I took a look at the Amazon page for the book and using Look Inside discovered a number of relatively innocuous recipes. The ingredients are UK-ish (self-raising flour, for example) as are the names (Delight for a pudding and sauce combo, for example.) There is an old-fashioned tone to the dishes I spotted, which were exclusively desserts, though I didn't see all of them because See Inside doesn't show you much.

I didn't see a ton of actual recipes - there are pictures, and pages of text that I didn't read. If you're a Pratchett person (I am) it's delightful. If you're not, you will probably be quite confused. But I don't think any of the confusion will come from the actual recipes themselves.


Panko-breaded tilapia, medium fried, non-stick pan, absorbed oil

It's not the fish absorbing most of the oil, it's the breading. When you cook something starchy in oil, it's going to absorb SOME of the oil. Using high heat minimizes the amount of oil that it will absorb, but it's always going to absorb some. Furthermore, panko has a lot of surface area. Some of the oil is just going to get carried out of the pan on the surface of the breading, which will probably drip or be blotted off later.


Caffeine is definitely bitter. About the only thing I know of that can add bitterness or that strong flavor to coffee is roasted chicory. It's a key ingredient in French Market coffee blends, and it makes them taste pretty darn strong, even though they have less caffeine.

You can get roasted chicory by itself at some supermarkets so you can add it to your decaf coffee, but it may be hard to come by in your area. If you can't find that, see if there's a decaf French Market blend. That'll have chicory and may give you back the bitterness you crave.

I think you're probably out of luck on the tea, though. You might just cut well back on the tea and drink regular tea once in a while. A jolt of caffeine now and again won't kill you, and life's too short to drink tasteless tea.


What is the best way to infuse garlic flavor in the bland brown rice?

Garlic flavors are soluble in oil, simply chopping up garlic and putting it in with the rice will not distribute the flavor well. I would recommend you chop the garlic finely and then infuse into a tablespoon of oil or butter by putting the pan on very low heat for a few minutes. Then add the rice and stir to coat the grains with the infused oil before adding water and cooking as normal.

How much garlic to use depends on how strong your garlic is and how garlic-y you want it to taste. 5 tbsp of rice isn't much, for a medium garlic flavor using average strength garlic a whole small clove or half a large is probably enough. With the garlic I grow I'd add a few slices from a clove at most.

Another option would be to cook the rice and then stir in the garlic infused oil afterwards, The benefits to this option are that you can drain the rice after cooking without all the flavor going down the drain.


Cook with no hood - how to control smell

Is there a bathroom with a fan? Setting up a portable electric hob just outside the bathroom with the door open might help, especially if you can also leave the front door ajar during cooking to provide a through-draught. You could use a folding table if the existing furniture isn't sufficient.

Covering as much as possible, choosing thing with short cooking times, and clearing up promptly will all help a bit, but won't make the problem go away. Low fat approaches are very suitable as frying causes a lot of odour compared to simmering. The low sodium approach cuts out a lot of prepared sauces, which would mean more cooking of flavour ingredients like onions or spices.

A camping stove on top of the BBQ would give you a few more options, but still relies on having good enough weather to cook outside. Compared to the BBQ it gets going quicker and it's better for all wet forms of cooking.


You need to incorporate the butter into the flour such that the butter is in hazelnut sized lumps, without melting the butter. If you chop it that small on a board it will soften as you handle it. So you have to do it in the bowl.

You could buy a pastry cutter/dough blender but to be honest they are a pain in the wrist. If you have a food processor, you have a perfect pastry making tool - just blitz the butter and flour with a couple of pulses, then dribble in some cold water, blitz again, and repeat until you have a coherent (but not too sticky) dough with the aforementioned hazelnut sized lumps of butter mixed through.


How to clean an induction stove from overheat?

It depends what the 'stain' is. If it's just surface deposits from the bottom of the 'teapot' (kettle?) transferred to the stove top, use a recommended proprietary cleaner (depends what country you are from what is available, ask at a hardware store for ceramic hob cleaner or induction hob cleaner). If it's in the bulk of the stove top caused by heat damage to the thickness of the material, you have two choices... live with it or replace the top. You won't be able to polish out the stain as it goes through the thickness.

Side note, that's probably why many induction hobs are black or very dark... harder to spot if there is any discolouration caused by getting a pan way too hot.


Yes, you can do that. Simply make sure that the duck isn't at room temperature for too long. 2 hours is the strict limit: you may wish to be more... sensible about it.

I'd suggest slicing straight from the fridge, as it will not only be easier to get thin slices when the meat is firmer, but it will also de-chill quicker.


Can you cook cut potatoes in a nonstick frying pan without oil?

That would depend on the cut of the potatoes, the heat and whether or not you put a lid on your frying pan.

If big cuts without a lid: They'll still be raw
If cut into small dice, heat not too high, with a lid on, you'd basically steam the potatoes in their own moisture and that would work.
if cut into small dice, high heat, no lid, you'll end up with charcoal on the outside and raw on the inside.

So yes, it's possible, but it's going to be finicky so if you don't want to use fat, what's wrong with:

boiling them
parboiling them and then putting them for a short while in a convection oven?


Try it & see ;)

Aleppo isn't particularly hot; I haven't checked it on the Scoville scale, but just from experience, though it's got a little kick to it, & that kick can be quite variable depending on your source of the pepper, to me, aleppo is used for its flavour rather than its kick.

Cayenne, on the other hand, I always consider to be "free heat". Its largest contribution is to add the 'burn', it doesn't really have much flavour, it's mainly heat.
I always think that by the time you can actually taste cayenne, you have other concerns ;)

On an anecdotal note - I always put a little cayenne in meatballs & most tomato sauces that would go with them. It's just a family 'thing' - we like it that way.


Should I pour off the liquified fat while cooking bacon?

If a recipe calls for you to drain the fat, drain the fat. If you are trying to lose weight, drain the fat. If you don't want an unattractive glossy skim on top, or for it to cool and harden, drain the fat.

Having too much fat in your pan will possibly interfere with the frying technique you are using, which will change the end product. That said, it sounds like you are just frying bacon. In this case, it is totally a matter of personal preference; some people like very greasy bacon, some want to pretend there was no fat ever and drain obsessively and dry on paper towels twice.

From my experience cooking bacon, long and slow, I prefer to have a moderate amount in the pan. Some bacon will render fat more quickly and in higher volume than others. This is problematic when you are trying to ensure a crisp product at the end as the bacon can end up partially deep fried. If you find the fat interfering with the actual frying, drain it.

I also drain the bacon to ensure there aren't pools of bacon, howeverI don't prefer to dry it; normally I do a haystack on paper towels. I have made chili where the primary fat was bacon fat from a few pounds of bacon; in this case you still want to drain it, into the pot you will be making the chili in. This helps ensure that you are rendering as much fat as possible and that the bacon can be used later.

As for getting rid of the fat, don't pour it down the drain. If you're going to store it, strain it, keep it air tight, and put it in the fridge. If you're going to use it for the next thing you are making, strain it (or don't) and put it aside, but don't let it interfere with the focus, the frying of the bacon.


Many kinds of pizza base are made from a yeast-raised bread dough. As with other breads (and beer, and wine, and cider etc.) the yeast, while it feeds and gives off the gas that causes the dough to rise, produces other substances which contribute to the flavour. So, a dough used as a pizza base which was not leavened with yeast isn't going to taste the same because it's not going to have these yeasty byproducts in it.

Texturally, it's also likely to be different. One of the other things that happens while the yeast is working at making the dough rise, and during any kneading that is part of the process, is the formation of gluten, which is essential to the structure of many risen breads. Anything else is unlikely to have the same behaviour. Take for example soda bread, which, despite being made from wheat flour, is made in such a way as to minimise gluten development and thus has a very, very different texture to a yeasted loaf made from the exact same flour.

So, your non-yeast pizza recipe is likely to be quite different to yeast-risen pizza. That doesn't necessarily mean it won't be nice, but you'll have to make it in order to find out.

I once made a pizza with a base made from scone dough, which has the advantage of being fast, as would a pizza based on a soda bread base. Yeast takes a while to work, so there's no way you're going to get a good yeasty base inside 30 minutes. It'd be hard to do it inside an hour. My usual strategy involves a no-knead dough recipe set up the night before, so actual preparation of the pizza takes perhaps three quarters of an hour, with the yeast doing most of the work while I'm at work or asleep.

But I'm just airily speculating. The only way to know for sure what this recipe is like is to make it and find out.


What is the use of oil in this recipe? Can I do without?

I just looked at 10 different recipes for caramelized nuts, and of those 10, not a single one called for oil. That being the case, I think you're fine skipping the oil. If it doesn't seem liquid enough, warm it up before pouring. If you try it, be sure to come back and let us know how it goes!


How to increase spiciness without abusing hot spices?

If you wish to explore adding spiciness to a dish, there are two primary methods for increasing the heat: additive and reductive. The one you choose will depend on the dish and what you are trying to get out of it.

For something like a simple oil and pasta dish, the latter may be preferable, whereas with something like a three meat chili the former may be better.

One that I couldn't quite class was thermal. The capsaicin acts on the VR1 Ion Channel, which is somewhat heat dependent. At higher heat (in excess of 42'C/107'F), the channel remains open longer and gaps between openings drop. You may want to avoid reducing the heat of the dish when served. However, this was dependent on a higher ambient temperature, so your subject may need to have a fever or something. For the findings:

  Instead, heat had a localized effect on the reduction of long closures
  between bursts (of ionic receptivity) ... and the elongation of burst durations.
  ...Both membrane lipids and solution ionic strength affected the
  temperature threshold of the activation, but neither diminished the
  response

Reductive Methods

If you wish to simplify your dish, reductive methods would be ideal. They are simply ones in which you would analyze the ingredients that you are using in your dish, assessing which ones either water down or act as solvents of the capsaicin, and then remove them.

Capsaicin is lipophilic, fat soluble. If you have dairy products, excess fat from meat that could have been rendered, and so on, I would remove or substitute these as possible. Alcohol in some contexts can dissolve the capsaicin, however does not typical work in this fashion when consumed or if combined in the same dish (i.e. if the capsaicin has nowhere to dissolve).

Additive Methods

If you are not concerned about adding complexity, additive methods may be ideal. This approach will include not just adding a given capsaicin medium, but could also include adding a variety of them. This would also include adding items like beer, tomato, or really any carbonated, acidic, or alcoholic liquid that enhance expression of flavors generally and not just of capsaicin.

If you add only one medium (ground cayenne, capsaicin extract, etc), you will have only one form of the spiciness. The concentration and distribution of the capsaicin will be singular.

If you think about the dishes' ingredients as a range of slots to fill, food preparation will only distribute the capsaicin of the capsaicin medium into a given number and type of slots. However, if you utilize a number of capsaicin media, then the range of slots will begin to open up and the expression of the spiciness will become more diverse.

Although I am unsure how to express this in chemical terms, I think that this is a decent way of explaining the phrase "the heat builds." A "building heat" is one that relies on more than one capsaicin medium; a good case for this might be a 4-pepper chili where the heat is derived from multiple types of hot peppers.


Layer of yeast on top of sourdough discard?

Sourdough culture is partly yeast.  Since this container was made up of sourdough taken out of your primary culturing vessel, and not fed, that is probably dead yeast that floated to the top. After all, it hasn't had any source of sugar since you put it in the fridge.


Can I dry-brine a turkey crown while it's defrosting?

In summary, yes, you can dry-brine while thawing.

The effect will proceed no faster than the turkey thaws, as the diffusion of the salt cannot proceed into frozen meat.

I cannot recommend thawing at room temperature, which is not one of the four safe thawing methods.

Instead, you should place your turkey crown on a rack over a tray, and salt it liberally, including any other herbs or spices you choose (although these flavors will remain at the surface).  Then place it into the refrigerator for 24 hours or more.  You don't really need three days as indicated in the recipe linked in the question, although it will do no harm to let the turkey sit longer.  The amount of salt you apply is finite, so you are not going to "overbrine".

Don't cover it or uncover it for the last 24 hours of resting time; the open air circulation will encourage some drying of the skin and giving you a crispier result.


Are there ways in which you can overdo your thickening?

No, you can do something to underthicken it (make a darker roux than the recipe intended by accidentally heating for too long), and you can get lumps in it, but there is no common mistake(1) which can cause too thick a sauce.

From your description, it seems like you simply used way too much flour. 120 g to the cup is a pretty common conversion factor for flour (as always with volume-to-weight conversion, it's not perfect, but good enough). 1/4 cup of flour would be 30 gram, not 60.

Also, this recipe seems flawed in suggesting a 1:1 ratio for the roux to weight instead by volume. You probably needed 30 g flour and 30 g butter, not 30 flour and 60 butter. Sometimes it is common to overbutter roux, but not by such a margin, and the additional fat is more commonly added later, not during making. The 1:1 volume ratio suggests the recipe maker didn't know what they were doing, so I wouldn't be surprised at the recipe as a whole being suboptimal.

(1) Before people start correcting me: Technically, there are ways to overthicken. For example, you could cook out most of the liquid, but you'd need to forget it on the stove for an hour or two, and if that happened, you'd probably would be complaining of burnt sauce instead of thick sauce. Also, if you somehow managed to add another thickener without noticing, such as throwing in a pinch of xanthan insted of pinch of salt - you see we're dealing with extremely improbable scenarios here.


Various references, including this one from Lantic sugar note the shelf-life of granulated white sugar as indefinite or effectively forever.

Presuming, likely, that it is stored as you note in a sealed container.


Food safe zip ties do exist. A thin rolling pin or knife steel could make a handle crossbar for a couple of piping guns, and palette knives or narrow cutting boards could be useful as structural elements to cross-tie the piping guns too. Everything made out of food safe parts :)


Will swishing or moving a teabag around affect the steeping time in any way?

You are not hurting the flavor.
In theory, it will shorten the steeping time a miniscule (probably imperceptable) amount, but the effect is more psychologial perception than reality.
I pour boiling hot water over my teabag and start my timer for five minutes and don't touch or swirl the tea bag. If the bag sits in the hot water 20% longer (6 minutes instead of 5), I would be lying if I tried to pretend that I could preceive a taste difference from the previous cuppa I'd sipped. I cannot.
Costs you nothing - so try it and see if you can taste any difference.


Is it safe to freeze raw garlic in vacuum-sealed (FoodSaver) bags?

Clearly, your concern is clostridium botulinum.  Freezing does not kill the spores, which potentially produce the toxin that causes botulism.  However, it does stop their growth, as long as you freeze quickly, and your freezer remains below 0 degree F (-18 C).  Therefore, freezing is safe for the storage of garlic.

You will need to take care when thawing.  It is best to use the refrigerator if you plan thaw the whole package.

Now, while the vacuum bag is not a safety issue in this circumstance, there are probably more convenient ways to freeze your garlic so that you don't have to put a bunch of garlic through freeze thaw cycles, which not only will destroy the texture of the garlic, but will also create a higher risk of spoilage.  These include, (a) just place whole cloves in smaller zip freezer bags, and freeze flat so that you can remove a clove or two at a time and keep the rest frozen, (b) chop and freeze flat in zip bag, then grate or chop off what you need, or (c) blend with 2 parts oil and freeze in a container (do not keep this at room temperature). This should remain soft and allow you to scoop out what you need to use.


The FDA recognizes 9. Here's how they put it on their official website:

Certified colors are synthetically produced (or human-made) and used widely because they impart an intense, uniform color, are less expensive, and blend more easily to create a variety of hues. There are nine certified color additives approved for use in the United States... Certified food colors generally do not add undesirable flavors to foods.

Clicking deeper, the FDA reveals the ingredients that are officially allowed to be called "coloring" on food labels.

FD&C Blue Nos. 1 and 2, FD&C Green No. 3, FD&C Red Nos. 3 and 40, FD&C Yellow Nos. 5 and 6, Orange B, Citrus Red No. 2, annatto extract, beta-carotene, grape skin extract, cochineal extract or carmine* paprika oleoresin, caramel color, fruit and vegetable juices, saffron (Note: Exempt color additives are not required to be declared by name on labels but may be declared simply as colorings or color added)

So these must be the actual 9 ingredients that are "Certified Synthetic Colors":

FD&C Blue Nos. 1 and 2, FD&C Green No. 3, FD&C Red Nos. 3 and 40, FD&C Yellow Nos. 5 and 6, Orange B, Citrus Red No. 2.

The rest:

annatto extract, beta-carotene, grape skin extract, cochineal extract or carmine* paprika oleoresin, caramel color, fruit and vegetable juices, saffron

are not synthetic, but they can still be called "coloring" on the ingredient list. BTW, cochineal extract and carmine are made from powdered bugs.
Definitely, artificial colors like Red 40 are high on the list of "scary because we don't know what they are" things. I do find that particular labeling odd because "Certified Synthetic Color" is not exactly a household term.
*EDIT March 24, 2017
As of 2009, cochineal extract and carmine are off the "natural colors" list:

Until 2009, cochineal was one of many dyes that fell under the umbrella term "natural color" on ingredients lists. But because cochineal provokes severe allergic reactions in some people, the Food and Drug Administration requires carmine and cochineal extract to be explicitly identified in ingredients lists.
Aside from its role as an allergen, cochineal has no known health risks, although those who keep kosher or choose not to eat animal products will want to keep their distance. In addition to food, cochineal is used as a dye in cosmetics products, including lipstick, and at least one person has reported a severe allergic reaction to a cochineal dye used in a pill coating.

-LiveScience.com


How do I make home-made Vietnamese or thai rice noodles?


How long does it take to cook eggs safely as a function of temperature?

You can find out more than you'd ever want to know about cooking eggs safely in the International Egg Pasteurization Manual.  The standard USDA guidelines for pasteurization of plain whole eggs require 3.5 minutes minimum holding time at 140F (60C).

(Note: Holding temp here refers to egg temperature itself in liquid form: see edit for clarification below.  These times/temps are NOT sous vide water bath temperatures for eggs in shells.)

As you can read in that document (particularly Table 6 on page 12 and Table 29 on page 25), adding in small amounts of salt or sugar increases the requirement for pasteurization by various amounts, up to 6 degrees F (3.3 degrees C).  Yolks or whites alone also have different numbers.

So, it's really hard to generalize here.  Particularly if you start to include any dish that may contain eggs, the required pasteurization temperature may vary a lot.  If you mix in eggs with a good growth medium and then slow-cook that mixture for a couple hours before it hits ~130F, there will be a lot more bacteria to kill than in an intact whole egg, hence requiring a longer or higher temperature process to make sure the food is safe.  And different textures of food, different moisture levels, etc. will also affect pasteurization.  Yes, in general if you hold eggs long enough above 130F, you should eventually kill off enough bacteria to make the food safe to eat.  But there's no easy formula for it, particularly if you include mixing other things with the eggs.

If you want to be safe, the easiest thing is often to buy pasteurized eggs or follow the 60C/140F recommendation for 3.5 minutes with whole eggs to pasteurize them whole yourself.  Then you can mix or combine them with other foods with less worry.  The only major egg property impaired by pasteurization at 140F is the foaming of egg whites.  (Egg white alone can be pasteurized at 136F (57.7C) for 6.3 minutes, which will retain much of the foaming properties.  With whole eggs, going above 140F, even by a degree or two, begins to inhibit other baking properties; see the linked document for details.)

EDIT: After a comment pointed out some ambiguity here, let me note that the linked document is only about liquid egg mixtures.  That is, if you break your whole eggs and bring that mixture to 140F, they will be pasteurized in 3.5 minutes.  If you are cooking eggs in shells in a water bath, that's going to be a lot more unpredictable.  Larger eggs will take longer to come to temperature, eggs that start colder will take longer to come to temperature, and water baths that have a very active circulator will heat eggs a lot more quickly than a static water bath.  If you want to ensure safety for eggs cooked in shells, you'll have to hold quite a bit longer to ensure they reach adequate internal temp, but that time is unpredictable because of the above factors.  There are sous vide guides out there, as noted in the question, that give much longer times to try to ensure safety for eggs in shells.  Sous vide guides can't give minimum temp/time with as much precision as the pasteurization guide in the link here, because most people aren't monitoring the internal temp of their food in a water bath.

I was originally trying to address the question about cooking eggs in general (not just "boiled eggs in shell") and dishes containing them safely, which would mostly involve liquid eggs and various mixtures including them. And the only way to be precise about minimum time/temp is to specify final internal holding temp, as you'd measure a turkey or whatever.  Minimum overall cook times will always be estimates.


Cleaning tin discoloration on copper/tin lid

Well you can clean the copper and the tin with some tamarind, it is a trick we use in our home to clean the copper and brass vessels and they come out to be very clean. Your may notice discoloration again in some 20 or 30 days after cleaning but then you can clean it again!
Just wet the cleaning surface with some water and apply tamarind or simple tamarind paste to it, then simply scrub it with a normal scrubber and  wash it.


How to keep caramel from hardening prematurely?

I'm sorry, but what you are asking for is not possible. Caramel is a hard substance (I mean pure caramel here, not the stuff which has added dairy or acid and never hardens). You cannot even keep it melted the way you can do with water, because its decomposition temperature is lower than its melting temperature - at temperatures at which it is liquid, it is not staying chemically the same, but progressing to charcoal.

So, you have to buy more molds, or make your recipe in several batches. But you can't just keep liquid caramel around until your molds are ready to reuse. This would be breaking the laws of physics.


What would cause bubbles in confit garlic stored in oil?

A jar of garlic in oil at room temperature (whether or not is was simmered first - pressure-canning might be different) is indeed a ripe environment for botulism. I'm not clear why you would store the product at room temperature if you have even a passing familiarity with botulism? If you store garlic in oil, it should be refrigerated. The second link includes a specific mention:

  The same hazard exists for roasted garlic stored in oil.

Chuck it. The fact that there could be benign fermentations going on is not worth the risk of the non-benign bacteria and resultant poisoning.


Is there an alternative wrapping for tamales?

I've had the same problem once. The first substitute is banana leaves. But they're not easy to find either.

The second one is using big leaves of chard. Tamales will be done in the same time and you could eat the leaf if you want. I've tried it once and it came out great.

Here it's a recipe for tamales from Michoacan made with chard. Here it is a graphic step by step recipe for tamales with chard. They are written in Spanish, let me know if you need a translator ;)

PS. My mexican mother in law used to do it with chard.


Does raw honey need to be prepared before consumption?

Some honey has more or less moisture than others.  Less moisture will cause honey to more readily crystallize. It is perfectly fine to use it in a crystallized state. If you find that your honey has crystallized and do not like the texture, just place the jar in some warm water and stir it.


How to substitute unsweetened baker's chocolate for powdered cocoa in cake recipe

It's just a really basic (plain-vanilla, if you will ;) chocolate cake recipe. You'd be better off just finding a basic chocolate cake recipe that calls for unsweetened chocolate in the first place, especially if you're new-ish to chocolate cake.

Otherwise the substitution that Sobachatina suggests above requires some fancy recipe-adjusting work on your part. Cocoa & fat (melted butter, usually) can be substituted for whole chocolate, but it's not really such an exact science, so I don't think the reverse substitution will give you the results you're looking for.


Is Hobgoblin a good substitute for Newcastle Brown in a beef stew recipe?

Hobgoblin is a dark brown ale and would work just fine as a replacement for Newcastle Nut Brown Ale for cooking purposes. Newcastle is more widely available than Hobgoblin, so is often used in recipes, but at the end of the day, any decent brown ale will do.


How to keep pumpkin fresh for a long time?

According to the National Center for Home Food Preservation (emphasis added):

  Freezing is the easiest way to preserve pumpkin, and it yields the
  best quality product. Select full-colored mature pumpkin with fine
  texture (not stringy or dry). Wash, cut into cooking-size sections and
  remove seeds. Cook until soft in boiling water, in steam, in a
  pressure cooker, or in an oven. Remove pulp from rind and mash. To
  cool, place pan containing pumpkin in cold water and stir occasionally
  (So Easy to Preserve, 2006). Pack into rigid containers leaving
  headspace, and freeze.

They offer suggest a variety of cooking methods before freezing the flesh of the pumpkin, but you may find that roasting offers the least work and best flavor development.

Pressure canning of cubed (but not mashed or pureed) pumpkin is also possible (as pumpkin is a low acid fruit, boiling water canning is not appropriate).   You should use only a trusted recipe if you choose to go this route.

You can also make pumpkin leather, although this does not to leave the pumpkin suitable for many recipes, and is only suitable if this the actual product you desire.


Why does white vinegar taste better when at restaurants?

According to a quick search on Google, there are two other types of vinegar served in fish and chips shops along with malt vinegar.

The first (and my best guess) is onion vinegar -- which is white vinegar that has been used to pickle onions. This is clear, but at minimum contains onions and salt, and perhaps sugar and other pickling spices. (I should note that the recipe I linked to uses malt vinegar to pickle the onions, but you could certainly achieve the same result with white vinegar.)

The second vinegar is actually called non brewed condiment, and isn't actually vinegar. It's ascetic acid, water, and a bit of caramel coloring. The coloring would make it brown, but it wouldn't have the malt flavor.


Made oven ghee - what is the liquid at the top of my cold ghee?

Some butter is mixed with sunflower oil in order to make it more spreadable. Have you checked the ingredients list (if there is one) on the butter?


Which is better, baking in glass or metal?

Because glass is an insulator, it takes longer to heat up, but then stays at the temprature longer. Metal heats up quicker but also doesn't stay warm for as long a time. Here are several interesting links that are helpful for deciding what to pick for each situation.

  chow.com: Rushing says glass is best for foods like cakes, which
  bake for a relatively long time at lower temperatures. As in a thick
  cast iron pan, cornbread baked in glass will brown more evenly than if
  you use a thin metal dish. However, glass bakeware cannot be made in
  large sizes and is generally unavailable with a nonstick
  coating—Teflon is very hard to apply to glass. Other disadvantages of
  glass are that it is more expensive and much heavier than metal, and
  it can shatter if its temperature changes too quickly.

  yumsugar.com: According to Lauren Chattman, author of The Baking
  Answer Book, clear glass, much like dark metal, absorbs heat, making
  it ideal for crisp-crusted pies but much less so for bar cookies,
  quick breads, and fruit crisps, which can easily become burnt.


How can I roast melon seeds, without oven or too much oil?

I've sometimes toasted pumpkin seeds (very similar) in an enamelled cast iron frying pan. I don't add oil to the pan, but the seeds are better if you mix a little oil with them, especially if you want spices to stick. In that case stir about a teaspoon of oil (olive, sunflower etc.) into a generous handful of seeds, add any spices/salt, put into a preheated pan, and stir frequently until they're done.

I wouldn't use non stick for this because a dry pan can get very hot in places, perhaps too hot, but bare stainless steel  also works.

This stove top method is quicker than an oven especially if you only want a small batch, but it's more important to start with the seeds nicely dry than if you're using an oven. It probably uses more electricity than a toaster oven though.


How does the meat in Weisswurst get so white?

The real question should be "what makes sausages pink" - but more later.

All meat turns greyish-white or brown when cooked. This is due to the myoglobin, which makes raw meat look pink or red, being not heat stable. When cooked it denaturates to metmyoglobin, which is grey-brown.

For pinkish sausages, curing salts are used. They contain sodium nitrite, which transforms the myoglobin to a more stable form nitrosomyoglobin, that becomes Nitrosomyochromogen when heated - and is red.

For Weisswurst, simple table salt is used in a sausage mixture that contains light coloured meats (veal, sometimes pork), fat and water, hence the whiteish-grey colour. Curing salts have a preserving effect that simple table salt does not have. Traditionally, Weisswurst was therefore supposed to eaten before noon. Modern refrigerators have made this former necessity obsolete, yet the custom remains.


Problems drying out chili sauce and in to a powder

Ask around for someone who has an Excalibur or similar style tray dehydrator. One of these coupled with a silicone (or siliconized) sheet on each tray should get you where you want to be. You might want to add a thickening agent of some sort if your recipe does not have one already.

Why this style? The fan is across the back of the machine and blows evenly across all of the trays instead of the fan on top down through the middle type like the Nesco.

Good luck.


Making chocolate covered strawberries without parchment paper

If you are glazing only a few strawberries you can pick up the strawberries with a (wooden) skewer (toothpicks might be too short) and then poke the other end into styrofoam, a sponge or anything similar or put these into a tall and heavy glass.

Source


What's this odd stuff coming out of my meringue?

Definitely egg white seepage, by the looks of the shape of it you've either over whipped the egg whites OR let them sit for too long before cooking which meant they spilt slightly before going in the oven.

Another possibility is the oven wasn't hot enough to begin with OR the environment (kitchen) was too warm.

When ever I've cooked meringue I've had the oven on 180 for 10min then turned it off and left the meringue in undisturbed over night. Never had any issue's that way. The only time I've had seepage is when I've beaten my eggs then got disturbed by a check coming on and having to leave the whites for 5-10min before shaping and cooking...


How many times can you reheat boiled eggs?

I don't think there will be a number of times which is safe. Each time you reheat, you increase the risk that you've not killed all the bacteria. Guildlines are usually to only reheat food only once and to make sure you're essentially cooking it through again, i.e. getting it hot enough to kill off any bacteria. (No source specifically but I have a level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene Qualification)

For boiled eggs specifically there is an article here. I'll highlight that eggs are one of the "danger foods" which you should be more careful about.


Why is good heat transfer required for making fond?

I think it's a simple as bad heat transfer often meaning uneven heat transfer, leading to burning. Burnt fond won't deglaze successfully. Compare deglazing with making a roux: in both cases you want the proteins and starches to be browned (by the Malliard reaction and caramelization) but not burnt.
When making fond you want relatively high heat to promote these reactions and avoid the food (particularly some watery vegetables) from just sitting there in a lightly steaming puddle.


When you buy an uncooked frozen pizza, if it is soft does that mean it hasn’t been frozen?

If the pizza wasn't exposed to anything or just left sitting out for hours on end, it should be fine. Thawing and refreezing over short periods of time won't do much, but they may effect the taste/quality of the food.

You should be fine!


Cooking at low temperature on induction cooktop

You can use a water bath and see if it will stay low enough for the desired time. You can play around with the water amount to achieve more consistency.

Even with the water bath, you won't get actual 50 degrees for 15 minutes, rather you'll have some slowly rising temperature which will stay in a hopefully acceptable range for the 15 minutes. This is because a cooktop is simply the wrong tool for the job, and especially the induction ones can be worse than the oldtime ones.

If you really want low temperatures for a sustained time, use an oven (if yours goes that low) or an electronically controlled cooking device.


I wouldn't eat it if I were you. I don't think it is safe to eat if it is 6 years out of date. I recommend you to throw it and make another one with new ingredients.


White stains & muddy deposits in stainless steel pots

Boiling water leads to evaporation, which leads to concentration of anything dissolved in the water (and there will, unless your water is distilled, always be something dissolved in it); that concentration can lead the water to be supersaturated and for trace minerals to precipitate out of solution. If you are getting water from your municipal mains, chances are it's perfectly safe either way.

The appearance of 'muddiness,' however, seems very weird to me. Water can't become muddy on its own; by 'muddy' do you mean 'cloudy'?


I failed to make yogurt, what have I made?

The white part is curd and the yellow part is whey. They can be separated in milk by the presence of acid, and helped along by enzymatic action. More acid typically yields better separation. Fresh cheeses are produced by directly adding acid such as vinegar or lemon juice. In cultured diary products such as yogurt and all other cheese, the acid is produced by bacteria like Lactobacillus. The reason fermentation acts as a short-term preservative is that many harmful pathogens do not fare well in an acidic environment, and when fermentation proceeds properly the "good" bacteria will simply outcompete the "bad."

When milk starts to "go off," that's because it's actually going off in the sense that most other people understand the term: it's starting to go bad. Whatever small amount of bacteria was in the milk has started to multiply, and has started to lower the pH. Coffee is not acidic enough to curdle fresh milk, but if the milk itself is slightly acidified then coffee will curdle it.

The fact that your yogurt separated so thoroughly is a sign that some acid-forming bacterium did serious work on your milk. I like Siggi's but I'm not a microbiologist, so I can't say whether you just had a weird batch of yogurt or there was already something living in your milk. It's probable that whatever turned your yogurt into cheese is in fact harmless. But it's also not improbable that something very unpleasant grew alongside it.

I think you got lucky. This is probably how our ancestors figured out how make different cheeses, but it's not exactly a reliable method. It doesn't help that commercial milk production is potentially a less sanitary process than it might have been in the past (although this might depend on historical place and time), and that the bacteria living in your refrigerator are probably very different from the bacteria living in animals stomachs and wherever else people used to store their milk in prehistoric times. I don't know if they had listeria back then, but we have it now and it is something you absolutely do not want inside you.

Throw it out. Unless you know any microbiologist friends, in which case you should bring it to their lab have fun seeing what's in it.


Why is the Chicken too hard in the outside but soggy in the inside?

When poaching chicken (whether in soup or in some other liquid), you need to be careful not to cook the chicken too long. Overcooked boiled chicken will be flavorless and have a bad texture.

For chicken breasts, if they're whole, don't cook the breasts for more than 10 to 15 minutes at a simmer, although you can leave the meat in the liquid for another 15 minutes so long as the heat is turned off. Here are some recipes for poached chicken.

On the other hand, if you're trying to make chicken soup, you're going to want to cook the chicken much longer, but that meat will be fairly inedible. By simmering chicken on the bone for an hour or two, you'll get a nice flavorful stock, but you'll overcook the meat.


What should I do with a just-baked lasanga?

The lasanga will be even better 4 hours from now, but you definitely need to get it cold. Bacteria grow between 40°F and 140°F (often called the "danger zone"), so you need to get it cold now. I wouldn't put hot lasagna directly into the fridge, though, as it will raise the temperature of your fridge. Let it cool for a little while, maybe even let it sit on some ice, then refrigerate.

You can re-heat it all at once, in a low temperature (250°F or so) oven, or cut into individual servings and microwave it.


Coffee flavored melted chocolate for drizzling over cookies?

If you can get instant espresso powder (most big grocery stores in the US have it) that's what you want to use. NO WATER, small amounts of water will ruin chocolate, cause it to seize.

Just sprinkle some powder in while the chocolate is melting. It will blend right in.

If you can't get espresso powder, you can use instant coffee, just be sure that it's a fine powder, or powder it yourself in a spice or coffee grinder.

To be sure that the instant coffee is fine enough, you might consider sifting it. Either powdered regular instant coffee or even the instant espresso might benefit from that.


Help! Chicken and Wild rice soup needs some extra flavor

This may not be your issue, but the number one problem that cooks have is in the area of salt. Soup needs a lot of salt unfortunately or it tastes bleh and insipid.


Why is milk powder used in bread machine recipes?

Milk or milk powder are not strictly needed in bread recipes.  There are many formulas that omit it:  the minimal ingredients for a loaf are water, flour and yeast; salt is probably essential for a loaf that is tasty.

Milk (or milk powder) is a way of enhancing the dough to:

Make a softer loaf (due to the milkfat acting as a tenderizer by interfering with gluten production)
Add flavor to the loaf
Enhance browning of the crust due to the potential carmelization of the milk sugars

The use of milk powder as opposed to liquid milk may be just for convenience, or because there is sufficient hydration in the loaf from other reasons, so it avoids adding additional water as part of the milk.

You may choose to omit the milk powder, but you will lose its benefits.  Instead, I suggest you find one of the myriad bread recipes designed for bread machines that doesn't include it if you don't want to use it.

The cratering issue is likely to be unrelated to milk or milk powder.


How can I thicken an already cooked pie filling?

If your filling is similar to a custard, consider adding a lightly whisked egg and baking on medium-low heat for maybe 20 minutes. If you must stove-cook it, stir only enough to combine the ingredients well, as whisking too much will weaken/break the proteins.

Protein is the key to thickening things like custards and other fillings. Coconut milk is lower in protein than cow milk. The heat will allow the proteins to coagulate and form a sort of net that traps the rest of the ingredients, causing a thickening action. Refrigerating it for a short time will also contribute to solidifying the protein network and help set it.


If I can't find baking soda or baking powder, what should I do?

1. Chemical leaveners

There are two "oldfashioned" chemical leaveners, both still used today in traditional German and Scandinavian gingerbread recipes:

Potassium carbonate (potash or pearl ash) and
Ammonium bicarbonate (salt of heartshorn)

They do have their own quirks and pitfalls, but if nothing else is available...

If you can get baking soda, mix with cream of tartar to make baking powder.
If your store does not stock it, you pharmacy most likely will carry "sodium hydrogen carbonate" (which is another name for baking soda) either as treatment for heartburn, it's an antacid (because it reacts with acid, neutralzing it and making these nice bubbles, as we know from baking...) or as topical treatment for allergic reactions of the skin (poison ivy and others).

2. Biological leaveners

This boils down to Saccharomyces cerevisiae, aka. baker's yeast or brewer's yeast. Of course you get very different results and have to follow a different procedure. But here are some recipes where they are used somewhat interchangeably, e.g. some types of pancakes or waffles and, obviously, bread (vs. sodabread).
The charming thing about yeast is, that if your are really, really far from a store, you can still get your hands on yeast: Start a sourdough using the yeasts naturally occuring on fruits or the air around you.
Probably not the kind of substitution you had in mind, though.

3. No leaveners

With good technique, you can incorporate a lot of air (because that's what all leaveners are supposed to do) in your baking goods by whipping your eggs well. There are various approaches:

You can whip the whole eggs.
Whip the yolks (with hot water or over a water bath to stabilize them) to Zabaione-like consistency.
Whip the whites and fold into your batter.

You will want to bake these batters right away before the bubbles get a chance to burst. The air will expand during baking and the hardening egg/flour-mixture will trap them in the baked goods. Contrary to many recipes out there there is no real need to bake a pound cake or even sponge cake with baking powder if it's done right.

Other recipes without leavener (or rather with the egg trapping steam generated by a rather high water content) are the members of the popover family (Yorkshire pudding in the UK, Pfitzauf in Swabia, some dutch pancakes) and pâté a choux.

Puff pastry relies on thin layers of butter separating the layers of floury dough and trapping steam between them.


Ginger is a root. Ginger root is ginger.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger

"Ginger or ginger root is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice."

If you write ginger too many times it doesn't look like a word anymore.


Why yoghurt comes out different every time?

The explanation is easy, the correction isn't.

Bacterial growth is an exponential process, but with all the environmental variables, you get even more trouble than a simple exponential. Tiny changes in the initial conditions can result in completely different end states. What you are seeing in the "sour" state is either too much bacterial activity for your taste, or activity from the wrong kind of bacteria - thermophilic cultures produce a more sour yogurt than mesophilic ones.

Note that the low-sourness state is not obviously the preferable one, and your recipe may well have been geared towards producing the sour state.

The way to getting to the exact result every time is to be more consistent in the initial conditions. A laboratory works with much higher precision than what you describe, not only in temperature but also in selecting the culture type and the culture density and reinoculating with pure culture.

Your best chance here would be to try using lower temperatures and see if it gets better. If you can find a temperature in which you can get the creamy style yogurt consistently, great. If not, you might need to find other ways to ensure precision, such as using a commercial culture and not reusing your own.


Can gluten-free flour be cooked and eaten as a hot breakfast cereal?

Yes, you can do it. It will taste more like a pudding (not necessarily wheat pudding) than like a cereal. The consistency will depend on the grind size, and can get down to standard starch pudding, or be a bit gritty like semolina pudding.

Most people won't find the taste of a pure flour + water or even flour + milk pudding interesting enough, so you can experiment adding stuff to it. You're only limited by your own imagination.


Nutrient impact of squeezing water out of frozen chopped spinach

One way of looking at it is that nutrient density is increased due to the removal of water. Minerals will not have been drained away at any rate.

Example from nutritiondata.self.com:

                            water content, g per 100g  Iron     vitamin A
Unprepared thawed spinach   90.2                       1.9       11725
cooked drained              88.9                       2.0       12061

I assume more nutrients are cooked away rather than squeezed but that was the data available.


Is there a way to make Beef Jerky at home?

This is Alton Brown's recipe for homemade beef jerky, including a way to kludge yourself a dehydrator. You place the meat between AC filters and bungee them to a box fan to blow air through them for 8-12 hours.


Why is putting an egg in the microwave not recommended?

This probably refers to whole eggs mostly...

A microwave can boil water very rapidly, and a tight but fragile container like a whole egg will violently rupture if such rapid boiling happens inside it, because the overpressure inside it is already significant when the shell finally breaks.

Here is a video showing an experiment with ca. 180 eggs in a microwave oven, which after a minute or two rupture simultaneously and with enough force to blow the oven open, with debris being propelled several meters.


What temperature of water will kill yeast?

There are multiple temperature points per yeast family might be of Interest:

The growth limit temperature, see this paper.  It indicates as high as 45°C for some and 20°C for others.
'Injury' temperature (for bread and brew generally thought be around 120°F)
Death temperature.

Keep in mind for bread: Bread Yeast at higher temperatures produces off-flavours that may be undesirable to your goal.  If you are trying to speed up your dough, you may want to add the yeast to water with some food and let develop for a while before mixing in the flour.


Would freezing affect the flavour of mint tea?

Some of the volatile flavors will be diminished, but I've managed to make fairly good drinks with the help of mint that I kept frozen. In my experience, freezer burn starts to become visible after two or three months, and starts to harm flavor probably around 4-6 months.

I'm not sure preparing the drink will work really well, but if you just defrost the drink in the refrigerator, it probably won't be terrible. Active thawing with heat will probably cause some harm. Many infusions and teas become a bit cloudy and lose color after bottling or freezing, which is why most bottled teas use an enzyme (not usually a listed ingredient) designed to mitigate that.


Provision is highly variable. The major city nearest me has a comprehensive adult education programme which includes cookery courses over several sessions and single topic lessons. But where I live there's nothing provided by the local authority. When they do exist, these courses can be quite affordable.

I have also come across a restaurant that doubled as a cookery school, but it closed last year. They tended to run one-off sessions but overall covered quite a range of foods, and there were sessions most weeks for a while.

There's quite a range of cookery schools  in the UK, but these are often aimed more at people who want to be chefs than at enthusiasts. Some however (often based around a restaurant or hotel) run weekend residential courses on particular topics (for example the River Cottage). For a price of course, and not a small one. You can even combine this with a holiday to a region famed for its food, such as Tuscany, and learn to cook the local specialities.

At perhaps the more accessible end of the market, I know of a major organic farm that currently runs single sessions but I'm sure has run courses in the past.


Why does a (vodka) martini often come with an olive on a stick?

Olives (and onions) are a very traditional garnish used by bartenders to add a slightly savory flavor to a drink. As with many things behind the bar, they're used nowadays largely because they're iconic, but they do have a subtle effect on flavor.

It's not really known where traditional garnishes such as citrus peels, cherries, olives/onions, and mint sprigs originated, but they're found in the earliest known published bartender's manual. (This was Jerry Thomas' How to Mix Drinks or the Bon-Vivant's Companion; cocktail historian David Wondrich's book Imbibe!, which reorganizes and provides context for the original, is required reading for the modern cocktail nerd.) These garnishes may have started with early drink families called cobblers and juleps which feature fresh berries and mint, respectively. Over time, drinks got more elaborate and drinkers came to expect something added to their drinks to give them more visual appeal. Here's a great, brief article that breaks down some of the history and usage of these.

At first, as seen in other early bartending guides, bartenders just tossed whatever they had (usually preserved or pickled items that kept well including nuts, olives, and cherries) into the drink on hand. Eventually they sorted themselves out and figured out that olives or onions went best with savory drinks such as the Martini, and cherries went best with sweeter drinks such as the Manhattan.  The tradition solidified a few years before Prohibition in the US, and was one of the practices that survived the resulting upheaval in drinking traditions.

In the 1950s, Martini practices grew more variable; when ordering, you'd be quizzed about whether you wanted vodka or gin, shaken or stirred, an olive or a twist, without any particular standard. The olive may have become even more tightly associated with the Martini later on, when drinks began skewing to sweet and fruity in the late 1960s and 1970s, and fresh citrus started disappearing behind the bar. For whatever reason, bartenders also seem to have forgotten how to store vermouth (which, since it's a wine, will go off if stored at room temperature and allowed to oxidize) and the olives may have been the only thing preventing Martinis from being unpleasantly bitter. By the 1980s, the "dirty" Martini (which adds a dash or more of olive brine) emerged as one of the few options for drinkers who wanted a non-sweet cocktail at a bar. Fortunately, we've now come full circle, and a Martini closer to the original pre-Prohibition version can be found at many cocktail bars (usually with a twist of lemon peel).  But the olive has now been firmly established as the traditional Martini garnish for multiple generations.

One of the main reasons that the briny olive works as a garnish is because a small amount of salt is a flavor enhancer, which is why just about every savory dish that we eat (and some sweet ones, ala salted caramel) contain at least some salt. There aren't many drinks where salt is added directly, but there are certain drinks (such as the Margarita) where it's an important part of the flavor, and some modern bartenders with a culinary background use a couple drops of salt solution in almost all of their drinks. Some people particularly like this in a Martini, especially if that's what they're used to.

So, the tl;dr: It's now seen as traditional, some people really like the salty flavor it adds, and it works pretty well in a largely savory drink like the Martini.


Which parts of fresh Fenugreek am I supposed to throw off before attempting to dry them out completely?

I would just pull off all the little stems with leaves on them off the big main stem and leave it at that.

You can remove the yellow leaves if you wish, but there's no harm in leaving them on. I presume once dry you will crush all the leaves and small stems for storage, so leaving the yellow leaves on will not make any difference.

Removing the big main stem will simply help speed up the drying time.

For convenience of moving and turning you can leave them complete, but you should remove the smaller stems with leaves once they're dry, the large stem doesn't generally get used.


Which emulsifer to use for low viscosity emulsions of 10-20% fat and water

Milk
You mention milk in your question, so let's start there. Milk is about 2-4% fat, 8-10% milk solids, and the rest water. It has your ideal viscosity, is great cold, and carries flavor well. Commercial milk doesn't separate & is remarkably stable. (It's important to note that fresh-from-the-cow milk separates rather easily, and is therefore generally called "cream top" milk.)
It is pretty close to fitting your parameters. So how do they do it?
Homogenization
Homogenization is done by forcing milk though an extremely narrow opening at pressure above 2000 psi (and as much as several times higher). The combination of extreme pressure and turbulence causes the fat to break up into tiny bits.
The ultrasmall fat globules combine with the naturally occurring emulsifiers in the milk solids (whey proteins, casein) to form an emulsion that is a impressively stable.
Home Homogenization
You don't, really. I'm not aware of any home homogenization methods that would produce something as stable as milk, as you describe.
Why not? When I think of "high pressure though a narrow opening," my mind goes directly to a pressure washer. Most of the home (especially electric-powered) pressure washers operate below 2000psi. Gasoline-powered and commercial pressure washers do get above 2000psi used at the low end of homogenization. Pressure washers are not rated for food safety.
Perhaps you could devise a way to ensure all the necessary parts of a gas powered pressure washer were food safe and sanitized, and spray your emulsion into a stainless steel tank for capture, and achieve some sort of very stable, low viscosity emulsion. But it doesn't seem practical, not to mention there being obvious safety concerns.
Another way?
Maybe? I focused on milk specifically because it's a concrete example. Your question is a bit more hypothetical, which makes a specific answer harder to nail down. Given a more concrete example, there could be simpler answer. Depending on what ingredients you want to emulsify, for how long you want to hold it, and how you want to use it, a reasonable combination of emulsifiers (like lecithin), thickeners (like starch, or agar agar), heat, pressure, mixing, and thinking differently might solve your problem. Whipped cream isn't a stable emulsion, but squirty whipped cream cans solve the problem a different way.


Can freezer jam not be frozen if sealed?

Only recipes from trusted sources should be used for shelf stable canning, as they are proven to produce a product with a sufficiently low pH to be safe when stored at room temperature.
The boiling water bath process is a way to create a vacuum seal, it is also a way to get the contents of the jar to near boiling for a certain amount of time, this will kill most microorganisms (any remaining will not be able to thrive in the low pH high sugar environment).
As you are not using a recipe specifically designed for a shelf stable product and you are not putting very hot jam/jelly into the jars prior to processing (you have no way of knowing how hot the center of the jam gets), your jam will not be shelf stable.


What is the best way to rehydrate dried cherries for a sauce if it has absorbed surrounding flavors?

We can't speak to you perception of any off flavors, but the best way to re-hydrate (and perhaps is obvious) is to soak in water or liquid.


How critical is it to store spices in constant temperature?

The small temperature variation is probably not as important as buying whole spices, then toasting and grinding small amounts when you need them. Pre-ground spices lose their flavor and aroma very quickly.


20 or so minutes cooking the meatballs in the sauce has always done the job for me. You want to cook them sufficiently long so that they absorb the moisture and flavour of the sauce, but not too long such that they lose their firm texture. The reverse process of the meat flavouring the sauce is also an important one.

As a side note, it is more advisable to simmer the sauce, rather than boil it, or it will likely become too thick and may even burn.

In general, the combination of initially cooking the meatballs in the oven, and then simmering in the pan is the right way to do things. This ensures that the meatballs are sufficiently cooked, do not fall apart, and have the right firmness. Worth noting is that you should pad off the grease on the meatballs before putting them in the sauce.


What is the standard amount (if there is one) for a "glass" of wine?

It comes from two different measurements, typical wine bottle size, and government alcohol regulations

Typical wine bottles are 750 ml, and this divides exactly into five or six servings of 150 or 125 ml (thanks peter). So many traditional wine glass serves are "exactly" 150 or 125 ml (~5 or 4 oz) depending in which country you live in

For typical government regulation, a standard drink is; a 100 ml glass of table wine, or a 330 ml can of beer, or a 30 ml glass of straight spirits. Each of these contains on average 10 g of alcohol. So many liquor licensing guidelines recommend the serving of wine by 100 ml (3.5 oz) standard drink sizes

Governments will use this to produce such amazing guidelines such as:

For women: Two standard drinks a day, and no more than ten standard drinks a week
For men: Three standard drinks a day, and no more than fifteen standard drinks a week
And for both at least two alcohol-free days every week

In most western countries the standard drink range is from 8 to 12 g of alcohol, except in the USA where it is super-sized to 14 g

Update; references from ICAP

Standard drink sizes
Drink Guidlines


What is the easiest way to remove the papery covers from the peanuts?

Here's someone with a lot of experience doing it! video

Dropping the peanuts into boiling water for a couple of minutes, then draining and rinsing in cold water is supposed to make them easier and quicker to peel.

I've heard freezing them overnight helps.

One method method that I have actually done is to peel them by rubbing them with a towel while they are still warm from being roasted. The trick there is to only roast small batches at a time so you can get to them all before they cool.


The ingredient list on the commercial product already gives you several pointers to work with in building a recipe:

A legume protein is used, with additional binders (tapioca starch). Probably not in plain flour form, since that would result in more of a pancake than a meat like texture.
beet juice and paprika are used both for a reddish colour and to get some of the adstringency/earthyness of meat juice in there. Also, one can assume the end product to be relatively acidic (despite there being an alkali - potassium bicarbonate - present), otherwise beet juice would give you a blue off colour.
At least two layers of smoke flavor - mesquite powder, hickory smoke extract - are used
shiitake and yeast extracts - umami sources
an iron compound - probably not just for enrichment, iron-adstringency is a flavor component in meat taste...


Why does water evaporate from curry better when you off the gas then heat again?

Liquid in the pan actually does evaporate more quickly with boiling; however, you may be pulling more water out of your ingredients for a variety of reasons ie salt or acid is drawing off water. Or ingredients packed together in pan (mushrooms esp get watery packed together)

Surface drying of veg (not immersed )during storage may prevent further water loss when reheating.

Developing a 'skin' can prevent veg and meat from losing moisture.


Ever heard of Gantt charts? They can be extremely useful for visualizing how you're going to work.

In general terms, your instructors will be looking not so much at the form of your plan, but at its content. They want to see that you have thought logically and carefully about each task you have to complete, and have budgeted time carefully.

For example, if you have to cook some pasta, they will want to see that you're putting the water on to boil before working on the sauce; you should always start the 'set it and forget it' tasks early on, so you have time to work on everything else, and (hopefully) everything comes together at more or less the same time.


What should I do if I have added extra water in rice for braising and you can see the rice is turning into sticky rice?

At that point, I'm not sure there's anything you can really do, except maybe take the lid off & attempt to dry it out before it turns entirely to mush.

For next time, the three simplest alternatives would be:

Use less liquid [which may not be possible].
Add the rice later in the process.

or my personal favourite...

Cook the rice separately, in a similar or complementary flavour & combine at the end.


How to increase the carbonation for water Kefir fermentation?

The “fizz” is created by adding the CO2 under pressure, so that it dissolves (native speakers are welcome to add a better term) in the liquid, then fizzes when opened.
For artificially carbonated drinks, either small tablets of frozen CO2 are added when bottling, or the CO2 is pumped into the liquid (think Soda Steam).
For natural CO2, e.g. champagne and kefir, the yeasts must work at least some of the fermentation time in closed containers, the typical process is that for the first, very vigorous fermentation, an airlock prevents pressure buildup, and in a second step, the almost ready drink is bottled and stoppered or corked, so that the remaining yeasts create enough pressure to carbonate the liquid, yet not enough to burst the container, then die back as planned from lack of food or alcohol level.
It is a bit of a fine line, though. If too little sugar (= “yeast food”) is left at the time of bottling, the drink stays mostly flat, if there’s too much, you may be in for a nasty (and potentially dangerous) surprise, like that one year when my darling MIL used “just a few extra flower heads” in her elderflower champagne. If you know your kefir strain, you’ll soon know how much sugar in the second fermentation is just right. For starters, I would simply bottle up according to the recipe’s second step and see what happens. Just make sure you use a sturdy container, that can handle the pressure. And plastic can be safer than glass.


You can find flat bottom woks that work on flat ranges effectively. They are sub-optimal though, as they don't evenly distribute the heat across the sides. In this use a high sided saute pan is just as useful. I have heard of mounts that sit over a burner as well. These are usually useless for home-use because stove heat output is too low.

A wok ring stand will work with most(gas) stovetops and will make your rounded bottom wok usable. They still aren't ideal though because the heat output is still focused on the lower apex of the pan and the sides get much less. therefor heat distribution is still off.

There are also small individual wok burners that run on propane. but most of them are large (think outdoor grill size) and may/or may not, be the solution you need.


Nuts and raisins don't stick to cookies after baking

This likely happens when the fat in the cookie dough sizzles out and make the nuts & raisins slip out, or the cookies expand greatly during baking, pushing out the nuts & raisins.
If possible, try reducing the fat content and the amount of leavening agent of the cookies. Another solution is to roll out a paper thin layer of dough to press onto the tops of the cookies.
If the problem really is due to excessive expanding of the cookies, flipping them upside-down on the baking sheet before placing them in the over might help.


How do I catch drippings on a charcoal grill?

The melting temperature of aluminum is 660C/1220F. It's extremely unlikely your grill will ever achieve that temperature.

Although a rectangular pan doesn't fit a cylinder very well from a geometric perspective, in practice on a grill it fits just fine. Your food is rarely circular in shape either, after all. The Weber grills have a very good reputation as smoking/grilling devices. I wouldn't hesitate.


Why does my roast beef smell wonderful but tastes bland?

If we're talking about a solid, four pound cut of beef - the only flavor you're ever really going to get is on the exterior and just a little bit into the interior of the meat.

That said, cooking in the spices/components you list still may provide liquid gold.  I would simply take some of the liquid that's leftover in the slow cooker after the roast has cooked and make a gravy out of it.  You'll get the flavors you put in and have something to sauce the interior of the meat - that have been flavored with the juices of the meat as well.

Otherwise, if you're looking to 'infuse' more flavor into the beef itself, you'll need to consider something like a stew rather than a whole cut.


If you've added 250ml of milk for 1.5KG of flour then your dough is way too dry, there isn't nearly enough moisture for any kind of bread dough. A typical traditional pizza base recipe uses a ratio of about 5:3 flour to liquid by weight, meaning you'd need about 900ml of liquid for the dough. You've also added milk powder, which also needs to be hydrated, so add about 30ml or so for that as well. If you are using all purpose (plain) flour you should add a bit less water, say 10%, as there's less gluten in it.

When you add the liquid to the flour it's going to be sticky, very sticky in fact, but that's bread making and you can't avoid it. You can oil your hands but that doesn't last, you're better off removing your rings and just cleaning your hands later. As the water incorporates and is absorbed the dough will get less sticky, but pizza dough is going to stay a bit sticky even after it's been kneaded enough, it will then be much less sticky after the first rise.

The recipe you have isn't any kind of pizza base recipe I've ever heard of, milk, milk powder, eggs and sugar are all enriching agents and the dough you'll get isn't going to have the kind of structure you're looking for in a pizza base unless you're looking for some sort of non-traditional brioche style. It's also going to take much longer to rise as these ingredients slow the process. Traditionally a pizza base is flour, water, yeast and salt with olive oil being optional (I put it in).


No mold required!

Simply heat about an inch of oil in a frying pan (less oil if you're making less shells - this is enough for about a dozen), then cook small, flat corn tortillas one at a time.

Cook for about 15 seconds on each side. Once you see bubbles on the tortilla, you're all done if you like soft shells.

If you like more crispy shells, go ahead and fold the tortilla in half, and continue to cook. Keep flipping it over so you don't get it too browned on either side.

You can blot the tortilla with paper towels if you'd like.

Similar topic - you can make your own shell for taco salad by placing a large flour (burrito-size) tortilla in an oven-safe bowl (shaped however you'd like) and putting a big ball of tinfoil inside it. You can also do the opposite - place the bowl upside-down and drape the tortilla over it. Either way, Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes until it's lightly browned, and you're done! When you remove the tinfoil and the bowl, the tortilla will hold its own shape.


Based on my russian experience, this is ready to go snack. Just bite it and drink beer.
I know, my american friends usually scared to try "uncooked" fish, but salty dried fish is good. Also I would recommend you to try salty dried calamari or octopuses.

Cheers!


To thin chocolate candy coating, how much oil to use?

Yes your ratio is off. After melting if your coating is too thick add vegetable shortening (Crisco) a little at a time until you reach the desired consistency. Start with a tablespoon per pound and add just enough to get to the consistency you need. Crisco is solid at room temperature unlike veg. oil so your final product shouldn't have to stay in the fridge.


tomato-substitute for sausage and spaghetti squash?

Try it with butter, salt and pepper. That's my favorite way to eat spaghetti squash!


Sweet rice recipe help? Panama cook book recipe

Can I start by saying... You need a new cook book...

Regarding the question.
For my taste

1tsp cloves
2tsp cinnamon
2tbsp brown sugar
1tbsp white sugar
3 Inches of Ginger

How many people are you cooking for because as a "Side Dish" this seems to make a huge amount of product.
As I said this is how I would do it to my taste but It's not something I've ever eaten before and I HATE the taste of cloves.


Is butter ever the same after having been melted?

Butter may look totally amorphous, but there's actually a fair amount of structure in the fat, in particular fat crystals that make it firmer. Melting it disrupts all that structure, and it can't regain it just by resolidifying, so the structure of previously melted butter really is different.

You might notice that this is similar to chocolate: if you take smooth, snappy tempered chocolate, melt it, and let it resolidify, the texture will often be grainy, soft, or even crumbly. That's also thanks to fat crystals, in that case in the cocoa butter.

To back up a bit, let's look at how butter is made. Churning is the most well-known step, but there's more:

Aging (heating, cooling, and storing the cream). The cream is heated and cooled, with resting periods at various temperatures, which encourages formation of certain kinds of fat crystals. (The details of this process vary; for example different temperatures can be used depending on the hardness of the milkfat.)
Churning. This damages the fat globules, causing them to release fat, which forms much of the mass of the butter and lets it collect into grains.
Working/kneading. After draining off the buttermilk, the grains are kneaded together. This evens out small amounts of buttermilk trapped in the grains, and fat crystals can also come together into larger networks.

So the final butter actually has three forms of fat in it: fat crystals, free fat, and fat globules. The fat crystals make it firmer, and the free fat and globules make it softer. This also explains why butter isn't all the same texture. For example, from On Food and Cooking:

  Feeds rich in polyunsaturated fats, especially fresh pasturage, produce softer butters; hay and grain harder ones. The butter maker also influences consistency by the rate and degree of cooling to which he subjects the cream during the aging period, and by how extensively he works the new butter. These conditions control the relative proportions of firming crystalline fat and softening globular and free fat.

So when you melt and resolidify butter, it's not just a simple solid to liquid to solid thing. You're disrupting the crystals, and potentially even rupturing a few more fat globules. That means a couple things:

There's likely more free fat and less crystals, which explains why previously melted butter can be much softer than the original butter.
The crystals that do remain or reform won't have the same structure as the original ones, since you didn't follow the same heating/cooling/storing regimen. That explains the graininess you noticed. It's possible that working/kneading the butter might even that back out to some extent.

The exact texture of your previously melted butter will probably vary, depending on how hot you melted it and how fast you cooled it afterwards.


How to store hard boiled eggs that are peeled so to avoid moisture build up?

This is probably not what you want to hear on any front, but it is best to store your eggs in their shell.  Their original carton provides an ideal container.

If you do want to store them peeled, the standard way to do it is refrigerated in a bowl of water (changed daily).    Of course, you will then have to dry the egg before eating it the wetness bothers you.  This method is also used with poached eggs.

Lastly, you can do what you are already doing, and store them with some towels, but they will probably express some water.

The eggs should be good for about one week, unpeeled.  The Egg Board recommends they be eaten the same day they are peeled, but other sources indicate up to about 5 days.

See also:

Still Tasty
Eat By Date


What would cause the peel of a lime to turn yellow?

Ethylene, most likely.
You've said that that lime was at the bottom of the bowl, mostly covered with other fruit. I'll bet it was very close to some kiwis.
Fruit -- particularly fruit like kiwi which ripens after being picked -- produces and releases ethylene. Ethylene serves a key role in fruit ripening. This is why you're advised to keep bananas in a closed paper bag to ripen them: the ethylene gas produced by the bananas builds up and ripens them faster. In open air, ethylene concentrations (in the fruit, not just around it) remain lower, and ripening is retarded.
In fact, citrus producers commonly use ethylene gas to artificially ripen ("de-green") the rind of citrus fruit. This would normally be done for lemons and oranges, which are commonly picked when still slightly green.
While you didn't have a fully closed container, it sounds like the lime was deep enough in the bowl for some concentration of ethylene, produced largely by the kiwis, to build up around it, ripening at least the rind of the lime. (Yes, some limes are yellow when fully ripe -- limes at the store are picked unripe because consumers like the look of green ones.)
Congratulations on your accidental biochemistry experiment.


How do I make my cheese "crackers" less greasy?

I'd first try experimenting with different cheeses; different brands or ages of cheese may behave differently.  You can also try hard cheeses, as I've made something similar with hard grating cheeses (parmesean, pecorino romana).

Also, how you buy your cheese may be significant; many packaged pre-shredded cheeses contain cornstarch to reduce clumping, which might help to reduce the 'greasiness' of the final item (although adding carbs).


If tenderness is what you are after, cook it sous vide to an internal temperature around 130degF for about 3 hours. It should be easier than roasting it to keep the meat tender.

Cooking meat in a temperature controlled water bath being one of the simplest ways to cook meat without accidentally overcooking anything.
You can fine many sous vide duck recipes online.


The answer is almost certainly yes.

The almost is because I haven't made pita bread this way - but I have seen chapati made on a skillet, and under the right conditions it will puff up, even into one big pocket - so pan cooking doesn't specifically preclude that kind of development.  Beyond the need for it to puff up into the pocket, I don't imagine pan-cooking pita bread is that much different form other kinds of pan-cooked flat-breads.

it looks like cast iron is preferred, since it can be heated very hot and has the thermal mass to hold the heat steady while the pitas are cooking - but I honestly expect you can make them with any skillet you have on hand.
Stove-top pitas may be a touch drier, slightly less puffy, but have more browning (and toasty-flavor) than oven-baked pitas, because they're in direct contact with the heat, instead of being cooked by radiant heat.  You can press the surface gently with a clean towel to help the pocket form if it isn't forming quickly or fully enough for your tastes.


Can I use amaretti cookies in a cheesecake crust?

Sure you can. Just blitz the cookies in a food processor, and add a stream of melted butter until you can form the crust into a ball in your hand. Then just press the cookie mixture into the pan you want to bake the cheesecake in.


The safety of the flour will depend on water activity. We cannot know the water activity of the flour produced in your kitchen, but 1) home dehydration is known to generally create shelf-stable products, and 2) if you could create a powder, it is pretty certain that you don't have enough moisture for bacteria to survive. And while molds can survive much lower amounts of water than bacteria, the good news about them is that you will notice dangerous levels of mold itself, while bacteria can be dangerous before you notice rotting. So I would tend to treat it as any dehydrated plant matter and consider it safe.
The oxidation will certainly happen. It does not fall under food safety, but is considered a quality issue. Oxidation is common in flours. Commercial wheat flour is defatted and has antioxidants added, but other types of flour, especially nut flours and nut meals, are eaten oxidized, unless you grind them fresh for every dish. For any quality issues, it is up to you to decide whether they bother you.


How can I vacuum seal acidic ingredients with meat or poultry for freezing?

Home sealers don't like liquids in the bag, so use an ice tray to freeze any liquid you want to seal in the bag.

Both of these products freeze slushy, but that's fine. I squished the slush into a corner, and then added a layer of butter so that the chicken won't actually interact with the acidic ingredient until it's in the water bath. Just use the same temperature that you would for the same ingredients not frozen, but add 30-45 minutes of time.

I could make a freezer-full of these!

Alternatively, you can freeze your acidic ingredient and butter like this:

The butter will naturally rise to the top.

Now you could add your meat or poultry and seal if your vacuum is strong enough. Or you could add some chilled broth on top of the butter, add your meat and freeze vertically like this before sealing.

Of course you could easily tip the bag if you want the acidic ingredient in the corner.

You might want to make a sauce with your marinade and the juices in the bag. Scoop off some butter to saute your choice of aromatics, then add the defatted juices and reduce. You may want to strain it at that point. Thicken or finish with more butter, a bit of wine and/or some cornstarch or xanthan. See here: How should I prepare an excellent sauce from sous vide juices?


While making pepper oil with dry crushed red pepper, do I need to sterilize the jars to store for up to 6 months?

Basic answer: it's generally recommended to sterilize jars before storing low-acid foods at room temperature. (Many canning procedures effectively sterilize the jars during processing.)  In your case, you should be certain the jars are clean and thoroughly dry as well.

Regarding your overall proposal: I'd only give away food gifts like this if I had prepared them according to an established procedure and recipe tested by a reputable food safety and preservation organization. Your proposal sounds like it could be safe, but I can't find any such recipes at the National Center for Home Food Preservation or similar sources. Generally, most food safety websites don't recommend storing any homemade flavored oils at room temperature or for more than a few days in the refrigerator.  (There were some older recommendations that allowed for dried herbs and/or herbs that were strained out of oil after a brief infusion, but even these were found to have a small risk -- because only lab testing can determine whether herbs are dried sufficiently or whether you've managed to strain out all the small particles -- and are no longer listed on most food preservation sites.)  Commercial preparations of flavored oils almost exclusively involve prior acidification of the additives to ensure safety.

Also, I would note that heating the oil hot enough to kill botulism bacteria will cause it to degrade somewhat in quality and flavor.  (This is another reason why commercial preparations use acidification.)

Lastly, just my opinion: I don't want to overstate the risk here (which is likely low), but without a tested procedure it's impossible to know for certain when storing low-acid foods at room temperature.  And botulism toxin can be deadly.  I know it sounds like a nice idea, but I personally would not give flavored oils as gifts.  Even if I found a reputable recipe from a food preservation site that had been scientifically tested, the people I give these things to have to trust that I know what I'm doing.  Personally, I tend to discard any flavored oils I've received as gifts before using (unless I would trust the person and know how the food was prepared).


How long should I let my bread dough rise the second time?

Since you didn't say you have a problem with the first rise, I will assume that your yeast weren't simply dead.

There are a few factors that go into rise times:

How much yeast?
How much water is available to the yeast?
How much of yeast-inhibiting ingredients such as salt and sugar?
If there isn't enough water in the recipe or if the water is tied up by salt and sugar the yeast will only be able to divide slowly.
How warm is the dough?
Yeast, like everything else, work faster in a warm space.

Therefore, to increase the rising speed, you could make a wetter dough, add more yeast, use warm milk, put the dough in warm oven, reduce the sugar, etc.

It may be that your recipe just takes longer to rise.
Alton Brown's cinnamon roll recipe has a lot of fat and sugar and not as much water. The recipe recommends making them the night before and letting them rise overnight. Dough that rises longer generally tastes better.

I would recommend letting the dough go in a warm place and see how long it takes to reach the fluffiness you like. If that takes too long you could start tweaking the variables above.


Can we make peanut butter with 500W mixer?

While "500 watt mixer" doesn't really tell us any specifics about your setup, considering that right now you've got yourself a nice batch of crushed, or maybe stirred peanuts rather than peanut butter, I'm going to say "no."

To make peanut butter, you either need a grinder in which the grinding surfaces are close enough to make butter, or you need something which has blades that move fast enough while still having enough torque to move through peanut butter.

If the mixer you have is a stand mixer (like a kitchen aid) then there's a good chance you can purchase some sort of attachment which will suit your purposes.

A food processor would do the trick but really low-end models would probably leave a few chunks.

A higher-quality blender would be able to make you a nice smooth peanut butter, but more affordable blenders probably won't have the muscle.

You can also get a hand-crank peanut mill online for less than 50 bucks.

Good luck!


Should I use my toaster oven for slow roasting?

In the question body, you say that you aren't trying to get roasted tomatoes, you are trying to get dried tomatoes. This is a very different process from roasting. Toaster ovens are great for roasting stuff, but regular ovens are much better at drying.

To get a nice texture in your dehydrated vegetables, you want to be as gentle as possible. You are trying to use very dry air, and just enough ambient heat to evaporate the wetness in reasonable time. Blasting the tomatoes with heat or scorching them is exactly the opposite of what you want to do.

But you see, toaster ovens are very much on the "blasting" side. They place the food close to the heating elements, which are frequently exposed, and let them heat the food pretty directly. There is much more direct radiation in their heating than there is conduction from the warmed up air. In contrast, the regular oven achieves an enclosed space in which the air is hot itself, and it conducts its heat to the food. Also, the oven walls warm up somewhat, and the top and bottom are much more evenly heated. You have gentler heat coming in from all directions there. It gives you a much better drying environment, at the cost of worse roasting results (less crisp/browned surface).

So, if you want to imitate a dehydrator (for which an oven is already an imperfect substitute) at least do it with a regular oven.


Your first batch is used for building gluten strength in the dough for shaping and giving the yeast time to wake up and do their job. After shaping, you are letting the dough rise to its final form while still adding flavor from the yeast.


I bought Mainland's vintage cheddar, it tastes... stale?

You have been lied to. I wouldn't call those things at the top of the page cheese, let alone cheddar. I'm not trying to be dismissive of your situation or culture, merely dismaying that British heritage has been misappropriated so poorly.

You are not the first person I've met who's had a strong first reaction to real cheese.

Kraft slices might technically be cheese but they're a hyper-processed abstraction of what traditional cheddar cheese really is. Like a cheap burger to a well matured steak, or a Lada Riva to a Porsche 911, the two cheeses are made from similar stuff, but they clearly aren't the same.

Real cheddar has been allowed to mature. It's sharp and strong and sour and a little crumbly. It is available in a wide selection of strengths, traditionally defined by the length of time it sits maturing (up to 24, even 36 months). It sounds like you've gone straight to most mature end of the scale!

Hard cheeses sweat and dry out and crystallise and that could explain the spots you're seeing:

Paler spots are more likely to be salt or protein crystals, but
Coloured spots, and fur could easily be mould and fungus.

If in doubt, just cut it off. A hard cheese is quite a resilient substance so unlike soft cheeses and yoghurts, you don't have to chuck them at the first sign of contamination. The sweating also means you need to look after your cheese properly. A paper layer before an air barrier is usually a good idea to wick away any surface seepage.

But cheese is amazing. I'd really, strongly suggest you stick with it though. Cheeses have amazing variety and have something for everybody (except the lactose intolerant, I guess). Visit a cheese shop, hand them a bunch of money and ask them to show you what you've been missing out on. You  think I'm enthusiastic about cheese? You haven't seen anything yet!

Oh and if you've got a big block of mature cheese you can't bear to eat raw, try grating it and having it grilled (toasted sandwich, on pizza, etc). It loses a lot of its harshness but it's still delicious.

Terms like "bite" and "tang" are probably a regional variant on the strength scale I've been using: mild, medium, mature, extra mature and vintage. In short, it gives people a better idea of what they're buying.


I would consider adding some soft brown sugar. The molasses content should increase the stickiness and thickness of the sauce overall. You may want to reduce the amount of white sugar to compensate.


It's the refinement that's the real issue: anyone who's braised a big joint of meat knows that a couple of hours of low-temperature stewing will net you large amounts of gelatin. Hooves and antlers were the preferred media, but anything that's got a bunch of collagen will work. Talk to your butchers shop, and see if you can buy some bones.

Refinement was done the old fashioned way: by hand. You skim the top to remove the scum, you add egg whites to degrease and to clarify the "broth", and then you strain and strain and strain and strain.

And strain. And strain. And strain. The skimming/straining process is similar to rendering sugar from sugar cane, if you've ever done it (slightly less esoteric, because people still like molasses). They obviously don't use egg whites in rendering sugar.

It's a huge amount of work (and OMG it stinks...do it outdoors if possible), and the end result is probably not going to be on par with the stuff you buy from the store. Unless you're hankering to re-invent an ancient technology just for the fun of it, I'd just buy it.

Edit: I dug around, and there are a number of products for straining jelly that might make it easier, and they should be able to deal with the viscosity of the gelatin soup. Unfortunately they seem to be made for smaller batches, and that may not be helpful if you're doing a huge kettle.


Can you tell if a food is fermented (in a "good" way) or rancid?

So that got me thinking, how can you tell if something gone past their
date is fermented in a good way, or in a bad way (gone rancid)?

Short of taking the food to a lab and testing it for the kinds of microorganisms in it, the answer is you can't, not really.  Lots of dangerous bacteria and other microorganisms don't necessarily make food taste bad.

Or only the process in which you used can somehow tell if the end
product is safe to eat?

Strictly speaking, yes: proper fermentation should follow a known process if you want to ensure safety.  The type of food and the conditions need to be correct to avoid dangerous bacteria and toxins in the end-product.  Many fermentation recipes use salt to discourage growth of bad stuff.  Others use excessive sugar or acidity or something else introduced at some point in the process.  Many industrial fermentation processes depend on inoculating the starting material with "good" fermentation microorganisms at the start, so they grow faster than anything "bad" might.  Often these "good" microorganisms produce waste products (like acid) that discourage future growth of anything "bad."
It seems like the move back toward fermented foods in the past decade has led to a lot of home experimentation in much less controlled environments.  Sure, if you toss quite a bit of salt together with many types of foods and let it sit for a week or two, chances are in many cases you'll end up with something tasty and okay to eat.  But true preservation recipes that make use of fermentation depend on exact ratios of ingredients (and sometimes other preparation steps) that have often been lab-tested with dozens or hundreds of samples to ensure safety.  If you're not using a known recipe and a known process, it's quite possible to end up with something unsafe to eat.
In the case of the refrigerated cubed pineapple from the question, it's less likely to grow nasty things due to the refrigeration.  While it's certainly possible to grow bacteria that will make you sick at refrigerator temperatures, it's more likely that most refrigerated foods will spoil first and taste/look awful and unappetizing before they are able to accumulate significant quantities of other toxins.  Still, this is just a general observation, and no one here can guarantee safety for something left in the fridge for a long time.  As the mantra goes: when in doubt, throw it out.


Is it better to air fry and refrigerate my wings or to wait to air fry them tomorrow?

I would suggest dry brining the extra half and leaving uncovered overnight so you get an even crispier skin.


What's this green crispy vegetable or edible seaweed?

Looks like qúndài cài (裙带菜)/Wakame/sea mustard.


How to prevent crust forming during frying, baking and grilling?

When you buy grilled meat from a store, it has been sitting in a fridge for some time, the crust will get less crusty because of the release of humidity from the meat.

You could do it at home, grill some chops, refrigerate them for a couple of hours, the crust will be "gone" (at least become less crusty).

If you want less crusty meat, you could roast the meat at lower temperature, or braise the meat or poach it.


I suspect your first problem is using the iSi whipper.  It does create foams, particularly whipped cream, but both Khymos and Texturas advise using an immersion blender or electric eggbeaters in a broad vessel (so there is room for the bubbles to pile up without interfering with your making more).  Besides, xanthan is shear-thinning, meaning that it is viscous only while at rest, becoming fluid when stirred or sprayed.

The second possible problem: while xanthan is used in some air recipes and is used to stabilize whipped cream and mousses, I find it is more effective as a thickener than a foaming agent.  Next time you make a foam, try using lecithin.  Lecithin is mainly used as an emulsifier, but it also dramatically alters surface tension, making bubbles more stable.  Very little lecithin is needed to keep foams stable, though the exact amount will depend on the proportion of oil and water.  For a fat-free sauce like the one you describe, I would suggest trying 0.5% lecithin by weight (i.e., for 200g liquid, use 1g lecithin).

If you really want to use the xanthan, you can try adding methyl cellulose to it.  I saw a recipe for an eggwhite-free "marshmallow foam" that called for 1.5g xanthan, 1.5g methyl cellulose, and 250ml water, plus vanilla, salt, and powdered sugar.