Yes you can. You do want to make sure you have given your marmalade a couple of weeks to set completely before deciding to remake with additional pectin.

In the US, pectin found on grocery store shelves generally contain a sheet with basic recipes, as well as instructions on how to remake your cooked jam/jelly/marmalade if it doesn't set properly.

Here are additional options from The National Center for Home Food Preservation:

  Making Jams and Jellies

  Remaking Soft Jellies

  Measure jelly to be recooked. Work with no more than 4 to 6 cups at a
  time.

  Please read Using Boiling Water Canners before beginning. If this is
  your first time canning, it is recommended that you read Principles of
  Home Canning.

  To Remake With Powdered Pectin

  For each quart of jelly, mix ¼ cup sugar, ½ cup water, 2 tablespoons
  bottled lemon juice, and 4 teaspoons powdered pectin. Bring to a boil
  while stirring. Add jelly and bring to a rolling boil over high heat,
  stirring constantly. Boil hard ½ minute. Remove from heat, quickly
  skim foam off jelly, and fill sterile jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace.
  Adjust new lids and process as recommended in Table 1. For more
  information on how to sterilize jars see "Sterilization of Empty
  Jars".

  To Remake With Liquid Pectin

  For each quart of jelly, measure ¾ cup sugar, 2 tablespoons bottled
  lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons liquid pectin. Bring jelly only to boil
  over high heat, while stirring. Remove from heat and quickly add the
  sugar, lemon juice, and pectin. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring
  constantly. Boil hard for 1 minute. Quickly skim off foam and fill
  sterile jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Adjust new lids and process as
  recommended in Table 1.

  To Remake Without Added Pectin

  For each quart of jelly, add 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice. Heat
  to boiling and boil for 3 to 4 minutes. Use one of the tests described
  in Testing Jelly without Added Pectin to determine jelly doneness.
  Remove from heat, quickly skim off foam, and fill sterile jars,
  leaving ¼-inch headspace. Adjust new lids and process as recommended in Table 1..


What vessel to use for baking cheesecake

A 9" pan has a surface area* of 81π/4 square inches. A 6" pan is 36π/4, or just under half, so the depth will be similar (~10% deeper). 6" springform pans are easy to get.  If your existing pan is dead-on 9", you might like a 6 that comes up a little big, as many pans do.  Or you could make a 2/3 quantity in a 7" pan, something I often do with 3-egg recipes.

*The factor of π/4 cancels, so you only need to consider the ratio of the square of the diameters.  In fact, because π/4=0.79≈1, you can often ignore it when converting between rectangular and round pans, given that the limited range of sizes available.


Are you supposed to stir sauerkraut while it is fermenting?

I do not stir my cabbage once it starts fermenting, but I cannot say whether it would affect the ferment if you stir it.


Peanut oil with maybe some residue of raw egg

If you heat the oil to around 95C, any egg residue should solidify and the oil should be sterilised at the temperature. You can then strain the oil and decant off any aqueous phase. If you want a more certain clearing, make a small amount of brine say 5% salt by weight, pour it into the oil, shake it up, let it settle and separate out, decant the oil phase and heat it to 95C and strain.

addendum: there is a somewhat related method here


Cleaning a Teflon pan with burnt rice residual

You can try pouring some grain alcohol in it and leaving it to soak for a couple of hours. After that, a normal scrubbing with dish soap should be enough. Use the cheapest vodka/ouzo/gin you can find.

The second option is vinegar, with the same usage.


a good substitute for pineapple when cooking a ham

Pineapple brings a touch of acidity, sweetness, and general fruitiness.  I am going to assume you would have been using canned pineapple, so the enzymatic action is not really a factor (and it would be stopped as part of the cooking process).  It is also hearty enough in texture to stand up to the baking.

For the juice, I would recommend basic orange juice, perhaps cut with a little extra lime juice for complexity and acidity.  For a fruit garnish, peaches (frozen or canned since it is not peach season) should work quite well.

If you can find good mango, that would also work very well.

This application is very flexible and forgiving.  With the soda, and the cherries, you could even omit the pineapple part entirely, and still have a good outcome.


Are there desserts which use whole eggs (not mixing them in)?

It's a cake rather than a dessert (always a tricky distinction) and traditionally uses the unbroken yolk rather than the whole egg, at but I offer you the Chinese moon cake. The egg isn't universal; neither is the cake being sweet. You certainly get sweet ones with egg.

Apart from being a (rather poor) example, the Mooncake hints at something else: the sweet/savoury-main course /dessert distinction isn't universal. In fact it has European roots but has spread widely.

Eggs also have small but non-negligible amounts of salt and glutamate, flavours we associate with savoury foods, especially together.


Where can I buy fresh, live yeast for making bread? (NOT active dry yeast)

Another option-- if it is available to you-- is a grocery store in an area with significant population of recent Eastern European immigrants. There was a Polish store in Ann Arbor, MI (until it closed last year) where the live  yeast was available by weight (cut from a big block, of the same consistency as cake yeast).


I think this is a problem with all oils. When something burns, it produces smoke. Smoke is generally indicative of something that isn't particularly good for us if inhaled. Same holds for oils. It seems that all oils will begin to produce toxins once they hit their smoke point. However, before that, they are completely fine. So pick an oil that will handle the temperature you're using by checking the smoke point.

There's also a difference between producing toxins and toxic. Does burning oil produce toxins? Yes. Will that actually make you sick? I don't know. But my inclination is that it's unlikely to cause you harm under "normal" usage or else we'd be hearing about people actually getting sick from burning their oil rather than just getting scare stories on the news about free radicals.

And to get very sciency (stop reading immediately if your eyes glaze over, I think that's a sign of toxicity), from biology online:

  Researchers investigated processes of
  oxidative degradation - notably that
  caused at 70°C with ventilation - of a
  broad group of oils with very
  wide-ranging compositions. Another
  degradation process studied was that
  which is caused by microwave action
  that does not heat greater than a
  temperature of 190°C.

  In both processes deterioration of the
  oils takes place. In the first type of
  process (70°C with ventilation)
  hydroperoxides are first produced and
  subsequently aldehydes. In the second
  kind of process (microwave) it is
  basically aldehydes produced. It has
  to be pointed out that both the
  oxidative conditions and the
  composition of the oil determined the
  velocity of the degradation and both
  the nature and concentration of the
  compounds produced.

  These studies have shown, for the
  first time, that degradation of lipids
  in foods can produce toxic oxygenated
  aldehydes. These compounds, well-known
  in medical studies for their geno- and
  cytotoxic activity, considered as
  markers of oxidative stress in cells
  as well as being causal agents of
  degenerative illnesses, had not
  previously been detected in
  foodstuffs.

  Researchers have shown that some oils
  produce these toxic substances in
  greater quantities and at a greater
  rate. Virgin olive oil was, amongst
  all the oils studied, that which took
  longer to produce this type of
  compounds and produced a lower
  concentration of them.


The grades of olive oil actually depend on the particular legislation of the country you live in.

In Europe it is regulated by directive 136/66/CEE, reg. CE 2568/91 and reg.CE 1989/03 (PDF).

The denomination depends on the acidity of the oil. Although the law does not specify it, you also have another characterization, based on the number of "pressings" and the strength of the press that olives had. Therefore, commercially, you have different grades of extra-virgin olive oil: first press olive oil, for instance, is derived from the first press of the olives, with 10-12 kg/cm2 force, has very low acidity and a strong amazing taste, but has a very low yeald, so it's quite expensive.

In particular, 8 grades of olive oil are defined, see page 4 of the linked PDF.

Traditionally you would use extra-virgin olive oil for this kind of recipes.

However, which one you choose goes down very much to your taste. For instance, I know someone who loves to use first press extravirgin olive-oil, but to me that tends to dominate too much the flavour of the dish (and it's quite expensive).

That said, I wouldn't heat the olive oil almost to smoking point to do this kind of recipe. I may almost use the oil a crudo (without heating it at all) just let the pasta heat it up. When the recipe requires to heat the oil up (e.g. spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino where you need to fry the garlic and the chili), heat it up slowly and don't let it go for too long, unless you want a burnt garlic taste, that is.


How should I store raw steaks in the freezer?

Yes, store them individually.

First, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap, preferably one that says it's specifically for freezer use. Then wrap this tightly in aluminum foil. They'll keep for months without freezer burn this way.


Is there a difference between 'Saucisson Sec' and 'Salami'?

There's a difference between the title (is a sausiccon a type of salami), and the body (is there a difference).

The first is a question of classification, and no, a saucisson is type of cured sausage, but you'd want "saucisson sec" (dry sausage) for a dried, cured sausage with good storage characteristics like salami.  So the relation is the other way around -- a salami is a type of saucisson.

"Differences" when you're dealing with general classifications such as this tend to be a question of if there are items that might fit into one category, but not the other.  It's pretty obvious that salami is a narrower term than sausiccon, but I'm not sure if salami and sausiccon sec are just different names for the same concept, or if there might be items in one class that wouldn't fall into the other.

update : would sweet bologna be considered a saucisson sec ?  It's only semi-dried, so I wouldn't classify it as a salami due to storage characteristics.


Do you know of any good rectangular spice storage solutions?

My solution to this is to use the containers I already have and put them on this:

It's called a double decker lazy susan. I've had mine about 30 years but I'm sure they are still sold. It spins to make it easy to access anything. You put some spices on the top shelf and some on the bottom.


Sushi in lunch box? Sushi rice preservation

If your primary motivation is food safety, then you shouldn't keep rice at room temperature for extended periods of time.

There are some people who say that leftover rice shouldn't be kept at all, because there's a risk of Bacillus cereus multiplying between the time that you cooked the rice and got it chilled down.

As such, you should cook your rice, cool it down to make the sushi, and then either consume it, or refrigerate it immediately.

Also possibly of interest (although I don't know if it would work for sushi), scientists have found that adding coconut oil when cooking rice, then chilling it can convert sugars to a non-available form, if you're concerned about diabetes risk.


Can you use woks on an electric induction cooktop in an apartment?

Yes, but it depends on your wok and your induction stove.
First, please understand that Cantonese restaurant cooking, with the huge 150,000 BTU gas burners is not Chinese home cooking, nor is it what "woks were designed for" (discussion in video).  Those really are a restaurant-only thing, just like a 100,000 BTU salamander is an European restaurant-only thing.  What you should be aiming for is "Chinese home cooking", which is achievable.
You're going to want a compatible wok.  I recommend a flat-bottomed carbon steel wok like this one.  You need the flat bottom in order to get good contact with the induction surface.  It's also a good idea to get a smaller wok; 30cm/12" or 35cm/14" diameter, not 16" or greater, because the induction contact simply won't produce enough heat to heat the whole wok (this is a general problem on home ranges, not just induction).
Many guides also recommend the Lodge Cast-Iron Wok for its induction-friendliness, but I recommend against it based on experience.  Not that it doesn't work well with induction (it does), but because it's a terrible wok. A big part of wok cooking is taking advantage of the fast responsiveness and steep temperature gradient of the wok, and the Lodge has neither of these.  I have one; I use it exclusively for deep-frying.  Clearly, though, others disagree with me.
The next challenge is harder to control: it's the question of whether your particular induction stove can heat the small flat bottom of the wok adequately, since that's the only part in contact with the stove. Some can, some can't, and there are too many variables in induction stoves for you to figure this out via stove stats.
But, since woks can be heated dry, this is easy to test:

Borrow a flat-bottom carbon-steel wok
Put it on the induction element and turn it to max (both temp & power)
Wait 1-2 minutes
Use a contactless thermometer to see if the wok bottom gets to at least 225C/450F (it will also smoke at this temperature)
Take it off the heat and oil it

Speaking of which, you will need to do any initial wok seasoning over a gas flame or on the grill, since seasoning requires heating the whole wok.
Also: if you're going to use a wok in an apartment, regardless of heat source you need a hood or other fan ventilation.


How large is "1 large beef bouillon cube" for risotto?

I would check the recipe and see how much stock that requires, and then compare that to how much stock your bouillon cubes make. If it's close, you're probably fine. This assumes you make standard stock before using the cube, of course, and not concentrate. Does the recipe give any other clues?

If you can't get any joy this way, I'd suggest you just guess, erring on the side of bland, and taste as you go.


Pork tenderloin was put into hot oven which was accidentally turned off for 1 and 1/2 hours. Was it safe to finish cooking?

I don't think anyone will want to tell you that your meat is definitely safe, but there are a couple of factors that lead me to believe you're just fine.

It's generally recommended that pork be cooked to 145°F. However, that doesn't mean that at 145° suddenly all the bacteria die at once. It's actually more of a curve, so the longer the meat is at a particular temperature the more bacteria will be killed. You can sous vide pork for at least an hour at 130° and it will be safe to eat.
Because you cooked it to 180° (well above the necessary temp to kill bacteria), you surely killed off everything and its brother. The risk factor is going to be instead any toxins created by the bacteria during the time it was in the "danger zone" of 40°-140°F, which in your case probably wasn't very long.

Other factors that will come into play is how the meat was handled and stored before cooking. Was it flash frozen by the butcher? Did it ever thaw and then refreeze? Was was the health of the animal before it was slaughtered? Also very important: you say it was partially thawed. Do you buy it frozen and then partially thaw it in the fridge or on the counter (you should thaw in the fridge)?


The FDA definition for butter specifies only that it be made exclusively from cream or milk, contain a minimum of 80% butter fat by weight, and may include salt and coloring.

FDA Butter Definition

USDA Butter Standards

If you assume the butter in question is at the low end of the spectrum with exactly 80% fat and equal amounts of milk solids, then unsalted would have less water than salted.  Since there is no standard that says milk solids must also be a specific percentage, or that fat content can only be 80% and no more, there is really no way to accurately make the claim that salted butter always contains more water than unsalted.


How long can food last if reheated periodically?

Yes, it will "make it last longer in the fridge" for a certain definition of "last longer": it will not mould nor infect other foodstuffs in the fridge if it doesn't come into direct contact with any of them.

Is it still safe to eat after a few of these re-heatings? Very probably not!

Elaboration: More then half of the number of cells in your body are actually bacteria; bacteria don't generally kill you but the toxins they release is what kills you.  E.g. Botulinum Toxinum D (one of the toxins released during Botulism) has an LD50 of 0.4 ng/kg, which means that you need about 500g (a pound) to kill 99.9% of all human beings on the entire planet...

(And that is for just a few re-heatings; for "nearly indefinitely" we need to bring extremophiles in the equation...)

Related, but not identical question


Prevent uneven browning with breadcrumb chicken?

I would try to solve this with a couple of extra flips early on in the cooking process. When perparing similar dishes I put the product in the pan for about 30 seconds, then flip them over and slide them along the surface of the pan to pick up the butter remaining on the pan's surface. It does mean having to flip your meat four times instead of two, but in my experience it works.

It's quite likely that the breadcrumbs on the side you cook first absorb more butter than they strictly need to cook and brown nicely. By distributing your butter more evenly you can get more consistent browning without having to increase the amount of butter used.


The culprit would be the Italian meringue (unless you've got the name wrong). Italian meringue is made with egg whites and hot sugar syrup. The hot syrup cooks the whites, so there is no need to bake it afterwards. It is often a component in soft deserts like mouses, or just served as is, slightly browned with a burner. If you do bake Italian meringue, it comes out very dry and crisp - no at all like macarons are supposed to be.

Other problems that could be affecting your meringue:

Egg yolk in the whites (would refuse in the eggs refusing to get beaten into hard peaks, and then refusing to rise)
Temperature that's too hot. You know how pitas are made? A significant amount of water, and very hot oven. The water evaporates fast, but has no room to escape since the outer crust has already formed, so you get a pocket of air inside. The same might be happening to your meringues. (Consider that while French and Swiss meringue add sugar to the egg whites, Italian meringue has sugar syrup - sugar and water.


Are some flavour pairings known to work better than others (and if so, why)?

This is going to be kind of a rambly answer, partially copypasta from something I've written elsewhere:

Someone else said: An example is a sandwich that is made with roast beef, boursin cheese and caramelized onions.

Well.. that’s a fairly classic combination.

Here’s why, roughly.

Cheese contains a lot of the fifth flavour sense, umami. This sense is, roughly, ‘savoury’; that is, those things you eat that have a great deal of satisfaction, essentially. Tomatoes, cheeses, anything fermented–these are high in umami. One of the things that umami does is to heighten and enhance ‘meaty’ flavours in your food. So pairing cheese with beef becomes more than additive, it is multiplicative; the cheese enhances the flavour of the beef.

Likewise, caramelized onions are full of complex flavours due to transformation of the sugars within the onion. Consider the vast flavour difference between white sugar and caramel. The complex flavours arise from heating the sugars. This is, by the way, the real reason why you sear meat in a pan before roasting it in the oven. Browning the proteins in the meat is known as the Maillard reaction, and creates more complex, intensely savory flavours. Adding caramelized onions (or, classically with a roast, roasted potatoes and onions) plays off those flavours.

Moving on to ‘how the hell do they do that?’

Tasty food (ignoring texture) is built on two things: complement and contrast, similar to basic understanding of art.

Let’s start with the example given of duck and blueberries. These are flavours that contrast; the fatty meaty richness of the duck with the tart-sweet astringency of blueberries. Duck with fruit is a classic pairing from the mists of time; the acid of the fruit cuts through the unctuous mouthfeel of the fat while the sweetness offers a counterpoint to the savoury flavours found in duck meat, enhancing the flavour by contrast. There are, of course, infinite combinations of this. Consider very everyday examples: beer nuts (salty peanuts with a sweet coating), ice cream sundaes (cold sweet solid ice cream with hot slightly bitter liquid chocolate/fudge sauce), or the MetaFilter favourite of peanut butter and pickle sandwiches (soft creamy salty-sweet peanut butter with crunchy sour pickles). In each case, the contrasts enhance each other; in the duck example the sweetness of the blueberries makes the duck seem more savoury while the duck makes the blueberries seem sweeter.

Then there are flavours that complement each other. The easiest to understand is the combination of coffee and chocolate. Each brings dark, roasted, complex flavours to the table which marry incredibly well with each other because they match. And then there is (unless using wholly unsweetened chocolate) the contrast between bitter coffee and sweet chocolate, each flavour playing off the other.

So when you are looking at flavour combinations, you want to look at three things:

1) Flavours which contrast each other: sour/sweet, salty/sweet, fatty/acidic. The list goes on.

2) Flavours which complement each other (more below).

3) And the gestalt; flavours which both contrast and complement, as with the coffee/chocolate example.

Finding contrasting flavours is relatively simple. But note that you are not looking for diametric opposites, necessarily; the bitterness of asparagus is unlikely to pair nicely with the sweetness of caramel, for example. Which is why you really aim for the gestalt.

Finding complementary flavours, I think, is more difficult. In my view, what you are looking for is a flavour note that is common amongst two or more ingredients, while ensuring that none of the ingredients has wildly clashing notes.

Consider these three ingredients:

Turkey
Cranberries
Chocolate

The first two go together by way of contrast. Ditto the last two. And turkey with (unsweetened) chocolate would work very well–think about a mole sauce. But all three would (probably) not work well together without a lot of very careful finessing. There’s a theory about any three ingredients, but I can't remember the link.

end copypasta

To bring it to more quantifiable terms, McGee explores a lot about flavour pairing in On Food and Cooking, paying specific attention to volatile compounds which work well together. In many cases, it seems, foods which share compounds go well together; this is how Blumenthal put cauliflower and cocoa together, as they share a dominant compound (I cannot remember what it is). So there's that, when we're talking about aromas. My copy of McGee is currently with a friend, otherwise I'd cite you chapter and verse.

In terms of the five basic (primary) flavours you were talking about, I think it comes down to balance. Sweet is a flavour we are hardwired to seek out, as it promises high caloric input, a useful feature thousands of years ago. And the flavour of 'sweet' seems to balance out any other primary flavour; too sour? balance with sugar. Too salty? add sugar. Too bitter? add sugar. Umami itself seems to provide balance in many cases, and pairs especially well with salt (unsurprising given that MSG is a salt itself).

I'd really like to map flavours based on the primary/secondary/tertiary classification you've mentioned, and then look at popular pairings based on those characteristics.


I would stick to approx 300, and put the potatoes in the hottest part of the oven and the ham in the coolest part of the oven, that should do the trick, and get ready to take your ham out before the potatoes are finished - at which point possibly turn the oven up a bit.  As with a lot of cooking, it can take a bit of juggling.


How do you tell if pickles/cucumbers have gone bad

It certainly sounds like they have gone bad yes. A bad smell is a dead give away. As with any such situation, a few cucumbers (or whatever you're unsure about the safety of eating) are not worth getting food poisoning over: if in doubt, throw it out.


How to tell pre-sliced, raw mutton from beef?

What you are asking for is a classic task for learning pattern recognition, also known as the "chicken sexer problem" (derived from the people whose job at a farm is to throw recently-emerged chickens into one crate if female and another if male). The way to learn this is only one: practice. And not being able to taste is making it much harder.

Note that this is not a case where somebody could get you a description of how to recognize the difference and you could go through it and make checkmarks. Even people who succeed at the task will not be able to tell you how they know which it is (they may have a subjective explanation for it, such as "one of them smells faintly like a barn, the other doesn't", but it is not necessary true). The way to do it is to sit together with somebody who is adept at it, and watch their process intently over several hundred to thousand samples, until you realize you can tell the difference yourself. If there is no such expert available, the other way is to have those several hundred to thousand samples prepared by somebody who knows which is beef and which mutton, and you will have to start doing the process on your own, getting a correctness feedback after each sample. It will be slightly slower than sitting with an expert.

The task is likely to be rather context-dependent: you will probably have to go through a separate learning process for hot pot, and a separate one for Korean BBQ. The number of samples you need is also likely to be context-dependent, for example it is much easier to tell apart beef and mutton when grilled (there you will probably need less than one hundred samples) than when presented as salami.


Is salt caking really a big problem, or are anti-caking agents just cheaper than salt?

At the time of writing, sodium aluminosilicate (AKA sodium silicoaluminate, E-554, or just "anti-caking agent" - by far the most common in salt and probably the least expensive) costs about $35/kg.  Here is one source.

You can easily find sea salt or table salt for $1/lb ($2.20/kg) or even as low as $1/kg if you buy in bulk.  And this is retail, not wholesale.

So, using anti-caking agents as "filler" - not a very shrewd business move.

Even if a distributor wanted to waste enormous amounts of cash putting unnecessary amounts of anti-caking agent in salt, regulations don't allow it.  The FDA, and most other international food agencies, limit the amount of anti-caking agent to 2% by weight (except in baking powder).

2% - trust me, that's not going to make it taste any different.  It's all in your head.

I can personally attest to the effectiveness of anti-caking agents in salt because I have purchased sea salt in the past without it - fine sea salt in one of those cardboard boxes with a tiny metal spout.  I could never get it out of the box; I had to jam a knife inside to break it apart first, and even then it was difficult.  And this is in Ontario, in the wintertime, when it's dry enough to get painful shocks from petting the cat.

Most likely, the reason you never had a problem with salt caking is that you were using salt with anti-caking agent.  Maybe you didn't happen to look at the ingredients (it is salt, after all) or maybe they didn't list it - not every jurisdiction requires it as long as it's under the regulated limit.


What's the best order to add ingredients to a Stir Fry?

I always go in this order:

Garlic/ginger/chili/spring onion whites

This is to infuse the cooking oil with these flavours.  Cook for short amount of time ~30secs.

onions/peppers/carrots/harder veg

These need a little more cooking that the other bits, so I give them a bit longer.

mushrooms/sugar snaps/soft veg

These need less cooking, so bit less time.

bean sprouts

I like these to be a bit crunchy so add them right at then end and basically just warm through.

If I'm using bigger veg like broccoli/cauliflower then I do them separately to the other veg.  I use a little of the chili/garlic/ginger and fry that for 30 secs, add the broccoli fry for another minute or so just to brown the florets, then add some water, turn down the heat and put on a lid, to steam the broccoli.  Once its done I remove to a separate plate the add back in at the end.

It basically depends on how much you like each veg cooked.  If you prefer your peppers crunchy, put them in nearer the end.


You are correct in saying using color to determine doneness is less reliable in older meat. As the meat is exposed to air, it oxidizes giving it a brownish color. When checking for doneness, people sometimes see this oxidized brown color and mistaken it for being fully cooked through. However, this can occur for fresher meats also.

According to the USDA using color is not recommended to determine the doneness of hamburgers.

  Some ground beef may appear to have lost all pink color before it is fully cooked. If raw ground beef is somewhat brown already, it may look fully cooked before it reaches a safe temperature.

In some cases, meat that is already fully cooked can have a persistent pink coloring. This is usually more common in leaner meat.

  Some lean ground beef may remain pink at temperatures well above the 160 °F final cooking temperature recommended for consumers.

So it is really recommended that you get a meat thermometer to test the doneness of your burgers in the future.

With all that said, unless you have really thick giant burger patties(10oz +), cooking the burger at 300F for 15-20 minutes should definitely be enough time to insure that the burgers are fully cooked through.

Reference: USDA on Color of Cooked Ground Beef as It Relates to Doneness


Do all modern electric stoves have "binary" heating elements?

The burners on essentially all electric stoves are binary in that they are either fully on, or fully off.  It would be more expensive and less energy efficient to use electronics that continuously vary the current flow through an electric element, and this would make no significant difference in temperature behavior at the cooking surface.  Instead, electric stoves use a bimetallic switch which is a relatively simple way to have an on-off pattern with variable on/off times.  To create constant heat, all electric stoves use materials that are bad conductors of heat between the electric element and the cookware surface to buffer the huge temperature swings at the element and produce very steady heat at the cooking surface.

The difference you are seeing between electric coil heating elements and glass-ceramic cooktops is that in the electric coils there is an inner heating element, then a thick ceramic layer, followed by an outer layer of metal.  The element itself is heated in a binary manner, but all you can observe is the heat after the buffering of the ceramic layer has made up for the large fluctuations at the element (i.e. the outer metal glowing fairly constantly once it's heated).  In a glass-ceramic cooktop, since the buffer layer (the glass-ceramic surface) is translucent, you are seeing the actual element glow (often this is an infrared lamp instead of a resistive wire) so you are viewing the non-buffered heating pattern.  If you had a clear coil, you'd see the same heating on/off patterns in a coil stove as you do in glass-ceramic.

Consequently, if you measure the surface temperature of a glass ceramic cooktop, you should see a fairly constant temperature.


How to keep my turkey burgers from crumbling

Ground turkey is usually very wet, I've found that breadcrumbs bind it together well without using egg. I prefer panko breadcrumbs for this, their large size seems to work better.

Adding salsa isn't likely to help you much, the added liquid is going to make it hard to get it to stay together. If you want the flavor of salsa then try adding dry spices and tomato paste instead, those will absorb moisture rather than contribute it. I like a combination of paprika, cumin, and ground sage in my turkey burgers.

Also, I've found that cooking the onions a bit before adding them to turkey burgers gives better result because it drives out some of the moisture and makes them a bit more tender in the cooked burger.


Why is eating pretzels safe when they are bathed in lye?

Basically, the lye reacts with the CO₂ and moisture present during baking to form a non-toxic carbonate.  This makes it safe to eat.

The reaction:

CO₂ (g) + H₂O (l) ⇄ H₂CO₃ (aq)

H₂CO₃ (aq) + 2 NaOH (aq) → Na₂CO₃ (aq) + 2 H₂O (l)

From here (MS doc)

[EDIT]

Spurred by the comments, I have searched further.

tl;dr There is much going on wrt the lye dip. As far as safety goes, the lye is consumed in many reactions, including the above.

(Firstly: The equation source was not the basis of my answer; rather it was to refresh my memory of the reaction about which I was told/read several years ago was the reason why lye is safe to use on leavened breads, which was its combining with carbonic acid. (I apologize for not checking the balance adequately.)
My recent search only found one reference at The Kitchn to the reaction of lye with carbonic acid as the reason for its safe use. It is also unsourced.
Simultaneously, I found a research paper and a Food Chem Blog entry which referenced it, both of which discussed the behavior of the lye bath on pretzels. There is a lot there, so I shall only quote the paper abstract:

  The effects of alkali dipping on starch, protein, and color changes in hard pretzel products have never been researched. Experiments were conducted to mimic reactions occurring on the pretzel dough surface. Dough was dipped in water or 1% sodium hydroxide solution at different temperatures between 50°C and 80°C. Protein and starch profile after dipping were analyzed. Color development on pretzel surface following the extraction of pigments from flour was investigated. Whole dough and pretzel samples were also made at pilot plant and the properties were analyzed. Only starch granules on the dough surface were gelatinized following dipping. Amylose-lipid complex dissociated at a lower temperature with alkali treatment but were not dissociated, even at high-temperature dipping in water. Treating the dough at 80°C in alkali solution resulted in the hydrolysis of proteins into smaller peptides that could be not precipitated by trichloroacetic acid (TCA). Dough surface color was different following pigment extraction from flour but not significantly different following baking. The results suggest that the color that developed on pretzel surface was not due to pigments present in the flour but was contributed by the reaction within or between the starch and protein hydrolysis derivatives during baking.

and what I think is the pertinent quote from the blog:

  The protein results (2 in the list above [reproduced following]) indicate that the lye dip provides the smaller proteins needed for Maillard reactions, whereas the water dip does not. This seemed like perhaps the most important point to me.

  The dip resulted in the hydrolysis of protein into smaller peptides. This happened a little bit in 25°C water or lye dip, more in 80°C water, and a lot more in 80°C lye dip. Also, the smaller peptides in the hot lye dip had the smallest molecular weights; most of them “walked off” the electrophoresis gel, leaving no bands. The authors explain that the alkaline conditions of the lye dip result in like charges along the proteins, which repel and cause the proteins to unfold; this makes them more susceptible to hydrolysis.

Both the blog and the paper are worth reading.

My conclusion: the lye is consumed by the various reactions and therefore poses no safety concerns.


Don't over think this.

If you know somebody who already makes sour dough, they need to refresh their culture once or twice a month. Get their "throw away" starter and use it to start yours. I bought a starter from King Arthur about 10 years ago. Still using the same starter today. King Arthur still sells sourdough starter. Their crocks work well too.

You can start a starter simply by putting out a bowl of water in the summer air. The yeast that's in the air will find its way into the water. You should then add some of that water to perhaps a half dozen jars of water flour mixture. Not every jar will start but the ones that start bubbling are worth keeping and nurturing. It may take a day or so at room temp before you see bubbles. After about two days the mixture will stop bubbling. That's when you need to add more flour/water mixture.

I use King Arthur unbleached bread flour in the light blue bag. Use 1 cup flour and one cup tap water and 1 cup starter. You can boil it if you want but I never do. Just make sure you don't add boiling water to the starter or you'll kill it. Tepid or lukewarm is fine. I don't worry about chlorine, add honey or lower the pH. If your water is unusually alkaline you may need to do something about it but first you would need to know if it's alkaline or acidic. Inexpensive pH test strips are available at pet stores that sell tropical fish, especially if they sell saltwater fish. Running your water through a carbon filter will remove the chlorine (Brita, PUR, ZeroWater). You can boil it too but then you have to wait for it to cool down. Simply leave the water in an open container and the chlorine will evaporate out...not sure how long that takes.

You'll need to repeat this a few times until you get a stable culture. Throw away one cup of starter mixture then add back one cup water and one cup flour that's been mixed together.

When you mix a fresh batch, leave it out on the counter for a few hours. It will double in size so make sure you have a big enough container. Starter over flows are a pain to clean up. From there, put your covered starter in the fridge for 2 or 3 weeks and then rebuild your starter again. I go 4 weeks maximum. Always put a date on the jar so you know when to do the refresh. Starter is like a pet, you have to take care of it and it's a long term commitment.

At 4 weeks, your starter will have a layer of black water on top. In general, don't worry about. The water will contain some alcohol as the yeast give it off as a by-product. When it's time to refresh, just pour off the layer of water. Give it a smell. It will have a sourdough smell. You'll quickly learn what that is. As far as I know I have never had a starter culture go bad. At one time I kept two cultures for white bread and one for rye. Now I just keep one culture for white bread.

When it's time to make your bread, grab 1 cup of starter for your bread and use the other cup to rebuild...one cup starter, one cup water, one cup fresh flour. Keep it simple.

You don't need added sugar for sourdough but some recipes may call for it. Authentic sourdough is much like authentic French baguettes...flour salt and water is all you really need. Baguettes use added yeast instead of the yeast in the starter. FYI, by French law, authentic French baguettes can only contain flour, salt, yeast and water, nothing else.

Over time, your starter, and your sourdough will develop their own special character/taste based on the yeast in your area.

Good luck!


How does choosing good induction cookware differ from choosing cookware for other types of stove?

The things you need in a good induction pan are:

The metal must be iron/steel, because induction stoves work using magetic fields
they need a good sized flat section on the bottom, this is so that the material of the pan is as close to the field generator in the stove

When shopping for induction pans bring a magnet, if it sticks to the bottom of the pan it should work on your induction stove.


What is the difference between a turkey and a chicken in terms of taste,look and preparation?

Essentially, it's like a giant chicken with a "deeper" and more distinctive flavor.  The main reason I like them (other than the flavor) is the sheer quantity of meat you can get from one roasting session.  One could roast multiple chickens for a similar effect, but with a turkey you only have one skeleton to pick meat off of, so it goes faster.  Leftovers can be frozen and/or reused in all sorts of ways (sandwiches, soups, casseroles, etc.).

taste

The breast meat of turkey is a little different from chicken, but they have a similar texture and both tend to be rather mild in flavor compared to game birds.  If you had access to a wild turkey, the meat will be gamier.  The dark meat of the turkey (particularly legs and wings) is generally much more flavorful than chicken, with a "deeper" flavor that some people love and others dislike.  (This may be the reason for the increasing popularity of whole turkey breasts sold by themselves in the U.S., which can be roasted like a whole bird, but don't have the "other parts" that are seen as less desirable by many.  The vast majority of people I know tend mostly to eat turkey breast meat, usually served with gravy and stuffing.)

I've seen turkey wings and legs sometimes offered at Southern U.S. BBQ joints; when slow-cooked, they are a bit of a "Southern delicacy."  On most farm-raised turkeys I've had recently, the thigh meat doesn't have as much of that "rich turkey" flavor that I seem to recall in the past, but it has a more distinctive flavor than the breast meat.  Internal organs ("giblets") also tend to have a stronger flavor than chickens, if you're into eating livers, gizzards, hearts, etc.

There's often more fat in various parts of the bird than in typical U.S. chickens, which adds to a richer flavor.  However, there's usually not as much fat as found in other common U.S. poultry (particularly duck and goose).

appearance

When prepared and ready to buy at a butcher, turkeys essentially look the same as any large poultry.  They are often much larger than chickens, easily going to 20 lbs. (10 kg) and more.  There are some differences in proportions and details that you'll see when cutting up or eating.  In particular, the legs and wings have a bit more connective tissue and bony/cartilage bits than a chicken, since it's a larger bird and needs more support.  This also tends to make the leg and wing meat a bit "stringy," which may be the reason for the slow-cooked versions I mentioned above, allowing time for the meat to break down more than when just roasting the whole bird.  The meat is also a bit darker in color than chickens, particularly noticeable in the "dark meat" sections.

cooking

If buying a whole bird, most people in the U.S. essentially prepare it as they would make a large chicken, which usually means roasting in the oven.  They are usually cooked at somewhat lower temperatures than chicken, to give time for the whole turkey to cook without drying out the exterior.  Given the long roasting time for such a large bird, there's been a bit of a trend recently to cut up the turkey so it lies flat ("butterfly" or "spatchcock"), which allows it to cook faster and potentially more evenly.

Other than that, one can often buy individual turkey parts and use them in similar ways to chicken parts, keeping in mind the longer cooking time required.  They can also be used (as with other poultry) for soup meat, etc.


Is it incorrect when someones says you can lower acidity with sweetness?

Yes, it is incorrect. The correct thing to say is that it reduces sourness. Sourness is a taste, and sweetness indeed reduces it, and vice versa. Coca Cola classic has the same pH as vinegar, 2.5, but the cola is sweet and the vinegar is sour, because the sugar in cola is enough to compensate the acidity and push the taste into the sweet range.

Acidity is a chemical quality of a solution, and is given by the amount of hydrogen ions freely available. It is not changed by the amount of sugar (except for very strong acids like sulfuric acid, which would react with the sugar and bind some protons in the reaction). Acidity "creates" sourness in the sense that we taste acidic food as sour, but as you can see in the sweetness example, our tongues aren't a perfect sensor and can be fooled by the presence of sweet substances, or also other things like miracle berries.

Note that sweetness really reduces sourness, and doesn't just "mask" it the way it masks bitterness or saltiness for some people.


Are there any research-backed sources on cast iron seasoning?

it's applied chemistry so likely not going to find too many papers about it as not research per se.
but if you look at a site like serious eats you'll find a lot of discussion.
the reason to use a low heat oil like flax seed instead of olive oil is that the goal is to create a chemical change that will polymerise the oil to create a no stick surface to be able to sustain a very high heat itself when cooking.
YOu can get this with other oils to be sure - as has been the case for decades of folks using bacon drippings etc - but with its low smoke point it's pretty fast to do - and you can build up really thin layers quickly. The goal, again is to get that effect of a coating - it's not teflon but at least it's not plastic either.
if you look at the surface chemistry section in wikipedia on seasoning cookware you'll see more detail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasoning_%28cookware%29
and also this serious eats overview about cast iron is pretty good too
https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/the-truth-about-cast-iron.html
and
https://traditionalcookingschool.com/food-preparation/how-to-season-cast-iron/
and one more that claims to debunk flax seed oil as the best oil https://www.chowhound.com/post/testing-debunking-flaxseed-method-seasoning-cast-iron-807107


Toast bread slices in a convection microwave?

Toasting bread involves the Maillard Reaction and requires a dry heat.  Toasters and toaster ovens (and conventional ovens) use radiant heat.  Convection ovens use convection, as the name implies, and this is most certainly a dry and very even heat; the question is whether or not a convection microwave actually provides a true convective environment, like a high-end convection oven.

And that's where the problem generally lies.  Convection microwaves (AKA microwave convection ovens) are not usually true convection ovens.  They use a combination of microwaves and convection currents, which will quickly cause steaming and inhibit the Maillard reaction.  This isn't really a problem with, say, chicken, but it's a big problem with bread.  You'll have many of the same problems you'd have with a regular microwave - the bread will burn before it toasts.

What you really want is a microwave toaster oven.  They exist, and are often very cheap.  If it doesn't actually bill itself as being a combination microwave/toaster oven, then it's not going to be very good at toasting.


How do you tell if a cheese rind is edible?

So this link and this link suggest that there are 3 kinds of rinds.  Summary below:

Bloomy: Appears white, soft, maybe fuzzy.  Can also be reddish/brownish.  Comes on softer cheeses that have a more custard-like flavor.  Formed by a spray of penicillium candidum before aging.  Edible, but the flavor changes and may taste ammoniated over time (consume so long as it's palatable)

Washed: Color ranges from pinkish red to orange or brown.  Caused by bathing the cheese in some kind of solution, be it a salty brine, beer, brandy, wine or some other alcohol.  Contributes to the flavor in some cheeses, and tastes unpleasant in others.

Natural: Formed by letting the cheese age on its own, drying out and growing whatever molds might be present in the cheese or air.  Tends to have a concentrated flavor of the cheese, but may not be palatable.  Examples: Stilton, Montgomery Cheddar, Parmigiano-Reggiano.  Sometimes comes under a cloth cover.  Should be edible, minus the cloth.

Additionally, there are two other possibilities

No Rind: There should be no guessing here.  You've probably had cheeses with no rind...because they might come in a container.  Ricotta, fresh mozzarella, and creme fraiche come to mind.

Wax/Twig/Cloth: Inedible.  Should be discarded

My personal takeaway from this quick research is that I should learn to distinguish artificial covers (cloth/wax) from rinds.  It seems like those that separate from the cheese will either be an artificial cover or an old rind, both of which are undesirable.

If it's indeed a rind, then I'd taste it, both alone and with the cheese, to determine if it's palatable.  For Parmigiano-Reggiano specifically, I've read that it goes well in soup.  Perhaps this is because it's unpalatable-y hard, but still contains the concentrated flavor.

TLDR: look for cloth/wax.  If none, is it tasty?  Does it feel good in the mouth?


What is a good method to clean stainless steel hot water pot?

Wow! That is quite a patina you have built up there.

I would try Barkeeper's Friend (oxalic acid) in a thick slurry and soak it for a day and see what happens to remove the blackening. It still won't remove the orange enamel paint though. So you might end up having to wet sand it after taking it to a wire wheel.

Sound like a project.


Making vegetables (those with leaf) more "crunchy" (bite/tear off easily)

Leafy greens generally tear quite nicely when they are raw.  If you apply any moist heat to them, they will wilt and no longer tear as nicely.  In fact, certain leafy greens can become downright tough if you cook them to long.

If you'd still like to cook your greens, but retain a little of their crunch, you can always grill them.


Mixing liquid ingredients to "just combine" to dry ingredients for muffins

As Adele suggested in the comments, this is a common instruction to guard against overmixing. You mix everything in, and mix it until it's just barely combined. You just want to make sure there aren't any big pockets of dry ingredients; once all the wet and dry is combined, you're done.

If you're curious why you don't want to overmix, see a previous question: Over-stirring muffin mixtures.


I have never actually tried it, but clotted cream is made by gently heating heavy whipping cream for 12 hours or so, which causes the fat to separate and coagulate on the top. I have tried to infuse heavy whipping cream with tea flavors in the past by gently heating it for a far shorter amount of time, resulting in no visible change to the cream's structure. Even after thoroughly re-chilling the cream, it did not whip up like normal heavy cream at all.

I did achieve some measure of success when I added some fresh heavy cream to my infused cream, but it still had a different consistency from whipped cream and lacked the normal stability I would have expected.

So to answer your question, you probably won't get exactly what you want. The fresh cream you add will likely whip, and the clotted cream is thick enough that you might not have the stability issues I had, but it definitely won't be a regular whipped cream.

I would be careful whipping it at all, however. Clotted cream was initially invented as another way to make butter, and trying to whip it will likely turn to butter more quickly than regular cream.


Is MSG necessary or what to replace it with?

You should refer to the discussion here:
Are MSG and Accent (Seasoning) the same thing?

Some relevant points:
MSG is found naturally in seaweed and other things. It is used to enhance the flavors it is combined with.

It is completely harmless unless you are limiting your sodium intake. Check out the wikipedia article on the subject as a starting point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate#Health_concerns

In short there has been no linkage to any adverse effects found in many controlled studies.

As far as replacing it- You can leave it out altogether or add a little salt.


Beef Bone Broth: How much should I end up with per starting bones?

You can choose. Just taste it. Too strong, more water, too weak, boil down. It is better to leave the lid on while boiling. That will make the broth cloudy, but more tasty.You can always filter it and clear it up with egg white.

For easy storage: boil it down, really down,and freeze. i dont think more than a litre of a kilo of bones will be very strong


No-Knead Bread: How long should I raise the dough in different tempratures?

I was taught to bake bread when the dough is around 2x the original volume or slightly less. Looks like the peak time for you is around 10 - 12 hours.

I'm afraid you missed the peak time and it has to get heavier!


Can I use baking powder to replace cream of tartar

Baking powder cannot be used as a substitute for cream of tartar.

Cream of tartar is used in recipes as a dry acid.

Baking powder has cream of tartar added to leavening agents that have a basic pH. Thus baking powder as a whole is not acidic.


The starch was superfluous. Traditional creme patisserie is made without it. Some people do make custards which combine starch and yolks, but they are actually more difficult to work with. Also, from your ratios, the starch alone (without the yolks) would suffice to make the shape-holding pudding you described.

You can repeat the whole cream without any starch, and as long as you use the right temperatures, it will give you a nice pastry cream. The UHT and the milkfat content are not a problem, you can do this with anything from pure water to conditor cream, and while you will get a large difference in texture between these two extremes, it will be a difference in "butteriness", you won't get a firm result.


Are potato fruits (not "potatoes") edible?

You cannot; they are full of solanine, which is poisonous. You can use the seeds however to grow new potatoes, though they won't breed true to the parent. This website has some great information: http://tinyfarmblog.com/potato-fruit/


If you are allowed to take the cake you can do the following:

1) Ganache the cake after you reach India, preferably indoors as it will melt as you take it along the road.

2) To take the cake along with you during the time of your flight just put it in a ziploc bag and seal it well and it should remain intact and not go bad after you arrive, However, make sure the cake has no form of frosting or anything that has a possibility of melting even remotely.


You have mentioned in your comments that you don't rest steak. This is why it leaks the red liquid when you cut it. Any good restaurant will rest your steak, hence them being less leaky.

This Serious Eats article explains very well why you should rest steak (and any other meat). Essentially, as the meat cools, the shape of its fibers changes, allowing it to retain the liquid.

7-10 minutes is about the right length of time to rest a steak. Heston Blumenthal recommends resting on a wire rack rather than a plate to prevent one side steaming.


What olive is a good taste substitute for Kalamata?

Flavor-wise Nicoise and Kalamatas are somewhat close, probably the closest most readily accesible substitute for most people.


Complementary taste to elderberry ice cream?

I would use yogurt.

First, yogurt dilutes tastes farily well. It has some taste on its own, but it doesn't clash with most aromas you encounter in other dishes (sweet or savory). You can also add it in large amounts without making a dish heavy or changing its character too much.

Second, yogurt goes well with ice cream. I eat the combination even when I don't want to dilute anything, just a cup of ice cream with fruit and yogurt as a dessert. I know I am somewhat biased towards yogurt, but the fact that many gelaterias offer such cups mean that I'm not the only one who likes it.

Third, yogurt is slightly sour (or even very sour, depending on the type you eat), and sweetness and sourness are connected in human taste perception. You can mask large amounts of sugar with enough acid, as evidenced in most soft drinks.

To make it clear, I am talking of pure yogurt here, unsweetened and non-flavored.


What is the purpose of heating agar powder

An agar gel sets as it cools, like almost every other thermoreversible gel - including those made from gelatin, carrageenan, and various types of gellan and pectin.

One of the properties of almost any gel is that the gelling agent needs to be dispersed and then dissolved in the solution, otherwise you'd never be able to mix it - you'd just instantly get a solid lump as soon as you tried to mix it in. The particles need to be very small and the molecules fairly far apart from each other in order to work their magic.

Most substances dissolve more easily at higher temperatures. You've probably seen this with sugar if you've ever tried to make a candy or syrup. You can saturate cold water and up with... well, sugar-water, but to get a syrup (or hard candy) you need it to be supersaturated - i.e. to have a higher concentration at some temperature than would normally be possible by just mixing at that temperature.

Here is a more detailed explanation. It's due to the second law of thermodynamics, and it's a little hard to explain in simple terms; but basically, higher concentration implies lower entropy at some given temperature, and you cannot lower the entropy of an isolated system. It needs to be able to transfer that entropy to another system, and in this case it does so by dissipating heat (and to dissipate heat, it must be given heat). It's really not the best explanation - if anyone with a stronger physics/chemistry background can summarize it better in one paragraph, feel free to make an edit.

Anyway, hydrocolloids like agar and gelatin have exactly the same issue. They'll disperse in cold water, but won't dissolve. To dissolve them, you need to heat the solution first. Agar just happens to be the most dramatic because it won't dissolve at all until you reach temperatures of about 90° C. Technically you don't actually need to boil it, but it's easier to just boil than it is to try to hold it slightly below boiling. Precision isn't necessary, as long as it's at or above the dissolution (AKA hydration) temperature.

Only once these agents are properly dissolved will they exhibit any gel-forming properties. So, you need to heat them past the dissolution temperature first.


There are a couple of easy steps you could take to ensure crispy skin:

Let the chicken dry uncovered in the fridge overnight (or at least for a couple of hours). This desiccates the skin which will lead to much greater browning on the skin, and if you stuff the cavity with something that will let off steam during cooking, like lemon and herbs, this will not dry the meat out.
Make sure you season the skin generously and add a small pinch of baking soda to the salt before applying. The alkaline property of baking soda speeds up the Maillard reaction, which will lead to more browning in the short cook time.

Lastly, I would stay slow and low with the cook time, although that applies to all roasts.

I have never used a blowtorch and I am curious what effect that would produce. If you do use one please let me know how well it works!


I cannot imagine that sanding and buffing a wooden spoon would have any useful culinary applications, although I suppose it might feel smoother to the touch.

Generally when you season something wooden for food preparation, the purpose is to create a protective layer to avoid warping or impregnation.

If I really wanted to season a spoon, I would season it the same way as a wooden cutting board: Use a food-grade mineral oil and rub it in thoroughly with a cloth or paper towel, then repeat as necessary after it is dry.

Like hobodave, however, I have never done this nor heard of it being done.  The cost of a wooden spoon is probably less than the cost of the mineral oil you'd need to season one.  If your spoon starts to warp or take on strange odours, just buy a new one.

N.B. I can think of one exception, which is if the spoon takes on a fuzzy texture when you get it wet.  In that case, sanding it would be done in the context of raising the grain.  But once again, it's extremely rare that you'd need to do this with a cooking utensil - this is a far more common requirement for homemade (i.e. DIY) wood products.


I think I may have figured it out. They seem to have a product called Grand Reserve Triad, or something like that which is a 2-year cheddar:


Eric Ripert's approach is essentially that if the cooking liquid tastes good, it will help impart flavor on whatever you cook in that liquid.

By adding ham & aromatics, the goal is that the octopus will take on some of that flavor. By converse, the same theory would say that if you cook in a simpler, bland water, your octopus will flavor the water, and the water will dilute the octopus's flavor.

Whether it's necessary is really a point of personal preference. You may find that other ingredients in your recipe provide enough flavor that you can go with the simpler method, or you may find that it really needs that extra flavor.

In general, these seemingly complicated, seemingly unnecessary steps (like using broth instead of water) make restaurant dishes have a more complex, deeper taste. Sometimes that attention to detail is just the difference between a home cook and professional chef. Sometimes the difference can be subtle and feel "not worth it" when cooking at home--you'll have to decide that on your own.


Well even for knives with no wood, a dishwasher is a very hostile environment. The reason is primarily for the blades. If you have quality knives that you care for, and plan to keep for many years, then it's just not worth it. It's just too easy for a knife to be jostled around and bang into other knives or silverware and get nicked.

You mention that you have a greater chance of getting cut when washing by hand. Well, there's a trick to that.

The easiest and safest way to wash a knife by hand is to press it flat against the side of the sink, then use your sponge/scrubber on the exposed side of the knife. Repeat for the other side. This keeps your blade safe, because the edge never touches anything. It also keeps your sponges and hands from being slashed to pieces by the blade.

Dry it immediately with a dish towel, using a pinching swipe from bolster to tip from the back of the knife.


Does placement of ingredients and condiments on a sandwich change the taste?

Yes, it can change the taste quite significantly.

Here's an easy experiment that you can do:

Make a sandwich, but spread mustard on only one of the pieces of bread.
Take a bite of the sandwich, mustard-side up.
Take a bite of the sandwich, mustard-side down.

Mouth feel is affected as well, but not quite as dramatically.


While creative, this sounds like an especially poor idea, fraught with disaster.

If the water turns into vapor at 100 C, it certainly would not transfer all that heat to the surrounding oil before leaving as steam, so I'd think you would never reach your desired oil temperatures if your goal was 100 C.  Plus, as pointed out, in another answer, your food would be in this cold soggy mixture of oil and water until it reached it's maximum possible temperature.  And then, once the water is gone, the oil would immediately start losing that peak temperature as it heats the food and gives up it's own energy, with no way to replenish it, except maybe the container getting very, very hot.
If it did heat the oil to a hot enough temperature, and the water wasn't instantly evaporated, which seems physically impossible..... well, what happens when even a droplet of water hits any amount of hot oil?  That kind of volume of water and hot oil seems explosively dangerous.  Plus, it would make an awful mess out of the microwave, potentially.
If you can get the oil heated to 100 C..... then what?  Even a "low" frying temperature is going to be well in excess of 150 C.  At 100 C I'd imagine the result would be a soggy, greasy, inedible abomination, not much better than the decaying pap you are trying to avoid.
You're going to deep fry in a microwave at work? Aside from the mess, is your breakroom really set up to manage the waste oil after you are done?  This all seems to be somewhat inconsiderate to your co-workers. Wouldn't it be better to re-heat leftovers or made-for microwave meals instead of trying to cook raw foods?


What is the advantage to crushed garlic over minced garlic beyond texture?

Yes. The more finely you process your garlic, the more of the flavour-bearing liquid is released from ruptured cells.


Is it possible to make caramel that does not taste sweet?

It is very simple, you just have to heat it long enough. It can even happen by accident :)

The taste is a mixture of bitter and sour, while the smell component is mostly towards something burnt.

Also, your assumption "because of the uncaramelized sugar mixed in the caramel" is incorrect, or at least incomplete. There usually is such sugar, but many of the caramelization products of the early stages of caramelization also taste sweet on their own. In later stages, you get more and more nonsweet stuff until you get into the state I described (barely liquid charcoal).


You'd have to use a whole lot of gelatin to ruin the taste.  My guess is that when you experienced that in the past, you were using (perhaps unknowingly) flavoured gelatin or "dessert gelatin" instead of ordinary, pure, unflavoured gelatin crystals or sheets.

Erik is correct in that gelatin does not do well with tropical fruits (including mangoes), nor acidic environments, nor alcohol, and you have all of those things.  Stay away from gelatin.  A much better idea here would be Agar (also "agar agar") - again, make sure it's pure agar, not the flavoured dessert stuff - and use about 0.2% agar by mass.  You need very little of it compared to gelatin, so it most definitely won't affect the taste.  In fact, I might go as low as 0.1% because you don't really want setting action, just thickening.  By the way, make sure you hydrate it properly; agar needs to be boiled before cooling in order to set.

Of course one of the nicest things about gelatin is the fact that its gelling action is reversible and it has a melting point of around mouth temperature, so gelatin desserts or fillings will literally melt in your mouth.  But if you combine it with guar gum then you'll get a lot less of that anyway since guar is not thermoreversible like gelatin is.

Xanthan gum is another interesting choice due its shear-thinning property.  What that means is that it won't literally "set" like agar or gelatin, but will hold firm as long as it's not moving.  That can get you a little bit closer to the melt-in-your-mouth feel of gelatin, but you also risk having it all ooze out while you're slicing the cake, or fall apart on your fork.  It's really more useful as a stabilizer than as a gelling agent, but I thought it worth explaining in more detail since Erik mentioned it in his answer.

Any of these things can be used with guar gum, corn starch, or any other traditional thickener; just don't use too much or else you'll end up with Jell-O (or worse) as your filling.

By the way, another thing you can use (which is quite common in fruit fillings) is pectin crystals.  The most common kind of pectin does well with high acidity and sugar, which I believe is what you want, although I'm not sure about the acidity of your filling - you'll need quite a bit of acidity (around that of orange juice) and quite a lot of sugar (60-80% according to Khymos).  It's a little trickier to get this right, and I'm not 100% sure about any possible negative interactions with guar gum, so I'm leaving this as more of a footnote than a recommendation.


Of course the smell will go away, given enough time.  The question is exactly how long you can tolerate it, which only you can judge.  Durian actually has a remarkably fascinating smell, featuring a huge range of aromatic compounds including some that haven't been identified in any other produce.  (This link is unfortunately behind a paywall, and I haven't read the whole thing, but even the abstract gives an interesting glimpse.)

If you're concerned, take precautions.  Open it outside, or in a room with plenty of ventilation.  Put down paper or plastic sheeting to catch any juices or mess that might leave a lingering smell (as this helpful article suggests).

A couple of sources (such as this blog post, and somewhat more lucidly, this About.com article) suggest that by running hot water over the expended shell, you can create a mild solution which helps neutralize the smell.  I can't vouch for the accuracy of this method but it's suggested in multiple places, so it seems unlikely to be a cruel prank.

There are actually other, more pressing concerns with durian.  For instance, one study suggests that durian fruit breaks down some of the enzymes that your liver uses to neutralize the toxic byproducts of alcohol.  It's apparently a bit of southeast Asian folk wisdom that drinking and durians do not mix, and more than one death has been blamed on the combination.  So, don't worry about the smell.  Worry about mixing tequila shots with durian instead.


Know that the traditional Frank's Buffalo Wings Sauce is just Frank's RedHot and melted butter. I'd definitely start there, and tweak with the substitution. The old standard is 1/2 cup (118ml) Frank's RedHot to 1/3 cup (79ml) melted butter.

Vinegar is a distinct possibility, to me neither buttermilk nor ketchup make sense.

You might find this recipe for homemade hot sauce helpful. The reviewers love it and it's supposed to taste like Frank's.

EDIT after comments to OP:

Trappey's Red Devil Cayenne Pepper Sauce contains: Distilled Vinegar (Vinegar and Water), Red Cayenne pepper, Salt, Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum, Ascorbic Acid (to preserve freshness).

Frank's RedHot contains: Aged Cayenne red peppers, vinegar, water, salt and garlic powder.

The Scoville rating of Frank's Original is 450, Red Devil is 800-1200 according to these sources: Franks, Trappey's

So, the only significant difference in the ingredients is the garlic in the Franks. The fact that vinegar is listed first in the Trappey's list and second in the Franks list is meaningless, since Franks separates "water and vinegar", Trappey's lists them together.

Frank's claims that the peppers in that sauce are "aged". I looked into that and found that the peppers in some hot sauces (including Frank's) are made into a mash and allowed to ferment before they are made into the sauce. AHA! I suspect that there's your tang.

For the sake of economy and a special "brand" that could potentially set your product apart as superior and unique, I'd experiment with making your own hot sauce starting with fermenting your peppers. Here's a Google search to get you started. I found a lot of those sites informative. Another thing that you can do right off the bat is ferment batches of peppers of varying hotness and mixing that mash with your Trappey's to create mild, medium and hot varieties of your sauce.

And add garlic and butter.

And ditch the buttermilk :)


Should tomatoes be stored in the fridge?

From the great Harold McGee, they may last longer in the fridge, but they will taste like cardboard:

  Tomatoes came originally from a warm
  climate, and should be stored at room
  temperature. Their fresh flavor
  readily suffers from refrigeration.
  Tomatoes at the mature-green stage are
  especially sensitive to chilling at
  temperatures below about 55°F/13°C,
  and suffer damage to their membranes
  that results in minimal flavor
  development, blotchy coloration, and a
  soft, mealy texture when they're
  brought back to room temperature.

Excerpted from "On Food And Cooking", by Harold McGee


A good-quality cleaver can be the right tool for both jobs. Make sure it's properly constructed with the metal of the blade running all the way through the handle, though, or else you risk the handle snapping and the blade going flying during a strike.

For the coconut, the technique is actually to roll it along the blade to start a groove, then crack it with the blunt end of the knife almost as if it were a mallet. This should be done with extreme care, of course.

For bones, place the meat on a very solid cutting board and use clean, forceful swings to break through.

For both techniques I recommend doing a quick search on youtube to watch others demonstrate them first.


I have found that hazelnut oil (I use roasted hazelnut oil) is a more-than-adequate replacement for olive oil. I use it in cooking, on salads, in baking and in making purées and pâtés. It does lend a nutty flavor, but it is such that it enhances rather than overwhelms the base flavor(s). If by some chance you do find it a bit too nutty, adding a few dashes of extra salt will help correct the taste. For the record, I no longer even buy olive oil anymore. That is how well the hazelnut oil works. The only drawback is that it is substantially more expensive than olive oil.


Is there some drink like panaché available in the Netherlands?

Yes, Panache is available.

It seems to be similar to Shandy, or "Sneeuwwitje" in Dutch.


You'll never mask it completely, so the aim is mainly to dilute it to an acceptable level.  If you can't stand even the faintest hint, I suggest you give the bread to someone who will enjoy it while it's still fresh (or freeze it to turn into croutons for someone who will enjoy them; they'd go nicely with some winter soups).

What masking you will get is mostly from spice, especially heat (as suggested at the "curry" question linked above).

For bread specifically: I would crumb it, then mix those crumbs with with plain breadcrumbs, and probably some cayenne pepper, black pepper and herbs, to use as a coating (e.g. for chicken pieces) or topping (I make a sort of bean stew out of an old vegetarian recipe book, with a crumb and cheese crust on top).

You can also add cheese, especially if using as a topping.  You might be doing this for some time, as you'll probably need at least 5:1 dilution even with additional flavour, so mix up small quantities.  You can freeze breadcrumbs so this doesn't have to be done quickly.


There should be no problem with this from a food safety point of view. Freezing will "pause the clock" on spoilage, because bacteria's metabolism needs liquid water to happen. When you unfreeze, the food is as safe (or unsafe) as when you froze it.

You should ensure that your thawing process is also safe. If you have the time, thaw overnight in the fridge. If you don't, do it quickly. For a liquid product like milk, stovetop heating will be probably best. Don't just leave it in the counter to thaw.

I don't know if there will be some texture problems (such as clumping) if you cook or pasteurize previosly frozen milk. Try it out and see if it is OK. If yes, you can keep doing it.


How does the order of mixing ingredients affect the resulting cake?

I'll try to break this down into components to make it simpler.

If a recipe starts by combining sugar and a solid fat (creaming), this incorporates small air bubbles into the batter which will be seed bubbles for the carbon dioxide produced by chemical leavening. Occasionally, this creaming is used alone for leavening (as in traditional poundcakes).

If the flour is added straight to this, it can help prevent the batter from curdling later if a colder ingredient is added. This also coats the flour with fat, preventing gluten development and making a very fine, tender crumb since the flour is "waterproofed" before other liquids are added.

If eggs are added to the fat and sugar, you can make an emulsified cake but the presence of water when the flour is added can make it slightly tougher.

Some recipes (usually with oil) require all the liquids to be mixed together, and then added to all the dry ingredients which have already been mixed. Again, this can sometimes lead to a tougher cake since the flour is exposed to water.

Another method is to mix all the dry ingredients, then incorporate the solid fat into that, then add liquids. This will usually lead to tender cakes as the flour has been coated with fat before liquids are added.

If a cake is leavened with whipped egg whites (or whole eggs), those will be added last to prevent the bubbles from being knocked out by excess stirring.

You pretty much always want the fat to be present when the flour is added though. As you saw in your recipe, adding liquid to the flour without the fat will allow too much gluten development and make your cake tough and dense.


How do I cook these two items in the oven at the same time?

Set shelves high and low.
Preheat to 400.
Put in the crab cakes for 5 minutes on top
Turn down to 387.5 ;-)
Put salmon in on lower shelf.
Check in 15 minutes.

Most ovens are not all that precise, really, and most recipes allow for that (your 5 minutes of variance on each item.) The top of the oven tends to be hotter than the bottom, so this works that by putting the cooler item lower.

For more drastically different items, you cook one, wrap it up, set it aside to hold, cook the other. You might undercook the first a touch before holding it and put in back in the oven briefly before serving, you might not, depending what it is and how much "hot out of the oven" is an important part of serving it well.


Tres leches cake is always of the sponge variety.

It is much higher in eggs and the extra protein lets it hold up to sitting in a puddle of milk overnight. A regular white cake would not be a good plan. It would be at best pudding in the morning.

If you are trying to get rid of boxed cake and want it to be a sponge cake you could try beating egg whites and folding them into your batter.

Personally I think sponge cakes are so easy that I would rather just make the tres leches from scratch and save the boxed cake for a trifle or to give away to someone who doesn't care.


I recommrnd you pressure cook for 30 minutes at 120C, not your current 20 to 25 minutes.
Regardess of pH, low or high, you have already killed the spores and the high temperature is needed to destroy the residual toxins.
Your food should be safe to consume for at least least two years after you canned it.


It means, basically, to stir in some warm liquid to prevent it from later curdling. Once the egg is warmed and mixed with some of your sauce, it can safely be incorporated into the rest of the high-temperature sauce without (as much) fear that you're going to end up with scrambled eggs floating around in your hollandaise.

Generally, you crack the egg in a bowl, and spoon in a little sauce, mix it, spoon in a little more, mix it, and then you should be good to go. It goes without saying that if the sauce you spoon in curdles the egg, discard, and start again.


Can a slow cooker meatloaf get a browned crust?

It's very difficult.  The trapped moisture can keep the meatloaf from drying out sufficiently to brown well.  ... but if you vent the steam, you're also releasing a lot of the heat, so it might cool off too much.

I'd personally try turning up the heat to high and leaving the lid askew for the last 15 minutes or so of cooking, and see if that gives you the desired effect.  You may also want to remove some of the liquid (but not all, as it'll help to regulate the heat and prevent the bottom from getting too far overcooked)

I suspect that the laws regarding 'food styling' as it applies to recipes in magazines aren't as vigorous as for advertising a product they want to sell you in stores or a restaurant.  (where they have to use only the same techniques and ingredients as what's being advertised ... although if it's for cereal, they don't have to use milk ... and if it's pie, that doesn't have to be real ice cream, etc.).

If you just want it 'brown', then a spray of soy-sauce will do it.  If you want it actually 'browned' (ie, with an actual crust), you can take a propane torch to it.  (although I'd do it out of the crock pot -- ceramics don't take well to high heat from one side only)


My own experience diverges somewhat from the celebrated Tartine experience.  Don't get me wrong, I think it is an amazing book and an amazing bakery...it's just that my experience is not commensurate with the book.

First of all, remember that the Tartine bakers who made the starter in the book are, themselves, covered with the natural yeast from working in that bakery - it's no wonder they have a hyperactive starter.

When I decided to make a foray into sourdough, I went with a starter that was basically the Tartine starter.  I consulted numerous sources for inspiration, but ultimately found that my starter matured MUCH more slowly than what I saw in the books I consulted.

My starter matured in two stages:  (1) where it was able to double in volume within 12 hours of feeding, & (2) where it developed its complex sour smell and flavor characteristics.  With daily feedings, my starter finally started doubling in volume after about 2 weeks (I was using equal parts rye and whole wheat to feed it).  But it took well over three additional weeks after it developed its capacity to leaven before the flavors in my starter were fully developed. I didn't bake my first sourdough until my starter was 5 1/2 weeks old.

I think that a sourdough starter should be judged more by smell then by leavening capacity.  My starter went through phases of smelling like leather, then smelling like wine-y fruit, and finally like acetic acid (vinegary).  I baked my first loaf when my starter smelled like San Francisco smells outside a bakery at 5 am - that's how I arrived at the 5 1/2 week mark.  And I was going for that bay area sourdough too - nothing subtle.  I live in southeastern Virginia - a LONG way from San Francisco - and I swear that my loaves have the uniquely buttery/vinegary tang that I associate with the bay area sourdoughs.

I didn't refrigerate my starter until after 10 or 11 weeks of daily feedings - by that time, I wasn't noticing any perceptible changes in starter smell (and the rising power had been fine since about the 3rd week). Surely the starter would have continued to evolve, albeit more slowly, if I had never refrigerated, but I was satisfied with the taste of my bread by then and tired of the daily ritual and wasted flour. Longer fermentation times using young starters won't generate the flavor that comes with a fully mature starter.

Also, I totally recommend using filtered or bottled water for your starter and for any bread you make with your starter.  Starters can smell chlorine like dogs can smell fear.  And if you really like your sourdough sour, try using scalded buttermilk for the liquid in your loaf - it adds some lactic acid back to the equation and the milk will help soften the crumb of the loaf.

Good luck and have patience.  Great sourdough is worth the time and discarded flour.


How to get breading to stick to chicken?

This has been answered in a related question : https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/13878/67

So, to sumarize & relate to your current situation : don't mix your coating together, as you want seperate alternating layers of wet & dry.

Your typical breading for chicken is:

flour, cornstarch, or some other dry powder, possibly mixed with salt, herbs and spices
egg, possibly mixed with milk or water
breadcrumbs, possibly mixed with salt, herbs and spices (but beware that some may burn).

You want to shake or let drip between each addition for nice, think coatings.  If you don't, as dry won't stick to dry, and wet won't stick to wet, you'll end up having a giant slip-plain and things will slide off.

If you're pan frying (instead of deep frying), you might be able to get away with your mix while cooking, but it'll likely come off when someone goes to cut into it.


Freezing meat in Tupperware vs freezer bag

"Water and foods freeze differently", according to the Penn State Extension. First, you want to freeze items as quickly as possible.  The faster the freezing, the smaller the ice crystals in your food.  The smaller the ice crystals, the less damage to the cell structure of the food.  Remember, your freezer will go through freeze-thaw cycles.  This is where the potential damage occurs. Evaporation occurs during these cycles.  This is known as freezer burn.  One way to protect against freezer burn is to package your food with as much of the air removed as possible.  So, a freezer bag will be better than Tupperware, and a vacuum sealed bag will be even better.  At the very least, with a zip-style freezer bag you can use a straw to suck out much of the air...or, even better use Archiemedes principle.  In terms of convenience, bags are much more effective, not only do they take up less space, but items can be spread out in the bag, as flat as possible, making thawing faster.


Hold the mango upright - so the place where the stem was is at the top.
Turn the mango so the widest side is facing you.
The pit mimics this same shape - it's tall, wide, and not very deep.
Cut all the way around as though you are creating two halves, one whole piece facing you, and one facing opposite. Go ahead and peel this side (using a vegetable peeler).
Slide your sharp paring knife between the peeled flesh and the pit. As you separate a section off the pit, slice it away from the rest of the flesh. If you don't use a sufficiently sharp knife, you just end up with a mess.
Peel the other side and slice it the same way.

The reason I peel only half at a time is so I have something (the remaining peel) to grip as I slice the mango.


Getting onion/garlic smell out of rice cooker

Nothing's penetrated the teflon, what's happened here is that you haven't got all the fat off, garlic smell is fat soluble so it's remaining with a small film still on the pot. Put some dish soap right into it, then rub it all over the insert with damp fingers, then rinse, that should get rid of the fat. Sometimes washing with soapy water doesn't get rid of it all; the fat floats to the top of the water and if there's not enough soap you end up getting it right back on when you pull the pot out.


You can line a typical pie pan with parchment paper.

Cut a precise circle to cover the bottom, than a precise rectagle or trapezoid to fit the side. You can use a tiny bit of butter or shortening to stick the parchment paper to the pan and keep it in place.

Once it is cooked, you can work a knife then a spatula or two under the paper and lift it all out in one go.

This is the technique I use making a tartine or even when using a springform pan, because it makes keeping the dish intact relatively much easier.


My sauerkraut brine seems slightly slimy but the batch otherwise seems normal--is it ok?

In general, slimy brine is indicative of a fermentation problem. Your brine might be too weak (what concentration did you use?), it may be too warm, your brine might not cover the vegetables, there might be some air bubbles trapped in your ferment.

This article suggests that in the early days of sauerkraut fermentation, the concentration of slime forming bacteria - Leuconostoc - is relatively high and towards the end of fermentation it's too small to measure. It doesn't say anything about slimy brine, but it's possible that the brine is temporarily slimy in the early days of fermentation and as the acidity increases it dissipates. I've never checked a ferment this early, so I can't comment on it.

Personally, I would let it continue to ferment for a week or two and then see whether the perceived sliminess has dissipated or increased. It's possible that it's too early to tell. Slimy vegetables, without a doubt, should be discarded.

References

http://www.culturesforhealth.com/fermented-vegetables-troubleshooting-guide


Art of making delicate French butter cookies (Madeleines)

If they're cooking too fast that they're browning and fully cooked through after 10 minutes instead of the recommended 14... that's probably a signal that you should turn the oven temperature down.

If you don't already have an oven thermometer, get one. It's possible for ovens' internal thermostat to be significantly off - by 50 degrees or more at times. Rather than depending on it, you will be better served by having a thermometer. These are generally inexpensive and can be found at most kitchen stores or on the web.

If you find that your thermostat is off, look into how to reset it, or learn the offset and add/subtract that amount from the dial temperature. If it's not off, try dropping the temperature by 25 F to start. The recommended oven temp seems to vary based on the recipe... from between 350 to 400 F. One thing that the 400 F recipe does is they place a cookie sheet under the madeleine pan, which may protect the underside somewhat.

Another possibility - you don't show your madeleine pans but to reduce browning, it's generally recommended to use very light colored pans. From Serious Eats:

  If you want foods to brown on the bottom, reach for a darker metal sheet pan because dark pans will absorb more heat and therefore more heat will radiate off the surface. I like to use dark pans when I'm baking pizza or crispy-edged potato wedges and roasted veggies that I want to brown. Recently, I've even started baking pies in dark metal pie plates instead of glass so the bottom of the pie crust heats up more and browns.


Difference between freezer bag and storage bag

Freezer bags are slightly thicker plastic, and more forgiving of sharp or pointy foods (like meat with protruding bones).

I know some freezer bags include a white place to write a label on, I don't remember if storage bags do as well.

The press-to-seal bags do a better job of not spilling if accidentally dropped compared to the zipper versions.

http://web.archive.org/web/20130105063349/http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/2010/march/home-garden/storage-bags/overview/index.htm


Can a fish living in fresh water be called seafood?

Don't read too much into the "sea"; there's no rule that every word in the language has to stick precisely to its etymological roots.

Seafood just means edible aquatic life, i.e. fish and shellfish in general. It's a food word, not a biology word, and fish on your plate looks pretty much the same whether it's freshwater or saltwater fish, so generally it all gets lumped into one category.


Canning for couple of days to one week of low acidic cooked food without pressure canning?

NO! Using your method you have created the perfect environment to grow Clostridium botulinum, so within a couple of days you very well could have a thriving colony of botulism rich food.

From USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning

  Ensuring safe canned foods

  Growth of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum in canned food may cause botulism—a deadly
  form of food poisoning. These bacteria exist either as spores or as vegetative cells. The spores,
  which are comparable to plant seeds, can survive harmlessly in soil and water for many years.
  When ideal conditions exist for growth, the spores produce vegetative cells which multiply
  rapidly and may produce a deadly toxin within 3 to 4 days of growth in an environment
  consisting of:

  • a moist, low-acid food

  • a temperature between 40° and 120°F

  •  less than 2 percent oxygen.

  Botulinum spores are on most fresh food surfaces. Because they grow only in the absence of air,
  they are harmless on fresh foods.

  Most bacteria, yeasts, and molds are difficult to remove from food surfaces. Washing fresh food
  reduces their numbers only slightly. Peeling root crops, underground stem crops, and tomatoes
  reduces their numbers greatly. Blanching also helps, but the vital controls are the method of
  canning and making sure the recommended research-based process times, found in these
  guides, are used.

  The processing times in these guides ensure destruction of the largest expected number of heatresistant microorganisms in home-canned foods. Properly sterilized canned food will be free of
  spoilage if lids seal and jars are stored below 95°F. Storing jars at 50° to 70°F
  enhances retention of quality.


Stock vs Broth - What's the difference in usage?

Classification and use of Stocks vs. Broth:

Broths are the result of cooking meat, not just bones. They're generally the result of preparing another item and usually not prepared specifically on their own. The juices poured off from a roasted turkey (after being degreased) would be considered broth.  Whole chickens being poached for another preparation would create broth.

Stocks are made from just the bones. They are prepared specifically for use in other recipes (sauces, soups, stews, rice, etc.)  Stocks are never salted in their preparation or the finished dish will most likely end up too salty due to reduction that will take place upon further cooking. Note that homemade stock will be often a bit more broth-like than restaurant/commercial stocks, since it's really hard to get all the meat off the bones.

Stocks are usually simmered for a very long time (4-6 hours for chicken & 8-12 for veal/beef) to extract maximum flavor and gelatin from the bones.

Broths aren't usually cooked nearly as long due to the fact that cooking the meat for extended periods (even chicken surrounded by the liquid) will result in tough, flavorless meat.

Consomme: a fortified and clarified stock.  The stock is fortified in flavor by the addition of a "raft" which is a combination of lean ground meat (appropriate to the type of stock being used) with brunoise (1/16 inch) mirepoix (carrots, onions, celery), and egg whites.  The raft mixture is stirred into the cold stock and as it gently heats, the proteins coagulate forming a "raft" on top of the stock.  A small hole is poked in the center (if one hasn't already formed) and as the stock bubbles through the hole it leaches back through the ground meat/egg white raft which filters out impurities to clarify the stock and fortify it with flavor.

Bouillon:  French word for broth.

Court Bouillon: sometimes called a "short broth".  A poaching liquid usually used for fish that is usually comprised of water,  acid (lemon juice, vinegar, wine), parsley stems, bay leaves, peppercorns, and some salt.

When to use Stock vs. Broth:
Use stock when a sauce is to be reduced significantly or when clarity of the final result is preferred.

Broths can be substituted for stock when the body of the liquid or clarity isn't important, and when the liquid will be thickened by addition of a starch.


What can I use as a replacement for cumin?

The problem is that a lot of substitutions are based on what you have on hand.

For instance, I have both liquid smoke and smoked paprika, both of which would add that smoky quality that people associate with cumin.

We also need to consider what other ingredients are going into the dish.  I have spice blends that contain cumin in varying degrees (garam masala, taco seasoning, a rub for ribs), and if they contain other ingredients that I might be using anyway, I'd consider replacing all of them with the spice blend.


Smart idea to buy the woks that Chinese restaurant chefs use, for my home's electric induction cook top?

You don't buy a wok like a Chinese restaurant uses because you can't use a round-bottom wok on an induction hob.
You can buy induction hobs specifically for woks, but they're a bit specialist, as are those colossal burners in the picture above.
Generally speaking, for a wok you want as much of it heated as possible. Induction [or any electric hob] will only ever heat the flat surface in contact with the ring. Domestic gas is better, & you can tilt the wok to aid ingredient distribution rather than having to leave it flat on the ring all the time.
Home-cooked Chinese-style food must necessarily adopt a different technique because you simply cannot generate the same amount of heat as a commercial kitchen.
If you don't have time/skill/patience to season a wok & keep it seasoned, then get a non-stick. Just don't get a cheap one, or it will peel off in three months.
My own wok is one of these - Masterclass - and has withstood everything I can throw at it for over two years, without showing any sign of scratching, burning, evaporating or anything else detrimental to the surface. I treat it with little respect, though I only use wooden or plastic utensils for all my pans, & wash it in regular washing-up liquid (dish soap) with the same brush I use for everything else. The outside is scuffed & scratched, but the inside still looks as new.
And it only cost 30 quid [bucks/euros].
When you're throwing food around in this, you will quickly realise why you don't want a cast iron one… the weight.


Tomato sauce - tomatoes, then juice vs tomatoes & juice

It doesn't look like it'd make much difference to that recipe. The juice goes in right after the tomatoes, so it's not like they cook on their own significantly. The one thing you get out of adding the tomatoes first is a way to get them spread evenly around the pan without having to stir, so they're mostly on top of the onions and get gentler heat at first. But you'll be stirring soon anyway, so just dumping it all in wouldn't make much difference at all.


Chili and bell pepper substitute due to allergies?

You are not going to find anything outside the chili family that gives quite the same flavor, so substituting flavor-wise is not going to be possible.  Note that paprika is a spice ground from particular pepper, so if you are allergic to all capsicum peppers, you don't want to use it.

What you can do is build other flavorful combinations which you enjoy and which you can eat.  Some things to consider that bring a touch of some type of heat with them include:

Mustard powder (a touch of mustard-type heat, and a deep flavor.  Probably want to combine with some herbs like oregano or rosemary.
Horseradish (just a touch for piquancy)
Ginger, which will work very well in Asian inspired dishes, and in combination with those flavors
Szechaun peppercorns (not a capsicum pepper) -- they have a unique flavor and effect; you will have to decide if you like them

All of these flavors are "hot" but from different chemicals than the capsicum peppers, so they will all have different effects.


Given you're going with BKF for the cleaning, I'd recommend the specific cookware formulation - https://www.barkeepersfriend.com/cleaning-products/cookware-cleanser-polish/