Finely chopped or even shredded you could add it to fried rice or noodles (you could use a food processor). The other thing that sometimes works with overcooked chicken is to have it cold, sliced fairly thinly in a sandwich or chopped in a salad, but that may be awkward starting from cubes (unless you like it mixed with mayonnaise).


Why isn't the beef fat in my chili melting?

Not all the fat in beef (and generally, in any kind of meat) is the same.

Any piece of meat will have a certain amount of marbling fat, which is intramuscular and is hard to remove, intermuscular fat and subcutaneous fat, which can be trimmed off.

From your picture, it seems to me that the fat covering the outer layer of the beef chunks is gristle, which you can easily remove after having cooked your Chili. It is however hard to remove by increasing the temperature, as fat molecules are generally quite big and they are not soluble in aqueous solutions, which makes them kind of float on your sauce in an emulsion.

From my experience as a cook, the best tip I can give you when it comes to Chili or stews is to choose a lean piece of beef, with as little as possible of visible marbling fat and before cooking, to remove as much of the visible fat as you can possibly do. Cooking it gently for four hours will make sure that the meat remains as tender as you can wish. :)


When breading and frying, to which ingredient do I add spices?

The best thing to do is to season the tofu itself (after pressing & drying it).

I'm going to use a bunch of example fried fish recipes here, but the same principles apply to tofu, or frankly anything you coat and fry.

Many recipes for breaded and fried whatever have you season the flour or the batter, and not the item.  This is generally a mistake, because seasoning the flour or the coating means that you have no real control over how much seasoning ends up on each piece, and that the item ends up rather bland (particularly a problem with tofu), and you waste a lot of spices when you throw away the leftover coating.  This is why I almost always use the following procedure:

Dry the item to be fried;
Season it with my seasonings;
Flour, batter, and/or coat it as applicable.

So, why do recipes have you season the flour, batter, or coating?  There's a few reasons for this:

It's traditional (check the back of a box of Zatrain's Fish Fri), and people don't think about what they're doing, they just follow the recipe.
Seasoning the item seems like an extra step in what's already a 4-step process.
The breading is heavy, and they want it to be spicy, not just the contents.

Only the last reason makes any sense.  You can see a good example of thinking about this in this fish recipe, where the author seasons the fish and then seasons the coating as well.  This helps ensure that the thick breading is flavorful as well as the fish.

So, in conclusion: season the item, not the coating, unless the coating is heavy breading, in which case you should season both the item and the breading.


For your steaks, 5 minutes of searing seems like a pretty long time, easily enough to go from medium-rare to medium, or even more than that, depending on thickness and exactly how hot the pan is. It's definitely normal for the meat to be gray before the sear, so if your pan was indeed as hot as you can get it and you needed the whole 5 minutes to get the level of sear you want, you may want to deliberately undershoot more with the sous vide. You may also want to pat the steaks dry, if the liquid from the bag is possible taking you too long to cook off.

For the burgers, you don't mention ever salting them, which would certainly make them bland. You shouldn't mix salt into the patties, but salting just before bagging should be fine, or at least before searing. J. Kenji López-Alt suggests salting before bagging and before searing. On top of that, sirloin steak is pretty lean, which would account for the dryness and maybe some blandness. You might want to try a fattier cut, or part sirloin and part something fatty. People have all kinds of opinions about what's best, but I don't think many people like it as lean as pure sirloin.

In general, salting before bagging is totally fine and often recommended - yes, it might pull a little more liquid out, but if you want salt for flavor, it's going to be a lot more effective in the bag than added at the end. And you're going to get a lot of liquid in the bag no matter what you do. It doesn't mean the meat won't be good, although you can make a great pan sauce out of it and get even more flavor.

Poor circulation, including bags getting stuck against one side without water getting around the other side, definitely isn't ideal. It's hard to tell how big an issue it is for you, though. The best way to check would be just to sneak a thermometer probe to the places you think may not be getting good circulation and see how big a difference there is.

The pot size depends a bit on what you're making. A big stock pot is definitely big enough for a lot of things. I think the one I use is 10-12 quarts, and I do big stuff like pork shoulders. If all you're doing is a couple steaks or fish filets, you can get away with smaller.


Is it possible to release the earthy citrus of a tomato in a soup without eating it?

Yes, it’s doable, but you will have to plan for an extra step and possibly few hours of preparation before you can start with your actual recipe:

The haute cuisine approach:

Make a clear tomato soup (sometimes also described as “essence” or “consommé”) and use this as an ingredient in your soup.

There are cooked and raw methods and both rely on separating the tomato (and other ingredients) from the liquid, either by very careful straining through a cloth or by an egg white raft.

Or simplified:

In a similar process, you can simply cook the tomato in the liquid you are going to use for your soup, strain out the solid tomato bits so that just the purée gets into the liquid and continue from there.

Even simpler:

Use a stick blender for the soup base in the previous step.

Note that the consistency and opaqueness will change depending on the method you choose, from thin to thick, from clear to opaque and the same goes for the flavor profile.


Has anyone tried placing a steel plate in direct contact with the heating elements in an oven?

Using a baking stone is the more traditional approach than steel plate.

Here’s a video showing how to use a pizza stone.

There are some who say it doesn’t foo that much, though.

You can purchase them online or in store at many stores.


How can I find flavors that pair well with a given ingredient?

First, a caveat: different people and different cultures have different tastes, so no pairing recommendations are likely to be perfect for you.

Books

You can find books on this topic, for example by searching for flavor pairing on Amazon. A couple of the most popular ones:

The Flavor Bible - for each ingredient, lists a large number of other ingredients that pair well with it, with the best/most popular ones highlighted. Also includes a small number of example ideas of dishes and several-ingredient combinations.
The Flavor Thesaurus - for each ingredient, lists a fair number of good pairings, each with a bit of additional description and perhaps recipe ideas.

Websites

There are a few websites discussing this sort of thing:

IBM's Chef Watson - lets you pick an ingredient, then suggests others, which you can accept or reject to get additional suggestions. Also provides example recipes. Free.
Foodpairing - lets you pick an ingredient, then suggests "matches". Free version has a limited set of ingredients, and for a monthly fee you get everything.
VCF 2000 - a commercial database of volatile compounds in foods. It has a demo, but the actual database is extremely expensive (currently $2775). Between that and the difficulty of basing things on aromatics, it's probably not particularly useful, though.

On pairing by aromatic compounds: while folks have used this to come up with ideas, it really seems to be at best an oversimplification. Plenty of things with "matching" aromatics don't end up being good pairings, and plenty of commonly liked pairings have very different aromatics.

Do it yourself!

Searching for recipes is actually a pretty effective method here. Just search for "X recipes" on Google, or search for X on your favorite recipe site, and look through the recipes to see what other ingredients people use with X. You'll quickly come up with lists of ideas quite similar to those you might find in dedicated books or websites.


Some fishermen tell me I caught a Trout Salmon. Does this fish differ much from ordinary salmon?

I've had Salmon Trout.  They are a pink fleshed trout, that mimics the flavour of Salmon somewhat.

My favourite preparation is to do it as a Yerevan Trout.  Essentially Roast the fish filets, prepare the sauce - Lemon, Butter, Capers, Artichokes, and any pan juice you can get.  Serve beside your favourite rice.


There's not really a whole lot of difference here; in either case you're talking about poaching a whole fish, it's just a question of equipment.

The fish kettle is a quite specialized piece of equipment, so the main drawback I can see is: where are you going to find one? I can't think of any restaurants I've worked in that had one of these (and good luck getting them to loan it to you if they did). If you know where to get one that will fit your fish, then the second drawback you've noted is that you'll need to clean it after use. There are two main advantages with the fish kettle: it's spacious enough to accommodate extra cooking liquid if you choose to add some, and since it's a solid piece there is minimal risk of liquid leaking out.

By contrast, aluminum foil is readily available, though you need enough of it and a large enough size for a double layer underneath the fish with enough to wrap and seal over the top. Since the metal is thin enough to tear easily, and you're "building" it to suit the fish, there is always the possibility of leaks or tears. For this reason I wouldn't recommend adding more poaching liquid like you can with the fish kettle. Placing your aluminum foil package onto a sheet pan if available would help with transport and any small leaks that may occur. Since the foil is thin, your package might heat through marginally more quickly than a heavier solid kettle, but probably not enough to affect the cooking time.

If you had a smaller fish, you could also consider a large, solid baking pan with high sides:

This has some of the advantages of both kettle and foil: they're readily available, solid enough to minimize the possibility of leaks, and deep enough to add liquid as desired. You'd need some foil to tent over the top unless you can find a dish that comes with a lid, and unfortunately they don't tend to come much larger than about 13 by 9 inches; this will almost certainly not fit a 5-kg whole salmon. I mention this mostly as a generic answer for smaller fish, or in case you're considering cutting off the head/tail or cutting fillets instead.

A side note regarding the dishwasher: while this is possible as demonstrated in the linked thread, the demonstrated technique is really closer to sous vide cooking than traditional poaching. If you're willing to consider the dishwasher you could also consider a full sous vide approach, assuming of course that you have a sous vide heater and a large enough vessel/bag.


Black greasy residue from stainless steel pot on lid only after simmering turkey stock for 18 hours. Question is the stock safe to eat ?

I'll assume that the inside of the pot and the lid are both stainless steel.

The black gunk would be some sort of organic residue from the turkey or spices used. Often stocks are strained to remove the "solids" (froth) that result from the stock solution boiling.

A turkey stock solution would typically have some fat on it. When bubbles burst at the surface some of the fat and froth would be "blown" onto the lid. This would form thye black greasy gunk observed.

The stock, which had been simmering, would be perfectly safe to consume.


When a recipe calls for a clove of garlic it almost certainly means fresh. If it was asking for dried it would call for a weight or a volume measurement as dried usually does not come in cloves. One clove isn't particularly helpful though, as garlic cloves vary widely in size depending on the variety of garlic and which part of the bulb you get the clove from. I'd say pick one clove from the outside of a bulb, or 2 small ones from the inside.

Although drying fruits and vegetables usually intensifies flavors, for me drying garlic doesn't do it any favors - it seems to lose power and complexity of flavor, so I'd go fresh every time.


Why does Chinese market take scales off the fish, & American does not?

Maybe you have a bad fishmonger ? they do a bad job by not removing the scales?

Maybe the expect the regular clients not eating the skin?

Can't talk about California, but here in Montréal,  fish sold in supermarkets are scaled, especially if the fish is sold in portions.

It is harder to remove scales in filleted portions.


How do you create and store bacteria cultures for fermenting?

Unless you've got the time and resources to set up your own biology lab, you're not likely to have much luck raising your own bacterial cultures from scratch.  You'd probably need growth mediums suited to particular strains of bacteria and strict isolation between them to prevent other opportunistic bugs from taking over.  If you really, really want to try, you might have better luck asking on another SE site.

Fortunately, a lot of pickled-vegetable recipes (such as this recipe for dill pickles, or this kimchi recipe) don't bother with an initial culture.  This is what's called a "wild fermentation", meaning that you're culturing with whatever bacteria happen to float their way into your fermentation vessel.  If the initial culture is present, it's there to kick-start the process, or to obtain a very specific flavor profile by using a precise blend of bacterial strains.  In those cases, you'll want to buy, because it's practically impossible to invite only a single strain of bacteria to the party.  Even if your kitchen is scrupulously clean, exposing your food to open air also quickly exposes it to bacterial colonists that you can't control.

Other fermented foods can be started from a purchased culture, or they can be inoculated from a sample of active culture in a purchased food.  For example, you can use store-bought yogurt with live cultures as a starter for fermenting your own, and you can cultivate the scoby from a store-bought bottle of kombucha to make your own at home.  With some care and maintenance, you can make some of these cultures last for years.  The cultures that give sourdough bread its distinctive flavor are sometimes kept this way.

If you need a specific starter for your recipe, you'll just have to pony up and purchase it.  Depending on the final product, you might be able to use a different starter and wind up with a similar end product (see here) but it would be inadvisable and possibly unsafe to deviate from your directions.


Yes, you can freeze either the wrappers or the pre-made rolls and they will work fine. The wrappers I buy are typically frozen.


Mixing starches with sugar to make chewy candies

I think it'll be very difficult to mix everything without any liquid, but if you cook everything long enough until (almost?) all liquid is evaporated, maybe it's not necessary to list it anymore.

But here is some info to get you started on your experiments:

In Germany there are tons of "vegan gums" with very similar ingredients like your candy, but they all list fruit juice.
I found a product with slightly more detailed ingredients list than usual that may be similar to what you ate here. If you experiment with the added liquid, you may get chewy candy.

The shortened and generalized list of ingredients is:
invert sugar syrup; 15% fruit juice; starch, glucose syrup, 4% ginger pulp; acidifier; ginger extract.

Usually, "starch" refers to potato or corn starch here. But I've seen "modified starch" on the packages and "tapioca starch", too.

Unfortunately I only found one recipe to cook something similar to that here (also in German, sorry). The ingredients if condensed are also basically sugar, starch, liquid, some carrageen (see note #1) and flavouring.

The tl;dr recipe would be:

Mix everything, bring to boil
Stir a lot until the bottom of the pan becomes visible between strokes
Dial down and continue cooking while continuously stirring until "your desired toughness" is reached. To test this, a small piece is dropped into cold water (sounds a lot like cooking sugar).
While warm, the mass can be pressed into molds (either starch dusted or silicon). The oil is used to remove the starch and bring it to shine.

Annotation #1: The mentioned recipe uses "Tortenguss" which is mainly modified starch and some carrageen. Also, the author uses three types of sugar (refined sugar, glucose and fructose).

Annotation #2: Someone in the comments of the mentioned recipe reported that they cooked everything so long it became hard candy.


Adding one more egg will give you more "cake like" brownies.

If you have baking soda you could use that as leavening. If it were me I would add 1/4 tsp. baking soda to the dry mix and stir to combine. I would add additional liquid in the form of 1/4 cup of buttermilk or soured milk to activate the soda and use an extra egg. This should give you something that is more cake like, than brownie like.


Sodium bicarbonate on its own is not baking powder but baking soda. A mixture of such with all purpose flour will not change the content of gluten-producing proteins beyond very slightly lowering their content per equal (to AP flour) weight of mixture.

The way the gluten forms in a dough/batter, and the way the whole product will brown/caramelize while baking, will actually be somewhat altered due to alkalinity, but this would still not mean equivalent behaviour to cake flour. Also, potential extra leavener (if an acid is present) will be there in addition to what the recipe describes.

What such a mixture, if using actual baking powder instead of baking soda, could be intended to substitute for would be self raising flour.


What is 1/4 ст кукурузного крахмала in english?

It is not a tablespoon, this would mean that 1) they missed an important part of the abbreviation (it should have been ст. л.) and 2) they are directing you to use 2.5 grams of starch. This is a tiny amount which has few possible uses in a tart. Also, since Russians don't use the Imperial system, they don't have measuring spoons graded in "1/4 tablespoon", so if it were tablespoons, the recipe would require the baker to visually judge when his eating spoon is 1/4 full. It is not impossible, but very rare.

My guess is that they mean "стакан", which translates to "glass" - the one of which you drink, not the material as such. So you need to use a quarter of a drinking glass, which falls in a much more reasonable range. Of course, there is the problem of finding out exactly how much to use.

Russia does not use the Imperial system, so all volumetric measurements are done with whatever actual crockery you have lying around the house. You can see more discussion in this question. Your choices are:

Use the size of the glass sold by the Soviet manufacturing plants years ago, but a green tea tart recipe is unlikely to have existed in Soviet times.
Interpret it as 1/4 cup. Some translations use "cup", but I suspect that the people who translate them are not aware that this is a standardized unit of measurement as opposed to the physical item. But if you suspect that the recipe has been translated to Russian from a Western source, this becomes a very good bet.
Third, you can wing it, since it is a very inexact measurement anyway, and use anything that falls in the range (from 150 to 300 ml per glass), that's 25 to 50 g for your 1/4 ст. Then you have to adjust your recipe by trial and error.
Lastly, you can look at the role of starch in the recipe and calibrate it using standard ratios. Here you will also see if it is not some other measurement (tablespoons) after all!

If you say now "this is too complicated, I only wanted the right amount to use" - sorry, the recipe just doesn't say it. Most people who think that measuring in glasses is simple just don't realize that it is an unreliable measurement.


Would pastes made from vinegar and seeds other than mustard seeds be palatable?

Palatable is a very vague term. I think that some seed and vinegar preparations would have promise (sesame seeds and rice vinegar, perhaps lightly sweetened?), but others would be horrible (I can't imagine a caraway & vinegar paste being good for most things). Even a condiment that would normally be gross (the caraway one mentioned) could be good in the right applications, for instance in a sandwich tailored specially to use it.

I'd think this would be a good instance to just try out some formulations based on known flavor combinations and see how they work for you.


Why aren't my vanilla beans imparting vanilla flavor?

The aroma of vanilla beans is not easy to release. You have to extract it somehow. The most popular way is a prolonged extraction with alcohol, but you can also boil the seeds in milk or other dairy (that method is especially popular for custards).

If you simply throw seeds into whatever you are making, you are not going to get much aroma.


How long can I hold spätzle in ice water or drained?

I would not keep them in water; they will absorb water and get soggy.

I'd just drain them and toss them with a little bit of oil, just enough so that they will not stick together and put them in the fridge.

A little bit like when you're making pasta salad.


Well, it looks like I found my answer:

Field corn is used for creating masa de maíz (see this link for my source). Field corn includes a few types of corn (dent, flour, flint, waxy). I'm not sure if all types of field corn are used for masa de maíz, however. So, if anyone has a more specific answer, feel free to give it.

I'm guessing really any kind of corn could be nixtamalized, however (but some kinds may be more ideal than others). Other kinds of grain besides corn can also be nixtamalized.


Is there a point in stuffing a chicken if I'm not planning on eating the stuffing part?

You can put things in the cavity to help flavor the chicken as well.  A bundle of fresh herbs, garlic, an onion, fresh fruit, etc.  Stuffing from a cavity is divine though, don't knock it until you've tried it!


The top of your fridge might tend to be a relatively warm spot in your kitchen: it's up high, and the fridge itself gives off some heat. Exactly how warm would depend on your kitchen and your fridge.

So it might not be the best spot for spices, since heat can make them age and lose flavor more quickly. Some other foods also prefer relatively cool storage.

Otherwise it should be totally fine; most things can handle being slightly warmer than the rest of the kitchen.


A pressure cooker basically has two settings, high (about 12.5 psi for electric, and 15 psi for stovetop) and low (4 to 7 psi). There are no gauges to accurately specify the pressure in pressure cookers.

Pressure canners, on the other hand, are generally larger, and are equipped with accurate gauges so that the user can measure the exact pressure inside the pot.  It is this accurate measure of pressure (and time) that is necessary to safely can food.


Yes, it depends on brand, humidity, etc. My local variety is 1:4 to 1:4.5 (polenta:water) to get to that softness level

Add nothing else until you have the polenta at the desired consistency and softness


Is pouring hot stock into a blender safe?

Yes. At the link you provided in the specifications section, it says "Capacity: 1.6 quarts cold liquids; 1.2 quarts hot liquids". The word "hot" is a bit arbitrary, but stock will be fine.

Also, it's called ThermoResist.


Kenji at Serious Eats recommends 450F for 80 minutes for a 12-14 pound bird "until an instant read thermometer inserted into the deepest part of the breast registers 150°F, and the thighs register at least 165°F". I would expect a 16 pound bird to take about 20 minutes longer (just by figuring a simple ratio).

Serious Eats goes deeply into turkey spatchcocking, so I recommend taking the time to read the articles.

His video here is great.


Why does my soufflé collapse in the oven?

you need to make sure your souffle has an even cooking temperature.

1) dont open the door to the oven

2) make sure your oven tempature doesnt fluctuate widley

3) put the souffle inside a small pool of water. This helps to regulate the temperature better.


Black mold inside Misto oil sprayer collar

I'm not sure if you can take that piece off, from what I can remember.  But perhaps you could run some diluted bleach solution through it to get rid of the mold.  Hopefully this will dislodge it and disinfect the area as well.


Without the olive oil it would probably be okay to pressure can (although without knowing the full recipe I can't give any processing details).
In canning though some spices go a bit funny and can change in taste so that would be something to watch out for.

The biggest thing though is that canning is NOT appropriate for this sauce because of the olive oil. High fat and oily products are not safe to can despite what may be seen on youtube/pintrest. The oil affects the heat penetration and there is no guaranteed way to know when the heat has fully penetrated. Furthermore, grease coats the botulism spores and protects them from heat. Botulism toxin (produced by spores that have not been "killed") are the main (deadly) health concern with improperly processed canned goods.

I would advise freezing. Possibly it may work to add a number of preservatives to it but... that would probably change the taste quite a lot.


Well, you can't really make "elderberry syrup" (as the term is usually understood) from only elderberry extract.  Fruit syrups are generally produced from a mixture of fresh berries, sugar, and water, which is cooked and then often strained.

You could perhaps make "elderberry-flavored" simple syrup by combining sugar and water, cooking it down to your desired consistency, and then adding some elderberry extract at the end once the syrup has been removed from the heat.  (Generally, you don't want to add extracts to liquids before cooking if you can add them afterward, since they often contain volatile flavor ingredients that could cook off and be lost.)  I can't specify proportions because extracts vary widely in terms of potency, so I'd add a bit of extract to your simple syrup and taste to see if it's something like what you want.

In any case, this result will be quite different from normal elderberry syrup that has actual fruit dissolved in it.  The flavor and consistency will be different.  However, depending on what you want to do with it, it could be useful.  (I would not use it on pancakes, for example.  But I might use it to provide a hint of berry to a mixed drink or something.)


How do I make buckwheat pancakes without non-stick cookware?

"For a few seconds", if literal, is the problem.  You want to make sure that the pan is well heated before adding your batter.

My mom's test was to sprinkle some water on the pan, and see if the droplets danced around.  Leidenfrost effect.

As you're using quite a bit of oil, you can also look for the shimmering that will happen just before the oil starts to smoke as an indication of a well-heated pan.


Parboiling potatoes to make them softer in a stew

45 minutes of boiling is more than enough time to soften potatoes regardless of altitude.

Parboiling potatoes before roasting frees up and gelatinizes starches on the outside of the potatoes that then get nice and crunchy when roasted. It will not do anything useful in your stew.

The likely culprit for your potatoes not softening is probably acid.

When potatoes are boiled with acid (lemon juice, vinegar, tomatoes, etc) the acid and heat will cause the pectin in the surface of the potatoes to gel. This is sometimes desirable for things like French fries but it can make them too firm in other cases.

If your recipe has acidic ingredients you can add them near the end of cooking or at least after the potatoes have had time to soften properly.


Well, frying means to cook in oil, so technically you can't. Fat also is delicious, so you'll lose something in the process besides just calories.

If you are using teflon, ceramic, or some other non-stick, don't bring the heat up too much. Scrambling your eggs with milk will make them more fluffy, and I bet less likely to stick. Use (sigh) PAM or another aerosolized cooking spray. Or just 'wipe' the pan with an oiled paper towel. It would impart minimal calories.

It's sad, but microwaving eggs will cook them without adding calories (or anything else). You can also make absolutely delicious eggs by soft-boiling them, which adds nothing at all.

My more general advice is to learn to love a little fat and to consume a variety of fresh, unprocessed foods which taste great.  It's much healthier in the long run than just cutting away at a number.  Better to go for some walks/runs/lifts then sacrifice flavor.  And fat leads to fullness, which leads to less wasted calories on junk later in the day.


This recipe just has a lot of liquid in you can see her dressing is very fluid. If you're comparing it to bought dressing this tend to contain thickener to get the desired consistency so this is to be expected.

There are lots of other recipes so might be worth finding one with less liquid to dry ingredients: more cheese, or other dry ingredients like mustard powder or onion powder. You can thicken it by blending some of the cheese in or adding more cheese by crumbling. This will make it thicker, it will also make it cheesier but that shouldn't really be undesirable. Letting it sit in the fridge will help it stay thick as you've noticed it is a lot loser once it's losing it's chill.

You might also want to consider what blue cheese you are using, A drier crumbly blue will thicken the dressing more than a wetter soft cheese.


How are Thin Slice Beef rolls for hot-pot prepared in restaurants?

When I worked at a Japanese restaurant in Seattle years ago they would freeze the beef and then use a meat slicer to cut it really thin, then roll it up. It's possible there is a newer device i'm unaware of that does it automatically but it is a fairly simple process.


Can I leave out raw already-formed cookies for close to an hour while I wait for the oven to be available?

You're going to have more issues with cookie-spreading than anything else, because your fat is going to get all warm. If you have a lot of fat in your cookies, you're definitely going to want to put the dough back in the fridge. If the dough is a hard dough, and you don't expect your cookies to significantly change shape during cooking, I wouldn't worry about it.

There is no concern for spoilage for an hour or less on the counter.


What can be added to veggie burgers to increase texture?

Instead of adding ingredients as an answer, how about tackling the TVP texture?

Try many-hour soaking first off. Drain and let steam in it's own 'juice' in a tight-lid pan (not too big) on low for just a few minutes. Done at your desired chewiness.

This has the effect of giving off some of the soaked up liquid that would otherwise wick off during burger frying.

Can add in your seasoning while cooling. Binders best added when room temp.

Now, for texture and sogginess prevention, my fav vegburger addition is cooked brown rice. A little goes a long way.
Also, terrific crunchy chewiness with fine chopped raw broccoli.
Raw sunflower seeds add meaty-ness if burgers are fried several minutes.
If quicker fried then maybe soak them first. Pumkin seeds too.


not sure what you mean by 'fermenting in smoke'. Fermenting is generally accepted as being encouraging natural lacto-bacillus production in the food by using brine and controlling the temperature of your jar or crock within a certain (coolish) range for days/weeks. This process preserves the food to an extent, but must then be kept in the fridge which slows down decay but doesn't halt it like pickling in vinegar, canning or freezing food does. A tip with fermented foods is that the significant health benefits are lost if you heat them, better to add them on top of heated food at the end.

If what you're actually doing is smoking (rather than fermenting), then shelf-life will depend on a) whether it is a cold smoking or hot smoking process you are using; b)how long you are smoking for and c) how you store it (under oil, in a sterile jar, etc).


Can I use pearl barley instead of rice in baked rice pudding?

In case anyone else was wondering too, I tried it and it worked fine. It's not exactly the same consistency as when using rice but I still enjoyed it very much.


How do I scoop ice cream into spherical scoops every time?

The first step on the way to “pretty” scoops is the right texture of your material. As you noticed, with ice cream straight out of the freezer, the results are somewhat random, your technique probably involves a lot of hard work and you are basically “prying lose” your servings. If you’d ask your local ice cream shop about the temperature of their product, you’d notice that their display cases are usually set to something between -7 C and -11 C (rarely colder), depending a bit on their recipes. Your home freezer is probably set to at least -18 C, likely lower. At -24 C, your ice “cream” is more likely an ice “brick” - perfectly fine for long-term storage, but a disaster for scooping.

So how do you get to the desired temperature range? Not on the counter, please. The outside melts when the middle is still solid. And you get the “off” or “rubbery” texture when you refreeze molten ice cream. Instead, put the container into your fridge until it’s soft enough, but not thawed. The timing depends on the temperature settings of your fridge, the size of your container and the brand of ice cream - you’ll have to experiment a bit. I’d probably check after twenty to thirty minutes. (Sometimes a manufacturer will add a hint on the carton.) Once the texture is right, you can use your favorite tool to portion the ice cream, for spheres, I like the kind of scoop that you also use to portion cookie dough - the kind where you push a the handle and a little wire-thingy scrapes the bowl of the scoop. If you want to measure, that’s probably the easiest model.

A few remarks on food safety:

For safe storage, you need temperatures below -18 C. The display cases at the ice cream shop are like the cases at a bakery - to keep the product safe for “immediate” consumption. They will not have a batch sitting at that temperature for weeks. If a container isn’t sold after a reasonable time (I would have to research the exact values), it must be discarded.

Temporarily having the ice cream at higher temperatures is acceptable, but try to keep it as short as possible - when you are done with serving your ice cream, put it back in the freezer immediately. Don’t let your ice cream melt and re-freeze, especially repeatedly, parts of it may have been in the “danger zone” (above 4 C) for too long to be still safe.


Crème fraiche is a cultured product, meaning it has lots of helpful bacteria that cause the initial sourness.

These products will tend to become progressively more sour over time - in the case of crème fraiche, more like sour cream - but the pre-existing bacteria tend to compete with (and win against) other parasites, such that the food will start to smell "off" long before it is unsafe, and may actually never spoil as far as bacteria are concerned.  It may, however, develop mold.

If it's not moldy, and it smells fine to you, then feel free to eat it and don't fret about it.  Sell-by dates are indicators of quality only, not food safety.


What should the texture of meringue be in a lemon meringue pie?

This is one of those questions to which there are as many answers as there are chefs ;)
Personally, I would say - you want all three, at different depths in your meringue.
The peaks should be browned & just crisp.
A millimetre or two below that ought to have an 'al dente' feel to it, a hint of 'chewy' but only a hint.
Below that it ought to be barely set, but it must be set.
If you get it like this it will survive only briefly.
If kept for more than a few hours, maybe a day tops, the top goes from crisp to chewy, below will go from light to rubbery to sloppy… until you end up with the stuff you buy in supermarkets :\


Can't make an omelette in my all-clad pan because of sticking

It also happens to me sometimes, what I suggest you do is spread oil uniformly on the pan and make sure you pour the egg in the middle of the pan. If the pan has oil on all sides it does not matter if you add the vegetables first or later as topping on  the egg.

There is also a way out, pour the egg first, adjust flame of the burner to low
and add the vegetables on the egg. As the base gets hard enough that you can turn it on the pan, do it quickly and cook the vegetables attached with the half cooked omelette. Then enjoy eating the omelette...


Does adding vegetables to your brine add any flavour?

I've been a fan of brining for a while and NO, adding flavouring to the brine won't make much if any difference in relation to the brining itself, which makes a lot of difference.

I have employed my most wishful thinking many times with brine, on the basis of the fact that pretty much every reference to it in recipes, on cooking shows, etc., always seems to promote the idea that the flavour will diffuse in the brine and be absorbed by the meat.  This is some kind of "look at the Emperor's New Clothes" tradition.1 I've gone to ridiculous extremes to test this, sometimes adding many ounces of e.g., paprika or thyme to < 1 gallon of very salty (4 tbls/quart) brine with a chicken overnight -- which is actually too much time, a few hours is plenty with that much salt.  In some cases I've gone overboard with the salty part, but despite all the piles of herbs, powders, an entire bottle of hot sauce, etc., you at best get maybe a hint of something on the surface.

In short, my opinion now is that while brining is awesome for pork and poultry -- salty and moist meat being far superior to dry and bland meat -- adding something to the brine and expecting it makes a difference is a complete waste of time and materials.

As per one of my comments on the question, I'd guess the issue here is that brining exploits osmosis.  From wikipedia:

  Brining makes cooked meat moister by hydrating the cells of its muscle tissue before cooking, via the process of osmosis, and by allowing the cells to hold on to the water while they are cooked, via the process of denaturation. The brine surrounding the cells has a higher concentration of salt than the fluid within the cells, but the cell fluid has a higher concentration of other solutes. This leads salt ions to diffuse into the cell, whilst the solutes in the cells cannot diffuse through the cell membranes into the brine. The increased salinity of the cell fluid causes the cell to absorb water from the brine via osmosis. The salt introduced into the cell also denatures its proteins. The proteins coagulate, forming a matrix that traps water molecules and holds them during cooking. This prevents the meat from dehydrating.

So the idea is that the meat absorbs salt ions, which then causes it to absorb more water.  This is through the cell walls, and I do not think large particles such as the stuff we might associate with "flavour" would be included.  Of course, some of the brine may be drawn into the meat between the (large congregations) of cells, but this is probably not a significant volume.

1. Some of these recipes call for really paltry amounts of flavoring too, an inadvertent testament to how nice the Emperor must look naked ("Umm -- I can so taste the rosemary from the brine!". Hogwash.).  They also often involve paltry amounts of time ("brine for 20 minutes"), I suppose because if you can pretend to taste rosemary you can also pretend to taste salt and appreciate moistness.  If you don't have at least an hour, do not bother.  At least quadruple that for a whole turkey.


Can I still use a Tagine that was outside for a while?

If all the tagine was exposed to is water and dirt then you should be fine as long as you clean it off and bake it to drive out any water. Tagines are generally unglazed on one side so will absorb water, if you don't dry it out it could crack when you try to use it. the process would be put it in a cold oven and turn it up to 170°C (350°F) for 2 hours, then turn the oven off and let it cool overnight with the door closed. The baking may tell if you have problems, if it smells nasty you'll probably want to get rid of it, if it's a normal clay smell you should be good.
If your tagine has been exposed to significant amounts of weed killer, bug killer, liquid fertilizers or other chemicals then it may have absorbed them in which case you'd want to think twice about using it. If there's been a couple of sprays around it there's nothing to worry about.


is it okay to wash vegetables by soaking/submerging?

Rinsing vegetables doesn't really "decontaminate" them, whether you're using running water or not. The main purpose of rinsing vegetables is to remove dirt and grit that would make them unpalatable to eat, it doesn't actually make them that much safer to eat. If a vegetable was somehow contaminated with salmonella before rinsing, it would still be contaminated after.

When you're eating uncooked vegetables you're relying on the fact they don't normally harbour things that can make you sick and have natural resistances against acquiring them even after being harvested (eg. they don't go moldy overnight). That and whoever prepared them washed their hands first...

So rinsing multiple vegetables in a bowl of water shouldn't be a problem. Spreading a contamination around won't increase the amount of it you end up consuming.


Fresh ... needs to take on the flavor of the sausage


You seem to have misunderstood something, or been misinformed.

The only reason that xanthan gum does something in gluten-free bread is that gluten-free bread cannot trap any air for rising and is a very moist and dense thing on its own. The xanthan gum is a kinda OK gluten replacement, imitating its role somewhat.

It has no such effect in normal dough with gluten. Indeed, it might make it less airy and generally worse, like dough which has too much gluten added. Or it might have so little effect as to be unnoticeable. But it certainly has no mechanism by which it would improve your normal bread dough.

I cannot say much about the cookies, but it might be that they needed additional binder. This depends on what kind of cookie it was, but some kinds are full of filler and very prone to crumbling, xanthan may help with that. Or somebody backconverted a gluten free recipe to a wheat one and didn't understand that this makes the xanthan obsolete. There are many possible explanations.


How spicy is authentic, traditional Palak paneer?

Hot, medium and mild are very subjective terms, which is why it is difficult to qualify regional variations in India. I have had palak paneer in north India and south India. Generally, this dish is hotter in south India. I am a south Indian, but have lived in north India for most of my life, and would call the north Indian (traditional) variety medium. Again, what I consider medium may be mild for some people, whereas for others it may be hot.


Aluminium is just a catalyst (is not consumed) in this reaction

Silver sulfides are in theory reformed back into silver, so none should be lost. In practice the sulfides will have moved the silver away from the main surface with pitting etc, so some silver will be lost, but there is no product that can put the silver back in place anyway

A large surface area of aluminium, and plenty of heat improves the reaction

In the days before marketing companies selling us crap in cans, people used to use a purpose made sheet of (rather impure) aluminum for this very purpose, it had hundreds of tiny holes punched into it to improve the surface area


I have always made croquettes with a filling surrounded by mashed potato. So that would be my first suggestion; another suggestion follows.

Make your filling as normal, allow it to cool. If it is too liquid, just drain extra. You want your filling to be moist but cohesive. NB: drain extra liquid before cooling; the extra moisture can compromise the structural integrity of your final product.

While it is cooling, make very smooth mashed potatoes. Season well, and include one egg yolk per two potatoes (assuming a fairly 'normal' sized potato, say 5 inches long or so; adjust for your local differences). Use only just enough butter and cream to hold the mash together and make it pliable. Chill rapidly.

When all ingredients are chilled, you may form logs:

Lay out a sheet of parchment paper or saran wrap. Spread a 1-1.5cm even layer of mash onto the saran. Lay a long 'sausage' of your filling along the mash, about 2cm from the long edge, parallel to it. Using the saran as a handle, carefully roll the mash around the filling to make an even layer around the filling. Pinch closed. Reserve extra mash for another use. Roll very tightly in the saran wrap and chill until quite solid.

Or you may form balls:

Take approximately a tangerine-sized amount of potato in your hand. Spread it to an even layer 1-1.5cm thick on your palm, in a rough circle. Place approx 2tbsp of your filling in the centre of the potato, and working around the circle slowly bring the edges up over the filling, pinching closed in the centre. Roll gently in your hands to smooth out any imperfections. Chill until quite solid.

When fully chilled, flour/egg/breadcrumb (I prefer panko, but use whatever you like) your croquettes. If you are making balls, I've found that a superior method is to deep fry briefly at 350 until barely golden. Remove from the fryer and allow to sit for 2-3 minutes (this does, we tested, allow the warmth to penetrate through). Then fry again until golden brown, consume with whatever condiments you prefer.

So that's one way.

For your specific recipe, there's a few options. If you want to really have fun, form your croquettes, dip in liquid nitrogen, then bread and fry as normal. Or you can just do this in your freezer.

But I think your problem is really how you are making your filling. I think your best bet would be to slow cook your meat with very little liquid--a long slow braise would be ideal, think of something like pulled pork for an example. Use any leftover cooking liquid, reduced, to provide enough moisture to hold your filling together.


After refrigerating cookie dough overnight, should i leave my dough at room temperature or go straight to the oven?

From the Fridge:

If you can scoop it (some doughs are too hard), go straight to the oven, though you will likely need to give them a minute longer baking time. This is actually beneficial for some doughs that spread a lot and some recipes actually call for a quick refrigeration.  I like to do this with sugar cookies (particularly snickerdoodles) as they don't get quite as spready.

Be careful when you say "for a while" though... most cookie doughs have egg in them and it's best practice to not leave that out for any length of time.

From the Freezer:

I also freeze dough (already scooped) and then bake a couple (or 12) at a time when I want a treat after dinner... or lunch or whenever I want a cookie... these can go directly into the oven and will similarly take a little longer to bake. Though, if you freeze the entire batch (without scooping), that won't be possible.

I do this regularly with homemade cookie dough and I've also worked somewhere that made the Otis Spunkmeyer cookies from the frozen dough balls and the directions clearly state to bake from frozen, do not thaw.

Here is a source that supports this:

StillTasty.com

  How to Freeze Cookie Dough:

  •  Wrap unbaked dough tightly with plastic freezer wrap or pack into a heavy-duty freezer bag or an airtight freezer container.

  When you’re ready to bake the cookies, thaw the frozen dough in the container in the refrigerator. (Thawing will take a few hours.)

  •   If you’re making drop cookies, you can also use this timesaving method: drop spoonfuls of cookie dough onto a baking sheet and place in the freezer until the dough is frozen (about an hour). Transfer the dough balls from the baking sheet into a heavy-duty freezer bag or an airtight freezer container.

  To bake the cookies, simply place the frozen dough balls directly onto a baking sheet and bake a few minutes longer than indicated in the recipe.

  •  If you’re making sliced cookies: form the dough into a log, as directed in recipe. Wrap tightly with plastic freezer wrap or place log in a heavy-duty freezer bag.

  To bake the cookies, you don’t need to thaw the frozen dough log — just slice off what you need with a sharp knife. Bake the frozen dough for a few minutes longer than indicated in the recipe.

  •     Use frozen cookie dough within 4 to 6 months for best quality.


How should one go about reheating pasta?

easiest way is to mix it with the sauce and heat both up together.  Usually I'd do this in a pan, but you could use a microwave.

If you have to heat the pasta up on its own, what I usually do is do it in a pan and add a little boiling water, just a couple of tablespoons, enough to stop it sticking, and keep stirring until its warmed through.  If it starts to stick add a little more water.

You could do this in a microwave I'd bet, but I don't have one.


In my personal experience barley is often like lentils and rice in that it can "take over" a recipe if not used judiciously. Too much barley and your soup turns into stew. That happened to me recently.

I've recently been reading "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" by Samin Nosrat and besides it being an excellent primer (or refresher course) on how to learn to cook intuitively she talks about what you can add to various dishes to counteract various ingredients.

As barley is a starch the best you can do is dilute it, or thin it out a bit. You may need to add a fair bit of broth and more of your vegetal ingredients. Possibly to the point of doubling your recipe. It will depend on when you find the taste and texture to have gotten back to acceptable levels.


Freezing sandwiches for toasting at work

Freezing them will cause the cells to break down slightly, leading to a mushier vegetable. However, since you're planning on heating them anyway, I wouldn't worry about that. Heating will also make the vegetables softer and mushier, so I doubt that the initial freezing will significantly change the quality of the final hot sandwich. I would personally attempt to cook them straight from frozen if you have a freezer at work. The vegetables can release liquid over a slow defrost in the fridge which may affect the structural integrity of the bread.


What is the name (in Chinese) of the utensil that is used to prick lots of tiny holes in pork skin to make it very crispy?

The answer to the question is "Chap Zai".

The name for Chinese Crispy Roast Pork is "sio bak" by the way

talon8 - I bought a tenderizer from Amazon exactly like the one you posted but the pins were not sharp enough to make the required number of tiny holes - and therefore the skin on the pork belly did not get that crystalised look where the fat has flowed out through the skin.  My best result was by using a sharp knife but this took a long time.

Anyway - long story short, I got this by emailing a number of Chinese supermarkets (was never listed on their website shops) and they told me the name.  Would be good if anyone can verify this name...


How to prepare a vegetable base using roasted squash for savory tomato-chunk soup

Your base probably needs to be a roasted squash puree, I don't think it will work well just being used to flavor a stock. Normally you would add cream to roasted squash to make a soup, but I guess that wouldn't be vegan. Butternut squash is tasty for this (and very autumn/winter), if you haven't actually picked out your ingredients yet.

If you want to add asparagus flavor, you should consider toasting/grilling the asparagus first. Applying a dry heat to asparagus when cooking it will bring out a very savory flavor (a nice addition to a vegan dish), but just boiling it in liquid will make it taste "grassy". It all depends on what flavor you want out of it, really. Asparagus is really a spring/summer ingredient though, if you're really wanting to be "seasonal" with this dish.


Is it safe/sensible to store utensils above the hob?

This really should be a comment, as it doesn't directly answer the question, but it's kinda long ...

I do the same thing, but I'll admit there are a couple of disadvantages:

When you stir-fry, you will aresolize oils which will end up depositing on the utensils (and pot racks above your stove).
Some things will splatter (eg, a long-simmering tomato sauce), which again means the need to wash the utensils.

As for the degredation issues -- if they can't even handle the temperature of steaming, you probably don't want them in the kitchen at all.  I haven't notice any problems with my wooden or wood-handled utensils.

I don't have any better space, as my cabinets are so low that hanging utensils can't really fit anywhere else in the kitchen, and I find hanging so much more convenient than everything in a drawer or a container on the counter that I'm not willing to switch.

Are there safety issues?  Maybe if there were a fire on the stove, but so long as it isn't the fire extinguisher being stored there, I don't think it's that big of an issue.  (that's not to say that I know for sure there aren't any ... I just don't know of any)


I have done this in the past and it does work well (think about twice baked potatoes...) but there are few considerations. You will need to add more butter or cream to the baked potatoes and it does work better if you are mixing it with boiled potatoes. I don't recall there ever being enough left over bakers that we didn't need to add at least some fresh potatoes.

bonus: then you can use the left over mash potatoes to make potato rolls for the next night :)


If one tomato had molded, is the rest of the pack safe to eat?

Yes - the mold is an indication that the spores have entered that tomato, but do not indicate any problems with others. Mold usually enters fruits like tomato through the stem site or damage to the skin. The bits you see outside the fruit are actually the fruiting bodies of the fungus (equivalent of the bit you eat on a mushroom - the rest is below the soil). These fruiting bodies produce tons of spores. You should use the others fairly quickly before any released spores have a chance to potentially start growing in them.
Edited to add:
The general advice would be to discard any fruit that are attached to the main one by the fungal body, wash the others well to remove any potential spores off them, dry well (wetness promotes fungal growth) and use within a short time frame.
The USDA has some good advice here (PDF) - with thanks to SnakeDoc for finding this one.


Fresh turkey cooking for 2 hours but no juices appearing in pan why

Juices start to build up in the roasting pan fairly late in the roasting process. Turkeys are big, and so it takes a while for the inner parts to heat up to the point where they release moisture.

If you are cooking the turkey in an open roasting pan (with no roasting bag or tented foil), it will take longer for juices to start building up, because they will evaporate off the surface of the turkey immediately. Even with tented foil, the high temperature of the roasting pan will delay the appearance of collected juices. A turkey in a roasting bag will show built up juices earliest, but even with a bag it won't happen until the turkey is pretty far into the cooking process.

If the turkey is stuffed, juices will take longer to appear, because the turkey will take longer to cook and some of the juices will be absorbed by the stuffing.

If you're worried about having stuff to baste with: Whether basting is necessary at all is a matter of opinion, but even if you are determined to baste, melted butter will work just fine.

If you're worried about having enough juices to make a good gravy, and you're starting to panic: If you've got the neck and giblets, simmer them in 2 cups of water for as long as you can, ideally with some onions and other vegetables, and the resultant broth will make a fine gravy. For that matter, feel free to break off part of the wings and stick them in the broth too. You can also use chicken stock, either by itself or as a substitute for the water in your broth. I won't tell if you don't.


Can you sub collagen protein for whey protein isolate in baking?

Referring to whey protein, not specifically whey protein isolate, Carolyn Ketchum writes as follows:  "I do not recommend using collagen peptides or collagen protein powder as a replacement for why or egg white protein....the baked goods always become quite gummy and difficult to cook through."  Ultimate Guide to Keto Baking


KitchenAid recommends that you compress a warm, wet towel around the top of the attachment for 10 minutes.  Reheat the towel and repeat for another couple of minutes.  The warmth will cause the aluminum to expand, and with some wiggling, should allow you to release the attachment.


There are two easy ways to prepare dry potato fry/curry. First one which I always use is first boil the potatoes till tender (not mushy though), peel and cube them. It is important that they are firm and hold their shape . Then proceed with frying.  Add oil, temper spices, add the potatoes, do the seasoning, let the outside gets crusty(fryed) and there you have it . This method works fine and you won't find potatoes sticking to the bottom. The second method is direct cooking of potatoes in the pan(which you mentioned) and yes, they tend to stick to the bottom. I suggest you cut the potatoes into smaller pieces and use a non stick pan for frying. (To ensure it doesn't stick also to ensure it absorbs less oil). If you do not have non stick pan, then try frying with a little more oil than usual, give it some time, and then turn gently. It's ok if they stick little bit. They come off as u keep frying. Fry in low flame to begin with. And don't add spices like chilly powder or salt at the very beginning. They may stick to the bottom making the already existing problem multiply, and will get burnt. Once the potatoes are almost cooked and do no more stick to the pan, add the seasoning. I use both these methods for cooking potatoes and they work exceptionally well. Of course both have their own taste. Hope it's clear now. All the best!


What is your training regimen for developing your palate?

Interesting question!

I think the answer for most people is: we don't. At least not in any structured, scientific manner.

Personally, I eat very intentionally when I am trying to learn more about a dish and its ingredients. What I mean by that is I try to break down the dish into its component parts and really think about what flavors I am detecting.

I've listed some guidelines below. Consider how you can incorporate these into your everyday life. While some kind of focused training regimen could work (it sounds like a fun experiment), these are things you can do every single day to improve your knowledge of flavor.

Eat lots of good food and be mindful of flavors as you eat.
Taste often while cooking (including your raw ingredients) to learn about how flavors change, interact, and layer.
Learn about classic flavor combinations from various cuisines around the world and try to decide what makes them work and how you can twist them.
Slow down.
Change things up and try new flavors often. You can't learn how an ingredient tastes if you don't eat it.
Be fearless. People are often hobbled by preconceived notions. "Oh I don't like asparagus." Well that's all fine and good but why don't you like asparagus? For almost any person can find ways to appreciate almost any food given a positive attitude and some experimentation.
Your palate is just as much about your nose as it is your mouth (perhaps more-so), so lots of smelling is in order.


Why is glucose not used in many cake recipes?

Glucose is very expensive, unlike caster sugar (sucrose, also commonly called "table sugar") which does the job, and is much easier to work with. Glucose in the modern kitchen is only really used in meringues.


For sure! As you might expect, it's really good for desserts, as a light, spring-time flavor for cakes, frostings, paired with berries, etc. — but I have also seen it used with salmon and other savory dishes. Check out this for some ideas:


Adding melted butter to cold milk in baking

Melting the butter and mixing it with milk or other liquid ingredients is almost always done as part of the muffin method, where a muffin, cake or quick bread batter is formed by mixing dry ingredients together, wet ingredients together, and then quickly combining the two.

In practice, the butter is not going to mix with the milk.  It is going to mostly float on top, and stay liquid.   You will have sufficient time to combine the wet and dry mixes, and create the batter.

Putting them together just makes it easier to form the final batter.  It would work just as well if you made a dry mix, then added the remaining liquid ingredients (usually milk, eggs, and maybe some flavoring), and then the melted butter.  When you stir the dry and wet mixes together, the butter is going to become fairly uniformly mixed into the batter.

Note that many quick breads are made with oil, which is treated the exact same way, even though melting is not an issue.  The only reason to use butter is because the flavor is desired for whatever item is being made.


Leeks can provide some of the same flavors as onions, but the flavors are lower intensity than onions.


How can I roast hominy while minimizing the popping?

Well, since you asked for it, with a warning that I've neither cooked nor consumed roast hominy:

If you cover the pot with something that doesn't let steam out, it might slow or prevent the roasting. A stainless steel mesh would let the steam out while also keeping the kernels in. Alternatively, you could use some heavy-duty foil with a lot of small holes poked in it. You could probably also shake it instead of stirring, since the kernels will be contained.

As for preventing popping, I'd guess that dehydrating the kernels first would help. Certainly old, dried-out popcorn is known for failing to pop. And the physics make sense; its basically the water heats, creates intense pressure inside the pericarp, which then eventually ruptures, yielding a BLEV explosion. So if you have less water inside the pericarp, you'll have less exploding.

So I'd try dehydrating them before roasting. Maybe just leaving them out to air-dry (though that'd probably risk spoilage), or a very low oven. Or a food dehydrator.

I have no idea about slightly higher or lower temperatures. Possibly, lower temperatures would result in the water boiling slower, allowing it to leak it without exploding. Or maybe higher temperatures would have only a small portion of the water heated, and then it'd explode out, but only slightly rupturing the kernel (because it'd be a smaller explosion due to less water being involved).

Apparently weakening the hull actually improves popcorn yield, at least according to a patent Google turned up. But I'm not sure how you'd strengthen it instead.


Why do commercial chocolate/cocoa products often contain fat-reduced cocoa?

Without getting arrested for loitering in the baking aisle of my local supermarket comparing weights, ingredients and prices, to me it is all down to price and processing method. The low starch, natural fat product performs better according to Cooks Illustrated.

Higher natural fat = premium product = better taste.

References:

Alice Medrich: https://food52.com/blog/9521-how-to-identify-good-cocoa-powder-and-not-so-good

Cooks illustrated: https://www.cooksillustrated.com/articles/663-which-cocoa-powder-should-you-buy


What is the purpose of sifting dry ingredients?

Fix Compacted Flour. Flour will compact over time (and during shipment). You could sift the flour to fluff it back up. Or, you could just stir it before measuring and be sure to spoon the flour into your measuring cup in order to get a correct volume measurement.

Remove Unwanted Material. Yes, sifting would also remove larger pieces or bits of chaff. It would also remove insects. However, neither of these are problems with modern store-bought flour. If you grind your own flour (my sister-in-law does this), then you may still want to sift it, though.

Mix Ingredients Together. Sifting can also be used to mix other dry ingredients into flour. I bake quite a bit, though, and I've never had a problem with just using a spoon or whisk to mix dry ingredients together.

In summary: don't bother. Just use good measuring techniques and stir your ingredients together well. No one likes a lump of baking powder lurking in a muffin!


Does flaxseed oil need to be refrigerated?

Flaxseed oil goes rancid quickly, and refrigeration slows down this process. So, yes, you should do as the label says (usually a good idea anyway) and keep it in the fridge.


There are two possible reasons why the meat might be tough.

The right meat, just cooked not long enough
If your son used "stewing meat", that is, rich in collagen layers and marbeled, you are on the right track. Simply cooking longer until the collagen breaks down will give you the desired results. And yes, a pressure cooker works perfectly for this. The higher pressure allows the liquid in the pot to boil at a higher temperature, thus reducing the cooking time compared to a regular pot. (A crock pot / slow cooker does the same in much longer time.)
The wrong meat, i.e. a lean cut
That is the material for a quick sear, often served medium or rare. Longer cooking results in the proteins in the meat toughening up (not unlike when you cook an egg), giving you a "dry" piece of meat. Unfortunately, longer cooking won't really help, you are missing the collagen layers that - when soft - cause the meat to fall apart into small juicy strands.

Conclusion:
I don't know what's in your stew. For stewing meat, by all means keep cooking. For other types, note that the consistency might go from "not easy to eat" to "almost uneatable".


Which types of bread are well suited for overnight proofing and what adjustments are needed?

When you consider overnight proofing in the fridge, the first and probably most important change is the amount of yeast. Your sample recipe is a very mainstream yeast-rich one (and even for non-fridge preparation I personally would use  less and proof a tad longer).

For overnight proofing, the rule of thumb is 1-2% fresh or 0.4-0.7% dry yeast - so for your 500g flour you would be using between 2 and 3.5 grams of dry yeast, 2.5g would be my choice or "a bit less than 1/2 sachet".

Also, you want to use cool ingredients, not lukewarm like you are used to.

Kneading is in fact a matter of taste: the no-knead types will give you a more "hole-y" result (often also called "artisan"), but you can knead just as you are used to until your dough is smooth.

When you take the risen dough out of the fridge the next morning, you will probably notice that the dough is a bit less sticky and a bit more "stable" (lacking a better word here), so probably quite easy to work with. If you take it out of the fridge, shape it and set it aside for the second and final rise, the time difference shouldn't be too great, but as always with yeast dough, use visual clues and the "poke / spring back test" instead of a timer to determine the desired grade of proofing. For me, by the time my oven and baking stone are heated through, the dough is easily ready.

I have used the cold proofing process for a wide range of doughs, from Hefezopf over classic breakfast buns to high-hydration recipes. The most significant differences I found were that buttery recipes need a tad longer (I suspect the cool butter needs to soften up a bit before the dough can rise) and high-hydration recipes that were just a sticky mess turned into something that was manageable without loads of extra flour.

But one word of advice, speaking from experience: Starting out with a "warm and yeast-rich" dough, then looking at the watch and just moving everything to the fridge might give you a surprise the next morning when your dough has climbed out of the bowl and started to wander around a bit. Plus the yeast might be a bit too spent for a good second rise and you might have to "wing it" a bit.


What the gluten look like when kneading for long time on a texture basis

Kneading gives elasticity and strength to your dough. I'm not 100% sure about pizza dough, but a brioche dough requires quite a lot of kneading, to allow for the air created by the yeast during proofing to stretch it. If it's not kneaded, it wont be able to stretch enough, and will be rather flat and dense when baked.

Most doughs are usually rested at cold temperature, and rolled out later. And in the case of brioche, you actually knead it some more while rolling it.


Sous Vide Strip came out medium well, what did I do wrong?

130 degrees is certainly the temperature to aim for, I'm thinking that it's the pan sear that did it. 1 minute in a pan is actually quite a bit for a thinner steak (at 6 ounces I'm thinking yours were maybe 1/2 - 3/4 inch), certainly enough to add 10-20 degrees or so to the steak's temperature and make it medium well.

As for how to avoid it there's a few things:

Get a thick steak: a thick steak can take a minute in the pan without cooking much more
Cook to rare: if you want to use a thinner steak cook it to 115 or 120F instead of 130F, that way the sear will bring it up to the perfect temperature
Use a torch to brown it: A chef's torch would give a good, quick sear without cooking the steak as much as a hot pan
Sear the steak first: it's not as good as searing after, but then you will get your perfect temperature
Cook the steak, then let it cool, then sear it. Your steak will only overcook if the temperature goes over 135F


You do not give the ratio of salt to liquid or salt to weight of your veggies so with that missing info I may (but do not think so) be wrong.  The only way they would not be fermenting is that you used too much salt and they are salt preserved instead of fermented preserved.  Still edible but entirely different tast plus they will be soft if this is the case.

Your ratio of salt to vegtables ought to be in the neighborhood of 1 to 3 tablespoons salt per quart of water. Or if you are doing shredded vegtables do not add water, add 1 1/3 tablespoon salt per lb of vegetable.


You may have done nothing wrong, it's common for bread dough to be very sticky after mixing. If you have your measuring right and the recipe is right time and technique will turn it from sticky to smooth.

There's 3 things that will happen:

Absorption: flour doesn't absorb moisture instantly, most gets absorbed very quickly, but then some takes a bit more time
Breakdown of carbohydrates: Enzymes in the flour break down carbohydrates into sugars, this process uses water
Gluten development: glutenin and gliadin are the proteins which form gluten, when they do so they use water. This will happen naturally through enzyme action and yeast action

All these processes happen naturally, and will happen in your case if you get let it sit for awhile, known as letting it autolyse. I use this step in my bread making, and it makes a big difference in the stickiness and workability of the dough. It also reduces kneading time and effort by a large factor as some of the gluten development will happen without effort. It still may be sticky after autolysing, but that will go away as you knead it, assuming you aren't using the stretch and fold technique. Try letting it sit for 20 minutes, better yet an hour.

Your dough may still be a bit sticky after all this happens as its an enriched dough with lots of butter, sugar and egg. It may even still be tacky after kneading it, that's normal too and will probably go away after your first rise.

If it's still very wet after kneading your balance to wet and dry may have been off, in which case you should knead in small amounts of flour (a spoon at a time) until it's tacky. Don't rush it and don't add too much flour or it will go the other way and be too dry. This is why I weigh everything instead of using volume measurements in baking: small amounts matter. I even weigh water because it lets me be very consistent with the results. I would recommend you get a scale and convert to metric as it just works so much easier.


Roasting pan substitute / roasting rack for pork shoulder?

Any of those will work, but you want a rim to prevent any drippings from making a mess in your oven.  In general, the lower the sides, the better for overall air circulation around the roast, but it is not essential.  If you want to be able to deglaze the pan, avoid the ceramic or glass pan, as they cannot be used stove-top.

Using celery (and carrots) as a make shift roasting stand is very effective.  They will add their aroma to the pan juices, which is often a good thing.  (Note that by the time the roast is done, they are usually spent and not worth eating.)

IF you don't want the flavor from vegetables, any small rack which will fit will work.  If you don't have one, you can improvize one by crumpling up aluminum foil into a long snake shape, and coiling or zig-zagging it on the pan just large enough to fit the roast.

For a slow roasted pork shoulder, you could also go without any rack or elevation, at the cost to some small amount of crust development on the bottom.   Depending on your desires, this may or may not matter--when I do an indoor pork shoulder for pulling, I don't bother with a rack.


Does vinegar need to be refrigerated after being opened?

If in doubt, follow the instructions on the label - since this is a vinegar with extra flavoring, all speculation on whether it could spoil (by oxidation of flavor compounds) or even become unsafe to consume is just that: speculation.

Also, make sure that vinegar is stored with the lid down tight if not refrigerated: Asian bottles are often badly designed (caps that tend to stay half open or not seal well), and a half-open vinegar bottles can attract fruit flies and similar surprises into it.


Food safety issues related to eating raw frozen vegetables

While I agree that these types of warnings are conservative and partially CYA, I would suggest that they not be dismissed.

What needs to be understood is that there are other factors involved past the production method. Even if a mfr./producer observes and maintains the highest quality standards in their production facility, they have no control over how the food products are handled after leaving their facilities.

There are many transportation and storage steps between the time products leave a production facility and the time you pick it up from a grocer's shelf. If, in any one of these steps, the food has not been handled properly, the safety has been compromised.

While I would say that the risk may be minimal, it still exists. I am not overly conservative in my own kitchen, but one needs to know that the risk can be real. And just because something hasn't happened yet, it doesn't mean that it can't.


The classic method is to do it under the broiler (grill in UK parlance).

You have to watch it carefully, so that you can take it out when it is done but not burned, but otherwise that is is it.


Which part of green onions can we use in recipes?

Both the green top and the white bulb are edible, so once you've discarded any dirty or yellow bits, it's up to you, but here are some suggestions.

If it's something like a stir fry, use all of it. Generally if it's going to be cooked in with other ingredients this works, but you might have to chop very finely is some cases. I sometimes use spring onions in place of bulb onions as I grow them, and then of course use all of them.

If it's used as a garnish, or added raw to something like a salad, just use the green bits, as the flavour is milder. This is true even if stirred into hot food but not cooked further (like mashed potato, or some sauces). Raw (bulb) onion is added to salads, but it's very much an acquired taste.

In between is a grey area - I would use all of it in an omelette, for example, a chef probably wouldn't.

It also depends just how bulbous the bulb is. If the whole onion is about the same thickness, less than that of a pencil, you can use the (small) white part more readily than if you've got a sphere on the bottom.


How can I substitute Egg Noodles for Rice Noodles in a Pad Thai?

Usually, you would just soak the rice noodles in hot or boiled water for a minute/couple of minutes according to the packaging and then mix them in the with other cooked ingredients.

With egg noodles, you should cook them until al dente according to the package instructions and then add them in when you would the rice noodles according to the Pad Thai recipe instructions. Most likely, you'll boil them in water for a few minutes, drain them and then add them to the stir fry pan.

You'll probably get a lo mein-like dish with Pad Thai flavoring.

Here is a recipe that uses fresh egg noodles for a Pad Thai dish.


electric smoking 2 pork loins, increase time and or temp?

When smoking pork loins (or anything else) it is best to focus on the internal temperature of the meat as the measure of 'doneness' with time and temp as a loose guideline.

Another good point to remember is that if you are smoking at more than 250F your meat will 'coast' (continue to cook after being removed from the heat) for a good deal longer than if you cook it at less than 250°F (120°C). At greater than 250°F you will see an increase in internal temp of 12-18°F (~10°C) after the meat is removed, at under 250°F it is only likely rise 2-4°F (~2°C).


How to tell doneness of a boiled egg besides time

Try an egg timer that measures temperature.

Here's an example (that I don't necessarily endorse): Egg Perfect Timer

The idea is, the device supposedly absorbs heat similarly to an egg, and gives a visual signal of the level of heat absorption. If the water is colder than typical, because you're at a higher altitude, the time it takes to heat the eggs and egg timer will lengthen, but the amount of heat the eggs and egg timer need remains consistent.

I had one very similar (perhaps that same brand) when I was much younger.  I remember it being hard to read, but I think it was accurate.


Is there a principle for when to use a bain marie or when to steam?

They're not really much the same and what they're used for is generally pretty different. I don't consider them interchangeable at all.

Use a bain marie for things that are liquid or will become liquid on heating:

  Chocolate can be melted in a bain-marie to avoid splitting and caking onto the pot. Special dessert bains-marie have a thermally insulated container and are used as a chocolate fondue.
  Cheesecake is often baked in a bain-marie to prevent the top from cracking in the centre.
  Custard may be cooked in a bain-marie to keep a crust from forming on the outside of the custard before the interior is fully cooked. In the case of the crème brûlée, placing the ramekins in a roasting pan and filling the pan with hot water until it is 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up the sides of the ramekins transfers the heat to the custard gently, which prevents the custard from curdling. The humidity from the steam that rises as the water heats helps keep the top of the custard from becoming too dry.
  Classic warm sauces, such as Hollandaise and beurre blanc, requiring heat to emulsify the mixture but not enough to curdle or "split" the sauce, are often cooked using a bain-marie.
  Some charcuterie such as terrines and pâtés are cooked in an "oven-type" bain-marie.
  Thickening of condensed milk, such as in confection-making, is done easily in a bain-marie.
  Controlled-temperature bains-marie can be used to heat frozen breast milk before feedings.
  Bains-marie can be used in place of chafing dishes for keeping foods warm for long periods of time, where stovetops or hot plates are inconvenient or too powerful.
  A bain-marie can be used to re-liquefy hardened honey by placing a glass jar on top of any improvised platform sitting at the bottom of a pot of gently boiling water.

Generally, the food needs to be pretty homogeneous with no big open spaces.
If you put broccoli in a bain marie, most of it wouldn't be in contact with the inner bowl so little of the heat would be transferred. Steam, however, will creep in and around all of the branches and cook it evenly.

Steaming is best when you're trying to heat up oddly-shaped things that will retain their shape like vegetables, meats/fish/poultry, rice, cakes, buns, etc.

You also specifically would not want to use the steaming method for something like chocolate as you usually want to avoid introducing water into the chocolate.


Crucial? No.

I regularly do really tasty chickpeas without baking soda.

Beneficial? Maybe it gets done quicker.

The baking soda makes the soak basic(pH wise). This is known to smoothen maize flour to make tortilla dough pliable enough. I would guess it has the same effect on the chickpea shell.

This answer is a shot from the hip guesstimate. Upvote/downvote as appropriate.


What to do with an aubergine (eggplant) that has gone brown inside?

If I see a few little brown bits, I'll cut them out and go ahead an use it. If it was, say, 20% brown, I'd throw it out.


Can you heat up a pudding mixture with cool whip?

I've never tried heating cool whip, but your only option is to try. Instant pudding will set without heating it, but if you don't cook a heat-set pudding mix it will stay runny, so there's 3 possible outcomes:

Don't heat it - ruined
Heat it and the cool whip goes wrong - ruined
Heat it and it works - success

You lose little by trying.


What else can rid the fishy smell of fish besides Casein?

I haven't been able to find anything else that binds with TMA other than from dairy products, thus no substitutes.

I have found several suggestions for getting rid of the fishy smell and taste. These include:

• Soaking fish in water with lemon juice added
• Soaking fish in water with salt added
• Soaking fish in  soda such as Mountain Dew or Sprite (look  here  )

As per the comments above, I don't get the cauliflower thing.


Does the direction matter in the Stretch and Fold method?

Stretch and fold should be done in both directions.

One stretch and fold, in most techniques that I read, is stretching like you stay, folding, then rotating 90 degrees and repeating.

You can see an excellent example of stretch and fold in this video and here.  Where they do it and then turn it - that's one stretch and fold.


I'm not sure what you mean by "whole wheat" flour.  If you truly mean wholemeal flour where all the germ and bran are left in, then it can definitely look this color and texture.  The variety of wheat can also influence the color (e.g., harder wheats are sometimes darker).

The term "brown flour" is ambiguous, but I know it can sometimes refer to a ~85% extraction flour (see here and here, for example).  85% extraction means that 15% of the "whole grain" elements are removed (like bran and germ), compared to normal "white flour" which is typically around 70-75% extraction.  Such "brown flour" is sometimes referred to as "whole wheat" too, but it's generally lighter in color.

Assuming they gave you wheat flour, my guess is that it's just a higher extraction rate than typical 85% "brown flour" and/or a different wheat variety.  If you asked for "whole wheat," they could potentially have given you a 100% extraction (wholemeal) flour, which could definitely be this color.

As for the coarseness, that just depends on the milling.  Frequently whole grain flours are milled somewhat coarser (even "stone-milled" in a more traditional manner).  Aside from a rustic texture, it's more practical, as finely grinding the bran and germ requires more effort, and it's counterproductive as it causes the flour to become stale faster.  (The bran and germ will spoil faster than the endosperm/white flour portion, and increasing surface area through fine grinding will increase the rate of staling.)  Also, even in a relatively finely ground whole wheat flour, the rough edges of the bran and germ can make the flour feel coarser, even with a similar particle size.


Laotion (Thai/Viet) Style Sticky Rice, after making sticky rice do you knead the rice in something specific?

Thai people we separate sticky rice on a big round tray after steam it to cool down and get rid of steam heat which will make rice is over cook and become too sticky.
If you want to cook from rice cooker soak sticky rice over night and in the morning wash it with water 2-3 times then add water about the same level of sticky rice if you add water too much it will too sticky.

Enjoy your meal !


There's generally no "safety" issues with freezing anything (provided your freezer is sufficiently cold and stays that way). Freezing is very good for preserving all sorts of food for indefinite amounts of time. The main problem with freezing is loss of quality - loss of moisture (freezer burn) and cell expansion are your main issues. Neither of these make the food unsafe to eat.

Uncooked, fresh, high-water produce (strawberries, spinach, peppers, etc) come out of the freezer with a different texture because the cells of the produce expand as the water in them freezes and are destroyed, so when removed from the freezer, their texture has changed significantly. The same thing happens when they're cooked so, as long as your plan is to cook them afterwards or they are already cooked when they go into the freezer, the end result shouldn't suffer. Many recipes for fruit cobblers/pies actually call for frozen fruit (particularly blueberries) because there's generally little noticeable difference between the final products when using fresh or frozen produce.

I don't see anything in your recipe that should be problematic. As the whole thing is already cooked, it should be similar to freezing pasta sauce - it will defrost in pretty much the same condition as it was frozen.

As I noted in a comment, I find mango freezes quite well, regardless. I buy it frozen in chunks and eat them as a treat/snack all of the time. The flavor is still great and I don't have to struggle with peeling and pitting the fruit or worry about it going bad before I get to it.


Why do I need more gelatin in a half fat cream cheese cheesecake?

What comes to mind is the emulsifying properties of eggs. When eggs emulsify with the fat it creates a smooth or luxurious texture. Less fat might make the texture less desirable and the gelatin might improve the texture.

As for how well the cake will set, I don't think that adding more gelatin because there will be less fat is going to matter. Eggs are usually the setting agent in cheesecakes.

Hope that helps!


How do Chinese restaurants tenderize their meat?

One technique, but not the only, is velveting. Here the meat is tenderized in an egg-white/cornstarch mixture for 20+ minutes, then cooked briefly (a minute) in oil or simmering water with a small amount of oil prior to using in stir fries.

I've never velveted in straight oil but water/oil definitely gives the chicken that smoothness that Chinese Restaurants obtain and the shorter stir fry cooking time makes it much more tender.

Super thin slicing (you'll need to cut the meat semi-frozen to get such thin slices), plus cutting across the grain also lead to tenderness.


What species is Chinese dried mushrooms (冬菇)?

冬菇 are indeed Lentinula edodes or shiitake mushrooms.
Note that mushrooms can vary a bit in color depending on where the were grown and dehydrating will also change them.


Are chilies a common ingredient in Italian cooking?

Disclosure: I am Italian but no professional, so what I will say is based on my own experience and could be inaccurate/wrong.

There is sure plenty of use for chili peppers in italian cousine. It is really traditional in the southern region of Calabria and close ones, but it is used throughout the whole country.

Together with the already mentioned Arrabbiata pasta sauce, in which spicy chili peppers is the main ingredient, there are several other dishes and cured meat product (sausages and such) that contains or, sometimes, heavily rely on that spicyness ( for example Nduja ).

Also, plenty of other plates can be adjusted to become spicy using dried chili flakes, especially for tomato based dishes, if it is of your taste.


Trying to find the actual name of an eastern european distilled beverage

I think you mean Tuica. This is a Romanian liquor, made from fruits.
It is quite similar to Palinka, a Hungarian liquor with a protected name.


While legal specifics vary from place to place, the "best before" on a product is often a requirement, but exactly what it is is left up to the manufacturer.  In other words, they have to provide one, but it can be anything they want (there may be rules about guaranteeing nutritional content for the duration, if that is subject to degradation).  So presumably they want to make it as long as possible, but not too long, because they need to discourage distributors from distributing and consumers from purchasing product which will tarnish the image of their brand.

With bread there are probably three concerns about degradation: drying out, getting stale, and going moldy.

  Is this normal "behaviour" for rye bread?

Pure rye breads are made with a sourdough starter and no wheat, so they do not rise to the same extent as normal bread.  This is part of why they are more dense and moist. I think the "high gluten flour" ingredient in yours implies it is not pure rye, but it probably still has this advantage over pure wheat.  Dense, moist breads stay moist longer versus light, dry breads -- although on the other hand, lighter breads go stale more slowly.1

But more importantly, the sourdough starter is what provides most of the leavening in a pure rye bread, not normal yeast.  Sourdough is pre-fermented and acidic, which discourages foreign bacteria and mold from taking hold -- i.e, it is a natural preservative.  It is also not an insignificant part of the bread's mass, and the flour in the sourdough starter has undergone chemical changes which make it less likely to give up the water with which it was combined -- hence sourdough based breads are considered to have a longer shelf life than any other bread.

  is this reliant on cooler North American climates

Rye is a northern grain, which is why rye bread is associated with northern cultures.  However, I think the logic of rye flour + sourdough starter will hold regardless of climate.

1. Staling, a gradual hardening, is not the same thing as drying, since moist bread may become stale (and attempts to keep bread moist will not prevent staling). Also, stale bread may be made less stale by heating it.  This is because "staleness" is actually a crystallization in the starches.


How can I make curved gingerbread sheets for a gingerbread house?

Not knowing your recipe too well I’ll assume a gingerbread with a rollable and cuttable texture, like for gingerbread men.

I would use a few empty cans with a slightly smaller diameter than your tower design.

If you cut the can(s) lengthwise in thirds or so, you can drape rectangular strips of dough over them with only some bend, which will put only little  gravitational stress on the soft dough during baking. Make sure that the total width of the segments is more than the 360 degrees circle to allow for shrinkage and some extra to cut the edges to fit.

Bake the dough on the molds (with a layer of parchment, ideally) and let the parts cool on the tins as well.

Assemble as you would for the straight walls. A spare can can help keep the parts upright and in shape until the icing “cement” has hardened.


What is the Best wash or glaze for bread when trying to achieve a crunchy crust on Rolls

You may have to compromise a bit here, I am assuming you want both a shiny and crunchy finish to your rolls.

Traditionally, the crunch comes from a longer period in the heating oven with lid removed from the Dutch oven to crisp-up the outer layer. A different technique is used with baguettes, where they are sprayed with fine mist at 5 minute intervals over a total cooking time of 15 minutes. Both of these methods will give an excellent crunch, although the final finish will be dull.

An egg or milk wash will give a lovely final sheen to your rolls, but in my experience this prevents the development of a really crispy crust if you use a whole beaten egg. Apparently, just using the egg white diluted with water will achieve more crunch, but I doubt if it will be as intense as the traditional DO or spray method.

https://www.thespruceeats.com/egg-wash-yeast-breads-rolls-3057783


Device to install on a bottle to only spill drops

What you are looking for is pretty common and can be bought in most markets in the kitchen section. Or ordered online by search "olive oil bottles".  They look like this:


If your goal is indeed a sauce or purée, you will want to reduce the total amount of liquid in your tomatoes, typically by reducing the sauce, i.e. boiling the liquid off.

Any additional liquid simply extends the time required unless you add a liquid explicitly for taste, e.g. red wine, a dash of (balsamic) vinegar or broth. Wine for example does influence the flavour profile even in small quantities, stock (depending on concentration) might require quite a large amount to be noticeable and therefore you need to reduce the sauce much longer. Whether this is good for your final product (long simmering to melt flavours) or bad (loosing the "freshness" of your tomatoes) is impossible to say without a recipe or knowledge about the expected results.

If your recipe (or your cook's experience) doesn't call for any addition of this kind, you may use a very small amount or omit the water altogether.
You want to chop (optional: de-seed or peel) your tomatoes and heat them slowly at the beginning. This gives them time to release enough juice to prevent burning. Once you have enough liquid in your pan, proceed as usual.


How do I decrease the saltiness in pork meatballs?

The easiest way to make the taste of the meatball less salty is to make the tomato sauce a bit sweeter than you normally want it.

Another option is to make the sauce a bit spicy. Both sweetness and spiciness will lower your tongue's perception of saltiness.

Note that it will not make the meatballs noticeably less salty themselves. This only hides the saltiness, so if you are trying to lower the sodium due to dietary restrictions, this will not help in that regard.

If the meatball is so salty that the sweet/spicy sauce doesn't mask it, you can re-purpose the meatball in other ways. Some ideas include:

Break them up into little pieces and sprinkle on top of a salad (treat it like how some people treat bacon bits in a salad).
Try eating the meatballs in a sandwich with the sweet/spicy tomato sauce. Sandwich bread is very neutral in taste and can help with the saltiness.
Break into bits and add into a baked pasta dish.
Add it into a vegetable or noodle soup.


What are different ways to roast Bell Peppers?

Roasting them under the broiler creates a nice even color and flavor.


Nonsoggy spinich pie with frozen spinach

With more spinach you need to wring the hell out of it, whether you start with fresh or frozen. Cook the spinach a bit so it starts to release its liquid, then squeeze it out with your hands doing small batches at a time. When you're done with that, put it in a clean tea towel, wrap it up and twist and wring. You'll get even more liquid. I'm surprised actually that you say that you didn't wring the spinach originally but didn't have a problem with sogginess. Spinach contains a boatload of water.

{edit upon further reflection}

I would even go further than wringing the spinach. To protect against sogginess, I would briefly sauté the spinach after wringing it. That would be a great opportunity to incorporate other complementary stuff like onions or garlic too.


sous vide producing inedible food because of fat not rendered

Sous vide is simply a tool.  It's not the correct one for every job.  Rendering fat is generally a problem because of the low temperatures used.  What was the final result you had in mind?  If you want "traditional" ribs, then the best way to cook them is traditionally.  Google will reveal multiple sources, try Chefsteps and Serious Eats for starters.


Which is the most caloric, edible, single ingredient by weight?

Your question goes near the  answer. As you can read on those nifty tables on products, calories come from mainly three sources: Fats, sugars and protein. There are also fibres, alcohol (that are not counted as carbs)  like ethanol and organic acids but the first three is packed with them.
So fat have 9 kcal/g, carbs 4kcal/g and proteins also 4 kcal/g (ethanol have 7 kcal/g but you can't consume it in large quantity like fat).
And from simple math you can deduce that clean fat, like olive oil, is the most caloric, edible ingredient".

PS. Wolfram made a slight change to your question changing the "100 grams" to "107 grams" so that's why it's not "900 kcal/100 g"

Edit: I think the kcal of 1 gram of fat is not exactly 9. It may be around 9,0132 or something like that. That's why WA recalculate the amount and round up, and that's why lard seems to have more. Generally we say that fat is 9cal/gram

Lard can be considered "cleaner" fat as it is processed fat. So it's not contaminated with all those vitamins and micro and macro elements like olive oil.


Can I cook couscous for a chicken dish in my crock pot at the same time as the chicken?

I think this is going to be a bad idea; you'll go from ideal couscous texture (fluffy and light) to mush. I have an article (on my blog) about how to make fluffy couscous. The crux is simply to put it, with the appropriate amount boiling water, in a wide, shallow vessel and cover it for 5 minutes. You can even set that up ahead of time, and when you are ready to serve the food from your crockpot, just add the boiling water from a teakettle and you'll be good to go.