near the end of cooking). You're basically making concentrated, flavored mint tea… but it isn't really an extract. And without the alcohol acting as a preservative, you're mint tea will have a somewhat limited shelf life. Even distilling the volatile oils by boiling and condensing into a liquid might get you pure mint oil, but that would likely need very specialized equipment.


Cream cheese is a distinct product, with a flavour and texture of its own.

I don't think you'd get the right texture by crumbling paneer into yoghurt, but if you can make paneer you can make cream cheese - or rather [an easy form of ricotta] (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/14/homemade-ricotta-recipe-anna-jones-modern-cook) , which is a type of acid set cream cheese. It's essentially the same as making paneer but you stop short of boiling the milk before adding the lemon juice, and you don't press it after straining. If you can make or get unpressed paneer that might work.

Mascarpone is thicker and richer, made from fresh double (heavy) cream and lemon juice.


Am I unwittingly damaging my knives with amateur sharpening?

Destroy is too strong a word. For most knives the worst you can do by honing wrong is to take the edge off the knife. This isn't destroying it, it just means you need to get it sharpened again. Angle is the important thing with honing, you need to match the sharpened angle and be consistent.

If you have a knife with a design or a pattern on the blade, like Damascus steel, some Japanese knives, etc. honing badly could damage that design or pattern and ruin the look of the knife. That doesn't destroy it, just makes it less attractive.


Diced ham is a great addition to any dried beans, peas, or lentils, especially for those of us who like a lot of meat in them. I would encourage you to add the diced ham later in the cooking process rather than at the beginning.

You should get plenty of seasoning from the ham hocks. And while the ham can add additional flavor, you run the risk of "washing out" the taste of the ham. (I learned this the hard way may years ago.) Long cooking doesn't hurt the texture of the ham so much, but it does seriously hurt the flavor.

Plus, it is possible to over-season or get too much salt in your dish. You don't want to do that either.

Ideally, the ham only needs to be added for enough time to heat it thoroughly and incorporate it into your dish. Your 10 hour idea may work fine, but I would think 4 to 6 hours would be sufficient. Again, you want to avoid losing flavor in the ham.

As a side note, slow cookers vary widely as temperatures go. Be sure to check the temperature of your dish on warm to ensure that it is not in the danger zone for many hours.


How long does tahini last past expiration date?

For what it's worth, you can safely store opened sesame oil in a refrigerator for one year (stilltasty.com).

Peanut butter can be kept for 3 months in the cupboard, then another 3-4 months in the refrigerator.

To be safe, I'd say keep it refrigerated once it's been opened, and use it within 6 months. I've had some for about that long, and it's just fine still.

Remember: bad odors indicate bad food.


We have an old variety apple tree, similar to Yellow Transparent, of uncertain origin. When ripe - that is, the flesh has softened to edibility and sweetness has developed - the skins provide a highly tannic note. Removing the skins before using the apples in cooking dramatically reduces the tannins.


Confirming Fried Chicken is completely cooked

While not specifically an answer to your measurement question, you might consider cooking your chicken low-temp (sous vide) to ensure optimal doneness, then just quickly deep fry for crust formation.  That would guarantee safety and specific temp. for specific parts of the bird.  See here, for example:  http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-fried-chicken


Will cooking tagliatelle in squid ink turn it black?

Boiling it in ink will give some flavor and color, but it won't be part of the pasta.  Instead, you could make a squid ink-based sauce to toss it in afterwards.  Here's an example recipe: https://www.thespruceeats.com/spaghetti-al-nero-di-seppia-2018653


What counts as "anaerobic" re: botulism?

Anaerobic simply means "absence of air."

Any liquid food environment basically counts as "anaerobic."  Yes, there may be some dissolved gases and exchange of air may happen near the surface of a liquid like water, but deeper in an undisturbed liquid, there's often not enough air to prevent botulism growth.  Some basically "solid" foods count too, if they aren't porous or are highly viscous (but apparent solids) and contain a high enough moisture content for bacteria to grow and spread.  Any solids that are relatively moist and close-packed are also a particular problem (think sausages).

Whether all of these anaerobic environments will grow botulism then depends on various other factors.  Botulism bacteria need food.  They dislike acidity or excess salt (think pickles) or excess sugar (think preserves) or alcohol (think fermentation), which are all traditional preservation methods.  They need a certain level of water -- hence why drying was also a traditional preservation method and why solid hunks of stuff are less likely to cause problems (unless they have sufficient internal moisture).  Also, oil-rich environments lack water and may not grow botulism (think mayonnaise) but water-containing food within oil can (think garlic or herbs in oil).

All of these may be "anaerobic" environments, but the other factors can prevent botulism.

Lastly, you have things like temperature -- chilling will slow botulism growth to a crawl and at low temperatures stop it completely.  That's the last traditional preservation method: chilling or freezing.

Basically, anything under liquid left at room temperature for extended periods could conceivably grow botulism bacteria, assuming adequate "food" (for the bacteria) is present and none of the "preserving" environmental conditions mentioned above.  Note the "extended periods" -- compared to other food poisoning bacteria, botulism grows more slowly and generally needs at least a couple days to grow to appreciable levels.  And that's why any type of canning recipes, etc. from official organizations are rigorously tested with exact measurements for preservation agents (like acid, salt, etc.), unless they undergo a "pressure canning" step that heats the food hot enough to actually kill botulism spores (which will survive boiling).  Similarly, preserved meats (especially processed ground ones) that can remain at room temperature need to be treated with excessive salt for long periods (sometimes acid as well), and often other agents (like nitrates or nitrites) to inhibit botulism growth.

So yes, as Harold McGee mentions, stock left at room temperature for a few days can definitely grow botulism bacteria.  A casserole left at room temperature for a few days could likely grow them too.  Meat left at room temperature can definitely grow botulism, which is actually one of the biggest problems for actual cases of botulism after canning -- improperly preserved meat not kept under refrigeration.

"Solid" meat and vegetables are less likely to have botulism bacteria far in their interior in the first place (and often aren't "wet" enough for the bacteria to spread far), but if they become contaminated, they can be a problem too.  For example: baked potatoes stored in foil and kept at room temperature have been known to be a cause, as have pickled eggs that were pricked before pickling (thus inadvertently introducing botulism bacteria into the otherwise sterile yolk).

To quote the FDA:

  Botulinal toxin has been demonstrated in a considerable variety of
  foods, such as canned corn, peppers, green beans, soups, beets,
  asparagus, mushrooms, ripe olives, spinach, tuna fish, chicken and
  chicken livers and liver pate, and luncheon meats, ham, sausage,
  stuffed eggplant, lobster, and smoked and salted fish.


How to bake chips in microwave using grill?

According to Consumer Reports, these microwaves typically have traditional heating elements in addition to microwave heat, or they're combo convection/microwave ovens. The rack is to move food closer to the grill element, or to allow better airflow for convection models.

In that case, you'd use the microwave like a small grill or convection oven rather than a traditional microwave - see the instruction guide for your make and model (typically available on the manufacturer's website.) In this way, you can prepare crispy items like oven-baked tortilla chips or samosas (I prefer oven-baked samosas over fried myself! Mmm.)


Why Is My White Sweet Potato Turning Black?

It is, as you said, oxidation. As soon as you cut them, put them in a bowl under water. Kills the oxygen supply/reaction.


I Googled for "Raadvad" which seemed to be the text embossed on the tool, and found this video suggesting this is a 'bread guillotine'. A subsequent search for "Raadvad bread guillotine" suggests either 'bread guillotine' or, simply, '(Danish/Scandinavian) bread slicer'.


Comparable ingredients in butter and mayonaise

Normally, there are no ingredients shared between butter and mayonnaise. The only ingredient in butter is milk, either fresh or cultured. The ingredients of mayonnaise are egg yolks, vegetable oil, mustard, water and acid. As you can see, there is nothing in common between the two.

There are two exceptions when they may share something.

First, you can get salted butter, and many mayonnaise recipes also incorporate some salt. Then the salt is the shared ingredient.

Second, fats are interchangeable in the making of emulsified sauces, and home cooks will frequently call their sauce "mayonnaise" when made with butter instead of oil. Technically, this makes it a hollandaise derivative and not a mayonnaise, but many people won't know the difference. If you happen to eat "mayonnaise" made with butter, then the shared ingredient is the butter itself. With commercially bought mayonnaise, you can be practically sure that there is no butter in it.


Is it possible to use jam instead of sugar to make a dough?

Almost any substitution is about making a trade-off and understanding the ratios involved. In this case replacing 70g sugar and 50g of butter with 100g of jam and 200g of yogurt you both increase the moisture and remove the sugar crystals from the texture. During the creaming process (where sugars and fats are blended) the sugar crystals play a vital role in creating air pockets that will determine the final texture.

  Why Do I Cream Butter, and What Happens If I Don't?

  In pastry-speak, this process is described as "mechanical leavening":
  physically cramming air into a dough so that it'll puff up in the oven
  like a hot-air balloon. Google around, and that's what you'll be told,
  time and again. Creaming adds air. Air is fluffy. Fluffy is good. Good
  is great. Yay, cookies!

The yeast almost certainly made up for a lack of 'mechanical leaving' that didn't occur because of the jam, which lacked the crystalline structure granulated sugar would have provided.

If one substitutes enough elements of a cookie recipe at what point does it stop being a cookie? Your own question answers itself that it is possible to replace A & B with C & D. It even looks like you created something quite good (I'm tempted to try it out), but is it still "a cookie" or something else all together? But then there is the whole "dipping it in milk" goal. This creation is more likely to breakdown in milk (as you have observed) and short of putting it between two graham crackers, probably always will be.


Can I leave cauliflower florets in batter overnight for making Gobi Manchurian?

Okay, so I seem to have figured out. If you leave florets in the batter overnight, the veggie will loose all the water and make the batter very very thin from what you would actually need for deep frying. So the answer is no. It shouldn't be done!!


How to remove the excessive saltiness from gammon?

Soak at least overnight. In addition to that, consider a sweet glaze like apricot, or an acidic one like one that includes cider vinegar. Best yet might be all three, an overnight soak (change the water a few times) and a sweet, acidic glaze.

If you still find it too salty, go ahead and try boiling briefly in fresh water (blanching) after soaking, and then plunging in ice water before you continue to glaze and roast. If all of that isn't enough, and you are choosing the lowest salt gammon available to you, then gammon isn't your thing. Try a fresh ham instead.


How to use slow cooker for cooking meat without it turning into soup or stew?

As logophobe suggested in the comments, look for slow cooker recipes that aren't soups or stews. There are plenty, mostly in the direction of roasts. The general idea will be that you put a large piece of meat (and maybe some vegetables) in a slow cooker, with a very small amount of water (maybe half a cup), and you'll end up with some liquid in the bottom, but not a huge amount.

That liquid will generally be pretty flavorful, so most people would probably eat it somehow. One might eat it with the meat, turn it into a gravy, or use it in a different soup or stew. You should be able to make something pretty delicious; I wouldn't think of it as "watered down". But if you don't like liquid, you can throw it away.

If you don't like any of those ideas but it still seems wasteful (it is), I guess you might want to pick a different way to cook meat. Slow cookers are pretty much capable of stewing and braising, which can give you something pretty much like a roast, but there's always going to be at least a bit of liquid involved. If that's really not an option for you, the slow cooker might not be the best choice for you.


Your recipe is suspect. Melted butter is the same in chemical composition as softened butter. The two react a bit differently in recipes due to the way that they interact with the other ingredients to impart textures: in short, the creamed butter will hold microscopic bubbles that the fully melted butter will not. Adding egg yolks will help the melted butter incorporate, and probably lead to more cakey cookies (compensating for the flatness you get from melted butter), but the effect is hard to isolate.

As for brown butter, what happens is that as moisture evaporates from the butter, the boiling point increases (similar to what happens when making caramel or candy). As the boiling point of the butterfat increases, the temperature of the butter solids (which consist of lactose and milk proteins) begin to caramelize (the sugars) and undergo a maillard reaction (the protein). Both of these reactions will impart unique flavors to the butter, yielding the distinctive brown butter taste.

As the butter heats, the integrity of the fat is damaged. This occurs to all fats, which is why you can only use a batch of fat for deep frying a few times before it needs to be discarded.


How many times can cheesecloth be reused?

I've not been able to use store bought cheese cloth more than twice and then only if I used it gently. And I'm not gentle on the stuff. I use it for cheese making regularly as well as juicing and random filtering.

I gave up on normal cheese cloth because it is too fragile and way too expensive for what it was.

I now use instead a tightly woven polyester mesh fabric. I found a yard of it in the scraps section of the fabric store for $1. A yard is about 3 times more than I will ever need. I cut it into smaller pieces and hemmed it. It is strong enough to be rung out full of grapes as well as laundered and a tight enough weave to filter small particles out of beef stock.

I was surprised how often I end up using these cloths and highly recommend them.


Can I use extra virgin olive oil for cooking steak?

No. Steak needs be seared at a high, high temperature. Not only would extra virgin olive oil lose everything that makes it special at such a high temperature (so not worth the expense anyway), it would also burn. The smoke point of EVOO is 350F, 180C (give or take). That's simply way too low for searing steak.

There is no such thing as a cooking oil that's hot enough to heat to what I would consider ideal steak steak searing temperature.

:

(I just used this picture in another answer, that's Celsius by the way)

No cooking oil can withstand that kind of heat. So how can you get away with it? Well, when I do it, first I remove the batteries from every smoke detector in my apartment and open my kitchen windows. Secondly, I choose a very refined (read that tasteless) oil with a high smoke point. By using a refined, tasteless oil, there's really nothing left after it burns to taste nasty; it just tastes like char, something I want anyway. Third, I don't put oil in the pan, I just lightly oil the steak. The method works great, but it requires a cast-iron pan and a high smoke point, neutral oil.

I'm not crazy about Jamie Oliver's method because I like a serious char. You can tell he's not using extreme heat, because he's using a non-stick pan. I assume he doesn't throw away the pan with every steak. Even with his method, EVOO would be a bad choice of oil. The point at which extra virgin olive oil gets nasty is significantly lower than the temperature that will ruin a non-stick pan 400F+ (200C+), and much lower than the temperature necessary to get a decent char on a steak. Refined (pure, or extra light) olive oil would be an OK choice, as would canola, safflower, refined avocado, grapeseed or soybean.


No, you can't.  Or at least, you won't get the result you're really looking for.

Water needs to be able to move through the meat for the salt and flavorings to be transported to the inner cells of the meat.  When the meat's frozen, you're dealing with ice crystals.

... that being said, you can thaw the meat in the brine if you're desperate, but you have less control to know exactly how much salt will be absorbed.  (and I vaguely remember another question on here about temperature & brining, and I seem to recall someone reported on experimental results that really cold brines didn't transfer flavors deeply into the meat.).


how early can I put food into a slow-cooker?

Yes.  A typical slow cooker's low setting ranges between 8-10 hours, which is within the range of your listed times.

All (or nearly all) slow cookers come with a removable ceramic bowl/insert that the food cooks in.  Most families do most of the preparation in the evening, putting everything into that bowl, and putting the bowl into the refrigerator.  Then when they wake up in the morning, they put the bowl back into the slow cooker and start it up.

Your bigger concern should be what size of slow cooker to get.  If you don't fill up that ceramic bowl to at least 1/2-2/3's full, you can end up burning the entire dinner.


Your cake did not rise properly because of the substitution you made.

Oil and apple mousse are only an acceptable substitution for butter under some circumstances. When a recipe directs you to cream the butter with the sugar, you cannot use a non-solid fat substitute. The creaming creates a bubbly, airy structure, and these mini-bubbles get expanded by the baking powder. If you dump a liquid fat in, this won't happen, and your cake will stay un-aired. It will be doughy, which you perceived as a moistness.

By the way, the sugar also plays an important structural role. I would advice you to not reduce it in cake recipes, as you will get a worse texture (although the results won't be as problematic as with the butter substitution).

If you want to make cake that requires creaming and don't have butter, you can get decent results with shortening, margarine, lard (caution: the taste will be noticeable, will not do for fine tortes), coconut fat, and other solid fats. If you don't have any of these, you have to choose a recipe which uses a different method for combining the ingredients.


How can I tell whether my baking recipe has enough acid to activate the baking soda?

Both brown sugar and molasses are slightly acidic, you are right that reducing them reduces the acidity. However you need to consider that baking soda's purpose is a leavening agent, not to neutralize acid, so if you take some baking soda away you need to replace it with baking powder or you won't have enough leavening agent.
I can think of 2 ways to go about this, there's the lab science way and the simple way.
The lab science way would be to dissolve the amount of sugar and molasses you plan to use into some water, and then add small amounts of baking soda to the mix until you have a neutral ph. You can measure acidity with an expensive electronic meter or by using paper strips. However much baking soda you add to get a neutral PH is the right amount. You'll need to measure things exactly for this to work, then replace the balance of the baking soda with baking powder to have the right leavening.
The simpler way is to look at proportions and adjust as a ratio. If 1 tsp of baking soda is good for 1 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of molasses then reducing the brown sugar and molasses by half means you need to reduce the baking soda by half. I personally would weight the molasses and brown sugar rather than using volume measurements, and adjust proportionally using weight of both added together. IF you reduce the combined weight or both by 25% you would reduce the baking soda by 25% and replace it with baking powder. This may need some tweaking, but it will get you pretty close. Be sure to take notes so you remember what you did.


How do you properly defrost frozen fish?

There are two safe ways to defrost, one more rapid than the other.

First method is to defrost in the refrigerator.  This keeps temperature below 40 degrees F, in the safe zone.  This will, also, take a while.

Second method is to defrost in the sink under cold running water.  The water doesn't have to run rapidly, but it should change regularly.  This will defrost the fish more rapidly than in the air (water is a better conductor of heat than air) and will keep the fish in the danger zone for the shortest period of time.  If you are not going to cook it immediately, then return to the refrigerator.

If you are deep frying, there are some techniques that will allow you to go direct from frozen to fried, but that is generally done in a professional kitchen where they have powerful fryers that can take the temperature hit and come back strong.


Why does meat go bad after 1 month sous vide at 55-60C ( 131 - 141F)

40-140F is the danger zone of high growth rate for bacteria.  60-120F is the extremely high zone.  55C is only 131F and not even out of the high growth rate area, 60C it at the edge right at 140.

Outside of the high growth area bacteria growth is not zero, it is only much lower and there is not a magic switch that instantly kills all bacteria when you hit 60C.  The safety rules say that at that point you have reduced risk, not zero risk.  Bacterial growth certainly continues simply at a lower rate.  However, a lower rate over longer time still constitutes rot and danger.  The safety provided by reaching a prescribed temp is negated by then trying to stay there for an unreasonable time.  No guides that say to reach that temperature for safety state that all bacteria are killed, only that many are and those that survive will not be reproducing at rates to be a likely danger if you otherwise handle the item appropriately.  Waiting another 30 days is not handling it appropriately.

In addition, there is more to decay of a piece of meat than just microbial action.  You have cell structure breaking down, chemicals being released, etc.  I would fully expect, in fact be shocked, if the brisket in question would not effectively begin the equivalent of digesting itself.  Bad smells and a texture approaching jelly would not be surprising in the least.  A potentially interesting science experiment, but nothing resembling food should come from any such tests.


How do you finely dice an onion without crying?

Breathe through your mouth.

The tear-causing chemicals in onions are absorbed through the nasal mucous membrane. By breathing through your mouth, they don't get much contact with the fumes and won't absorb nearly as much.


Adjusting dessert recipes to accomodate a larger slow cooker

If your cake batter is to be poured into the slow cooker without the addition of a pan, yes, I would double the recipe to fit your larger vessel.


Where can I find a hand blender like this?

That's a hand blender, or immersion blender. They're common, Amazon has a bunch of them.

Here's one with interchangeable blades.


How to cook fish bones(ideally without oil)?

If they are the bones of fatty, oily fish, the grilling would work, assuming there are still some scraps of meat/fat attached. This will achieve a crunchy texture. Your suggestion of cooking the fish in a pan, wrapped in foil, might also achieve similar results (again use an oily fish).

You could also simmer them in some sort of flavoured broth until they are very soft - I know of a few southeast asian recipes for fish that are slow-cooked in a salty broth for a very long time until the bones are the same texture as the meat and the fish can be eaten whole.

Frying is, in my eyes, the best option for taste and texture - it can be done in relatively little oil, and avoiding too much mess


Vegetable "jam" with salt instead of sugar

No! A cup of salt is an enormous amount and would be dangerous for anyone who ate it, although they are unlikely to be able to swallow it in the first place as it would taste awful.

Preserving vegetables can be done with or without preservative agents like sugar, salt, and acid but  you won't be able to use your bread machine's jam making function. I would highly doubt that the jam made in your bread maker would be good for a year anyway, as long-term preservation requires canning and processing which isn't going to be done by a bread machine.


Can I use German flour Type 405 for a recipe that needs self-rising flour?

The keyword here is “self-rising” - which describes a mix of flour and baking powder.

So if you are going to use 405 instead, which would probably be a good—enough choice (especially as it’s “the standard flour” in German supermarkets), you have to add baking powder. As a rule of thumb, use one pouch (assuming you are in Germany, where that’s the standard unit) per 500g of flour. If your recipe calls for self-raising plus baking powder or baking soda, use the extra amount as well.

I personally prefer he German 550 flour as my go-to type, which is closer to what other countries call “all-purpose”, but it may or may not be available at your store. Unless you are making bread and similar goods, 405 will most likely be ok.


I believe the dimples are for two reasons. One, they possibly help to make the pan, which should be fairly thin, more rigid. Secondly, they are a reminder of the time when these pans were hammered by hand - so, in a way, they make a factory-made pan seem more authentic.

The pan should be fairly thin, yet rigid, and conduct heat well. You don't want localised hot spots, but a strong, even heat.

The pan should probably not be too non-stick - you want to encourage the formation of socarrat - the slightly crusty layer at the base of a good paella.

The "how to cook" series in the Guardian are excellent for researching various recipes and deciding on an evidence-based amalgam - have a look at http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/aug/18/how-to-cook-perfect-paella.


I would look for a lemon custard recipe as that's pretty much what you want to do...


Why does my Victoria sandwich have a hole in the base?

Guessing there was an accumulation of trapped air, either during the preparation of the batter/sponge cake mix, or when pouring into the pan/tin.


Is there any way to make whey powder at home?

If you really do mean turning liquid whey into a powder, then the answer is "no" unless your have access to some specialised equipment. You need a membrane filter, ultra-filtration to be precise, to concentrate the protein to a syrup with about 70-75% water. You will also need a dryer of one type or another to remove most of that water, spray drying gets you a powder, or you can freeze dry and mill the dried cake into powder. Both membrane filters and dryers do exist in lab-bench scale and therefore it is entirely feasible to install them at home.


I have no personal experience, so I can only say what I've found on the web:

There's a guide to pickling fish on the University of Minnesota website:

  Pickling is an easy method of preserving fish. Pickled fish must be stored in the refrigerator at no higher than 40° F (refrigerator temperature), and for best flavor must be used within four to six weeks. Only a few species of fish are preserved commercially by pickling, but almost any type of fish may be pickled at home. Refrigerate the fish during all stages of the pickling process.

  Ingredients for Pickled Fish

  Fish — Use only fresh, high quality fish.
  Water — Avoid hard water, as it causes off color and flavors.
  Vinegar — Use distilled, white vinegar with an acetic acid content of at least 5 percent (50 grains means the same thing). This percentage of acetic acid is needed to stop bacterial growth.
  Salt — Use high grade, pure canning or pickling salt. It does not contain calcium or magnesium compounds which may cause off color and flavors in pickled fish.
  Spices

(Emphasis added as it relates to your questions)

From the above, it sounds like you've got a good window for pickling, 4-6 weeks, which is much longer than your one week need... though it will likely take a few days for them to get pickled.

As to the frozen fish question, I guess it depends on if you can guarantee your fish is high-quality... the article says to use "high quality fresh fish", which sounds like you might have an issue, though their page that discusses more directly the method of pickling fish, lists freezing them below 0 F (-18 C) as a method to kill tapeworms that may be present in the fish:

  Or, if you are pickling raw fish, freeze it at 0° F for 48 hours prior to brining. Either method kills the parasite.

This page from an Alaskan source says that frozen fish is fine as long as it's thawed and they recommend brining to kill parasites.

  Before you can properly pickle fish, it must be properly brined to draw out water to firm up the fish and to kill any excess creatures that might be living in the meat. The brining must be done at temperatures below 38 F (3.3 C) for an added measure of safety. This means you can either clear out a large space in your fridge or use the great outdoors of Seward’s Ice Box like we do.

  Ingredients:

  Fish fillets, defrosted (if using frozen), skin on
  White vinegar
  Pickling (non-iodized) salt
  Water
  A cool place below 38 F (3.3 C) – fridge or the great outdoors

As to recipe suggestions, that's actually out of our scope of discussion but there are tons of recipes out there on the web including some in the links I've included here.


What are the hallmarks of a traditional alfredo sauce?

According to Cooking The Roman Way by David Downie, Fettucine Alfredo is a traditional Roman recipe called "pasta del cornuti" (cuckold's pasta).  What either Alfredo Di Lelio III, or Mario Mozzetti, depending on whom you believe, invented in 1914, was the dramatic tableside preparation of Fettuccine Alfredo, which is what made the dish a hit with visiting Americans in the 20's and 30's.

The tableside preparation is really what makes Fettuccine Alfredo what it is: the hot pasta is tossed with the butter and cheese in front of the diner, and then served to them immediately.

Again, according to Downie, the only ingredients of Fettuccine Alfredo are egg fettuccine, lots of butter, lots of Parmegiano-Reggiano, and (if necessary) a little salt.

Recipes which add cream or milk are Americanized recipes designed to allow restaurants to hold orders of Alfredo for a long time under heat lamps (and turn it into a gooey pasty mess).  Italians, from my experience visiting Italy, rarely put cream or milk on pasta (a real Italian could speak up here).

Downie has a fun 3-page digression about the ongoing lawsuits between the Roman families who claim to own the name.  It's worth a read.

Alan Davidson, predictably, says nothing about Fettuccine Alfredo.  The Glorious Pasta of Italy likewise does not cover the dish.

Wikipedia supports Downie's story, except only attributing Di Lelio, and adding the tidbit that Di Lelio apparently called it "Fettuccine al burro" (fettuccine with butter), and the Alfredo name was appended later when it was copied in the USA.  Wikipedia also says butter and cheese only, on fettuccine pasta.

So, to answer your question and the questions asked in the comments:

Fettuccine Alfredo is an Italian dish, if more popular in the USA than in Italy.
It is a variation of a traditional Italian dish.
In its traditional form, it has only egg pasta, butter, and cheese.
The pasta for Alfredo is egg fettuccine.


How to know how salty is my soup without tasting?

Here's something useful to know. A good typical salt level for most savory foods is in the neighborhood of 1% by weight. So if you know how much your dish weighs in grams, then add 1% of that in salt and you should be very close to a good result. Adjust down if you are using any ingredients that are already salty, like capers. Adjust up if after the first few times you try this, it is a little light for you. You will also learn how much your salt weighs by volume so soon you can just use a measuring spoon or a pinch instead of weighing the salt.


Uses for a sushi mat other than making sushi

Jelly roll, spring roll, joconde, meat roll, etc.


Can an Angel Food Cake recipe be converted to cupcakes?

I've made Angel Food mini cakes before. It was just a matter of adjusting the baking time. Using the standard "clean toothpick" method to ensure they were done worked fine for me.


How to cook whitebait without overcooking?

So, I am not sure whether this is a satisfactory answer as it suggests a different cooking method but here goes

In Greece whitebait (mostly anchovies) is either flash fried after being coated in strong flour or cooked low in the oven covered in lemon, oregano and oil. This latter method matches yours closely - essentially you want to confit it in olive oil in less than 100˚C and make sure you add plenty of oregano or thyme and - if you don't like the sourness of lemon (I do!) use lemon rind. If olive oil isn't plentiful where you are, you can get away with using sunflower oil although the result won't be as tasty. The cooking time is forgiving as it is really low heat.

In any case, the rule of thumb in Greece is to never boil small fish: either fry or oven cook.


You could whip your own cream. Use 1/3 of the amount of heavy cream as cool whip, and whip with a splash of vanilla extract and a pinch of sugar to taste, either by hand or with a mixer. If a recipe calls for 1 cup of "whipped topping", you would start with 1/3 cup of heavy cream which whips up to 1 cup.


What edible solution can I cover bread in to make it waterproof?

Carnuba Wax. It's edible and waterproof. In my childhood they used to sell a candy bottle made of Carnuba Wax with colored sugar water in it. You'd bite the top off, drink the sugar water and chew on the wax until you got tired.

http://chemistry.about.com/od/foodchemistryfaqs/f/carnauba-wax.htm


Alternative for Celery salt and Coconut flour

The "celery" component of the salt is just there for flavor, and shouldn't affect how the dish cooks. Celery has a deeply vegetal flavor that can enhance others in the dish (hence why you see it in many soups, stews, and braises) but there's enough else in this preparation that you probably won't miss it much.

I wouldn't try to use regular flour, though. The coconut flour is being added here at the last minute to thicken the dish; regular flour will do this too, but unless it's cooked for several minutes it will retain a grainy, bready flavor. You might want to try a different common substitute like cornstarch, which thickens quickly and has a neutral flavor (it's also used in many American Chinese recipes). Whatever you do, be sure to follow the advice in the recipe and add it in very slow sprinklings, stirring in between so that it doesn't clump.


Which pepper is typically part of salt and pepper?

It is typically black pepper.  The two common black varieties are Tellicherry and Malabar.  The peppercorn is the fruit of a flowering vine that is harvested when it is red, and ripe.  Each fruit contains one seed, which is dried and then packaged whole or ground.


GdD gives a good answer, but I am going to give a recommendation type answer based on your ingredients because although the quantities are different the ingredients are exactly the same. Go to Hershey.com and search for their fudge recipe. Follow this recipe.

When your "fudge" reaches nearly the desired consistency from stirring, start stirring in the peanuts, and quickly spoon out your clusters onto wax paper.

I think that will give you the desired results and give you a silky fudge chocolate peanut cluster.


You pour in the batter, wait for the underside to be cooked (some brown patches), flip it, then put cheese on the (browned) top. With spek (bacon), you don't need to do this, you can just put the spek into the pan, fry it until done, then pour batter over it, and proceed as normal. Dutch pancakes are fairly thin, so they don't take very long to cook. Spek won't get properly crisp if you pour the batter on it immediately, also because the watery batter cools it down. Apple pieces won't burn either, so you can put those in first (I hate those, they will make your pancake break!).


The best way, imho, is to use your basic broiling pan...Put a little water in the bottom before you start, or the pan may warp. Put the rack in your oven as high as it will go (while still allowing the broiling pan with steak to fit), then turn the oven on "Broil".

Leave the oven door cracked (you don't want it to pre-heat, and turn the element off), and cook it like you would on the grill, flipping it halfway through. The radiant heat from the element will give you a little char, though no grill lines, obviously.

Anything over medium rare is going to be a bit chewy. Let it rest, then cut it into strips across the grain of the meat. Flank steak responds well to marinades (my favourite: 1 tbps soy sauce, 1 tbsp sherry, 1 tbsp dijon mustard, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp ground ginger.)

You could try to cook it on the stovetop, but that much meat will be too much for most pans.


Trying to adjust a recipe to recreate Peruvian "Tres Puntas" rolls

There is not enough water in your dough to form the hole you want (focaccia is a good point, look at focaccia hydration). You probably want at least 375 g water per 500 g flour, more is better if you can work with the dough.
Your conversion is off, your English recipe contains double the amount of sugar of the Spanish one. I would go with the smaller amount first, 25 g sugar for 500 g flour. Makes the dough easier to handle, and the taste isn't too sweet.
That's way too much yeast, both the Spanish version (21 g fresh yeast per lb flour) and the English version (a correct conversion from the Spanish would have had 7 g active dry yeast per lb, 2 packets is probably more than twice that). 21 g per 0.5 kg would be around the upper limit of yeast, used for richer breads like brioche. Use 10-12 g fresh yeast or 3-4 g active dry yeast per 0.5 kg flour. A bigger amount of yeast rises quicker, but the first cells die and start stinking of the waste products of their own fermentation (including acetic acid and ammonia). Don't rush the recipe, let it rise well in a not too warm place, you'll probably need more than 1/2 hour per rise.
Don't forget that for high hydration dough, you need bread flour, not AP. Else the dough will fall apart. Also, bread flour will make it chewy.

The procedure with a quick sponge, a rise of the kneaded dough and a rise of the formed shapes seems pretty standard (I hope this is what your Spanish text says, because I don't understand it well). As I said, rising times will be longer with less yeast, giving you better taste. The dough will be somewhat hard to handle because of the higher hydration, but it shouldn't be too problematic. Once you have mastered it with 75% hydration (375 g water per 500 g flour), you can try more water.


Top of Dough "Cracked" During Cold Rise - is it bad?

You can certainly try baking it, but that dough looks quite overleavened to me. You might end up with no body, bad crumb, and/or terribly sour taste. Still, at that point, baking it is a better thing than throwing it out outright - there is a good chance the result will be okayish/edible, if not great. Also, I might be wrong in my diagnosis, since I am basing it on a single picture and cannot touch and smell the dough.

To make it clear, I am not saying "overleavened" because of the mere description of "cracks", it is that the picture looks like the dough rose a lot and then slumped. You can get cracks from other processes too, but they don't usually look like in your picture.

To prevent overleavening, take care to not proof for very long times, unless the recipe was specifically designed for it. Also, never use more yeast than the recipe suggests.


What caused the crust on on the top of my bread to separate from the rest of the loaf?

What caused it: it's gotta be gases from the yeast exhalations which are unable to escape the air-tight envelope of the crust layer. So they just build up in a bubble right under the surface. Cutting some of those large gashes or cross-hatches into the top of the bread before baking should break up the outer skin of the loaf to let some of that gas out without detaching the top of the bread.


Should I throw away my pan if I accidentally melt plastic on it?

You do not need to throw out the pan

Metals tend to be impervious to absorption of much in the way of plastics (or anything else), which is part of the reason they make great cooking implements.

If the plastic is on the cooking surface and that surface was seasoned, to be absolutely sure, I would recommend that you remove the seasoning and re-season.

If you touched the outside of the pan to the bag, then anything that remains after you peeled the plastic off will burn off next time you heat the pan.


Why do chocolate chips stay softer after being baked?

During baking, all of the nice "tempered" crystals that come in the chocolate chips are melted out.  The chocolate loses its temper, if you will.  When the chocolate solidifies again, it does so with different crystals that result in a softer chocolate with a lower melting point.