Preparing/Seasoning/Using a Carbon Steel Pot

You can't do it. Cooking vessels are divided into reactive and non-reactive. Practically all uncoated metal pots (except for stainless steel) are reactive. This means that they will leach an off taste into the food. There is no way around it, and seasoning won't help either. It is effective for frying, but not boiling.

If you want to have no metal leached into your food, you need to buy a nonreactive pot.


I am not sure if you are confusing roasting with charring but both are the same basically, though roasting the pepper by charring the skin would be a more accurate nomenclature.

Roasting brings smokiness to the pepper and softens its bite. It allows you to remove skin more easily. When you char the outside of dried peppers in a dry skillet with spices, then soak, it allows you to remove the pith more constructively than tearing it open and it adds depth to the flavor.

For fresh peppers they become somewhat less spicy, for dried peppers it allows them a more expressive flavor (think of roasted sesame or pumpkin seeds or coffee beans for a comparison). Roasted peppers add a different dynamic than their raw counterpart and you should definitely look into the difference (if you enjoy chipotles end adobo you already have a taste for them without knowing it).


I thought that all electric fryers came with a mesh basket for the fries. If yours didn't, or if the mesh is coarse enough for the fries to fall through it, you could try to find another basket (I don't know if they are sold separately, but it is worth a try) or make some DIY solution by either suspending a big sieve in the fryer or lining the big-holed basket with fine steel mesh.


Any tips/resources/guidelines for making homemade pasta with other flours/grains?

You should have no trouble making egg pasta with farro. There are a million different recipes for egg pasta, and as I'm sure you've discovered. It's all about developing the gluten and having a good water content. I like to use two cups flour to two whole eggs plus four yolks, a tablespoon of olive oil, and a pinch of salt. The mistakes I made early on were usually around not kneading enough or using too much flour.

Rice flour, on the other hand, is another story. It is a lot harder using a pasta machine to roll out flour that has no gluten, so you may want to roll by hand and use for recipes that are more forgiving of the thickness of the dough.


Prepared wasabi that you can buy in a common grocery store (both powdered and paste) is basically just horseradish with green dye in it. Really, you've acquired a taste for horseradish. Not that there's anything wrong with that! I would recommend seeking out other horseradish-based sauces and condiments. You'll probably enjoy them better than the fake wasabi.

If you're interested in finding real wasabi, you'll need to look for it in a specialty grocery store (or online). It's traditionally prepared by grating the fresh root on a sharkskin grater. However, what you had with your sushi was most likely the fake stuff, unless you were in Japan or a very high-end sushi restaurant here in the states.


How do I reconnect cake pieces that stuck to pan?

In my experience using frosting to join broken cake will just draw attention to the fact something went wrong. If the loose part is on the bottom you can rely on gravity to keep it together, and when you slice it up if it comes apart you just put it on the plate and say nothing.

If gravity is not going to do the job then frosting will work fine, but be a bit obvious. Less obtrusive is food glue, which is simply watered down white fondant icing/sugar paste.


Can the skin of lychee be used for anything?

The rind is inedible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lychee

I've had a lot to do with Asian culture, both in and out of the realm of the culinary arts, and have never seen or heard of lychee rind used for anything. There are some fruits like lime, lemon, grapefruit, etc., wherein the rind can be used for other purposes, or even eaten. However, in this case, I think the most you could do to make use of it is to compost it and use it as nourishment for a garden. -- Which would certainly help feed your plants. :)

Another idea that is that sometimes things are put on the plate purely for decoration. The peel could be cut into decorative shapes and put on the plate with the peeled lychees, if you have guests over. You just need to make sure they know the peel is not edible. I've never tried this before, so I cannot attest to how well they work for this purpose, but it's an idea more relevant to cooking/presentation.


How to keep graham cracker crust from falling apart

It's unrealistic to expect a graham cracker crust to slice perfectly. However, it shouldn't fall apart completely. The problem could be in the ingredient amounts, the baking time, or in not pressing it effectively. Check this out

http://www.makeitlikeaman.com/2014/01/11/graham-cracker-crust/

and see if it helps. It has a good method for pressing.


What should I do if I forgot to dry fries before baking?

Bake them anyway and accept that they might not be quite as good as they would otherwise be. A little extra moisture won't be fatal, and there's nothing you can easily do now. You could try patting them with a paper towel but it's likely to remove the seasoning more than it removes water.


How can I have a dough attachment when I have a Dretec Handmixer?

AFAIK it's really difficult to knead dough with a hand mixer even if it comes equipped with dough hooks.

I was in your shoes a while ago too and after some research, found that it's basically useless for kneading dough. Unless you're Popeye, you're not going to be able to hold the mixer and the bowl steady enough for the dough to get kneaded. I ended up buying a KitchenAid.

Either spend the money on a stand mixer or just knead your doughs by hand.


What happens if bread is made with sparkling water?

I am not a chemist, but my grandma always used to make bread (and similar stuff) with sparkling water instead of still water. She always mentioned that the result will be more fluffy and airy. This only addresses the question about the (important) consistency though, but I guess you should just try it out yourself.

Edit:

Some benefits of using sparkling water in the kitchen

As this answer got downvoted to zero I guess my grandma was not convincing enough. So I asked a befriended chef who works at a luxury hotel chain in Germany. Here's what he explained:

Desserts can be made more creamy without actually adding cream. Here he gave examples of pudding/mousse-ish desserts
Vegetables steamed with sparkling water results in less loss of color (i.e. brighter colors), more crispyness, and stronger taste. He particularly recommended to try it with carrots, broccoli or cauliflower.
You can add sparkling water to thick soups shortly before serving to get them more foamy.
Similar with Salad dressings
Last but not least he confirmed precisely what my grandma said. For doughs and similar stuff (for salty or sweet dishes) you would get a nice fluffy texture. Kudos to my grandma at this point.


How do I coat puffed rice with chocolate or cocoa?

Ok, so dusting with cocoa powder is easier to do, and has a longer shelf life, but its also messier and the results are more limited.  You would just toss some cocoa powder in a bag with the puffed rice (if you're puffing your own, best done before cooling), and shake it up.  The surface of the puffed rice would hold a thin layer of cocoa powder, and since both ingredients are shelf stable, they should last a long time.

Downsides are, while cocoa powder has an intense taste, it isn't sweet without diluting it with sugar, how much you can add is strictly limited by the surface texture of your puffed rice (and sugar will compete for space), and milk will lift it right off your rice (though puffed rice in chocolate milk could be nice, too).  A fine application of oil, water, or milk could help the powder adhere better, but at the sacrifice of some crispiness.

A thin chocolate coating, on the other hand, gives a more familiar product, is less messy, and more variable, but it also has a more limited shelf life (oil can go rancid, the chocolate can bloom, it is simply moister even if the moistness is cocoa butter) and is a bit harder to do.  You would gently melt your plain chocolate (with a double boiler, preferably), and mix into a reasonably large quantity of puffed rice, then keep mixing as it cools so that the rice will separate or at least make small clumps, then spread it out (say, on a cookie sheet) to finish cooling and drying.  Further dehydrating with heat, sunshine, or air circulation, can be done to preference.

Since chocolate is oil-based, your rice should remain fairly crisp, unlike water based sauces.  You may find it easier to make larger clumps with this method, depending on ratio of chocolate and amount of space to spread out and dry on, or make a solid block of chocolate and puffed rice and cut to cereal size, or to coat a batch quite heavily and mix it into a plain batch, or drizzle the chocolate into your cereal rather than try to mix to an even coating, to tweak your preferred ratio, texture, and appearance.

Another thing you might try, depending on your puffed rice product, is comfiting, or sugar-coating, your puffed rice.  You would want to create a fairly dry sugar syrup, since moisture will soften your rice, mix in some chocolate (cocoa powder would be best), and drizzle the hot mix into the puffed rice a little (tbs or less) at a time, mixing until dry to form a veerry thin layer, and periodically setting aside to cool and dry more before proceeding with more layers.  This method will give many, many thin coatings of chocolate syrup to your puffed rice, and a fair amount of control how thick the coating will be, though it takes a lot more time and patience.  Additionally, some extra time drying out and possibly other measures (fan, dehydrator, sunshine, warm oven) can be used to drive off any extra moisture once the rice is coated to your liking, to maximize crispiness and shelf life.

Or, you might try making a rice cereal, if you want - making a chocolate rice dough, probably chilling and grating to make right-sized pellets, and frying them to make your cereal.  I would suggest you find a more precise recipe, I can make a basic guess how such cereals are made but I haven't tried to make any.


Peppers do well as a "refrigerated pickle" meaning that they don't need to be cooked at all (or brined in advance, or exposed to a water bath). Just pack the clean jar with your peppers and add anywhere from 50%-100% vinegar (the rest water) brought to a boil. They will be fine as long as you don't expect the pickles to last more than about a month. If your lid reacts to the acid, just put a layer of plastic wrap between the lid and the jar. Of course, pickles made like this do need to be kept refrigerated. Salt, sugar, garlic cloves and whole spices are commonly added. Dissolve any salt and sugar in the vinegar, other additives can just be thrown in the jar with the peppers. You can cut up the peppers any way you like or keep them whole. Here's a typical recipe, but the possibilities are endless: http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2013/08/sweet-and-spicy-pickled-peppers.html

EDIT: I should note that "anywhere from 50%-100% vinegar" assumes a vinegar of at least 5% acidity. To expect your peppers to last a month under refrigeration, aim for at least 3% acidity of the "pickle juice". Salt helps too, try to use non-iodized, some people taste a bitterness in pickles made with iodized salt.


What is the fastest appliance/utensil to cream butter and sugar with?

Kenwood/Kitchen Aid with the paddle attachment.  Yes room temp butter.


How to reduce smokey BBQ liquid flavor in a Mexican soup

Dilution is the solution to pollution.
There is no way to cover that smoke flavor.  But you can thin out the Mexican soup with some other bland soup and that might turn out good.  You could use tomato soup, or cheese soup or really any soup with flavors you think might be complemented by the Mexican soup.  I am thinking clam chowder with smoky Mexican soup might be pretty good.
That said, I think some liquid smoke flavor is just bad.  I never use it because I am scared of it.  If the problem with the Mexican soup is not just too much smoke flavor but bad smoke flavor, throw out the soup.  That bad smoke flavor comes out your pores after you eat it which is freaky.


Food Safety - Infused oil with dried herbs

Per the University of Ohio Extension, yes, it does reduce the risk (emphasis added):

  Flavored oils also can be a concern if not prepared  correctly. When
  herbs, garlic, or tomatoes are placed in  oils, the botulism spores on
  the plant material can start  to produce the toxin in this anaerobic
  mixture. To be  safe, keep these flavored oils refrigerated and make
  only  the amount of herbal oils and butters that will be used  in a
  few days. Using dried herbs and vegetables will also  reduce the risk.

Still, reduce is not eliminate.   The guidelines to not can or hold the oil for long term continue to apply.


How can I tell the difference between instant yeast and active dry yeast?

You can't really tell by looking, at least not without a known sample of the same brand.

The good news is that they are usually interchangeable 1:1. Make a recipe you know well. Does it rise as you expect? Or does it take more or less time? That will most likely give you your answer.

If the dough behaves as usual, it's a good bet that you have what you usually have to make that bread. If it rises fast, it's instant yeast. If it's slower, it's active dry. For the majority of loaves, the only difference you're likely to notice is the time it takes to rise and proof.

Joe says his answer, "When it doubt, treat it as active dry yeast, and proof it first", he's absolutely right if your recipe calls for proofing active dry yeast (not all do). If the proofing seems more vigorous than usual, that's a hint that it is instant. Get it into the dough right away, don't dilly dally while your yeast expending its life force.

King Arthur Flour gets into potential substitutions more detail. One thing they noted is worth mentioning here:

  One time when you might not want to use instant and active dry yeasts interchangeably is when you're baking bread in a bread machine. Since bread machines use a higher temperature to raise dough, substituting instant for active dry yeast 1:1 may cause bread to over-rise, then collapse. When baking in the bread machine, and substituting instant yeast for active dry, reduce the amount of instant yeast by 25%.

So if you do both bread machine and traditional bread making, you might want to do a traditional loaf first using your unknown yeast.


Is there a safe way to remove items that have fallen into a Garbage Disposal?

Circuitry can't just turn itself on; the machine is controlled by a switch.

If the switch is not flipped on, the circuit is not complete and the machine will not run.

Our switch is up on the wall, under a cabinet. There is no chance of something hitting that switch accidentally, so I just reach in when something falls down the drain.

If I thought there was even a chance that the disposal could turn on, I would never reach in there.


Castor (caster) sugar is known as superfine, or bar sugar in the US. It's not the same as powdered sugar which is even finer, has been mechanically pulverized, and is often mixed with starch to prevent clumping.

According to Ochef you can make it with regular granulated sugar in your food processor for two minutes, but let the sugar dust settle before opening.

  See Also:
  Translating cooking terms between US / UK / AU / CA


First, a little chemistry primer on what unsaturated fatty acids look like (this is petroselinic acid):

By Yikrazuul (talk) - Own work, Public domain, Link

You can see the double bond near the "middle" of the molecule. The "rest" of the molecule is attached to the same side of the double bond axis on both ends, making this a "cis" fatty acid. Rotation around double bonds requires a relatively high amount of activation energy, so this "cis" configuration is stable, at least at low-ish temperatures.

An example of a "trans" fatty acid would be elaidic acid:

By Benjah-bmm27 - Own work, Public domain, Link

Here you can see that the molecule continues on opposite sides of the double bond axis ("trans"). At higher (e.g. frying pan) temperatures, unsaturated fatty acids more readily isomerize between cis and trans, and since trans is energetically favorable, more unsaturated fatty acids will be in their trans configuration after being heated to a high temperature.

So to answer the question(s):
No, trans fatty acids are not generated by oxidation, but the same conditions that favor oxidation (high temperature) also favor the generation of trans fats from cis fats.
Also, the bacteria in the digestive tracts of ruminants (cattle, sheep, but also deer etc.) produce a significant proportion of trans fatty acids.
In addition, the simplest (and cheapest) industrial processes to saturate ("harden") unsaturated fats produce a relatively high amount of trans fats. So yes, not adopting other processes can be economical, if this can be considered "intentional"...your call.

A more extensive explanation can also be found in the accepted answer to this question:
Does preparation of food change the nutritional content with respect to fat type?


Are steaks I had in a cooler over the weekend ok to eat?

As long as they were kept cool, they will be safe to eat.

For example, high end steak houses and butchers age beef to improve flavor, sometimes to the point of allowing visible mold to form on the surface. In that circumstance it is removed before cooking, but the meat is safe to eat.

The fact that yours were immersed in water for a prolonged time may affect the quality but not the safety of the meat.

If those were in my kitchen I would thoroughly dry them, allow them to come to room temperature, pat them very lightly with corn starch aka corn flour ( a trick I learned from Cook's Illustrated) and grill them at high heat. A crust will form based on the corn starch which should act as a mouth-feel counterbalance to any texture changes from the soaking. I am thinking you may need to salt the meat after  cooking or charring to account for the myoglobin loss (red fluid) but you will need to do that on an ad hoc basis


Kartoffelreibe
Is the German name for it I just try to find one to  buy but they on ebay and the shipping is unexplainable high, for the Kartoffelreibe about 10 they charge 80 for shipping. Would settle for a used one.


Is there a difference between Brie & Camembert?

They are both soft-ripened cheese, and there are certainly many similarities, but they are by no means the same.

Camembert is aged at least 3 weeks; Brie may be aged as little as 1 week.
Brie is generally drained for 18 hours; Camembert is drained for 48 hours.
Brie may be salted before aging; Camembert is not.
Brie is more often pasteurized than Camembert (although "genuine" Brie is unpasteurized).

That said, there are many different varieties of Brie and many different varieties of Camembert, and it wouldn't be too surprising to find at least one Brie that tastes exactly like another Camembert.  Still, they are quite different - different moulds, different draining, different aging.


No

If it is labeled "cosmetic grade" then it is not safe to cook with, it is only safe if it says "food grade".

I understand cosmetic grades of otherwise edible products (like cocoa butter or your avocado oil) may be made with solvents that are not food-safe, they may have trace contaminants from the processes involved, there may be any number of things that simply are present in small enough quantities to fall below the legal guidelines for labeling.

You can choose to take such a risk, if you are really sure, but it is a risk and not recommended for a reason.


How to clean the rubbery skin from monkfish before cooking?

This video posted by Rogers Powel shows the technique very clearly.

Place place the filet skin side down.
Grasp the tail end, and slip your thin, flexible knife into the filet by the tail end, scraping against the skin, cutting down the length of the fish.
Turn the fish over, and inspect.  If any pieces remain, removing them is similar to removing the silverskin from a pork or beef tenderloin.  Slip your knife under the end of the remnant, pulling the blade up against the skin and cutting down its length to remove.

I recommend watching this video or others, because the technique is easier to see than understand from a written description.


Lasagne is the Italian name for the noodles used in a lasagna casserole. So it would be technically incorrect to use it for a casserole made with a different type of noodles. And I'm not aware of any other use of lasagne noodles, so while you will probably have to call your soup "lasagne soup" if it contains them, and Italians will also use the term "lasagne al forno" when they want to be specific about the dish. But in practice, I have never seen recipes for anything else made from these noodles, and Italians shorten the dish name to just "lasagne" too.

Else, any casserole made with lasagne noodles should be called lasagne. The other ingredients don't matter much - there are versions without bechamel, without meat, etc.

Pasticcio is a wider category of casseroles which doesn't have a strict definition. It is the Italian spelling, you will also see other variants such as pastitsio. It usually has noodles, but not always.

Lasagne is a subtype of pasticcio, and the most common pasticcio in Italy - note that on the Italian Wikipedia, "pasticcio(cucina)" redirects to "Lasagne al forno".


If I put peanuts in a coffee grinder, will I get peanut butter or peanut powder?

While the grinding of peanuts produces a paste we call peanut butter, a food processor may be slightly better equipped to handle them then a coffee grinder, especially if you want to blend coffee with it again.
Peppercorns are harder and they can be done in a coffee grinder, but peanuts would likely result in a mess that would not easily be cleaned, and somewhat chunky peanut butter.

edit:

As stated in the comments below you may get some good headway with a blender. I had a crappy blender at home, but peanuts may be easier to grind than thick smoothies. But again, cleaning may take some time afterwords. But blender would probably be more effective than a coffee grinder.

Peanut powder can be made by freezing the peanuts I believe, very cold. A part of the modern cuisine. I think you would need liquid nitrogen for it. Source from Tech stuff podcast, title of the podcast was Molecularly Gastronomical.


How to keep fresh lemon juice for a week without a change in its taste?

I do not think that there is a better way they not to squeeze the lemon until you need them :D

Regardless, if you want to do testing and are concerned about the bitter notes that develop , I recommend  doing the research with grapefruit instead as it turns bitter is a matter of minutes and has a much stronger bitter flavor then the lemons do.
That way you at least have a shorter turn around time.


Homemade flour tortillas without cast iron

Sure, I made hundreds of tortillas on a couple of old revere-ware saucepans before springing the big bucks ($7.50-$12.00) on a couple genuine mexican sheet-steel (not stainless) tortilla griddles. The griddles work better, because you can do 2 at a time per griddle, and flipping is easier because there are no sidewalls to get in the way of your metal spatula.
Incidentally, I prefer the wooden tortilla presses to the metal ones; less persnickety. A couple square sheets of clear flexible window plastic make a good, and nearly permanent replacement for thatendless stream of saran-wrap or waxed paper.


What cost-effective things can I do to help my knives stay sharp longer?

Here are a few rules I follow with my own knives.

Don't put your knives in the dishwasher. Hand wash and dry immediately after use.
Store knives where they won't be banging up against other hard things: my favorite is in a wooden knife block.
If you must store your knives in a drawer, protect the edge. You can use a commercial solution like this guy, or cardboard and tape if you're on a shoestring budget.
Don't cut on a glass cutting board. They look nice, but will dull your edge.
Get a steel and use it. A steel is not for sharpening, but for maintaining a sharp edge. Honing with a steel before each use will help keep the edge straight and sharp.
Don't use dull knives. Either learn to sharpen yourself, or have them professionally sharpened.

Slightly off topic, but if you're a starving college student who wants to have a high-quality knife or two at a very reasonable price, take a look at Forschner/Victorinox.  Yes, the Swiss Army Knife people. I was turned on to them by professional chefs, and have found them every bit as high-quality as my much-more-expensive Henckels and Wustof-Trident knives.


How can I deduce at what angle my knife should be sharpened against glass stone?

The "sharpening angle" of a knife is the angle between the sharpening surface and the blade. The 'original edge' is the angle at which the knife has been sharpened previously. Sharpening at close to/slightly below this angle will make sharpening the blade easiest, as you don't have to work hard to change the angle (which requires moving more material from the knife).
I could not find any info on the factury angle for the knife you mention, but most Western-style chef's knives are sharpened at an angle of about 20 degrees. Note that this is a "double-bevel" knife, so the angle will be about 20 degrees on both sides of the blade. See for example this page for some graphics and more info.
The original angle is not something you calculate. Either you find reliable information from the manufacturer, or you have to somehow approach this angle by trial and error. A 'trick' that I've seen some knife sharpeners do is to 'drag' the blade over the sharpening stone, slowly decreasing the angle until there is a change in how much friction you feel.


Can I use a crêpe pan instead of a comal?

Based on personal experience: yes.  I'd recommend the frying pan over the crepe pan, because the frying pan likely has a thicker bottom and can just be left on low heat for an even heating surface.  Rolled steel crepe pans develop hot spots if not moved around.  In either case, you heat the pan dry.
Better than either of those, however, is a griddle.  You can cook up to five tortillas at a time on a large griddle, whether electric or cast iron.  I make corn tortillas at home, and I always use a nonstick electric griddle for them.  Since it takes just about as long to press out a new tortilla as it does to cook one long enough to need flipping, I can get a real production line set up, and make 20 tortillas in less than an hour.


As you asked more than one question here, I'm going to focus on the title: "How do you decide when to deviate from baking ratios?".
And the answer is: when you want a different result.
Ratios are useful guidelines when coming up with new recipes.  They're not laws that need to be followed exactly.  If you think something came out a little dry, then you make a note to add a little more liquid or fat the next time around.


Can I convert this cocoa frosting to a coffee frosting instead?

The first thing I notice is that you are missing starch. Cocoa powder is 60% carbohydrates by weight. It will change the texture a lot, giving body and smoothness. The rest is fat and protein.

I would suggest that you start with 60% as much starch as your usual cocoa, and 5 tablespoons brewed coffee instead of the water. Cook your pudding - you may have to cook it through instead of using the double boiler, I don't know if cocoa starch is behaving differently, but when adding cornstarch to custard, it is normally cooked through because 1) it thickens better and 2) the yolks can "eat" your starch within a day, liquefying it, unless deactivated by heat. You can try small batches with both versions and see which one turns out better.

The fat in the cocoa is not so much, so maybe it's not worth replacing it. But if you want a fat which gives the whole thing a bit more solidity, add cocoa oil, about 15% of the original cocoa powder weight. Or even add more of it and reduce the butter for a stiffer effect.

Using your original amount of sugar and Arabica coffee should result in a recipe which isn't too sweet. But if you still have problems with sweetness, try adding small amounts of acid, maybe cream of tartar (citric acid has a noticeable flavor of its own).


Unless contaminated by, say, drinking straight out of the bottle, it will likely be safe to consume, but it will probably have deteriorated in quality.

Sake which is no longer appealing to drink may be suitable for use in cooking; if you're not accustomed to cooking with sake, consider something simple, like potatoes simmered with a modest amount of water, sake, salt & pepper, soy sauce and butter.

Low-alcohol beverages, whether fermented or slightly fortified, tend to deteriorate in quality over time, although they will become stale less slowly if their containers are sealed airtight and chilled. Port, marsala, sherry, vermouth, wine and sake all typically best consumed within a short time after opening, although the specific chemistry may vary.

Some folks consider a sake that's been open, unrefrigerated, for more than a few weeks undrinkable. I don't know if I'm that rigid, but it's a good benchmark. I've seen certain sakes do ok for a few months in the refrigerator.


Can I cook a food differently than the instruction?

You can cook your food any way that you like, or is practical.  There are two issue to consider.  First, is the packaged product already fully cooked (and thus only needs reheating) or does it need to be fully cooked?  Your cooking or reheating procedure should be appropriate for this first distinction.  Secondly, if you use a cooking procedure different from the one specified on the package, your results might differ from the picture or the product's instructions.  However, as long as you cook or re-heat appropriately, the product will be safe to eat.


When Making A Pie With Graham Cracker Crust, How Can I Get The Crust Just Moist Enough?

I've found by asking that most people don't bake the graham cracker crust before filling it. This is especially true if we're talking about a pre-made grocery store graham cracker crust.

It needs to be baked and "sealed" in the process and it will stay much firmer and hold up against the moisture longer.

I brush graham cracker crusts with an egg wash and bake for a few minutes until it toasts up a darker brown. The egg wash, when baked on, helps form a decent barrier against the moisture of the pie contents. This has the added benefit of a much better tasting graham cracker crust.

If you aren't used to doing this baking step, you'll probably be surprised how much better the pie turns out. You'll also start noticing how many unbaked graham cracker crusts show up at gatherings as it's immediately obvious the difference once you've seen both.


how to get a ciabatta with a more uniform shape

Here's why I think this is happening:
In the oven, the internal temperature of the bread is going to transition from room temperature to cooked.  The only way heat it introduced into the bread is at the surface.  The sides have significantly more surface area than the center.  The problem you are having is the sides are making this transition way before the center is.  So the sides have very little time to rise and get cooked while the middle is in the prime rising temperature.  So the yeast in the center has substantially longer to work before it is too hot for it.

You can try forming the bread thinner toward the center and thicker toward the edges.  If you get the thickness right, it should be uniform.

I have also had good experience cooking on a stone.  It will almost certainly speed up cooking time, but should help keep the temperature transition uniform across the whole loaf.  So you don't end up with a thick part and a thin part; if you start out with a uniform thickness, you end up with a uniform thickness


Why flaxseed sealed in containers once opened needs to be refrigerated and yet has to be consumed within 4 days?

Here is a quote from a "Mens Fitness" article on flax seeds:

  To get the nutritional and health benefits of flax seeds, aim for 1 to 2 tablespoons of flax daily. You can purchase flax seeds whole or ground. The ground flax seeds may be easier for some folks to digest over the whole variety. Store flax seeds in a sealed plastic container in a cool, dark place for up to 4 months. To maintain freshness longer, you can also store flax seeds in a sealed plastic container in the refrigerator or freezer.

That quote of 4 months for whole seed I think for un-ground seeds 4 months without loss of quality in sealed container should be safe and a fairly standard claim.  They need that for shelf life for selling.  4 days after grinding might well be as they will start to lose quality due to loss of essential oils.  But unless they have done something unusual I see no reason the whole seeds cannot be stored longer.  If the particular source has done something like stored them long term in an inert environment requiring the entire bag be used immediately on opening, I would look for a new source myself.


can't find croissant dough; what can I substitute

You want what is called puff pastry dough. It is usually found near pie crusts at the store. It is sold flat or folded, but isn't sold in a roll like crescent dough. As comments have already mentioned, that is a different style of dough for a different style of pastry.


From the Wilton website:

  Draw edible messages and designs on molded candy or dipped treats! As easy to use as a normal marker, you can use these edible ink markers to add fun and dazzling color to fondant, icing, cookies and more. You can even brighten everyday foods like toaster pastries, cheese, fruit slices and bread.

So yes, you can draw on shortbread.


What are the most common uses of piri piri sauce (other than with chicken)?

I had a friend that made Mussels using the piri piri sauce.  I also think that it might be tasty if you use that sauce on a nice burger!


Part of what is going to happen during the resting period is that the moisture is going to more evenly distribute throughout your dough, and begin hydrating the starches, so that they it will become more cohesive.

Assuming there is enough moisture present, you just need to give it time.  2 hours may not be enough time--4 would be better.  Overnight would certainly be good.

If there is insufficient water, carefully distributing a few drops (maybe a tablespoon or two, maximum) before refrigerating will help, but you need to be sure this is the case.  Try letting it rest for four hours as is, and if it is still crumbly, then add some water.

Lastly, you may find that plastic wrap (sometimes called film wrap) may be easier to use than wax paper.  You want to roll your dough tightly, holding it together while it hydrates.  Normally, the two shapes that would be used would be a log (for sliced cookies) or a disk (for cookies that will be rolled out).

See also:  What does an overnight chill do to cookie dough, that a 4 hour chill doesn't?


Besides soy, can other types of beans be fermented?

Yes, any bean can be fermented.  Black bean is common, for example, but you can certainly experiment.  This site might be a good starting point. They recommend rehydration, then cooking, prior to fermentation. They recommend using yogurt, a commercial starter culture, or a brine from lacto-fermented vegetables to get the process going.


Can you safely can homemade caramel/butterscotch syrup?

I haven't seen a butterscotch canned recipe but the ball blue book has a couple syrup canning recipes that look fantastic. If you do any canning you should have this book. The recipes are invaluable.

These recipes use the hot water bath technique. The extremely high sugar content would be enough to keep it preserved. Modifying one to be butterscotch should be straight forward.

I wouldn't try any experiments that reduce the sugar content because then we're getting into the risk-of-horrible-paralyzing-death area of canning.


A cooling rack serves two primary purposes.

First, it allows the cookies (or other baked good) to cool faster by letting air circulate completely around the cookie.

Second, it prevents the steam escaping from the cookies from soaking the bottoms, and other cookies placed on top.


You can of course, try this.

The largest challenge you will face is that cheesecakes are notoriously difficult to release from the pan, and they are not very strong.  The traditional crumb crust is also not very strong, so it doesn't provide much support or structural integrity to the slice.

This is why spring form pans are normally used for cheesecakes:  they let you leave the cheesecake on its base plate, and just remove the ring.  The crust sits on the base plate until service.

If you want to try it in another pan, to facilitate getting it out, I suggest that you:

Consider using aluminum foil instead of parchment, as it is easier to shape.  Make a sling for the cheesecake, so that the foil comes up the edge of the pan.   You will want to do this in both directions.

The sling will be used after baking to lift the cheesecake out of the pan.  You should then be able to carefully peel the foil back from the edges, and slice it.  (Many brownie recipes recommend this technique.)
Consider a sturdier crust than a crumb crust, perhaps a full shortbread, that will survive the lifting from the pan, and be strong enough to support the pieces when you cut them.
Changing the shape of the pan may change the surface area of the cheesecake, and thus its depth, which will affect the cooking time.  You want to choose a new pan that is as close in area to the pan anticipated in your recipe as possible, so that the baking time and temperature do not have to be adjusted too much.  Getting the perfect balance of time, temperature, and thickness of the custard is a tricky matter.

If your original recipe calls for a 9" spring form pan (which is fairly typical of cheesecakes), that is approximately 64" square inches.  So you would choose an 8x8" square pan to have approximately the same area.

A complication is that spring form pans tend to be taller than square cake pans, and cheesecake recipes often take advantage of this fact.  If all of your filling will not fit (with some reasonable room for a tiny amount of expansion (cheesecake should not really expand when cooked), you are going to have to adjust the baking time and possibly the temperature.

Your cheesecake should be done when it jiggles slightly at the center, and has an internal temperature measured in the center of approximately 180-185 F.  You will need an instant read thermometer to measure this.

If you are changing the depth or the area, you will definitely want to monitor your cake closely for when it is done.

Another approach would be to make individual cheesecakes or tartlets in a tartlet mold.

You should easily be able to google many suitable recipes.


Olive oil! Or really, any oil you prefer. Vegan butters would probably work too, but I prefer a good quality olive oil. You can get ones that are pressed with other vegetables/herbs/fruit etc. for example olives pressed with lemon rinds makes for a stunning lemon olive oil.
Just sub out some oil for water/liquid.
Or try adding spices, seeds, something to give it more elements of flavour, perhaps a dash of nutritional yeast would trick the taste buds.
Vegan baking is so chemically different from baking with dairy products that it really isn't always possible to create the same product.


culinary difference between dill and fennel

I assume you're speaking of using fennel fronds, specifically. The fronds look a bit like dill, and are often used as a garnish, but certainly taste different than dill.

I think the main reason is that most people usually only get fennel fronds when they also buy a fennel bulb, so it's usually inconvenient to only use the fronds for a garnish when you're not using the bulb. Also, some people (my wife) just don't like the taste of anise/fennel at all. If you have it growing in your backyard, and you like the taste, there's no reason you can't use it.


What can be substituted for green onions when making crab cakes?

In general, shallots, leeks, or chives would be milder than regular onions and probably a closer approximation to green onions, though all are usually harder to find than green onions.  Leeks and chives have the advantage that they also have a similar color to green onions.  The sharpness of all of these substitutes (onions included) can be tamed by cooking, but this would affect both texture and color as well.  In crab cakes, the color probably matters less than the flavor, but you could mix cooked shallots or onions with raw leeks or chives to get both color and flavor.


I've never cooked ptitim specifically, but for Mediterranean[1] rice, bulgar, orzo or cous cous, the recipe varies only slightly - so I imaging ptitim to be very similar.

Use a ratio of 1:1.6 grain to water, by volume.

You can add optional onion/peppers etc to this. Soften first, remove & re-add just before the water, or part-soften, leave in, then proceed as follows

Sauté the grains in olive oil in a saucepan on medium heat until they start to change colour [not just clarify because of the oil, actually start to go golden].
Add approx 1tbsp per cup of grain of either tomato purée/paste, harissa paste[2] or any combination of both, then continue to sauté for another 2 minutes. Sautéing tomato paste makes it sweeter & less bitter.
Add your water, straight off the boil from a kettle.
Salt to taste.
Give it a quick stir, drop the heat to minimum & put the lid on.
Allow 13-15 minutes for the water to be absorbed. Don't take the lid off to check. At most, lift it a tiny bit & see if you can hear the crackle as the last bit is used.
Switch off the heat.
Put a tea-towel or paper towel over the pan top & put the lid back on over it, trapping the towel.
Allow it to rest for 15 minutes.
Fluff with a fork & serve.

Brighten the flavour & presentation with some fresh flat-leaf parsley.
Sprinkle Aleppo pepper flakes for an extra burst of colour, heat & flavour.

[1]Generally, anywhere from Greece right round to Morocco uses a variation on this method.
[2] Both will add a similar colour, but tomato adds sweetness & harissa adds spicy heat.


I use a sheet pan under a cooling rack. Put the steaks on the rack and then cover with paper towel and slide into the fridge. Check the towel each day or so and replace if wet.

I've used this method for both steaks and prime rib and it has worked very well.


I have a 4.5l kitchen aid, the most cream I have ever whipped in it was 1l. The limitation is the wire whisk, you don't want so much that the level gets above the level at which the whisk can contact it, as then it won't whip effectively.

Too much also will get messy, getting all over the rotating parts.


Why is vinegar not applied to rice used for onigiri like rice for sushi?

Not a Japanese chef, but I do homemade nori rolls and onigiri:
The purpose of the vinegar in sushi rice is to flavor it, not to make it more sticky.  If anything, the vinegar makes it less sticky due to adding a little acidity and moisture.  Sushi rice is supposed to be delicate and "crumble" when you bite into it.  In contrast, onigiri rice should be tough and springy, almost like a dough, so you want to maximize stickiness.
For this reason, while sushi rice is specifically cooled to room temperature before being formed, onigiri rice is not; it's best to make the balls with the rice still warm from the cooker. Mixing the vinegar into the rice would cool it, and make it harder to form firm balls that hold up to being stuffed into a lunch sack.


How do I time slow cooking to be ready for lunch?

You could leverage an approach I used when I had small children and wanted to make meals that would take 45-60 minutes, yet we needed to eat within about 10 minutes of getting in the door. I would make Tuesday's dinner after dinner on Monday, then put it in the fridge and warm it up the next day.

Here's how that would work for you: on Monday, after lunch, start the slow cooker. Let it go all day. in the early evening it will be done. Cool it and put it in the fridge, all tender and fully cooked. The next day, warm up your serving and you are all set.

If you alternate the kinds of tough flavourful meats that benefit from a long slow cook with those that cook more quickly and can be prepped right before your main meal, you can essentially alternate cooking and noncooking days, lowering overall effort.


Normally, I aim to have very little liquid in my filling before it goes in a pie, rather than thicken it a lot. It just seems to keep the pastry better & saves me having to blind bake the base. I use what I've drained off to make gravy for serving.
I do thicken what liquid remains, I don't drain it all, & my preferred method is with a roux.
Just use plain [all-purpose] flour, made as a roux or just mixed with water & stirred in.
For a roux, I'd make that up in a separate pan. Let your pie mixture cool for a while first. Equal parts butter & flour. Melt the butter, stir in the flour a few minutes, then add the meat/gravy mix. Get some of the gravy in first, until the overall mixture becomes manageable; it will start off by transforming to one lump, but if you keep adding gravy slowly & keep stirring it will never come out lumpy, guaranteed. Gradually add your meat/gravy mix to it until it's all in.
If you mix flour with cold water then add to your hot mixture, you will need to be carful not to get lumps, pour in slowly, stir constantly. I'd also then let it simmer for a while, otherwise you get a bit of a raw edge to the taste. The thickness will be the same as with a roux, but the flavour isn't as good, imho.
Made this way it won't go gelatinous like cornflour would. Making it as a roux will also keep a bit of 'shine' to the sauce, more than the cold water method.


Modernist / molecular cuisine with a microwave?

One creative invention that requires the use of a microwave oven is the Frozen Florida - a reverse Baked Alaska. And seeing as this was invented by Nicholas Kurti, it surely counts as Molecular Cuisine. (see https://blog.khymos.org/molecular-gastronomy/history/ )

  The inverted baked Alaska, described as a Frozen Florida, consists of a container made out of meringue. The container is filled with an alcoholic liquor and put in the freezer. After a couple of hours, the container is taken from the freezer and put into a microwave oven. The result is a dessert which is hot inside, but remains cold on the outside

I just found something else - a Vacquelin is an egg-white foam stabilized in the microwave oven. I haven't tried it, but it sounds a bit like a cross between warm ice-cream and meringue.


Well there are a myriad of nice lemon recipes of course.  A decent lemon drizzle cake usually goes down well.

However, if you really have a glut, consider making a batch or two of lemon curd, or even preserving/pickling them like the North Africans do.


There is a very good chance that the spacing of the markings is the same as the grate on your oven.  (at least the ones on the right side).

The left one I'm not too sure about -- it might've been something like an oven thermometer, or just where you touched it as you were loading it into the oven.

When this happens your best option I've found is to repeat the seasoning, but with the pan right-side up this time.  You'll want to make sure that you've wiped up as much oil as you can from the working area of the pan ... otherwise you'll get a thicker coating that's more likely to scrape off with use.


It sounds like this is more like scrambled eggs instead of an omelet. It does sound tasty, but I can understand your issue with the coloration.

If you're using orange sweet potatoes, that is likely the biggest cause of the coloration issues. Eggs themselves usually stay yellow when cooked, though they may turn brown if cooked and then left to cool and wait around for a while. (I don't normally do that, so I can't really say.) I have a couple possible solutions:

1) As Catija suggests, you can try using white sweet potatoes. They have a similar flavor, though a somewhat different nutritional profile. Still very good for you.

2) Try shredding the potatoes instead of blending them with the eggs. This is probably the solution I would try first. Shredding will avoid mixing the colors to the extent that blending does, and still allows the potato to spread throughout the omelet/scramble. If you do this, I would shred the potato first (peel if you want, though the peel has a lot of nutrients in it), cook the shreds (options: baking, sauteing in a little oil or butter, or microwaving - you can try boiling, but it would be more like parboiling as the shreds would only need a minute or two in the water to cook). Then you can just stir the shreds in with the eggs (no blending) and cook.

3) Slice the potatoes, cook (can cook in the same manner as the shreds, though times will obviously differ), cook the eggs like you would a traditional omelet and layer the egg with the potatoes in your dish.

Here are a couple resources discussing the different type of sweet potatoes available so you can figure out what would work best for your purpose:

http://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-yams-and-sweet-potatoes-word-of-mouth-211176

Paleo/Primal site (I'm not Paleo, but the site has good images of the different types of sweet potatoes): http://www.marksdailyapple.com/difference-yams-sweet-potatoes/


Why are my apple fritters too doughy in the center?

The overcooked exterior and undercooked interior indicates that your oil temperature is too high or your fritters are too large. You should be able to solve your problem by frying at a lower temperature and/or making the fritters smaller. 340°F-360°F seems to be the temperature used by many recipes for fritters.


Substituting Sugar with Caramel Syrup in Baked Cheesecake

Cheesecakes are oddly forgiving in my experience. I'd considering using 100 g to replace the sugar and see what happens. If you're worried about the added liquid and fat, I'd leave out roughly half an egg (meaning you'd need to beat it separately before adding half of it.)

Having said that, my real recommendation would be to caramelize your own sugar. You can do so on the stove top and get it really dark if you're willing to crush it afterwards. (cook it in a pan until it's a nice mahogany color, then pour into a sheet pan lined with parchment or a silpat.) Or you can get lightly caramelized granulated sugar by placing it in a sheet tray in the oven at 300 degrees for several hours, stirring every 30 minutes, until it starts melting around the edges. At that point you'll need to stop.

I sat that's my real recommendation because you can do a real 1:1 replacement with table sugar.


The safety of making sushi at home really boils down to

Ensuring that your fish meets the criteria for sushi-suitable fish, and
Following standard food safety practices for everything else.

There are regulations meant for businesses which confirm that, you can find them under Guidance for Processing Sushi in Retail Operations. You cannot apply them 1:1 as a consumer (for example, I don't know of a way to ensure that your fish was not "harvested from known or designated areas that are problematic for ciguatera"), but they give you a maximum framework you can try to reach. You can see that there are no gotchas there, just what you'd expect for any food, plus fish advice.

For getting fish that is as safe as possible, please refer to this question: Can store bought salmon be used for sashimi?. For standard food safety practices beyond that, pleases see our writeup on food safety, https://cooking.stackexchange.com/tags/food-safety/info.

There is one deviation which is allowed by the guidance above: if you are willing to measure the pH of your rice-and-vinegar mixture, you are allowed to keep the rice inside the danger zone. However, this is not an extra safety restriction, but rather a kind of special dispensation - if you refrigerate the rice promptly as per standard food safety rules, it becomes irrelevant. For home cooking, there is no need to keep a tub of rice on the counter all the time.


How much bones can be used in an 11 liter stock pot?

2kg of veal bones cut up for stock use from your butcher should need around 5 litre of water to cover.  If you use more then you're just thinning the stock and that'll mean you need to reduce it more later to get the same flavour you would have had if you started with the correct amount of water.

Why does this matter you may ask...well, along with the longer reduction time you'll taste changes to the flavour more as time goes by.  You're cooking it longer and the heat changes things, sometimes for the bad, sometimes for the good.  Mainly it's just wasted time reducing something that didn't need to happen.

When all is said and done after simmering for around 6 hours, you'll end up with about 3-4 litres of quality stock if you went with a 2kg:5L ratio.

If you use more water to start then you'll end up with more stock but of low quality.  Then you'll spend your time reducing the stock down until it starts to taste like the stock that you could have made with 5L of water.


Omelette stuck to pot on low fire with extra virgin olive oil

I would recommend using a pan for an omelette not a pot, as it makes it easier to get a spatula under the omelette. Also, if you are not using a nonstick surface, use a little more oil (or preferably butter) and get the oil hot in the pan before putting in the eggs (medium high heat).


Keep fettuccine from sticking/clumping while cooking?

Simply put, you have to stir them the first three/four minutes of cooking. Be sure to boil them in enough water (at least 1 liter per 100 grams). In addition to that be sure to buy some good quality pasta. From my knowledge pasta tends to stick when the wheat used is of poor quality. A good pasta should not be transparent when seen in direct sunlight, but it should be of a nice pale yellow color and opaque. Good Italian pasta brands that you can find outside of Italy are De Cecco (which I fear might be quite expensive, and probably not so easy to find), or Barilla (easier to find). Both of them has cooking instructions printed on the package. You might want to cook them for 2-3 minutes less than what's printed, then eventually cook them the remaining couple of minutes together with your sauce.


How should baking soda be used to tenderize meat?

I  once worked in a Chinese restaurant and we used it for beef only, It was always the same, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda per lb of meat (lean meat, we used top round), tablespoon ShaoXing wine, pinch of salt and clove of garlic mashed. Marinated about 15-20 minutes, then "blanched" in hot oil for about 30 seconds, meat will look horrible after this last step, grey and ugly but when added your stir fry it will be tender and juicy. You can also use the egg white marinade with cornstarch, Shaoxing wine, white pepper, soy sauce...marinade 1/2 hour...blanch in hot oil. We used that marinade on chicken and didn't use that on beef as it does leave a slight coating that was not wanted in beef. As far as the baking soda leaving a taste....I never noticed it as it was not that much. Also when using the baking soda marinade, you should throw the meat into the bowl with force and manipulate it with your hands for a few minutes to activate the process faster, we used to slam it into a large bowl with as much force as we could. The meat will feel slimy, that is normal. Try it and let me know.


If you are seeing this effect after the jars have been in storage for a long period, do not eat the contents! This is a sign of botulism due to improper canning; the bacteria often (but not always) produce gas as they grow spores.

If this is happening immediately after the canning process, it is probably because you are not creating a proper vacuum seal.  There are three accepted methods for doing this: Thermal exhaust, mechanical sealing (i.e. using a chamber vac) and steam displacement AKA steam injection.  See the link for more information; the second two require specialized equipment, so thermal exhaust is what's normally done in a home setting.

In the thermal exhaust method, you get the contents very hot (71-82° C), which causes them to expand and release gases (air and carbon dioxide).  After sealing and cooling, the subsequent contraction will create a vacuum seal.  This is the most common method of home canning.

If you dump in hot brine and immediately seal the container, you are doing the opposite of this. Since the heat takes a while to distribute, you are causing this initial expansion when the jar is already closed, and this will force more gases up into the headspace and probably pop or warp the lid; if you're unlucky, it might even break the container.

Is this method safe?  No.  How unsafe it is depends on the acidity.  Low acid foods must be processed in a pressure canner.  That includes the majority of vegetables and especially garlic, peppers, etc.  The main reason is botulism; the anaerobic environment is perfect for the C.botulinum bacteria, but spores cannot grow in high-acid environments with pH < 4.6.  If the food is high-acid or has been acidified (i.e. pickled) then you don't need to worry, but with low-acid food you must kill all the bacteria and spores, and botulism spores are extremely heat-resistant.

In fact, they are so heat resistant that you cannot even kill them reliably in boiling water.  That is why you need a pressure canner, to get the temperature all the way up to 121° C / 250° F, and you need to hold it there for at least 3 minutes.  That is the only way to safely can low-acid food. Simply boiling it isn't good enough, and pouring in some boiling brine definitely isn't enough.

For high-acid foods, such as jams, a hot water bath is OK. This still involves boiling the entire jar after it's been closed, but you don't need a pressure canner.  Pouring boiling liquid into a jar of cold or warm food will still not get the food up to a sufficient temperature, and even if it did, you would still need to sterilize the jar itself; that's done by boiling the whole apparatus.  In this case you're not worried about botulism (since it can't grow in those conditions), but you still have to kill the other kinds of household bacteria, which don't have heat-resistant spores.

Since canning is intended to preserve the food, i.e. for long-term storage, you have to be a whole lot more careful about bacteria. You can't leave any opportunity for it to grow.  Lots of people can the way your wife does and don't get sick, but it is a risky proposition, and I would strongly recommended you use safer methods, especially if guests or children are involved.


Can I use a flavored liqueur to make vanilla extract?

One of the first things you'll need to consider is that the creme de cacao is already chocolate-flavored. Vodka is very clean and neutrally flavored, so if you use it to make an extract you'll get a very pure flavor extraction from whatever you're infusing. If you use something that's flavored already, the end result will obviously contain those flavors too. Basically, extracting vanilla flavor with creme de cacao will not give you a straight "vanilla" extract - it will be "chocolate-vanilla". That's not necessarily a problem, just be sure that you have the right expectation going in.

I do a fair amount of infusion at home (usually for cocktail use rather than baking, but the principles are similar) and have found that flavors tend to be best extracted in spirits that are at least 100 proof (50% alcohol by volume or ABV). Additionally, sugar can inhibit the flavor extraction. This makes your creme de cacao problematic because it's both not strong enough and contains quite a bit of sugar. I don't think you'd get a good extraction by using it on its own.

Simply blending with vodka might help, but only marginally. Most vodka is sold at around 80 proof (40% ABV) so if you did a half-and-half mix, you'd wind up with a solution at around 55 proof (the calculation of ABV isn't purely additive, so calculating the exact ABV would take some math that I'll attempt to add in later once I can track down the formulas). That's not enough of an increase in proof to make much of a difference - might as well just use the vodka at that point.

You could do better by using a stronger spirit. Some brands sell 100-proof vodka which would bring your half-and-half blend up to around 65 proof. It's possible to find some rums and grain spirits sold at 151 proof; blending with those would get you up to around 90 proof. You may even be able to find 190-proof grain alcohol under the Everclear label (though this is illegal in many jurisdictions) which if blended would bring you all the way up to 110 proof, which should be enough for a good extraction even given the sugar content in the mixture.

Of course, if you're going to seek out these specialty products, you could just use them on their own and get a much better, cleaner extract. If you're dead set on using the creme de cacao (or in the general case, any liqueur) you could probably find a way to make it work, but on balance I'd recommend finding a different use for it.


How do I "cool" down very spicy tortilla soup?

Basically, there are two ways to reduce how spicy any soup is:

Make more soup and dilute the spices
Add more starch and/or dairy to the existing soup

However, in your case, where you added about 8X as many peppers as you should have, I'm not sure either avenue is practical; you would have to at least triple the volume of the soup to have an effect.  I suggest starting over.


I think adding the butter twice could maybe account for it. extra hydration, then collapse.

That seems like quite a bit of fat already. (just based on what I've done myself)

If the dough is normally close to being over hydrated, when it gets too close to the stage where it collapses, a tiny bit more liquid can tip it over the edge. Maybe even an unusually humid day.

I have a funny feeling that butter doesn't interact with gluten the same way as water, but I still think it's the butter.

Whatever it is, I've made that loaf myself more than once :)


Keeping vegetables directly on ice tends to create damage on a cellular level, leading to softness once the vegetables are processed. Next time, instead of using ice, consider a cold brine bath, with or without added vinegar, for your cucumbers and/or slices. If you have room in the fridge, you can store them there overnight. If not, put them in a non-aluminum pot, wrap it twice with bubble wrap to prevent direct contact with ice, and store the pot in a bucket or a larger pot filled with ice.


Low Carb Pizza Dough Recipe - How Will This Make Dough?

Don't think of that as dough. This looks like basically making a quiche base to put pizza toppings on.

I don't see any reason to think this recipe won't be stable but it won't be anything like pizza crust. Still it sounds tasty.


Assuming your're talking about natural gas (methane) then unlike some other gases such as LPG it is less dense than air and will tend to float up. While in the case of a leak much would probably go out the window I wouldn't consider leaving it unattended 100% safe and can think of a few situations that could occur:

The remaining gas could accumulate between the top of the window and the ceiling. You probably won't be able to smell it but air turbulence from opening doors etc could cause it to circulate downwards and cause a hazard. Things like a small spark in a light or ceiling fan could ignite it as well.
Gas regulators can fail open, so as the regulator ages or if defective a small surge in the gas pressure for example might cause the flame to become much larger than you set. That would't be a good thing if you're not around to keep your eye on it.

Instead I'd probably go with a slow cooker as a few people have suggested in comments. It will vary by brand / size but my slow cooker uses 120 watts on the low setting. Over the eight hours of cooking that would use around 1kWh of power, costing under 20 cents for most of the United States so they are quite economical as well.


What can I do to prevent the gaseous side effect of sunchokes?

In On Food and Cooking (2004 edition), page 307, Harold McGee indicates that the... erm... flatulent effects of sun chokes (also called Jerusalem artichokes) are due to complex fructose-based carbohydrates that are not digestible by humans.

Long, slow cooking allows enzymes present in the fresh of the tuber will convert these fructose over time.  McGee recommends 12-24 hours at 200 F / 93 C.

He indicates that the result will be soft and sweet, akin to a vegetable aspic.

Note that the ogliosacharrides in beans are a different class than the inulin in sunchoke (galactose based versus fructose based, respectively), and evidently Beano is not effective sunchoke.

Short of this extreme measure, your best defense against wind may be smaller portions of the vegetable.


If you've waited that long before needing a cup of lemon tea, I'm sure you can wait until you've had time to go to the shop for a new bottle ;)

Bin it, don't risk it.

The expiry date, btw is only for unopened. Once opened it will have a significantly shorter life - checking one from the fridge here it says "Once opened, keep refrigerated & use within 4 weeks" even though the full unopened expiry date is another year away.


ozone and its impact on cold fermentation

I was experimenting for almost a month and now I can confirm that enabled Ozone(Active Oxygen) does indeed impact, kills really, on the dough and bacteria during cold fermentation.
The results I have with Ozone off are fantastic. And out of curiosity I also did cold fermentation with Ozone enabled. I kept the dough for 14 hours and got terrible bread.


Why are my olives discolouring in their brine?

I was going to answer, but while searching for the name of the product used to make the olives black I found this perfect answer from http://www.oliveoilsource.com/asktheexpert/are-olives-dyed-make-them-black

Olives naturally turn black as they ripen. When unripe they are green.
As they ripen they get reddish, then purplish and finally black.
"Ripe Black Olives" in a can are actually olives which are neither
black nor ripe when they are picked.  They are picked very green and
then cured using dilute brine and lye solutions.
Lye treatments cause natural phenolic compounds in the olives to oxidize to a black color.
Calcium chloride salts, iron salts (ferrous gluconate) and compressed
air bubbled through the curing vats help develop the black color. So
there is no black dye used but the olives are treated to make them a
nice uniform dark black.
Home curing of olives without these added salts will result in mottled
and brownish olives which taste just as good but are not as
attractive.
The opposite tact is used to make a nice green California- style
green-ripe olive. Air containing oxygen must be excluded to avoid
natural oxidation and darkening of the skins.


Are caraway seeds and fennel seeds the same?

Fennel and caraway are relatives, but not the same plant.  Fennel seeds have a flavor dominated by anise/licorice, where caraway is quite different, being dominated by other flavors. They also have subtle differences in appearance.

Cumin, anise, and dill are other look-alike seeds with very different flavors.  Anise and fennel have very similar flavors, and can be substituted for each other.  Caraway and dill are likewise similar in flavor.  Cumin has a flavor different from any of the above. I am including pictures of fennel, caraway, anise, cumin, and dill seeds so you can see how similar they are, but also how there are subtle differences in shape.

Fennel Seed:

Caraway Seeds:

Anise Seed:  It is hard to tell from the picture, but anise seeds are much smaller than fennel.

Cumin Seeds: note, these vary considerably in color

Dill Seeds: (note how much flatter theses are)


You need to add in your cheese in small quantities and stir after each addition.

I'm not sure what you're making, but you could make a cream sauce prior to mixing the pasta with milk/cream, cheese and butter.  Again, though, you'll want to add the cheese in small quantities and ensure that it's incorporated before adding another batch.


Yes, a well cultured sour dough is actually sour.

The bacteria in the culture, lactobacilli, emit lactic acid as a waste product of their metabolism, making the dough acidic and sour.


What to use instead of white wine in recipes?

A lot of the time, the major purpose of the wine is acidity. You can get this with lemon juice, tomato, or vinegar instead. Since the flavor is different, you will need to experiment by tasting, and probably use different amounts, but you should still be able to get good results. In the fondue recipe you mention, you would probably do well with a combination of lemon juice and red wine vinegar.


Ingredient to counter ammonia aroma/taste

Try citric acid instead. That should complex the ammonia and take its taste down. Don't use too much or it'll get sour on you.


This is a few months late, but just in case you haven't resolved this some other way, I'd say that:

First, don't eat them. I think it would be best to contact your local University Extension Service (if you are in the states) which will often have access to USDA proper canning methods. It's likely that they would know what this is or could recommend how to find out. They are exactly where I go when I find a weird spider in the garden and that type of thing. Good luck!


Can I use a plastic tub to ferment sauerkraut?

I ferment in plastic tupperware all the time. As long as it's a food-safe plastic (BPA free is what you want I think), you should be fine. That said, if it's just the one tub, I'm not sure it's worth it, unless you devote an entire shelf of your fridge to kraut and the tub fits perfectly. (And even then I'd recommend getting a set of smaller, stackable containers instead. That way you could take one out at a time and not disturb/introduce outside air to the rest of your kraut.) Here are some things I know about fermenting in plastic tupperware. I hope you like text.

One is that you will likely never be able to use that tub for anything else again, ever, unless you're okay with whatever else you put in it smelling like kraut. One time I whipped some cream in a tupperware I had stored kimchi in. That was a mistake. (That said, you get a really interesting texture if you fold whipped cream into egg and scramble it.) Seriously, I scrubbed with baking soda, dish soap, clorox, hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol, and everything else I could think of afterwards just to see if I could remove the smell. I couldn't.

Two is that you might need to seriously reinforce the seal of the lid. Most plastic containers don't have a true airtight seal or airlock. You could have issues with contaminants down the way that you don't need to worry about as much with glass crocks designed for fermentation. You can fill your tub with water and tip it over to see how well it holds liquid, but that still won't tell you about air.

I only ferment kimchi in plastic because, hey, I can't use those tupperware for anything else now, and the brine also dissolves flour, kills yeast, and likely strips paint. It's powerful. But even so, I don't leave it at room temperature once it stops actively fermenting. Kraut is not as crazily strong as kimchi, in my experience, so I'd be even more careful about storage conditions if you use a plastic tub with a non-airtight seal. Even if the acidity of the brine should protect it, better safe than sorry.

Two and a half is never EVER travel with a plastic tub of fermented goodness that is NOT double-bagged, at least. Double-bagged in a cooler is better.

Three is to consider where you'll put the tub, physically. Will it fit in your fridge, and can you pack effectively around it? If you don't do cold-storage, or have a fermentation fridge, I'd honestly reconsider changing your container drastically to anything, especially a plastic tub not designed for it. If your current method ain't broke, don't fix it.

Four is that fermenting in plastic leads to a less-pretty presentation. I can use a bright red, bubbling jar of kimchi as a centerpiece at dinner if I want to. Or just tie a ribbon around the rim and say "Merry Christmas!" Sauerkraut looks cool too. So do pickles, if I break my fingers arranging them in the jar. The plastic tub, possibly wrapped up in grocery or trash bags, really doesn't have the same effect. Same delicious product, but the tub cannot be used for decoration. Plastic just lacks that kind of charisma.

So, again, yes, you can ferment in food-safe plastic, and it's cheap and great for cold-storage in a fridge because it stacks easily, but I would definitely take a good look at the seal, and think about your typical storage practices. I love my tupperware-kimchi and have no issues with it, but that stuff is nearly indestructible. Even with all my positive experiences using plastic for kimchi, my other ferments, such as kraut, dill pickles, carrots, squash, onions, garlic, okra... all get glass jars, just to be safe.


Over-rising and then sinking sound very much like a cake made with too much leavening.

Since you cake is made with the creaming method, and baking soda, there are two sources of leavening:

The baking soda, as a chemical leavener, will react with the acid from the lemon juice and butter milk.  Have you changed brands or amounts of any of these items that might change the acid ratio?
Creaming the sugar with the butter causes the sharp edges of he sugar to cut air bubbles into the solid butter phase, which serve as the seeds of the leavening.  Has anything changed here, such as starting to use a stand mixture?


Um ... just off the top of my head, important things when cooking with a wok:

Make sure all of your items to cook are ready before the first thing goes to the heat; it's quick cooking, and you don't want to be trying to chop something while you're trying to stir things at the same time.
You want to cook over high heat.  The oil should be just about to smoking before cook with it, and you want to use an oil with a high smoke point (eg, peanut, canola, soy, corn)
Don't cool off the pan.  Add ingredients in stages (harder, longer cooking things first), so you don't drop the temperature too quickly.
It's called a stir fry for a reason -- you need oil to help transfer the heat.  You can saute, if you really want to, but it's not quite the same.

... and unfortunately, most residential stoves can't put out enough heat for the wok to work perfectly -- it might be good, but you'll never quite get the same as what you get from a restaurant.  If you're cooking for a large number of people, it's sometimes easier to cook the ingredients individually or it batches, then combine it all back together at the end.


thick, crunchy, fluffy corn flakes breading

The comments have already touched on a number of potential solutions.  The core problem seems to be that you need a thicker, more viscous batter than can hold onto the cornflakes better than raw egg.  Egg is slippery stuff, and will tend to form only a very thin layer on whatever's being dipped into it, but you want something much denser here.

In the recipe you included, honey makes the egg more viscous while seasoning at the same time.  You could do the same thing by adding a small amount of flour or (appropriately) cornstarch to the egg before dipping the soy.  You could even try going completely eggless and make a beer batter or tempura-style batter; depending on your recipe, you may need to back off on the liquid so that it remains relatively thick.  Dip your soy into the batter, then into the cornflakes, and then fry or bake as you see fit.

You can probably play it quite loose with the cooking time.  Since soy isn't an animal product that needs to be cooked to a certain temperature for safety purposes, just cook until you're happy with the final product.


When you are making a vinaigrette you essentially make an emulsion from a liquid and an oil. That this liquid is also acidic does help with the formation of the emulsion and does wonders for the taste, but is not necessary.

The reason I am mentioning this is that emulsions look a lot like long chains of lipids under the microscope, held together by the emulsifier, and keeping the liquid in place. That does a number on the refraction of light and might make your, generally rather dark-ish, soy look golden in the process. Not all soy oil (as opposed to soy sauce) is black, by the way, the taste of soy in oil can be even stronger than that in sauces.

Lastly, if the recipe is anything like the soy vinaigrettes I have done, it's 6 tablespoons of mirin to a cup of tamari, three tablespoons of sugar, four tablespoons of rice vinegar (the unseasoned kind), and a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. Sometimes I substitute half the honey for the sugar part, since honey is an effective emulsifier above and beyond the tamari.


Unfortunately, the box of cake mix has much more than just flour in it (dried milk, sugar, leaveners, flavoring etc...)... and it may not even use cake flour.

Your best bet will be to buy a second box of the same exact cake mix and double the remaining ingredients as well, so if the came mix calls for 1/2 cup water and an egg, you'll need to add a second egg.

Now, it's possible to come up with a list of ingredients you will need to add to save yourself a trip to the store but we'd probably need to know which cake mix you used to start with.


The discoloration is from overheating the pan, not from stains. The actual metal has changed color through accidental tempering, so you won't be able to clean it off other than by grinding the metal down or re-tempering it (neither of which is a good idea).
The color won't significantly affect the performance of the pan. Just ignore it.


Are there any savoury dishes using matcha tea?

One trend I've seen recently is making tea broths/sauces for meats, fishes, etc...  Besides being a good use for tea, this has the double effect of giving off the tea's natural aroma when presented to the eater as opposed to simply using the tea to crust a meat - where you wouldn't really get any tea flavor until you actually bit in.

I've also seen people smoking meats with tea leaves and such.  I haven't tried this myself to see if the results are worth the trouble (aka - if you can actually taste the tea flavor).

I would also try poaching various items in a matcha tea poaching liquid.  For example:

Water
Sugar + salt
Matcha tea powder
Peppercorns
Bay leaves
Whatever else sounds good to you.

You could use this to poach chicken and fish.

Lastly, don't be afraid to add it to soups!  Carrot-ginger soup would benefit from the addition of some matcha powder.


Rodent droppings on cast-iron frying pan

If it's cast iron, and you're really paranoid about it, just stick it in the oven, run a clean cycle, then re-season. Cast iron can withstand stupidly large amounts of heat: in traditional Chinese cookery, woks are cleaned by building a big fire, and throwing them in...When the fire burns out, you dig out your wok, re-season, and you're back in business.

If it's stainless, just stick it in the dishwasher.


Is there something about black pepper that changes while frying?

@Megha's suspicion of too-high heat is spot on.
The primary flavor oil in black pepper is piperine and its melting point of 130°C is below that of the Maillard reaction of 140°C to 165°C. You were likely frying the vegetables until they were nicely golden on the outside, which happens via the Maillard reaction. By adding ground pepper during that frying phase, the piperine is breaking down and adding a bitter flavor to your dish.
Potential solutions are:

Grind the pepper more coarsely. With less surface area, the pepper will break down more slowly and you'll get more pepper flavor remaining and less bitter.
Learn to enjoy the bitter.
Wait until your veggies are all nicely browned and turn down the heat. Then add your pepper (and turmeric). You want some heat to melt the oils in the pepper so they migrate into your food but not enough to break them down. The piperine will start decomposing at boiling point. To retain the pepper flavor, don't boil your dish very long.
Add pepper at the very end, after your water has been absorbed and the heat is reduced.

A fun and satisfying way to experience this is with a potato. Dice up the potato and divide into 3 parts. Add the pepper at the beginning of frying with the first portion of the potato. Add the pepper during the final minute of frying with the second portion. Finally, cook the last portion of potato to completion and then add pepper while the potato is in the warm pan. To compare, warm all three portions of the potato and compare the flavor. I don't mind bitter so I add pepper willy nilly for myself. My kids feel differently.


Can I cook apple peels in my applesauce in a cheesecloth bundle?

You might be better off using a synthetic jam-straining bag. These have larger holes and are less absorbent and easier to clean. You will also extract more of the pulp from the layer of fruit stuck to the peel.


You've got to understand what the purpose of the ingredients is. In a crumble or streusel topping (my go-to in the category is an apple crisp), the (gluten/wheat) flour, butter, and sugar are actually all binders/structural components. Taste/flavor is part of it, but as in your experiments in the other answer, you really can't vary one element wildly (separate from the others) without significantly changing the results.

With that in mind, the butter in a crumble/streusel topping will affect the tenderness of the crumb (similar to cake/pastry). Tenderness will also be affected by whether you used cold, melted, or softened butter (or a non-butter shortening, like margarine or lard/Crisco). The tenderness goes to mouth-feel, which will affect how/when your tongue picks up on the diff flavors.

Similarly, the temp/state of the butter/shortening affects how & how much the sugar will dissolve/interact with it. Depending on what type of sugar you're using (granulated/white, dark/light brown, raw/demerara, liquid sweeteners like honey, corn syrup, molasses, or agave), cold/melted/soft butter will just have a different holding capacity for sugar, which cooks can take advantage of to "super-sweeten" or "under-sweeten" given fundamentally the same amount of sugar.

And of course in a crumble, your perception of the sweetness of the finished topping will be impacted by the filling, since there's (delicious!) flavor interaction during cooking.

So it comes down to ingredient preparation & choice and cooking techniques - not just raw proportions. Cooking is a sort of applied chemistry - sometimes how you put things together is as/more important than what you put together.


This is definitely one of those times where I wouldn't recommend substituting agar for gelatin; it's simply far too stiff for marshmallows.

If you can get hold of some methyl cellulose, it works great for marshmallows.  Unlike other gelling agents, methyl cellulose hydrates in cold water and sets when heated, so you can roast it with direct heat and it will still hold its shape.  All you need is methyl cellulose, vanilla, sugar, and water.

You can find the full recipe at playing with fire and water (see "methocel marshmallow", second on the page).


Polish-style soups typically keep all the vegetables used for cooking. You may do the same with veggies as with mushrooms - chop and drop back into the soup. An exception done by some is parsnip root.

Unless... it is Christmas-eve mushroom soup (eg. from Mazowsze, central Poland) - then you grind the vegetables into the dumplings mushroom filling. The dumplings are served in the soup anyway.


Is there additional risk in cooking meat sous-vide from frozen?

The risk should be less, compared to the same food thawed in a fridge or in room temperature, since it should spend less time in the 'danger zone' or close to it.

In general I do not think the difference is much at all, especially if you thaw in the fridge.


How to make matcha tea without matcha whisk?

I have had a lot of success getting matcha whipped into a nice froth (and getting rid of the little tea lumps) using a small blender, like a Magic Bullet. I just put the warm water and matcha powder into the blender, pulse it a few times, then blend it continuously for about 20 seconds.

If you don't mind putting in more elbow grease, a balloon whisk can work just as well for doing it by hand.


There are three possibilities:

Your mushrooms were bad, if they are a bit off the result isn't likely to be good
Your choice of mushroom was different, with a different flavor
Olive oil burns on high heat, creating off flavors. My money would be on this being your problem. Next time reduce the heat a bit if you want to use olive oil, or use a higher temperature oil like canola (rapeseed). You could also try a bit of water or stock, steak juices are mostly water, not fat, and that would reproduce the conditions of the pan more closely


Can you make nut butters without dehydrating nuts?

If you don't dehydrate the nuts, you'llend up with water and nut oil in your nut butter. This is a bad combination since it is likely to make your nut butter get mouldy very quickly.


Why did my mango vodka infusion have a gelatin residue?

It is almost certain that you do not have a gelatin in your mango infusion:  gelatin is formed when an animal connective protein called collagen is hydrated at moderately high temperatures in the presence of water.

Instead, what I suspect happened is that the pectin, a gelling agent present in fruits, including mangoes, has had long enough to dissolve into the liquid phase of your infusion (it will thicken both water and alcohol), making it seem somewhat thicker.

Pectin is the same substance, by the way, that makes fruit jellies and jams thicken—the same effect has happened to your infusion, just over time, instead of from heat processing.

Assuming you had a sufficiently high ratio of vodka for the alchohol's preservative effect to apply, your infusion should be safe.


First, don't wrap your cheese directly in plastic. There is such a thing as cheese bags, and for what it is worth, they're highly recommended by America's Test Kitchen, AKA Cook's Illustrated. The same company makes flat paper for wrapping. Expensive stuff, but you may find it worth it.
From the the kitchn, an article written by an author with impeccable bona fides:

• Place the parchment or waxed paper flat on your counter with the wedge on top, and then bring the edges of the paper up and around the cheese, creasing as you go to make neat, clean folds. You can use tape to secure if you'd like.
• Label the paper with the cheese variety and date.
• A loose plastic wrap or a plastic bag over the paper generally keeps things tight (and keeps out fridge odors).
• Keep your cheese in the warmest part of the refrigerator, like in your cheese or vegetable drawer. An even better method is to designate a large tupperware container as your cheese home, where all of your cheese pieces can live.


How do I keep cookies from burning on the bottom?

It's always helpful when cooking to think about the different ways that the heat is being transferred to your food.  In the case of baking we have (primarily) conducted heat from the pan to the bottom of your cookies, convection taking place from the hot air circulating to the top of your cookies, and radiative heat from the heating element in the oven.  It's more than likely the heating element in your oven is on the bottom, which is causing the pan to transfer the heat to the pan faster than ideal, causing the bottoms to burn.

One way to mitigate this is to adjust the distance between the heating elements and the pan by moving it to a higher rack or adjusting the rack height.  If, on the highest rack, you're still getting burnt bottoms, you might try putting an empty sheet pan, casserole dish, pizza stone, etc. to try and block some of that direct heat.

Alternatively, you might also try, as moscafj suggests, bumping the temp down to 350F.  Depending on how well-done you like your cookies, you might have to extend the baking time a minute or two to compensate.


Chopped tomato-onion-ginger-garlic into paste vs sliced tomato-onion-ginger-garlic when making curry base for indian dish

The main issue I see with making a paste out of the ingredients is not being able to caramelize the onion.

Onion caramelizes at around 230 degrees Fahrenheit. When you make your ingredients into a paste, you will not be able to achieve a temperature this high in your mixture without drastically reducing the water content in your mixture.

To get around this, first caramelize your onion then add it to the other ingredients to make a paste.

The main difference of making the paste is having a homogeneous taste throughout your base. It'll taste exactly the same as you eat it. If you chop it will taste slightly different based on the different ratio of onion, ginger, and garlic bits you have on that bite. Both can be good depending on your taste preference.


There are some cakes (usually of Italian origin) specifically made with olive oil.

In breads, you can certainly use it, although there often is not enough olive oil for its flavor to truly be appreciated.

New York style pizza dough, for example, is traditionally made with some olive oil.


Can you mix raw chicken and French fries dip them in the same flour batter?

As long as you are cooking both, as you suggest in your question, there is no danger. Any potential hazard will not survive the heat of cooking.


Puff pastry can be a bit tricky but I really admire your ambition to make it from scratch. From the description, it sounds like the issue is with the water content of the apples and not your dough because your puff pastry came out as desired when baked on its own. Here are a few tips and suggestions that may help solve your problem:

1) Not all apple varieties bake or cook in the same manner and specific apple varieties were often originally bred for a specific purpose such as eating raw, baking, or making hard cider. So picking the an apple variety that bakes well could help with this problem. Here's a few links with some suggestions and explanations for several common apple varieties and how they fare when baked:

https://sweets.seriouseats.com/2009/11/taste-test-finding-the-best-apples-for-baking.html

https://sweets.seriouseats.com/2011/10/the-food-lab-what-are-the-best-apples-for-apple-pies-how-to-make-pie.html

https://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/5386-best-apples-for-baking

2) Pre-cooking the apples, no matter the variety, will help reduce the moisture content of the apples significantly and thus the apples in the filling (allow them to cool to at least room temperature so they don't melt the butter layers in your puff pastry) will not weep very much, if any, additional moisture. Here's a link with an apple pie recipe with a pre-cooked filling:

https://www.apnews.com/e3a0e637b0b54829afee1cfcf6b5b593

3) Puff pastry is always a bit tricky to bake because of the complexity of what is happening while it is baking. Puff pastry is mechanically leavened, meaning the puffiness comes from steam released from the dough, primarily the layers of butter, so it is important to start puff pastry at a high temperature to convert the water released by the butter to steam so it inflates the pastry and separates the layers and you get the desired golden-brown color on the outside. However, depending on the thickness of the dough and the amount of filling, keeping the puff pastry at that temperature for the entire duration could lead to a burned exterior before the interior finishes. To counteract this problem, you could start the puff pastry at a high temperature, around 400 degrees F, until the dough is the desired color and flakiness, and then drop the temperature to 325-350 degrees F, to bake the interior all the way through to the desired doneness without scorching the outside. Of course, this will depend on many factors so these are only rough guidelines and some experimentation will be needed. I hope this helps!


Ultimate Grilled Cheese : Keeping it together

Ignore the purists. If it's got cheese in it, and you're grilling it, it's grilled cheese.

The problem is this: your cold ingredients are keeping the cheese from properly melting through. The cheese is what binds the whole thing together. If there is not enough cheese, or if the cheese hasn't transitioned completely to gooey deliciousness, the sandwich is going to fall apart.

The solution is to heat your cold ingredients (at least to near room temp), and to cook the grilled cheese longer, at a lower temperature, so the heat has time to penetrate before the bread gets overcooked.


You will not be able to sharpen it with a steel as per Ching Chong's answer. You will be able to sharpen it with a couple of sharpening stones. If the blade is totally blunt you will need a reasonably coarse one to bring the edge back, and a finer one to refine the edge. Then you can strop it on the steel or the back of a leather belt to remove the burr.

However, unless you have experience in sharpening, the results will probably not be worth the outlay for the stones. That is, unless you use these knives for practice, then invest in a decent one afterwards. There are any number of videos on YouTube showing you how to sharpen kitchen (or any other kind of) knives.


Is there a product available that is pre-gelatinized starch and what product name is it sold with?

Yeah, what you want is UltraTex-3 (or possibly the 8 or UltraSperse variants), from National Starch. Willpowder carries them: http://www.willpowder.net/tapioca.html

You can make something very much like instant pudding from just about any liquid using this stuff, and it can be cold. No heating required. Works best with a stick blender.


What is the difference between jus and stock?

Jus generally refers to a sauce or accompaniment, served alongside or on top of some other food.

Stock is a (generally gelatin-rich) broth used during the cooking process, whether as a braising/cooking liquid, or reduced/thickened into another sauce.

There are varying ways to make both; the terminology mainly refers to how they're served or used. In my opinion, "jus" is just a fancified way to refer to a stock served as a final component of a meal rather than an ingredient during cooking.


Is it ok to pre-mix dry ingredients a few days before baking?

The cornbread is probably uncritical, but double-check your recipe for the chocolate cake:

If it is a "mix-all-dry-ingredients / mix-wet-ingredients / combine-and-bake" type of cake (like for muffins), you are ok. But if the cake requires creaming butter and/or eggs with sugar and folding in cocoa and flour at the end, you are in trouble if you dump everything in one bag. (Two or three bags might work, depending on the recipe steps.)

Apart from that, your dry ingredients stay safe if they stay dry. Any humidity can lead to lumps or the baking powder activating prematurely and thus flat cakes.

So keep your mixes in airtight containers and you are good to go.

A few practical tips:

You might want to take a few extra materials with you - like flour or cocoa to dust your pan or extra flour if you need to shape or roll the dough. Confectioners sugar or cocoa can come handy for a quick dusting should you need to hide a few, ahem, cosmetic flaws.
Not all ovens are callibrated well, so if you have a separate oven thermometer, take it with you. Also, keep an eye on your product while it is baking, you might have to adjust baking time or temperature (elevation!) a bit.
Your dry ingredients may settle during transport, aerating them helps a lot for better results. Either sift them or stir with a wire whisk.


For extracting (to water / ghee / oil), the best way I've found is to slice long slivers of ginger paper thin, as thin as you can. The extra surface area provides better saturation, and being extra thin promotes optimal extraction. Remove the ginger after 10 or so minutes, or once you pick up a strong smell of it.

For flavoring where you leave it in, I like to use a micro plane and grate it very finely, while being careful not to burn it. It does get bitter if overcooked or burned so timing and temperature are important. That might be the slightly acrid / pungent taste you're picking up.

In soups and stuff, I generally just follow the recipe the first few times and then adjust if I feel like I could use less ginger to get the same result. A few slivers can give the same taste as a 1cm square chunk.


What does "contains 2% or less of" mean?

The US Code of Federal Regulations (21 CFR 101.4) states that ingredients must be listed in descending order of predominance based on weight. The following exception is made in 21 CFR 101.4(2):

  The descending order of predominance requirements of paragraph (a)(1) of this section do not apply to ingredients present in amounts of 2 percent or less by weight when a listing of these ingredients is placed at the end of the ingredient statement following an appropriate quantifying statement, e.g., "Contains __ percent or less of _" or "Less than _ percent of __." The blank percentage within the quantifying statement shall be filled in with a threshold level of 2 percent, or, if desired, 1.5 percent, 1.0 percent, or 0.5 percent, as appropriate. No ingredient to which the quantifying phrase applies may be present in an amount greater than the stated threshold.

Thus, each ingredient is 2% or less of the total weight. They are also exempt from the order by weight requirement. The manufacturer is free to order the subset of < 2% ingredients however they please.

Source: 21 CFR 101.4