What can I use instead of swede (rutabaga) when making pickle relish

I am a big fan of swedes/rutabagas. When I can't get them I use turnips, beets, daikon radishes. Carrots/parsnips add some interesting flavor as well.

A couple other vegetables that are crunchy and nice-flavored but more exotic are celery root or jicama.


Corn starch only thickens when heated to 180 F, so it probably is not helping at all with your whipped cream.

I live in the US, so I cannot compare to whipped cream in the UK.    Whipped cream for cake fillings is often beaten almost to the breaking point to make the foam as thick as possible.  I assume you are whipping the cream sufficiently, and it still isn't getting as thick as you would like.

If that is the case, you might try stabilizing the whipped cream with gelatin.  The link is one of many I have found on a quick search, and it specifically calls for 35% cream.

This long chowhound thread also has some interesting thoughts and advise.

This ochef link also provides an interesting method of using creme fraiche.


What causes changing blue and purple pigments in food?

Anthocyanins are antioxidants that are a very common water based pigment in plants. There are over 500 varieties that have been isolated from plants which are are responsible for many blue, red, and purple pigments in flowers and fruit. It is thought that the colors serve to attract pollinators to flowers and camouflage leaves from herbivores.

They are the naturally occurring in purple snap beans, garlic, some ginger, many berries, red cabbage, as well as many other common foods. When added as a food coloring, they have the E number E163.

The color is dependent on the pH of the fluid around them. This causes many plants (such as purple beans) to lose color as they are cooked and their cell walls begin to burst and release water, diluting fluids the anthycyanins are in or absorbing cooking liquids of a different pH.

Some varieties of ginger contain anthocyanins which can turn blue when exposed to acids. Varieties of ginger originating in Japan contain these compounds, but varieties originating in China do not, which explains why this only happens to some ginger. The pH of ginger is slightly acidic, so that probably starts the reaction.

Anthocyanins are also responsible for garlic turning blue when in an acidic solution. In the case of garlic, the color is sometimes enhanced by reactions between the sulfur compounds naturally occurring in garlic and copper that may be present in water or cooking vessels. This creates another blue pigment, which is still perfectly safe to consume.

More technical information can be found in Colorants in Food.


Put the bag in front of an air conditioner for a few minutes. Worked like a champ for Oreos and chips that went stale over a humid weekend in a desk drawer.

This was a window unit- I arranged to blow the cold air into the bag. Was amazed with the results.


The problem is that the 2:1 ratio just doesn't hold true.  Alton Brown hinted at this in Power to the Pilaf:

Now, the second secret to happy rice is finding the right ratio of rice to liquid. The instructions on your average bag of rice always says the same thing, "1 cup rice, 2 cups water."  If that were right, and I don't think it is, one could deduce that a 2 to 1 water/rice ratio would always be the way to go no matter how much rice was involved. Well, it isn't that way. Not only are 2 cups of water more than any respectable cup of long grain rice needs, but the proportion of water to rice actually goes down the more rice you cook. Here's how we see it.
Now, for the sake of argument we will restrict our demonstration to American long grain white rice. One cup of rice will cook very nicely, thank you, in 1 1/2 cups of water. It seems pretty simple, right? But, the plot thickens.
Two cups of rice will cook perfectly in 2 3/4 cups of water. Wait, it gets even weirder.
Three cups of rice can be cooked to perfection in 3 1/2 cups of water.
Which obviously makes it seem apparent that the more rice you cook the less water you need. Now, if you have a slide rule and you know how to use it you could probably figure out some handy formula or at the very least come up with a good comedy routine. "Hey, Abbot. When are we going to have more rice than watuh?"

America's Test Kitchen did some further study, and figured out what the problem is -- you need 1 cup of water per cup of rice (for the varieties they used), plus the amount that's lost through evaporation.
I suspect that the reason that the 'up to the (first|second) knuckle' trick works is that those people are most likely cooking in the same pan, with the same lid (and so the amount of water lost through evaporation is more constant), and cooking nearly the same amount of rice each time.  Of course, a constant head space would actually mean less water for evaporation each time (as not all of it will fit between the grains of the rice), so there must be some range of acceptable water to rice, rather than it being a rigid fixed number.


What is the ideal grind for making espresso?

Grinding coffee for espresso is probably the most difficult to get right. The coffee grind needs to be fine enough to increase the pressure required to push the water through the filter and create a good crema. But if the grind is too fine, the ground coffee can block the coffee filter. Generally, espresso coffee grind resembles a mixture of powdered sugar and fine beach sand. Since each espresso machine is a bit different, you may have to experiment to get the coffee grind just right (Allmann Bros Coffee).

Brewing espresso is particularly susceptible to problems relating to an inconsistent grind. I am not familiar with a burr mill specifically, however burr mills are generally recommended for espresso grinds as they tend to provide consistency. Bear in mind that the grind can either be too coarse and the water will run through without much extraction due to the pressure and space between the grinds, or it can be too fine and allow for a backup of water and espresso water and grinds all over your counter.

NOTE: The pressure with which you pack/tamp the puck (the grinds when pressed in the brewing basket form a puck) will also play an important role in the extraction process and the crema formation. You can get a feel for how hard to tamp the puck by getting a scale and pressing down until you hit about 30 pounds of pressure; you want to pack the puck at that pressure of tamp.


You don't need milk.  There are two common ways to help prevent the sauce from splitting on you -- starch (used in mornay), and acid.
When Alton Brown did his "Good Eats: Reloaded", he admitted that his original recipe for fondue was a problem ... he had used a more acidic hard cidre, which meant it worked fine for him, but caused major problems for people trying it at home.  His updated fondue recipe calls for both cornstarch and lemon juice.
This also typically means that "processed" cheeses won't break (as they typically contain a little bit of starch and acidic salts), and that pre-shredded cheese has less problems (as they coat it in starch to prevent it from clumping back together).  So if someone develops a recipe that works for them, but you shred your own cheese, it might not work.
I suspect that adding cheese to veloute would work, but you want to work the cheese in slowly, over a moderate amount of heat, and you may wish to add a little bit of extra acid for insurance.


This cut can be smoked similarly to a chuck roast or pot roast, which might help you search for recipes on your own.

As a baseline, you could try smoking it uncovered until it's around 150-170F, then foil wrap it and bring it up to 200F. This, along with letting it rest after you take it out, will ensure it doesn't dry out. This will take around 4-6 hours minimum.


Is a sprouting carrot lower in sugar and does it lose nutritional value?

The answer to this is sort-of. There are a range of different forms of sugars that are involved here.

Tap roots like those found in the carrot are a form of storage of energy for the plant.  When growing the plant generates simple sugars such as glucose and fructose via a process known as photosynthesis. These sugars are readily transportable and metabolizable. Some of the sugars are used by the plant to run its metabolism, but photosynthesis is super efficient and generally out-weighs the metabolic needs of a plant so that excess sugars are generated. These sugars are transported to the root where they are converted in to the complex sugar storage form of polysaccharides, which are very stable and can be used as structural components in the plant (cellulose generally) and many other things. In plants the energy storage is usually a polysaccharide known as starch, which does not taste sweet, and is the major component in things like potatoes. This is also why young carrots, which have not had time to convert their sugars to starch taste sweet but old carrots, which have converted all their sugars to starch already do not taste sweet.

Once the carrot starts to sprout it produces an enzyme that converts the starches back into simple sugars, which can then be used in metabolism and transported to the regions of the plant that need them to grow. Growth in this case means production of leaves and new secondary roots. The leaves will, in the normal course of things, allow photosynthesis to take place, producing more sugars than the plant needs for its metabolic needs again.

In the absence of light and subsequent photosynthesis to produce more sugars, the growth process will eventually convert the stored starches back into sugars and deplete the sugar content through the metabolic process of respiration, which takes sugars and burns them (figuratively speaking) to provide energy, releasing carbon dioxide and water. This would result in a less sweet tasting carrot over time.


When something calls for cardamom pods, you get a lot more flavor if you put the entire pod in, and split open to expose the seeds. You also get a lot more flavor if you happen to pick the pod up in a bite, and it's .. quite strong. Some people like it, I certainly don't mind it, but my kids would rather not have them as a surprise. I tend to remove them.

I love making orzo with chicken, celery, herbs and mushroom and cardamom is a key ingredient that I use. Fishing the pods out of the pan later was rather difficult; it was difficult to spot them with all that celery.

I have some tricks that really help. For starters, remember how many you put in, make sure you get that many out. Note that they can split in half and come apart while cooking, so don't stop fishing at 2 1/2 when you know you put three in.

Use the biggest pods in the jar in recipes where they're going to be hard to spot after cooking. If you're just flavoring some rice, use some of the smaller ones - they're easily spotted. If they'll blend in easily within the dish, use the larger ones.

You can also color them with food coloring, without affecting the flavor (proper food coloring is flavor-neutral). Soak them for half an hour in blue or red coloring, then again for fifteen minutes in tepid to warm water to make sure they're done giving back any of the coloring you gave them (you don't want your risotto turning blue). Split them after you've done this.

They take on enough of the coloring that they stand out from most other things in your dish, you shouold be able to tell if you're about to put a pod on someone's plate (or just let folks know to watch for them). This saves you from the fishing expedition, allows people that enjoy them to just eat them and saves some time. Note, they sort of just stain a little, they don't take on much color, but it's enough to make them stand out from other small green things :)

You can also pierce them with a bamboo toothpick and cut the toothpick off a few millimeters away from the shell to make them stand out fall away more easily, but that doesn't always work if they're cooked rigorously. Leave enough toothpick to be easily spotted - eating one of those in a bite would be worse than eating one of the pods. This is handy mostly for slow cooking.

Finally, you can cook them out in a stock, which you add to the dish - it's very easy to strain them out that way. May or may not work depending on your recipe.


Roughly how long should I cook 3.5kg pork belly ribs in electric smoker?

Based on your comment, you are basically barbecuing pork belly with the ribs still attached.  I like the approach these folks take.  You will want to maintain your smoker temperature at 225F (107C).  You will also want to use a probe thermometer.  They suggest treating the belly almost like one would treat brisket; that is, when the internal temperature reaches about 165F (74C), to wrap it in foil.  Then, continue until the internal temperature reaches 200F (93C).  Their belly took 8 hours using this method.  Given that yours still has the ribs attached it will likely take a bit longer.  It's hard to estimate time beyond this.  You will want to monitor temperature.  If it is done early, just keep it wrapped and place it in a cooler.


What can I do to keep high hydration dough from sticking to my hands?

Let the dough rest in the bowl for a while after mixing. Time will not only improve the flavor (insert autolyse proselytism here) but will also give the flour time to hydrate, making the dough somewhat easier to handle.

Dough will become less sticky as you work it -- witness the way dough kneaded in a mixer or food processor initially sticks to the sides but eventually forms a ball and leaves the bowl clean. So, one option is to work it a bit with a mixer first, or just with a wooden spoon in the bowl.

Anil's suggestion to oil your hands is a good one. If the kind of dough you're making allows it, add some oil or butter to the dough during mixing, too.

Flour helps, of course. Instead of trying to coat your hands in flour, throw a bit on the kneading surface and on the top of the dough.

For very sticky dough, a dough knife can help you scrape the dough off the surface and fold it over onto itself until it becomes easier to handle. This is easiest if you're working on a hard, smooth kneading surface like marble.


For blenders, is Stainless Steel sturdier than Glass?

If they are going to blend hot soups, go with stainless. Glass can (and does!) crack due to the thermal issues. If they are religious about cooling their soups down to room temperature glass can be ok. But I've definitely had glass jars crack when blending hot soups. Tempered glass does not solve all problems.


Is it common for slow cookers to heat unevenly?

It is not typical for the heating to be that uneven in a slow cooker, it sounds like it is broken. If it's less than a year old send it back and get a warranty replacement!

If it's not under warranty if it was me I'd take it apart and fix it if I could, they aren't very complicated. I'd either fix it or replace it rather than try to use it because one of the big benefits of a slow cooker is to be able to leave it unattended. You could stir things occasionally, but slow cooker temperatures are very low and you'll lose a lot of heat each time so it's not recommended.


Yes, you can freeze them: I have done it before, and it works just fine.

They key (in my experience, that is) is to freeze the balls quickly if uncooked, and put them into the boiling water still frozen when you actually do the cooking.

I have also been freezing cooked potato balls, and that works just fine as well -> In that case, warm them up in hot, but not boiling, water.

A note due to the comment below: The recipe I use calls for half cooked, and half raw potatoes, with the raw half being pressed almost totally try of water; and they DO fall apart if I do not take that part seriously. So, except for potato-flour added again, there is not that much raw potato starch left when I freeze them.


23 Year old, looking for first cookware set with longevity, suggestions?

Buying piece by piece is generally a better option than buying a set, because you can get higher quality individual pieces versus spending money on things you need.

Nonstick doesn't last forever, so spending a lot of money on nonstick doesn't make a lot of sense.

The Food Lab and America's Test Kitchen both have lists of pots and pans you want to have (as well as recommendations(+reviews in the latter case) for brands easily found in the US). They're smaller than a cookware set you'd buy, but may still be too much depending on what you do. Buy what you need -- I cook almost everything I eat in a stainless steel skillet and my other pans don't really get all that much use (and you can always buy them later; I don't need a dutch oven for example). I think the Food Lab list is a bit more reasonable (but some of the stuff is clearly dependent on cooking style, e.g. woks).

Also, note that you can re-use a lot of pots and pans or work around having specific ones on a list -- for example, a rimmed baking sheet + wire rack takes up less space than a roasting pan (and works fine for roasting birds or whatever; it doesn't do everything a roasting pan does, but its way cheaper for good quality stuff).


Can you concoct Kombu with Dulse (Palmaria palmata)?

The best konbu comes from mature plants but early in the growing season, is sun-dried over two days (or slowly and gently), retains a little moisture (still below mold-range if you have an aW meter) and then cured in a cellar for 6-24 months to develop flavour and loose it's briny taste and aroma. I learned about this in The Japanese Culinary Academy book 2, Flavor And Seasonings which I highly recommend.
You can definitely use other kelps. Here in Australia we have the very tasty golden kelp and bull kelp. I have tried this, even a few weeks of ageing helps. That white powder on the outside is manitol, a faintly sweet sugar. As the video suggests, you should keep it.
If the dashi from those packets you have is weak, I would think a longer steep in warmer water might help.
Good luck!


This is funny because:
In English they are called " fried snacks" :)
But it's a polish thing, they are called "przysmak świętokrzyski" or "crates". It's basically wheat flour (97,5%) and water. Then fried.
I think there is only one company that make them https://www.wspspolem.com.pl/produkty/snack-przysmak-swietokrzyski/snack-kratka/ and although they write there are other shapes I have never ever seen anything beside crates.

BUT
I have eaten something similar in England but they were sweet, it's called Jalebi.


How to make pizza that has a fat outer rim?

If by crust you mean a raised lip, simply pinch/push the edge up all the way around. Leaving the edge free of sauce won't make it rise a great deal more than the rest of the pizza.

Another way to get a lip is to first make a round, hemispherical mound of dough, like a D on its side. Form your hands into a circle and push them into the dough so you have a ring of dough surrounding a central mound, with a little dip in between the two. This ring is your crust.

Finally, push the pizza into shape, spreading the central mound of dough out to form the base, leaving the outer ring/crust in place.


Downsides:

Copper is toxic. You have to get the inside lined with tin. Tin has a very low melting point and can melt during cooking. Even if it doesn't, it wears off with usage and the pan has to be lined again. I don't know how easy it is to find somebody who lines, but nowadays, it is not so common. Alternatively, you can buy a copper pan with a thin internal stainless steel shell, which doesn't need re-lining. You have to buy it from a good brand to be sure that what you get is mostly copper (as opposed to mostly stainless steel) and you lose the advantage of copper's great heat diffusivity.
Copper is a reactive metal, you can't put it in the dishwasher (although, it shouldn't need more maintenance than cast iron - it is just more problematic than stainless steel).
Copper is an expensive metal. Due to the low demand for copper pans, they are a niche product for people who want them very much, and this increases their price even more. Expect to pay €200 to 300 for a copper pan.
you can't use a copper pan on induction. You can use it on gas, but it will likely discolor/blacken.
copper is heavy. It has even higher density than cast iron (although the difference isn't that big).

Upsides:

Copper has some great heating qualities. In fact, it is the best metal for cooking (maybe silver is better, but I haven't heard of silver pans and don't have the numbers for it). It has five times the thermal conductivity of iron. The problem is, after you have taken all the relevant variables into account, you arrive at about the same specific heat per cubic centimeter as iron. So, when heated at a constant temperature, a pan of copper will give you the same heating evenness as an iron pan of the same thickness. If the heat changes, the copper pan will react much quicker, which is a good thing. The catch: I don't think anybody makes copper pans the same thickness as iron pans, and a thin copper pan will heat nowhere as well as a thick iron pan.

Example: look at this pan. This is a €220 copper pan, 2 mm thick. (Don't ever buy "copper" pans which don't tell you the thickness, they are mostly stainless stell with a thin copper coating on the outside). My €15 cast iron pan is 5 mm thick. It doesn't have the quick response of copper, but it should beat the thin copper pan in slow, even heating and heat retention.

The bottom line: I haven't tried a copper pan, but wouldn't do it because of the price, even though they might heat better than iron. If you want to invest the money, you are welcome to try them and tell us how it went. I have never heard of bronze pans outside of historical contexts, but I guess they will share the downsides of copper (except maybe being cheaper), and I would have to see the numbers for the heating qualities.


It depends on the type of dry milk—there are several processes for making it, and the density varies.

But a good place to start is to read the package of dry milk for the reconstituting instructions. For example, it if tells you 5 tbsp + 1 cup water to make 1 cup reconstituted milk, then you'd substitute 1 cup (possibly scalded) fresh milk for 5 tbsp dry milk. If you don't have a package of dry milk, ⅓ cup dry milk + 1 cup water is given by the USDA. Other places say ¼ cup. Wikipedia says 10% by weight, citing Wayne Gisslen's Professional Baking.

Keep in mind that you must reduce the amount of water in the recipe to compensate. Within epsilon, reduce the water by the amount of liquid milk you added.

For temperature-sensitive recipes, you may need to warm your milk somewhat, as the recipe probably was designed for room-temperature water, not refrigerator-temperature milk.

Note: According to a random site on teh Interwebs, scalding pasteurized milk apparently slightly improves bread. In pretty much everything else, scalding pasteurized milk has no effect.


You could use pâté or rilette or cretons or similar (spreadable meat pastes).

Alternatively, Cook's Ham has a recipe for "ham pâté" (Basically throw the ham in a food processor, then mix in some mayo and stuff to make a spread).

If you're using a city ham (rather than a country ham), it is likely pre-cooked (see the package directions) and all you need to do is re-heat it. If you do this gently (low and slow), you should be able to get better texture. For example, put it in the oven for the lowest oven setting possible until it comes up to temperature (you can add some water / use a turkey roasting bag as well to help), or stick it in a sous vide water bath.


In a comment, you say that you were told to bake the fritters rather than frying them. That implies that they're already cooked, and just need to be reheated.

A fan-assisted oven would be ideal for this, but a regular oven will work too. Put the fritters, still frozen, on a baking sheet or metal baking pan in the middle of the oven. Assuming the fritters are around 1/2 inch thick, 15 minutes at 200C (400F) in a regular oven or at 180C (350F) in a fan-assisted oven should suffice. (As with any cooking instructions, preheat the oven to the specified temperature unless you're told otherwise.) Flip them halfway through cooking. By the time they're done, you'll likely see a small amount of bubbling at the surface, even in the center.

An easy way to check whether a food has come up to temperature is to stab it straight through the middle with a metal fork. Let the fork sit in there for a few seconds, then put the part of the fork tines which were in the middle of the food just in front of your closed lips. If you can't feel heat radiating off them, then gently touch them to your lips. That should give you an idea of how much the food has warmed.


chocolate fudge not having harder or sticky consistency

If condensed milk and chocolate chips are, basically, your only ingredients, make sure you are using sweetened condensed milk and not just evaporated milk.  The 5-minute fudge recipe has been a staple of bake sales and church socials for as long as I can remember and should work on a 3-minute microwave cycle. Some recipes mix the types of chips (milk chocolate + semi-sweet chocolate) - some recipes throw in a couple tablespoons of butter into the mix (Eagle Brand's recipe is more purist, though). But sweetened condensed milk and a LOT of chocolate chips should do the trick.

http://www.eaglebrand.com/recipes/details/?RecipeId=3968

The only other problem I can think of would be if you microwaved your chips alone first and they got so hot that the chocolate seized - or if you used some kind of chocolate flavored chips that were made from mystery materials.

I don't like to use the microwave to melt chocolate - ever.  For a recipe like this, I would melt the chocolate into the sweetened condensed milk over a double boiler or in a heavy saucepan over low heat - sometimes slow and steady wins the race.


How can I detect bad-fed or fast-fed chicken eggs before buying?

It's not a simple matter to spot a good egg just by looking at it. Different breeds of chicken will lay eggs that look a bit different from each other. Also, it used to be quite common for farmers to feed the chickens some colourings that make the egg yoke more yellow. So a strong colour inside doesn't mean it's good quality.

I'd suggest, if you think eggs are cheap enough for your to not worry about money, you look for free range organic labels on the egg box. If the egg is officially from an organic source then you know it's not from a chicken stuffed up with chemicals.


Where to find a large individual brownie pan?

Amazon has some individual brownie pans that are, I believe, what you may be looking for.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=individual%20brownie%20pan


How to clean/wash (Sichuan) peppercorns?

It probably isn't worth washing them. You could try washing them with water alone but this certainly won't remove many types of dirt such as oils. The main flavour compounds  in most spices are not highly soluble in water, so most of the flavour (Hydroxy-alpha sanshool in this case) will remain. However, if you used a detergent to remove any oils, it is likely that this will also wash off some of the flavour compounds, and likely be difficult to remove from the seeds. You would also need to dry them thoroughly after washing, especially if you wanted to store them.
You may be able to bake them - it seems that the Hydroxy-alpha sanshool has a boiling point of 574 C (1065 F), which is much hotter than most ovens will reach. However, this risks burning them and thereby destroying the flavours before you can sterilize. Dry heat at 176-232 C (349-450 F) is sufficient to sterilize food with dry heat (see section on sterilization by heat in chapter here (paywall?)), however these are baking temperatures and will cook the seeds quite rapidly, so you will most likely burn them before you could cook off any dirt and before most bacteria get killed. With this method you would still be eating dirt, it just wouldn't be able to make you sick.
A third option is to just pick them up individually - so as to not scrape them across the floor any more than they already have, then place in a sieve, shake up and down a few times to winnow (in the intransitive verb form) out any particulate dirt. Then store, and consider that cooking them will very likely kill >99.99% of any contaminating bacteria/fungal spores.


Is it safe to add raw eggs to homemade coffee creamer?

It depends on how hot the coffee-egg mixture is (and remember, adding it will cool the coffee), and how long it stays at that temperature.

Given that coffee does not benefit in flavor from being left around, you want a fast process, which means the mixture should be at 160 F (71 C) for several seconds at least... it can cool after that.

Since coffee optimally brews at about 195-205 F, this should be in the realm of possibility.


What determines if a juice is clear or opaque?

Visible cloudiness is a result of suspended particles of about 1 micrometer (micron) or larger in size.  Technically, just about any juice could in theory be filtered to remove those particles.  But there are a couple things going on here.

First, any filtering, clarification, etc. does cause some modification of flavor.  Flavor compounds can be much smaller than 1 micron, but how they're perceived can be modified by larger particles that contribute to mouthfeel and by their relative concentrations.  If you're measuring against the raw food, any change subtly modifies how it tastes.  A raw tomato tastes slightly different from tomato juice, which in turn tastes different than tomato water.  This can have an especially strong impact on subtle flavors like vegetable juices.

Second, 1 micron is pretty small.  The average pore size for your standard drip coffee filter is about 10-15 microns, meaning you have to go a full order of magnitude smaller in order to remove visible cloudiness.  Besides physical filtration, there are other ways to do this like gelatin clarification, but those may also remove things like suspended oils or specific flavor compounds.  That might be okay if you mostly care about sweetness and you can add artificial flavors back later (as with mass-produced juice blends) but could be a problem if you're going for a very "natural" flavor.  In general, more filtering means more processing and more associated flavor change.

Third, you're right that there is a marketing aspect here.  Consumers have grown used to certain types of juice being clear (like apple juice) and others being totally opaque (like orange juice).  A certain subset might also actually prefer clouded juices, seeing them as less processed (which they generally are) and therefore more "healthy", regardless of whether that's actually true.

In short, you could filter just about any liquid clear through some means or another, but it will taste different, and will likely affect how much people will pay you for the result.


I haven't had that specific sauce before, but I've had similar sauces (FYI, if you want to buy the sauce without buying the potstickers, you can buy them in small bottles in Asian food stores).

I don't know the exact ratios, but you can always start with a ratio of 1:1:1 of soy sauce (Kikkoman would do just fine here), rice vinegar (not shaoxing, that's a wine and not a vinegar; I would recommend Chinkiang/Zhenjiang black rice vinegar, but any rice vinegar should do fine), and sugar. Start from there, and adjust as you see fit. You may want to dilute it also; I just made it and it tasted quite strong to me, may want a bit more sugar than 1:1:1.

I would skip the cottonseed oil and just use sesame seed oil - a few drops of good quality sesame seed oil (Kadoya brand, for example) is good enough. Chili oil/sauce - that depends, even Sriracha would work well if you like that flavor; a few drops of that would do.

Have you thought about possibly using a bit of chopped garlic/garlic powder? I've seen it in some of the ingredient lists of the bottled dipping sauces. Just a minor thought if you happen to like garlic - it's perfectly fine to use some in dipping.

Hope that helps!


Can I cook Foster Farms chicken sous-vide in its original plastic?

The only way to be completely sure is to contact Foster Farms and ask them what their packaging is made of and whether or not it is a totally airtight seal.  Everything else is speculation.
There are, however, two data points on which to speculate, both from their preparation page, and this is more broadly applicable to any company that distributes food this way:

Can I freeze chicken in its original wrapper?
Yes, the original packaging is fine for freezing up to two months. For longer freezing, over-wrap packages with foil, plastic wrap, freezer paper or plastic bags.

Generally something that's been properly vacuum-sealed will last much longer than that.  The above would seem to indicate that it is not completely airtight and may even allow a small amount of moisture to get through.

What's the best method for thawing frozen chicken or turkey?
[...] You can also defrost in your microwave following the manufacturer's instructions. Remove chicken from the original package, and place on a microwave safe dish to defrost.

(emphasis mine)
This pretty clearly indicates that it is not microwave-safe, and proper vacuum bags that are safe for sous-vide are generally also microwave safe (even the cheapo FoodSaver products claim that you can boil, steam, or microwave in the bag).
So I am leaning quite heavily toward no - I don't think that the original packaging is safe for sous-vide, given the various other statements made by the company.  But again, the best way to know for sure is to contact them directly.


I was trying to take off the absorbant pad while my chicken was still frozen, and it broke

Don't worry, the materials in those pads are non-toxic. The absorbent material is silica (purified sand) or plant cellulose, and the plastic is thin and non-digestable. So if a small amount sticks to your food it's no big deal, just make sure it's cooked through as that will kill any bacteria in the gel that happens to be left. What I would do is let the chicken thaw and then rinse it thoroughly.


Make aquafabe from scratch - can the soaking water be used for cooking

If I understand correctly when you talk about changing liquid, you mean boiling the beans in a water different from the one in which you soaked them? In that case yes, generally speaking it is recommended to boil all your legumes in a different water, because cooking them in the soaking water will make them less digestible, but it shouldn't have any influence on the composition/consistency of your aquafaba.
The most important is the cooking water, because it is during this process that the carbohydrates and proteins of the legume will transfer to the water and make your aquafaba.


How to make hamburger buns as fluffy as in McDonald's?

The light commercial white bread structure is very different from homemade doughs. I'm learning how to achieve it, so here are some pointers:

The main objective is to make your gluten work really hard: it has to hold up twice as much air as your regular homemade bread.

Autolyse your flour first, just mix it with the water and let sit for 20 minutes.

Don't add any fats before hydrating the flour and kneading it to activate the gluten. The fats are very helpul afterward, they coat the gluten strands and keep the finished bread soft for a longer time. If you add the fat first, it keeps the gluten from activating properly.

As has been stated before, knead the dough intensely and for a long time, i.e. 20 minutes in a stand mixer. The commercial kneading process is very intense and you will see the difference in the dough's texture and ability to hold a higher water content.

Adding more wheat gluten is also a good idea.

Do tangzhong a.k.a. water roux. Take a bit of flour (recipes vary from 3 tablespoons to 1/3 of all your flour), mix it with water and heat it in a water bath pot to a temperature of 60-65 Celsius while constantly whisking to keep it from clumping. It's going to achieve a gel consistency. At this temperature, amylase enzymes activate and change some of the the starches in your flour to sugars. For best results you should hold the mixture in this range for some time, at least 10 minutes. The same process happens in your oven while heating the loaf at the start of baking. Baking at a lower temperature prolongs this stage, but once the dough reaches temperature of 68 C, amylases are deactivated for good. Some commercial bakers also just add amylase or diastatic flour for this purpose.

The commercial-type bread therefore has less starch, more sugar and more protein (gluten).

There are also other dough enhancers that make mass produced bread soft, fluffy and long lasting. Vitamin C (used in minimal amounts) makes the proofing faster and helps keep the product soft for longer. Emulsifiers like lecithin or xanthan gum can be used to hold up the gluten structure and also keep the bread fresh.


How far will my summer truffle and water go?

13 grams to serve pasta for two is generous, but not extremely so. I think you're smart to keep the dish simple, you don't want to complicate things with extraneous flavors to muddle the taste of a star ingredient so special. Despite the very topical and interesting link provided by SAJ14SAJ, I'd be wary of sauteing the truffle in anything truffle flavored, even if it was 100% genuine (which most truffle products are not). If I was using truffle for the first time, I would want to be sure that I was actually tasting the truffle, not an additive designed to taste like truffle. I do like the idea of giving the truffle a light saute though, I'd just use butter or olive oil. If you do saute, you don't want to waste a molecule. Give the pasta a bit of a swirl in the pan used for the truffle to wipe up any of the precious oil left in the pan. Save a bit of the truffle raw to give the final dish a garnish of truffle shaving, if even just to taste it both ways.

As far as the water, it's worth a shot. How about making mushroom risotto the next day using the water (or more likely, brine) in the broth component of the risotto? Not knowing exactly what it's going to taste like, I wouldn't use it for your special dish. If it negatively affects risotto, at least you haven't lost much in the way of expensive ingredients.

EDIT: Oh, I'm jumping to the assumption that your truffle is black and will therefore stand up to sauteing. If it's white, don't cook it, just shave it over the dish.


Can I make hard / crunchy food without sugar or fat?

Blah ... this is getting to be a bit long for a comment, so I might as well reformat & expand more, even though it might not be an appropriate answer.  (and I should note that this is mostly from memory as I got an engineering degree ~20 years ago)

Are you asking about the physics of what 'crunchy' is?  It's effectively stiff, brittle things.

When you're dealing with strength of materials, you're looking at how much energy something can absorb before it fails.  Strain is a measure of how much something deforms as it's being loaded.   Items that can take a high load (force applied) without deforming are considered stiff.  (stiffness = force / deformation)

Brittle is a characterization of how it fails -- something that deforms plastically (stretches and won't go back to the original shape once the load is removed) can become weaker as more force is applied, but still keep resisting.  Think of something like taffy.

Brittle failures, however, are almost explosive -- it just breaks suddenly.  Think of a concrete block being crushed -- you load it and it looks like nothing's happening, but suddenly bits of it shoot off and you're left with a pile of rubble.

Why things are crunchy is another issue entirely -- because there's lots of different structures that can result in "crunchy".

Crunchy baked goods are more like a wooden truss bridge.  Wood can handle a lot of force without breaking, but once once member goes, the truss loses strength and is ripped apart, and it suddenly fails.  There's often debris along the breakage because of how the item rips itself apart internally. (although we typically call them 'crumbs' not 'rubble' when talking about this kind of food).

For these foods, water will typically soften the structure making it so they can't support much load -- making them not stiff, and thus not crunchy.

Moist things like apples, lettuce and carrots are often crunchy, but it's a bit different.  It's more like bubble wrap.  Cells are effectively a bunch of tiny water balloons bound tightly together.  As we apply pressure, they pop.  (although they're so tightly packed together that unlike a single water balloon, it doesn't have space to deform).  In this case, we don't see crumbs as much as the moisture from the cells breaking.

If the cells aren't full, then we consider it to be mushy ... maybe even chewy if we dry it far enough ... if the cells don't stay bound together well, then it's mealy -- it crumbles easily, rather than giving us that resistance before it fails explosively.

So anyway ... if you want crunchy without sugar and fat ... have some celery.  If you're okay with a bit of sugar, then carrots.  If a bit of fat, then crackers (but not ritz or really buttery ones).


Kraft has a recipe that resembles what you describe, in which you could substitute whipped evaporated:

3/4 cup boiling water
1 package (3 oz.) JELL-O
ice cubes
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup Cool Whip

Add boiling water to gelatin mix in a medium bowl; stir 2 minutes, until completely dissolved. Pour into blender. Add enough ice to cold water to measure 1-1/4 cups; add to blender. Blend 30 seconds or until smooth. Add the whipped evaporated milk; blend well. Pour into 4 dessert dishes. Refrigerate until firm.

To whip evaporated milk, an easy method is to pour the contents into a metal or glass mixing bowl, and place it (and, separately, the beaters) in the freezer for 30-45 minutes, until ice crystals begin to form. Remove and beat at high speed until thick, 3-4 minutes.

Alternatively, food author Liz Berg has devised a method that emulates the discontinued Jello 1-2-3 product that separated into layers:

6 ounce box of Jello
1/4 cup heavy cream, whipped [substitute whipped evaporated]

Divide dry Jello into two medium sized bowls. Add one cup boiling water to first bowl and stir till all sugar is dissolved. Add one cup of cold water and mix till combined. Pour mixture into clear glasses (6-8 depending on size) filling to halfway point. Chill till slightly jelled, about 30 minutes.

When the bottom layer is slightly jelled, whip the cream and repeat the process with the second bowl of dry gelatin, decreasing the cold water to ¾ cup. Whisk in the whipped cream and pour the Jello mixture on top of the first layer. Chill till set, about 4 hours.


What caused the spoilage of my homemade mayonnaise before 48 hours

Mayonnaise - unless made by a recipe that is explicitly designed to yield a shelf stable version (as many commercially made mayonnaises are) - is not a shelf stable food. That means the common standard of unrefrigerated storage time of 2 hours max, or 4 hours if immediately consumed, is to be applied. So spoilage after room temperature storage of 8 or even 48 hours does not seem to be a surprising behaviour.


Rice Cookery in water containing sugar versus plain water

I had some fun with this one. To start: Gelatinization is when the intermolecular starch bonds break, see Starch Gelatinization

I originally thought it had to do with the sugar changing the boiling point of the water. I thought this would increase cooking time, but turns out that's wrong. A higher boiling point means the water can get hotter before turning into water vapor. Therefore shortening cooking time. The mystery continues.

Under the last paragraph in section 8.2 of Thermodynamics of Water it talks about impurities.

Shortly after that I found help in this paper Effects of Sugar on Starch Gelatinization. It says that there are two reasons that I'll summarize here. 1) Sugar bonds with the water making it less available to bond with the starch. This makes it so that the water needs to be hotter to bond with the starch. 2) The sugar bonds with the starch holding them together a bit longer.


how to make shiny figures for cake decoration?

These figures are probably made with fondant.

I think the figures are handshaped. There are plenty of tutorials. You can even look for tutorials working with modelling clay.
Basically you only need a rolling pin, a knife and tweezers. Cans, forks, any food-safe utensil that has an interesting pattern are useful. Of course there are special molds for fondant but I don't think that you need them unless you want to make fancy things like laces. You can buy molds online but also in some larger hardware stores, supermarktes, or gift shops. It depends on where you are located.

Fondant is quite matt. To make fondant shiny you can

hold the fondant over steam or
apply shortening,
egg whites,
corn syrup, or
alcohol on the surface


It will produce the same effect, however it might alter the taste (depending on the type of beer), and will almost certainly alter the color of the final product, as beer contains sugars that will increase browning.


Why can I have an indoor pizza/wood oven, but not a BBQ or smoker? (or can I...?)

Why pizza/wood ovens, but not BBQ/smoker?

Fire is not fundamentally a problem indoors; there are certainly safe ways to do it, like fireplaces.

The things that make fire dangerous are lack of containment and lack of ventilation coupled with significant size. If it's at all uncontained, it's a fire hazard, and if there's not enough ventilation then you can get a smoke-filled home, carbon monoxide poisoning, and all manner of unpleasant/deadly things.

Wood-fired pizza ovens are much more like fireplaces than anything else. The fire is well-contained. They have chimneys, so that all of the byproducts of the fire are safely sent outside, and new fresh air is pulled in.

Standard barbecues/grills/smokers usually fail on the ventilation aspect. They don't have a way to attach a chimney so that you can reliably send all the nasty stuff outside. They may also be insufficiently well-contained. For example, a lot of charcoal grills make it relatively easy to throw sparks outside the grill, which is pretty bad indoors.

Indoor smokers do exist, though. Generally they're either large, with serious ventilation, or they're small stovetop things that just burn a tiny amount of wood chips in a tiny volume, so it's safe without ventilation but not exactly comparable to a full smoker.

The reason the big ones need serious ventilation is that you're deliberately holding smoke (and associated gases) inside, and you can't let that slowly build up in your home. On top of that, it's at a much lower temperature, probably 225-250F compared to a wood-fired oven at probably 600-900F, so a chimney won't even be as effective because you don't have as strong convection from all that hot air trying to rise.

Can I just seal off an oven and turn it into a smoker?

No. If you don't send the smoke out through the ventilation system, it'll be going into your home. (You might have experienced this yourself, if you've ever started a fire in a fireplace and accidentally left the flue closed. It can fill the room with smoke impressively quickly.)

I know you said partially close, but if the oven hasn't been designed for it, you're just asking for trouble. You don't really have a good way to make sure that smoke (and probably carbon monoxide) is held within the oven enough to make it a good smoker, but is not pushed out into your home. This is fire/home safety. You really don't want to be asking for trouble here, and depending on where you live, it may well be illegal.

So it's really unlikely that you can even make this conversion, and if you're doing it yourself you can't trust it anyway, and the absolute best case is that you manage to somehow build yourself an indoor smoker and you've probably had to make compromises that make it not work as well as a pizza oven. So you might as well just buy an indoor smoker. (But you still might not be as happy with it as with a regular outdoor smoker - see dlb's answer.)


Making a cremeaux lighter with whipped cream. Is there a name for this?

The name for this is still 'cremeaux', nothing changes.
In English pastry jargon, "cremeaux" is a (somewhat rarely used) umbrella cream for any sweet filling with a creamy consistency. It is not connected to a specific recipe or technique. If the thickness is such that you can pipe it, and the texture is more similar to a custard than to, say, jam, then it can be called a cremeaux.
An alternative word for a substance of this consistency is "cream", as in "buttercream" or "shaving cream". The difference is that it is also used outside of the culinary context, and when it is used in culinary language, it can be confused with "cream" the dairy liquid made by partially removing the water from milk. I suspect that some people use the word "cremeaux" to avoid the confusion, and others just because it sounds fancier.
So, if you take a random recipe that can be called a cremeaux, maybe a custard of the right thickness, and then fold whipped cream into it, you still have something that is sweet, pipeable, and creamy in mouthfeel. Which makes again the word "cremeaux" applicable.
Depending on the final texture, the result may also fall under the term "mousse". The mousse's central characteristic is that it is very airy, while still spoonable. If you added a lot of whipped cream, and managed to keep most of the air in, it may be recognizable as a mousse.


how to brine olives - how cool is cool area to brine them?

There are five treatments to process olives:  Water cured, brine cured, dry salt cured, lye cured, and lye cured fermented.  The main objective when curing olives is to leach out the oleuropein, which is the bitter compound found in fresh olives, and to ferment them, which improves the flavor and, of course, improves the shelf life.

It sounds like you are using the brine cure method.  Oleuropein is water soluble.  Chemically, the salt brine breaks the bonds between the oleuropein and sugars, allowing it to leach out.

So, first, you should replace the brine after the first week of curing, so that the leached our oleuropein is removed. Then, from what I gather by reading this, 2 months is the minimum curing time.

Curing time is impacted by temperature, salt concentration, and acidity.  These factors can slow or speed the time.  It looks like their recipes for brine cured olives proceed in a temperature range of 60 - 90 F (15.5 - 32.2C).  Further, they recommend a 2 to 3 month cure (2 if you like more bitter olives).

So, I would suggest that your cure is happening very slowly because of the refrigerator temperature.  It seems to me that your room temperature is ideal.  I would just remove them from the fridge and check in a couple of weeks.


Can you identify this black sauce from this Kuala lumpur claypot chicken vendor?

Looking at the video, I would say he's using a variety of soy sauces, with one or more being a dark or black variety.

From Wikipedia:

  Traditionally, the cooking is done over a charcoal stove, giving the dish a distinctive flavour. Some places serve it with dark soya sauce and also dried salted fish.

Also from Wikipedia, a picture of the dish with dark soya added:

Update as per the edit to the question:

Dark and black soy sauces tend to have a thicker consistency than 'regular, everyday' soy sauces. (And some are sweetened.) The viscosity allows the sauce to adhere to foods more easily and creates what I refer to as a lovely sheen.

From Serious Eats:

  Dark and Double Dark: Like Japanese dark soys, Chinese "dark" soys are darker in color and thicker in texture, but tend to be lighter in saltiness. They are generally fermented for a longer period of time than their thin counterparts and often have added sugar or molasses, giving them a sweet-salty flavor and viscous texture. They are used solely for cooking, often added at the last stages to season and add color to sauces.


Making pizza toppings stay intact without using cheese

You can try adding some sauce on top of the toppings, just a light layer to hold things in place.

It'll brown a bit and harden slightly, which might add enough firmness to keep things from sliding off.

The cheese normally does this, plus it's "sticky" and stretchy, so it keeps all the ingredients in one place, more-or-less.


Why does bread flour have lower protein content than all-purpose flour?

I would just say that you are translating the terms too literally. In the USA, it is typicall to sell flour made from hard spring wheat under the name "bread flour", because people there traditionally enjoy bread made from it. In other countries, people have different expectations of their bread, and hard spring wheat was probably not even available prior to globalization. So it is logical that companies there formulate flour to produce the locally preferred bread texture, and sell it under a term which literally means "bread flour". This is a very common linguistic/cultural phenomenon - in different parts of the world, the local term for "cheese" without further qualifiers means a very different style of cheese.

I have never been in Hungary, but on the Balkans, traditionally, there is a preference for soft, fluffy, white bread. So I wouldn't be surprised if this Hungarian company has formulated their bread flour to produce something in that direction.


Substitute yogurt powder for confectioners sugar when making royal icing

I wonder what those yogurt covered peanut contain? They are sweet but a similar setting agent minus the sugar might do the trick? e.g Agar agar


What can I do with extra sourdough starter?

make waffles! that's what we do with ours, besides bread. sourdough waffles with syrup have this great sweet/sour balance going on that is really wonderful.


Caveat: I have never made biltong...in fact, I had to look it up.  I do make cured meats like pancetta, dried sausages, and bacon.  By way of example, pancetta is essentially bacon that is not smoked at all.  I use a salt and spice cure, then air dry to reduce the original weight by 30%.  It is then refrigerated.  It can be eaten raw, but in most applications is cooked.

My thinking is that if you are using nitrites/nitrates and salt in your bacon cure, you are greatly reducing risk.  Then, as I understand it, biltong is a dried product.  So, reducing water activity further reduces risk.  In addition, the vinegar creates an acidic environment...also inhospitable to spores and bacteria.  This generally sounds safe to me, but my only question would be about the "hang to dry, approximately 2 days." As I am unfamiliar with the product, I don't know what final texture you are trying to achieve. In general, dry curing shoots for a 30% reduction in weight (the safety reason for this is a reduction of water activity).  If you are going for a jerky-like texture, 2 days doesn't sound like much to me. I see recipes online calling for at least a week of hanging.  Overall, though, I can't see how this would be an environment that micro-organisms would thrive in. I am not a microbiologist or food safety specialist.  Just someone who reads and applies what I've learned, so I would be happy to be corrected if any of this sounds off-base.


Is it okay to store sandwich (tonkatsu sandwich) in a container?

As long as the tonkatsu is cooked and then cooled appropriately (ie relatively quickly), then stored at appropriate temperatures (ie refrigerated) until consumption, you should be fine. The length of your journey to work will be the main factor - you need to keep the food cool enough, so a cool bag with ice blocks may be in order. Then you need to make sure they remain cool until they are consumed. Whether or not they should be reheated is probably a matter of taste.

Also, check your local regulations for selling food for public consumption. It will vary from country to country, but many places will require a kitchen inspection and permit before you can legally sell food.


Have you considered vacuum sealing? As you are buying larger amounts of spices to use for a whole year, here's what I would recommend.

Obtain some vacuum seal containers sized for the amount of each spice you are going to purchase. Get some smaller glass bottles for your daily use.

When you purchase your spices and get them home, fill the small bottles with enough of each spice to last 2 or 3 weeks.

Then vacuum seal the remainder of each spice in the larger containers.

As you use up the spices in the small bottles, you can refill them from the sealed containers and then reseal them.


How can I liven up run-of-the-mill stir fry?

I notice you didn't mention fresh ginger. That's a very distinctive flavor addition that is commonly used in stir fries.

Also, don't know if this counts as a "major addition" [that you aren't asking for], but since you do mention veggies: bok choy, "baby" bok choy (which I think is a different plant from "adult" bok choy), or mustard greens seem like innocuous vegetables but really punch up the cruciferous flavor in a dramatic way. (especially the mustard greens)


If you juice your own carrots you would see how sweet carrots actually are.

When you juice a carrot, you are extracting the liquid portion (which contains the majority of the sugars) from the cellulose. Since the cellulose is somewhat flavorless — it tastes pretty much like paper pulp — you are essentially creating "concentrated carrot" flavor, which is why it tastes so much sweeter than when you eat it whole.

You can also roast a carrot and see how sweet it is. Roasting drives off a lot of the water and breaks down the fiber. Try it; you'll see just how sweet a carrot actually is.


A cappuccino is probably not what you want to try latte art on. The amount of froth in a cap will probably cause the milk to be too thick to pour with.

You want to start with your milk texture. You want stretch the milk and texture it so that it is suitable for a latte or maybe even a flat white. Correct micro foam will be integrated with the milk. It won't float on top. The surface will appear shiny and it will have the consistency of cream. For a free pour this is really important.

Crema can also be your enemy. If your beans are too fresh, it can be a bit difficult to cut through. You can swirl your cup. You can also break it up a bit with your milk since you won't start pouring immediately.

Once you can get your milk texture right, a good way to start is with some basic shapes. It can be useful to have a jug with a pronounced spout.

1) A basic dot in the middle of your cup. As you get to the top of your cup, tilt your jug a bit more to let the foam push the crema out of the way.

2) Basic heart. Same as the dot. But instead of just stopping the pour, push through the dot and slow the pour down quickly at the same time.

3) Layered dot. Starts like your basic dot. But as you increase the pour rate, wiggle your jug left and right smoothly. This will pull coffee in between the layers of the milk. Then just stop pouring.

4) Layered heart. Same as the layered dot, but pull through the dot like the basic heart.

5) The Rosetta. This is probably the iconic latte art pattern. This uses the skills of your layered heart. But you start your pour from the back of the cup with relatively large wiggles, then start to pull back and make your wiggles smaller. This gives you the curls at one end of the cup and the tapering "leaves" at the other. To finish, pull through like a heart.

Other patterns are then variations on these themes. Like the tulip, swan, multiple hearts, multiple rosettas. And some combine free pouring with a bit of etching eg. smoking dog, pac man.

Edit:
This is how I learned to froth milk for a standard jug. The jug should be at an angle so that you can form a whirlpool. The tip of your steam wand should be just under the surface of the milk. Then turn on the steam. So I stretch very quickly and then spend the rest of the time texturing. You shouldn't be moving your jug up or down very much if at all.


How do I get rid of excess flour on my dried pasta shapes?

Brush the flour off using a soft cooking brush (or even a clean paintbrush). It might take a while, but as with making pasta itself, it's a slow and involved process which eventually gets faster. You might want to consider doing this over a baking sheet with a wire rack.


breading/crumbing: mixing the eggs and flour?

In general, when battering, wet sticks to dry and dry sticks to wet, but they don't stick to themselves.

Thus, if starting with wet food, like meat, the process is usually:

flour (dry, sticks to the meat, which is wet)
eggs (wet, sticks to the flour, which is dry)
crumbs (dry, sticks to the eggs, which are wet)

If you have a wet layer right next to wet food, the batter will fall off during cooking.  If you try to stick dry to dry or wet to wet, it just won't adhere well.

You don't need the whole process (you could just use flour and omit the other two layers, for example), but the wet-dry rule is important.

It would be possible to mix (e.g.) eggs and flour to make a wet batter, but that should still be applied to food which is dry.  If the food isn't dry, it would need to be floured.


Is there a trick to scraping the beater of my stand mixer?

Use a rubber spatula to scrape the mixture off one side of the paddle. (For a head lift mixer, do this on the "uphill" side.) Then use the spatula diagonally in the holes, pushing the remaining mixture through the holes onto the unscraped side and off the paddle. The idea is for the mixture to fall out/off in clumps.


Is there any way to make crepes without a proper non-stick pan?

Crepes were made long before teflon was invented.

I use a quality steel pan and non stick spray. I reapply the spray every 3rd or 4th crepe to avoid sticking.

Everything else is temperature control. If your temps are too high then the crepes will toast and burn before they set on top. If the temp is too low then they are more prone to sticking. It takes some trial and error and the first few are usually wrong- I eat those.

The temperature is always very low though- between low and medium-low on my stove.


Induction compatible pans not working on induction stove-top

Most likely there isn't enough ferromagnetic material in the base of the pan or it's of an incorrect dimension.
If your range is very sensitive it won't detect the pan and thus won't activate.

I myself had a very sensitive induction range which would already deactivate if the pan was lifted a millimetre off the plate or if the pan size was mismatched. (Try using an induction wok on that.)

The only advice I can give is: if buying pots and pans, to be used on an induction range, in the shops take a magnet with you. Place the magnet on the base of the pot/pan and make sure it has a strong magnetic pull. If there isn't any or it's very weak I'd skip the pot/pan and try a different kind. This won't necessarily help with mismatched dimensions of the ferromagnetic material but at least it will give you an idea, you can also try the magnet on different spots on the base to attempt to check the dimensions.
It's not a fool-proof method but at least it will give you a better idea of what will work and what won't.

Also I'd go for high-quality pots and pans (I don't know/have any experience with the All-Clad brand so I couldn't say if they aren't good quality pans) with a thick base as this will usually mean there is more ferromagnetic material in the based and will also help distribute the heat better in the pan.


Looks like ehow has the best reference guide thus far to storing bean sprouts

After purchasing Bean Sprouts should be stored and washed after purchasing in growing. The article indicates that the best methods for storage are the following:

Wash them after you purchase them.

  Wash bean sprouts after purchasing or growing. Wash them in cold water to remove seed
  coats, roots and other residue that may be present. If you are using
  them within a day, store them in the refrigerator at 40 to 45 degrees.
  Place the sprouts in a plastic bag with a wet paper towel to keep them
  moist.

Store in icy water and change the water few times a day

  You can also store sprouts in a bucket of icy water and change the
  water a few times a day. Depending on how long the sprouts were in
  transit or on the store shelf, they should last longer than when
  stored in a plastic bag.

Freeze them

  Freeze sprouts for the longest storage. Wash sprouts as described in
  Step One. Then heat one layer at a time in steam for three minutes.
  Cool right away in icy water and drain. Put the sprouts into plastic
  containers and seal.

It also mentions in the article to just grow them to provide the best freshness.

Apparently the shelf life of beansprouts should only be stored up to 3 days

Source: http://www.ehow.com/how_6178837_preserve-bean-sprouts.html#ixzz1pAEZ12Jp


Do I need Malt Vinegar for pickling onions?

As a serious lover of pickled onions, I have sampled many. You don't need malt for onions, and for some people using malt is a no no.

I confess to loving the eye watering tartness of onions picked in malt, but if that is a problem you can add white sugar which can cut the sharpness of the taste.

So I use malt for onions, and white for other pickles, the White vinegar I use is distilled vinegar something like this

http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/asda-compare-prices/Oils_And_Vinegar/Sarsons_Distilled_Vinegar_for_Pickling_114L.html

The op mentions cheap cleaning / food grade vinegar.
If you use this you must not add water as it will affect the ph balance of the picking mix and the food might not pickle and spoil.  And are you really sure it's food grade - check closely

You could try a blend of 50/50 malt and white.

Here is a basic recipe for malt picked onions

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1826697/pickled-onions

But you can use almost any vinegar i.e.

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/pickled-shallots-in-sherry-vinegar.html

Also a general guide to pickling

http://www.pickyourown.org/makingpickles.htm

Top tips

Malt vinegar for onions

White distilled for others

Add sugar if mix is too strong

Experiment with vinegars - try pickling with Apple cider vinegar.

My favourite recipe is baby red onions pickled in a blend of balsamic and white vinegars.

Enjoy


Substituting garlic powder for garlic salt?

Taste-wise there will be little to not difference in the result. Just be careful to use the proper ratio of garlic to salt (generally 3-to-1 salt to garlic powder).


Can an enameled dutch oven be used for stir frying?

I wouldn't do it, for a few reasons :

Cooking over extreme heat can damage the finish of enameled cast iron.  It will typically cause discoloration if you have a white interior, and it may cause crazing (fine lines all over the place).  It can also soften the enamel enough to fuse he pan to the stove.
The high sides of a dutch oven hold in steam, which will change how the food cooks.
It's more difficult to keep things moving in a large pot to ensure even cooking when cooking over high heat.

You would be better off just using a skillet, and working in batches and re-combine everything when done.


I imagine you are thinking of spaghetti curvati (o spaghetti con curva, that is, spaghetti with a bend).

It is a pasta format typical of Southern Italy.

Some brands refer to those as spaghetti lunghi (long spaghetti).

I am not aware of a specific name for them, although I am fairly sure there are names in various Italian dialects.


Does ingredient order matter when making Yorkshire Puddings?

People for decades have been convinced that there's one "right" way to make Yorkshire Puddings. The reality is that most if not all of these "tricks" are either unnecessary or outright hurt the outcome.

Kenji over at Serious Eats went a bit bonkers and tried out just about all of the different methods and has summarized it in an article which is paired with his "best Yorkshire puddings" recipe.

While testing the order of adding milk and eggs to flour actually wasn't one of the things he does, the first step of his recipe is to simply mix together the flour, eggs, and milk (plus a tablespoon of water and some salt) - all simultaneously.

  Combine eggs, flour, milk, water, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk until a smooth batter is formed. Let batter rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Alternatively, for best results, transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate batter overnight or for up to 3 days. Remove from refrigerator while you preheat the oven.

If you're really interested in Yorkies, I strongly suggest you read his article and consider trying the recipe out for yourself. If you want a summary, I've created a shorter version of it in an answer on this previous question.


Yes. In general diamond crystal kosher salt requires about twice the amount (by volume) as table salt, but measuring by weight is best and works with any salt.


Can a steak be deep fried in clarified butter?

I haven't tried it personally, so this is purely hypothetical. Clarified butter has a smoke point of 252 degrees Celsius, which is well above the temperature one would use to deep fry anything. So deep frying in clarified butter should be possible. I would not however try to infuse the butter with anything. Infusing it would mean adding oils from herbs or garlic with a much lower smoke point, which would probably make the end result taste burned.


Pretty much all the commercial soy sauces, after fermenting is done, press the mash, and the final step is to pasteurize the sauce. This not only kills mold and bacteria, it also alters the flavor in a favorable way, as well.

Cook's Illustrated: Brewing a Better Soy Sauce

For both safety and for a better homemade product, I'd recommend heating it, though I don't know enough to say it's dangerous when "raw", specifically.


Almost all starters go through a rise and fall cycle after feeding.  The starter will typically rise for a few hours (due to yeast growth), reach a certain peak volume, and then collapse (as gases escape, bubbles pop, and the increasing acidity due to bacteria growth weakens gluten).  This will happen regardless of elevation, and baking directly with a starter a day after feeding will not usually give the best results (unless one starts with a very small amount of starter and a very large amount of flour for it to consume).

At higher elevations, this cycle will happen a bit faster as the gas production of the yeast will cause the starter to rise more quickly.  The collapse will follow once it gets too high.

I'm not certain what remedy the question is asking for.  One should usually feed a starter with a timing so that it hasn't peaked before adding it to the final bread dough.  If the feeding is occurring too early, then feed the starter closer to the time it will be used.  One can also slow the growth of starter by refrigerating it, but I'd recommend only using this for longer storage (more than a day) and usually to plan on feeding again after refrigeration before reuse for most consistent results.

Generally speaking, one shouldn't depend on using a starter on consecutive days without providing it more food.  If you feel like you're creating too much starter (and throwing some out), then reduce the quantity of starter you're keeping so that feeding it more often won't result in as much waste.  (Even a tablespoon or less of a vigorous starter is plenty to keep in reserve and can be built up --perhaps with multiple feedings -- to whatever amount of starter is necessary for a recipe.)


How long will fresh scallops keep in the refrigerator?

No more than 72 hours, maximum. You don't know how long they've been out of the water. I would freeze or cook them no later than tomorrow evening.


Why and what kind of breads should be scored?

A properly formed loaf, before it is baked, has a network of gluten strands stretched tightly around its perimeter.  This network is in tension, helping maintain the shape of the loaf.

There are several reasons to score the loaf:

The tension in the outer network of gluten strands limits the ability of the loaf to expand, especially in the "oven spring" or final excited burst of activity that the yeast go through as the temperature of the dough rises at the beginning of baking.  The score creates a slit in the network, allowing the loaf to expand, permitting more oven spring to take place.
The scores provide a weak point (due to the cut in that gluten net), controlling where expansion takes place oven spring proceeds.  This may prevent cracks that would otherwise be unattractive.
Furthermore, the score allows aesthetically pleasing shapes or patterns to created on the loaf, as the the dough exposed during oven spring will have a slightly different texture (it isn't surrounded by the in-tension gluten network, and will have been baked slightly less as it comes to the surface of the loaf during the oven spring).  This means it will tend to have a different (often lighter) color than the main crust where the in-tension network was in place.  For example:

(credit on photo)

Another example, taken farther for a more artistic statement:

You can see the attractive pattern on the loaf from the scores (which are also functional in the first sense)—the look like a leaf.  (Credit on photo).

Scoring is more important and effective in free form loaves which will have good oven spring.


You find that storing in the fridge is going to give you the longest life span. Hanging will keep keep the process of drying out continuing , which will intensify the flavour but will eventually become jerky texture. Wrapping will keep a little moisture in longer.
If you do keep it for a period of time , you will develop a white mould which I will just cut of as it is just surface . The curing has stopped the pork breaking down .
When I travelled through Spain , all of the city markets would have whole pieces of prosciutto hanging from there stalls that where covered in a fat that was covered in a green mould. When they needed a new piece they cut the mould and fat off and would start slicing for the customers ( some up there for over a year).
I think the fridge is safer.


What is the fatty tissue in beef/pork after it has been braised/stwed?

That is a type of protein and connective tissue.
Mainly you have collagen and elastin in a cut of meat.

Collagen turns into gelatin through heating and melts away. The elastin will get softened. I believe what you’re seeing is the elastin.


Why did my shrimp bisque turn out so broth like?

I believe the answer to the question lies in the last paragraph of your question. If you had close to 4 cups of broth, 1 1/2 cups of half-and-half, plus onion purée (which would be mostly water); you're pushing 6 cups of liquid, not including any wine or brandy that you may have used. For that much liquid you would need close to a quarter of a cup of flour, maybe more, to achieve a thick soup if roux is your primary thickener.

Many bisque recipes are thickened much with a purée of the protein. Did you purée the shrimp or some portion of it?

Look at this highly rated recipe from Ina Garten, she uses 4 3/4 cups of broth (in the final soup), 2 cups of half-and-half and a roux made with 1/4 cup (4 tbs flour). She also purées all of the shrimp, which causes a thicker soup than chunks of shrimp would, and adds tomato paste which would further thicken the soup.

For what it is worth, it is the flour in the roux that thickens liquid (an extra tablespoon of butter is not your culprit), and the liquid and roux must be brought together to a simmer for the liquid to properly thicken. In the case of Ina's recipe, she fully thickened the half-and-half before adding the stock and shrimp purée, that's how she gets away with the final line of hot, not boiling. I would be inclined to add the stock and the rest of the ingredients except the shrimp just after thickening the half-and-half and bring that to hard simmer before adding the shrimp. That would give me an opportunity to taste and gauge the thickness the soup before adding the expensive ingredient (shrimp) last.


Why are my sous vide salmon fillets coming out raw in the center?

Your set-up is fine. You'll probably eventually want to trade in the stock-pot for something like this:

But there is no reason that the set-up you have shouldn't make great salmon. I have exactly that set-up (including the stock-pot for now, but the square polypolycarbonate container is on order).

125F for one hour is pretty close to bare minimum time and temperature for salmon fillet. I like it that way, but it appears that you have a different expectation than I do. I base that guideline on the recipe from Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Sous Vide: The Authoritative Guide to Low Temperature Precision Cooking and having just enjoyed salmon done at 122F for 1 hour.

First, double check your water temperature just to be sure. If you have a sous-vide circulator and a vacuum sealer, I don't want to hear that you don't have a digital, instant read thermometer. Double check that your Anova circulator is producing the temperature for which it is set. If the temperature is how you've set it, that means that you don't like your salmon that rare. Simple as that.

140F for 1.5 hours is pretty much the upper limit for a typical salmon filet to not be overcooked. That would be overcooked for me, but I have a preference for rare.

Assuming that your circulator isn't defective, you will almost certainly like salmon somewhere on that spectrum. Exactly where you like it best, only you can say.


Is there anything I can add to homemade bread to preserve it?

My whole wheat bread takes 4x to go off than my white bread. Even a mixture of 50% whole wheat flour will make it last longer. But that will only help if the problem is the bread getting hard too soon. That can also be prevented by keeping it in a plastic bag. You'll get the mold before the bread goes stale.

If you're keeping the bread in a plastic bag, try paper bags.

To solve the mold problem, the traditional way is to add some acidity. For example, you can add a sourdough starter. If you don't like the taste of sourdough, a poolish starter should also help. The bacteria it grows will prevent the mold growing.

I know it's not what you're asking, but freezing will also help. When you bake more bread than you eat, freeze it wrapped in a plastic bag and thaw it overnight and you will get a good, fresh bread.


Cheddar equivalents as far as amount of flavor

Cheese isn't just used for flavor; it generally contributes greatly to the texture, whether via a crispy browned layer on top, or thick goopy texture inside a dish, or even just background richness. If you change the total amount of cheese, even if you have the same amount of cheddar flavor, you won't have the same dish.

So I would suggest that if you like cheddar, just use the quantity that's called for, and replace mild with medium or sharp. You'll get more flavor, and you'll probably like it.

Otherwise, if you want to keep the flavor of the dish roughly the same intensity but replace mild with sharp, then make up the rest with another mild cheese. Obviously it won't be the same flavor but it'll be roughly similar strength; if all you have is sharp cheddar, this will be better than using all sharp cheddar (too strong a flavor) or using half as much (upsetting the balance of the dish). For example, you might replace a cup of mild cheddar with half a cup of sharp cheddar and half a cup of mozzarella.  (See rumtscho's answer for a good explanation of exactly how not the same it will be.)

But the ratio depends on the particular cheddar; you can get a pretty good variety of things marketed as "sharp cheddar". I think the half and half ratio will be a good starting point for nice strong, sharp cheddar, and I personally would just use medium instead of mild without changing any quantities. So experiment with the cheese you have and see what you like.

And remember, it'll never be the same, it'll just keep the sharp flavor from being overpowering. I'm not saying this is an exact substitute, just what I'd do if I only had sharp cheddar around.

Finally if you're asking this because you're planning on making and aging cheddar yourself... don't get ahead of yourself. See how well you do at the basic cheesemaking before you worry about aging it.


Is it possible to oversoak wood chips for smoking?

Soaking wood chips accomplishes almost nothing, as proven here.

Summary from amazing ribs link: Soaking wood does not work, as it takes more than days to saturate wood. And temperature measurements from wood soaked for a day show little change

Their recommendation: have two containers of wood, one dry, and one covered with water (steam is required as well). The water filled container of wood will boil dry by the time the first lot of dry wood has smoked out, and it will then smoke away too


Raspberries are going to leak a little and stain the batter of any muffin they are put into.  Muffins with whole berries are going to have reduced shelf life due to this.

Frozen raspberries would be even more leaky, as the freezing and thawing will soften them.

To make a raspberry muffin, you have to accept that raspberry is very moist, so you cannot overload the muffin; the have to be used with a moderate amount of restraint.

Dusting the raspberries with flour (from the main quantity of flour in the recipe) before mixing them into the batter may help form a barrier, although I wouldn't count on a dramatic change in outcome.  I have not personally tried this, though.

If you don't mind a completely reddish muffin, you can puree some or all of the berries, and use them as a substitute for some or all of the water or milk in the recipe, as they are about 87% water to start with.  This will allow you to balance the liquid level.


Mixing 60% and 81% dark chocolate to get 70%

Functionally, it should work out fine; but it is not an exact substitute.

Based on the fact that your recipe gives you a tolerance for both strength and quality of the chocolate I would say it is probably fine to proceed boldly with your plan to mix the two. You might try a small sample melt first (as suggested here) by mixing an equal but smaller amount to check your results first.

Will this create 72% (or even 70.5%) chocolate, actually no. There is more to chocolate than just the %cocoa. % of cocoa is just one element to the formula. The 72% 'on the shelf' almost certainly has different ratios of sugar, chocolate liquor, butter etc. Once melted these would react differently with the other elements of your recipe if that recipe were more exacting in it's requirements.

There is an interesting collection of articles on the chemistry of chocolate here, but nothing indicates that you should face any problems from an inexact match of 60+81 vs. 72


I love swordfish grilled with a little olive oil and Montreal steak spice.  All the firm fish are great on the grill.

Firm fish like ahi tuna and swordfish can pretty much be treated like really good steak, just cook them carefully because you want them left on the very-rare side of things.

If you do it in a pan make sure there's hot oil or butter (or both) before you add the fish and don't move it around too much.  If you fuss too much with the fish it will fall apart.

As delicious as swordfish is a lot of the fish on the market isn't being sustainably caught.  Make sure to ask where its coming from.  Most of the US and Canada fisheries are pretty good.


Trick to keeping guacamole from turning brown

Guacamole seems to go brown with exposure to air, as does avocado. While it will not solve the issue entirely, covering with cling wrap directly on the surface helps maintain color for an extended period. Rather than pulling the wrap tight across the top of a bowl / container, place the wrap directly on top of the guacamole. Use your hand to smooth out the top so that no air is between the cling wrap and guacamole. This requires a bit extra cling wrap, as you need to get it up the insides of your bowl, but it makes a significant difference.


how to clean my enameled cast iron pot I burned soup dry in

As this is an enameled pot, there is a difference to "standard" cast iron. First, if you really damaged the enamel, you cannot restore it. You can continue using it, but you'll have to deal with rust. From the picture, I cannot tell if that's the case - some spots are rust-colored, but they could be organic residue burnt onto the enamel.

Second, in trying to clean it, you cannot use the typical cast-iron methods for renewing, which are intended to strip the seasoning so you can rebuild it. So no self-cleaning ovens, no lye baths, etc. You have to treat it like stubborn dirt on semi-delicate surface.

The enamel can take some amount of rough physical treatment, but it has easier time withstanding chemical methods. So I'd try soaking it for a few hours with an organic acid, for example liquid citric acid. Alternatively, soak in dissolved dishwasher powder, that's quite aggressive as detergents go (but not a tab since the finisher in it will counteract the detergent). The Americans here are probably going to suggest Barkeeper's friend, I have no personal experience with it.

A short boil after the soaking can sometimes be quite good. You can use your acid solution (it should be on the bottom only, so no danger from spilling over anyway) or fill some clean water. Then let it boil vigorously for a couple of minutes. The water bubbles tend to be effective in dislodging softened pieces of char.

You can scrub after the soaking, it will work better than without the soak. I wouldn't go as far as taking steel wool to enamel, but the plastic net equivalents should be OK. The rough side of a dish sponge is also OK. The use of abrasive cleaners like Cif is somewhat questionable, you might try them in a low concentration if you don't succeed with other methods.

It is possible that you have either naked spots which have rusted over, or that your dirt is so baked-on that it doesn't fall even with quite a bit of elbow grease. I'm not sure how to tell you to recognize the difference if the char happens to be reddish-brown - I guess I would call rust harder and scratchier than char. If you try cleaning it once and don't succeed, it is still worth it to try it with 3-4 more soaking cycles, with maybe 15 to 20 minutes of scrubbing every cycle (if you see some progress being done during that). These types of burn-on are very difficult to clean.


What emulsifier will help my (nearly carb free) Milk Chocolate?

Yes, an emulsifier is the way to go. Lecithine is an emulsifier, and will work. The downside is that it might impart a slight eggy taste, I don't know if this will be a problem for you. Also, it is a bit harder to store than the other emulsifiers, it tends to lump from ambient humidity.

The more common emulsifiers for your case would be xanthan or guar gum. They are not carried that often by stores, although I've seen guar in a health store. But they are quite easy to purchase online. Any of them will work well. The biggest challenge is to disperse them evenly in the food. I would recommend taking a teaspoon out of the cocoa powder, mixing the emulsifier with it (dry), then mixing that teaspoon back into the complete amount of cocoa, then proceed as usual.

You don't have to fear the carbohydrates from emulsifiers. All three will work when used in tiny amounts, about 0.5% - so you can get away with 0.5 g emulsifier per 100 gr "chocolate bar", which shouldn't be much even if they are pure carbohydrates. (Xanthan and guar are carbs, but they are polysaccharides, and I have no idea whether they are insulin-active).

This will help you make your chocolate bars. On the other hand, I don't know if making them is helping you at all. Cocoa powder is 60% carbs, and splenda is 90% carbs. A true chocolate bar (the good brands) consists of cocoa solids (which is cocoa powder + cocoa butter before being separated), and sugar. If you are using the same proportions as in a typical chocolate bar, you are getting about the same amount of carbs from your mixture. It may be a tastier way to temper pure chocolate (unsweetened chocolate) together with some fat until you have reached a carb-to-fat ratio sufficiently good for you. Adding cream is also a possibility, as well as other flavors (vanilla, orange essence, whatever you want - basically unsweetened truffle making). You can also add pure artificial sweeteners to your mixture, which are not bulked up with carbs the way splenda is. This way will be more expensive and time consuming, but will give you a better quality end product.


How to improve contact between non-flat pan and stovetop

I have one of those pans, and I also have a glass top electric stove, and the answer is that you can't use the pan on the stove.  Not only does it not make good contact, an electric stove is incapable of the rapid temperature changes you need for proper paella, particularly the blast of heat at the end to make the proper socarrat (brown crust).
I recommend that you instead get a portable butane stove, like the one I use, and use that for your paella-making.


How can I keep from burning a pan sauce?

A couple things:

make sure you're removing enough of the fat from the pan. Too much fat will keep the sauce thin (and will also tend to separate out afterwards). Also, fat will not evaporate—if your remaining liquid is fat, the temperature will rapidly rise, and very quickly things will burn.
depending on what you're adding, you may need to use a thickener. There is a reason three of the five mother sauces have roux. (Hollandaise has egg, which thickens, Tomate has tomato which has lots of pectin, which also thickens, so those two don't need it). A good stock or broth has plenty of gelatin, which will thicken especially upon cooling.
When you add your deglazing liquid, you need to thoroughly scrape up the fond and stir it in.
Keep stirring, especially towards the end when its somewhat thick. Also especially if your pan has hot spots.
Turn down the temperature. This should go without saying when things are burning. Some heat helps with deglazing, but after that you don't actually need anything more than a low simmer — higher evaporates faster (important, since the meat is often resting & cooling) but not burning the sauce is more important.


Why is some metal safe to use in a microwave, but others not?

Metal on its own doesn't necessarily cause electric discharge in a microwave.

What causes the sparking that you see when you put a fork in a microwave is due to the "sharp" edges of the fork. These edges concentrate the voltage at their tips which will cause a spark when it exceeds the dielectric breakdown of air.

Things like sheet pans (with rounded edges), or rounded metal racks are used frequently in microwaves with no ill effect. The absence of any pointed edges allows this. The rim of your bowl fits this requirement.


What does "rap" mean for brownies recipe?

The oven shelf is not the back of the oven. Basically what you would do is lift one side a little (maybe an inch or so) and let it drop. Then you can do the other side. This will give you a more fudgy and less cake-like crumb, as the cake-like finish comes from trapped air bubbles. If you rap the pan to help the air escape then you have less trapped air and thus a denser, more fudge-like crumb.


Why did my marinated chicken literally almost fall apart before cooking them?

I don't think there is anything wrong in the chicken. It is more likely that your sauce had a high percentage of acid, which denatured the chicken proteins. You just happened to make a chicken ceviche, so to speak. (For food safety reasons, I wouldn't eat it as ceviche though, but cook as usual).


Could it be for frying a wrapped dough and pulling it out of the oil?


The other answers refer to products that are cheese-flavored fudges or cream cheeses blending with cocoa.

Your question seems like it is asking about making a cocoa flavored cheese from scratch.

I have not tried chocolate in particular but I have been experimenting with flavoring cheese (and tofu) and have some data points that might be helpful.

I have not had much success with flavoring the milk before it is curdled. The curdling and pressing process is designed to force out water and water soluble compounds. I would expect much of the cocoa dissolved in the milk to be wasted. Additionally, I wouldn't expect store-bought chocolate milk to work very well because of all the additional sweeteners, emulsifiers, and thickeners that are included. I don't know how it would behave when making cheese but I wouldn't be surprised if they got in the way of forming a good curd.

I have had more success with adding dry flavorings to the curd after it is drained and before it is pressed into the final shape. This is the same time that the salt is added. Some water is still pressed out and so some flavor is lost but much less than in earlier stages.

I am still experimenting with how much dry flavoring can be added before the curd doesn't set properly. The cheese becomes more fragile the more ingredients interfere with the milk proteins.

An easy way to start would be with a simple paneer or queso fresco. Simply heat up milk, stir in some acid (lemon juice, vinegar, citric acid, etc), let the milk protein precipitate out, strain it, mix in salt and some cocoa powder, and let the mass drain in a cloth until it is the consistency that you want.


Flaky pie crust for sweet fruit pie: butter, shortening, lard, or combination?

It actually depends on the quality of the shortening you're able to get.  You might think they're all the same, but you'd be wrong.

When I was taught how to make pies, we used shortening, and the crusts were perfect.  However, I was told that for home baking, the shortening you buy in supermarkets (Crisco, normally) just isn't going to cut it and to use Tenderflake (lard) instead.  I actually verified this once and found out that he was right - using the exact same technique, the supermarket shortening just didn't turn out the way the "industrial" shortening did.  The crust is always too mealy and dry and tastes "off" somehow.  Unless a lot has changed in the past 5 years, lard is actually much closer to the good shortening that's being used in bakeries.

Butter would, obviously, impart a much richer flavour than shortening, but I wouldn't use just butter in a fruit pie.  You won't get anywhere near the flakiness of shortening or lard.  Half-and-half is a decent compromise, but the result is neither as flavourful nor as flaky as lard.

So, generally, I would stick to lard.  You could take plor's suggestion and mix it with some butter, but I've found that the flavour and texture is very good with just lard; if you do decide to mix, be careful not to overdo it, otherwise you'll lose all the wonderful flakiness that the lard imparts (I'd recommend 75% lard).

Don't mix lard with shortening.  That can only take away from all aspects of the quality, and unless you're worried about nutrition (in which case, why are you using lard at all, or eating pie for that matter?) then there's absolutely no reason to "taint" the lard this way.

P.S. Don't forget to add some sugar.  A little goes a long way in pie crusts.


Converting bread recipes for an overnight rise?

There are no strict formulas or conversions, the mathematics of bread baking are too complex for such predictions.
Rising at room temperature overnight is not recommended, it is generally way too warm in our homes.
The thing you can do is to take any recipe you have, and stick it in the fridge as-is, either for the first or for the second proofing. It should generally turn out OK overnight, but if it tends to overproof or underproof, you will have to adjust the amount of yeast in the future. You have to find this out by trial and error. In the morning, you will have to give the dough time to warm up back to room temperature before continuing to work with it.
There aren't that many things to be said about ingredients. Doughs with very high amounts of butter will tend to change their handling with refrigeration and are more demanding about the temperature at which you shape them.


Missing ingredient from Peach Salsa can I recan

The key here is really how long it sits out at room temperature before you realize. The vinegar is acidic, so presumably it's part of bringing the pH to a safe one for boiling water canning. Without it, the salsa won't be safe to can like this.

If you realize right away and recan immediately, it's basically just cooking it extra. It may not be as good with the extra cooking, but it'll be safe. Similarly, if you immediately refrigerate then reheat, it spends a bit longer in the danger zone, but it should be easily within a safe margin.

On the other hand, if it sits out for hours, all bets are off. You made something not safe to store at room temperature, then stored it at room temperature, so you really can't know it's still safe.


Can you\why don't some restuarants marinade without chicken skin?

There's an overlap, and a difference, between a marinade and a glaze. If a mixture contains a fair amount of sugar, then it's probably intended more as a glaze, and the cooking method will usually be grilling, or roasting, (rather than pan frying). There's no reason not to glaze poultry flesh directly (teriyaki, for example) but the bigger the piece, the longer the  exposure to fierce heat will have to be to cook it to the middle. It's not easy to grill a whole skinless chicken breast without drying the outside before the middle is cooked. The combination of the fat from the skin and a glaze will protect and baste the flesh. The surface will be crisp, juicy, and caramelized, rather than parched and leathery.