It's all about starch content of the potato. Waxier potatoes are wetter, meaning they have a lower start content and higher water content. They don't fry that well because they have too much water to crisp up properly. Starchier, drier potatoes are better for thin fries, but they aren't as good for chunky fries as they are actually too dry to give a fluffy inside. For chunky fries (aka chips), wedges or roast potatoes you want a potato with a medium starch content.

As for application to vegetable selection nothing comes immediately to mind, potatoes are vegetables from a botanical point of view but from a cooking point of view they are very different from most other things you prepare. Potatoes are just big balls of starch and water, so the advice above would only apply to foods that are structurally similar, like sweet potatoes and yams.


There are thickening agents you can use without reheating. They won't give you the texture you expect from a starch-thickened pie, but you will be able to cut it. Gelatine is probably your best bet. Others, like xanthan, will make it gooey, but it will still flow a little after being cut.

By the way, having flakes in it is not a problem for cooking it again. If you mean that you put them on top, you can just stir them in for the reheating. Won't look that good, but will be firm.

When making cream pie filling, always do it on the stove and make sure that you really brought it to a boil. Egg yolks contain an enzyme which liquidifies starch. The enzyme is deactivated at above 90°C. If you don't heat a mixture with eggs and starch (and flour) enough, it will turn into a soup after a day.


Pot for cooking long grained white rice on gas range

It depends on how much rice you're trying to cook. I rarely cook more than a few cups at a time, and I don't use a special pot for it (clad steel, though). Once the water comes to a boil, turn down to low, leave it for about 15 minutes (covered!), turn it off, wait another 15 minutes or so (still covered), and you're done.

If you're cooking a lot of rice at a time, a thick/heavy pot (enameled cast iron, or just a heavy clad steel pot) will help hold a low temperature without scorching the bottom of the rice.


A medium-sized cabbage weighs around 2 to 2.5 pounds. (Assuming we all mean the same thing by "medium"...) I think you'll probably be better off guessing based on fraction of your whole cabbage than volume, since once you shred the cabbage, the volume's going to vary wildly depending on how fine you shred it and how fluffed up it is when you measure it. My best guess for volume would be 10-12 cups.

Of course, you can always go to the fallback and find something else in your kitchen that weighs a pound (I tend to have pasta) and try and lop off a hunk of your cabbage that weighs the same.

Edit: I did find something on about.com suggesting that a medium cabbage is two pounds. Unfortunately it claims that a two-pound head of cabbage makes 10 cups shredded, but that a medium head makes four cups. I think the ten cups is way, way closer to correct, based on experience. If you do want a volume, that would probably be a good estimate.


Is it possible to infuse piperine of Black pepper into oil?

Oil is used to extract pepper flavor, as piperine is relatively non-polar. Its solubility in water (a polar solvent) is only 0.04 grams per liter. It is more soluble in less polar solvents (67 grams per liter in alcohol, for example).

A related post:
How to infuse black layer of peppercorn into an oil?

Piperine has amide and benzodioxole functional groups, and would be chemically reactive, so it might lose flavor if heated too hot or too long.

A little chemical background on solubility:  It all comes down to “like dissolves like”.

Atoms are made of bits with electrical charges, both positive and negative.  These opposite charges attract each other, and hold atoms and chemical compounds together.  Compounds are made from two or more (can be 100s or even more) atoms joined together.  If the electrical charges are evenly distributed in a molecule, then its surface is neutral everywhere.  That's “non-polar”.  But some chemical compounds have the electrical charge unevenly distributed, so there are areas on the surface with + and - charge.  That's “polar”.  Some atoms or groups of atoms can also gain or lose charges to become ions.  Ions are electrically charged by nature.

Water is very polar.  The + and - charges on the surface are attracted to opposite charges on other water molecules, so it sticks to itself really well.  This is why it has such a high boiling point for such a small molecule.  Also, because it sticks using + and - charges, it can also dissolve compounds that have plenty of those surface +/- charges, like sugars, or ionic compounds like salt.  But it's hard for anything that doesn't have those charges (non-polar molecules like piperine) to dissolve, because they would get in the way of the strong +/- attractions.

But piperine can mix with other non-polar or low-polarity molecules, like oil.  When they mix with each other, there aren't very strong forces holding them together.  It's mostly just the forces of disorder.  And they aren't blocking electrically charged molecules from finding opposite charges to stick to.

Lots of molecules have both polar (electrically charged) parts and also non-polar (electrically neutral) parts.  These can then dissolve/mix with both kinds of molecules (the best examples of these, like lecithin and other emulsifiers, can help fats and water stick together).  Alcohol is one of these in-between molecules.  It can dissolve the piperine, but also mix with water.  It's also very volatile, so it could be used to efficiently dissolve out a molecule like piperine, and then be evaporated away to leave a more concentrated mixture, or even deposit the piperine into an oil in more concentrated form. Lately a lot of people are flavoring vodka with black pepper.


In both cases, the goal is to keep the dough flexible so it can expand as it proofs.

With flour dusting, the proofing dough is usually stored under a damp towel, so that the moisture keeps it from crusting over.  The flour is really to keep it from sticking to one's hands or the counter, and therefore easy to handle.  Proofing periods also tended to be shorter--a few hours at most--so even a dry towel would often be good enough.

Oiling the poofing dough makes a moisture proof barrier, so it cannot dry out and therefore crust over.   With the rise in popularity of high hydration breads (lots of liquid in the dough), the soft dough is hard to coat with flour as it tends to get absorbed; oil is easier to apply.  It also is suitable for longer proofs like overnight fermentation that are more and more popular.  If course, it does introduce a very small amount of oil into the loaves, as well.

I would hesitate to say one method is strictly better than the other, but rather that each are effective in their context.  If I was forced to choose, I think the oil method is more flexible to more types of loaves, but may be somewhat messier.


Is it possible to make soymilk without a "beany" taste?

The beany flavor is destroyed by heat. Some recipes do call for boiling the beans before grinding as you said.

Most recipes that I have seen call for boiling the milk for a while after it has been strained. I find this more convenient as the milk is strained and pressed cold and then heated.

If your milk is still excessively beany then you may not be boiling it long enough to break down those indigestible compounds.

As for making it like commercial- most commercial soy milks contain a lot of extra ingredients to enhance the flavor and texture. Vanilla and sometimes sugar are added as well as calcium carbonate for creaminess, preservatives, etc. You can experiment with these if you would like but I found that I developed a taste for the flavor of fresh soy milk. It seems crisper and more naturally sweet to me than store bought.


Can I use normal household glass items to steam cook inside pots?

Note:  I am assuming this glass is kitchenware, like mixing bowls or measuring cups, not service ware like drinking glasses or teacups.

Glass melts at about 1500 F / 800 C.  There is no danger of melting the glass in any type of steamer, or realistically with any equipment you may have at home.

The real issue is thermal shock:  very rapidly cooling glass from a hot temperature to a cold temperature can cause it to crack or shatter.  You want to avoid doing this.  The same thing can happen in reverse from cold to hot, which is why you would never use glass cookware on an open flame or burner element of your cooktop (hob to our British friends).

To prevent thermal shock, even in a closed pot used as an improvised steamer, do not place the glassware directly on the bottom of the pot.  It should be suspended on a rack or otherwise raised from the bottom.  If no other solution presents itself, aluminum foil loosly crushed into a ring will do the job (loosly, because aluminum is a good conductor or heat, but air is not).

Steaming is fairly gentle in terms of heating, and if you let it cool on the counter, you should be fine.  Note that I would not do this with any delicate or thin glass.  Think about it this way:  if you would use the glass in the microwave, the steamer should be fine as well.

Of course, you can always steam on a lettuce leaf or similar, which is very traditional, or use a metal steamer basket as well.

Please also see Rumtscho's answer for more optimal alternatives.


Your question is somewhat unclear. If you are asking why there is a discrepancy: there is no reason for there not being one. Taste and safety are independent. If you are asking what you should go by, this is not a question we can answer. Choose whichever you prefer.

Raw turkey stays safe for 1-2 days in the refrigerator, no matter if it has been previously frozen or not (as long as it was kept safe while frozen). Source: StillTasty.

You can use a recipe with a 3 days refrigeration time or longer if you want to. It simply won't be safe. It may well give you a better taste than doing it for a short time.


Cooking chicken in a risotto without it drying out

Brown the chicken in the pan where you will cook the risotto.  This will give your risotto some nice flavor if you make sure to scoop up the browned bits during cooking.  Then remove it.  Let it rest on a plate, tented with foil, throughout the whole time you are making the risotto.  Towards the last few minutes, put the chicken and any accumulated drippings from the plate back in.  This will warm the chicken and add the flavor from the drippings.  I use this technique whenever I am doing any sort of single skillet dish with meat, starch, and veggies.


Googling brown bread Nova Scotia provides a plethora of recipes.  Here are some common traits:

Contains molasses, just as you said
Contains some other grain than simply flour - oatmeal, shredded wheat, and whole grain wheat were among the contenders
Uses shortening to enrich the dough (in some cases butter as well, but shortening was in all recipes)

I'd recommend googling for recipes and picking one which reminds you of your grandmother's.


Because onions contain a lot of flavour compounds that we like, and which are synergistic with meats.


What is the effect of using pasteurized milk in cheese making?

Unfortunately, the usual store bought pasteurised milk undergoes a process that kills virtually everything needed for coagulation to occur, which basically means making cheese becomes a whole lot harder.

The cheese you buy from stores that is made from pasteurised milk is either made from low heat pasteurisation or by the addition of additional ingredients, typically calcium chloride.

I have no idea where you may be able to acquire calcium chloride where you live but you may be able to obtain low heat pasteurised milk from health food stores, maybe some of the larger supermarkets will stock it, also.


Shortening is used here because it is solid at room temperature so it adheres to the sides of the pan and provides a better barrier. Spray oil can do ok and has emulsifiers in it to help it along but solid fat works better.

An obvious substitute is butter. Actually butter can be substituted for shortening in a lot of applications (with the exception of when the shortening is being used for its high smoke point.) Some saturated fats, like coconut oil, might have more flavor than you want.

If you are looking for more convenience- they make non-stick spray that has flour in it as well exactly for this purpose.


What happens when you knead bread dough?

Kneading dough has a few functions. First, it distributes the ingredients together evenly and allows the flour to become hydrated. As the flour starts to absorb water, enzymatic reactions occur and some proteins begin to mesh together. The two most important in this process are glutenin and gliadin. When these proteins start to get tangled up together, they form gluten, which is the protein that allows bread dough to stretch and trap gas bubbles produced by yeast. These reactions will occur on their own to an extent, as in no-knead recipes, but kneading accelerates the process.

Kneading also allows you to control the texture of the bread. A vigorous knead can help to produce a bread with a fine crumb as the kneading an tighten the gluten, keeping the air bubbles more uniform. Doing short kneading periods (or folds) spaced by time for the dough to relax and rise can give you more extensible dough which can help give you a more open crumb structure.

Finally, kneading is sometimes used to add inclusions to the dough that would disrupt it's activity if added to early. This can be things like seeds, which would cut gluten strands if included too early in the process, or things like butter in a brioche, which would shorten the dough if included before the gluten had already developed.


Will a small "breather tube" on my bottles harm the oil/vinegar/liquor inside?

The exposure to oxygen that you'll get with bottles like these will affect your ingredients, but that will vary depending on how long you're storing them.  If you go through enough oil, vinegar, etc. that you're refilling these every few weeks, I think you'd be just fine.  If storing for three months or more, you may start noticing your oil getting slightly rancid and your vinegar getting slightly oxidized, or you may not start noticing the difference until much later.  A lot of other factors will impact how quickly this progresses - exposure to light and a higher ambient temperature will result in faster quality declines.  If you're not refilling these any more often than every six months, any gains in efficiency likely won't be worth the impact on quality.

There's some evidence (see here) that leaving ethanol solutions (like liquours) exposed to air can result in evaporation and a change in the ABV, but I would think that exposure from a 1mm hole would be negligible and you could keep these bottled for multiple months without much impact on quality.  Again, if you're going through such limited quantity, your efficiency gains will be pretty minimal as compared to keeping your liquors in their original bottles.  I wouldn't recommend storing or pouring liqueurs from spouts like these; in my experience, the residual sugar can build up over time and restrict flow through the pouring spout.  Sugary liqueurs will also attract fruit flies, and it's possible that a particularly small and persistent bug could find its way down the air hole.  You can use plastic wrap or buy plastic covers to place over the top of your spout to help ward off flies - any reputable bar will cap their pour spouts overnight.

If you keep vermouth or other fortified wines in these, store them in the fridge.  Dry vermouth in particular will oxidize quickly and develop off flavors if exposed to air, like any white wine - lowering the temperature will help somewhat.  Sweet vermouths and sherries are a bit more stable but not indefinitely so, and their higher sugar content can lead to buildup like liqueurs.

If your ultimate goal is consistency, be warned that professional bartenders typically practice extensively before attempting to "free-pour" and hit accurate amounts with speed-pouring spouts like this.  The reason is because differences in ABV and viscosity cause differences in pouring speed, so you'll wind up with different volumes depending on what you're pouring.  Even if you're very accurate with your pouring times, you'll need to train yourself to deal with these differences.  The best way to be consistent in your home bar is to skip free-pouring and measure using a jigger or other device.


What are the signs of a watermelon past its best?

It sounds like your water melon simply spoiled in the refrigerator.  It is a very perishable food, once the rind is cut off, as it is basically a sugar syrup waiting to be eaten by whatever comes along—people, dogs, bacteria, yeasts, molds, whatever.

The milky liquid would be waste from the metabolization processes of whatever colonized the water melon.

You are probably wise not to eat it; just discard it.

Some signs of past-prime watermelon include--but all of these border on signs of spoiled, because it is a continuous process:

Aroma:  If you detect an alcoholic, winy, or boozy smell, it is a sign the flesh has started to ferment.
Another sign is when the rind is not taught and firm.
The melon is light for its size, indicating it may have lost moisture


What reading materials give in-depth coverage of baking with gluten-free ingredients and techniques?

The reason behind "Gluten-Free" as a buzzword? Humans can be allergic to gluten strands. Unless you are using a recipe that is having low gluten or high gluten content related problems (too soft or hard due to gluten bonds), the only reason to reduce gluten is to accommodate someone's food allergy. In which case you need to eliminate gluten altogether. Many people who have severe reactions simply will not eat food unless they know it was prepared correctly. In a very American twist, I have met some of those people who are not allergic to Gluten, have no sensitivity to it, and treat "going Gluten-Free" as if it were something other than a dietary restriction; more like a lifestyle or weight diet than one that keeps your body from attacking itself.

I can't offer more actual advice for someone with a gluten-allergy related disorder like Celiac's that go work with a physician and get instruction from a real dietician.
For a straightforward approach to learning to bake with gluten-free ingredients, Google has plenty of resources for you to use, like this primur.
For an explanation of typical ingredients, their uses, pros and cons, Living Without has a well-rounded article
Additional ingredients, techniques, and strategies for serving and preparing are covered in the cookbook Gluten-Free Quick and Easy by Carol Fenster, PhD, who develops products for Bob's Red Mill
You would be best served with any further requests for detail on specific ingredients asking about them in particular rather than holding out hope for a vague guide to all Gluten-free ingredients.

This is because items like xantham gum, agar and so forth are only Gluten-Free by coincidence, and you will be crowding out other helpful resources (i.e. if you look for tapioca starch uses, but in a Gluten Free article, you may easily crowd out the myriad vegan resources that reference it's use)

Like any restriction, best practices are input control-based: (1) referencing what contains wheat or gluten and (2) making sure you don't buy any by reading the ingredients. In addition to actual gluten-specific sensitivities, the Candida diet requires that adherents avoid grains due to immune reactions to gluten (this is semi-dubious in that this is applied above and beyond the scope of defined allergy). In terms of any guide to gluten-free'ing your foods, it isn't that complicated. Basically you need to develop a back-catalog of substitutions. There is less concept, more trivia.

The degree of elasticity in bread is determined by its gluten content. In many problem-solving questions you will see offered that vital wheat gluten or other 'hard flours' can be added to doughs needing more gluten, or that 'soft flours' with low gluten can be added where a dough is coming out too chewy.

In replacing gluten-containing ingredients, there are many substitute flours like Amaranth, Brown Rice, and Garbanzo flours that contain no gluten whatsoever.
To substitute APF, Grape Seed Flour is one, a combination of rice flour, tapioca flour, and corn/potato starch can also be made to replicate APF.

How to substitute; Each of the different flours has a different taste (garbanzo flour is nutty, corn flour tastes like corn) and texture (vital wheat gluten can replicate chicken flesh when cooked as seitan; or consider the difference to the tooth between white, whole wheat, and semolina flours). For gluten containing flours, each also has varying levels of gluten.

Assess the taste and texture characteristics of the flour you will be substituting, match them to one with the gluten-content flour you will be using (there are plenty of Google results for any flour). Don't be afraid to make a mix to get what you want.
Some flours will require more flour / less hydration to achieve the appropriate dough characteristics. You can research this, but time and trial are eventually going to be your guide so that you can tell by touch and look whether or not it is accurately mixed.

In dealing with Gluten in flour; for the purposes of food sensitivity, you can't diminish the gluten content by any technique. If it's there, then it's not going to be viewed by most people on a GF diet, and certainly much less anyone with Celiac's, as palatable. Here are some trouble-shooting points to consider with respect to navigating gluten;

Kneading creates the network of gluten strands, this helps the bread stand up on its own (exploratorium has video on this). Also, salt and yeast fermentation help to develop strand development.
The purpose of giving your dough a rest after kneading is to allow the strands of gluten (the bonds mentioned earlier, these strands are what hold the dough together) to return to their  relaxed shape. If you are experiencing snap back (esp. problematic when shaping a dough for a pizza shell) either the dough needs a rest, the gluten content is too high, or you could use a dough relaxer.
Shorter fermenting, higher hydration, high fat (fat inhibits gluten formation), and lower-gluten content make for less elastic doughs. They will break apart rather than stretch. If this is problematic, introduce a flour that has a higher gluten content to the mix.
A good example of a dough that should not have a high gluten-strand formation would be pie crust. To inhibit gluten formation, and get a rocking crust, you should use small amounts of water, not knead very much, ice all of your ingredients somewhat, and use shortening; these things all inhibit gluten formation and give you that drift away crumb texture. Additionally, crumbly biscuits using unscalded milk are benefit from an enzyme that inhibits gluten formation (incidentally, scalding the milk inhibits the inhibitor)


How quickly does soy lecithin lose its effect?

The FDA defines a “Use-By” date as the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. The date has been determined by the manufacturer of the product. After the "Use-By" date the product loses potency and/or freshness.  "Use-by” dates usually refer to best quality and are not safety dates.

FDA Product Dating

The product is likely safe to use after this date, however, it will be less effective or fresh.  As these dates are set by the manufacturer and vary wildly by manufacturer.  Soy lecithin degrades very slowly as noted by SAJ14SAJ.  You likely have a good amount of time (up to 24 months from date of manufacture) before the product is degraded sufficiently to require recipe adjustments.


Most of the expansion did occur at your score, and you got a good rise, so I think you should not be too disheartened! It looks like you cut diagonally rather than downwards: this works well for rolls and smaller loaves, but I'd suggest the simpler cut for a full pan loaf. Scoring techniques are discussed here: https://food52.com/blog/13136-how-to-make-pretty-bread-like-a-pro.
For loafs baked in pans, I suggest making multiple diagonal scores across the top. I find this more attractive than a longitudinal scoring, and it also gives more places for the dough to expand.
Generally it is important to knead (or stretch and fold) the dough quite thoroughly before it proofs. This removes any large air pockets and ensures the remaining air is evenly distributed through the loaf. If you underproof the loaf then it may expand in unexpected ways in the oven, breaking through the skin. I recommend the 'poke' test.
Finally, you might try turning down the temperature slightly in the first 20 minutes: if the oven is too hot then the outside of the dough sets before the inside has finished expanding, causing unpredictable ruptures.


What qualities to look for in a cut of beef destined for "well done"?

I'm rather surprised by the judgmental tone in some of the answers here.  A well-done steak is a culinary preference; just because you don't share that preference is no reason to be rude about it.  Some people like caviar; others don't, despite the fact that it is expensive and lauded by many "people in the know."  Some people appreciate an espresso made lovingly with freshly ground coffee in the "right" kind of grinder; others find it too strong or bitter and would prefer an "American style" of coffee with cream and sugar. Taste is subjective.

I'll admit something personal -- for the first quarter-century or so of my life, I only ate well-done or medium-well steak.  It's how my father always cooked it at home on the grill.  He didn't actually prefer steak well-done: when we'd go out to the restaurants, he'd generally order medium-rare.  But even though he'd time steaks, adjust heat on the grill, etc., the vast majority of the time, they were well-done.  I was used to it.  I liked it, because it was what I knew.  The few times I encountered less-done meat, I found the texture odd or even slightly off-putting.

Then, at some point, I was convinced to try more rare steak, and I soon accepted it.  I now almost always order steaks medium-rare, and I do prefer them that way.  But I also spent a lot of time ordering steaks more well-done (at restaurants, I'd almost always order medium-well), and to those of you who claim you can't tell the difference when a steak is that done, you don't know what you're talking about, because it's not your common way of eating and perhaps you've never had a well-done steak that was prepared in a reasonable fashion.

Anyhow, to answer the question: as some others have hinted at, choose a cut that has a "looser" texture with fat running through it if possible.  Also, consider using a cut that you'd often tend to slice thinly when serving anyway, like skirt, flank, bavette, etc.  You can also use more expensive somewhat fatty cuts (like ribeye), though the meat will toughen, so you won't get the benefit of the tenderness in such expensive cuts.  Plus some of the cheaper cuts (or at least less expensive) have superior flavor.

Quality is actually more important in cooking well-done steaks, because older or worse quality meat with more connective tissue will become even chewier and tough when cooked longer. A somewhat high-quality ribeye cooked well-done can be a somewhat chewy but very pleasant caramelized experience with melt-in-your-mouth browned crispy fat interspersed.  A poor-quality steak with poor-quality fat will just become tough and have its bad qualities exaggerated.

What you want to avoid -- unless your guests insist on them -- are lean cuts, which will end up tough AND dry.  Filet mignon is a very poor choice (which will end up tasteless and tough), as is sirloin, as would be other lean tough cuts (like round).  Also avoid cuts with a lot of connective tissue (but sometimes are sold as steaks to be cooked fast and rare), like chuck.

Marinating will help if you allow enough time for brine to soak in a bit (thereby adding not only flavor, but more moisture).

As for cooking, keep in mind many types of meat are cooked to "well-done" temperatures and still can remain juicy with proper technique (e.g., chicken).  There's absolutely no reason to serve a tough, dry well-done steak unless you're incompetent.  A "loose" textured steak as mentioned above that's sliced thin before serving will be chewy but won't necessarily seem "tough" if marinated and cooked properly.

How to cook properly?  Do NOT do what most people do when cooking steak and just flip once.  You'll end up drying out both sides of the steak by the time cooking is finished.  Butterflying (which restaurants will sometimes offer to do for you when you request a medium-well or well-done steak) can be counterproductive for some cuts and can also dry things out more.  (Restaurants do it mostly for their own convenience; it speeds cooking.)  Unless you have a very loose-textured steak, which might benefit from additional browning reactions with greater surface area while not getting tough, you probably don't want to decrease thickness deliberately.  Instead, keep moisture in with a somewhat thicker cut.

And flip often during cooking.  It's more work because cooking to well-done takes longer, but it's the best way to keep juices moving around inside rather than boiling out the top while the bottom gets dry and burnt.  (Think of what a rotisserie does; you're doing the same by flipping steak often.)  Flipping frequently also can help soften fat and begin to break it down, which can add flavor and a "moist" aspect (if done right with high-quality meat, the fat might even be almost "melt-in-your-mouth").  Frequent flipping also aids in more browning reactions, which develop more flavor, and well-done steak does at least get that advantage of extra browning flavor (perhaps even crisped brown outer layers of fat).  Obviously control heat; overall you'll need to cook at a slightly lower heat to avoid burning the outside before interior is well-done.

Then pull steak off while slightly less than well-done, and let it rest to creep up to well-done.

To summarize:

Loose or well-marbled cut, cheapest are those you'd generally slice even if serving rare
Marinate for at least a few hours; salt will help with moisture, acid can help at least keep the outer layer less tough
Relatively high-heat sear on both sides
Then move to lower heat, and flip frequently
Check internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer to pull it off precisely as the pink is about to go away in middle (this may take some practice to find the right temp based on your cooking technique, how thick the steaks are, etc.)
Let rest to "coast" to well-done

I've accidentally overcooked skirt steak this way a couple times, and it was just as tasty (if not more so), basically as juicy, and almost as tender as if I cooked it to medium rare.  (Skirt is always chewy anyway; well-done steaks will always be chewy, but they don't have to be excessively tough.)

Cooking steak to medium-rare and getting passable results is relatively easy with a thermometer.  Cooking a decent well-done steak takes a lot more skill.

EDIT: A couple comments have noted that there are better ways to cook steaks.  I absolutely agree.  The OP didn't ask about preparation technique, so I was assuming a somewhat "standard" cooking technique for steaks (grilling, pan-frying, broiling, etc.), which my advice applies to.  Personally, I'd recommend things like reverse searing or finishing in the oven, etc. too for better results, but I wasn't trying to turn this answer into "how to cook a steak" in general.


We have 2 almond trees but we cannot crack the shells because they are so hard. What am I doing wrong

I don't think you are doing anything wrong, some almond shells can be notoriously hard, depending on the species.

Maybe you are used to having soft shell almonds and your trees produce some hard shell variety.

Soft Shell Almonds

Hard Shell Almonds

Make sure they are ripe and dry enough (no fresh pulp around it), greener shells are generally slightly sturdier and harder. They tend get a bit more brittle/crumbly when they get ripe and less humid, after the soft skin falls off.

When I was a kid I used to eat fresh almonds straight from the tree during summer vacations at my grandmother's, and the only way we could crack the shell was literally hammering it with a small stone against the ground, and specifically on a hard surface, like a curb stone or something.

And even then it requires some skill, because hitting too softly won't crack the shell all the way through, hitting too hard will smash it completely crushing the edible part into a mush.

To do it at home a regular "pliers shaped" nut cracker should suffice, though it will require strength and more pressure then say most walnuts for example.
If you aren't afraid to break a door, a common workaround is to put it near the hinges, between the jamb and the frame and slowly close the door, that should crack it open easily.

Be warned this can damage the door, break the hinges, and dent the wood. Don't blame me for damaged property! ;)


How do I substitute a recipe that calls for yellow cornmeal for self rising corn meal mix

It sounds like you're just making a cornbread (more of a sodabread with cornmeal in it) that has some "fun" things added to it. If that's the case, find whatever cornbread recipe is on the side of your self-rising cornmeal-and-flour container and add cheddar, jalapeno, and scallions.

Since we do not know the proportions that constitute the mixture, we have to guess. This recipe suggests that a traditional cornbread is approximately a 1:1:1 ratio (1c corn meal, 1c flour, 1 tbsp baking powder). I'll assume these are the proportions of your mixture.

I would take 2 cups (and a tablespoon) of self-rising cornmeal mixture, then add 2 cups of flour, and 1 tbsp of baking powder: in total that would make 1 cup of corn meal, 3 cups of flour, and 2 tablespoons of leavening cornmeal. The rest can be figured from there.

Then never buy self-rising anything again! It's much easier and more versatile to just stock baking soda and baking powder as pantry essentials.


When can I entirely replace sugar with artificial sweeteners?

I will take a bit of a shot, please feel free to edit/improve this.  Most this is lifter from or reworded from here.  I chose them as a diabetes help site so they should not be biased against substitutes.

Sugar is used for sweetness, and for this aspect any of the sugar substitutes likely can be used and many of them in much less quantities as they tend to be far more concentrated in the sweet taste than sugar with many of the marketed brands being mixed with ingredients to add volume to ease substitution.  However, sugar often plays more of a roll in cooking than just flavor and this is where using substitutes can yield varied results.  Sugar also effects the texture, color, and volume of items through chemical reactions.  It feeds yeasts for leavening.  It holds moisture, aids in browning, provides caramelization, counters bitter or sour.  Substitutes tend to handle taste, but cannot directly address some of these other traits.  Many can be used, but results will not be identical to that of sugar.  Common issues include:

•   A lighter color as the substitutes do not provide the browning sugar gives.

•   A flatter product as substitutes may not give the same rise when baking.

•   Texture differences as items made with substitutes tend to be drier due to the loss of sugar’s moisture holding trait.  This also sometimes leads to the item seeming stale more quickly.

•   Aftertaste.  This is a personal difference as some people do not notice an after taste with substitutes, some like the taste better and others simply cannot stand them.

•   Cooking time may need adjusting as with any substitution.
Some of these items may not be an issue for a given recipe or application or might be a big deal and often are a matter of taste.  Overcoming is them is often done by using a blend of the substitute and sugar to reduce but not eliminate sugar.

Some specific options:
•   Succralose  – Heat stable and can be used for baking, cooking and canning.  The commercial brand Splenda provides tips and advises to continue to use brown sugar in baked goods for texture and using small pans while adding dry mild and baking soda to improve volume in baked goods when needed (Spenda has advice).

•   Saccharin – Claimed to be heat stable as suitable for cooking, baking and canning, but it is advised to keep some sugar in baked goods to maintain volume and texture.  Increase liquid and add extra egg or egg whites will help.  (Sweet’N Low and Sugartwin have advice)

•   Stevia – Multiple brands and they have different make-ups.  They claim to be suitable for baking if one quarter of the original sugar is left in to help with browning and texture with a lower temperature and increased baking time. (truvia pure via SweetLeaf Zing)

•   Monk fruit extract – Heat stable, suitable for cooking, baking.  Can be used in sauces dressing, beverages, but recommended to be substituted for only half sugar in baked goods (Monk Fruit In The Raw).

•   Sugar alcohols – multiple brands, with various recommendations.  My reading gives mixed review including issues with volume, dryness, crumble and contradictory claims on heat stability.  I would think each brand would require separate research on suitability.

Many of the substitutes also offer sugar blends that are already mixed with table sugar for supposedly better results.  This however, and many of the recommendations to mix are against the request to do a full substitution for sugar.  More research may provide ways to compensate without the blending, however best results are likely to always be in cases where sweet is the only real aspect of sugar needed, such as in beverages, or when the approach of adding items such as powdered milk and leavening agents can compensate.


There is nothing especially interesting going on in a hot compote. You can chill it as quickly or slowly as you want to, until it reaches the desired temperature. Food safety requires that you don't keep it for more than 4 hours in the danger zone (between 60°C and 4°C), but if it is in individual serving bowls, on-the-counter chilling should be enough. Also, don't put large amounts of hot liquids in the fridge, you risk raising the entire fridge's temperature to unsafe levels, and the inside of a large container won't cool quickly enough to leave the danger zone. If you made lots of compote at once and want it very cold, chill it in an ice water bath.

The final temperature can be whatever you prefer. I eat my compote slightly colder than room temperature (15°C to 20°C). You can eat it fridge-cold, room temperature, or even hot, if it tastes better to you.


What are professional methods for preventing pantry moths?

Honestly, the top reason is going through stock quickly.
My apprenticeship bakery took delivery 1X week for most grains. Milled daily.

The second strategy was tightly sealed plastic tubs.

Third, deal with infestation in early stages. isolate and destroy.
It was an organic bakery so, yes, occasional uninvited nibblers.


In the type of recipe you reference, all of which are quick breads, the result is supposed to be tender, not chewy.

Wheat flour has proteins in it, which if agitated in the presence of water, will combine to form a new protein, gluten, which is very chewy.  Sometimes, this is desirable as in yeast raised bread, where the gluten forms the structure of the bread, and gives it its bite and chewiness.  In fact, this is why (most) yeast raised breads are kneaded.

Gluten development is not desirable in tender quick breads, like cornbread or banana bread.  Biscuits are a type of quick bread where the lumps of butter will promote flakiness, but you still want a tender crumb.

The flour and the liquids are combined as quickly as possible, with the least reasonably possible agitation, to minimize the development of gluten, and thus maximize tenderness.

The idea of leaving some lumps is to help prevent over mixing, and thus toughening the product.  Even if there are some small lumps of unmixed flour, the liquid from the batter will penetrate them in a few minutes during baking, and they will not be a factor in the final product.


It takes quite a while for a pot of hot soup to cool down to 40°F in the fridge. Several hours, sometimes, depending on the shape of the pot and the volume of soup. If you're heating and re-chilling the same soup daily, it's going to spend a lot of time in the danger zone. From a safety perspective, you'd be much better off making a pot of soup every few days and then reheating just the portion that you're actually going to eat.

  I still recommend this money saving idea to current students

Soup is a great food for stretching a dollar, but I don't see how it's any more expensive to make a fresh pot twice a week and it shouldn't take much time either. I understand that you were adding scraps each night, but you could as easily save those scraps for a day or two until you make the next pot of soup.


Can I rescue honey that is crystallised in the container? (with water or otherwise)

Just put the whole closed container in hot water. Warm it up and it will liquify, use it like normal. Once it cools again it will slowly re-harden, but it's fine. Rinse and repeat.


What is the conversion rate between plum tomatoes and "regular" tomatoes?

The tomatoes pictured are known as slicing or globe tomatoes. The conversion rate is going to depend significantly on the size of your slicing tomatoes.

While plum tomatoes tend to be rather uniform in size, a slicing tomato can range anywhere from 1.5 to 3x the size of a plum. If they're close to the size of a baseball, that would be about the 1.5x end of the range. If they're closer to the size of a softball that is the 3x end of the range.

I'm not sure what your recipe is, but you should be aware of two properties of plum tomatoes. First, they have a much lower water content than slicing tomatoes. This makes them great for stews and sauces. Second, their seeds are rather bitter; this is likely why your recipe calls for them to be seeded.

If you're using slicing tomatoes you can omit seeding them if you desire. You'll also want to cook them longer to address the higher water content.

What would honestly be a better option is to simply use canned San Marzano tomatoes. These are widely considered to be the best tomatoes for sauces. Plus they are canned at the peak of freshness, allowing you to have ripe tomatoes year round. Fresh tomatoes bought outside of summer are often lacking in flavor.


How Not to Lose Liquid in Vegetable Stock

If you uncover the stock, liquid will evaporate. For maximum yield, keep the stock covered. There are no downsides to this as far as I know.

The leftover vegetables are likely very completely mushy and flavourless, depending on how long you have cooked the stock. They have given their flavour to the stock. Any vegetables with flavour left you can use however you want (although their texture might still make them less than desirable). If not, composting is an option.

Regarding cooking time: if your stock tastes good (I like to add a small pinch of salt to a spoonful of stock to taste), and most of your vegetables don't, there is no point in cooking the stock further.


Do I have to adjust oven cooking times from recipes for more / less food?

Many ovens do not have a thermostat. They have a timer, which turns the heating elements on and off in a predetermined pattern. As a result, the oven is a very imprecise heating instrument. It is frequently miscalibrated, and even for a calibrated oven, the temperature you set is the average temperature, while the actual temperature of the air inside varies in a roughly sinusoidal pattern, and the internal temperature of the baked good is even more irregular depending on its composition, location, choice of baking tin, oven type, etc. Even if the oven has a thermostat, it only (roughly) regulates the air temperature, not the internal temperature of the food.

As a result, the change in heating speed caused by adding a little bit more mass is really insignificant when compared to the huge variability of heating speed which is inherently present between ovens.

Luckily, many recipes are not very sensitive, and taste good no matter how much heat transfer actually happened during the time prescribed in the recipe. For these, you don't have to sweat it, keeping the original time is mostly OK. If you create major occlusion (e.g. two separate pans of gratin above each other), add some time by gut feeling, and check frequently for doneness toward the end.

For sensitive recipes (roasts, custards, some cakes), baking by time doesn't work anyway. The best you can expect from a time given in the recipe is a rough guide to help with planning when to start preparation for a meal. You have to always bake these until they are done, regardless of what the recipe says. In this case, you again don't have to do any time adjustments, because you are not baking by time.

To summarize, no, you don't really have to do any adjustments to time. Just bake everything until it is done, and if your time-based expectations were wrong, adjust based on doneness.


Is there any way to bring an egg to its natural state (not boiled) after you cook it?

No, there is no way you could do this in a kitchen. The process of denaturation is usually considered irreversible, a boiled egg stays boiled.

Ok, it is possible to un-denaturize proteins if you have the right chemicals and a fast centrifuge available and it earned Colin Raston and his team an Ig Nobel Prize. But even they can't "unboil" your boiled egg from the fridge yet.

So it seems you either have to quickly perfect the method of Colin Raston (and possibly earn an award or two on the way) or schedule a trip to the store. Alternative approaches are asking your friendly neighbours for an egg or two, choosing a cake recipe without eggs or postponing the baking project.


Can you make rum balls without rum?  Well... I suppose you could use rum extract, which has a very intense rum flavor.  You would also want to add some sugar syrup or water to make up for the lost moisture in your recipe.  However, you would not get the exact same outcome due to the lack of the evaporative effect of the alcohol when eating the confection, and due to the lack of alcohol as a flavor carrier.
I surveyed a number of rum ball recipes.  For yields of about two dozen to five dozen, none of them used more than 1/2 cup of rum.   This means that the rum per serving is on the order of a tablespoon teaspoon or so, or less.  You and your friends might feel this is a level of rum consumption that is fine.  I don't drink alcohol myself, and this level would not bother me.
There are many, many, many desserts and confections that you could make.   If your friends are strongly opposed to any alcohol at all, why choose this one, where you are trying to substitute for the key ingredient that gives the dish its identity?


Stuffing meat cannelloni and refrigerating to be cooked the next day

Is the meat cooked or not ? it's not clear.

I would prepare the stuffing, cook it all and cool it down and stuff the cannelloni and put that in the fridge.

Personally, I would bake it all, sauce included the day before and cool it down and put that in the fridge. (I treat that the same as a lasagna).


As someone who's currently trying to construct a sprayer for a sort of performance art thing, my recommendation is -- don't bother.

There are plenty of pump sprayers available at kitchen stores that you can fill and use.

There are two basic styles -- the ones where you squeeze a trigger and stuff shoots out with each squeeze like some cleaning products, and the ones that you pump up first and then press the button to release like an aerosol can.

I like the trigger ones for water (for keeping near the grill to deal with flareups).  I like the aerosol-like ones for oils, as I get a finer spray for popcorn, and I can still lay down a decent coating in a pan for cooking.

I do not like the stainless steel aerosol sprayers -- you want a clear one, so you can see how much oil there is in the container, and you don't overfill, as you need to leave quite a bit of space for the pressurized air.

You should also look for ones where the tube goes deep into the container -- if it stops 1" from the bottom, that means you can't use it when the oil or liquid is low, and you have to refill it more often.

...

I should also note that Pam and other spray oils have an additive in them that makes it so they won't bead up after you spray it, which means it'll coat things better ... misting it with oil works pretty well, but it'll start beading up if you leave it after doing it.


What are the advantages of a two-day braise?

Always let a braise cool in its liquid to prevent drying out. As the meat cools, the fibers relax, allowing the juices to be pulled back into the meat. Imagine squeezing out a sponge (heating the meat), and then releasing the sponge in water (cooling the meat). (People on this forum have disagreed with this statement before, but I stand by it.)

Although allowing the meat to cool for 30 minutes or so will yield fantastic results, if you are an overachiever, putting your meat in the refrigerator overnight will increase the effect. After the meat is cold, it will become more solid, making it easier to remove bones, slice the meat, and skim the fat.

However, I never do this because I am impatient, I kind of like the mouth feel of a little bit of fat, and the results are very good without it. I suggest leaving the refrigerator for the leftovers, which will be wonderful.

BTW, pay less attention to the time, and more attention to the state of the meat. 4 hours may be too much, or two little. The best judge of whether the meat is ready or not, is to taste it. This points to one more advantage of the overnight refrigeration, controlling exactly when you want your food to be ready the next day.


Can Nutella be substituted for Peanut Butter in Peanut Butter Fudge?

The critical differences in a fudge recipe will be the amount of fat, nut solids, and other ingredients that might interfere with texture and setting. Since fudge gets its texture from a cooled suspension of solids in fat, and having the right concentration of sugar cooked enough to get to the correct temperature, these are the critical ingredients to consider for this type of substitution. From the nutition information:

Nutrition Facts
Peanut butter, smooth style
Amount Per 2 tbsp (32 g)
Calories 188
Total Fat 16 g

Nutrition Facts
Nutella, original
Amount Per 2 tbsp (37 g)
Calories 200
Total Fat 11 g

So, Nutella has soy lecithin as well, which can affect texture. You will notice that the fat percentage, as grams per gram of substance is considerably lower for nutella, but it has sugar, cocoa powder etc. This means that less fat = more binding, but other ingredients = less binding.
The long and short is you have to experiment. Nutella has other ingredients, too, like milk or milk solids and generally has a lighter texture than peanut butter. Experiment and you will then have to adjust other ingredients, like chocolate type or powder, butter, cream, etc... The greater sugar content is also important.


What has happened to today's chicken compared to the chicken in the 1950's - 80's?

I don't think much has happened to washing a chicken in itself, rather much more has happened to our knowledge about bacteria, hygiene, and cross contamination.

Most likely, with or without washing, nothing bad is going to happen. But then again: It might.
Properly cooking the poultry is going to get rid of the bacteria on the chicken, no washing needed. With washing, bacteria present on the chicken might spread to other parts of the kitchen and ingredients, and some of that might be consumed raw, or not cooked through & through, increasing the risk of contamination.

Personally, I'm not overly worried about getting infected, and I never have been, but I might, you might, and you wouldn't want guests to be. It's risk reduction, rather than anything else.


Brining and marination do two different things, contrary to popular belief.

Brines allow salt (plus possibly a very few other small flavor molecules) to penetrate into meat, at a rate of about 2-2.5 CM per 24 hours.  These deeply season your meat, change its texture, and help allow it to retain moisture when being cooked.

Marinades are a surface treatment, applying flavors to the surface of the food.  In actual practice, they do not provide any flavor deep into the food (except possibly salt).   Marination generally does not penetrate more than about 2 mm. They are mostly about the sauce adhering to the food.

Your best bet, if you want the best of both worlds is to:

Brine the chicken in a simple unflavored brine (just water and salt and/or sugar)
Marinate in a low salt marination for surface flavor.

You do not want to do the reverse, as the brine would essentially wash away the marinade.  You do not want to mix the marinade and the brine, as it will not adhere, and will not penetrate, essentially wasting the marinade ingredients.

It may also be helpful to treat the food with a low salt dry rub for flavor, or baste it with a flavorful sauce as part of the cooking technique.


Yes substituting provolone makes the difference.  Since American is a processed cheese, when it melts it doesn't become stringy but just goop.  I imagine that the recipe is specifc to American, maybe something like cheddar would fair well too.  But something like provolone which is close to mozzarella will become cohesive with itself as it cools.


What kind of vessel is suitable for storing and aging eggnog?

When in doubt, look at how the professionals do it: Use the vodka bottle that'll be empty by the time the eggnog is ready to be poured into a container.

Jam jars are easier if you don't have a funnel handy, but depending how much of an alcoholic you are on the alcohol content of your eggnog, you could use the proverbial chalice found in the basement of your castle and just give it a fast wipe-down with a 100 year cloth as it contains so much alcohol it'll sterilise said chalice.

Personally, I use my left-over eggnog to strip paint off walls.  ;-) 0:-)


How to prevent food absorbing smells from other food?

To people saying it's not an issue... um.. yes it bloody is! If I cook a smelly oniony meal in the oven and then bake cake or something in it (even the next) it absolutely absorbs smells and really ruins it!


Yes, it depends on how long you cook the chicken.  Much of the fat is in the skin and can be removed by peeling it; other fat (such as in the thighs) tends to stick around.  Long, slow cooking will render more of the fat, which melts at around 95° F.

I'm guessing you're trying to avoid fat for dietary reasons, but consider saving it for future cooking purposes - like where you might use another oil.  It's delicious, and not terribly harmful in small quantities.


How much salt can I safely add to bread dough?

Based on experience and experimentation alone (I bake bread several times a week), I'd say to be consistently safe you probably want to max out around 3% in baker's percentages.  2-2.5% is much more common, but I've done as much as 3%.  After 3%, things got very inconsistent.  Sometimes it would work if the structure was just right, but mostly I got loaves that didn't rise well.

If I did my math and conversions to weight right, it looks like you're probably in the 2% range, so you should be able to add about 50% more salt.

EDIT:  It must be higher, but I'm not sure how high.  Bread Baker's Apprentice as a 4.2% Poolish Focaccia and other others in that range.  BBA seems to max out in the low 4's.


Why using low temperature cooking for potatoes?

Cooking times are related to the type of tissue. A potato is a part of a plant, but an unusual one, an asexual bud.

A potato is not a stem or leafy part of a plant, so it's not a vegetable. It contains no seeds, so it is not a fruit.  It lacks the protection of an external fruit sheath, and it isn't a fertilized ovum, so it isn't an underground seed like a peanut (legume) even though it can grow into a plant separated from it's parent.  It isn't a thickened root like a carrot. It's a thin-skinned tuber with a very high and available starch content and low cellulose content compared to vegetables, fruits, stems, root and seeds.

The low cellulose content means that less heat is needed to break down the cell walls. The high starch content means that there is a short time between the cell walls breaking down, the starch quickly becoming available in large quantity and the starch binding with water to link into longer molecules, the reverse of what happens to meat protein that is gradually broken down during cooked.

Lowering the cooking temperature increases the cooking time and the brief window of opportunity for removing the product from heat at the desired texture.


I recommend (and use) a utility knife.

Not only are they fairly tough and sharp, you can adjust the blade to the depth you need (you don't want to cut too deep). And the blades are cheap to replace...

As others have noted in the comments, be careful with this as you would with any knife: the blades may be small, but they're quite sharp.


How do I add healthy fats to my daughter's diet?

Smoothies would be a great breakfast, snack, or dessert! You can put in a lot of healthy things that would add different nutrients. The nice thing about smoothies is that the other ingredients can mask certain tastes, too.

For adding fats, try adding coconut oil or coconut milk, peanut butter or other nut butter, avocado, or even some other oil that you think is healthy.


High hydration breads end up with gummy/undercooked interior

Bake to 205° F interior temperature. Excess ß-amylase enzyme can also cause gummy.


You can treat the square just like a plain shoulder roast (assuming both with bone in?)

While boning it out may make carving easier, the less you cut it the better it will cook (speed, moistness etc.)

A whole lamb can be butchered with just a decent boning knife if you know where to cut. You may need a small saw to section the large bones depending how you cut it

For the square shoulder you need to knife out the rib, backbone (if attached), and then the blade. All from the non meat side of the roast


How to prevent the silver utensils from tarnishing?

Silver tarnish occurs because of exposure of the silver to trace amounts of sulfur in the environment, mainly in the form of hydrogen sulfide gas, but also from rubber.

The best way to prevent silverware tarnish is to store the silverware in a container which (a) limits their exposure to air, and (b) retards tarnish.  The simplest of these is sliver cloth, a heavy cloth which has been treated with chemicals which absorb sulfur.  We have an entire drawer of sliver under silvercloth, and I don't think I've polished it since we bought it.


How to achieve a super leavened cake as the Pierre Herme ones?

Pierre Herme's "Cake Ispahan" is basically a pound cake flavoured with rose, raspberry and litchi, then glazed.

Let's look at the ingredients as reported on PH's own online shop:

Sugar
water
wheat flour (GLUTEN)
EGGS
cream (MILK)
butter (MILK)
freeze-dried raspberries (2,6%),
freeze-dried litchis (2,6%),
hydrogenated vegetal fats (coconut and palm kernel oils)
whole MILK powder
cocoa butter
natural rose flavor (0,6%)
chopped ALMONDS
baking powder (E450I, E500II and corn starch)
emulsifier : GMO-free SOYA lecithin
potato starch
Guérande salt
natural vanilla extract
dyes : cochineal carmine, E129 and E171.

Emphasis mine on the ingredients that are functional to the cake texture and leavening.

The above looks like the product of some serious food engineering. It's a recipe highly tuned to keep cost down, be highly reproducible, keep well for long periods of time, and of course still be delicious.

Now, how do you get a good tasting pound cake with a huge, cartoon looking dome like Herme does, but without the resources (or just the time) to tinker until you find that 0,3% of potato starch is the right amount? luckily you don't have many of the constraints that lead to that recipe: you can increase food cost (since you don't want to make a profit on it), you can tolerate some variability in the product, and it doesn't have to keep as long (we all know it will be gone in two days after baking)

So, here's the key elements to obtain a big dome:

Cream the butter in a stand mixer, and don't stop until it's very fluffy
Keep creaming while you add eggs (adding them slowly and at room temperature helps the stability of the emulsion

or:

Whip eggs in a stand mixer, and don't stop until they're very fluffy
Add oil or melted butters, keep whipping

then:

Use the weakest flour you can find
You can make your flour even weaker by swapping 10% of it with potato starch
Don't skimp on chemical leavening. Don't even think of skipping it entirely.
Either just before putting it in the oven, or as the crust is beginning to form (5-10 minutes), make a cut on the surface lengthwise, to make sure the crust will split there and not make different splits in undesired places
A smaller pan size seems to work better


What features should I look for in a fireplace grill?

Your primary features should be:

Safe design. This means the unit should remain steady when engaged with the fireplace.
The ability to easily add and remove food from the cooking surface.
The ability to easily move the cooking surface closer to and further from the fuel source.

These are paramount. Your first priority is to do no harm, so you want a stable grill built for the purpose of hearth cooking that won't fall out of the fireplace and set your apartment aflame. The ease of use is also important (and is probably a contributor to overall safety), as you want to be able to control your cooking conditions without much complication.

As a secondary concern, I would want something that either had a rotisserie option built-in, or was rotisserie-capable. Also, I'd want maintenance to be simple. The default thought might be to go for cast iron, but you should consider that it will likely be facing temperatures that will kill the seasoning, and reseasoning could prove to be difficult. So it may be worthwhile to do some research on the best material to use for the long term.


The Perfect Smoothie - Liquid Milk versus Powdered Milk

I've never heard of Powdered Milk being used in a Milkshake, personally.

When I worked at a restaurant, majority of our shakes were made from a Soft Serve machine. Having had shakes at other locations, I gather most use Soft Serve unless they specify "hand-scooped" or "real ice cream", etc.

We'd pour the Soft Serve into a tall metal cup, and add some milk (not too much at first, you don't want it too runny), and then blended with a milkshake blender (can be imitated at home using an immersion blender).

We also had Simple Syrup to add on occasion (can be made at home, or found in your local grocery store, usually in the alcohol/bar isle). You can add flavors, like strawberries, bananas, pineapple (chopped or diced and then thrown in before blending), chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, etc. Top with whipped cream and candied/maraschino cherries.

We also offered hand-scooped shakes, which were made exactly the same way, except we used real ice cream instead of soft serve.

The trick was to not put too much milk in, you can always add more and blend again. Blending will thin it out too, if you do it too much - so be careful.


How to get good color steak without sous-vide

You can certainly get good steak without sous vide, both in color and taste.
The quality of the meat matters, but is not the only variable. You should get the proper cut, and while the cow diet is not necessary for a red color, if it was slaughtered too young, the meat will be lighter in color. Not grey though, just a less saturated pink-red. And make sure that you have a thick enough cut, something very thin will not get a pink center.
The more important part, especially with your greyish results, is the temperature. If you get grey meat that is not juicy enough, you are overcooking your steak. It could be that your thermometer is inaccurate (hopefully you have a digital one, the analog ones aren't very useful), or simply that you are not accounting for the proper cooking process.
The temperature you see on the temperature chart is the final internal temperature at the core of your meat. You have to account for additional temperature rises both from the sear and from carryover during resting. So, if you think you want a 57 C steak, you should stop cooking it at maybe 54 (depends on thickness), and even earlier if you are doing a sear. The sear itself should be on a really hot pan, so you get a very short duration, maybe 15 seconds per side. It could also be that your preference is for a steak that is rarer than the average medium rare (that would be at 57 C), and/or that your thermometer is consistently undermeasuring the temperature.
Whatever the reason, just continue taking the meat out at lower thermometer readings until you get a result you are happy with, then stick with repeating it that way no matter what the thermometer shows.


Will my results differ when using a sourdough starter vs poolish for pizza dough?

Three things:

Most traditional Neapolitan pizza dough does not use a pre-ferment - poolish, biga, or sourdough starter.  Not to say it may not be good, but it wouldn't the way most are made.
Sourdough starters change their flavor profiles by age and by geographical region.  In general, I would expect a bit more of a 'tang' from the sourdough starter than from the poolish.
Sourdough starters usually don't rise as much - commercial yeast is just in general stronger than its wild counterparts.  So a dough made with a sourdough starter may not rise as well.

Between the two, I would prefer poolish over sourdough for a more traditional taste.  However, I'd be more likely to try something like a cold starter and super slow rise like a Pain à l'Ancienne in order to promote more natural sugars in the bread which would result in better browning.  The primary challenge with Neapolitan pizza dough is the lack of heat in a home oven.  Part of the thing that heat does is the browning - hence the recipe that promotes better browning but with traditional ingredients.


Why does adding extra flour help with high altitude baking?

The air pressure is lower at higher altitudes; when you add extra flour to your baked goods, it prevents them from rising too quickly or too much.

ETA (about the water): Water boils at a lower temperature at higher altitudes, so the extra water called for in high-altitude baking is to compensate for all the water turning to steam faster than it would at sea level.


What features should I look for in a hand grinder (for peanut butter)?

I am answering my own question with information I have gathered after doing some of my own research.  Several hand mills claim to make peanut butter, but the mill that seems to have the best public following and reviews for flour making, the Country Living Grain Mill, does not claim to make peanut butter in their marketing literature. I contacted the manufacturer, and got this reply:

  We do not recommend doing nut butters in our mill.  However,  we are applying for patents on a nut butter attachment for the Country Living Mill that does a superlative job.. We hope to have it available by this Fall.

  We have noticed that other grain mills on the market claim nut grinding ability and even show butter coming out of their mills.  We have purchased these mills and tested them and quickly realized that it was an arduous task at best to produce anything resembling nut butter...we can do the same with out mill but feel that it is misleading and certainly unfair to make such claims. Hope this helps.

Of course their answer has every reason to be biased, and not tell me if there is a good peanut butter hand press available on the market.

Another popular press, the Wondermill Junior Deluxe claims to make creamy peanut butter with their stainless steel burrs, and one Amazon review agreed it was possible, but too messy to be worth the effort.

Reviews of two different griners at http://www.grainmillcomparison.com/ seem to agree with the general consensus that hand-made peanut butter isn't the state of the art (yet):

  The nuts wouldn't feed, so I had to mash them into tiny bits. At this point the bits began to feed into the grinding plates. Unfortunately, those bits never exited--even when I loosened the grinding plates. The only peanut butter that I managed to produce was the goo stuck between the plates. -- GrainMaker Review

And:

  My test with peanuts resulted in the grinding plates clogging almost immediately, and I produced only a few flecks of peanut butter during the five minutes of grinding. Many companies claim their handmills will grind nutbutters and oily seeds, but I've yet to see one that wasn't a miserable failure in actuality.  -- Wondermill Junior Review

I have not been able to find a single first-hand account of making peanut butter with a hand mill that said it was worth it. As already mentioned, the amazon review mentioned above said it was far too messy. Many other reviews I've found have said the end result only vaguely resembled peanut butter--and never creamy peanut butter.

In an effort to directly answer the question at hand, though, the only feature I so far have been able to find that is required specifically for peanut butter is that the mill have steel burrs, as opposed to stone which are desirable for finely ground flour, as the stone will absorb oil from nuts, causing the system to clog.

EDIT: I got an additional reply from the Country Living Grain Mill manufacturers, explaining (in no great detail) what is required for a nut-grinder:

  There are a number of factors such as the mill must reduce the nuts to a manageable size prior to grinding, and propel them with enough pressure to be squeezed out between appropriately designed grinding plates.  It sounds simple, but the reality is that it's a very tricky thing to manage.


What seasonings give ranch dressing its distinctive flavor?

I always thought it was the combination of mayonnaise and sour cream (or something like buttermilk) that gives ranch dressing that ever so slightly tang to it.

Then add in the seasonings like dill, pepper, and garlic and onion and you've got yourself something delicious.


If the recipe is just asking for "Paprika", they want generic paprika labeled as such. Like this:

According to the McCormick website, this is "sweet" paprika.

  The dried, ground pods of Capsicum annuum L., a sweet red pepper.

Similarly, the Spice Islands site calls it sweet

  Vividly red in color, paprika is made from ground Capsicum chili peppers. Although, it doesn’t pack the punch you’d expect from a chili. Instead, it has a sweet flavor and a delicate aroma that can vary from fruity to sharp.

You certainly do not want "smoked". Both of these companies sell this specifically.


Will meat overcook in a boiling water pot?

Yes.

Water boils at about 212F (100C) and meat is cooked from 140F to 160F. If you left the meat in there for a very long time it would eventually approach 212F and start to get tough.

The time that they give you is going to be the time it takes to ensure that the meat is safe to eat. Generally I like it to be closer to the rare side as it is more tender that way.


What is the difference between kosher dill pickles and Polish dill pickles?

Those are two different processes. Unfortunately English language don't have two words for the outcome and they are both called "pickles".

Usually Polish pickles "kiszony" should be made with:
cucumbers, dill, fresh horseradish, garlic and salt. No vinegar.
Kosher pickles, called in polish "korniszony", are made with brine that contain vinegar.

I assume that those two recipes have been mixed outside Poland and both things are "korniszony" with the difference that "polish ones" call for ingredients used in "kiszony". The difference in taste is that polish one is much more spicy while kosher one is sweet.


Check the bottom of the pan; often useful information is stamped there. Like the brand, sometimes even model number. Assuming nothing useful:

Steel and iron are ferromagnetic. That is to say, a magnet will stick to them. Both are unlikely to be Teflon-coated (edit: though Wikipedia informs me they exist). The black (which is hopefully somewhat shiny) is seasoning (cooked on oil). Iron would probably mean cast iron, and would generally be heavy (my cast iron wok weighs in at well over 10lbs). So, if they magnet sticks, you probably have steel.

Some stainless steels are ferromagnetic, but most aren't. Stainless is also unlikely to Teflon-coated. But it'll probably be shiny, at least on the outside. So, if not magnetic, its probably aluminum. Aluminum is probably coated.

Teflon isn't the only coating that may be used. It could be anodized aluminum as well (which, I guess, may not technically be a coating). Or one of the newer nonstick coatings. They all look different: Teflon is very dark gray to black, anodized is light gray to dark gray. The newer ones unfortunately are numerous and some can be any color. (Your description of the color sounds like Teflon to me).

You could also try cooking a scrambled egg in it; start it in a cold pan. Teflon in at all good shape will release the egg very easily. Seasoning will, unless very good, probably have you cursing.


So now you have the oven thermostat saying one thing and a thermometer saying something else. As other answers have said, that could be because you didn't wait long enough for the oven to heat evenly, or that the thermometer is not in a good location. If neither of those applies, the only conclusion you can draw is that one of them is wrong. In order to conclude that the oven is off, you need at least two thermometers. Of course, if you do that, you may find that all three disagree.


What is the impact of opening the oven door?

It makes a big difference what you are baking as to how much impact opening the door will have. A victoria sponge does not have any chemical leavening agents in it, all the lift you get comes from the expansion of air and moisture from the heat of the oven. When you open the oven door you let in cold air and lose some of your moist, hot air. Worst case is that the cold air could cause the cake to contract or possibly even collapse, best case is that you lose some of your lift and get a denser cake. The moisture loss makes a hard crust form sooner, constraining the lift of your cake and/or making the crust thicker and tougher.  It works the same way for bread. Cakes/pastries which are chemically leavened are a bit less sensitive but they still get part of their leavening from the expansion of air.

Some things are much more sensitive to the door opening than others, opening the door too early with popovers and yorkshire puddings is a great way to ruin them, for example. Opening the door after yorkshire puddings stop rising helps them form a better crunch (that's possibly controversial, some say a crunchy yorkie is heresy). Cornbread is less sensitive, I've opened the oven plenty of times when I'm baking that in the oven with other things and it's always come out well because it's relatively dense to begin with.

There are a few cases where opening the oven door is beneficial early or mid-way through the process, one being bagels. Because bagels are boiled in water before being baked their structure is pretty fixed before they go into the oven, so opening the oven halfway through won't hurt, in fact I've found that a quick opening of the door can help form a better crust on them. When baking focaccia I often open the door and spray water into the oven to keep the crust from forming too quickly.

So in general it's good advice to keep the oven door closed as long as you can when baking most types of cakes, pastries, and bread. Once a crust forms and the rise stops it's safer to do, but limit it if possible to prevent uneven baking.


Do fresh chilli peppers have properties that ground chilli peppers do not?

The main property that is different is that fresh chili peppers contain water.  That means a significant difference in the kinds of flavors that are perceived when you consume them. Probably, most specifically, that fresh, "green" flavor and aroma that you perceive when using fresh. There are probably volatile aromatic properties that lost during dehydration.  You can confirm and choose the variety of pepper when using fresh.  Ground, dried peppers are more difficult to identify, unless the variety is indicated on the package.  It also looks like dehydration decreases ascorbic acid and carotenoids, which would impact the nutritional contents, and likely, how the flavor is perceived.

Personally, I think of them as two different products.


Can I buy cocoa butter squares for cooking?

Yes, you can certainly buy cocoa butter, from many different brands. I have seen more chips than squares, but the shape doesn't matter.

We don't do shopping recommendation for brands here, and suggesting single stores is also not looked upon well, especially since most people reading this won't live in the same place as you. So I won't send you somewhere special, I'll just say, if you can't find it in a well sorted supermarket, try in a specialty store for confiserie, and if you can't find that one, try online.


Roasting smaller, thinly skinned peppers - removing peel

I've been slacking! Here are my (very overdue) experiment results.

The blowtorch worked like a charm for almost all of the smaller peppers. I skewered the peppers, charred the skins with the blowtorch, just holding the pepper by the skewer, then put them in a tupperware container to steam. After which, they peeled beautifully.

Before and after peeling.

These are all roasted and peeled. Can you believe how colorful they still are?

The one pepper variety that gave me trouble with this method was the habanero. The surface is so wrinkled and the walls of the pepper are so thin, that the steaming didn't make them easy to peel. So I plumped them with salt water before charring using a needle and syringe. That worked!

The pepper on the right was plumped before charring. Like the rest of the peppers, it maintained it's meatiness that way.

Thanks Guys!


Does dried milk powder retard yeast growth in bread making

Short answer, no.
Try souring the dough a small percentage to strengthen the gluten  -more elastic- which should help higher rising


Fat free cooking in 18/10 stainless steel cookware

I wouldn't believe this - it sounds like marketing hype to me. Stainless steel consistently sticks unless you add at least some small amount of fat. That's true of All-Clad or any number of other brands and pans using 18/10 or 18/8 stainless steel. This copy says nothing about any special non-stick surfacing that would explain the claim; it's nothing more than an aluminum pan with a topcoat of stainless.

Additionally, that page features a ton of other hyperbolic nonsense, like this gem:

  With our Cooking System, described below, also thanks to the perfect fit of the lid to the pot that creates a natural hermetic seal, it is possible to cook at a lower temperature saving time and energy, without condiments addition and preserving both nutritional and organoleptic features of the foods. In short, foods are cooked more delicately in their own natural fluids, for more vitamins, less fats and less calories.

They're talking here about... braising. That's it. You can do this in just about any cookware with a lid. Someone went overboard with the marketing jargon here, and it's not even particularly well-written. Don't believe a word of it.


Will milk produce more curds if you add additional protein and fat content?

I am not sure what "more curds" means, or how to answer that.

You can enhance the firmness of fermented/curdled dairy products by adding milk proteins (such as non-fat dried milk), because there will be more protein to interlock and form the gel that is characteristic of yogurt, creme fraiche, sour cream and so on.

The fat does not directly participate in curd formation, but is interlocked within the complex colloid that is formed during the fermentation or acidification from the casein.

Milk fat has unique characteristics which will not be matched by another fat, most importantly:

Its flavor
Its melting point

Furthermore, it is emulsified into the continuous liquid phase and so evenly distributed throughout the resultant cheese or curds or yogurt or whatever you are making.

While not impossible, you would have difficulty integrating another fat into the liquid phase in a smooth, emulsified manner.


Beef has a firm, closed texture, which prevents bacteria penetrating far into the meat. This is why it's relatively safe to eat a rare steak: you kill the surface bacteria by searing it, and the middle is relatively bacteria free.

When you grind beef, you of course mix the surface with the middle, which increases the risk. To be safe, you should therefore limit the surface-to-middle ratio, ie use as few separate pieces of beef as possible.

Your average supermarket pack of mince may have any number of pieces thrown together, and so it's not a good idea to make a medium burger with it. The safest option is to grind your own beef, ensuring your equipment is very clean and your meat has been handled properly throughout its lifetime. I believe at least one UK gourmet burger chain grinds their own meat fresh daily.

The other option is to use irradiated beef, which is virtually sterilised by being exposed to a burst of radiation. I'm not sure how easy that is to find in the UK, however.


Can you add emulsifying salts when making mozzarella?

Well as such you can't add emulsifying salt in the preparation of natural mozzarella cheese. If you want to prepare processed mozzarella cheese then you can add emulsifying salts for better improvement of emulsification properties and protein solubilization, it helps in reducing free fat leakage. the stability of melted mozzarella cheese depends upon many factors associated with manufacturing steps i.e. cooking temperature, scalding time, the acidity of whey drainage etc... so you have to take care about each and every aspect of manufacturing step to make it more stable in their melted form.


What to look for when buying good quality loose black tea?

Every tea can have potentially various grades and different teas will have different qualities. I'm not sure what is available where you are, but if you're fairly new to drinking loose leaf teas, I'd for starters find a store that lets you see, smell and possibly sample various teas. Once you have a better idea of what you're looking for, then online dealers will be easier to navigate.

So, firstly, find a reputable store, one where they are knowledgeable about their product, and difference in grades.
Ask to smell the teas. Please DO NOT stick your head in the tea, waft it with your hands or the lid of the tin. If you like the aroma, it's a good starting indicator of how you'll like the tea.
Look closely, are the tea leaves fairly even in size? An unbroken leaf is generally graded higher than a leaf that is broken/crushed. Though since you're specifically asking about black teas, note that certain black teas are deliberately cut, to encourage a stronger flavour. If the leaves are torn, crushed, it may be a sign of a rough machine harvest, or poor handling. This could result in bitterness. The lower grades (small crumbs and dust) generally end up in tea bags. So, note that.
Most importantly, taste it! If the store offers a few different sampler sizes, go for that. Ask the people there, about how they'd recommend you prepare it. And try a few different kinds and grades.

Note, if you're new to loose leaf tea, it should taste different than what you're used to. Trust your taste buds and your nose first... Regardless of what it looks like and the price and what the description says, if you don't like the way it tastes & smells (which is often subjective) the rest is pretty meaningless.


Sweet pickles, miniature if you're not dicing them, it doesn't matter if you are dicing them. Look for a bit of crunch; cornichons provide texture as well as flavor.


Is it possible to make "finely ground corn flour"?

My answer here would be "no". Even if it is not impossible, it is rather impractical to pursue this.
This may surprise some people, because as a home cook, it is pretty easy to take some grain and process it into small-sized particles. But what is difficult is to take some grain and process it into particles which are

very tiny
of consistent size
contain only the parts of the grain you want (typically the endosperm only, without the bran or the embryo)

Most instruments in our kitchens are not intended for grinding, and if you try them, the results are somewhat usable, but not especially good. To get really good quality fine flour, you need a precise mill and good sieves, plus the knowledge which sieve size to use at which step of the process.
In some applications, you could try just using the best grinding-like instrument you have lying around and see if you are happy with the result. This functions well if you want to do something like include unusual grain flours in a rustic bread. But this recipe (which looks amazing btw!) seems to be quite dependent on the proper flour texture and absorption ability. So I wouldn't bother trying it with the result of corn thrown willy-nilly into a food processor.


the whistle on the kettle keeps popping off

Given that PTFE (Teflon) tape is meant for use on drinking water pipes, and PTFE is used for non-stick cookware (which gets much hotter than a kettle spout), I'd happily use it (the type for potable water).

Making a habit of consuming it probably isn't a good idea but flecks of non stick coating do sometimes get into food, without poisoning anyone.

I've recently read a research paper suggesting that PTFE could be used to bulk out food as a weight-loss aid: Polytetrafluoroethylene Ingestion as a Way to Increase Food Volume and Hence Satiety Without Increasing Calorie Content.  I'm not sure I fancy it, and it would contribute to microplastic pollution - but the paper proposes PTFE making up 25% of foods, while the worst that could happen here is a few scraps.  They say it's safe. In rats.


How much is "1-2 cents worth" of yeast in an old recipe?

I have no idea about historic yeast prices or measuring units, but there are typical ranges for yeast, and you are pretty flexible on the amount you use.

In bakers' percentages, 2% is a standard (for traditional wet yeast). You use more for rich doughs and short rises, and less for long rises. Your recipe is quite rich and short raised, so my gut feeling would be to start with 5% for the first batch and adjust in the next batch if needed. 5% of half a pound is 11,34 g, which converts to 3,8 g of dry yeast.

You could in principle chuck in the whole 7 g package as Cynetta suggests, but that gets into the range where you get the side effects of too quickly fermented yeast, which consist of off tastes due to ammonia and thiols. You might like that taste (many people whose grandmas baked on the "more is more" principle are accustomed to it), in which case just go for it. Else stay with the lower amount, and give it time to rise well (probably blubb, if it is as liquid as I imagine it from the recipe).

As a side note, you might want to reduce the eggs - home laid eggs in 1922 weren't the 55 g sold nowadays as a standard. Three instead of four would give you a more authentic taste.


I'll bet the rent that they weren't baked completely dry. Moisture made it to the crust overnight as happens with crunchy bread crust going leathery.


Could adding oil to boil benefit the taste and texture of the pasta?

It's very unlikely that adding oil is improving the taste or texture of the pasta, the amount people added is incidental to the process. Olive oil is mildly acidic, and if your water alkaline that acidity may neutralize it somewhat, however a tablespoon or two of oil in gallons of water is simply not enough to make a noticeable difference

What is likely to make a difference is salt, as seen in this answer:

  The salt adds flavor, but it also helps reduce the gelation of the
  starch in the pasta. The starch in food is the form of microscopic
  grains. When these grains come into contact with water, they will trap
  some of it (think cornstarch in cold water), but when the water is hot
  they swell up like balloons and merge with each other, and you have
  starch gelation.

When you add the salt is immaterial as long as it dissolves in the water before you add the pasta.


It's hard to say, not knowing the exact temperatures reached in your starter.  I would move so that it no longer is in the sun, and continue to feed for a couple of days to see if it has any life.


can you even find the whole annatto seed? that's what makes the oil that color. i don't think it really imparts a much of a flavor. a thread at chowhound.com suggests maybe using turmeric instead to color the oil -- i can see a bit of a resemblance.


Should I trust my Instant Pot or my ThermPro digital thermometer for temperature?

Your digital thermometer may come with a calibrate function where you place it in either ice cold or boiling water and adjust accordingly. Once you have done this, compare the temperature with your IP and this should show you which is the most out (if recalibrating has been required).

https://www.foodrepublic.com/2011/04/04/how-to-calibrate-your-food-thermometer


How do I pick up and move shortcrust pastry dough without breaking it?

If the pastry is sticking to the rolling surface regardless of how well floured it is, it is possible that you are pressing down overly hard and not keeping the board floured throughout the process.

These are the stages I use in rolling out pastry:

Shape the ball of pastry into a thick disc or rectangle using my
hands, to make it easier to get the rolling started.
Flour the surface well and make a pass in one direction with the
rolling pin make a quarter turn with the pastry and slide it about a
bit in the process to make sure there is still flour underneath.
(While your pastry is still quite thick it is easy to lift it a
little to scatter a little more flour under)
Repeat this process until the pastry is getting too big to more
about, but don't try to achieve a lot of thinning with each pass, much better to make more passes which thin the pastry a little each time than a few passes which thin it a lot.

If your pastry feels as it it is sticking once it has got a bit larger, use your rolling pin to pick it up to add flour. Place your rolling pin near the edge of the pastry furthest from you and slip the fingers of one hand under the edge of it to hold it eh pastry against the rolling pin, then supporting the pastry with your hand roll the pin back towards you so that the weight of the pastry is spread across the pin and lift from the board. if it is sticking you can use a palette knife to ease it free. Add more flour to your surface and roll the pastry back down.

Use this same technique of rolling the pastry onto the pin to
transfer the finished sheet to the pie-dish.


They will not "melt" into the sauce, but I think your desired effect depends on how long they cook in the sauce.  I frequently make "pickled" mustard seeds, which result in a softer seed that pops in your mouth, rather than remaining crunchy. A great garnish or condiment. Not crunchy at all.   There are two ways to do this: 1.  bring to a boil, then strain, repeatedly 8 - 10 times.  This removes the tannic notes, then the seeds are placed in pickling brine.  Method 2 brings seeds to a boil in pickling liquid and simmers them for 30 - 40 minutes.   Method 3 makes use of a pressure cooker.  All result in mustard seeds that are not crunchy, but soft and pleasant to eat.  You could certainly obtain the same result in a sauce.  In fact, I could see it adding an interesting textural component to the dish.


What is the real risk of salmonella with modern food cleaning standards?

If I eat 1,000 raw chicken breasts, how many terrible nights will I have?

Impossible to say. You will ingest many pathogenic bacteria, but nobody in the world can predict how many times they will cause an illness, and in how many of these times the symptoms will be noticeable, and how many nights each case will take until you heal.

What is easy to measure is the actual contamination rate of meat. Here is one study which was done in American food: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2014/02/the-high-cost-of-cheap-chicken/index.htm. They found that 13.6% of the chicken breasts were contaminated with salmonella (out of a sample of 300). So, if salmonella is the only thing you are worried about, expect to come in contact with pathogens 130 times out of 1000 raw chicken meals. Again, the "falling ill" rate in these cases won't be 100%.

On the other hand, being worried about salmonella exclusively is not wise. There are a ton of other pathogens on chicken. The same study found that

  Almost none of the brands was free of bacteria

and, even worse,

  About half of our samples (49.7 percent) tested positive for at least
  one multidrug-resistant bacterium.

So, while you will be exposed to salmonella from only 13.6% of your hypothetical raw chicken meals, you will be ingesting pathogens with each of them. You won't fall ill every time you do it, but it's highly unlikely that it will be zero times either.

This is just one article, but I have in the past read other studies which found similar numbers of contamination in other first world nations.

I also recommend reading the whole article I linked, it contains much more interesting information than simply numbers on contamination.

A side note on why I called your belief dangerous: We have very many food safety questions here, and I see all the time answers like "I ate it and nothing happened, so this practice must be safe". NO! Once you realize that unsafe food won't make you ill 100% of the time, and not even 10% of the time, you know not to mistakenly declare unsafe practices "safe" just because you got lucky a few times.


Best thickness for shaped pizza dough for good sliding from the peel/tray into the oven

Sliding well has nothing to do with weight or thickness, although too thin makes the dough prone to tearing. A generous spread of ground semolina under the pizza dough after shaping will keep it from sticking to your counter while you top it, and in your oven when you bake it. The grainy semolina will act as a barrier, keeping the bottom of your dough off flat surfaces, think of it as natural ball bearings. You can use corn meal as well but I don't like the taste or texture as much.

As for the ideal thickness of an authentic Neapolitan pizza I've never measured it, but let's just say you can't get the dough any thinner in the center without it tearing. I make mine thin in the middle and just a bit thicker on the outside.


Does adding flour before egg coating and breadcrumbs help sticking?

Yes it is helpful for an initial dip in flour...as it would  help the egg to stick better...
A little addition of oil in the egg also helps thin the liquid coating,  with the extra fat from the egg will help brown the breadcrumbs better underneath. The proteins in the flour and eggs help the bread crumbs stick to the food once cooked. A fabulous and crunchy crust is formed around the food once fried in a pan.
 Do let me know if my answer is helpful


Can I season a stainless steel frying pan?

It is not something that I would do - I just use stainless with sufficient oil. But if you really want to try it, then yes, you can make it stick. It is more difficult than with cast iron, but it is not impossible. First, steel does have "pores" (actually crags) on a microscopic level. It is not that much smoother than forged iron, which is also seasoned. Second, we have had enough questions around here of people complaining about "ruining" their stainless when they accidentally polymerized oil onto it. Third, my pans also hold a bit of polymerization on the walls, where splatter meets the hot metal.

I cannot give you the exact conditions under which it will work, but I don't think there is much difference between the best process for seasoning stainless steel and the best process for seasoning iron. The difference is in that you have a much smaller margin for error. But with good technique and patience, you should be able to do it on purpose.


How to make frosting very white, fluffy, and shiny?

Here are some suggestions:

To make the frosting whiter:

If you use butter, eliminate it. Use all of the other standard ingredients but substitute heavy whipping cream for the butter. Add until you have the consistency you want.
While I can't say I would do this, a viable option would be to substitute a good brand of vegetable shortening for the butter.
Rather than pure vanilla you may consider imitation clear vanilla.
Try adding white food coloring. Regarding food coloring I would recommend a good gel or soft gel/paste formula.

To make the frosting shinier:

If you use butter in your frosting you can try adding more butter.
While I have never cooked cream cheese frosting, there are recipes available online that use corn syrup or glucose syrup and are supposed to produce excellent results in regard to gloss.
After you finish frosting your cake, take a butter knife (non-serrated) or metal frosting spatula and dip in hot water and dry. Go over the frosting again dipping the knife as needed. This should melt the very outside of the frosting only creating the gloss you want.


How can I make my fried potatoes not fall apart?

A few possible ways, which can, of course, be combined:

Use waxy ("new") potatoes. These potatoes have a lower starch content, as well as a different ratio of starches (more amylopectin) which helps them maintain their shape.
Microwave then cool the diced potatoes rather than boiling them. Do this in a microwave-safe bowl with microwave-safe plastic wrap over the top. This process should also help maintain potato integrity while cooking them through.
Fry them in small batches in vegetable oil (or another high-smoke-point oil) at med-high to high heat (depending on your pan/stove combination) rather than the lower heat required for frying with olive oil. To get a nice brown crust, you're essentially searing the outside of a pre-cooked potato.