If you want to be certain, I suppose you should ask the canning company.

I can't speak for all countries, but in the U.S., I'm pretty sure the usual nutritional information reflects the total contents (with liquid), unless the nutritional information explicitly specifies "drained," e.g., "Serving Size: 1/2 cup beans (drained)."

The relevant regulation appears to be from the Code of Food Regulations, Title 21, Sec. 101.9(b)(9):

  (9) The declaration of nutrient and food component content shall be on
  the basis of food as packaged or purchased with the exception of raw
  fish covered under 101.42 (see 101.44), packaged single-ingredient
  products that consist of fish or game meat as provided for in
  paragraph (j)(11) of this section, and of foods that are packed or
  canned in water, brine, or oil but whose liquid packing medium is not
  customarily consumed (e.g., canned fish, maraschino cherries, pickled
  fruits, and pickled vegetables). Declaration of nutrient and food
  component content of raw fish shall follow the provisions in 101.45.
  Declaration of the nutrient and food component content of foods that
  are packed in liquid which is not customarily consumed shall be based
  on the drained solids.

But how do we know whether the bean liquid is "customarily consumed"?  For most foods, we can go to this FDA document, which gives instructions for isolating the "edible portion" of foods for nutritional analysis.  Alas, that does not help either, since there are no instructions specifically for canned beans.  Some canned vegetables are apparently often analyzed drained, but canned beans with sauces (e.g., pork and beans, chili and beans) are explicitly listed with instructions NOT to drain.  There's no listing for plain beans.

Yet there's a clue in the USDA nutritional database guidelines (p. 97):

  Data for canned legumes were often developed for the purpose of
  nutritional labeling; therefore data are presented for the total can
  contents.  During the canning process, and sometimes during cooking,
  the cotyledons of legumes rupture, releasing starch into the brine;
  therefore, draining of the liquid medium is difficult.  However, cooks
  do generally drain these products.  Some packers may add sugar to
  certain canned legumes and this may also affect the nutrient content.

Another clue is in the reference amount for suggested serving size of beans in the FDA regulations, which has the following qualifications:

  Beans, plain or in sauce: 130 g for beans in sauce or canned liquid
  and refried beans prepared; 90 g for others prepared; 35 g dry.

My experience is that I almost always see 130g as the serving size on canned beans in the U.S., suggesting that they are following the above nutritional guidelines from the FDA and USDA and would include any sauce or canned liquid in nutritional analysis.  (Also, in the past I've compared this 130g approximate serving size to the number of servings listed on a typical can of beans, and the only way to get close to the estimated number of servings is by counting the liquid.  Usually the beans alone will weigh significantly less than the number of servings.)

Lastly, I would note that in the case of plain beans, the canning liquid likely contains only a small amount of calories anyway.  For beans listed as being "in sauce," clearly the implication is that one could consume the "sauce" and therefore any calories in it would be included.

All of that said, the fact that there's no explicit mention of beans in the first two documents I linked leaves a little "wiggle-room," and thus I don't think a bean canning operation would be in violation of U.S. labeling regulations if they drained the beans before calculating nutritional content.  (Though I'm not a lawyer, so this is speculation.)  But various other documents -- including the other two I cited -- seem to indicate that including bean canning liquid for nutritional purposes is the norm in the U.S.


Is continuously simmering or refrigerating cooked soup a more effective way to prevent spoilage?

For bacterial spoilage, keeping the soup hot would be more effective. As for "preserving" the soup, refrigeration will be drastically more effective.

The high temperatures of simmering would keep the bacterial level pretty much nil, but the constant heat will ruin your soup on it's own. Anything in the soup will become mush, flavors will become over-concentrated, and some flavors can drastically change from prolonged exposure to such heat.

Prompt chilling and cold storage after cooking will greatly slow down the rate at which bacteria can repopulate the soup, and will also keep everything else in the soup about the way it was when the soup was at it's prime. To really keep textures nice, I'd recommend pulling off the soup that will be stored while vegetables & meat are still a little firmer than you'd like so that they'll finish when you reheat.


Mashing bananas for Muffins: By hand or with blender?

It sounds like your bananas might not be ripe enough. If they're really ripe, you can mash with a fork and with very little effort turn them into a nice smooth goopy mush. There shouldn't be any pieces left to sink. You want to wait until they're so ripe you wouldn't want to eat them - blackening skin, very very soft.


I think you're talking about takuan? I don't know if I'd call it a sushi radish, but it's yellow and Japanese, at least.

It's just pickled daikon, not a naturally yellow radish:

  The finished takuan is usually yellow in color and quite pungent, though most mass-produced takuan uses salt or syrup to reduce the dehydration time, and is colored artificially.

You can have a look on Google image search to confirm it's what you're thinking of.


Do I need to let red wine breathe each time I uncork the same bottle?

Some wines improve with aeration.  Others, not so much. Mostly reds, but deciding which is which is a matter of experience and some information.  Many younger red wines will benefit from, at least, swirling in the glass...but could also improve in a decanter left open for 30 minutes to an hour.  I would guess that most people are drinking wines that are less than 5 years old.  Many of these wines improve with some air.  Older wines is where experience and knowledge come into play, as some need air and others will fade with time exposed.

Saving is another story.  Red wine should be vacuum sealed and refrigerated, as air will continue to work on the product.  ...over time, this is not necessarily a good thing.


AFAIK you need to heat the pan to let the oil oxidize and polymerize¹ so that it will form a chemically protective and non-sticking coating.

If you wash your cookware with soap you will have to do it every time.  For that reason some people don't wash cast iron at all and wipe it with a clean cloth or paper towel after using.  (Burned oil is apparently not very tasty to bacteria and fungi so your pan stays relatively clean and bug-free.)

From my personal experience, meat sticks to untreated cast iron like glue, but on a well-maintained thick iron pan it glides like on Teflon.

__

¹ I don't know if it makes any chemical sense because all references to polymerized fats I could google up were in relation to reoiling (seasoning).


Why does chilled equipment help when whipping cream?

Basically, cream whips better when it's cold. If cream were stored warm, the advice would be to cool the cream. Since it's already cold, the advice is to cool the equipment (as warm equipment will increase the temp of the cream).

Mild science: the temperature effects the size of the bubbles that form, how fat clings to itself, whipping time, and overrun (air cell structure / air phase volume). In other words how light and fluffy it will get and how long it is likely to stay that way.

Warning, heavy science from Influence of whipping temperature on the whipping properties and rheological characteristics of whipped cream:

  The effects of whipping temperature (5 to 15°C) on the whipping (whipping time and overrun) and rheological properties of whipped cream were studied. Fat globule aggregation (aggregation ratio of fat globules and serum viscosity) and air bubble factors (overrun, diameter, and surface area) were measured to investigate the mechanism of whipping. Whipping time, overrun, and bubble diameters decreased with increasing temperature, with the exception of bubble size at 15°C. The aggregation ratio of fat globules tended to increase with increasing temperature. Changes in hardness and bubble size during storage were relatively small at higher temperatures (12.5 and 15°C). Changes in overrun during storage were relatively small in the middle temperature range (7.5 to 12.5°C). From the results, the temperature range of 7.5 to 12.5°C is recommended for making whipped creams with a good texture, and a specific temperature should be decided when taking into account the preferred overrun. The correlation between the whipped cream strain hardness and serum viscosity was high (R2=0.906) and persisted throughout the temperature range tested (5 to 15°C). A similar result was obtained at a different whipping speed (140rpm). The multiple regression analysis in the range of 5 to 12.5°C indicated a high correlation (R2=0.946) in which a dependent variable was the storage modulus of whipped cream and independent variables were bubble surface area and serum viscosity. Therefore, fat aggregation and air bubble properties are important factors in the development of cream hardness. The results of this study suggest that whipping temperature influences fat globule aggregation and the properties of air bubbles in whipped cream, which alters its rheological properties.


Normally, when you freeze onions or winter squash, you'd first at least chop them. Makes them much more convenient to use.

When you thaw them out, they will not be firm anymore. The quicker you freeze something, the less damage it takes in the process—I suspect your freeze was, unfortunately, pretty slow. Each freeze does more damage. So, you don't want to thaw then re-freeze.

You can't thaw and store; the damage from freezing will lead to quick spoiling if you try.

I'd suggest you transfer them to a freezer, to make sure they stay frozen. That'll give you some time to figure out what to do with them. You may want to defrost an onion and a squash (just one) to see if they're still usable or not—if it turns out they're too mushy to be usable, then no point in spending time on the others. Defrosting in the fridge is probably going to be easiest on them. Put them in a bowl; they will probably leak juice.

If you decide to store them long-term in the freezer, you'll want to properly wrap them (or use zip bags).


Here is a a basic video tutorial so you can see the basic steps.

The biggest traps when cleaning fish is failing to remove all the guts, leaving bones in the filet, and not removing all the scales from the fish.  You can, if you choose, just gut the fish and cook whole stuffed with some aromatics, which can be really good. This guy will show you how. This works very well with smaller fish like trout assuming your guests are used to it.

So to avoid the pitfalls mentioned above, you need to make sure that the cavity of the fish is
fully empty before you start the filet. You also want to run your hand over the outside of the fish after your rinse of the cavity to make sure that all scales are gone.  The best way to keep bones out is start at the spine and let the fishes rib cage guide your knife down and out.  If you want to remove the skin (not recommended for trout but other fish have much tougher skins), just put the filet skin-side down and slide your knife along at a ten degree angle.

Oh, and the most important thing? Use a filet knife that is super sharp, you definately don't want to tackle cleaning with out a sharp knife.


Why doesn't my quick bread rise properly when substituting splenda for sugar?

If it is a quick bread then it should be chemically leavened with baking powder or soda.
The presence, or absence, of sugar should not play a role at all in the working of baking powder.

Where sugar may play a role, however, is in creaming the fat. If this recipe calls for solid fat such as butter or shortening then it will often also call for the sugar to be creamed with the fat. This step is very important as it will create the millions of little bubbles that will define the texture of the finished product.

You can try adding more soda which will affect the flavor. You can try beating the butter more on it's own. I have read that some people folded beaten egg whites into the batter.
I can't recommend one approach over the other.

My personal opinion is that if the recipe calls for creaming butter and sugar then it is not a good candidate to use splenda.


There are methods that whip very cold (up to semi-frozen) low-to-no-fat UHT milk to a whipped cream consistency using an immersion blender with the whipping disk. The key factors are temperature and fat content, for both, the lower the better.

I would not recommend using this product for a cake, because the stability is quite limited1. Topping a dessert and serving it immediately is fine, any kind storage is not.

I would expect that a non-fat milk powder in cold water works just as well and I vaguely remember my mom doing something along that line a few decades ago.

1 Some sources suggest adding instant gelatine powder for stabilization, but as I have never tried it, I can’t confirm how well it works.


Easy....cook per the package instruction, with no oil in water.  Drain well through a strainer.  Allow to sit in the strainer or in a bowl long enough to allow the moisture to flash off.  Your pasta will be sticky and clumpy.  To further enhance the effect, refrigerate.  Saucing or oil will separate the strands,  If you like to eat it that way, there are recipes for using leftover spaghetti, and cooking it with egg, that results in a sort of pasta fritatta. You might enjoy that as well.


When I have had my cheese turn out as you described it was because it dried too much. One time was because I pressed it until it became like leather (oops). The other time it just wasn't covered well enough and the drying was only on the surface.

The lack of mold on your Gorgonzola could also imply that it was too dry- however that mold does require fairly specific temperature to grow well so that isn't conclusive either.


The time to reach the given temperature is not particularly important. When making sugar candy like this, the target temperature determines the amount of water remaining in the mixture; as long as it gets to the target temperature, it doesn't matter what it did along the way. (With one exception: If you cooked it to too high a temperature, letting it cool back down won't bring the water back.)

It's probable that you're seeing the results of a temperature differential. I'm not sure what you mean by "it's a hand-held device, so I can't control precisely whether it touches the bottom of the pot or not" -- can't you just hold it so it doesn't? -- but if you were measuring the bottom of the pot rather than the syrup then the readings will be inaccurately high, and you're likely to get a result that's too soft.

EDIT: So, I should mention one aspect of time/temperature that might matter to some candy-making. If you were to heat a mixture of white sugar and water to 135 degrees extremely quickly, the mixture would be likely to crystallize rather than remaining as a syrup. Heating it slower would allow the sugar time to split into fructose and glucose (known as "invert sugar"), which would not crystallize. In this recipe, though, the lemon juice accelerates the inversion, and in any case the dextrose will prevent crystallization. So while there is a bit of chemistry going on, the precise measurements are not especially important and most of what's happening is just physics. (The temperature is very important.)


How to cook pancakes without spreading that horrible smell of burnt oil?

Very simple: don't burn the oil.

Different fats start to burn at different temperatures (called "smoke point"). This can be as low as ~100°C for unrefined vegetable oils. Butter is also low, at around ~150°C, which is below frying temperatures. Refined vegetable oils have very differentn smoke points depending on the plant they were made from, some starting as low as butter, and going up to around ~250°C (safflower oil, rice bran oil). Fats meant for deep frying (palm fat, clarified butter) are also around ~250°C.

So the two things you have to do is 1.Choose the right fat, and 2. don't let the pan get too hot.

From a nutritional point of view, deep-frying fats are not so good, so I'd recommend using a vegetable oil with a high smoke point. If you can find refined safflower, it's perfect, but if not, canola is also a good choice.

About the temperature, the easiest way is to measure it so you will know how hot the pan gets at any given moment. I use an infrared thermometer when frying, and make crepes at 200°C. If you don't have one handy, you could try heating a pan with oil on a middle setting for a long time (20-30 min), look if it smokes. If yes, let it cool down, and start again with a lower setting. If not, increase the setting and wait again. When you have found out the setting where your oil doesn't smoke, you can use it, or you can try one setting above (the first where the pan starts to smoke) because the room-temperature batter cools the oil. It is time-consuming, but you only have to do it one to find out the correct temperature.

You could use a nonstick pan, but the typical PTFE coated ones lose their nonstick layer at about 250°C, and a pan used for frying quickly heats much more than that. It is safe when used at lower temperatures, but you cannot fry crepes at 150°C. So unless you have a ceramic-coated nonstick pan (but not the type which disintegrates from hot starch in oil!) or you are controlling the temperature of the pan closely with a thermometer, it is better to use a noncoated pan.

If you want your crepes to taste like butter, don't fry them in butter. Instead, keep a cup with melted butter in a water bath near the pancakes. As soon as one is ready, take it out of the pan and use a glazing brush to brush it lightly with butter on both sides.


Can I grow Mung lentil sprouts to leaves?

I wouldn’t. At least not when you are talking about true leaves as opposed to cotyledons.

The cotyledons are already part of the embryonic plant and will unfold after the first part of the sprout has reached a certain length. They are perfectly edible in mung beans and contain little or no phytohaemagglutinin (a quick search  gave unclear results), which means the sprouts can even be served raw1, if they were grown cleanly and show no signs of wilting, mold or other spoilage.

I would not recommend trying to get the sprouts past the stage when the cotyledons unfold. The first true leaves need the nutrition stored in the seed and often already the sugars produced by the cotyledons via photosynthesis. If you don’t supply a growth medium light and nutrition, the sprouts are going to starve to death around this time and start rotting.

From a culinary perspective, the true leaves are not a very common kitchen staple, if there’s not a tradition of cooking with them, you may take this as a sign that they are not a desirable ingredient. If your sprouts have started to unfold the cotyledons and are still comparatively light, the sprouts are good. After that stage, the starting photosynthesis will influence the sprouts’ taste and you may find them less desirable, as the flavor gets more bitterish and sometimes musty.

1 For healthy adults. Recent contamination of commercially produced sprouts show that for sensitive consumers blanching is recommended as safety measure.


What north atlantic fish can we use to make a good ceviche?

I think just about any large flaky-fleshed fish that's not too fatty is a good candidate for ceviche. Salmon can work, though it's a tad fatty. Tuna is not a good choice, in my opinion. Cod and any kind of bass can work really well. I would think haddock or even sole or flounder could work too.

There is lots of white-fleshed fish available in the North Atlantic, and many will do great in ceviche. Take a look at the flesh and see if it seems similar to what you would usually use, and when in doubt ask the fishmonger for advice. Even if they don't know ceviche, if you can tell them what fish you'd usually use, they can probably advise you on substitutes.


Flour vs cornstarch for keeping fresh uncooked pasta from sticking together

Use bench (AP) flour for working with your dough. I will sometimes toss the freshly cut pasta with a bit of flour to keep it from sticking together, if my dough is too tacky.  I typically use semolina to keep the freshly cut pasta from sticking to the plate that I place it on. I never use cornstarch for pasta.  Your best bet is to roll into sheets.  Dust those sheets with a bit of flour.  Depending on the humidity level, I let them hang out on the counter for a bit to dry.  Flip over once, you'll get the sense of how much flour is necessary to keep the sheets from sticking to your counter or board. Try to use as little as possible.  The correct dough hydration is a bit tricky and will take some practice. After they air dry for about 10 minutes or so (this could be much shorter if it is very dry), cut your pasta.  Toss with a bit of flour, and place on semolina sprinkled plate or tray.  Once you fill the tray, freeze your fresh pasta (unless cooking immediately).  Then cook from frozen.  Go for it.  Even if you make mistakes, it is edible!  You will get better.


Is wheat gluten (wheat protein) an acceptible cooking substitute for soy protein powder or rice protein powder?

Vital wheat gluten will not dissolve as those two isolates will. Vital what gluten would likelier clot. Here its a description of the difference between soy flour and soy protein isolate; although VWG is basically a protein isolate (it is the leftover from washing away the starch in wheat), like those powders, the other two are gluten free. However, like with any flour, you can use it as a slurry to avoid this problem


You could check whether a wine is carbonated which should be indicated on the label (it's one of the processes to produce wine).

If it's not indicated on the label, then it's normally a young wine. The way to get rid of the off flavour is very simple: wait! A glass of evil smelling, lightly carbonated, wine can become a very nice drink if left to breathe.

You can see the carbonation in a glass (not in the shop), if you see some tiny bubbles at the rim. Once you see these bubbles, you can leave the bottle open for about half an hour to let it breathe.

Young wine is this year minus one. So, we are living in 2012 and a young wine should be labelled 2011. It would be very surprising to see a 2010 wine with carbonation.

The reason you get carbonation in young wines is that they are bottled while the sugar hasn't been completely consumed yet. It's not considered a defect of the bottle, as it will disappear with time. You can check that out by yourself, buying a number of bottles and opening one each month. Maybe the first two or three will have carbonation, and the rest will be fine.

Edit: This is called Spritzy.

  Very slight sensation of carbonation, most common in very young wines and can be considered a minor flaw.


Why does my fondue call to wipe the pot with garlic?

You rub the garlic in the pot to gain a subtle garlic flavour. Same idea as rubbing a sliced garlic clove on grilled bread, or on meat prior to cooking.

Raw garlic is also moderately antibacterial in nature, so I suppose that could be a reason too.


When used for measuring ingredients in cooking what is the difference between a "dry ounce" and a "liquid ounce"?

Both liquid ounces and fluid ounces are the same. They are a measure of volume. These are commonly called liquid measurements. These include: teaspoon, tablespoon, fluid ounce, cups, pints, quarts, and gallons. Why fluid? Because it's measuring volume.

The term "dry ounce" is one I have never encountered. It's rather confusing and misleading. Technically a dry ounce would imply a measurement of weight. 1 oz = 28g.

Your recipe could be calling for a measurement by weight of flour, or it could be using a terrible phrase "dry ounce" to imply that you should measure the flour with a measuring cup used for dry measure, as opposed to a measuring cup used for liquids.


Accidentally beat sugar and butter together

It shouldn't make any difference.

Here are some recipes that don't mention adding the sugar bit by bit:

Vanilla Pound Cake
Traditional Pound Cake
Pound Cake

If you beat the butter and sugar to a fluffy consistency everything should be all right.

(As far as I know) The worst that could happen is that your pound cake will be slightly denser than usual.


Officially no, it is not "safe" to eat since the undetectable bacterial toxins could possibly have risen to dangerous levels. If the meat somehow got through the supply system with a load of dangerous bacteria, and you left it out long enough for them to multiply to dangerous levels, then you could cook it well, it could smell and taste great, and yet still get food poisoning. However, on the scale of daily activities like driving to work, this is unlikely to happen, and extremely unlikely to kill you. I wouldn't eat this steak rare, but after a well-done cooking, or better yet chopped and well-boiled in chili or stew, I would and have eaten meat like this.


When does baking/cooking in bulk have an advantage?

Mostly, it's just more efficient from a time perspective.  You can do all the stuff that a restaurant kitchen does at home on a smaller scale, but it may seem like a lot of work for just a small portion.

For example, the prep time to make homemade broth, then put together ingredients and cook a homemade soup for 4 servings might take you most of an afternoon.  Maybe by adding an extra hour for processing ingredients, you could easily make 100 servings of that same soup.  The difference between making 1 loaf of bread and 20 loaves of bread is minor, assuming you have equipment to handle the larger quantities.  You'll spend a few more minutes dividing and shaping, but otherwise most of the time is just waiting for the dough to rise and then bake.

So it's really about efficiency.  If a recipe says "stir for 20 minutes while simmering," you'll probably have to do that for roughly 20 minutes whether you're making a cup or 3 gallons.  And because all that prep work is tedious for just a few servings, many home cooks won't bother -- they'll substitute store-bought broth or bullion, they'll buy pre-mixed bread dough, etc.    Those "shortcuts" are often one main difference that can make your home cooking not as good.  Otherwise, there really aren't specific advantages for most dishes.  In some cases, you may need to adapt techniques or recipes to handle larger vs. smaller quantities.  But flavors can be effectively developed in most dishes whether you're making one portion or a hundred.


Can a spice grinder be used for coffee permanently?

The Cuisinart SG-10 spice grinder it designed to grind soft and hard spices. There is no reason why it couldn't do coffee

The SG-10 manual even mentions nutmeg, which is significantly tougher than coffee

Many coffee "professionals" like the burr grind (like a pepper grinder), compared to the rotary blade grind (like a small food processor), but either will work fine

Also, many people grind spices in rotary blade coffee grinders, so it comes down to which style of grinding you like

One issue with rotary ground coffee is the inconsistency of grind size. There will be too many fine particles that will leech out of the coffee holding/filter mechanism. If you don't want solid particles in your coffee use a burr grinder


What is this part of the mushroom? Is it safe to eat?

This part of the mushroom is perfectly edible. It's a structure called a partial veil which protects the spore-producing gills on the underside of the mushroom cap, usually while the mushroom is still immature. They open as the cap grows larger, exposing the gills and releasing the spores which produce new mushrooms.

It's pretty common to see these on white and brown common mushrooms (which have a huge number of other names) since they are actually an immature form of the "portobello". Since it's a delicate structure, it's a pretty good indicator for how well the mushrooms have been handled and transported; intact veils will usually indicate a recently-harvested mushroom that has been kept well hydrated. If the veil is a little ragged or partially open, that's fine too.

Note that this applies only to the common mushroom; other varieties may or may not have veils.


They are technically two different pastries. Shortcrust pastry made with water is called pâte a foncer, 'lining pastry'. Shortcrust pastry made with milk is called pâte brisée. Pâte brisée typically contains a bit more butter, and is generally lighter and flakier than pâte a foncer, which is conversely crisper and firmer.

So it's up to you really; both are very similar. The pâte brisée is more delicate, so if you have a 'heavy' filling, say, lots of fruits, it might be better to go with the foncer.


What white fish can be used in rolled sushi?

White fish are, as a rule, more delicately flavored than darker fleshed fish. Add farm-raised to that equation and you have the makings for a very bland meal, which is why you almost always see farm-raised white-fleshed fish served with heavy herb treatments and powerful sauces, or (in cod's case) fry batter. Tilapia and cod are two of the most common farm-raised fish on the market, so I'm leaning heavily on my suspicion that you're trying to make sushi out of the farm-raised varieties and not wild game.

If it's white fish you desire for sushi, talk to your fishmonger. Tell him what you're doing and ask for his recommendation. He'll direct you toward game fish that that are either very new and very fresh or that of the flash-frozen variety.


How do I stop my pans from boiling over?

You are doing precisely the opposite of 'normal' procedure, which is to put the lid on the pan until the water starts boiling, then remove the lid (either partially or completely) to prevent boiling over. A reduction in the hob temperature will also probably be necessary, and is in any case desirable - mercilessly boiling any vegetable is rarely a good thing.

With the lid off, heat is lost at the top of the pan at a rate which is usually sufficient to prevent boiling over. With the lid on, much of the heat is retained, which A) helps the water come up to a boil quicker and B) causes it to boil over much more easily.

See this answer for more information.


Do I need to wipe/clean my knife after sharpening/honing?

Depending on the type of honing rod and the technique you use for honing, you will remove more or less metal from the blade. You can confirm whether your rod removes metal by wiping the blade on a white tea cloth after honing. If you see a grey residue on the cloth then metal has been removed and you can decide yourself whether you want that in your food.

Types of Honing Rod

Steel rods, of the type that are perfectly smooth will not remove noticeable amounts of steel from a blade. Polished honing rods are used for straightening a curled blade edge. Other types have shallow grooves cut down the length of the rod that bite into the blade and shave off metal particles.
Ceramic rods are slightly abrasive and will remove small amounts of metal.
Diamond coated rods are used for sharpening in place of a whetstone and will remove relatively large amounts of metal.

What technique you use for honing depends on what you are trying to achieve. If you only need to realign the edge of a well maintained knife, then two or three swipes on both sides of the blade, maintaining light pressure should be sufficient.

If you do this with a polished steel, then I would be surprised if you need to wipe the blade afterwards. If you use one of the other types of rod, then you are also removing metal from your knife and you may want to strop the knife and give it a quick wipe after.


How can I make shami kabab without chana dal

More than likely another bean that has a firm texture like Chickpeas. People use black beans for vegetarian hamburgers because or their firmness.


Skimming foam from stock without removing floating spices

I tend to just stick the spices in a tea egg

I do this whenever I think the spices will get in the way during my process or when I want to remove them before serving, such as in case of a bouquet garni, cloves or juniper berries.

Should you be reluctant to use metal in your recipe you can of course use loose leaf tea bags.

Either way you can just lift the spices out whenever you want to skim the top of your broth.


Does pasta continue cooking after being drained if left in the pot?

Many people consider the "extra" steps overkill, but the classic method is to boil the pasta to al dente, not fully done, then quench it in cold water as you would with blanched vegetables to stop the cooking process and wash off any excess starch.  Then add the pasta back to sauce or other heating parts for the dish and let it heat back up to temperature.  This gets to the desired temp without over-cooking and much less clumping more easily.

Using the hot pan, which I have done before, without the quenching will typically result in either not enough heat retained, or some areas over cooked, others allowed to cool, and sticky, starchy pasta all possible to likely.  I have done the finish heating when doing as simple of a "sauce" as a small amount of reserved starch water with salt, pepper and herbs and a touch of olive oil.  Just enough to keep the pasta lubricated and moving in a hot pan as it heats and evenly distributes the spices. You get your warm pasta without it being overcooked or uneven, sticky and clumped.


My olive oil didn't solidify in the fridge. Is it fake?

How liquid was it when you say liquid? Our kitchen is very cold in winter and may very well get to fridge temperature at night time and the olive oil gets white balls of solidified oil in it, and then goes very sludgy, making it difficult to pour, if not impossible. But it doesn't exactly solidify. So it depends on whether you mean it is completely liquid like normal or not.

This website implies that most oils should be unpourable by 35F (1.7C), which is the lowest temperature for a fridge (i.e. any particular fridge or part of a fridge may be slightly warmer than this):
http://www.oliveoilsource.com/page/freezing-olive-oil
(This same information is found on a multitude of sites, so I do not believe this is the original source)

However, it also says that olive oils may be "winterized" which means they do not clump or cloud, even at 32F/0C. This is so they can be used in salad dressings, etc, that are stored in the fridge. So you would need to find out if your olive oil had been so treated. I am not sure if this process is just used for oil sold for commercial use or not.


How long would fruit in a water bottle last?

The technical answer based on food safety agency recommendations is about 4 hours, but fruit is not exceptionally perishable.   If you are not in any high risk group, you might choose to go a day.


There's two methods for this, which can also be combined.

The first, as several people have mentioned, is to make sure that the eggs and water are slightly above room temperature.  At 27C/80F ghee (and, for that matter, butter) is liquid, so if you can ensure that the rest of the batter is that temperature, it will stay liquid when mixed.  The easiest way to do this is to heat the water (to, say, 35C).  Make sure to let the ghee cool a bit before adding, though, otherwise you may cook the eggs.

The second method is the one used for French sweet crepes, where you must add melted butter to a cold batter.  In this method, you rapidly agitate the batter (using a whisk or a blender) while pouring the butter in, in a thin stream.  The butter still solidifies, but it hardens into tiny pieces which are well distributed in the batter.


What's causing the metallic aftertaste in my Nutraloaf?

It sounds like most of those ingredients came out of metal cans, yes? Certainly the spinach and carrots, and I imagine the beans, tomato paste, and possibly the apple sauce? Canned foods do sometimes have a slight metallic taste, especially if you don't use them all at once and continue to store them in the can after opening it: (about.com)

However, I definitely wouldn't rely on this (or any other single recipe) as your sole source of nutrition. Even if it does include every one of the hundreds (thousands?) of nutrients your body needs in reasonable ratios (which is questionable), that still doesn't mean it's good for you.

For example: if every meal you eat has lots of vitamin C and zinc, your body won't be able to absorb the trace amounts of copper it needs, since they interfere with each other. To be healthy, you need to mix up the nutrient profile of your meals.


The meat for turkey bacon comes from the thigh of the turkey and can be cured or uncured, smoked, chopped, and reformed into strips that resemble traditional pork bacon.

Source: Wikipedia article


Constructions of Lego Bricks Made of Cake

You never said what size the cake had to be, or how well it had to actually hold together.

If you make too large of a cake, it's not going to work -- cake is heavy enough that as you get larger, you need to add additional supports.  Most multi-tier cakes have some sort of rods (plastic or wood) placed in them to help support the upper levels.  If you make it too small, you won't have sufficiently sized knobs for it to actually be able to hold anything.

Most professional cakes are more dense than your home-baked cakes, to help get around this issue, and you can chill them to help firm them up before stacking.  If you're going for a recipe from scratch, look for a pound cake recipe.  If you're using a box mix, you can add in a packet of instant vanilla pudding mix and reduce the temperature by 25°F / 15°C but increase the time.

Size will be an issue as the larger that you get in a single cake, the weaker it's going to be; the bit of crust that you get from the pan is more significant the smaller the cake is.  It'll also be stronger when the dimensions are all close (ie, more cube-like), as you don't have issues with things breaking off due to slenderness.

Your next issue is the connections.  As we're not dealing with plastic, we can attempt to take advantage of two things -- friction, and compression.  To get friction, we need the surface to be rough and fairly strong ... and this means that carving it down is right out, it'd have to be cast directly if it's going to have any strength.  You'll likely have to play with the sizing of the holes vs. the knobs, but you'll want the knobs to be large enough that it's a press-fit, and takes a little effort to seat them (compressing the knob in the process), but not so much force is applied to the cake that it causes a failure at the wall around the hole.  If it were me, I'd try to make the knob between 1/3 to 1/2 the length of the cake, and the knob stick up 1/4 of the depth.

And now you're wondering of course how both the top and bottom could be cast -- by making two molds, and gluing the top and bottom together using icing.  Depending on the strength required, you might have to add some rods to pin it together ... but one vertically through the knob will only help you in compression and sheer, not tension.  For that, you'd need three or more diagonally through the knob in a radial pattern.  I'd personally avoid the supports, with the argument that it's no longer fully edible, and might not be a cake anymore.  (and those who enter gingerbread cake competitions would instead just use something edible as the rod, like an un-bent candy cane).

So, to summarize:

You'll need two molds, one for the upper, one for the lower, bake, level, then join them together.
The knobby bits in theory should be 1/3 to 1/2 the length of the side, and about 1/4 of the total height
The knobby bits should be slightly wider than the hole they're fitting into.
Avoid slender pieces (ie, no 1x4 pieces; 1x1 or maybe 1x2)
Stiffen the cake with gelatin, refrigeration, and bake at a lower temp (but you need to cook it longer to get a bit of crust to form)

And now, for the reason it just won't work :

If they're lego shaped, they're rectangular ... and you can't make a smooth circle out of a bunch of rectangles, at least not until the diameter of the circle is significantly larger than the width of the rectangles ... but we have the slenderness issues, so you'd be making a whole bunch of 1x2 pieces to stick together and it'd be quite tedious.

Depending on what you're willing to qualify as 'cake', this could be possible to make out of gingerbread (as used for cookies and houses, not cake), but you'd have to dry it so far that it'd not cut like a conventional cake.  (make it from layers, then laminate them to make individual pieces, you might have to use hole saws after they're dried to get the proper sized knobs and holes, and then sand to get 'em perfect)


Sourdough starter - will it set off my allergies?

Sourdough starter will grow mold if it starts going "off". If it's healthy, it will naturally prevent mold from growing, but if you forget to feed it for too long and/or the container it is in is dirty, it can start growing fuzzy stuff.

Feed your culture regularly, and transfer it into a clean container now and then, and it will be fine.


What are the swirling attachments for on mixers?

These are dough hooks. They are used to knead yeast dough. They are useful, especially if you are trying to work with higher hydration dough which sticks in hand kneading, but many handheld mixers don't actually have the torque needed to knead dough, so if you need them, make sure to buy a good model which can get the task done.


The equivalent of coffee beans would be loose leaf teas.

This is the traditional way to enjoy tea, and is generally preferred by tea connoisseurs.  Just like whole-bean coffee, loose leaf tea keep fresh longer than bagged tea, and generally has a richer flavor.  Tea bags are generally prepared by the cut-tear-curl (CTC) process, which breaks up the leaves more than orthodox tea rolling, meaning they steep faster and more consistently.  As a rule, bagged teas are generally made from lower-grade leaves, and CTC processing helps hide defects.  They may even be made from fannings; these are basically the dust and broken pieces that settle to the bottom of a pile of tea leaves. Both of these mean that bagged teas can be prepared more quickly, but the flavor suffers.

The tea leaves are prepared by measuring them out into a ball or basket, which is immersed in hot water to steep.  Once the tea is steeped, the basket is removed to prevent the tea from developing a bitter, over-steeped flavor.   There are also a variety of other ways to prepare loose teas.

Despite the generally better flavor, loose leaf tea is not as popular as bagged tea in some parts of the world, because you have to measure out the tea and use a utensil to prepare it. Tea bags represent a greater convenience, which explains their success.

Below are three examples of loose leaf tea. The differences in color and shape of the leaves are the result of different processes used in preparing the teas after harvest.

Loose Sencha (a Japanese green tea)

Loose Keemun (a classic Chinese black tea)

Silver Needle (one of the finest Chinese white teas)

Powdered Tea

Powdered tea is also available, although it is not as well known as bagged or loose tea.  One of the best-known is matcha (shown below), a Japanese powdered green tea prepared by grinding up the whole tea leaf. It is generally prepared by whisking leaves and hot water together in a bowl  until foamy, using a traditional bamboo whisk known as a chasen (pictured).  The result is a powerfully flavored, heavier drink with a higher level of caffeine and antioxidants.

Powdered black teas are also popular with Indians, and are used in preparing masala chai.  Spices are boiled in milk, and then powdered black tea is prepared in water separately.  There are a lot of variations on this procedure, but it seems to be the most popular approach for Indian customers.

Note: Since I now work for a tea company, I could write quite a bit on any of these parts but am trying to keep the answer brief. If you feel like more detail would be helpful, post a comment and I'll expand on the subject a bit more.


Will a grill pan reduce oil splatter when pan-frying steaks?

Yes, a grill pan will help some, for the very reason you have already identified in the question. Another advantage to a grill pan is charming grill marks.

I don't think that's your best solution.

If you like a serious sear on your steak, I don't think you can do better than a wickedly hot cast-iron skillet. (more on that: Why did my attempt at pan-searing beef filets fail miserably?) To mitigate spatter, I recommend a spatter screen.

The surface is a fine mesh screen, it allows free exchange of air, but holds grease in the pan and away from your walls.


I usually season my mashed potatoes with salt, pepper and lots of muscat nut.

Apart from that, boil the potatoes in really salty water. The difference between adding the salt to the water rather than adding it later on is really astounding.


How long can a vinaigrette last if emulsified with raw egg?

I'd recommend only keeping vinaigrette for 7 days or less (refrigerated, of course). It's not that difficult and you'll be avoiding a lot of quality and safety issues.

Another thing you need to be aware of is that raw garlic can cause botulism, which can result in hospitalization and death. I think close relatives of garlic, such as shallots also contain botulinum spores, as well as honey. If they sit in an anaerobic medium (oxygenless), such as oil in a vinaigrette, they can start to grow and produce deadly toxins.

Also, after a week I feel like fresh ingredients such as herbs will start to go bad. And olive oil can definitely go rancid after 4 weeks!

Discuss your concerns management and if they don't listen then I'd email/call your local health department and I am sure they'd help you make sure everything is safe. Best of luck!


Old, unpasteurized orange juice has extra tang

It is almost certainly a fermentation - opened juice does not keep for a week in the fridge. So you got some bacteria in it which are creating tangy byproducts (lactic or acetic acid). It is a method of creating fermented drinks such as cider (or even fruit wine), but without following a tested process, you cannot be sure if some of the bacteria may be harmful. So it is not safe by today's standards.


There is nothing inauthentic about using sugar in an Indian dish, even a savory one.  For example, Gujarati cooks often add raw sugar (jaggery) to daal and curries. Quoth Wikipedia:

"It is common to add a little sugar or jaggery to some of the sabzi/shaak and daal. The sweet flavour of these dishes is believed to neutralize the slightly salty taste of the water."

And here's an example Gujarati potato curry recipe, which includes a tablespoon of sugar.

As for how much to add, that's a matter of your taste and the level of acidity and/or saltiness in the dish.  My Gujarati friends in Boston like stuff rather sweeter than I would personally prefer, so be cautious.


Can you eat beans after using them as pie weights?

Beans are already dried, but it's certainly possible that baking them dries then further, or cooks them without softening. It's worth testing, for which I'd use chickpeas - I buy them in bulk, and they soften quite easily (plus I cook them on their own too make hummus while my other beans cook in chilli etc). I'd rinse them and put them on to soak once they've cooled a little, rather than storing them.

For reuse as baking beans I'd be concerned about two things: safety, and scorched beans giving an off flavour. The latter is addressed by not reusing them if they start to brown, and for the former, it's important to keep them dry, as dry beans keep indefinitely. If the beans are in direct contact with the pastry during blind baking, I'd rinse them briefly (to get any flecks of pastry off then return them to the cooling oven to dry quickly).


Enameled Cast Iron vs Stainless Steel Roasting Pans

The enamel is brittle, especially when scratched. cast iron is often cheaper. They clean differently: stainless is initially a little harder to clean, but polishes with use making cleaning easier. Food initially sticks less to enamel, but scratches and cracks change this. using steel wool to clean stainless improves the finish, using it to clean enamel scratches the finish. If you are gentle with enamel it should last decades,stainless will survive children beating on it with almost anything, and can be passed to your grandchildren. thinner metal will heat quicker and cool quicker, but will develop hot spots. Thicker metal will heat more evenly, but heats and cools slower.


Spritz cookies not sticking to pan when pressed from cookie press

As I understand your question, the problem is really that you can't get it out of the cookie press, and not an issue of the dough "flattening" once it hits the baking sheet.  If that's correct, then there are a few different factors that could be contributing:

You might not be using a strong enough flour.  I've always used a 1:1 mix of bread flour and pastry flour.  All-purpose flour isn't great for spritz cookies and many home baking recipes do odd things to try to strengthen the dough to compensate, such as increasing the quantity of egg.  Not much more I can say without knowing the specific recipe, but try to find a recipe that doesn't use AP flour.
You might not be using enough flour, or you might have added too much water or milk.  The dough should feel relatively firm once it's well-blended, not soggy or watery.  The preparation I use also contains a good quantity of icing sugar, which has its own starch; if you're using regular granulated sugar instead then that will be a contributing factor to sogginess/stickiness.  Also don't forget to sift the flour.
Home baking recipes often make wild guesses as to the quantity of eggs, based on assumptions about the size and age of eggs you'll have.  The ratio I use is 20:13:8:6:3 (flour:fat:sugar:eggs:milk/water), by weight obviously.  If you use too much egg then you'll end up with a slimy texture that's hard to separate while raw.
You may have added the eggs all at once, which makes it difficult to incorporate without overmixing the dough (or not incorporating well enough, which again will give you that slimy texture).  Make sure you're only adding one at a time.
If your recipe calls for oil as a fat, or you're substituting oil for something else, that could be a problem.  Typically you'll want to use a mixture of about half shortening and half butter.  You don't necessarily have to use shortening, but butter has a low melting point and melting will, again, cause your dough to become too wet.
Did you cream the fat(s) together with the sugar?  That's another important step to getting the right consistency of dough.  You should have a mixture that's light and fluffy before you add the flour, eggs, or milk.
Make sure you're adding the flour last, otherwise you risk overmixing.

As far as sticking to the baking pan itself is concerned, just line it with parchment paper and don't grease it.  If you've made the dough properly then it will "set" and not sink.

FWIW, I also find it easier to pipe spritz cookies than to use a cookie press.


If this is an oilstone (which is considered old fashioned exactly because of these issues), an oft-mentioned ultima ratio remedy is boiling it in soapy water. YMMV, this could destroy the stone. If you know what exact type (eg arkansas) your oilstone is, research instructions specific to that stone type.

If it is a waterstone, abrading the stone - with a flattening plate, diamond stone, another waterstone until unaffected material is brought to the surface is the recommended method.


Should parboiled rice be washed/rinsed before cooking?

Par boiled should not be rinsed, it is ready to be cooked as-is.

It was already rinsed and cleaned and, erm, par boiled.

If unsure, check the instruction on the package.


How do I recreate a restaurant's sauce if I know the ingredients but not the ratios?

First, ask if they cook any of the ingredients.

It's likely that they are all raw.

Next, I would probably start with a mix with an approximate base that has the same color as the original sauce ( e.g. 1:1:1 with one clove of garlic).

Save some of it on the side to use again, then add some of each ingredient to your base. 2:1:1:1 / 1:2:1:1 / 1:1:2:1 etc.

Then taste each one, and that should give you some idea of how to tweak it next.


This is impossible for most items.
If you're creating a shop, you have to choose how to categorise things to make the most sense (or the most sales); you also have to choose the categories. If you're not creating a shop but trying to match existing shops, realise that they don't all decide the same. For example in one supermarket granulated sugar is in the aisle labelled "tea and coffee", in another it's under "home baking", and those supermarkets' websites match their physical stores. Presumably you get to decide what categories are available. That doesn't make it any easier.
The question of whether a hamburger is a sandwich is not just a good example of the difficulty of categorising food, but of the fuzziness of categories in human life.


"San Moritz" is the name of a line of culinary knives by the well recognized brand Messermeister. HOWEVER, the knives shown differ notably in design from that line and are likely a cheaply made product trying to capitalize on the name of that line.

Knives that are actually sold aboveboard (and perfectly worth the money) at ~$100 and higher apiece will usually be of a well recognized brand (eg Herder, Zwilling, K Sabatier, Chroma, Global...), or small-batch/handmade pieces bearing the name of the artisan or responsible workshop leader (eg Heimo Roselli, Jürgen Schanz, Sirou Kamou...).

Often (with a legit expensive knife), the steel type used will be clearly named (either by an industry standard name like VG10, 1.4116, 420B, AUS-8A .... or by a manufacturer-specific product name that describes a combination of steel and proprietary heat treatment method, eg Global "Cromova" ), and sometimes the hardness range will also be specified (eg 60-62HRC would be typical for VG10, 55-56HRC for 1.4116). A steel type and hardness do not signify the quality of the steel alone, since the way the steel is processed makes significant differences. A cheap knife is likely going to be of 420B at 55-56HRC, which CAN be a decent steel but often is not.

Out of the box sharpness is a highly brand dependent matter in all price ranges, for different reasons - a very cheap brand might not bother to sharpen well since it is costly (good abrasives are not that cheap), a high end maker assumes that the user is knowledgeable and will either know sharpening it or know a trusted local professional, and have their own idea of HOW they want it sharpened (there are tradeoffs to be made in sharpness vs durability, and different edges are best for different applications). BTW, for culinary knives, cutting behaviour is a combination of actual edge sharpness and blade geometry.


How can I save apples pieces that became black?

Apples turn brown due to contact with air and there are a couple of things (that I know) to slow down the process.

Toss the apples with a little bit of lemon (or lime) juice
Submerge them in ice water

both will retard the brown (oxidation) on apples and a lot of other fruit too.


The mold is growing and producing that smell.  Mold spores form on ALL bread when it is exposed to air.  That's why it takes a few days for the mold to actually be visible. The mold doesn't just instantly grow, it "forms" over a few days and when enough of it accumulates, you see it.

Bread with preservatives, have a longer shelf life because they contain a mold inhibitor.  After the expiration date on the bread, that "inhibitor" will no longer keep the mold from "blooming" and it will rapidly appear and multiply.

If the bread smells bad/moldy, DO NOT eat it!  You can get sick on moldy bread.

My daughter(we) did a Science Fair Project on Mold Growth in Bread and this was some of the information we found.

Hope this answers your question.

An added note:  Storing sealed bread in the Refrigerator does NOT extend the expiration date.


Roll the bacon into its spiral and set it on end in a muffin tin to bake. You can use the toothpicks as "spacers" to keep the edges apart, and then easily pull them out the side once everything is baked. (Depending on how tight and broad you want the spiral to be, you may need to use a mini-muffin pan instead.)

You may also want to add a light coating of brown sugar before shaping the spiral to help the bacon hold its shape. It should caramelize while cooking and help achieve a crispy and stiff shape. Plus, it's yummy!


What is the ideal fake turkey substitute for a vegan Thanksgiving?

I always make a tofu turkey by blending tofu with herbs and flavorings and then draining over night in a colander dressed with a kitchen towel. The next day I shape the tofu info a turkey shape with stuffing inside, wrap it in a soaked yuba sheat and bake it in the oven, brushing with butter and marinade occasionally.

This "turkey" will not have the texture of turkey meat but it will be carvable.

The skin will have a texture similar to turkey skin.

The flavor of this "turkey" (I use a lot of sage, light miso and poultry seasoning) is very traditional and goes well together with above mentioned gravies and stuffings.

When brushed with enough marinade and butter it will be moist if a little crumbly.

I spent about 10 € on the tofu (6 blocks of 450 g each), 2.50 € on the skin and 5 € on the herbs. If you have buy seasoning, miso, etc, it will cost more.


What does it mean when a dish or product is described as "(insert culture/tradition) style"?

Adding the word "style" to a dish or food item is a way of giving a nod to a particular culture or tradition when the end product is not authentic. While we can debate the idea of "authentic" in another space, generally the term "style" might mean that a technique was employed, or an ingredient was used, but that the final product is not of the culture or tradition being referenced.  This sort of labeling is generally done for marketing purposes, be it at home for your family, in a restaurant, or in a retail situation.


Is there an aging process by which to "oak" meat?

Don't see why you can't make oaked meat.  Corned beef and salt pork have been around for a long time.  The 'corn' referred to isn't actually corn, but is rock salt.  Here is a good starting point if you want to make oaked, corned beef which doesn't require refrigeration:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/food-preservation5.htm

In the above article it specifically mentions barrels for storing the salted meat.

Try google with [salting meat].

Having read some research some years ago regarding the propagation of bacteria on artificial (plastic) and natural (wood) cutting boards, and the large difference in the ability of bacteria to grow on these two mediums, wood being by far the most bacteria resistant, it would seem at least prudent and in your case, desirable, to use wood containers.  Oak barrels are available in many sizes and you should be able to order them with removable covers with a bit of inquiry.

There is plenty of oak, in many forms, commercially available.  The explosion of wineries has produced many caterers to the makers of that product.

Here is a source for oak chips:

http://www.ibrew.com.au/html/equipment/oakbarrels/oakbarrels.html

Here is another source for all types of oak, including barrels:

http://www.stavin.com/index.htm

If you don't want to make the commitment of barrels, months long curing and the space requirements for same, you could simply buy some winery chips, brine your meat in the refrigerator with oak chips between layers of meat or surrounding a piece of meat.

Have fun!


Why did my devil food cake come out flavorless?

In baking it's very important - particularly when making your first cake - to follow the recipe as precisely as you can.
If you do not have the ingredients - Dutch processed cocoa, in this case - find a recipe that uses ingredients you can get. The pH balance is not the only difference between the two, as explained in this Serious Eats article:

Dutch process cocoa has a more intense "chocolatey" flavor while natural cocoa looks lighter in color and tastes slightly astringent.

So, your complaints of no chocolate flavor likely are due to the recipe relying on the stronger chocolate flavor of the Dutched cocoa than natural. On top of this, cocoa brands are highly variable in quality. If you don't splurge on high-quality cocoa, you're probably not going to be happy with the outcome, particularly if the recipe was designed for it. This is one of those ingredients where matching the brand used by the author is probably a good call.
Dutch cocoa is also pH neutral, while natural cocoa is not. It looks like you may have attempted to combat this by adding extra baking soda but that may not be an appropriate solution. The SE article reads:

If a cake or cookie recipe only calls for baking soda, it likely uses acidic natural cocoa. If it only uses baking powder, it'll probably ask for Dutch process cocoa instead. If a recipe calls for both baking powder and baking soda, you'll need to follow the recipe to get the proper balance of acid and alkaline. Recipes that use baking powder will likely rise regardless of tweaking, but not as well; it's best to stick to the cocoa that a recipe calls for.
emphasis added

In addition to this, overuse of leavening (in an attempt to neutralize your natural cocoa) could have caused your cake to over-rise early in the baking process and then deflate because there wasn't sufficient structure to support it, thus causing it to be dense and flat.

Preparing the ingredients properly (room temperature butter) is also very important. Creaming butter and sugar introduces a lot of air into a cake. Failing to do so to a sufficient degree will cause the cake to be dense. It's considered "mechanical leavening" you're mechanically introducing air into batter. In relation to cookies, it's discussed on Serious Eats.

See, unlike stirring, mixing, or beating, creaming isn't about combining ingredients—it's about aerating them. By bashing butter against the sides of a bowl, whether you're going at it with a spatula or with a stand mixer, you're folding it over and over, creating little pockets of air with every turn. Add sugar, and suddenly that process is way more effective, building up an expansive network of sugar crystals, fat, and air.
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!
While some recipes may only ask you to cream the butter and sugar until well combined, most invoke the phrase "light and fluffy." Both techniques have merit (the former intentionally cultivating a denser dough), but here I'm gonna stick to addressing the mysteries of "light and fluffy" alone.

Now, the article doesn't actually require the butter to be as soft as many recipes may imply. For cookies she recommends the butter start off at 60F (15.5C) rather than 65C (as many recipes recommend). Lower butter temperature helps reduce spread in cookies. For cakes, where spreading isn't an issue, she recommends a slightly higher temperature for butter and to use warm (instead of cold) eggs.

In my experience, the number one mistake people make with creaming is using overly warm butter. Experts generally cite 65°F as the ideal temperature for butter, but that fails to take into account a couple of critical factors. First, the temperature will go up as soon as you add the sugar, which is as warm as your kitchen. And second, once you start mixing, the friction generated by an electric mixer can be enough to warm eight ounces of butter by one degree every minute. That doesn't leave much time before the butter hits the point of no return [68F]. Therefore, err on the side of keeping things cool.

She notes that butter over 70F won't hold air at all, so don't let it get that high.

In the comments you mentioned that you used a pan that was slightly bigger than what the recipe recommended - 9.8 inches instead of 9 inches. A 9-inch circle has an area of about 64 square inches while a 9.8 inch circle has quite a bit more, 75.4 square inches. That's a difference of about 20%. The difference is less pronounced at smaller sizes but when you get into these bigger cake pans, it can make a huge difference.
This is likely why the baking time was so off for you. More surface area for the same amount of batter means that the entire thing will cook more quickly - the batter will also be shallower in order to accommodate the larger size and will cook through sooner. Being thinner also means it is more likely to dry out - particularly if over baked.
There's an interesting guide to adjusting recipes for different pan sizes on Food 52 that you might find helpful. It addresses a similar conversion to yours:

Just by glancing at the two pans, you might think that a 9-inch pan is very close in size to an 8-inch pan of the same shape, thus making it a reasonable substitute. But if you check the chart, you’ll find that a 9-inch square pan is more than 25% larger than an 8-inch square pan. (The relationship between a 9-inch and 8-inch round pan is similar.) Such a considerable difference will result in a 9-inch batch of very thin brownies that may be over-baked by the time you check them for doneness (because thin brownies bake faster than thick ones). Knowing this beforehand, you can increase the recipe by 25% for results as thick than the original recipe intended. If you want brownies that are even a tad thicker than the original recipe, you can even increase the recipe by 33%.

So, I'm not sure whether other things went wrong. I've not tried this recipe but it's from a reputable source, so it should be fine. I reiterate - follow the recipe or find a different one that you can follow if you really want so have success in the kitchen, particularly with baking!


Can I dehydrate multiple different types of food at the same time?

They would totally end up tasting like oniony beef! In fact your whole kitchen does- that's part of the magic of making jerky.

I can't think of a way to prevent this as the whole idea of dehydrating is to pull water out of the food and blow it away into the air.

If the flavors are compatible (or milder, like fruit) I have done different things together at once. If they don't take the same amount of time, I'll just take the done items off earlier when I check it.


Peeling cupcake liner from chocolate mold

I've done something like this before.

Since you are making bowls, I assume this will eventually be filled with something. Depending on what that something is, perhaps you could wait to peel the paper until after you fill it?

For instance, in my case I was making my own peanut butter cups. If I pulled the paper off with just the shell, the bowl would shatter. However, after I filled it with PB and topped it with chocolate, I put it in the freezer and it had enough structural integrity to hold up to the stress of peeling the paper off. Then, I let thaw.


Why does adding lemon juice before baking cause a thick layer of dense cake to form?

The original recipe is leavened with baking powder, which these days is a mixture of baking soda, an acid, and a special acid which activates at high temperatures.

Lemon juice is strongly acidic, and will react with all the baking soda in the baking powder. This means you won't get as strong a leavening effect during baking. (Some people also feel that the un-reacted acid from the baking powder results in a metallic taste.)

To compensate for this, you can try adding baking soda (in addition to the baking powder) to the recipe; I've heard 1/2 tsp baking soda to 1 tbsp lemon juice, but I don't have any direct experience with that. I don't know what this will do to the overall leavening or taste of the cake.

It is unusual to see lemon cake recipes which use much lemon juice in the batter. Drizzling lemony syrup in afterwards is more common. You might want to try that instead.


Will tomatoes keep for longer if you keep the stalk in?

Removing the stem from a tomato opens up a hole where air, moisture, and bacteria can pass through. Keeping the stem in, or somehow sealing the "scar" from the stem, will prolong shelf life.

(Published in Cook's Illustrated - requires subscription - http://www.cooksillustrated.com/howto/detail.asp?docid=1173)


It might have the consistency of mayonnaise but so do many sauces, sweet or savory. If it tastes good to you, it's fine so use it.

What I do when I want a tart citrus taste (for many things, not just icing) is add citric acid crystals. I consider citric acid to be essential in a well-stocked kitchen. If you'd like it to taste like lemon or orange, add some finely grated peel of which ever you prefer. I find a slightly tangy orange flavored icing goes wonderful with chocolate cake.

I can't say how much citric acid to add as I rarely use a recipe. When you're adding butter and whipping the icing, I think that's the best time to add a little citric acid (and peel, if you wish). Start off with just 1/8 teaspoon and after incorporating it well, take a taste. Start adding it well before you've whipped in all the butter. Keep adding 1/8 teaspoonful at each time (or less when you think it's almost right). Keep track of how much you've added so you can write it down for next time. Use a little less if you include orange zest as oranges aren't meant to be as tangy as lemons. Personally, I like tangy taste to many foods.

I use salted butter in all my baking too and simply don't add any extra salt. I like salt. I've asked friends if they found it a little salty and no one said they did.


rusty charcoal chimney starter, safe to use?

Yes, it's perfectly safe to use basically until it falls apart. It gets very hot in use, which prevents any sort of rust-proof coating from sticking, but the rust is harmless. You could try oiling it after use if you wanted to reduce further rust - that oil will burn off every time it's used, but will help to slow rusting when not in use - however, it's not really needed (could be regarded as a waste of oil.)


Can you make soup or stock with just Canada whelks, no meat?

yes, you can just use vegetables and seafood for you recipe, the result will be different; you can use a strong vegetarian broth or a seafood/fish stock.
If using only vegetarian and fish/seafood ingredients, it will taste fishy; that's the point, isn't it ? Depending on the base stock (vegetarian or fish), you might get different results.

About whelk, I've got no experience cooking with them, I only use brined ones and eat them as-is.


The problem is that you want the soufflé ingredients to be room-temperature or above when you put them in the oven, so the soufflé will puff up. But this sweet-potato mixture would have to be refrigerated if you make it in advance (especially because it contains eggs), so that won't work well.

Here's what I would try. (You should check with your hosts to see if they have room in their kitchen and oven to do this). Make the topping in advance. Bake the sweet potatoes in advance. Take the other ingredients with you, allowing them to come up to room temperature. When you arrive, microwave the potatoes to reheat them, beat in the other ingredients, and bake.

Or bake the soufflé at home just before you leave, letting it rest before you transport it. It will be completely collapsed when you serve it, but it will still taste just as good.


As far as I can tell what you don't do is pour the batter onto the pan.  What you do do is dip the warmed pan into batter (I'd think you stick just the cooking surface into the batter, not the whole thing) and put it back on your burner to cook a crepe quickly.

See the product description on this convex pan on amazon and this vintage pan on ebay for where I got my information.


What teas with natural caffeine can be used for lemon tea?

This is kind of a "experiment and find out" kind of thing, there being such a large variety of teas in the world.

Earl Grey and lemon is a classic pairing, but a whole lemon might be too much. Jasmine green is smooth and pairs well with lemon, but not lime. Either and any citrus fruit typically pairs well with Yerba Mate.

but the list is huge. I would recommend going to check out your local tea shoppe and seeing what they have.


Coffee hates boiling water - or more specifically, water boiling at 100°C - it scalds it & kills the taste.
but read on...

There are basically two kinds of instant coffee, spray dried & freeze dried.
Both start by making up 'real' coffee.

Spray drying is achieved by then super-heating the mixture & spraying it out into an evaporator. The powder falls to the bottom where it is collected [Whether they leave it as powder or clump it is either a design choice or a method limitation, I've never found out which].

Freeze drying is achieved by reducing the atmospheric pressure then spraying in a similar way. This means they can work at much lower temperatures, as water boils at a lower temperature the lower the pressure.

The second method is more expensive than the first. It preserves the flavours a lot better, so tends to be reserved for blends & beans that were higher quality to start with. Pure arabicas will almost always be freeze dried.

So, your Nescafe is made by the first method - spray drying - & therefore has already been ruined/scalded by the process. This is one reason [amongst many] that spray dried coffees taste nothing at all like actual fresh coffee.
Pouring boiling water on this can now have no further effect. "It's already dead, Jim."

Pouring boiling water on freeze dried, however, will spoil it. Freeze dried has so far avoided the scalding.

You can test this by making 3 very simple black coffees.
One teaspoon of freeze dried coffee granules in each cup. To one, add half a cup of cold water, to the second add just half an inch. The third, leave with just granules. Pour absolutely boiling water [the second the kettle clicks off] onto all three to make a full cup. Stir, leave 1 minute & examine all 3. The first will be quite cloudy & mid-dark brown. the second will 'look like coffee'. The third will be almost black & very clear.
Taste them all. They will taste in order from, 'a bit grainy', just right, 'ooh, spoiled'.
You can try this test with spray dried, but the results are not as distinct.


When you go to cook them, defrost them by the cold, moving water method, unwrapped. Give them at least a half hour or so soaking in clear, cold water. That should take care of it.


The only functional replacement of what you've mentioned would be the turbinado, which is typically a slightly coarser, unbleached version of regular granulated.

Confectioners/XXX sugar is fine ground into powder and will not provide the aeration or structure/bulk to perform in a cake. Brown sugar could possibly work, but will alter your flavor profile. Splenda just isn't that functional.

Best of luck.

In the future, it'll help if you give more info on the type of cake/product you're making.


Why use metal cake pan instead of silicone one?

Dark metal pans provide superior browning for breads, muffins, and the like that are better with a crust on them. In my personal experience, foods do NOT release well and they are NOT convenient to clean. I actually have thrown out my silicone muffin and loaf "pans" because of their abysmal results. I've never baked a cake in silicone, though.


Substitute for sugar/golden syrup as binding agent in breakfast bars for kids

The syrup and the oats appear to be the binding agents in your recipe. If you don't plan on omitting the golden syrup no substitution is necessary. If you want to do away with the golden syrup, coconut oil is commonly used in vegan protein bar recipes as the binder. Another way would be to add some "sticky fruits" (like dried dates or raisins)


Should asparagus be peeled before cooking?

As a rule of thumb that would pretty much coincide with what JustRightMenus said: green asparagus is generally not peeled, but white asparagus should definitely be peeled. I think it's the same plant, just cultivated in a different way. (And interestingly, in Germany and the Netherlands, the green stuff is much less common, whereas in North America I've never seen the white ones.)


Dish soap won't kill you. You probably eat it, in traces, with every meal.

If you can't smell it or taste it, then no real harm done.


What's the best way to cook fall-off-the-bone baby-back ribs

I rarely ever recommend boiling the heck out of meat.  You are washing away all of the flavor.  Remember water is a solvent and remove everything from the meat if it is left to boil long enough.  For the most tender ribs I would recommend a braise.  The slow, low, moist cooking of a braise is perfect for breaking down connective tissue in the ribs without drying them out or washing away natural flavor.  Even in smokers I haven't had great luck with baby back ribs as they have a tendency to dry out.

Here is a easy to follow braise for ribs by Alton Brown video, 1, 2.  It's a decent place to start and work on your preferred methods from there.

Please avoid boiling your meats, you will be so happy with other methods, even if they do take a bit longer.


In order to create sparkling beverages, a gas called carbon dioxide (CO2) is dissolved in them, a process that goes under the name of carbonation.

When dissolved in water, CO2 becomes carbonic acid (H2CO3), following the reaction:

 CO2 (g) + H2O <-> H2CO3    (1)

The double arrow means that the reaction is reversible, that is, you can go from left to right as well as from right to left. So, essentially you have two reactions going on at the same time:

 CO2 + H2O -> H2CO3          (2)

and

 H2CO3 -> CO2 + H2O          (3)

However (and here's the trick) the g next to CO2 means that it is a gas and, as such, is volatile and will leave the water when it is formed (that is why you see bubbles coming out of your soda).

There is a very important law of chemistry called Le Chatelier's principle which states that:

  If a chemical system at equilibrium experiences a change in concentration, temperature, volume, or partial pressure, then the equilibrium shifts to counteract the imposed change and a new equilibrium is established.

If CO2 was not volatile, what would happen is that, at some point, you would reach a chemical equilibrium, that is, the amount of H2CO3 formed by CO2 dissolving in water would be exactly the same as that of H2CO3 decomposing into CO2. But, as we said, CO2 escapes the water in the form of gas... So what happens is that you are always removing CO2 from your reaction and, as Le Chatelier's principle tells us, the system will react to counteract this loss, by decomposing more carbonic acid to forming more CO2.

This is why, if you pour soda in a glass it will slowly become less and less sparkly, as CO2 will leave the water, be substituted by the decomposition of some more H2CO3 and so on, until no H2CO3 is left.

So, why does a closed bottle of soda stay sparkling until you open it? Simply because CO2 has only a small room to escape (the small empty space on top of the liquid). All I said before works also for a closed can/bottle of soda, but at some point the air on top of the liquid becomes saturated with CO2, that is, it cannot make room for any more CO2. This means that the CO2 will restart to go back into the water.

All of these reaction will be influenced by temperature.
Carbonic acid decomposition is much faster at room temperature compared to 4°C, so what happens is that, at room temperature, reaction (3) will be more favoured compared to (2) and when the can will be opened more CO2 will exit the can, giving you a slightly less fizzy drink.

This effect is similar to that of shaking the bottle: in that case you are mechanically promoting the dissociation of carbonic acid and helping CO2 to escape from water.

Finally, carbonic acid is, as you may guess, an acid, albeit a very weak one!

It will therefore contribute to lower the pH of your drink in a more or less strong way, depending on the soda: the pH contribute of H2CO3 will be higher in sparkling water (bringing the pH down from 7 to between 3 and 4) than in Coca Cola, which already contains a strong acid (H3PO4, phosphoric acid) and has a low pH in any case.


Typically an electric kettle is used for boiling liquids and unless you somehow defeat the safety shut off when the liquid boils, which is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS! and absolutely not recommended!! you won't be able to hold a boil.


How can I improve sealing of bags for sous vide?

Edge sealing vacuum machines like yours are not really designed to cope with liquids, either water or oil. In fact, you can permanently damage your device if those liquids get sucked into the pump. There are ways around this, one is to feeze any liquids you wish to add to the vacuum bag or if your model supports it you can follow the advice from eGullet here:

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/144300-sous-vide-recipes-techniques-equipment-2011/page-2#entry1779665

  Sealing liquids is possible with clamp-type machines. Other members stated this long ago. I did not manage to do so at first, but now I have learned the trick. It does not work with fully-automated machines that have no "seal"-button and no external vacuum-port.
  Place the machine in a way that the bag can hang down vertically. Place the adapter on the external vacuum-port (without the tubing). When you start vacuuming, air will enter through the external vacuum-port, so almost no vacuum is built up. By closing the port with your finger, vacuum will rise and so will the liquid in the bag. Before the liquid approaches the sealing bar, reduce vacuum by lifting your finger, and press the seal button. Make a second and eventually third seal in case the first one should not be perfectly tight.


why does my meatloaf fall apart when I slice it?

It's the oatmeal.  I suspect it is absorbing the egg and preventing it from binding the meat together.  I suggest switching to a small amount of breadcrumbs, or day old bread torn into very small pieces if you like a little more texture.


Should chicken be seasoned before vacuum sealing?

There's no benefit to seasoning before you seal your food unless you plan to cook the food in the bag once it's thawed, as in sous vide. Salting or spicing isn't going to make it last longer in the fridge, and it's not going to impart much in the way of flavor either.

I suppose seasoning and rubbing your spices on before freezing would save you a bit of time later if you had a specific recipe in mind for the chicken, however if you decided to use the chicken for a different purpose you'd have to clean all that off and re-season/spice it if you did.


How to efficiently separate bad from good pomegranate arils?

I always cut the skin along the ridges as described in this answer to your referenced question. This has the advantage of breaking the individual segments out of the fruit mostly undamaged (with all arils still in place).

Once you've broken loose a segment, it's easy to seperate the arils from the white flesh by gently brushing your fingers over them. If there are any bad arils around, you can either leave them in the segment by not brushing them loose or you can dispose them into a seperate container.


The technique is called flambé in kitchen/restaurant lingo and means pouring a liquid containing alcohol over food and igniting it.

You need somehing:

flamable
non-toxic
tasty

-> High-proof drinking alcohol, like brandy, vodka, rum, whiskey kirsch, himbergeist, pastis, Grand Marnier... whatever fits your dish. The higher the proof, the better, generally 40% (80 proof in the US) or up is a typical choice. Below that, it may be hard or impossible to ignite and not burn constantly. Some sources advise against too high, because these spirits need careful handling and no or limited pre-warming.

Pre-warm1 the liquor, then

Method 1
scoop a small amount into a small laddle or large spoon, ignite with a long match or stick lighter, pour over or around the food.

or

Method 2
pour a small amount over or around the food, then ignite with a long (fireplace) match or stick lighter.

Serve immediately after igniting and make sure you (or your servers) have hair tied back and wear no loose scarves or other flamable clothing.

Alcohol flames are hard to see in bright light, but quite impressive in a dark environment. So don't do this at a summer lunch outside, but at an evening affair and try to dim the lights, if possible (but not so much that the servers stumble!).

Consider doing a test run before serving guests to get an idea on the timing. Flames will die down after a minute or so, but trying to extend that time with more alcohol isn't a good idea. Too much liquor will overpower (some would say: spoil) the taste of the dish and may produce charring.

If it's only the flames you are after, you might burn some alcohol in a small heatproof(!) bowl or dish on the platter, but this will most likely not give the desired effect and carrying this is very dangerous in case you trip and spill the burning liquid. I strongly advise against it!

And:
Never, ever pour alcohol straight from the bottle towards a flame.

If you want to search for videos, look for flambé dishes that are typically prepared at the table, like crêpe suzette, not the dishes that are flambé at an earlier stage of the cooking process in the kitchen.

Just warm, not hot! This is to increase the "cloud" of alcohol which will be lit in the next step, making it easier. If you heat too much, you'll end up with a "ball of fire" and all the alcohol burns off in a big "pouf!" instead of giving a nice flame.


Yes, it can go bad.

It's pretty much the same as the way flour can go bad: the fats can go rancid. Grains are mostly starch, but they contain enough fat for rancidity to be a noticeable problem. There's a huge amount of variability in how long that takes, though. If it's airtight and kept in a cool, dark place, it'll last much longer than the best before date. But if it's been exposed to air, light, or heat, it can go pretty fast, perhaps even before the best before date.

So, smell it. If you detect any unpleasant smells, you probably don't want to eat it. Even if you don't smell anything obvious, it could still be subtly rancid, so if you're planning on serving it to anyone, you might want to cook a small bit to test.


Is the lettuce inside the wilted outer leaves still good?

Yes it is still good.

A lettuce that is kept outside (as in a farmer's market) will get wilted outer leaves, and the merchant will usually cut them off to make the heads nicer.

Depending on the resulting size; if they cut out too much compared to other lettuces, I might ask for a lower price if sold by the unit.

Personally, I will buy the lettuce with as much of the outer leaves as possible, even if I remove them at home, they will act as an outside protection against the elements.


Where can I source my own food safe pizza steel?

Most people recommend A36 steel, which is a fairly common low-carbon steel.  As far as I understand it (procured mine through ebay), you just need to work at scraping off the mill scale with some abrasive.  Wash, dry, then season like a cast iron pan.  After that you should be good to go.


How to replace chicken with tofu in a curry

If you're going to be adding a curry sauce, there's no need to just throw on some extra herbs and spices.

Use an extra-firm tofu, and make sure you drain/press out any extra water before frying. Wrap your tofu block in paper/kitchen towels, place a plate with some additional weight (not too much, a few pounds will do), and let it sit up to an hour before slicing and frying.


Yellow color from brand new Pre-Seasoned Lodge Cast Iron griddle (before seasoning or even heating). Is this normal?

If it’s kinda powdery, it’s likely rust.
Not quite fully polymerized oil tends to be orangeish, but you usually can’t see it unless it’s your first layer over shiny bare metal, and I wouldn’t expect it to rub off on a paper towel like that
I suspect that you’re going to need to strip and re-season your pan.  You only do that first deep scrub with pans that are waxed for shipment, not for pre-seasoned pans


Is it worth roasting my own red peppers?

I roast them "fresh" as I need them, but my method scales up easily.

I use a gas grill and turn it to high.   Set the whole peppers on the grill, and turn them when the skin is black on the hot side.   When they're black all over (after maybe 2-3 minutes per side for all 4 sides of the typical ones in my local supermarket), I put them into a large disposable plastic container with a tight fitting lid and let them cool in it.   The skin peels off quite easily, and they can be seeded and de-stemmed quite easily.

If I were going to preserve them, I'd probably chuck them into a plastic container or zip-top bag and freeze them.


Is wood a good alternative to charcoal for bbq fuel?

You can use any non-poisonous wood you like.

Every wood has a different heat and smoke profile. "Soft woods" like birch will generally burn very hot for a short time, so OK for sausages, small meat cuts, and small vegetables, but not so good for large meat cuts, roasts, or for BBQ'ing covered for the full smoke effect as you will most likely need to re-stock the fire every 20 or 30 minutes.

Most people let the wood burn off the main smoke (which usually doesn't taste too good), and BBQ on the red/white embers. The wood stage is now similar to charcoal, but a lot more smokey, which is great if you like smoke.

For sausages, small cuts and small vegetables, hardwood is basically wasted, as they will cook in ten minutes, and the hardwood has 20 to 30+ minutes of burn time in it.

You can BBQ small stuff using a few handfuls of dry twigs or even driftwood if you want too. Twigs from fruit trees or lavender bushes make great smoke!

We always travel with a small lidded BBQ (metal box 60x40x40 cm with vent holes on sides), we use a handful or two of driftwood, once the smoke dies down, add a few peppered steaks, pre-cooked potatoes, oiled asparagus, soaked corn on the cob. Put the lid on, and come back in 15 to 20 minutes, smokey slow cooked heaven.


Is there residual alcohol in various vinegars?

Yes, there is some alcohol in vinegar.
Estimates of Ethanol Exposure in Children from Food not Labeled as Alcohol-Containing, Gorgus et al., Journal of Analytical Toxicology 2016  discusses a range of sources of alcohol exposure, some of which might be surprising.
Among them is white wine vinegar, which is quoted as having 2.6 g/l.  That's around 0.25% ABV (vinegar is mostly water, and acetic acid has a similar density to water, so close enough). I can see no reason for other real (brewed) vinegar to have appreciably less. Consuming a unit/standard drink of alcohol would mean drinking large quantities of pure vinegar (a UK unit is 8 g of pure ethanol, so that would mean drinking about 3 litres of vinegar), so for the majority of people this wouldn't be an issue; indeed the human body produces several grams per day (Wikipedia link, but see the cited source for this claim for a full review).
However if someone is trying to completely avoid consuming any alcohol, vinegar would seem to be off limits.  There are alternatives, such as "non-brewed condiment" a malt vinegar substitute made from industrially produced acetic acid, water, and flavours. Similar products may legally be allowed to be sold as vinegar in some countries - they should be cheap, and include "acetic acid" on the list of ingredients (see Wikipedia's article for links to other languages).
It appears to be possible for consumers to buy food-grade acetic acid at high concentrations. This would need to be diluted significantly. One brand I found was described as 70% acetic acid; as common vinegar is no more than about 5%, you'd need something like 1 part of that 70% product to 12 parts water (or fruit juice, or a mixture of the two) and undiluted it should be handled as a nasty chemical rather than as a food (protect eyes and skin, avoid inhaling fumes).
Industrial production is done directly, without the alcohol intermediate step, so can be assumed to be alcohol-free and would also allow some distance from the alcohol industry, if that's related to the motivation.
Returning to the paper I linked at the start, some other foods may be  surprisingly high in alcohol.  Some breads, for example have over 1% by weight (though others have no detectable alcohol).  Very ripe fruit has some, and fruit juices contain tiny quantities, with the highest figure detected in the juices around 1/3 of that in vinegar, at less than 0.1%, though of course fruit juices are often consumed in larger quantities than vinegar.  Perhaps the natural level found in fruit juices could be regarded as a practical threshold to consider functionally zero, barring any medical reason to go still further.


Gas stove + Wok Vs. Induction top + Skillet

A wok is designed to put food in heat at the center and relax some of the heat as you move away from center, and you keeping the food moving in and out of that hot spot so you get an even sear all around.

To mimic this, use a wide 12 inch or larger skillet (depending on your quantity of food) with high walls, and make it hot. Continuously flip the food over and over and stir is so you get an even seat in the same way. This is called stir fry.

The reason why a wok is desirable is you can manage a lot of food in a wok and move stuff into and out of the hot center quite easily. You can do the same thing in a skillet, but you have to take greater care to not burn your food nor to make a mess throwing the food around.


How can I add flavor to green tea at home?

Depends on the flavour I suppose. For the most direct route, I would try just steeping the fruit/flavour in the tea/water for a bit (ie: sliced strawberry, sliced ginger, lemon zest/peel, etc...). I make a ginger/lemon "tea" with thin slices of lemon zest by just steeping it in water. No reason you couldn't add some green tea leaves to that as well. Lemon Juice, I add before serving.

As mentioned finding an extract could work as well. No idea about amounts, you'll have to do some research as to what is safe/appropriate. I haven't used them.

For a Jasmine Tea, I would probably just find a good tea purveyor and find a proper Jasmine Tea.


I would like to make my own food coloring with natural vegetables, what is the technique?

Anything that's hard to get off of your counter can make a good food coloring. Regarding natural sources, remember that you run the risk of also adding additional flavors so take that into consideration. Among other companies, Annie's makes all natural foods including colorful fruit snacks. What they use for the coloring in these snacks are: turmeric, black carrot juice concentrate, and annatto. (I've cooked with turmeric and annatto before and they DEFINITELY stain.) Aside from Google searches, you could probably find practical natural food dyes by looking in the ingredient list from other all-natural foods.

Back to your specific question about beets, this is from eHow:

  1 Put your fresh beets in a glass or enamel pan with just enough water to fully cover them. Bring to a boil and turn the heat down a bit to simmer for 30 minutes. Make sure the water doesn't boil out. Take them off when the beets are not quite done - When a knife goes into them but they're not as soft as you'd like for eating. Remove them from heat.

  2 Strain the beets, reserving the beet juice. Peel, slice and chop up your beets. Return them to the beet juice. Soak for four hours.

  3 Strain the liquid out and take out 3/4 cup. Add your 2 teaspoons vinegar to this. This is your red dye.

  4 Use canned beets and you can skip half of the work. Drain the can reserving 3/4 cup liquid. Add 2 teaspoon of vinegar to this and you're done. You can still eat the beets, too. The fresh ones aren't terribly appealing after this.


Here's a recipe for four 4.5" cheesecakes that should be exactly what you need. I haven't used the recipe myself but it certainly seems reasonable:

http://www.food.com/recipe/four-4-5-inch-cheesecakes-with-nine-stir-in-variations-506199

The crust is cooked for 7 minutes at 300F and the while cheesecake is cooked for 40-45 minutes at 300F.