What differences, practical and aesthetic, are there between egg washes?

Good question @mfg.  I hope I can help a little bit.  The basics behind the egg wash are to provide for a couple different thing.  These being shine, crispness, and color.

Shine
The shine is primarily provided by the egg yolk. The higher concentration of yolk the more shine.

Crispness
This come from the egg whites.  The whites make things a little crispy and sometimes can crackle a little bit (mainly when usually by themselves).

Color
This comes from the fat and protein.  Leaving the yoke in along with the shine will add color.  You can add water to lighten the color a bit.  I find that using the white also dilutes the color a bit but not as much (but the white also makes it crisp).  Add cream or milk to get it a little bit darker.

Salt
I often find people adding salt to an egg wash.  I does provide some flavor to the crust, but I have noticed that for some reason (when using a whole egg) it does allow it to get a little darker than it would normally.

Sugar
Like salt it adds flavor (sweetness) to the crust.  And it will also add some color.  Especially if baking at a higher temp and using a raw or brown type sugar.

Alcohol
I have seen the use of alcohol quite a number of times.  From the results I have seen it behaves like water.  Although not the the same degree.  My guess is that it has to do with how fast the alcohol evaporates.  As far as flavor, I can't say that it added much at the levels used.  I did once definitely get a hint of a bourbon being used in the wash on a pretty plain white loaf.  But they did mix in quite a good amount of bourbon to just an egg yolk.

That is all I have really used myself or seen.  I am sure that you can use other liquids although I don't know what vinegar would do.  Just keep in mind if they are high in fat, protein, or sugar they will add color.  Otherwise they will lighten the color.

I have also seen melted butter just used as a wash.  It adds a nice color and buttery flavor.  I haven't seen it added to egg wash but I would assume you could add to egg yolk to get a shine and probably darker color than cream/milk.

Another important thing to remember is to beat your wash well when using for a bread coating.  Unlike if your just using the was was to seal say a ravioli.  If your egg was is spotty not one nice fully incorporated mixture your crust can also be spotty.


Is Yellow coloring inside a fish normal?

This article indicates that it's probably gall bladder bile:

The gall bladder [...] sometimes [...] breaks even when you are cleaning the fish very carefully and close to the skin. If the gall bladder is broken, the greenish yellow biliary fluid pours immediately out into the inside of the fish and starts to absorb into the meat. The meat becomes bitter.
[...] see if the fish is greenish yellow on the inside or not. If it is, then quickly take a piece of paper towel and wipe it off; if it has already started absorbing into the meat, use a filet knife to cut off the part of meat that has turned yellow.

So, it looks like the gall bladder broke and stained some of the meat. If this is the case, cut the yellow bits away, and the rest of the flesh should be fine.


What strategy can I use to identify a cookbook with a torn off cover?

You can find online copies of such cookbooks in Project Gutenberg, in the cooking section. For example:

The American Frugal Housewife, by Lydia M. Child
The Golden Age Cook Book
The Allinson Vegetarian Cookery Book, by Thomas R. Allinson.


I'll try to weigh on in this as much as possible with a non-authoritative answer:

First of all, I simply can't state this emphatically enough: kashering is not brining! A kosher bird is not "pre-brined", and professional chefs who claim that it is are either misinforming their audiences or simply misinformed themselves.

Kashering (sometimes called koshering) has the principal aim of drawing blood out of the meat. This page explains the process but to summarize: first the unkosher parts are removed (feathers, blood vessels, etc.), then it is soaked without salt for 30 minutes, then it is coated in kosher salt (AKA kashering salt) and left to rest for 1 hour, and then finally it is thoroughly washed again to remove the salt crystals (in theory, anyway - sometimes the salt is not thoroughly washed off).

This could not possibly be more different from brining! In the kashering process, moisture is drawn out and the meat generally ends up tougher. This is especially noticeable with red meats as opposed to birds; ask anybody who's ever tried to cook a moderately-priced kosher steak from the supermarket and they will likely tell you without a hint of irony that not even a strong acid marinade, several minutes with a mallet and several hours in the crock pot can turn it into anything other than shoe leather.

But I digress. Brining is a long, slow, steady process which adds moisture to the meat. Its aim is both to add flavour and to tenderize. According to McGee, brining increases the weight of the bird by 10% or more; of course, moisture is still lost during the cooking process, but the same amount of moisture is lost whether it is brined or not, so a brined bird will be 10% more moist after cooking.

Kashering is roughly equivalent to "dry brining" when the meat is simply coated in salt. In my opinion this "dry brining" has absolutely no business being called a "brine" at all, which is defined as:

  a : water saturated or strongly impregnated with common salt
  b : a strong saline solution (as of calcium chloride)

Proponents of this method argue that it's technically a brine because once it starts to draw out moisture from the bird then it creates a solution (brine). While not wanting to sound overly nit-picky, I think it's very obvious that when people talk about "brining" a bird in the traditional sense, that isn't what they mean. It's a vastly different method that produces a vastly different result - imparting a different flavour and leading to a very different texture.

I'm sorry to have dwelled on this point for so long, but I think that background is necessary to really understand the question. Kosher birds may come out with a similar flavour to non-kosher brined birds in the absence of any other preparation - emphasis on similar because no sugar is involved in kashering - but brining a bird is not simply about adding salt, it's about adding brine. Brine, by definition, includes water.

So what do you do if you have a bird that's already been salted but not actually brined, and you want to achieve a result that's somewhere in the vicinity of a real brining?

Add water.

That's really the only missing ingredient here - that and sugar, if you like to use that in your brine. You've already got the salt. You might want to add some salt as well because kashering does not increase the salinity of the bird as much as brining due to the extremely short exposure. Exactly how salty the kosher bird will be is anyone's guess, because it depends on the exact amount (and consistency) of salt that was added during the kashering process, how long it was left to rest, and how thoroughly it was washed afterward. A traditional process like kashering doesn't lend itself well to automation which means there is going to be a lot of inconsistency from distributor to distributor and even from bird to bird.

My best suggestion would be to err on the side of caution. A kosher bird doesn't need to be brined for flavour - that point is not in dispute. I've seen "rules of thumb" that suggests using half as much salt and brining for half as long. I think that's a good starting point, but if you know for a fact that the kosher birds you buy are already fairly salty (in the sense that you could roast one straight out of the package and never need to reach for the salt shaker) then use less - say 1/4 of the amount that you would normally use. But don't reduce the sugar, because the kosher bird definitely hasn't been exposed to any; and additionally, a generous amount of sugar in the brine will help to prevent the weaker brine from drawing salt out of the bird.

But all told, it's way easier to add salt to a slightly bland bird than it is to try to save an over-salted bird. So use as little salt as possible if you plan to brine a kosher bird, at least for your first attempt. Again, my rule of thumb would be 25% of the normal salt and 100% of the normal sugar, and follow the usual advice to brine for only 50% of the usual time. If you find that it comes out a little bland, then next time you can let it brine for a little longer or increase the salt to as much as 50% of normal.

50% salinity should probably be your upper limit; kashering (or dry-brining), despite its shorter duration, tends to incorporate a good deal more salt, proportional to the time. As per the link that Jefromi posted, some people claim that the salinity of a kosher bird is already approximately equal to that of a brined bird; another 15-25% increase won't make a huge difference but another 30-50% almost certainly will - and not in a good way.

If you want to be really scientific about this, get yourself a salinity meter such as this one, start with a mild brine, and measure both its volume and its exact salinity before and after the brining process. That will tell you without bias exactly how much additional salt is actually being added to (or removed from) the bird. Obviously I don't have time to do this experiment myself right now, but if anyone owns a salinity meter and wants to try this out, feel free to report the results and I'll do the number crunching and edit this answer with the findings.


If you have time, make the dish at your normal size and measure everything you put in. This will allow you to get a recipe with proportions that you can use for your full party. Measuring weight is best if you have a scale, but volume should still be significantly better than guessing.

Say you make your dish and it uses

w grams potatoes
x grams sweet potatoes
y grams carrots
z grams onions

If this feeds 4 normal people, then for 60 people you need

(60 / 4) * w grams potatoes
(60 / 4) * x grams sweet potatoes
(60 / 4) * y grams carrots
(60 / 4) * z grams onions


How warm must dough be in order to rise?

Optimal yeast growth happens at around 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit), but dough will rise at any room temperature. As the temp rises, the yeast becomes more active, which is why you'll sometimes see recipes call over overnight rests in the fridge, where activity slows or stops. Yeast dies at anything above 50 C (122 F).

The important thing is knowing the temperature and, if you're really particular, the humidity in the air around your proof. This information is used for the sake of timing consistency, more than anything else.


Any cooker with a lid that mostly closes the BBQ will work as a hot smoker. It doesn't have to be a perfect fit for hot smoking

Just add something that smokes with the radiant heat. Place it under the grill to the side, or on top of the grill if there is room. A crushed up bunch or tea tree or lavender twigs works fine. If the smoke runs out, add another bunch

Any wood will do, it doesn't need to be "fancy smoker chips" *. It doesn't need to be soaked or fiddled with in any way. Wood with nice smelling sap/oils seems to be better, but experience tends to indicate that any old wood will do

For temperature regulation, just concentrate on cooking correctly and safely. The smoke will do its magic regardless. You generally need more than ten minutes in smoke to make a decent impact, but for thin cuts or soft flesh fish you can do it in less

Referenced from Nathan Myhrvold talk promoting Modernist Cuisine


Should hands be washed after touching the outside of an egg shell?(UK)

Yes. When I was researching raw egg yolks for sauces, I discovered that salmonella lives mainly on outer shells, and less often in the yolk. So washing eggs with detergent before using egg yolks surely prevents troubles, and washing your hands after handling them would be common sense anyway in a kitchen. I am pretty sure however that not washing your hands in a private situation would never give you food poisoning. But if you handle hundreds of eggs and afterwards make a, say, mayonnaise using many egg yokes, that risk would be considerably higher.


Pickling green peaches: is the fuzz a must?

I wash mine vigorously with a 3M scrubby pad.  There's still some fuzz, but not as much. Those scrubby shower gloves would probably be easier, but maybe less effective.


Best cut of meat to pair with Gorgonzola?

I think this depends on the type of Gorgonzola.  A Gorgonzola Dolcé has a milder, sweeter, less-blue flavor, so it should probably be served with a milder steak, like a Filet Mignon.  A stronger, more traditional Gorgonzola should probably be served with a stronger flavored steak like a Skirt Steak or a Ribeye.  If you flip the combinations around, one of the flavors is going to be lost.

I'm not familiar enough with Venison or other game to comment on their compatibility with Gorgonzola.


Detailed information about a 1st tooth cake design

Since you say that you know they're edible, I'd say that the tooth and crown are most likely made of gum paste, not fondant.

The curves on the points of the crown would likely droop really badly if made of fondant because it never solidifies. Gum paste does. So, once you have it molded to the shape you want, you let it dry out and then it stiffens to a candy-like finished product.  Here's an outline of the difference between the two and when you should use one over the other.

As to how to make them, the crown can be made by following any of a number of guides on the web. They generally involve cutting a strip of gum paste in the shape you like and wrapping it around a cylinder of the diameter you need until it dries.

The detailed decorations on the cake and crown and the crown on the tooth are probably made very easily with gum paste using molds.

The tooth itself will likely be the most difficult thing as it will take a lot of artistic talent and patience. Making figures is very complicated, particularly if you have no experience working with fondant/gum paste or with something similar like clay.

There are general guides here, though none of them are for teeth, they should give you an idea of how the process works.


Alternative to salt when using Mortar and Pestle

2 solutions:

I have an unpolished granite pestle and mortar: they're much cheaper than the polished granite ones and are much more abrasive then a wooden or ceramic one.

I also don't use any salt, (for taste reasons, not for health reasons), but if your partner is intolerant to the Na in the NaCl (salt) you can get get 100% chemically pure CaCl2¹ from any decent pharmacy² and that is an unlimited allowed food additive according to the FAO/WHO and it tastes just like salt.³

Note 1: Food grade is only 85-90% CaCl2 and will not be sufficient in your case...
Note 2: Ask for the crystalline form...
Note 3: Talk to your physician about this solution before believing random strangers on the Internet!


This happens to me when I am in humid climates, worse still hot and humid climates. Moisture condensing out of the air on to the dough is the main cause. In a hot humid climate, taking a chilled dough out of the fridge only makes the condensation problem much worse.

I have tried estimating the amount of added water from condensation, but there are too many variables to make the results workable.

With your recipe, you do not have many degrees of freedom to counter the additional water from condensation. It is not as if you could control the moisture contents of butter and cream cheese. Perhaps you can begin by playing with more flour. Also, counter-intuitively, try not to have such a cold dough to reduce condensation. It is a balancing act in a hot-humid environment, not cold enough, the butter softens too much for a workable dough, colder, you get disproportionately more condensation and the dough becomes stringy.

This is in fact a constant nightmare with recipes when moving from one climate to another and one season to another.

The only rather unhelpful suggestion I have is that you have to keep experimenting with small adjustments and make meticulous notes, including relative humidity, kitchen temperature and dough temperatures at various stages of working.

--

Also, as @jay asked, it is best to use weight rather than volume. Did you change measuring cups?


What bean species are best for baked beans?

If you live in Poland, you should easily find the "normal" white ones in your supermarket. They should be good for baked beans, although the British version uses white beans that are a bit smaller.

For more American style beans, you could also use the pinkish-brown or spotted type.

There are so many types of beans, that I can't give a specific "name". Stick with the smaller ones, as they have less starchy parts and usually keep their shape better.


Whisking some cornstarch into the yoghurt before adding it is an effective method to limit curdling and is also often found in recipes (caveat: can thicken the sauce more than intended). In other cases, some gram flour (besan) is added (caveat here: needs to get cooked in the dish for a couple minutes, or roasted beforehand, raw besan tastes vile).


can I roast the nuts before I make a maple candied walnuts

I would recommend sticking to raw walnuts.  I recently prepared a batch of candied pecans and used raw pecans.  They turned out amazing and had sufficiently rich, roasted flavor.  Nuts can get bitter if they're roasted for too long. Roasting the nuts prior to putting them in the maple candied walnuts recipe might lead to over-roasting.

My recipe called for tossing the pecans in a one egg white (to develop a super thin, sticky coating) and then sprinkling them with cinnamon sugar before roasting.  They turned out amazing.  I've been snacking on them non-stop! Good luck!


Can I Use Yellow Split Peas in Paruppu Urundai instead of Toor Dal

Paruppu Urandai, is a Tamilian (Iyengar/South Indian) Recipe. It uses Thuvara or Tur Dal (Arhar Dal). Now substituting Tur Dal with Yellow Peas, wouldn't be right choice.
Tur has a special flavour, which is retained even after it turns to Cereal or Cooked. But the Pea looses its flavour when it turns to Cereal, it turns tasteless.
So Tur's unique flavour that is retained even after cooking impacts the overall flavour of dish.


What is the advantage of using kosher salt

"Kosher" salt has nothing to do with parve rules except maybe in the application of "koshering" AKA dry-brining (as a devout atheist, I haven't a clue on that one). It is coarser than regular table salt (making measurements slightly different) and it contains no added iodine. Certain food snobs (ehem) tend to find it somewhat superior in taste. In general, if the recipe asks for a certain measurement of salt, that means 1.5 times that measurement using kosher salt, hence the need to point it out in recipes if that recipe was developed with kosher salt.


Melted chocolate + olive oil = lumpy mess

That happened to me with margarine instead of olive oil. My question is here, but basically Aaronut told me 3 reasons why chocolate seizes.

  Using too high a heat. Double-boiler is the safest, but you can use a saucepan on very low heat.
  Sugar bloom and other impurities. You shouldn't get this with baker's chocolate, but if you use any lower-quality chocolate, this can seep into the melting chocolate and cause it to seize.
  Contact with moisture! Even a tiny amount will cause it to immediately seize, and it's difficult to recover at that point.


Why worry about "danger zone" when thawing meat if I'm going to be cooking the meat immediately after?

If I am defrosting meat in order to cook it, and I am cooking at safe temperatures, then why should I worry about how I defrost my meat?

If this were true, wouldn't it then follow that it would be safe to cook meat which has already spoiled, so long as you cooked it at a safe temperature?  It's not true.  While the bacteria would be killed by cooking at a safe temperature, but the toxins they leave behind remain and can make you ill.


Why does my skillet burn even when using peanut oil?

Just because peanut oil has a higher smoke point than other oils doesn't mean your pan won't get hotter.

Don't leave your pan on high for so long.


What can be done with left over mussel shells?

The leftover shells of many different shellfish are excellent to use as cooking vessels. They clean up nicely and can be reused over and over if cared for properly. Bonus, they make a great presentation.

I use scallop shells for stuffed scallops (entree portion) and other casserole-type entrees, stuffings, and some side dishes. I use medium sized clam shells for stuffed clams, stuffed scallops (appetizer portion), clams casino, etc. They can be used for both appetizers or entree portions. Small clam shells work well for appetizers.

Mussel shells are perfect for - of course - stuffed mussels. They also make a great cooking and serving vessel for many other appetizers. (I use them mostly for appetizers because of their size.)

You can be very creative and the actual mussels, clams, etc. don't have to be the main focus. E.g., I may have a fish fry and use shells for appetizers or sides. The smaller shells, like mussels, also make a quite nice vessel for individual condiments. Kind of a theme and quite unique.

Note: Most everything I use the shells for goes into the oven or on the grill. Therefore I put a very light coat of oil or butter on the shells so the food doesn't stick. For anything cold, the oil wouldn't be necessary.

You do want to wash and dry the shells before the first use and then after each subsequent use. Larger, heavier shells I wash on the top rack of my dishwasher. Smaller or thinner shells I hand wash and dry.

Some people do boil their leftover mussel shells with herbs and seasonings of their choice to make a seafood stock. And, of course, it can be reduced to use as a sauce or as a part of one.

If you intend to make a stock or sauce, I would refrigerate the shells immediately after your meal and keep them refrigerated until you use them. In this case you wouldn't want to wash them first. But if you intend to reuse them, be sure to wash and dry them thoroughly.


Can I replace honey with maple syrup in recipes that require honey?

Generally speaking, maple syrup will work fine in any recipe that calls for honey. They may have slightly different viscosities and water content, but that could be true between two honeys as well, so I wouldn't worry about it a lot. The only thing I think you really have to consider is whether the flavor of maple syrup is appealing in the dish you would substitute it in. In most cases, I think it will be fine, especially if the dish would have worked well with a dark, fully flavored honey. You might also like to try sorghum syrup, molasses, or agave nectar as other possible replacements.


Put two pork roasts in a crockpot overnight and forgot to plug it in

It depends on the temperature. If any portion is between between 40 and 140 degrees F, then that's the danger zone, and you are indeed in danger if you consume them. Or, if part of it was colder and another part warmer, then the part in the middle is almost certainly again in the danger zone.

If everything was above 140 when you woke up, then you should be OK (but given the details I seriously doubt it).


How can I make my sourdough bread more sour?

I've just been dealing with a similar issue. My sourdough starter wasn't producing sour enough bread. In my case Russian black bread which is also rye. It was rising well but tasted like regular bread.

I did a some research and experimentation and fixed it.

I'm sure you are aware that a sourdough starter has both yeast and bacteria. The yeast consume sugar and produce CO2 and the bacteria consume sugar and produce acids including lactic and acetic. Acetic acid in particular (ie. vinegar) is very pungent and sour.

The type of bacteria you have will strongly affect the flavor and acidity of the bread.
After feeding, yeast is active early. As the acidity rises the yeast activity falls off and the bacteria become more active.
Yeast is also more active at cooler temperatures.

As your starter was bubbling well your yeast was obviously active. If it isn't sour then you either have mild tasting bacteria or they aren't active enough or both.

Several variables made a noticeable difference:

I started keeping my starter in a warmer place.
It was early spring and my kitchen was cool. The yeast was active at those temperatures but the bacteria were very slow.
I introduced different flours.
I started feeding my starter with freshly ground wheat flour and rye. I was trying to get new microbes. The day after feeding with a new flour the starter changed flavor noticeably.
I fed my starter less frequently
The recipe I was following said to feed the starter twice a day. This meant that my yeast was just finishing up their most active period when I fed again. The bacteria never really had a chance to take over. I read several articles that recommended leaving the starter a little longer and not feeding until the starter actually fell. The yeast weren't as active and the starter collapsed. After this point the starter would rise less but would become sour very quickly.

While I'm still not an expert, I found that I can now tweak these variables to tune my bread. If I feed more often and keep the starter cool it will rise more vigorously and be more mild. If I feed less often and in a warmer place then the bread will rise more slowly but be much more sour. I'm still trying to find a balance that I like but I know what variables to tweak.

The black bread I made this week was startlingly sour and delicious.

Addendum
I saw some blog posts that suggested that since the strongest flavored bacteria were producing acetic acid that one could simply add vinegar to the bread dough to achieve the same effect.
I tried it.
As you would expect it tasted sour but also flat and boring. I won't be cheating like that again.


Cake flour is mainly used in situations where less gluten is desired, that's why the pancake was more tender.  Cake flour is also lighter in color and texture, since it is usually bleached.  It is also milled finer.  If you are substituting cake for AP flour, you will probably need a couple of additional tablespoons of cake flour per cup of AP flour.  Leave your leavening as is.


This is most likely referring to honey processed without any heating, often simply called raw honey, or possibly cold-extracted or cold-processed. It likely has more flavor and color preserved than commercially-processed honey (which uses plenty of heat), but it may not be much different from gently heated honey. It's not actually cold (honey flows really slowly when cold), just not heated.

There are two primary ways honey would have been heated during processing. First and most common, most commercially sold honey has probably been heated substantially (perhaps up to 165F - 73,89ºC) to help melt crystals, allow impurities to separate, and to make sure everything's dead and safe. This definitely does affect the honey - it makes the flavor a bit more mild, and the color a bit lighter.

If you're getting honey from a very small producer (maybe someone with a hive in their yard), it's also possible that they actually heated it in order to separate the honey from the beeswax. The most effective way to get honey out of the comb is to remove the caps and use a centrifuge to spin the honey out of the frames, but for hobbyist beekeepers without access to an extractor who don't want to just crush and strain it, another method is to heat the comb, letting the melted wax (it melts around 145F - 62,78ºC) float the top for easy separation. This is pretty gentle heating, and doesn't have nearly as strong an effect as the commercial processes.


Microwave cooking time with porcelain/stoneware container rather than plastic

Yes, it's likely to change the time. There is no way to predict how it will change it, though, since it is a combination of the material, mass and shape of the vessel. So you'll have to test it for each vessel you use.


Why do potatoes cook more slowly in a stew?

This won't apply to all stews, but if there's something acidic in the liquid (such as tomatoes or vinegar), some items will not soften or break down as quickly.

I know this includes both potatoes, onions, pasta and rice, but I would assume that other starchy vegetables would have similar behavior.

But there can be other factors in play, too.  Many people cook potatoes to mash in a fair quantity of boiling liquid, while many stews are simmered.  As stews often have liquids other than water, we avoid taking them to a full boil for a few reasons:

they make circulate inefficiently, leading to scorching on the bottom of the pot.
if the liquid is viscous, it will create bubbles that pop and make a mess
it cooks off aromatic compounds ... and anything you smell while cooking is something that's no longer in the finished dish.


Why do people recommend cream of tartar when whipping egg whites to the exclusion of all other acids?

Ingredient substitution lists say you can use an equal volume of lemon juice or vinegar if you don't have cream of tartar.

Most likely, the assumption has been that a baker will be more likely to have cream of tartar on hand than other acid sources due to the fact that it has multiple uses in the kitchen:

Leavening
Stabilization of egg whites
Prevent crystallization of sugar in things like frostings, syrups, chocolates, etc.

Cream of tartar also has a number of beneficial properties:

It is odorless and practically tasteless, unlike lemon juice or vinegar.
It acidifies without adding water, which might be detrimental in some applications.
Unlike fresh lemons, cream of tartar has a nearly indefinite shelf life.


What does melted butter do in a swiss roll recipe?

I have never added butter to sponge sheets when making swiss rolls, jelly rolls, or anything similar in the past. It's just straight up bread flour, sugar, and eggs.

I can only think of three possible reasons why butter might be added:

To improve the flavour;
To keep the sheets moist and help prevent overbaking, as any fat would be used in cake batter; however, this is generally not a major concern in cake rolls; or
To help prevent it from sticking to the sheet (don't bother; if you have this problem, use a silicone mat).

Reasons #2 and #3 aren't very convincing to me, so I would only bother adding butter if you prefer the taste of swiss rolls with butter added.

I don't think butter would help with rolling at all, in fact it might make rolling more difficult on account of making the sheets more crumbly and less able to hold together under pressure.


Just to expound upon what @Tetsujin wrote above, if you burned the oil start again. And by start again, I mean scrub off the burnt residual oils and go from there

If you don't have an oven you will need to be extra careful. The beauty of an oven is you can set the temperature more easily. I would recommend you try and find a place to season it that has an oven. This will help you avoid this issue in the future.


Chicken texture: Store Rotisserie v. Pressure Cooker

You're comparing two completely different cooking methods, so it's no surprise that there would be a difference.  A pressure cooker is a sealed vessel which retains the moisture in the cooked food, except for any steam that's vented off.  By contrast, rotisserie is a form of roasting, done by definition over a heat source or within an oven, but not sealed.

Rotisserie roasting is great in that it allows the food to baste itself, but there is inevitably some moisture loss as juices drip away from the meat, certainly much more so than in pressure cooking.  That's what contributes to the drier texture of the rotisserie chicken.  The breast meat will also dry out more quickly than the darker thighs and legs, but big markets want to minimize any food safety concerns, so they're probably playing it safe and cooking the chicken to a point above its minimum internal temperature.

So no, they're not doing anything wrong, but they are using a different cooking method than your pressure-cooked chicken, with predictably different results.


How can I be sure I'm buying the right KitchenAid beaters?

Okay, to explain the 'tilt head' vs. 'bowl lift':

On a 'tilt head' mixer, the bowl attaches with a screw motion into the base of the mixer.  The motor portion of the mixer is hinged at the back, so the front of it can be lifted up.  There's a lever to lock the head from moving on the right side (near the motor, opposite the speed control lever).  And if you don't engage it, you can make a real mess

On a 'bowl lift' mixer, the bowl has two little tabs on each side, which attach to two arms that protrude from roughly half way up the mixer.  The motor portion of the mixer is fixed to the stand and cannot move, instead, there's a lever on the right side of the base (near the arms) that will move the arms up and down so the bowl moves instead of the motor portion.

As for narrow vs. wide ... I have no clue what the corresponding measurements are.

And I took the images from an answer from Doug that's been deleted.  If someone has pictures from the other side (showing the relevant levers), feel free to replace them.


Can rosehip tisane be used as a substitute for red wine in cooking?

I'm in the same boat.  Although I've never tried using rosehip tea as a substitute, and just by the taste, I think it would be better than many suggested wine substitutes (apple juice, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar), there are better substitutes.  See What is a substitute for red or white wine in a recipe?.

My recommendation is a nonalcoholic grape juice made from similar grapes (such as Meier's Sparkling Grape Juice).  There are many different types of red wine, and Meier's doesn't have options for all of them, but the ones they have seem to work well for me, especially the Burgundy.  It is also often available at my local supermarket.  You could also go with a real wine with the alcohol removed such as Fre, but there are many people who say not all the alcohol is removed, and they are also pretty expensive (one bottle is cheaper than Meier's, but by the case it's much more).

Don't try using the purple grape juice available at most grocery stores (Welches or similar).  The taste is very different and the color will usually not be appealing.

NOTE: I have no affiliation with Meier's other than being a happy and frequent customer.


How do I get pepper to stick to my beef jerky?

I can think of two solutions, but both are just suggestions, takeoffs from other food prep.

One is to do what I do when I make peppered steak, and that is to press the cracked pepper into the meat before dehydrating. I coat the meat in cracked pepper and then use a fry-weight or press down with the side of a cleaver to impact the pepper. It makes the pepper cling through cooking, so I'm thinking it might work for drying as well.

The other is to glaze your jerky with a bit of diluted honey or brown sugar solution for sweet, or egg wash (seasoned or not) for savory, so that when it dries, it makes a glue to adhere the cracked pepper. Again, this is a method I use with something else, but I see no reason why it couldn't work with meat.

If you try either one, please let me know how it works for dehydrating meat.


What to do with left over rejuvelac grains

I love croutons in my salad, but I don't want to use refined flour products. I mix sprouted grains with a cashew cream blend, add some miso, kimchi, veggie mix left from my juicer, nutritional yeast flakes and herbs, mix it all together and dehydrate at under 104 degrees for a day, flip it over to dh another day and then crumble it up in a zip lock bag with a food grade desiccant packet.  The chunks make awesome croutons!


Can you call the stuffing you put in Turkey "filling"?

I am from Eastern Pennsylvania, where we call it "Filling".
Good luck convincing the rest of the world, though. I catch crap for it all the time.

Filling, Stuffing, Dressing....It's all the same, regional dialects aside.


Food identification in fajitas - yellow sauce

This does not sound like a traditional fajita sauce. The yellow color is likely to be from achiote (annatto), which is widely used in Mexico. It has a mild peppery taste, but is used more for color than for flavor.


Sadly, there isn't really a better answer than "enough". You can of course proof the yeast in warm water with a bit of flour to make sure that it's still active (by looking for foam after a few minutes). As far as home testing goes, it doesn't get much more specific.

Even yeast manufacturers doing far more advanced testing of their yeast admit that testing gas produced in a laboratory is a poor predictor of proof times. There are so many other factors going on in yeast doughs that yeast activity alone is a drop in the bucket of protein levels, enzyme activity, amylase levels, falling numbers, farinograph and a host of other test scores that can effect dough.

As far as a technique for compensating, the best method is just to rely on proofing to the size required and allow more time as needed. If you know that your batch of yeast tends to perform slowly you can either work with it warmer or add a bit more yeast to start. If you start proofing with sugar, you're just allowing the yeast some time to reproduce so the effect is pretty much the same as just adding a bit more yeast than called for to your dough.

And, of course, it's also important to make sure that you're handling the yeast appropriately for it's type. Instant yeast doesn't require hydration prior to use, but active dry yeast needs to be added to the liquids in your recipe before the dry ingredients are combined.


Everyday drink that won't destroy my teeth/shoot up my sugar

Have you tried flavouring still/low-fizz water? There are so many more options than lemon juce!

Cucumber: A thin slice or two per glass or use a peeler and dump a few long, thin strips in a pitcher. Looks cool, too.
Lime or Lemon: Same as with the cucumber - and less acidic than the juice.
Herbs like a sprig of mint or lemon balm. Let it "steep" a bit, similar than you would do for sun tea or "muddle" (crush gently) them a bit like for a mojito.
Flowers if you can get your hands on non-toxic, organic ones. Elderberry, lavender and rose petals come to mind.
Fruit like berries or apples are not totally acid-free, but if used within reason should be mostly harmless. They are good for the "transition" from juice to water, because you can start with juice-water mixes, then gradually decrease the juice content. If using berries, gently crush them to release some juice.

Or mix-and-match: cucumber-mint or lemon balm-lime, whatever you like.

And of course most herbal teas are really delicious cold and can be prepared in advance - but stay away from the "red" ones like hibiscus, because they can be quite acidic.


For one half of your problem: You can add a little bit of milk to dry mashed potato to make it moister, if it's too dry to use in a given application. The other half is a little more difficult, but instant mashed potato can be used to sort of "soak up" some of the moisture to make it drier.


Does turning a gas stove on high move the heat to the outside of the pot?

Is your pot too small for the eye you are using? If the pot and the flame diameter are roughly the same size the effect you're describing probably happens.


Attempted to season my new cast iron pan and was left with a ring

From the look of that, I'd say there's two possibilities.

your burner is too small, and is heating the pan in the middle only, producing the ring.  The solution for this is to heat it in the oven as explained in this answer.
as Tetsujin suggests, you may be using too much oil and it's pooling in the middle and burning.

In either case, your next step is to scrub the pan to get the burned and uneven oil off.  I suggest using coarse salt with a little vegetable oil as a scrubbing mix; I get my pans smooth this way.  Then restart your seasoning.


From a culinary viewpoint, there is little to no reason to use bones more than once in making stock.  Even the author of the article you reference indicates the first go is the one that tastes best.

To maximize the quality of your stock:

Use good clean or filtered water; add hot water as the stock reduces over time to keep the level above that of the bones
Use good bones, chopped with a cleaver to reasonable sizes (a few inches)
Optionally roast the bones prior to stock making for a deeper, browner flavor
Skim the scum in the first part of the stock making process (obviously not an option in a pressure cooker)
For a more clear stock, don't allow it it boil, but rather than let it go at a slow simmer (again, not in your control with a pressure cooker)
Simmer it long enough for reasonably full extraction, which will leave the bones either bendy (more in the case of poultry or long bones) or somewhat fragile
Include good quality vegetables for flavor
Don't salt the stock, as during reduction it can concentrate and become overwhelming

In other words, apply basic cooking common sense and you will have a good outcome.


Making Pickles - Confirming Sanitization Procedure

It sounds reasonable:  the large quantity of vinegar will acidify the pickles, preventing the growth of botulism.

The processing step is mostly to seal the jars; the vinegar is the real preservation agent.

Still, I would feel better if The Kitchn had cited the source of the recipe, as you only want to use recipes that come from a trusted and qualified source.


Is it safe to use the same cooking utensils for raw and cooked meat?

Personally, cooking for myself, I would only worry about it if were something more likely to be harboring pathogens, such as chicken. When doing steak, I just rinse them in hot water.

If you're worried about it, you could soak the spatula or tongs (the part that came in contact with the raw meat, obviously) in some boiling or near-boiling water for a few seconds, long enough to get them to 160°F+.


Surveying the top search results for sous vide prime rib, the consensus appears to be about 7 hours, with some leeway on either side.

Cooking Sous vide - 5-10 hours at 137 F.
Big Wayner BBQ - 7 hours at 135 F.
Modernist Cuisine - 5-10 hours at 137 F.
Cave Man Keto - 10 hours at 136.5 F
Sous Vide Recipes - range of temperatures depending on desired donenness, "couple hours"

Note that you don't want to hold prime rib for extended periods (such as overnight) in its bath, as enzymatic action will make it mushy.


My mechanical meat thermometer is taking an average of the meat and air temperature

You are right that mechanical probes sense temperature along the length of the probe, so they are only accurate if they are almost completely embedded in the food. Electric probes on the other hand have a thermocouple at the tip of the probe, so they are much more accurate. I suggest you get a digital probe instead.


Does soaking fries in vinegar before blanching work better than blanching in vinegar water?

I have not come across this pectinase idea before.

Acidity only inhibits the enzyme activity. Would it not be better to denature the pectinase with heat (and acidity as insurance)? So, a short dip in a very hot acidic bath is better. I do not have the temperature for pectinase off the top of my head, but I imagine that it would be 70C or higher, very briefly. But bear in mind that acid will also inhibit maillard and caramelisation.


The original source of this image is from a photographer named KF, Gmunden, taken in Austria on July 2005.

Here is the original source on the internet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pork_.JPG

With a reverse Google Image search and more digging, this doesn't appear to be a named dish. Rather, the amalgamation of these ingredients is typical, as suggested by the original wiki upload. If the dish had a name, it would have been tagged when the file was uploaded to Wikipedia.


So this turned out to be delicious. First, slice the cold, cooked liver into strips approximately 1/4 inch thick, then cut strips into bite sized bits, and set aside.  The liver needs to reach room temperature. I then cooked a serving of rice in beef broth instead of water, with the lid off.  In a pan I sautéed onions, bell pepper and carrot in olive oil, all cut fairly small. Once the onion was translucent I added about a 1/4 cup of merlot and let it cook from a few minutes.  I then combined the rice and the onion mixture, covered, and simmered until the rice was cooked.  The I carefully added the liver on top of the rice(do not stir it in) and steamed the liver for a minute and a half.  I removed the mixture from the heat and stirred the. I let it rest for a few minutes.  The liver was still tender and moist.  I will definitely try this again.


Replace the potatoes in a corned beef hash with something that isn't starchy?

Cauliflower might work.  I've put cauliflower in a food processor to get it to a uniform small-ish size, and then stir-fried it until soft, as a low-carb substitute for rice.  Maybe you could dice it into small pieces and do the same.  Boiling or steaming instead of stir-frying may give you a softer potato-like texture.


Stainless steel wasn't invented until 1913. Plain iron then plain steel was used for cooking spits for over 3,000 years and for quite some time after 1913.

It is highly likely that it is safe to use as a spit


When should I add meat/vegetables when cooking congee?

The process of cooking congee is similar to the process of making broth, but with rice added. I am not sure why one would want to use boneless chicken breasts in congee because this will impart minimal flavor (I would guess this is a Westerner trying to reduce fat). I am more familiar with using poultry or fish carcasses and aromatic vegetables to make a broth, and then straining and using this broth to cook the rice. For a faster way, you can add rice into the stock while the broth is cooking, but then you have the bones to pick through.

Traditionally, congee is often used as a dish for leftovers. You throw things in that you have on hand and often already cooked from the night before. Many of these are simply added when served. For example: leftover stir fried meat, cooked vegetables, hard boiled eggs, preserved eggs, fresh green onion, fresh cilantro, or fried dough.

To summarize, if you're using the ingredients to flavour the broth, then add at the beginning. If not, then add when serving.


Going to make my first pizza tonight, can a large, thick griddle pan substitute for a pizza stone?

It should work just fine.  Preheat your oven, with the griddle inside, for at least an hour.  Build your pizza on a peel that has been sprinkled with some cornmeal so that it slides off.  If you don't have a peel, use the back of a sheet pan and some parchment paper underneath.  Then slide the pizza and parchment onto your griddle.

If you have a new oven, you may need to go through a preheat/burn-off without food first...check your manual.


Couldn't snap the bones in my chicken stock

With all respect to Alton Brown, "snapping" the bones is not a test I have ever heard of.  He does not mention that in the official recipe on the Food Network site.

I just watched the entire episode on youtube, and he does show the snapping thing with a very frangible bone.   I think this result will depend on the age of your chicken and the size of the bone.

In general, the thinner bones and younger chickens may be somewhat rubbery when a chicken stock is done.

8-9 hours also seems excessive for poultry stock, although that is actually in his recipe.  You should get the vast majority of the flavor (and nutrition) in 3-4 hours (plus maybe a little bit to thaw, if you are starting from frozen), especially if you have chopped your carcass up into pieces or chunks (which he did not discuss in the episode).


How long do you let a steak from the fridge come up to temperature, and when do you salt it?

In this thread, Lorenzo notes that steaks may end up raw in the center if you only leave 'em out for 10-15 minutes to come up to temperature. I recommend 30 mins, but it will probably vary on what room temperature actually is for you.

From Weber's Way To Grill, which recommends salting right when you take them out of the fridge, here's Mr. Purviance's take on why you should consider salting early:

  It's true that salt draws moisture toward itself, but over the course of 20 to 30 minutes that's a good thing, because the salt begins to dissolve into that little bit of moisture. When the steak hits the hot grate... [you] create a delicious crust. Any moisture you might lose is well worth the flavor of that crust.


Can the non-stick coating be removed from cookware and still be useable?

Removing it mechanically (sanding with waterproof P100 and then again P200, steel sponge, sand blasting, ...) will remove the coating and expose the pure shiny Aluminium.
The advantages of Aluminium are :

light
cheap
conducts heat well.

The disadvantage of Aluminium is that it's a health risk if used improperly, so:

Let it oxidise for a few weeks after you've removed the coating so that it becomes dull again: Al2O3 is much harder than Al and has less risk of leaching into your food.
Use a lot of fat (oil, butter, ...) when using the baking sheet in the future
Clean it with soft materials (sponge, cloth, ...)
If it needs a thorough cleaning, you'll see the soapy water becoming grey: that's the Al2O3 being removed, so let it oxidise again for a few weeks.

If you take above precautions, you'll get another 25 years of usage out of it without it becoming a health risk!
:-)


You can cook bottom round quickly, but not as a roast.

Cut into thick about 1 to 2" (2.5 to 5 cm) thick, with the grain.  (depending on thickness, either split it in half / thirds / quarters ... you just want them of similar thickness), cut them thinner if you like it more towards medium than medium rare)
Salt, and let it sit out to come up to room temp for about 30 min.
While waiting, adjust oven rack so the steaks on a broiler tray will sit about 1" (2.5cm) from the broiler, or pre-heat your grill (if using propane ... if you're on charcoal ... well, you really need a chimney starer, or take a propane torch to 'em to get 'em going well in a short time)
Start heating the broiler (only takes 3-5 minutes, typically)
Pat dry the steaks, both sides.
Broil for about 6 min per side; if griiling, might have to go a little longer, depending on how hot your grill gets.
Remove from heat and let rest for about 5 to 10 minutes.
Slice thinly across the grain into strips.
Toss with whatever spices (cumin, garlic, etc.), squeeze some lime over it.

You can get extra flavor into it, but don't use a dry rub.  As we're going for high heat, if you want extra flavor, after cutting your steaks, pierce them liberally with a fork or one of those spiky meat tenderizers (not the mallet ones), then toss in a bag with a marinade, (a mix of lime juice and italian dressing works pretty well for mexican applications, as it's pretty quick.  Worcestershire or soy sauce also work for just about any treatment).

You still want to pat them dry, or else you risk causing the steaks to cook unevenly  (the edges evaporate first, then curl up holding in the liquid ... but the curling places them closer to the broiler and the liquid means the middle can't get above 100°C, making the edges char way before the middle's cooked).

update : and to make sure I'm clear on this -- it's very important that you slice the strips in the end thinly, and across the grain.  That's the only thing that's going to keep it from being overly chewy with this technique.  (and keeping it fairly rare; otherwise it could start to get tough).  Don't bother w/ slicing diagonally if it's going into tacos or burritos (as that's mostly to make it look like a thicker steak), it'll be more tender if you slice straight across.  If you insist on cooking it to medium or further, I'd heat up some salsa or other flavorful liquid in a pot, and drop the cooked sliced strips in there to cook 'em a bit further without it drying them out)


Adding milk works because milk is mostly water. It might even work better, as it also contains sugar (lactose) which will be eaten by your starter's yeasts and bacteria.

But it also contains other stuff, such as fats. And fats, after some time, get rancid. You probably won't want that taste in bread or pancakes. I would stick to water (which quite probably you'll find cheaper than milk).

Don't worry about rotten milk: your starter is already rotten. And it's a hostile environment for most microbes. It's very very improbable new microbes would survive there. But if they do, they'll be quite similar to the already existing ones.


How can I make my Garlic Bread less soggy?

Easy -- don't use butter.

Put the sliced bread in the oven 'til it's toasted, then remove, and take a garlic clove and rub it over the sliced & toasted side.

The texture of the toasted bread should act like sandpaper, and slowly grate off bits of the garlic clove.  As you get to the end of the clove, you might need to abandon it and get another whole clove to use.

Another alternative is to roast your garlic, and then use it as a spread on the toasted bread.


Is it safe to eat pumpkins grown specifically for carving?

Safe? Or good to eat? Pesticides usually don't penetrate thick-skinned produce (oranges, etc), so as long as you're not using the skin, there's not a lot to worry about.

They're not the best pumpkins to use for other reasons (linked in comments). In summary, the smaller "sugar" pumpkin is better for cooking, if you have the option.


This is generally to season the thing being boiled whilst it is cooking.  The salt will infiltrate the innards of the thing being cooked infusing it with some seasoning.

Try with something basic like pasta or rice to see the difference between cooking in plain water and cooking in salted water.

This quesion and this one might also provide some insight.


Is Garden salad still good if it's past the best by date?

Many salad packages contain freshness preservatives. That is, if the salad remains inside the original packaging, it will maintain its freshness. Regardless of the "best by" date, you should look for crispness of the greens. If the greens are crisp and smell fresh, they are good to go.


Will uncooked meat tenderise or toughen while stored in a refrigerator?

While dry aging does impact texture, storing a portion that you might purchase for yourself, or a small number of people, in the refrigerator for a few days will not impact the final texture.  Instead, consider purchasing high quality cuts, and the correct cut for your application.  Consider a tenderizing pre-treatment (some marinades are intended for tenderization).  Finally, of course, cooking process will greatly impact the final texture.


What temperature, in degrees, should I set my slow cooker to for a 5-pound pork shoulder?

I'm pretty sure that no matter what you do, it's going to end up braising, so it doesn't really matter exactly what temperature you set it at.
The manual does have suggestions for this:

Start with 1 1/2 to 3 pounds of beef or pork... [various cuts]
Preheat multi-cooker at 375˚. Brown roast in... [various oils]
Add 2 cups... [liquid]
Turn heat control down until pilot light goes out. Cover and simmer 1 to 3 hours or until tender.

So you can do it like that, and presumably that'll help get things going quickly and maybe get you some nice browning.
But the meat is going to release water and fat, and at that point it's basically like any slow cooker: you'll have liquid in the bottom, and steam held inside by the lid. As long as there's liquid left, it can't really go above 212F/100C.
The suggested 2 cups of additional liquid is presumably to avoid sticking to the bottom and burning; you can probably get away with way less, likely even what the meat releases naturally. But until you figure out exactly what works in that particular cooker, you'll probably want to check in on it after a while, and add more if it seems like it's sticking.
And yes, a braise should have a pork shoulder done within 6-8 hours.


If you're making tortillas and pastry dough, you'd want to use the rendered suet = tallow.

If you're making something like a traditional English Christmas pudding or a spotted dick, you'd want to use the un-rendered (but cleaned and shredded) suet.

Either one would last pretty much indefinitely in the freezer. Suet would have a shorter lifespan at room temperature (since it's still got bits of meat attached).


A question about browning meat for spaghetti bolognese

Kenji at Serous Eats pondered exactly this question at length. (emphasis mine)

And now we get to the most crucial phase of the process: the long cook. If you take a quick look back at that passage from Cook's Illustrated, they do make one good point: browning meat toughens it far more than simply simmering it. But we also know that browning adds flavor, right?
In fact, some very well-respected ragù recipes call for browning the ground meats until very brown, like the version that Mario Batali makes on The Chew. In that version, he cooks the meat until what he calls "beyond brown". I've made that recipe (or variations close to it) a number of times and have even eaten what can be presumed to be the same sauce at two of his restaurants. It's absolutely packed with flavor, but I simply can't get over the dried nubs of meat you end up with when you brown ground meat past the last inch of its life.
Surely there has to be a way to get great browned flavor without having to reduce the tender meat to dry rubble?
In point of fact, the whole reason I was extra excited for Bolognese season to start this year was because of this slow-cooked tomato sauce technique I developed a few months back.
The concept is simple: rather than simmering a pot of tomato sauce in a pot on the stovetop, just transfer the whole thing to the oven. Not only does the oven deliver more even heat and better reduction with less mess, but it also creates delicious caramelized bits of tomato on the top surface of the sauce and around the edges of the pot which you can stir back into the finished sauce for richer, deeper, more complex flavor.

He's got another secret for his amazing Bolognese: Fish Sauce. (no joke) Umami bomb

Doesn't that look good? He gets down and dirty with all of the explanation of his technique in the article linked to in the beginning of this answer.
The recipe (it's a beaut) is here
EDIT HA! I made it (with half the liver), and it turned out great!


Assuming it says 100% for the potatoes, I don't think you've got the scaling right. The recipe format picks a baseline ingredient, then gives the quantities for other ingredients as percentages of that ingredient. So if it says potatoes 100%, water 200%, then for 1kg of potatoes you need 2kg (2L) of water. See the detailed explanation from the source. The point here is to make things really easy, not to make you do awkward extra math.

As for the bags, you should definitely use two bags. If you do have two identical bags the size of the original one, your circulator is still keeping the water at the right temperature, and you've put in more water as directed by the recipe, it should take close to the original time. If you put it all in one bag, it'll take longer, and exactly how much longer is pretty hard to guess, since it depends on exactly how you pack it into the bag.


Cause of watermelon rind rotting (at room temperature)

Without forensics it's hard to tell exactly what happened.
However, one possible explanation is sunlight. If the watermelon was in the sun at all, even just a little part of it, that tends to accelerate the growth of all sorts of things.

Another possibility is that it was just past its date. There isn't really a way to tell if this is near or not without chemical analysis.

In watermelon country (I live near an ancient greek watermelon port) watermelon is generally refrigerated. This is partially because we find it tastier when it's cold, and partially because room temperature easily goes above 30, and even above 34-5 on certain days.


How do I incorporate cucumbers into cole slaw?

If you want to match the texture of the shredded cabbage you could use a peeler to get thin, long strips of the cucumber.  If you want to contrast the texture you could cut it into chunks or slices.

I would discard the seed pulp to cut down on the amount of water that will fall to the bottom of the bowl.

The skin is completely personal preference.  If it's thin and tender I like to leave at least strips of it on for color contrast.  Otherwise I get rid of it to avoid the tough, chewiness it can bring.


Additional flour threshold: when and how to perform?

Adding more flour to a bread recipe until it looses stickiness is a mistake many inexperienced bread bakers make, and one I made myself. Dough recipes have a hydration level, which is a way of expressing the amount of water in comparison to flour by weight. A higher hydration level gives a more open texture with bigger holes, lower hydration gives a more dense loaf with smaller holes and a tighter crumb. High hydration doughs are stickier and looser than low hydration doughs, and it's nothing to worry about. Ciabatta is a great example of a very high hydration dough that is essentially a floury puddle, and that's normal for that recipe.
Recipes have a hydration level, if you add more flour than the recipe calls for you will reduce the hydration and you'll end up with a denser loaf. If you keep adding flour until it can't absorb anymore you'll get a barely edible brick. My focaccia recipe is very sticky and runny, but if I added more flour to it I'd ruin it.
I'm not saying I never add a sprinkle of flour to my bread if it's a bit too sticky or loose, but it's rare. If you are getting bad or inconsistent results I would try these things before adding more flour:

Weigh everything, including the water, in grams. My baking never got consistent until I measured by weight instead of volume, because you can never get exact with volume measurements. I convert all my recipes to metric, it's a minor one-time effort that takes the guesswork out of things. 10 grams of water is 10ml, i.e. two teaspoons. It may not sound like much but it can make a difference in a dough, and chances are you won't be able to tell 100ml from 110ml in a measuring cup. Weighing water lets you get the right amount of hydration
Take notes, if you follow a recipe and it still is a bit wet then take a note to lower the water content by 10-15 grams next time. Once you find the right balance note that too
Make sure you are using the right type of flour for the recipe. Bread flours contain more of the proteins that form gluten, and gluten formation absorbs water. If you are using lower protein flour it will absorb less water. If plain flour is all you can get ahold of then it will still make bread, you will need a bit less water. Course flours absorb less water than fine flour, so if you are using a coarse whole wheat in place of a finer flour you will need to adjust the recipe
Control the water, not the flour. If you have a recipe you suspect may have too much hydration it's better to withhold some of the water and add it in later if it's needed rather than adding it all and needing to add more flour. This way you keep the balance of flour(s), salt and yeast right
Remember that the purpose of kneading is to hydrate the dough and ensure a thorough distribution of the ingredients. Gluten forms naturally, helped by yeast, kneading doesn't develop gluten, it just gets it there faster by pushing all the water around. So when you start there will be a lot of unabsorbed water, and it will be sticky. This is natural, you just need to keep working the dough
Also remember that rising changes the dough structure through yeast action and gluten development, so a dough that is a bit loose and sticky may firm up after a rise
Kneading technique may make a difference, you may just need to do it a bit longer

So, before you think about adding more flour be aware of the result you are trying to get, and keep the above in mind.


Mould on top and bottom of white wine vinegar

It depends; if it's formed a solid disk and was/is floating on top, what you probably have is a vinegar mother, not mold.  It's a bacterial colony of acetobacter, and probably happened because your vinegar still had a little bit of alcohol left in it for the bacteria to feed on.

You have several options if this is the case:

You can leave it in the bottle; it will do you no harm.
You can filter it out with a coffee filter or similar and discard it.  Your vinegar will be fine.
You can put it in a bottle with (perhaps not so great) wine and/or the leftovers of bottles and make vinegar.


Should I use a base to offset the sour in overripe sourdough starter?

Just remove 1/2 to 3/4 of the starter and feed the remaining starter as usual.  The process of feeding should reduce the sour and normalize the ph level.

You don't need a lot of starter to keep it going. Sometimes I'll just keep a tablespoon and feed it 2 oz. water and 2 oz. of flour (100% hydration).  If I know I won't tend to it for a while (e.g. 3 to 4 weeks), then I'll make the starter a bit stiffer by adding a bit more flour.

As far as what to do with the excess, if your not going to toss it...
I vote pancakes or English muffins.  These are usually served with something that'll mask or lessen the sour taste (butter,syrup,jam).

Where do you keep your starter between baking?


Should I get the small or large size of a pour over brew device when I'm only brewing one cup? (eg. Hario V60, Woodneck)

I've had this discussion on more than one occasion with my mother.

All else being equal, our experience has been to get a coffee maker optimal to the size of pots you will be brewing.

By getting a maker too large, the grounds will not receive the hot water in the rate or pattern that is intended for that size.  Having a basket of grounds filled only part-way will not process the water and be able to activate the grounds in the same way as if it were full.

Your best bet is to get a one-serving brewer, especially if that is all you ever intend to make.  If you ever had the opportunity to make more than one, repeating the process would not be as bothersome, since you indicated you would be making one pot at a time for the most part.


From a 'culinary' perspective, you can use turkey bacon anywhere you might otherwise choose to use real bacon. It is fine with eggs or on a BLT. You can crisp it, crumble it and put it in a salad or an omelet. I have even wrapped a filet with turkey bacon. While my personal opinion is that the result was not "as good as" the real McCoy it also was not "BAD".

The only 'real' answer to this question is for you to answer the question "Do I LIKE turkey bacon?" If you like it, does it really matter if it is a 'good stand-in'? Conversely, if you don't like it, would it matter if the whole of "Seasoned Advice" rang out in a single voice, "Yes"?


how to create gratin with _thin_ cheese skin

I would think all of the above will give tasty results, the point about the use of a professional broiler or salamander is possibly the real clue for cheese to crisp it needs heat, the rest of the dish probably does not.

There are a few tricks to try,

1 use any of the above mixes but get yourself a blow lamp from the DIY store or garage, not a silly little overly priced armature cook shop one, and use it to flame the tops just before serving(warn guests of the temperature before they burn their mouths) Effectively same as a good crème brulee.

2 make parmigiana disks grate parmigiana very finely on to a silicon tray or baking sheet oven roast until crispy or use grill if you have a hot broiler. let them cool on a rack place them on top at the end of the cooking - Combine with the blow lamp to colour and heat as a professional touch.

3 the lazy way add a dash of butter to the tops during the baking to colour the cheese mixture.


The Magic Bullet is essentially a blender, and is, as such, inherently unsuitable for making a salsa.

Also, the "seven-second" part of that recipe is a lie.  You're still going to have to peel the onions and garlic, remove the stems and seeds of the peppers, and trim up the tomatoes.

You're getting your knife and cutting board out anyway, so why not just do it by hand?  It really shouldn't take more that 5 minutes.


First, I'll say that I used to be a big fan of cast iron.  I never used it for every kitchen task, but I have a lot of cast iron pans and pots, and at my peak a few years back, I was probably using it for 80-90% of my cooking.  However, I now use it only rarely for specialized tasks, which I'll explain.

Cast iron and copper have completely different thermal properties, which will impact their usefulness for various tasks.

Copper is one of the fastest conductors of heat (the fastest that is practical for making pans out of), so it has very fast response time.  Cast iron is one of the slowest conductors of heat among the materials for pots and pans, so it will take a long time to change temperature.

Also, cast iron's response is slow enough that it's easy to generate hot spots or hot areas in the pan.  I know there's a lot of kitchen lore out there about how cast iron "heats evenly," but after years of using it and being frustrated by pancakes that were brown on only one corner on my cast iron griddle or grilled cheese sandwiches that would brown in only one area on my skillet, I decided to do some serious testing.

Before I get to the details of that, let me just give a list of places where I think cast iron would be a bad idea:

Cooking custards, milk dishes, and other things that could burn easily and quickly
Sensitive sauces, particularly egg-based sauces which depend on fine temperature control
Other thick sauces (e.g., tomato), gravies, etc. particularly if they need to be cooked down (low simmering might be okay with a large burner)
Acidic dishes that need to be cooked or simmered for a long time -- it's okay to cook them for a short time in a well-seasoned pan, but simmering tomato-based chili for a whole day in your dutch oven will often end up adding a metallic flavor
Temperature-sensitive dishes where you want to avoid browning (e.g., French omelets)
Any dish that you want evenly browned or for which even doneness across a large surface area is important, unless you have a burner that heats evenly under that entire area of the pan's surface
Boiling water or applications where you might evaporate water out of a cast iron pan (e.g., steaming an oven) will eventually strip off the seasoning on cast iron if you do it too much

In sum, cast iron fails to heat evenly, and it can't change temperature quickly.  So, if you need to be able to stop the temperature rise in your Hollandaise sauce at a moment's notice, keep the copper pan.

Anyhow, I know cast iron fans (of which I used to be a big one) sometimes don't believe me when I say things like this.  Well, that's why I ran some tests.

With an infrared thermometer one weekend a few years back, I tested the surface temperatures of various pans placed over various levels of heat.  If you look up the conductivity numbers for cast iron compared to other kitchen metals, that should tell you enough.  But I needed to test it myself to see how bad it was.  Basically, with a 10-inch cast iron skillet, I would usually see a temperature difference of at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit between the center and the outer edge of the bottom of the pan -- and that was even after preheating slowly until the skillet came to equilibrium.  (At some burner levels, that differential was even as great as 200F.)

In contrast, an aluminum skillet had a differential of around 50F or a little more between the center and edge of the bottom of the pan.  Copper was only about 25-30F.

A minimum differential of 100 degrees is a huge difference in cooking.  Again and again, I saw dishes that were unevenly cooked because of cast iron, and not just on my own stove.  Unless it's something you're planning on stirring constantly, it's just not worth it.

To be clear, I was testing this on a gas range with reasonably sized (not professional giant) burners.  Even very large ring burners will create a ring-shaped hot "spot" in large pan on higher heat.  If you have an electric stove whose burner size is roughly the size of your cast iron pan, the numbers will get a lot better, though still not as good as copper.  Induction should also work better than gas.  Even so, imperfections in the manufacturing process for cast iron (which are generally cheaply made) will result in magnified actual "hot spots" in the pan.  So, even with a reasonably even heat source under the whole bottom of the pan, you'll still have more hot or cold spots than in most other materials.  On an electric stove with a large burner, I've still seen temperatures vary by over 50 degrees F over a cast iron pan's surface, particular on high heat.  With copper, temperature is incredibly even.

Now, if you put liquid in the pan or something, that will help, but it still won't stop the problem.  Since I did my initial tests a few years ago, I moved and now have a high-end electric stove (not my choice -- at some point I will probably replace it).  With the electric stove, I've started to use cast iron again somewhat.  But just a few weeks ago, I tried cooking a chicken and rice dish in a large enameled cast iron Le Creuset dutch oven.  I used the largest electric burner on my stove, but it still wouldn't reach the edges of the oval-shaped dutch oven.  After nearly an hour of slow simmering, the rice in the center was mushy, but the rice barely beyond the burner wasn't even cooked.  The chicken pieces in the pan stopped the liquid circulation a little, but the main problem was the cast iron.  Eventually, I had to put it into the oven to finish it (which I probably should have done in the first place -- I was just following directions for a new recipe).

All of that said, cast iron does have some good uses:

I like to do high-temperature searing in a cheap pan, and cast iron does hold quite a bit of heat while hot and takes a little while to release it, so it browns well
Even at lower temperatures, the color and surface characteristics contribute to browning better than a lot of other materials, so (for example) if I want to cook a grilled sandwich in a skillet, I'll often use cast iron (as long as it's not larger than the burner)
Its slow response to heat changes make it good for slow braises, stews, etc. baked in the oven.  It's better than, say, a ceramic dish in this regard when you need to brown or sear something first on the stovetop.
Again, because of slow heat response and browning (here mostly due to the color), cast iron dutch ovens and pots are often ideal for baking bread inside when preheated.

In sum, I agree with other responses that say: use the right tool for the task.  If I only owned copper and cast iron cookware, I'd probably use the copper 90% of the time and the cast iron about 10% of the time for the kind of things I just mentioned.  Depending on the kind of cooking you do and the kind of stove you own, cast iron might be a good choice more often.

By the way -- I assume you're talking about cast iron manufactured in the past couple decades, probably by Lodge.  If you do want to start using cast iron for a lot more cooking, I'd highly recommend trying to find vintage cast iron pans, which often are thinner and have a machined inner surface.  Thinner cast iron is not only lighter and thus easier to maneuver, but it also responds a lot faster to heat changes.  You'll still have hot spots, but if you forced me to do 100% of my cooking in cast iron, I'd make a lot of use out of the skillets I inherited from my great-grandmother, which are lighter, thinner, and have a slicker surface than any plain cast iron I've seen manufactured recently.

One last thing -- I'm not sure why you find copper pans harder to clean.  Neither cast iron nor copper pans can go in the dishwasher, and I find taking care of cast iron by hand to be slightly more cumbersome than other pans.  (It's not a big deal, but they do need upkeep to maintain a slick surface.)  I suppose if you have tinned copper, it can be annoying to be careful with the soft interior surface.  But if you have stainless-lined copper, cleaning should be pretty easy.  And if you're worried about the exterior of copper pans... don't be.  Unless you have actual corrosion, the darkening doesn't really make a huge difference in performance.


How to get crystallized honey out of a bowl

Microwave the bowl, or let it sit in a pot of boiling water, to loosen it so you can remove most of the gunk. Soaking in hot water for a while will remove the rest.


How do I cook sticky rice/glutinous rice in my rice cooker?

This lady is pleased with the results just using her one-setting cooker: Sticky Rice. Note, she says in the comments that she uses 2 cups (or slightly less) water to 1 cup of rice (which makes sense) not 3 cups rice to 2 cups water like it sounds like she is saying in the video. She rinses the rice well, but does not soak it.

EDIT: With things like this there are often "camps" of differing opinion. I doubt that Michelin Starred restaurants that include sticky rice on their menu ever use rice makers to make said rice. I am reminded of this: Turning regular noodles into no-boil noodles. Even though there are thousands of recipes online for making lasagna without boiling the noodles, I say pfftthhfft. Sure, you can do it, if you don't mind High School cafeteria food. (Remember the Church Lady? "Isn't that special?" Think like that.)

I am less of a connoisseur of rice than of baked pasta. That being the case, I'm not sure that I would notice the deficiencies of sticky rice made in a rice cooker. With that in mind, and assuming that you are not on a different stratosphere of connoisseur than I am, I recommend that you give it a shot and let us know how it goes.

Yet Another EDIT - I Tried  It

I used this brand of sweet (glutinous) rice:

I used 2 cups of rice, thoroughly rinsed, 1 tsp salt, 3 2/3 cups water, and the only setting my simple, old rice cooker has.

My lid is glass, and I could see that there was still quite a bit of water on the top of the rice after the cycle was complete (short, 30 minutes or less), so I waited 15 minutes before I lifted the lid.

Since you can't see the rice without opening the cooker, I recommend that you do the same, wait 15 minutes before opening.

After 15 minutes I checked it out:

It's absolutely fine. Is it as good as the the great Thai place down the street? No. But it's close. The only thing I would (and will) do differently next time is to only use 3 1/2 cups water to 2 cups rinsed rice and 1/2 TBS salt.

After it finished last night, I was suddenly too tired to mess with it anymore, so I just left the cooker on warm, and went to sleep. 5 hours later, if anything, it's improved.

It was fine without it, but I'm intrigued by @GdD's answer here. Later, I'm going to try making the rice again with the above measurements plus 1.5 TBS sugar, just to see (more just seems like too much). Making sticky rice without rice cooker

Final EDIT I Promise:

Yep, that worked. It does brown a bit at the bottom of the rice cooker, but I like that. I enjoyed that as much as sticky rice from the Thai joint. It's not the same, but it's really good.  So, there is my recommendation. Have fun!

The lady who made the video has responded to me on YouTube. She seems grateful and flattered. She had no corrections.


how to clean ginger residue from my plastic juicer containers?

i would hesitate before using chemical methods like the video you linked suggests, but you may have some success with scrubbing with an SOS pad or chore boy, or even some high grit sand paper (something like 240 grit)


The primary reason is for accuracy and reliability in cooking times. Boiling water is guaranteed (not accounting for altitude) to be at 212 F (100 C). With a set temperature you can then say things like "boil X for 9 minutes" with a very high measure of confidence.

You certainly can cook things in the water as you go, but it's going to be a lot more hit-and-miss. Pasta, for example, will begin to cook before it reaches the boiling point. You would need to measure the temperature, and check the pasta regularly to determine when it was done. You can't give someone an accurate cooking time with this method either. The time it takes for water to boil will vary greatly with stove heat output, pot size & shape, and the amount of water.


Why does the grate of my charcoal grill keep rusting?

Rust isn't bad for you, with the possible exception of men who have hemochromatosis. Even then, I don't think that the uptake from iron oxide is very high.

The reason rust forms is due to the high heat the grate is exposed to. Unprotected iron will rust when exposed to the air, and the speed at which it does so is dependent on heat (and moisture). So as the heat increases the rate of oxidation increases significantly. Moisture in the air also causes the iron to rust more quickly, as does the moisture in food as it is cooked.

To remove the rust, use a wire brush before and after each cooking session. Applying a layer of oil to the grate before/after cooking on it will help to keep the rust off. In time, you can (depending on the exact composition of your grill) develop a "seasoning" coating on the metal similar to what you would develop in a cast iron skillet.


How Much Milk Should I add if I Already Have Butter and Sugar in my Recipe?

This is impossible to answer. The minimum amount of milk to add is zero, the maximum amount is as much as you can work with the bread without the dough turning into a liquid batter. Between these two extremes, it is all up to personal taste. The only criteria you suggested was "if it will be too soft" - but one person's too soft is another's too hard. The only way you can do is bake it and decide how it relates to your personal taste.


What is the preferred method for sanitizing the kitchen?

Another route for day to day cleaning is vinegar.  I use a spray bottle with half white vinegar and half water at night on my counter tops before bed. (Use soap after cooking or prepping.)

The vinegar does a good job cleaning bacteria, mold, and germs. Once you get accustomed to the smell of vinegar, you will realize it deodorizes after the vinegar smell goes away.

A nice touch is rubbing a lemon on the counter beforehand, but it really doesn't do much other than smell nice and break down oil.


There is no single answer to this. Olives are packed in widely differing brine concentrations, and breads are made with widely different salt concentrations. If you start reading the labels of olives in the supermarket, you will find anything between 1.5 and 7-8% salt.
Luckily, the labels are also your solution here. Just read the label, assume that the olives have reached equilibrium with the brine (this is not too strong an assumption, if you decide to desalt olives at home, you will find that it works within 1-2 days) and calculate from there.


Balancing out saffron taste, chlorine/latex taste

Searching for information about the taste of saffron, it seems that there are two camps - saffron that tastes of chlorine or plastic, and saffron that tastes/smells indescribably like saffron, perhaps earthy or like hay. Although it can taste bitter when used in larger amounts - e.g. a dash rather than a pinch. Some people find it can taste metallic or "hospital-y" which does match with the chemicals found in saffron, rather than this being a reault of an filler or fake-ness.

From Wikipedia (but they give no references) "Saffron's aroma is often described by connoisseurs as reminiscent of metallic honey with grassy or hay-like notes, while its taste has also been noted as hay-like and sweet."

So yours is possibly mixed with something or not real saffron. Or maybe you are using too much - the amount needed depends on the purity and grade.
Therefore, the way to balance out or mask the flavour is probably to get real saffron or use less. If you are asking how to balance it in a dish you have already made, this is obviously not so useful!
The other thing is that if you want the colour but not the taste, you can use turmeric.

How expensive was yours? And was it powder or threads? It is generally recommended that to get the threads for better taste, and I imagine these are harder to adulterate.


I personally use squeeze bottles to store my citrus juices, including pre-strained lemon juice.  They're nearly identical to these versions from Amazon (though more colorful) which I like because they have a built-in cap to keep the container sealed.  There are a number of other styles sold, but know that most don't include caps.  The small tips make them easy to dispense precisely; give them a quick squeeze over your food (or even wave them around and let the drops fall where they may) and you'd get controlled, relatively even distribution.

I wouldn't recommend them for long-term storage, as plastic can mess with flavors over an extended time, but lemon juice gets acrid after a week or so anyway.  You could try out a spray bottle, but these have minimal moving parts and they're dishwasher-safe.


Determine correct ratio of food to salt.
Add more food until proper ratio is achieved.

Or just serve extra beer with it.


My Yakisoba came out bitter! How can I reduce the bitterness?

I'm at a bit of a loss providing advice on this issue because I've never heard of it (short of burning the ingredients in the dish). There's a very, very slight bitterness in proper ramen-style noodles because of the alkali content of kansui (potassium carbonate and sodium carbonate or bicarbonate in water solution), but in typical noodles of reasonable quality I would expect the bitterness to be lower than, say, the outer skin of a pretzel.

To me it sounds like you've stumbled on poor quality noodles, or you're hypersensitive to the very mild alkali content. You might consider looking for Chinese egg noodles instead, which have a similar color but may have less or no kansui, or you might try a completely different noodle, such as udon, and make yaki-udon instead. Alternatively, consider trying a different brand of noodles, or a different form (dry instead of refrigerated, frozen instead of dry, etc.) One local brand of refrigerated noodles meant for yakisoba available where I live (Seattle) has been so inconsistent in quality for me that I skip it and go straight to the (probably imported) frozen ones in our market. (Dry ones will require brief boiling), but in my case our complaint was about texture, not bitterness. Switching out for a different supplier may resolve your issue.

ETA: It occurs to me that if you were starting from dry noodles, you may encounter rancidity with unusually old ones. That's a bit more aggressive than just bitterness, but I've seen it on occasion with long-forgotten packaged noodles; it was obvious before cooking, though, so I've just tossed them.


Question regarding percent hydration for 100% whole wheat bread dough

It depends a bit on how coarse or fine your wheat is ground.

With 75-85% you are in a pretty mainstream range - the equivalent of 65-75% hydration in white flour recipes.

If you work with longer or multi-step preparations (cold rise, bigga/levain/poolish methods, sourdough...), you can push it towards 100%, like for the no-knead-bread here.

As a rule of thumb, go up by 10-15% when switching to whole wheat (less if mixing).

King Arthur flour supports this when writing

  The hydration (weight of water compared to flour) is 75% in this1 recipe for No-Knead Crusty White Bread. But since whole wheat flour absorbs more liquid than all-purpose flour, we’re going to increase the hydration in this recipe to 85% to 90% or so.

in their recipe for whole wheat no-knead bread.

(1 the original recipe with refined flour)


I'm using Evernote for all my digital recipes, though it doesn't give you any ingredient list. The list is no issue for me though since I prefer going through my cupboard and check up on what I have, what I need and what I'll soon be needing. I find the ingredient lists to make you focus on one meal at the time instead of having a mixed basic setup.


What do you make of these ingredients in Ice Cream?

Konjac and Guar Gum will contribute to an elastic and stretchy texture. Glycerin flakes, locust bean gum and carrageenan will act as a stabilizer for the ice-cream, preventing large ice crystal formation.


Why are foods often packaged in weird measurements?

Quite often, it's because a manufacturer prefers to decrease the size of a packet than to increase its price.  Customers notice when the price goes up but don't tend to notice the product getting smaller.

For example, jam in the UK used to be sold in jars containing one pound, which became the equivalent 454 grams with metrication. But, more recently, that's shrunk to 400g and even 350g in some cases. Similarly, according to Wikipedia, Yorkie bars used to be 70g, which then became 64.5g, 61g, 55g and now 46g; packets of crisps that used to be 30g are now often 27g (10% smaller) or even less.


Regarding your questions:

  1) How can the bread be cut with the least amount of crumbles?

Traditionally migas de pastor (shepherd's migas) were the result of rubbing a piece or very dry bread with a couple of rough hands. If you don't rough hands, another way is rubbing 2 halves (lengthways) of a bread stick. This way the migas are all crumbs, but those are traditional migas.

If you want to chop the bread and have dices of bread to fry: Traditional recipes call for dicing bread the day before you cook migas. I advise you to dice the bread (size of normal dice would be fine, bigger would be ok too) when the bread is still soft. Because, if bread is too dry can be even a bit dangerous to chop...

  (does it depend on the bread type, the time the bread has gone stale, should the bread be fresh or completely dry, etc)

Type of bread: Tradicional recipes call for breads such as chiabatta / candeal. These breads have a strong crust. Nowadays, breads like baguette or, if you're living in Spain, the common "pistolas" are ok too (and easier to chop / dice too).

Time for bread going stale: it depends of the real quality of bread and your living location. Meaning: the more artisan the bread is, the longer time time would need to go stale. A common bread is normally not so good, so it really depends where you live. Regarding your location: If you live close to the sea, bread would go even softer, like chewing gum, don't expect like stone-stale bread. If you live in a drier environment, it will get dry and stale in a couple of days. I would wait much time, because believe me it is really difficult to chop and dice when bread gets very dry.

Therefore, experience is the key for every migas cook! I know it's not very exact, but that's the way it is...

About purchasing the bread fresh or not: In Spain, in places where migas are a very common dish, you can find diced migas ready to fry in a normal supermarket. Outside these regions, you would only find normal "fresh" bread.

  How can you fry the bread in such a way that the outside is fried and the inside is moist? (is there an amount of water that can be measured, how hot should the pan be, which pan should be used, how much oil should be used)

Water and oil needed: Any spanish granny would say that there is no measure for this... crazy, huh? I found some recipes which call for 1 glass of water (250 ml) per half bread stick. Some recipes say to wait 12 hours to moisture bread, some others don't... Oil: this is really your choice. I advise to cover the base of a frying pan with olive oil and some garlic cloves, when it is hot, add the diced bread and cover bread with oil. If you see oil hasn't moisture all the bread in the pan, add some more, little by little. Greasy migas are not so good...

  About the pan: it is better to use a pan like this, not so deep not so flat either.

Oh, and you didn't say anything about chorizo or panceta (fresh bacon). Without them migas are not real ;) Fried them before adding to the migas.

Hope this helps!!


What features should I look for in a vessel for making Indian curd (yogurt / Dahi)?

The slight ability of clay to soak up whey doesn't matter, you won't really notice much difference with it. Just use any vessel that is convenient - glass, metal, plastic, glazed or unglazed clay, other ceramics will all work.

If you want curd without whey, you have to use a method which produces less whey (usually, that needs slower fermentation at lower temperatures) and/or strain the curd. Do it in a cheesecloth overnight under its own weight, don't press it like paneer. The vessel is not important.

In principle, better isolation can give you more stable temperatures and thus ensure better fermantation, possibly giving you curd with less whey. In this sense, the thicker the walls and the less heat-conductive your vessel, the better for curd. This would be a reason to use clay, ceramics or glass. But it can be easily offset by using more isolation for your fermenting environment.


How can I preserve refrigerated cashew / almond milk by at least 2 months?

Simple: you can freeze it. Nut milks, especially homemade versions, can be frozen successfully. It doesn't seem to be a recommended practice according to commercial producers, but I would guess that's more to do with the emulsifiers and thickeners (typically lecithin or xanthan gum) used to improve the texture of commercially produced nut milks.

Assuming your freezer is properly set, this will remain safe for as long as it's kept frozen, although you might notice a decline in quality after extended storage.

The freezing and thawing can cause the nut milk to separate unevenly (making for a less pleasant texture) but this site suggests a quick run through the blender to help re-emulsify the milk after thawing.


As long as the jars sealed, and the product is safely canned, you can open and recan if you desire.


Is it normal for the Chickpeas to develop white froth after being soaked for 12 hours?

Yes, it is normal for pulses to develop froth when soaked. I've seen it at lower temperatures and shorter soaking times. They can feel slimy too. This isn't a sign of bacteria development in itself. Chickpeas, as well as other legumes, contain lots of saponins. Saponins are a type of detergent, and they form a foam when dissolved in water. An example is found in Saponin content of food plants and some prepared foods by D. Fenwick and D. Oakenfull, published in Journal of the science of food and agriculture, vol. 34-2 (no free version available). Chickpeas, soy, lucerne, and other legumes all had significant amounts of saponin, 56 g/kg in the case of chickpeas.
Note that soaking dissolves also lots of other molecules contained in the beans. Some recommend to soak and throw out the soaking water in order to remove the oligosaccharides contained in most legumes, because bacteria breaking down these indigestible sugars produce gases as a side product, which is felt as bloating. McGee reminds us that this soaking also dissolves many of the micronutrients contained in the beans, and advises against the practice. If the beans are soaked (for shortened cooking times), the soaked water should be used for cooking. If the eaters experience bloating, the beans should be cooked for a longer time, to give oligosaccharides time to break down under temperature.
This is in the general case, but now a note on your current situation.
The conditions of your chickpea soaking were risky. Your chickpeas can have developed bacteria independently of the froth. In temperate regions, soakers aren't a problem, because bacteria growth in them is not especially quick (the 2 hours rule is short enough to cover things like meat, and a soaker doesn't even have enough hydrated bacteria food initially). But I have noticed that food I would have had no problem with at 22°C goes bad in short time at 28°C. The relationship between bacteria growth and temperature is not linear, and with growing heat, bacteria growth can speed up a lot. So I don't know if I would eat the peas - not because of the froth, but because of the conditions you had them in. I would recommend that you soak in the fridge next time - you don't need any fermentation to take place, so the low temperatures aren't a problem.


How do I adjust a bread recipe for long, cool proofing?

Seeing the recipe now, my only advice is: don't.

Long proofing is something which is done with white wheat bread to add some aroma. And it depends on the yeast having very good growing conditions.

What you have here is a quite complicated dough. It has a ton of pumpkin in it, and most of the flour is whole wheat. And then you are adding spices, which have yeast retardant properties of their own. This is a dough which will have trouble rising. Keeping it alive for 24 hours won't be too easy, getting a decent rise out of it will be worse, and getting good added taste instead of some off tastes with this mixture is in the stars.

And even if you managed to proof the dough well in a long process, you won't get the effect you are hoping for. In pure wheat, a long fermentation gives you subtle fermentation aromas, but nowhere as strong as sourdough, and a very specific texture which people tend to seek out. You can forget the texture in this overloaded dough, and the spices will cover the taste change pretty much.

Just use the recipe as intended, and if you want long-fermented bread, take a recipe which is meant for that, there are enough of those around.


Salting the water in which you cook starches (pasta, rice, potato) is an effective way of enhancing the flavour of the finished product - boiling starches absorb salt well (which is why adding chunks of potato to an overall salty stew will lessen the apparent saltiness of the dish.

But salt does other things. When I am making roasted potatoes, I parboil them for 5 minutes before drying and roasting them in oil. if you divide them into two batches and boil one half in unsalted water and the other half in well salted water (1tbsp/2 quarts water), the salted potatoes will brown and crisp much better than the unsalted ones. I'm not sure why this is, but I would encourage you to try it because it's amazing to see.