I blame the recipe, which calls for absurdly long mixing times, well past the point of overmixing.

After you add the wet ingredients, the recipe has you mix for:

30 seconds at low speed for the milk
30 seconds at medium speed for the milk
An unspecified amount of time at low speed to incorporate the first egg
2 minutes at medium speed for all the eggs (30 seconds after each)

That is simply way too much mixing for a cake.  Personally, I don't even like the concept of using an electric mixer at all, except to cream the butter.  But that's over 3 minutes of mixing and it is simply too high.  You'll end up with extremely tough, chewy cake, practically bread.

If you look at the top-rated from-scratch cake recipes on various recipe sites (e.g. Epicurious) you'll see that they all either call for incorporating the wet ingredients either by folding with a rubber spatula (best) or with an electric beater at low speed.

Beware of "manufacturer" recipes - I don't think I've ever had a positive experience with one.  You would think that they are authoritative sources, but in practice you'll achieve much better results with a search engine and careful reading of the reviews.


Secrets to making crystal clear gelatin?

You might also want to use a higher quality gelatin, like the one used for gelatin art.
See this one:
https://gelatinartmarket.com/products/gelatin-powder-280?variant=1455952961


Cues to a reliable or unreliable recipe?

I look for notes that give subsitutions. If the recipe creator can't be arsed to either provide subs or say "you really can't substitute," then it seems to me they aren't so much interested in cooking as they are in must provide dogmatic formula. This doesn't work for me.

Notes along the way--"you are looking for a texture like..." "the colour should be... but don't worry if it looks like..."--are essential.

A complete lack of "Oh by the way you should have done X an hour before you did Y" is non-negotiable. Anytime I cook through a recipe like that without reading first (caveat emptor, I know) I tend to end up swearing and throwing things. Timelines are key.

(By the way, I'll be hanging onto this thread as it will definitely help me with the cookbook project I'm working on. Thanks for asking!)


Par-Cooking Corn on the Cob in a Microwave

The microwave is a fantastic place to cook vegetables, especially corn. You can fully cook an ear in around 3 minutes, in the husk. Leaving the corn in the husk seems to trap a great deal of steam as it cooks, speeding up cook time. If you're looking to get some nice color from the grill while avoiding the wait, I would try 2 - 2:30 in the microwave, depending on how done (or fresh) you like your corn.


As @Carey Gregory already mentioned about McDonald's, I generally cook for 6-10 people and for small kitty and birthday parties, so for that I use a manual nut chopper (with size adjustment bolt).  This gives me fine results of chopped nuts almost in equal shapes. For 2-5 servings, I simply use a sharp knife to chop them. I almost every time try to make them uniformly chopped. But obviously it's a time taking process, but you can do it if you are preparing for 3-5 servings. You can purchase the nut chopper with size adjustment bolt for much better result.


Technical reasons against chocolate-coated shortbread

I doubt there's a reason for commercial factories, as they'll have temperatures and everything perfect.  For the home cook, there are some issues with making it as bar cookies:

The shortbread is crumbly by nature, so chocolate sticking to it will actually pull crumbs off the top, not really sticking all that well if you don't have the chocolate hot enough to catch the crumbs that flake off.
Cutting it is a bit of a challenge: you have to let it cool so that the
chocolate is solid enough, but you risk the cookie crumbling as you cut it.  You also risk the chocolate and cookie layers separating.

You can avoid #2 by cutting the shortbread first, then dipping it in chocolate, spooning it on top, or otherwise coating it after cutting ... but it's much more tedious and time consuming.  Automated process could use other techniques to avoid this problem (eg, perfectly aligned blades so they can score the cookie while it's warm, then again after the chocolate has set ... and maybe even heat the blades.)

I've been making a shortbread + chocolate + walnut bar for the last decade or so as christmas cookies, and it only seems to have gotten more difficult through the years.  (the recipe calls for placing the chocolate on top of the baked cookies, then back in the oven to melt ... and I don't know if it's because I'm using a vegan chocolate (no dairy) or what, but it hasn't melted quite right for me for years.  I'm also using shortening in place of butter so this year I added a teaspoon of water to replace what would've been in the butter.  I then melted the chocolate separately and I also used parchment, so I could pull it out of the pan to cut it (so it had space to move, rather than shattering).  I'm not sure what helped the most, but I'm having closer to 5-10% loss (still have to cut up the rest of it), vs. last year's 50-60% loss.

I've never made the 'millionaire' ones, so I don't know if the caramel helps the situation or not.  I suspect you could still have problem #1, but as you're working by temperature it's less likely.  I also suspect #2 wouldn't be as bad as the caramel would have a little bit of give to it (ie, slightly soft).


Are egg yolks neccessary for proper pancake structure in flourless pancakes?

Will it "work" in the sense that the batter on the skillet will coagulate and form a solid flat pancake-like thing?  Yes, it should.  That doesn't mean you'll necessarily like the results.

Keep in mind that the egg/banana pancakes aren't really producing something that tastes like or has the texture of a standard "pancake" (or even most gluten-free "flourless" pancakes).  The result will be something like a cross between banana-flavored custard and the middle of a piece of French toast.

However, yolks provide flavor and some tenderness (mostly due to the fat in them, which isn't present in the whites).  If you remove them, you might not like the flavor that results, so you might consider adding an alternative fat and/or something that can give more flavor (e.g., vanilla, complementary spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.).  The "structure" shouldn't be worsened much without the yolks, but these "pancakes" don't tend to rise much anyway.  If you want something with a more airy texture somewhat closer to "normal" pancakes, you might want to add a small amount of baking powder and/or beat the egg whites and fold them in.

(Of course all of these additions and substitutions sort of defeat the purpose of the "super fast and easy" two-ingredient "pancake," but it really depends on whether you like the flavor and texture that results when you try to cook them, or whether you want to take a few extra steps to improve them.)


Is a boxed-mix cake sturdy enough to construct a sphere?

There are a number of ways to increase the density of a box-cake mix.  Add the number of eggs in the direction, but add two extra egg yolks. Instead of the water, use the same amount of whole milk.

Another method is to add a package of instant pudding, and many mixes have a recipe for this right on the box. To each box mix, use a 3.4 ounce package of instant pudding, 4 eggs, 1 cup water (or milk) and reduce the amount of vegetable oil to 1/3 cup.

And one I found years ago, who posts on Cake Central as doreen1092, offered this: to each box cake mix, add 1/2 cup sour cream, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup sugar, and 8 ounces cream cheese. I beat the cream cheese, then add the eggs and sugar, the sour cream and, lastly, the mix.


Is it possible to "tidy up" chocolate fondant?

Fondant must be kneaded like dough, until it's soft and smooth, before you roll it out. If you roll it out straight from the pack it will be too cold and stiff.


The solution is real easy and you won't need do any of the crazy stuff mentioned above. Buy some baking paper (brown (sort of waxed) paper that you can line baking trays. The often come ready cut in baking tray sizes, which are plenty big enough. Fine the area that will be in the center of our crock pot when the lid is on. Take a sharp knife and cut an X shape in the center. Have someone, although, it can be done alone, gently pull the paper taut, not tight, and put the lid on your crock pot (with the X in the center) and gently press it down. You'll feel the paper seal the lid to the pot much better. Then as the steam rises through the paper it will condense on the lip and drip down onto the paper and will be funneled back into the pot by the X you cut in the center of the paper. Your problem will solved, for the price of baking paper. Best of luck and best of slow cooking without the mess.


When I make apple syrup, I use apples (2 cut, peeled, sliced, and cored), sugar (1/2c), and two tablespoons of water.  Combine everything, let the sugar dissolve, and then bring to a boil.  Let it simmer for 10 minutes until the apples have become nice and soft and the syrup thickens.  I usually do it for a bit longer just to be on the safe side.  I have also found that adding a bit of cinnamon gives it just a bit extra!


too many hot chilli peppers in my Italian Beef!

The only things that could really work without modifying the recipe:

pick out the peppers, if they're whole and not thoroughly cooked in
add a lot more beef, so it's diluted down to a reasonable heat level

Otherwise, a couple options, which can be combined:

add something creamy/fatty to cut the heat, e.g. sour cream, yogurt, coconut milk, or some kind of creamy sauce
add enough of something else to get to a reasonable heat level, e.g. make a stew, make sandwiches with other ingredients, make pasta or rice, put it in baked potatoes, etc.

See also: How can you make a sauce less spicy/hot? and How can I wash down spicy food?


How much gluten will set off somebody's celiac disease?

I am celiac. Ideally you should clean your entire kitchen, clean out your silverware and utensil drawers and wash all utensils in the dishwasher. Wipe all surfaces and sinks with bleach wipes. Scrub all pots and pans, to remove gluten films then wash in dishwasher.
give all dishes to be used a run through the dishwasher.

Off limit items are seasoned pans (cast iron, or porcelain), earthenware, pasta pots, strainers, toasters, cooking stones, wood spoons or utensils, cutting boards, blenders and crockpots.

To avoid contamination use fresh mayonnaise, mustard, peanut butter jars, etc.
Do not use any ingredients such as sugar that may have been contaminated with flour from use while baking.

Because you are not familiar with ingredients that contain gluten, use only pure ingredients if you are cooking for your celiac guest.

Avoid spice blends.

Also see: Unsafe Gluten-Free Food List (Unsafe Ingredients)


spanish rice ran out of liquid and is getting sticky

Have you tried adding water to let it finish cooking?


Why is shrimp rubbery after reheating? How can I prevent this?

I agree with @Joe. It sounds like you are heating too much and overcooking the shrimp. Once things like shrimp are overcooked I am not sure that there is a way to make them tender other than to cook for a long time, similar to slow cooking. With squid the rule for cooking is less than 2 min or more than 20 min to ensure tenderness.

I think your best bet is to heat slowly and monitor as much as possible to make sure it is warmed but not heated fast so that it overcooks.

In the microwave I would spread the shrimp in a single layer on a plate and using a low power setting, heat in perhaps 20-30 second increments, testing for warmth after each step. You could play around with time and power settings to see what works best for you. The key is to make sure the shrimp do not get too hot, so make sure you turn them and shuffle positions on the plates.

You could also try heating in an oven, covered with foil at around 80-100 C for about 10 min (this is a guess on time, it will depend on the size of the shrimp).


Can i use non stick cooker (futura pressure cooker) for making cake without oven

You can "steam" a cake in the pressure cooker using the Bain Marie or Pan-in-pot method.  Basically put the cake batter in a smaller heat-proof container (usually 7" or 20cm) that is buttered as usual.  Then in the pressure cooker add enough water to equal the minimum liquid (usually 1-2 cups), and a steamer basket or rack.  Add the container containing the batter onto the rack and pressure cook for about 20 minutes with natural release.  You'll want to increase the baking soda or powder by 50% to compensate for the extra pressure - but generally most of the "rise" in the cake will happen while the cooker is reaching pressure.

P.S. Be sure to construct a sling out of foil (a strip folded three times and placed under the container with the ends coming up the side of the cooker) to more easily lower and raise the cake.


I need a substitute for acids in my food.

If you search for a non-acid substitute for souring the food / raising the tartness: There is no substitute. The sensation of a tart dish is caused by lowering the pH at the corresponding taste buds. By definition tasting sourness is detecting an acid.


I've never been to Old Wild West but that looks very much like "fry sauce" or "secret sauce" as we use them here in the United States. In looking at Old Wild West's website, it appears to be geared around offering traditional US style burgers, fries, steaks, ribs, etc. so the inclusion of US style fry sauce would make sense. Here is a link to a typical version that would be used here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/epicurious-not-so-secret-sauce-51261820


If not hydrogenated, how are spreads from olive oil made?

Olive oil contains a certain percentage of saturated fats, which are probably separated out and used. Alternatively, there is a process called interestification that is sometimes used to make more solid forms of non-solid fats without hydrogenation.


What's the best way to keep sushi fresh for the following day?

I think the issue is that your nori will get soggy if you make the rolls in advance and store them overnight.  Nigirizushi may be a better bet for making ahead.

Chirashizushi is an older style of sushi which is essentially a bowl of the sushi rice, with the garnishes either mixed in or on top. It should be well amenable to advance preparation.


Substituting maple syrup for honey in bread

It's a good deal more simple than @canardgras makes it sound. I've had good success with the rule:

  To substitute maple syrup for honey in a recipe, use 3/4 cup of maple
  syrup and 1/2 cup sugar for every 1 cup of honey.

To get half a cup of honey (at a 3/4 ratio) you will want 1/3 of a cup + 1 tablespoon. (for most of us a 5/12 scoop isn't in the cupboard)

Remember two important factors:
 1. This is for REAL Maple Syrup (Imitation Syrup will work, it just has a different ratio)
 2. Maple syrup has more moisture so baking time will vary (be extended).


You can, just like you would for raw peanuts. However the boiled/poached peanuts have a bitter taste that is not removed by roasting and is generally unpleasant to eat as a snack. I would use these peanuts to make peanut sauces such as satay sauce, and possibly in other dishes where the peanuts are not the dominant flavor.


The best way to be confident is to check some clear nutrition facts directly.

The USDA reports that "Pasta, dry, unenriched" has 371 calories per 100g, and "Pasta, cooked, unenriched, without added salt" has 158 calories per 100g.

So your 176 calories per 100g seems to be for cooked pasta; it's way too few calories for 100g dry, even if your pasta is slightly different from the USDA's default.

Calories per gram when cooked is going to vary a bit, because if you cook it a bit more or less, it'll take on a bit more or less water. So the same amount of dry pasta, with the same amount of calories, may weigh slightly different amounts.

Also, I looked at the page you linked. Down at the bottom it says:

  When cooked according to instructions. 75g of uncooked pasta weighs approximately 170g when cooked.

And indeed, along with per 100g nutrition facts, it has a per 170g column. So yes, it appears that those nutrition facts are for cooked pasta.


That definitely sounds like your pan is too hot. That's a bit unusual as most often people have difficulty with the opposite problem. Here's a great video on testing pan temperature with water. If your pan is non-stick, look here: How can you judge when a non-stick pan is the correct temperature for pan frying?. At any rate, try lowering your temperature.


Most of the heat in a chili pepper is concentrated on the ribs and membrane that holds the seeds.

By cutting out those parts, and using only the fleshy part of the fruit, you will get less heat.

The heat can also be mitigated by dairy or fatty ingredients in the dish in which you incorporate the chili, as they tend to help wash away the hotness in the mouth.


For equal volumes water and sugar, what is the ratio of separated volume vs. combined?

Well, after this came up in another question and after realizing data on this was hard to find online, I pulled out my graduated cylinder and tried it myself.

As noted in comments, measuring sugar by volume is very inexact.  I found that simply by pouring sugar into the graduated cylinder and tapping it, I could start with about 110mL and tap it down to about 90mL.  Even without considering other problems like possible clumps in sugar or the fact that different brands of granulated sugar may have different particle size (and thus different densities), this is already a huge source of potential variation.

So, I tried getting a volume of sugar that was about 100mL on average (that is, tapped down to settle slightly, but not completely).  Using 100mL of water and adding this volume of sugar gave me a solution of approximately 158mL.

That means the combined volume of the dissolved sugar-water mixture was about 79% of the combined volume of the original sugar plus water.  Again, I note about a +/-10% variance in sugar density depending on how it is measured, which means the possible range here should be around 76% to 82%, depending on how "settled" the sugar was when I measured it.  This is in close agreement with widebandit's post here that found a ratio of 25 fluid oz. solution to 32 fl. oz. of original ingredients, or about 78%, though just a bit higher than Jeff Axelrod's ratio of 75%.

Maybe someday I'll try this with a few different brands of sugar, but I just thought I'd add one more datapoint that's close to the other answers here, with some information on how much variance to expect.


Are salamis/pepperonis in the USA truly fermented?

The short answer is yes, salumi produced in the US is a fermented product.  The process is different from salumi produced in Europe, but it is still a fermented product.  In the US, producers rely on rapidly lowering the pH by using fast acting starter cultures and higher curing temperatures (as high as 104 F).  Whereas in Europe, a lower temperature, and drying serve to render salumi safe. The curing times are longer, and often salt and nitrites are the main additions to create a safe product.  On an industrial scale, the complexities that you have discovered are all accounted for.  It is not a difficult process.

At home, it is a bit of work, but can easily be accomplished.  Work cleanly, follow accepted practices, keep an eye out for bad mold...otherwise, if you can create the right curing and drying conditions, you should be able to make your own without issue, though it will take a couple of attempts to get a feel for things.  A good starting point for those new to home cured meat products is whole muscle curing.  Try bacon, pancetta or bresola for starters.


Those covers are only for cosmetic appearance, they are not a cooking surface. It is not safe to cook with hob covers on:

If you are using a gas hob the covers could block airflow and put the flame out. Gas gushing into your kitchen is a bad thing
The metal is way too thin to handle high heat, it will probably warp when heated, perhaps enough to tip a light pan off. You don't want pans of boiling water or hot oil shifting around

Even if it was safe you wouldn't get a better cooking result as you are blocking the transfer of heat from the source to the pan. You are better off removing them before cooking.


Converting frozen hash brown patties from oven cooking to stove top

Yes you can do this, but it will add some additional fat to your hash browns.

Pour a tablespoon or two of peanut oil (or veg oil if you prefer) into your frying pan and heat it up.

Lay your hash browns down into the pan, and check the bottom for desired doneness, anywhere from 2-5 minutes depending on the hash brown and the amount of heat you are using. Then flip the over and check for doneness again.

The reason it takes less time this way is because they are being cooked in oil rather than being exposed to hot air. It takes longer for the heat to get to the center of the hash browns in the oven.

However, why don't you just make fresh hash browns. You just shred a potato or few, perhaps some onion as well and just drop the pile into an oiled hot pan heated to low or medium low heat, and flip it once the bottom just starts to burn, again then check when this side is ready.


how to get maximum amount of rise for shaped pizza

The pizzas I make have a resting time to improve flavor in the refrigerator. I then take the balls out and, after warming up, stretch them to the appropriate size and add the sauce and all the toppings. It immediately goes into the oven. It rises and puffs up in the oven due to oven spring.

If you let it rise beforehand, I would think the added toppings would collapse the dough. Also, if it rises before putting in the oven, there may not be enough left to have an additional rise so don't do that and see what happens. Just put it in the oven right after stretching and topping.


What can be done with Norwegian brown cheese Brunost other than a sandwich?

Brunost is often used in Norwegian cooking, especially in brown sauces.
E.g. like this.

I have personly used brunost for such a recipe, and it does add a very nice flavor to the sauce.

Here is a link to several recepies using brunost, from Tine the biggest maker of brunost in Norway)

Hope this helps,
Best wishes from Norway!


O-Cha.com says that a good ratio is 1g of tea leaves to 30g (i.e. 30mL) of water.

Also keep in mind that, since Gyokuro is such a delicate tea, you want to brew with water that's between 120º and 140º F (50º to 60º C). This is much, much lower than regular black or green teas.


What combination of flours can be used as a substitution to a bread flour?

None of those flours on its own is a good substitute for bread flour, at least for making yeast raised breads.

Yeast raised breads require the development of gluten, which is possible only with a wheat based flour.  This leaves you only three choices:

Whole wheat flour
Maida
Semolina

Comparing the characteristics of each of these to bread flour:

Whole wheat flour, depending on the wheat from which it is milled, may have higher or lower protein levels.  Your particular whole wheat flour has a moderately high protein level, at the bottom end of the bread flour range.

However, the bran that is a component of whole wheat flour is very sharp at the small scale, and does not participate in the chemistry or physical structure of gluten creation.  In fact, the sharp edges of the bran actually serve to physically block formation of gluten strands, and even cut already formed strands.

For this reason, whole wheat flour is less than ideal for some bread making.  In general, you would want to substitute only a portion of bread flour with whole wheat flour; in fact, it is better to use it only in bread recipes specifically designed for it.  If you do choose to use it in lieu of bread flour, consider starting with only 25% of the total flour amount.

Finally, whole wheat flour has a different flavor than white flours, due to the additional components in the flour from the entire wheat berry.  The bran, the germ, and the endosperm all ground together (thus the term whole wheat), giving the flour its own flavor from each of these components--mostly the germ.

This is also what leads to the shorter shelf life of whole wheat flour.
Maida flour.  According to Wikipedia, maida flour is a soft (low protein) flour comparable to cake flour or pastry flour.

This means that it has much less protein, and much less gluten formation potential than bread flour does, on a weight for weight basis.
Semolina.  Semolina is a hard wheat flour with a high protein level, but is typically very coarsely ground.  Generally, you can feel the individual granules when you pick it up and hold it between your fingers, and can see them when you look quite closely.

This is a much larger grind than bread flour.

You can make bread with semolina, as this recipe from King Arthur Flour demonstrates.

With these components available to you, you would need to experiment to find the best possible outcome—and unfortunately, that is not the best place to start if you are not already a a fairly comfortable bread maker.

My best guess is that your best outcome would be from a mixture of semolina and maida, probably about 50-50.    However, the dough may take longer to hydrate and come together than expected, due to the larger grains of the semolina.

If you wish to incorporate whole wheat flour, I recommend starting with 25% of your total flour, and no more than 50% total.

Note:  India Curry article refers to an Indian flour called atta which is much closer in its description to bread flours... is it not available in your region?


Is it safer to wrap or cover your food when warming them in the microwave?

Many plastics used in the kitchen are unsuitable for use in contact with hot food, whether wrapping it or sagging onto it when used as a cover. Freezer bags are a relevant example. These may melt, or leach into the food. I don't worry about this as much as I probably should; some people are very cautious.

A sealed wrap is also a bad idea, as it can burst under steam pressure. For example leaving a bag clipped shut. This is rare though, and also applies to an unvented cover of cling film.

A loose or vented cover is a good idea for keeping the microwave clean.

Your friend is misguided. Microwave ovens use a form of radiation similar to radio waves, and this is what heats the food. It's very different to ionising radiation which we are rightly cautious of.

Microwave radiation isn't blocked by anything you'd use as a microwave cover/wrap, because then your food wouldn't heat up. So it's a good thing your friend's cover does nothing.  Microwave radiation is blocked by metal, including the mesh in the door. The emission of microwaves stops instantly when you open the door, because we're made of meat and would cook quite easily (plus the WiFi would be jammed).

All links are from Wikipedia and are further reading for the curious.


In most beans, heat around ~104°C to ~110°C will destroy many of the flavour compounds (a slightly different but precise heat is used for different bean varieties)

Commercially beans are steamed in that temperature range to neutralise them before being processed (e.g. making bean derivatives, or milks)

For domestic processing you could try steaming them in a home pressure cooker to achieve the same effect

Also, many beans are soaked at ~60°C for some hours prior to processing to reduce the "fart" sugars


What are some alternatives to xanthan gum for stabilizing mayonnaise?

Xanthan gum emulsifies by being a hydrocolloid, so agar and acacia have a chance of also working since they are also hydrocolloids. The amounts would have to be altered as agar sets much more solidly than xanthan gum, and gum acacia sets less solidly.

Lecithin is a commonly used emulsifier in mayonnaise (probably even more so than xanthan gum). It's normally obtained from soy, but sunflower lecithin is also available. Usually a fairly small amount is sufficient. My experience is with soy lecithin, but only a very small amount was needed: about a teaspoon to emulsify a quart of mayo.

Of course,t he most traditional emulsifier is simply egg yolks, which most homemade mayonnaise will already contain. Unless you need to keep it emulsified for really long periods of time, the yolks alone should suffice.

Even without the eggs, you can keep mayo emulsified for shorter periods of time using vegetables. Serious Eats did an article on it.


Hard to tell for sure, but it sounds like a good sour to me.  It has been my experience that sours do not always smell like yeast. Did you add a pinch of yeast in the first place when making the sour?  If not, you would be relying on nature to have any natural yeast spores within your sour, and that does not always work out that way.

Either way, if you are only using the sour to impart flavour in your bread, it doesn't really matter if it has yeast in it anyways, as you will add yeast for leavening purposes when you mix the bread.

It has also been my experience that often a 'strange' smelling sour has excellent flavour.  Ultimately, it can't hurt to bake a loaf.


The problem you will find in using meat-based proteins for such a dish is that the whole point of Insalata Caprese (from which I presume this pasta is derived) is the light, fresh, bright flavours of tomatoes and basil and mozz. Meats will muddy that up.

You may wish to look into alternate protein sources. Serve the pasta with some nice crusty bread and a big bowl of garlicky pureed white beans.


Baking a cheesecake at 325 instead of 350

The best way to prevent cracking is to use a water bath. It will give you consistently perfect results every time. The payoff is worth the extra effort.

A cheesecake is a baked custard and controlling the temperature is an important component in uniform cooking. Especially in a thick cheesecake, it is hard to finish cooking the center without the perimeter areas overcooking unless you use a water bath.

Having said that, the second best way to avoid cracking is to use an instant read thermometer to test the internal temperature at the center of the cheesecake. Most sources are pretty clear that if the internal temperature rises above 160 °F, the cheesecake will crack so you should either turn the oven off or remove the cheesecake from the oven—depending on your recipe—when the cheesecake registers just over 150 °F.

Unfortunately, although the temperature of the cheesecake at its center should be a foolproof way of preventing a side-to-side crack along the top of the cheesecake, without a water bath it is still possible that there might be cracks along the outer regions of top of the cheesecake if those areas overcook from being unprotected.

Lowering the temperature might give you more control over the consistency of cooking, but it won't eradicate the risk of having the exterior of the cheesecake cook-through before the interior is sufficiently set.

Ultimately, to get back to your specific question, there is no reliable time-for-temperature adjustment that can be recommended. You will enjoy much more reliable results using internal temperature to tell when your cheesecake needs to stop baking. And I can assure you that using a water bath would revolutionize your cheesecakes.


How to make sugar coated fennel seeds at home?

The product in your link has been sugar panned, a process which uses a rotating drum to add a thin candy shell, such as on nuts or seeds. To achieve that effect, you would need either a machine or a panning attachment for a mixer such as Kitchenaid, as illustrated on Pastry Chef Central.


Well, the answer in each case is really "it depends."

Indirect grilling is a way to reduce the radiant heat from the coals reaching your food, slowing cooking. It's useful for cooking thick, dense foods where the radiant heat might overcook the outside before the inside is cooked through. This isn't desirable for thin foods, where you want to brown the outside of the food while the inside cooks-through.

I'm not sure what the water might be for. I suspect that, because of water's very high specific heat, some folks might believe that it helps evenly heat the air in the grill. Only problem with that is that is your grill has an outlet, either in the form of a vent in the cover or a chimney on larger models. Water vapor is just going to escape. What does stay in the grill is just going to condense on the inner surface of the grill and run down the sides and drop onto your food. Old soot isn't a flavor I want imparted to my ribeye.

Covering the grill keeps hot air near your food, helping to cook the food by convection. Again, this is for helping to cook through foods that might be burned if cooked only by radiant heat.


how to fix pudding that got extra sweet?

Do you have the ingredients necessary to make more?  You could make a second batch, without adding sugar, and combine them.


Food safety and botulism indicators for pressure canned goods

The layer on the top is either separated fat from the ham and bouillon cubes, or a bacterial and/or fungal growth (aka a "pellicle"). If it feels greasy and/or brittle and becomes transparent when heated, it was just fat. If it feels rubbery and maintains its coherence when heated, it was a pellicle. A pellicle is not an indication of a botulinum infection, but it's definitely an indication that you screwed up the canning process and that the contents are inedible.
There is no way for a home cook to determine if a can of food is safe to eat. That would require special expertise and lab work (including, when testing for botulism, injecting mice with the stuff). Instead, what you do is use a trustworthy recipe, make sure you're following the recipe properly (with a canner that reaches the appropriate pressure for the appropriate amount of time), and check that the vacuum seal has not been compromised before eating. That is, rather than seeing whether the food is safe, you ensure that your process guarantees safe food.
The steps you posted are horrible -- neither safe, nor effective, and betraying a fundamental misunderstanding of what botulism even is -- and you should no longer trust whoever wrote them. "Have a bite and wait a day"? Cripes on a cracker.


Should I top up pickling cabbage solution?

Generally yes you should top up the solution, anything exposed to air even in the fridge will start to spoil.  Many pickling jars have an insert and/or weight that you can add at the top to make sure the food remains submerged.


How can you judge when a non-stick pan is the correct temperature for pan frying?

You shouldn't heat a non stick pan without the oil, because it is too easy to overheat it and ruin the coating.

So, I put oil inside first, and tell by the state of the oil. It smells, looks and flows different when it is hot enough. You can also learn to judge if there is sufficient heat when you hold your palm at a given distance above the pan, but in my experience, you learn to judge by the oil before you have gotten good enough to keep the same distance and to distinguish "enough" from "not enough" heat.

If you don't have enough experience to know when the oil is ready, you have to do it repeatedly until you learn it. It takes a few less-than-great meals if you do it purely by trial and error, and goes better if you use an infrared thermometer. You can also try floating cubes of stale white bread and watch their browning behavior, but I find this method too involved logistically - you have to have the bread, cut it, then deal with messy pieces of oily bread, and end up with slowly charring crumbles in your pan.


Making high-quality frozen-food at home?

Flash-freezing equipment wouldn't hurt, but for the normal home cook, the main things are to chill it as quickly as reasonably possible, package it with as much air removed as possible (vacuum sealers help here) in individual meal-sized portions, then freeze.

Thaw in the fridge if possible, or by heating your vacuum-sealed bag in a water bath. (Microwaves are pretty bad at heating frozen blocks of food and even with a lot of attention paid will tend to overheat part while other parts remain frozen.)

Choose recipes that work for the equipment you have, and adapt your weeknight process to combine the frozen ingredients with fresh ones.

Soups, many sauces, chilis, beans and rice dishes freeze well under normal home conditions, as do some meat preparations (the texture can change, and usually, the larger the cut of meat, the more likely it is that the change from freezing will be negative). Without flash-freezing, foods with a high water content tend to become mushy, so that the broccoli you steamed to perfection will most likely thaw out to be limp and potatoes may be mushy.


How to stop grease dripping on coals from catching flames?

Well these are not really techniques to prevent dripping fat from catching fire, as far as I know that is not easy to achieve, these are rather workarounds to minimize the damage.

Use some sort of water sprinkler system like a squirt bottle, sprinkler bottle or vaporizing or a squeeze bottle over the flames. If used moderately directly aimed at the flame area, it will reduce the flames without killing the fire.
Keep a box of ashes from previous fires around, when flames erupt sprinkle a little over the flame area. If used properly will have the same effect as the water above. It may be slightly less practical due to being harder to avoid inadvertently pouring ashes over the food, but its less likely to cool the fire.
Catch the fat before it hits the embers. If what you are grilling can effectively be cooked with indirect heat, then place a tray, box or any wide catching container to collect the fat before it hits the fire. Possibly filled with water to be easier to clean afterwards. It is what most electric and indoors grills use.


Does there exist a non-rust substitute for an iron-cast pan?

It does exist, is the best of both worlds and what I use and it's called Enameled Cast Iron and I use Le Creuset...

It's cast iron below the enamel finish
Doesn't stick as much as real old-fashioned cast iron
lasts forever as long as you don't drop them. (Your kitchen tiles will break too)
once every 2-3 months boil them out with bleach for 5 minutes to keep them looking like brand new for >20 years...


You have a sensible approach, and for the right reasons. Food-borne illnesses don't die at the temperature your sink is at, to kill them you'd need water so hot you'd burn yourself, and even anti-bacterial soap would not be good enough to make the water safe. If you chlorinated the water it would be a different story but that's overkill when simply doing things in the right order will keep you healthy.

I use the same approach as you most of the time, although sometimes I clean off my cutting boards first and then rinse out the sink before filling it. Either way I'm not letting raw meat float around in the same water I'm using to clean the dishes I eat off of.

You're right and your wife is wrong - tell her that, she'll like that.


Can I increase cooking time of bread to make it less gooey?

I bake a lot of sourdough bread, and I find that the higher the hydration percentage (the ratio of water to flour) the "gooier" the bread. You might want to try using less water in your recipe.


Personally, I would argue that 2 and 3 are actually the same, and they are your answer.

If you heat a pan of water you'll notice the bubbles forming before the water is actually boiling, hence the talk of between not bubbling and full on roiling.

Also, when you're making your soup, it isn't pure water, so the boiling temp will not be a perfect 100 degrees C in any case.

So, I would say, that simmering is when you keep it just under a full boil. Watch what you're cooking, there should be gentle movement, but not a full roiling pan of whatever it is you're cooking.

To get something simmering away, you need to bring up to a full boil, then reduce the heat until you're getting movement, but not full bubbling.


How should I handle chiles without gloves?

I have used this method with Scotch Bonnets and Habaneros. Jalapenos are tame in comparison.  All bets are off with Ghost Peppers.  Those are weapons grade.:

Before dealing with the pepper, rub oil (olive is fine) on your fingers making sure you get it embedded around your finger nails.

Besides that, the simple ways you can minimize burn:

Avoid touching the cut surfaces of the pepper. The pepper skin is relatively tame.
Avoid touching the juice on the cutting board.
Use your knife to manipulate and move the pepper around be board.

p.s. don't even think of taking a bio-break in the middle of dealing with peppers.


Can uncooked rice be stored in the freezer or refrigerator?

First, in general freezing is possibly the best method for storing grains long-term if you're not going to use them up within a few months.  So it's never a bad idea to freeze dried wheat, rice, buckwheat, etc. if you have the space.  Certain grains, like wheat germ, contain oils that oxidize quickly and have to be stored cold or they go rancid in a few weeks.
This is also the issue with Carolina Gold Rice, according to Anson Mills:

With regard to your fresh cold milled to order hand pound emulation Carolina Gold Rice... because we choose to emulate how rice was prepared from scratch paddy rice a la minute for cookery before the industrial revolution, we hull/mill so that we just nick the outer bran of each kernel leaving the inner bran layer and germ intact... this form can oxidize and/or spoil stored at room temperature even though we vac pack on CO2 envelope at -10 F. to protect this rice for shipment at ambient temperatures for about 2 weeks only. We mill this way for flavor..

So, the rice bran is still attached to the rice, and contains easily oxidized oils, which means it will lose flavor or even develop off flavors within a few weeks at room temperature.  Tip: freeze it in the quantities you'd usually cook it in, makes it easier to take some out for use.


Putting freeze dried strawberry into my soft cookies,the texture is more like cake -how to make it more chewy

I believe that by cooking the dry strawberry powder in your cookie mixture, you are inadvertently rehydrating the strawberry substance with the small amount of liquid available within your mixture, primarily from the butter. This isn't necessarily an issue, but like you noticed it does mean that you have less liquid for the rest of the cookie to make use of, resulting in relative dryness, denseness, and graininess.

Rather than decreasing another ingredient, I believe increasing the butter by about 65g (a similar ratio as what you have between flour:butter) may help with your list of issues.

This does give you a significantly high butter:flour ratio, which may cause your cookies to soften too much, but I believe that the extra, slightly absorbent material added by the strawberry powder ought to bring things a bit more in-line with your expectations.

If you're feeling a bit more cautious, you could try adding only 38g of additional butter, such that in the absolute worst-case scenario you only have a 1:1 flour:butter ratio for your cookies, which is still within relatively normal expectations, albeit a much thinner cookie, but will hopefully normalize out with the strawberry powder.

Best of luck with the cookies, and I hope you let us know how it goes! I love strawberry. :)


What is the best way to make purple butter icing?

Yes. Buy purple food colouring. any baking supply store will have it, and there are plenty of suppliers online. Powdered colour is much more intense than liquid.


Why does meat dry out in high heat despite being submerged in liquid?

Meat being "moist" or "dry" is an oversipmlified description of the texture. It is not a straightforward measure of the amount of liquid, and also, meat is not a sponge.
When people say that a piece of meat is "moist" or "juicy", they mean a specific texture that includes muscle fibers at a very specific stage of denaturation - they have some elasticity when bitten into, providing resistance, but are also relatively easy to crush during mastication. There is also lubrication from cell plasma (which is not pure water, but a mixture of water and proteins, gaining some colloidal properties) and fat. Even if you could produce a squirt or gush of water (or sauce) similar to what would happen if you were to bite on a wet sponge, that wouldn't really contribute to the texture people seek.
Dry meat means meat in which proteins have been denatured to a quite advanced stage. They harden and become chewy, the actin and myosin no longer slide against each other, and I'm not entirely sure what happens to the cell plasma, but I suspect that part of it oozes through the damaged cell walls, and another part seizes due to the dissolved pieces of protein, just like overcooked egg custard seizes. If you have fat left, it will provide some lubrication, but today's meats are produced with extra low amounts of fat, due to customer preference and cost efficiency.
Even if water were to enter the meat in its "dry" state, it won't turn it into a pleasant texture, because, as explained above, this is not about actuall wetness. But also, liquids don't penetrate meat that well. Take, for example, a piece of meat from a stew that has been stored for 2-3 days in the fridge. There will be stew liquid on the surface, but if you wash it, you will find little evidence of that liquid, maybe only within the first 2-3 mm. If you cut it in two and lick it, it won't taste like stew liquid. If you squeeze it, no stew liquid will come squirting out. In short, it turns out that the physical structure of meat with heat-damaged cell walls doesn't really permit for soaking up liquid.
Combine the two effects, and you will find out that most mental models that the public has about meat texture ("moist" having to do with adding moisture, or browning to "seal in the juices") are wrong. What you are trying to do is to get the proteins to the state in which we expect them, and that is achieved with some, but not too much, heat.


Any food simmered in milk is referred to as creamed e.g. creamed corn. So I guess this would be creamed macaroni.


Ought food processor blades be sharpened or replaced?

First things first, as it was very well pointed in the comments - food processor is not a 100% substitution for knives. It helps to do bulk processing of the more laborous knifework (slicing, brunoise, etc.) and also to do things that you cannot do with other tools (pureeing raw stuff)

How long do the blades last, if they food-process raw hard unpiercable vegetables like 1 winter squash daily?

See first point above. The skin and seeds should be removed before processing. Winter squash is very pierceable with a sharp knife - I did dice a kabocha squash with only a knife yesterday. If you take good care of your processor and do not try to use it on things it is not supposed to be used, the blades last for a very very long while - it is more probable that your processor breaks instead of the blades going dull, especially if they're serrated blades.

Can the blades be sharpened? r/cooking contends yes.

Depends on the blade. If it is a smooth blade like the older models, yes, you can resharpen them. My mom has an old-school processor that is older than me and she had the blades sharpened quite a few times. If it is a serrated blade (designed for longer durability and less dulling), you need to go to a cutler / knifemaker if you really want to keep it because the serrration is very fine and difficult to sharpen using the sandpaper method.

Even if they can, is it cheaper to sharpen or replace the blades?

Depends on #2 and your location (i.e. how much would you pay for sharpening a normal knife and how much would you pay for sharpening a serrated knife), and whether or not you can exectue proper sharpening by yourself.


Is Japanese kasutera the same foodstuff as Korean kastera?

There is a particular baked good called kastera in Korea, but they pretty much use the term as a generic name for any Western-style sweet cakes (source: my Korean mother-in-law). So the answer is yes and no. You will find a kastera equivalent to Japanese kasutera, but it is a subset of the kastera set.

The closest comparison I can think of would be the term "barbecue." It would very specifically mean slow-smoked meat in certain regions of the United States. In other regions, "barbecue" is a bigger tent, and includes, among other things, anything that is cooked on a grill.


Aaronut's answer to a related question outlined the differences between non-oil methods of cooking onions (such as steaming or sweating). The taste will be different because different chemical reactions are occurring.

If you want to sauté onions without a lot of oil, try oil sprayers (Pam, or hand-pump sprayers loaded with your favourite oil). This will minimise the amount of oil you use. Using less oil means you have to move them around more often to prevent burning. (If you fry onions by themselves, they will probably just dehydrate and burn.)


What happens if you freeze a soft serve of ice cream?

Soft serve ice cream is soft because:

It's warmer than hard ice cream. According to Wikipedia, it's generally made at about -4 C, rather than -15 C for hard ice cream. It's also served at a higher temperature -- 14 to 25 degrees F, compared to 5 to 7 degrees F for hard ice cream.
It contains more air. The technical term for air introduced during freezing is overrun, and it's calculated based on the percent increase in volume of the ice cream. The more air, the fluffier and softer the mouth-feel.
It usually contains less fat than hard ice cream, which is mitigated by the soft creamy mouth-feel resulting from the warmer temperature.

If you were to freeze soft ice cream, you'd lose the advantage of item 1. In addition, your freezer takes longer to freeze ice cream than an ice cream maker, which may result in ice crystals in the ice cream. Furthermore, once the soft ice cream chills to the freezer temperature (usually around 0F), the lower fat content may decrease the perceived creaminess, because of the information in item 3.

Of course, having said all of that, I haven't tried the experiment, so I'd be interested in hearing first hand stories.


Can pork and beef be thawed in water together?

This can be safe; mixing isn't fundamentally dangerous. The things to keep in mind are:

The overall thawing method needs to be safe. Ideally that means running water, but the key is that it's fast enough to avoid spending too long in the danger zone. A bowl of water is likely too slow, though it can be fast enough if the water is agitated and changed periodically to simulate running water. See also What are the acceptable methods to thaw food items?
They'll need to be cooked to the higher required temperature of the two. For example, if the beef were ground, it needs to go to 160F, so even though pork chops only need 145F, you'd probably want to cook them to 160F anyway.

The mixing doesn't really change anything, any more than adding raw beef and pork to the same pan does. You just end up with a combination of the unsafe things from both, and then you cook them both to render them safe. Safety is essentially just about cooking to a high enough temperature, and not staying in the danger zone (40-140F) too long.

I don't think this is a particularly good thawing method, though. Ideally anything you've frozen is in an airtight, watertight package of some sort, so you could just keep both packaged during thawing. Or if you plan ahead, you can thaw in the fridge.


Can adding milk prevent a cake from rising?

No, milk in and of itself does not prevent cakes from rising.

There is noting in milk that changes the action of baking powder or baking soda.  Just yesterday, for example, I made chocolate muffins with 1/2 cup of milk, chemically leavened, and they rose beautifully.

There has to be some other factor involved, but you would need to add much more detail to your question in order to have a chance at identifying it.


Do tomato-based sauces change/enhance flavour when left in the fridge?

Most sauces, tomato based or not, will improve in flavour after being left overnight. This is also true of stews and casseroles. The received wisdom is that it gives the flavours a chance to 'marry' and blend, though I'm not sure of the science behind it.


What happens when you add warm water to yeast?

I presume you're talking about active dried yeast.  In that case, the granules of packaged yeast have some nutritive content to them, so what you observe when you add warm water is a weak form of priming.  Priming is the addition of both warm water and a food source, typically sugar or flour, to dried yeast with the goal of 'waking-up' the yeast from their dormant, packaged state.  The warm water dissolves some of the food in the granules and warms the yeast up to a temperature which is favourable to fermentation.


Traditional "fudge" gets its structure primarily from the sugar, which forms fine crystals; the texture of fudge is a stiff suspension of the sugar in the fat. So simply reducing the proportion of sugar will mess up the texture, as GdD alluded to.
But fudge isn't the only thickened-fat confection out there! One dish that immediately comes to my mind is sesame halwa, which uses the sesame particles in the same way fudge uses the sugar particles. Nut butters generally have a similar suspension (if you've had "natural" peanut butter without hydrogenated oils, or tahini or sesame sauce for that matter, think of the extra-thick layer that forms when it hasn't been stirred).
So I think you could temper the sweetness by combining a fudge recipe with something like sesame halwa, or by adding peanut flour as a substitute for some of the sugar. If you use light-colored peanut flour I don't think it would even affect the taste too much (other than reducing the sweetness, of course).


Should I remove the foam when cooking chickpeas?

According to a quick search it appears that your notion about it being protein-based is correct.  Most of the recipes I've seen say to skim it; the above-linked site says that adding a little oil will keep the foam down.

I personally wouldn't do anything with it as an ingredient unless I had a truly massive amount of it to experiment with--I don't know enough about the properties to make anything other than wild guesses about how it would work.  The only similar material I can think of would be beaten egg whites, but unless you were desperate for a vegan alternative and were already boiling up vats full of chickpeas I'd just use the eggwhites.


What is the additive they put in apple juice to change it from cloudy to clear?

(after reading this: http://www.ncbe.reading.ac.uk/ncbe/protocols/inajam/pdf/jam01.pdf)

They usually use pectinase  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pectinase) to break down pectin molecules to help mechanical filtration.

They also use gelatins to help clump up particules to help mechanical filtering.


What Can I Make in a Rice Cooker Besides Rice?

Almost anything that can be cooked in a slow cooker (on low) can be done in a rice cooker.

Roger Ebert (the film critic) has a cookbook for rice cookers : The Pot and How to Use It

... but there's lots of other ones out there, too.


How can I store wonton wrappers in the freezer?

I happen to have watched a TV show the other day about this very problem and they suggested making a big batch of whatever filling or fillings you are thinking of using (presently or in the future) and go ahead and make them all up and freeze them ready to cook.  They were making several kinds of ravioli that day.  They made them all up and placed them on cookie sheets to freeze and then placed them in ZipLock bags and they had a nice supply to pull out of the freezer whenever they were ready to cook them.  They didn't have a problem with brittle wontons once they were filled.  They used beaten egg to seal the edges so the filling wouldn't ooze out.  You can use this same method for any shape or filling....doesn't have to be ravioli, of course.


Can I use aluminum foil as a substitute for parchment paper?

Depends on what you're making. The principal differences are:

Parchment is much more non-stick than aluminum foil. I haven't tried non-stick aluminum myself, so no idea how that compares.
Parchment insulates (against heat transfer) more than aluminum.
Parchment is somewhat porous; it absorbs water.

Looking at that recipe quickly, it'd probably work fine. I'd suggest substituting aluminum foil sprayed with Pam (non-stick cooking spray). The bottom may brown a little quicker with the foil.


Can you repurpose a stovetop coffee pot/percolator?  I prefer the glass ones (do an image search for 'coffee percolator glass', so you can keep an eye on progress throughout.  If you were to replace the drip container at the top (that usually holds the coffee) with a small stainless steel bowl (your standard IKEA type mixing bowl), the rim will be held stable by the coffee pot.

Plus it already has a handle built in so you don't burn yourself in search of the perfect chocolate ganache!

ps: I'm in Germany too - I saw some at Tchibo last week.


Is there a simple way to make refried beans?

The heightened flavor of refried beans (over regular beans) comes from two components: the extra fat, and the Maillard (browning) reactions caused by the cooked beans shallow-frying in hot fat. Effectively, a crust forms where the mashed beans contact the fat. This crust breaks up later when the dish is stirred together.
If you can get them, try pinto beans rather than black.
Standard Refried Beans (from a can)

Drain and rinse the canned beans.
Heat your fat of choice (olive oil, lard, shortening) in a heavy pan.
Mash 1/3 of the beans coarsely in a bowl, using the back of a fork and a little water, if necessary. You want the consistency of the mash to be somewhere between pancake batter and cookie dough.
Add this mash to the fat in blobs of 1-2 tablespoons. The idea is to get as much surface area exposed to the fat as possible, because this is where the yumminess comes from, so, not a big blob in the middle of the pan. Preferably, many smaller ones.
After a time, start stirring the bean mash and fat together, then mix in the reserved whole beans. Thin with water or broth.

Bonus:Roasted Garlic Refried Beans (from a can)

Peel a couple of whole garlic cloves. Leave them whole.
Put these in the fat as it heats. If the fat doesn't cover the cloves completely, you can either stir from time to time, or, better, tilt the pan so that the fat and garlic pool on one side.
When the garlic cloves are the color of milk chocolate, remove them and add the mashed beans as above.
Mash the cloves with the back of a fork and add them with the whole beans at the end.


Are the rolls at 'Ryans' or 'Golden Corral' a style of bread?

Here is a link to a page on Ellen's Kitchen  with copycat recipes for the rolls from Ryan's, Golden Corral, and Logan's Roadhouse.

I have not tried these recipes yet but I found it interesting how different they are.


Is it normal for parts of fresh ginger to be chewy?

Ginger is generally quite a fibrous/stringy root already, but will tend to become harder with time as it dries out or becomes less fresh.
However, the age of the ginger (i.e. when it was harvested) probably plays a bigger role in how fibrous it is; the older it is the more fibrous it becomes. Younger ginger is also sweeter and less spicy than older ginger as some sugars are converted to starches, and the colour of the ginger's juice also tends to become paler with older ginger.
Variance in stringiness in one piece of ginger might just be down to thinner parts drying out faster than thicker parts, but whether it's "fresh" is too subjective to answer - if you find it too stringy you could use it for something other than eating directly.


Yes, you can freeze buttermilk.

When thawed, the emulsion will break into solids and whey.   This makes no difference for baked goods; you can also use a blender to restore it to a smooth, thicker liquid if needed for applications like salad dressing.

See also:

Video from America's Test Kitchen.
The Kitchn


Can I use agar as a coagulant to make homemade tofu?

Agar is a gelling agent and will not work as a coagulant.  Give epsom salts a try.  I have not experienced the graininess that you suggest.


Allowing dough to rise twice results in a finer gluten structure than allowing it to rise once.  It results in a smaller crumb and prevents huge gaping airholes in your bread.  The reason that you have to let it re-rise is that you just pushed all the air out with the kneading you did developing that gluten structure.


I've never adjusted the length of time based on number of eggs. As long as the water is boiling I don't think it would take any longer to cook a dozen than to cook one (it might take the water longer to come up to boiling, I guess).

For hard boiled I normally bring them up to the boil and then turn the heat off, and leave them for 15 minutes. If you like them less well-cooked, you could reduce this to 12 minutes. Then empty the pan and re-fill it cold water a couple of times to cool them down quickly. Leave rest of them sitting in the cold water while you prepare each one.


My mother had a similarly shaped pan with a lid that she'd use for baking coffee cake and such when camping.  It was all aluminum and much less complicated (and likely not as useful) as what your talking about.  The closest thing I found is the Omnia Oven.

It looks they may be had for about $50.


Freeze them. After they are frozen, put them in the food processor and you should no longer have the issue of them sticking to the blades. As Dougal mentions below, you can also freeze the blade to help keep the temp down.


How can I clean my stainless steel teapot?

There's a cleanser product called Barkeeper's Friend that is great for stuff like this. http://www.barkeepersfriend.com/


Why did my green tea muffins turn black?

Your first step would be to stick to the recipe. pH changes are well known to interfere with plant pigments. Adding baking soda and vinegar can very well have interfered with something in the muffins, be it the tea or something else. I am not 100% sure this must have been it, but it is the likeliest reason.

Also, I would recommend against making changes to a recipe before you have tried it as-written. You cannot know how changes affect it, and what unintended consequences they have, until you have established a reference. For example, you cannot know if your addition of baking soda made the muffins both fluffier and darker, or if it only made them dark without any change in fluffiness.


What kind of cookware is suitable for a glass ceramic stovetop?

I wouldn't pay much attention to this list. I would just get my cookware based on what functionality I need, not based on what my stove manufacturer says.

The idea of not using cast iron on glass to protect the glass from scratches is as perverse as keeping a sunhat in the closet and going to the beach bareheaded to protect the sunhat from color fading. Your stove's purpose isn't to gleam, it is to cook. The manufacturer probably tries to shield himself from customer complaints: "your stove got scratches" "nothing we can do, you treated it against our recommendation". This would explain the overly cautious list.

I have an induction stove with a glass plate myself. I don't have cast iron cookware from the type common in the US (Lodge pans and similar), but I have a wrought iron pan, not seasoned on the outside (it developed  black rust during seasoning the inside, as well as something which I suspect must be ferrous sulfide). It is smoother than cast iron, but rougher than a typical stainless steel pan. I regularly use it on my stove. Also, I regularly clean the stove with a mild abrasive (equivalent to Unilever's brand Cif) and once or twice, I had a baked-on spill which wouldn't go away with this cleaner, so I used a steel wool scouring pad instead. I worked gently, but still applied enough force to remove the residues. After cleaning and polishing with a glass-ceramic cleaner, my stove literally mirrors the ceiling. I bet it has less scratches than my phone screen. So, I think that all the stories about iron cookware damaging the stovetop are greatly exaggerated. But if you are really scared, you can sand and season the bottom.

The other claims are also dubious. Alu melts at 660°C, you probably won't reach it even if you forget an empty pan on high for hours. Nobody uses pure copper pans anyway, and if it is an inner layer of a sandwich bottom, there is no way it will leave marks. And so on.  Only the glass warning is good - not because it would damage the stove, but because you risk the glass vessel itself to shatter.

Bottomline: Buy based on what material is best for cooking whatever you plan to cook. The stove should be able to take it. And if you are rough and it does get a scratch or two, then I don't see why it should bother you - it is a tool, not a fashion statement.


Can vegetables be roasted at lower temperatures?

Slow roasted vegetables are delicicous. But the accent is upon slow - at 100 degrees you could be talking 6-8 hours. It's very similar ti slow cooked lamb, use lots of olive oil and wait.

I like to put in slices of potatoes for the first three hours and then add pepper courgettes, and other vegetables needing less cooking time for the kast 3 hours.

Great to serve with a half peanut butter, half feta cheese thick dip and some crispy toasted pitta bread.


Based on lots of experience making farmer's cheese (and backed up by the book One Hour Cheese), there are three factors which control the scale of creamy to dry & crumbly:

the degree of acidity at which you set the curd;
the length of time you cook it (keep it at 180F+)
the length of time you drain it

So my guess would be that you increased two out of three of the above, or all three, without intending to.  For example, you might have added the whole amount of vinegar instead of halving it, or, because you were draining half as much, it could have dried faster. Note that all textures from gloopy to sawdust are "legitimate" farmer's cheeses, and in Russian delis you can buy cheeses with the whole range of textures, for different applications.

Also, your cheese is not unsalvageable.  Depending on what you're using it for, you can add a little cream, sour cream, or full-fat yogurt to make it creamier.  And for that matter, dry and crumbly is perfect for making blintzes.


Can commercially sold, vacuum-packed beetroot (cooked) be stored under room temperature?

Forgot to update.
They went bad (blew up actually) after a week or so, when the expiry date on the packet is months away.
So at least in my case, some beetroots in vacuum packaging should be stored in the fridge, although there are beetroots that can be stored room temperature (which I saw in another market).
You should probably err on the safe side if you find no instruction on the package (like in my case).


Who sells unstabilized (truly raw) oats in the U.S.?

Oats from Tractor supply are definitely uncooked (about $15 for 50 Lb). I've planted them to grow cat grass for years. Unfortunately, they are also not hulled. Hulling is usually done by hurling the oats at a steel wall at about 70mph, then separating oat from empty hull and oats still with hull by fractionating through a stream of air. Naturally, buoyancy depends on a groat's size, as well as its density. It's a tricky task to run at home. You can make a centrifuge out of an old angle grinder, with an impeller designed to get the oats up to speed, but the air driven density separation is quite hard to mimic with only an 8 foot ceiling. There are other ways the separation can be accomplished, but dry oats tend to build up quite a static charge when you roll them around.
For whole, uncooked, dehulled oat groats you'll want either a food coop or a health food store. At about $1.50 a pound you can usually do as well or better than the 50Lb sacks available through Amazon.


Can Splenda be substituted for regular sugar when making your own sweetened condensed milk?

The answer is yes.  I found this link for you from Genius Kitchen
https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/sweetened-condensed-milk-with-splenda-412496

There are many recipes for both low carb and diabetic friendly Sweetened condensed milk.

Also the following:  https://www.yummly.com/recipes/sweetened-condensed-milk-with-splenda


Replacing egg whites with whole eggs when baking cookies

Egg yolks and egg whites have very different roles in baking. You can almost never replace them. And in the cases in which you can, you will end up with a different texture.

In this case, it won't be sure disaster to replace, but I would be very reluctant to do it. Flourless recipes are finicky. Flour holds stuff together. Nut flours don't hold anything together, they need a binding agent. Egg whites are a good binding agent. Egg yolks are not only not good as a binding agent (except in certain circumstances, for example in custards - but you don't have this here), they are even a lubricant and as such will interfere with the binding done by the egg whites.

If you substitute here, you will not only change the taste, you risk your cookies crumbling apart in your hands.

In general, don't replace stuff in baking recipes. They are hard to design right. Even if you have some issues (e.g. allergies), it is easier to find an existing recipe without the offending ingredient than to try to tweak an existing one to work with different ingredients. Eggs are especially hard to substitute. Such a reason like "not wanting to waste" loses its sense if what you end up with is bad cookies, which are a much worse waste of products. And besides, you can do many more interesting things with a yolk than just scrambled eggs. In fact, I am frequently throwing out whites because I have found no use for them after doing something with the yolks.

If you still want to go ahead and try if the cookies work for you, try using 3 whole eggs. 2 eggs are nowhere near enough to substitute for 4 egg whites. Not only are the yolks smaller than the whites volume-wise, they will also not deliver you the binding proteins you need so badly.


Short answer: It Depends.

Long Answer:

You are correct that the decision on precooking mushrooms before putting them on pizza is about controlling moisture.  For some hefty mushrooms like portabellos, it's also about making sure that they cook fully.  Here's what to factor in:

What's the density of mushrooms per pizza area?  That is, how much space between slices?
Are these hefty mushrooms (white, crimini, portabello) or delicate mushrooms (chantrelle, oyster, enoki)?
How thickly are they sliced?
Are there other "wet" items going on the pizza topping, like a sauce or fresh tomatoes?
How thick is the crust?
How long will the pizza cook, and how hot?

On one end of the scale, if you're making a thin-crust pizza with tomato sauce and covering it completely in thickly sliced portabellos, you pretty much certainly should precook them.  However, if you're making a deep dish pizza with only a few thin-sliced white mushrooms on top, then don't bother.  Stuff in between is up to your judgement.

For pizza restaurants, American Pizza is a medium crust, and they generally don't put that many mushrooms on each slice, so it's fine to put them on raw.  However, I've been to thin-crust Neopolitian-style pizza places where they did, indeed, partly cook the "wild mushrooms" ahead.

Also, if you are precooking the mushrooms, you want to cook them in a way that will remove moisture.  That means broiling them in the pizza oven on a baking sheet with parchment ... not sauteeing them.


How much CO2 does it take to carbonate water using a household Soda Siphon?

I own a 1-litre soda siphon like the iSi Siphon you pointed out. Some friends have a higher-capacity soda maker, I think from Sodastream.  To answer your questions:

Yes, the charger is single-use, and it carbonates only as much water as is in the bottle. My soda siphon holds about 1 litre of water. If I put in less water, then once the bottle runs dry I vent spare carbon dioxide uselessly into the air. If I put in more water, the carbon dioxide runs out and the remaining water won't leave the bottle.
Using the standard siphon product, there's no easy way to have a single charger yield more than one 1 litre. The charger is designed to deliver all its gas at one time; it doesn't reseal.
Consider the Sodastream product line if you want a step up from the 1-litre soda siphon with disposable chargers. Sodastream uses larger bottles of gas, which they describe as "60L". I think they mean that each bottle of gas carbonates 60 litres of water.
Sodastream's FAQ, What will it cost me to make a bottle of soda or seltzer? claims,

  After your initial purchase of a home soda maker package, you'll enjoy seltzer and sparkling water in reusable 1-liter PET bottle for just [Canadian]$.30 per litre and flavoured sodas for about $.88 per litre, before any applicable shipping charges....

From their wording, it's pretty clear to me that the $0.20-$0.30/litre claim is purely the marginal cost of carbonating water. It doesn't include amortising the purchase cost of the equipment, and likely is based on the cheapest way to refill the carbon dioxide bottles (exchanging filled bottles for empty by mail), and likely doesn't include shipping costs or taxes for the refills. It may be that one can drive the cost per litre down by adjusting the amount of water in the soda bottle, as well.


How hot does garlic need to get to lose its sharpness?

My favourite way to remove the sting (which I love, but doesn't always work) is to poach in milk. Generally I do this when making macaroni & cheese; I poach the garlic in the milk which I then use for making the Mornay.

Poaching in water also works, mincing and then sauteeing... anything that cooks it all the way through. Bear in mind that how you cut your garlic will have an effect; smaller cuts (mincing, crushing) break more cell walls, releasing more of the sulfur compounds that provide the flavour.


Substituting Diced Canned Tomatoes for Fresh

Most savory cooking simply isn't exact enough to worry about this in any level of detail.  Tomatoes are extremely high in water to start with, even whole, about 94%.

Savory recipes can be adjusted easily by adding liquid or reducing in most cases, if it does matter.

Simply use the entire weight of the can content in substitution for the weight of fresh tomatoes, and adjust the recipe as needed based on the outcome.

This is educated speculation, but note that while tomato packers may pack the diced tomatoes in juice, that juice almost certainly comes from the core of the very same tomatoes whose flesh was diced.  Otherwise it would be less economical to pack them that way, and they would pack them in water.


Can I use this air fryer basket with a non-stick coating as a grill basket?

Nonstick vessels don't mix well with grills. First, it is likely to get overheated - I assume the basket is PTFE, which starts deteriorating at a little bit over 200 C (compatible with your fryer temp rating). Second, with grilling, you frequently have a situation where a tiny amount of oil (e.g. from a marinade) gets smeared on the rack (or basket, in this case) - that small amount then polymerizes in the heat and, on a nonstick surface, becomes a sad, useless version of cast iron seasoning.
If you really want to try grill baskets, search for a stainless steel solution, or try repurposing something else like a collander or steamer insert.
Also, note that we cannot answer your question on "definitely dangerous, probably safe, or something else". Any potential health effects (or lack of those) of overheated teflon are off topic on the site.


Making sourdough starter with bread flour

The difference between flour marketed as Bread Flour and flour marketed as All Purpose (at least in the US) is the type of wheat from which it is milled, and therefore the protein percentage in the flour, a p/l value close to 1 which gives proper plasticity to the dough, and a large enough falling number to allow long fermentations.

At least the US, all flour marketed as either All Purpose or Bread Flour should be suitable for bread making, although bread flour will permit greater gluten development due to the higher protein level.

The yeast or bacteria in a bread starter eat the starch (after it has been converted to sugar by enzymes present in the flour), which is the bulk of the grain, whether the wheat is winter or summer, hard or soft, red or white.

Also, the way the bag is labelled is as much a marketing issue as a technical issue.  For example, in the US, King Arthur brand all purpose flour is nearly as "hard" (high in protein) as other common brand's (such as Gold Medal) bread flour.

Use either all purpose or bread flour, as you choose.


How do I stop metal-bottomed pots squeaking on my gas hob?

Perhaps use a gas ring reducer to lift the skillets or pots away from the original hobs.

There seem to be various shapes and sizes, both bare metal or enamel coated options in various outlets.

As long they don't squeak themselves against either the pots or hob sounds a relatively cheap and easy to replace solution, and don't require changing the whole hob.

They also don't seem to affect stove efficiency or heat distribution negatively in any significant way.

Alternatively you may use some sort of gas ring heat diffuser, though I suspect these will have a larger effect on performance and efficiency.


Speculating - (colloidal) rust - from iron in the beans - via oxidation.


Not trying to be flippant, but to me it is easiest to apply and old kitchen rhyme to meat:  "When in doubt, throw it out."

Chicken is notoriously prone to spoilage.  Having suffered from food poisoning more than once, for me it is a zero tolerance.  Unusual smells on raw poultry, unexpected discolorations and such make it not for my consumption.  The dots, well, I would have to see them because they could be any number of things from congealed fats to fungus.  Without personal evaluation it is an unknown to me, and unknowns are potential danger in food, especially raw meat.


Is a black coating dangerous when cooking on cast iron?

Black stuff on a cast iron skillet is most likely just a thin layer of burned food. It's not horribly dangerous (I'm sure you've eaten some charred things before) but it does make your food look worse, so you may as well just keep your skillet clean and well-seasoned and avoid it.


This is very common. What you are describing would usually be called either a bain marie or a double boiler. It is normally used for things that you don't want to overheat, such as hollandaise sauce, ganache, and some other dairy based sauces.

As for advantages and disadvantages, it really depends on what you're heating. For the sauces mentioned above, the advantage is ensuring that no part of the sauce will get above 212F, the temperature of the boiling water. Microwaving will be faster for most things though.


How to preserve tea taste for 6-7 hours?

Have you considered investing in a good (read: expensive) insulated flask that is rated for 6+ hours and hot liquids? As long as you only open it long enough to pour your cup out, it should keep it at a drinkable temperature and (hopefully) not spoil the taste like reheating does.

If you do this, you should heat your milk separately so it doesn't cool down the poured tea.


Freezing and defrosting Cantaloupe is still good in the fridge?

It should be healthy for now (assuming it was still relatively fresh when you put it into the freezer) but will actually break down faster now that you have frozen and thawed it.  It will also have a much softer and significantly less pleasant texture than it did before, although that won't have much effect on blending.

When you freeze foods, the water in the food forms ice crystals, which are very sharp and which puncture the cell walls of the frozen food.  These punctures cause the cells to lose a lot of water when the food is thawed and their water becomes liquid again.  You will probably notice that your cantaloupe will look somewhat translucent and will have a lot of juice in the bottom of its container.  This is due to cell damage and water loss post-freezing.

In fruits and vegetables, cell walls provide the structure that forms the fruit's texture, and damaging these walls will significantly weaken that structure.  So the cantaloupe will be less firm and a lot less pleasant to eat on its own.  It's probably still safe for now, but puncturing the cell walls will also make it easier for stray bacteria to get to the food's sugars and start multiplying, resulting in faster spoilage.

I would recommend using this immediately; failing that, 3 days maximum in the fridge would be as far as I'd go.  If you want to do this in future, just leave the cantaloupe in the freezer until you're ready to use.  Assuming it's tightly sealed to avoid freezer burn, it will keep for up to 6 months there.


The closest thing is to combine equal parts of ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and black pepper.


sauce pan vs. dutch oven vs. stock pot - any difference besides size?

While all of these are large pots (or may at least come in large sizes) they have different purposes, which lead to differences in typical construction.

Saucepans are intended for general purpose cookery, and usually have solid construction, and permit searing in the pot, reducing, and a variety of other tasks.

They are the most difficult to characterize as there is tremendous variation in quality levels and design among the products available.
Stock pots are purpose built to make large quantities of stock.  Since they are not used for searing typically, and liquids circulate via convection making hot spots not a priority, they are typically constructed from thinner metals (steal or aluminum) and don't have good general purpose cooking qualities.

The main virtues in a stock part are low cost, size, and light weight.
Dutch ovens (at least real Dutch ovens) are a legacy from the time when cooking was done in hearth or campfire.   They are designed to be nestled into the coals or embers, with more coals or embers placed on top of the lid, creating a hot oven like interior--thus the name.

True quality Dutch ovens will be fairly thick, usually cast iron, possibly enameled, and may have little legs to help nestle it into the fire above the coals; similarly, a the lid may actually fit into the pot, allowing coals to easily be piled on top.

Dutch overs are actually fairly versatile cooking implements, and can serve for searing, roasting, braising, stewing, biscuit making, soup making, and even some bread applications even in the modern kitchen.   Many are large enough to make stock in for home purposes, although they are not absolutely ideal for the task.

You will have to ask yourself, given your own cooking patterns, would the general versatility of a dutch oven, or the size of a stock pot serve you better.  None of the sets you linked to has a true dutch oven, however; the one that purports to be a dutch oven has a glass lid!   It might be an okay pot, it is not one I would ever choose.

For stainless steel products (without the specialized legs and concave lid to nest coals in), there is very little difference between a dutch oven and a very large sauce pan.


What cookbooks do you always come back to?

Definitely the Joy of Cooking.  It's not a convenience cookbook for people with busy schedules or low patience - the majority of recipes in there are geared toward flavour and not specialty diets or quick prep times - but at least 9 out of 10 recipes I try in there have near-perfect flavour and texture.

IMO, this should be in every cook's kitchen, even the ones that don't really use cookbooks.  It has all the classic recipes, and you never know when somebody will ask you to make Chicken Kiev.


Is seeding peppers a must when making hot sauce

The seeds of all peppers are bitter, you won't notice this when you are using a single pepper in a large dish of food, but if you make hot sauce without removing the seeds you will have a noticeable, and possibly unpleasant bitterness. Grinding the seeds will add more off flavors, so it is worth the effort to get rid of them.


The first thing to check is if you are using the correct measurements. When a volumetric recipe says "cup", it usually doesn't mean "any cup in your cupboard", it means "a unit of measurement that is exactly 236 ml". This is so commonsense in the USA that nobody tells you about it, and for people from other countries, it comes as a great surprise. While using the wrong cup might scale the recipe proportionally, you still have the eggs to worry about here.

The second thihng is that measuring by volume has a lot of leeway. Try weighing your solid ingredients instead. The conversion to try would be: 250 g flour, 100 g sugar, 115 g butter, 240 ml milk. Sift the flour before use.

The third thing is to bake until done. Hard cakes often result from overbaking, and the time given is just a guideline. Test the cake every now and then, and take it out as soon as the tester shows no stickiness. Don't wait for the full 35 minutes (if they haven't happened yet) and don't let the cake stay in the oven for longer, even if you already turned it off.

If you still dislike the results, turn to a cake recipe with less liquid, something that is closer to a traditional pound cake, with only a little extra liquid, or none at all.


Start with dent corn or flint corn. You get it in 50Lb bags at the local feed supply store $12. Nixtamalize, grind into masa add salt and water, press and cook into tortillas. Thye'll last a couple weeks. Wheat flour or sweet corn recipes will spoil faster. Yellow corn tortillas also have the advantage of actually tasting like corn; and they won't dissolve when you try to make enchiladas out of them like commercial, hyper-palatable tortilla-like-objects.


The closest thing you are likely to find is a product called Wondra flour.  Like idealmjöl, it is a pre-gelated wheat flour, but unlike idealmjöl it also includes some malted barley flour.

One post on this forum implies they may be interchangeable.


I also have a glass-top stove at home. So far, I really like it: the heat is very even and there is good heat transfer, provided the pan makes good contact with the surface (one skillet I have has a bit of a lip, which makes it heat more slowly).

I've slapped skillets and pots full of water around on mine, and have yet to break it. I'm probably more careful than I would be on a metal range, but it seems sturdy.

But to your points:

1) There is no way cast iron could melt the glass. Iron melts lower than does glass (1200*C vs. 1500*C), so before you manage to melt your stove, your pan will be a puddle. It may, however, be possible to deform the stove top if you let an empty pan heat for some time. I don't see why this would be more of an issue with cast iron than with any other piece of cookware.

2) A heat defuser will work fine. Don't get the kind that is designed for use with gas, but anything else should work fine.

3) The burners on my stove are smaller than my skillet, so I find I need to move the skillet around to heat the edges. Also, flat-bottomed pans and pots seem to be much more effective on the flat glass top, as conduction seems more effective than radiation here. I polish the bottoms of my pots to get better heat transfer, although this is just me being anal.

Also: cast iron can't scratch glass. Glass is much harder than iron (see this wikipedia article), glass having a 6-7 on the Mohs scale, iron having a 4.


How long should tilapia filets of normal thickness be broiled?

Broiling fish is extremely easy, although I would recommend saucing the fish after it is cooked as your BBQ sauce will most likely burn under the heat from the broiler.  Your food should be about 8 to 12 inches away form the heat source, but most under oven broilers have a fixed height away from the flame.  You need to make sure that your fish is fully scaled before cooking and you should season it with salt and pepper as well.  Lay the fish on a pan, making sure that you lay it skin side down and that there is room on each side of each piece.  Turn on your flame and slide the fish under the broiler, remove when the fish is flaky, white and lightly browned on top. If you are unsure if it is done, take a fork and twist it in the flesh of the fish and it should flake away fully white, it's done.

Then add your sauce and serve.

Additionally, BBQ sauce will mostly overpower the flavor of your tilapia, you might find that whipping up a butter sauce or a white wine sauce will suit you better.  Also, alot of fish does well with just a little salt, pepper, and lemon juice.


How does pH and temperature affect emulsification of vegetable oils?

This is a rather complicated issue, so I will answer it in steps.
Only oil and water
This is not something that is usually done in the kitchen, since the emulsion is not stable. But it is useful to consider this simplest version first before going on to the more complex ones. Let's assume that all you are mixing is water, oil, and maybe a bit of citric or ascorbic acid.
Here, the only influence of temperature is that you want the fat to be properly liquid when you start out. If you have fat that is solid (e.g. coconut oil) or cloudy (e.g. oilve oil you have kept in the fridge), let it warm up before you begin. In theory, higher temperature will be somewhat better, because the particle movement will give you a bit more mixing. In practice, you have to do so much forceful agitation to build the emulsion without any emulsifiers, that the contribution of higher temperature will be negligible. So the lowest possible temperature is given by freezing one of your components, and the highest possible is 100 C, where your water will evaporate.
You don't have any chemical reactions happening in this case. The pH doesn't matter.
So, in this case, the best temperature and pH are: any, within the typical range.
With an emulsifier
As above, it assumes that you are using water, oil, maybe some acid, and the emulsifier.
There is a wide range of emulsifers used in cooking, each of them with rather complex thermodynamic properties. Each of them has its "preferred" range of temperature and pH in which it performs best - in fact, some of them don't even work outside of a narrow pH range, and others require the presence of additional chemicals, such as sugar or calcium ions, to work at all. So nothing more specific can be said, it really depends on the exact emulsifier.
To find out the best temperature and pH range for a given emulsifier, consult a reference book on emulsifiers.
With protein
Traditionally, the only emulsifier frequently used in the kitchen was the lecithin contained in egg yolks. Also, many foods used in emulsions contain proteins by themselves. So you will most likely find yourself making an emulsion that contains proteins.
Here, it becomes more complicated. You have both emulsification and curdling going on at the same time. Your goal is to have the curdling happen, but at a slow pace, and not all the way, so the proteins will build a weak silky mesh interspersed with the oil bubbles of the emulsion, instead of having them create hard pieces separated by liquid.
In this case, temperature and pH become very important, and they are also interdependent. Also, it is not only temperature per se that matters, but (at least for eggs), the speed at which the temperature changes. Slower warming up leads to better sauce textures (that's why you should start with room temperature eggs).
If you do it without acid, you have to gently heat your mixture while emulsifying, and stop at the right point, before it curdles too much. For egg yolks, the ideal temperature is 72 Celsius, it will be different for other emulsifiers and/or other sources of protein. If you also add acid, it promotes curdling, and makes it difficult to achieve the right texture. So, texture-wise, the best pH will be neutral. But if you do have to change the pH out of safety or taste considerations, you will have to heat slower and to lower temperatures, and/or add buffers (e.g. sugar in a sweet emulsion) that counteract the acid effects.
This means that in the end, the pH will be determined by your recipe, and the optimal temperature will vary. The recipe is likely to give you vague instructions on how to heat (e.g. with a water bath), but not an exact temperature. So you have to go by the instructions and observe the process, using your experience to decide whether the heating has to be sped up or slowed down.


Does it pay to store instant coffee in the freezer?

In chemistry it is generally accepted that a reaction rate drops in half for each 10 degrees in C drop (about 20 degrees Fahrenheit). So oxygen would still oxidize the freeze dried coffee, but at a slower rate.


Substituting Soy milk +vegan butter for whole milk +margerine for whipped fluffy icing

Yes. Soy milk (or any other non-dairy milk such as almond milk) can be used as a direct substitute for dairy milk. (Your mileage may vary if you make homemade soy milk, which may have a more "beany" flavor.) In addition, vegan margarine such as Earth Balance can be used as a direct substitute for butter. In fact, these are two of the easiest vegan substitutions.


Note that wheat is a type of grass, and is technically a grain.

Grains without gluten

Not all grains have gluten—only those closely related to wheat do.  Grains which do not have gluten include:

Corn (maize) and its variants or derivatives such as cornmeal, polenta, hominy, or masa
Rice (all varieties)

A note on rice: some varieties are called "glutinous". This just sounds similar to "gluten", but is in fact used to indicate the rice's stickiness. Glutinous rice does not have gluten, not even as traces, its stickiness comes from a special type of starch.
Millet
Sorghum
Oats (although many oat products are processed in plants that may have had wheat)

Sometimes confused for grains

Note that the following gluten free seeds are not grains, although sometimes they are confused for grains:

Wild rice
Quinoa
Buckwheat (despite the name, not a wheat nor a grain)
Amaranth

Non-grains used as gluten-free starches and flours

Therefore, all grain-like, starchy, or flour-type foods which are not grasses are always gluten free, including wild rice, quinoa (despite any other issues), and so on.

Additionally, flours or seeds based on non-grain seeds, nuts, and legumes are always gluten free, although there may be other dietary sensitivities.  These include:

Almonds
Soy beans
Peanuts
Chickpeas
Mesquite flour
Amaranth
Quinoa
Wild rice

Finally, starches and flours based on roots, rhizomes, and so on are gluten free, including:

Potato
Sweet potato
(True) yams
Tapioca

Grains containing gluten

The following grains are all wheat relatives, and have gluten to a greater or lesser degree:

Wheat
Spelt
Rye
Tritical
Barley
Kamut

Note that the following are all processed wheat products or specific wheat varieties, and should be avoided to maintain gluten free diets:

Farina
Durum
Semolina
Couscous

See also:

Gluten Free Living
WebMD guide to gluten free flours


That is the gastrointestinal tract of the shrimp. It is commonly called a vein or sand vein. It is often removed, but this is not required since it is not harmful and is mostly tasteless.

To devein a shrimp  you would make a shallow cut from head to tail and then wipe or rinse out the vein under running water.


Stock questions. What to taste for when making stock?

Since you are going to be using it for cooking, you're absolutely right to not add salt. Especially if the cooking involves reduction, you want to be able to control the salt level at that point. Unfortunately, that does make it a bit hard to gauge the flavor of the stock. A beef stock should actually taste like beef, like if you thickened it and added salt, it would be a passable gravy.

Especially for beef stock, it helps to thoroughly roast the meat and vegetables before adding them to the water. Don't skin your onions, roasted onion skins add great flavor and color.

If you didn't roast your ingredients before adding to the water, consider roasting them now. Fish your beef and vegetables out of the water, dry them with a paper towel, and put them in a 450°F (230°C) oven, flipping every 20 minutes or so. Meanwhile, keep the water (stock) at a simmer both for safety's sake and a bit of reduction.

Once your meat and vegetables are very brown (just this side of burnt), add them back to your stock and simmer for at least another three hours.

If possible, deglaze your roasting pan with a bit of the stock or even better, some small amount of wine. Any brown bits on your roasting pan are going to boost the flavor of your stock.

If after all of this your stock still seems flavorless, ladle a bit out and salt it just to taste (leaving the stock in the pot still unsalted).

If your salted broth still tastes too weak, yes you can reduce it. You can also add a reduced-sodium beef base like Better Than Bouillon. Doing so will add considerable salt (unfortunately reduced-sodium =/= low-sodium), so be judicious.

Like Stephie alluded to in comments, several peppercorns, a few bay leaves and some thyme couldn't hurt.


How can I make a large amount of caramelized onions for a french onion soup?

You can caramelize onions in the oven to do large quantities.  This isn't less effort, and it actually takes longer, but it does allow you to do really large quantities; I did 20lbs of caramelized onions for one Polish dinner I was serving this way.  Since I haven't been able to find a website with this method, here it is:

heat oven to 325F/160C
fill a hotel pan or baking pan with sliced onions to a depth of about 3/4"/2cm
toss the sliced onions with vegetable oil or melted butter and a little salt (and optionally a little sugar)
cook, uncovered, in oven for 1 hour to 90 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

The reason for the 2cm depth of onions is to keep them from burning in the oven, which they tend to do if spread thinner.  Also, if you have a gas rather than electric oven, you may need to add a little water occasionally to prevent burning.

Althernately, Kenji of Serious Eats has a formula for cooking caramelized onions over high heat, and thus cooking each batch faster, without losing flavor.  This would allow you to jump through several batches.