Are bay leaves dangerous to (unwittingly) eat?

There is no reason to worry. The worst thing which can happen is that a piece of bay leaf, being somewhat hard, can lodge somewhere in your digestive system, necessitating a trip to ER. But a medical paper on the topic starts its discussion section with the sentence "Reports discussing ingestion of bay leaves have been exceedingly scant". They only cite 10 references in the period 1950-1990, and most of these are general studies of foreign bodies in the esophagus, not specific studies of bay leaf ingestion.

Given how often bay leafs must find their ways into people's digestive systems (they feature in our food), it is safe to conclude that only a tiny fraction of ingested bay leafes cause problems, else there would be more studies mentioning such cases. The same is true for side effects different from mechanical obstruction: if this had happened, somebody would have published it.

The paper I mentioned is "Bay Leaf Impaction in the Esophagus and Hypopharynx" by Stephen K. Buto, MD; Tat-Kin Tsang, MD; Gerald W. Sielaff, MD; Laurie L. Gutstein, MD; and Mick S. Meiselman, MD. Sadly, it isn't freely available (I could read the full text because my uni has a subscription).

I guess that if you are working as a cook, your workplace may decide that even if the chance for a customer choking on a bay leaf is something like one in a million, they'd rather instill removing bay leaves from dishes as a policy. Probably prudent, although there are more important risks to care about.


Pineapple store bought can pops when opening, is it safe?

Define "popped"...

In short, the "pop" has to do with different pressure inside and outside the can. Once the can is unsealed or pierced, the pressure evens out, resulting in a sound.

The question that remains is why there was a difference and to guestimate, how much.

A slight difference is fine - probably because the conditions (temperature, pressure) were slightly different at the factory than in in your kitchen.

But there is the - admittedly rare - case where the contents of a can weren't properly pasteurized / conserved. In these cases, bacterial growth might happen, resulting in excess pressure that makes a distinct sound. The food inside may or may not smell "off". There are bacteria like Clostridium botulinum that thrive in anaerobic conditions and produce a tasteless but dangerous poison. So if a can appears bulged or shows signs of excess pressure when opening (or glass jars loose the vacuum seal and don't "pop") it's absolutely advisable to discard the contents.

That said, your pineapple is probably at a very low risk as botulism is way more likely in protein-rich foods like meat, fish and legumes but only you were there when you opened your can and can make an informed decision.

And always remember rule no.1 of food safety:
When in doubt, throw it out.


Short answer: yes - the crockpot will heat it sufficiently.

You might find it easier to transport in a sealed container and just use the crockpot to heat/maintain temperature at the party.

However, the time taken for a crockpot to heat up is substantial compared to using a stove-top pan or even a microwave. Crockpots are really designed to slow cook foods, and maintain temperatures for keeping foods warm.


How does mixing different kinds of beers/liquors mask the taste of alcohol?

According to the article Why People Hate Drinking, there is considerable variation in how people perceive the flavor of ethanol:

Some find it is primarily sweet (non-tasters)
Some find it bitter and sweet (average)
Some find it overwhelmingly bitter (super tasters, as defined by sensitivity to tasting a specific compound, PROP or 6-n-propylthiouracil, as bitter)

Depending how people perceive alcohol, it may be easy to mask it, especially with strongly sweet flavors, or when there are other more apparent bitter flavors.

However, this is as much to do with the specific physiology of the taster as it is to do with the contents of the glass.  The same drink tasted by different people may give differing experiences.

Beware the Long Island iced tea.


Yes, water does boiler measurably faster with the lid on.

The reason is simple:  in order to boil, water must be heated to the boiling point (okay, that was obvious).  However, while heat is being introduced at the bottom of the pot, heat is also being lost at the top of the pot, through three means:  evaporative cooling, and air convection of heat away from the surface of the water, and radiation from the surface (this last is probably the least significant).

Its like going outside with your hat off--you need to work harder to stay warm, because you are loosing heat faster.  Similarly, the flame has to introduce energy to make up for the cooling at the top of the pot.

With the lid on the pot, convective cooling will be substantially curtailed, as cool air will not be able to circulate directly onto the surface of the water to cool it; radiative cooling will be slightly reduced, because heat will have to radiate or convect to the lid, to then radiate from there.

Additionally, with the lid on the pot, the evaporated water cannot diffuse or convect into the room.  It will soon reach vapor pressure equilibrium and begin condensing almost as fast as it evaporates, returning much of the latent heat of evaporation as almost as fast as it is lost (it is not a total recovery, because the pot with lid is not air tight).

So the largest of the cooling effects will be curtailed.

The hat is on the pot, as it were :-)

This article at Mind Your Decisions shows actual home experimental measurements.  Boiling 16 ounces of water:

  The covered pot boiled quicker at 4 minutes and 15 seconds. The
  uncovered pot took an extra 30 seconds to boil at 4 minutes and 45
  seconds.

You will have to decide if the time difference matters to you.  It certainly will cut your electric or gas bill a small amount.

It is the reduced cooling--essentially--insulation like a hat, that is the true effect of the lid.


Started thawing but can't finish cooking meat: Time Sensitive

I'll offer a third option :

Cook the meat, then freeze it.

Holding it in the fridge for a week can be questionable, although there are some things that you can do to reduce the risk (eg, sterilizing the containers first, and pouring the fat on top to form a seal over the meat).

You can hold cooked meat in casseroles for quite some time longer than meat on its own; I suspect it's the other added moisture which helps to prevent freezer burn.

As such, I'd brown it, then moisten it with a can or two of crushed tomatoes (as it's something that I have on hand, and it leaves the meat so it could be turned into chili, a pasta sauce, or other things), then portion it out to reasonable sizes based on possible uses, and freeze those.

It's better if you can let it cool off before freezing, but if it's in smaller containers, you don't have as much of a problem with the center staying hot for too long.  I've frozen chili and soups by laying them in gallon zip-top bags on a sheet pan, and putting that in the fridge.  (2 bags per 1/2 sheet ... but I had a larger freezer back then)


My espresso shot is extracting too quick, what am I doing wrong?

Without more details, it's hard to pinpoint, but here's a few suggestions:

Start by checking the setting on your grinder.  You may not have it set fine enough for espresso. NOTE: if the coffee is really stale, as in many months old, the shot will start blonding early.

How much are you dosing?  If it's too low you can get channeling and fast extraction (we tend to use 17-21 g depending on the beans).  Also take into account the size of the portafilter basket.  For example, if you try to put 17 grams of coffee into a triple basket, you will never get a good pour. I would suggest trying 18 g in a double basket and see if you notice an improvement.  You should shoot for roughly a 25 second extraction.

Double check how you are distributing the coffee in the portafilter.  If you are tamping unevenly, the grinds will be more likely to cause channeling with an uneven shot (check out the WDT method to help ensure proper distribution).

Otherwise, make sure you're fully engaging the portafilter into the grouphead and it is not loose when pulling the shot.


According to Ask A Chef the cornmeal is not necessary.  It is the salt water that actually causes the clams to purge themselves:

  The thought behind using cornmeal is that it is an irritant that
  causes the clam to "cough" and expel all sand that may be in its
  shell.  There is also a thought that it helps to change the flavor of
  the meat and make them less fishy (I can't say I have noticed a flavor
  difference between a clam purged with cornmeal and one without).
  Whether you use cornmeal or not you will need to use saltwater.
  Soaking the clams in saltwater for an hour or two will allow them to
  cycle clean saltwater in and out of the shell and purge the sand.
  Using cornmeal to purge is common and is thought to aid in the
  complete expulsion of the sand, but it really is not the real reason
  the purging will happen.

As far as purging farm raised clams, some (perhaps even most) suppliers purge them for you before sending them to market, so doing it yourself may not be necessary.   However, I could not find an authoritative source that indicates this is always true.


The easiest way to make perfect sausage-shaped seitan would be to buy vegan sausage casing(assuming you are vegetarian or vegan since you are making your own seitan).

Something similar to this.

Seitan in general isn't really smooth. And generally if it ever becomes smooth its probably over-mixed and becomes really tough. The casing provides a smooth surface and helps keep it in the round shape while you boil or steam it.


What is the best way to clean a roasting tray/baking tray that has sauce burned on to it?

Half fill it with water, then put in on the stove top over a medium heat.  Work the burnt-on bits with a wooden spoon or spatula as the water starts to boil.  You should be able to soften it up and be able to get it off then.


Kenji Alt has devoted one of his Food Lab columns to carnitas.

The key to his method is he cooks the pork in a manner akin to confit, under fat in the oven.  This low and slow method makes it tender and flavorful.

Then, he broils it before service to crisp up.


Differences between cloth, fiberglass and silicone baking mats?

The key difference from my perspective is cleaning. Silicone is the easiest material in my kitchen to scrub clean, with the possible exception of stainless steel. Cloth is very far down the list.

Also, depending on the texture of the cloth, more food will almost certainly stick to the cloth, unless it's sealed with something, in which case what is it sealed with? And how is it sealing the fiberglass in?

I use the kind with a thin grid of fibers inside the silicone. It adds more stability and lets the overall thickness be thinner for better heat transmission, compared to a plain silicone silpat. As long as I don't use it as a cutting board, the fiberglass stays safely inside. It does add a very slight grid texture to the bottom of loaves, but it's barely noticeable and doesn't look bad at all.

The pyramid kind, which would reduce food contact and increase drainage and airflow, sounds like it would be good for specific applications, but not something I'd make a batch of cookies on.


How to store a banana that was cut in half to preserve the other half?

Cut it in half before peeling, so that only the end is exposed.   Wrap the exposed end with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator.   The skin may darken, but that is okay.

You should get a day or two easily.

Or put all the half bananas in the freezer, and when you have enough, make banana muffins.


Probably time to clean the oven. Not sure the Worchester had anything to do with it other than timing. We bake stuff with Worchester all the time with no issues. Set it on self clean and see what happens after that.


Can containers that held spoiled food be cleaned and be safe again?

If you can stomach opening the containers and the associated smell, most plastic and glass containers can be re-used with appropriate washing/sterilization.
I would discard the contents, rinse out the debris and scrub out any residue, including removing seals if possible. I would then soak in a 0.25% available chlorine solution (most household bleach is approx 4% available chlorine, dilute appropriately) for 30 min, then rinse the bleach off, wash in warm soapy water and dry. Bleach is very effective against bacterial and fungal contaminants. However, this approach can damage some components of containers, such as rubber seals, so treat with caution. Silicone seals/lids should be fine.
Plastic and glass containers can take up smells from the contents, as can the seals, so it would be worthwhile to give them the sniff test afterwards and see if you can smell any unpleasant smells that might be passed onto food subsequently stored in them.


If you're particularly anal about the looks of the inside of your grill there may not be a solution, otherwise clean the inside as best you can and coat with an oil based cooking spray. Season the inside after spraying by bringing it up to cooking temp (about 350 degrees) without food for about an hour and let it cool. If you over heat the grill sometime during the summer or you live in a particularly corrosion prone environment you may have to repeat this at the end of the season for winter storage without rust.


Is the print on eggs safe for consumption?

This is an excerpt:

  Regulatory compliance. Inks used for egg coding must comply with
  government regulations governing food marking inks. These broadly state
  that inks printed on food items must be safe for human consumption,
  both when the food item is raw and when it is cooked. Egg coding must
  not weaken the egg shell or penetrate through the shell. Once dry, the ink
  should remain on the egg shell and not contaminate the egg during the
  cooking process.

Now, that is taken from this link which is actually an advertising pamphlet by a company selling their printing service, but it should be true for commercial products. If a small farm is stamping their own, then it might be worth questioning them.

I would expect to see more and more eggs getting the inkjet treatment as more countries are making it a requirement, not just acceptable.  One would assume this is to prevent practices like carton swapping and relabeling of old product.  Myself, the only eggs I have purchased with it on also happened to be in red and it was only logos, not date and tracking info.  They did not do a good job with the fast drying aspect as the logos were smeared on some eggs, but when the eggs were boiled it did not fade or further smear.  There are multiple food safe inks, often meat and meat products are inked thought typically on fat, skins or casings, but candies, baked goods and such are expanding that practice steadily.  I am not sure what type of inks they are using as soy based food grades any I have seen tend to smear and wash off.  I can only hope since these are food agency approved and even required in some places they were reasonably tested.


Hot tea with lemon juice and fat free milk: how to prevent curdling?

I don't think this is practically possible with lemon juice, as milk protein will curdle in the presence of acid (in this case, citric acid in the lemon juice)—and the process happens much more quickly at hotter temperatures, as in tea.

A pinch of salt may slow the process, but is likely to be unpalatable.

You could neutralize the acid with baking powder, but getting the right balance would be difficult, and again, the result is likely to be disconcerting and unpalatable.

If it is not the acidic balance that you appreciate in your tea, but rather the flavor of the lemon, you might try making a simple syrup with lemon zest, and using that to sweeten your tea.  It will give the lemon flavor, without the acidity, and so not trigger the curdling.


Serving Creme Brulee to a large group of people

To be honest I wouldn't have thought the top would get soggy. I've also made hundreds of brûlées for wedding parties in the past and the top has never gone soft. Unless you're putting them in the fridge between colorizing and serving? That will definitely cause problems.

If you are actually getting a soggy top it means one of two things:

You've not browned them enough.
You've not used enough sugar on the top.

One thing I could suggest if you are doing so many in one go, something I learnt quite late into being a pastry chef (6 months of a two year stint): make a nice perfectly coloured caramel, leave it to cool a little, but keep warm. Then when you need it just pour it over the top of your brûlées as you're serving.

Be sure to use glucose in your caramel to stop it setting too hard, as it may splinter and kill a couple of your guests.


Sour cream will not whip like whipping cream.  I would use a combination for your application.  Whip your cream.  Fold in sour cream as desired.


Is there a wine traditionally served with beef carpaccio?

Beef carpaccio is a fairly recent creation.  It originated in Harry's Bar in Venice in the 1950's.  The dish is said to be base on the Piemontese dish called carne cruda all'Albese.  The Veneto and Piemonte are two different regions in northern Italy.  Different wines are produced in each region.  Given that the carpaccio is based on the Piemontese original, that is a sensible place to start.


Pork sausage patties in a crockpot overnight

It really depends on how warm the warm setting keeps the food. If it's over 60 degrees Celsius, you should be fine, but for something like pork I would want it to be considerably over that temperature to be on the safe side, and then you're into cooking territory rather than 'keeping warm' territory.

You are probably better off cooking the patties, storing them in the fridge, and reheating them, wrapped in foil, hard and fast in the oven, if you're looking for a quick, convenient way to serve them first thing.


No, eggnog should not be chunky.  Yours has probably gone off.


What kind of cream is used to make tomato sauce into an orange colour i.e. creamy tomato sauce?

Any milk or cream will change the color of your tomato sauce.  It just depends on the fat content you want in your final dish.  I would assume that many restaurants use a light or full fat, cream, but you could certainly achieve the color change with milk, half-and-half, or cream.


Cream of Tomato with garlic + cilantro stalks aroma

This is mere theory/guesswork, but I wonder if they might do it like a tadka [tarka] you add to dall [lentil] recipes?
Fry garlic & other spices in oil, then pour over right at the end. Stirring in is optional, for presentation effect.
Here's a link to a rather elaborate tadka method, including smoking charcoal which sounds fabulous, though I've never tried it myself
https://www.cookwithmanali.com/dal-tadka/
Alternatively, my own 'cheat' to punch up the garlic in a dall recipe is to add powdered garlic right at the end. This punches up the fresh 'garlickiness' a lot, with very little effort. It has a tendency to go lumpy if you're not careful, so mixed in as a slurry is the easiest way to avoid that.
As to the coriander/cilantro, I can think of no method to get the bright, fresh smell & taste into a soup just before serving other than to make a quick purée & stir it in. I'm sure you would be able to spot the bits of bright green, though, done this way, but coriander really doesn't keep that bright flavour more than a few minutes once heated.


Is there a method for desalinating bacon?

If you're buying bacon at the store, and trying to reduce the actual sodium in the product you've just purchased - you're out of luck.  Like most things, you can't un-salt it.  You can reduce the flavor, but in your case, the sodium is still there.

Alternative options include:

Buy reduced sodium bacon
Make reduced sodium bacon
Use less bacon, in order to reduce the total sodium intake.


I'm not going to get into the arguments back and forth about Teflon and its associated chemicals and whether you get them in your body from cookware or not.  I think there might be some risk, so just like I don't use aluminum pots (like my family had when I was a kid), I don't use teflon cookware.

I use stainless cookware because I like to be able to scour it clean, because there's tons of affordable stainless cookware with good thick bases to distribute heat evenly, and because if you use oil like grapeseed oil, you can heat it up enough that the stainless is essentially non-stick.  Also, you can use any sort of utensil with it, doesn't have to be silicon or wood, or a plastic spatula that might or might not melt.

Sometimes, when I'm doing an omelette I wish I had a nice teflon pan, but that's about the only time I miss it.  I think the only teflon I have left is in a George Forman-type grill that I use for bacon.


Growing up, my mom (Italian-American) would make curry using a bechamel-like white sauce plus curry powder.  She said it was her mother's recipe, and I can only assume it was attempting to recreate a meal that she had using ingredients and techniques that she knew.

There are is an advantage of using a white sauce over using just cream to enrich the sauce -- the starch will keep the sauce from breaking over higher heat, but it can get a bit too thick and keep the other flavors from really coming through if you make it too thick, and I don't know if the flavors meld the same way as with coconut milk.  (it's been years since I've had this dish, and I currently avoid dairy)

I've never tried mixing bechamel to something that already had coconut milk ... but I suspect that it could work.  I know that I've made a white sauce using vegetable molks before (almond & soy ... coconut is the wrong consistency on its own, but there's 'coconut milk drink' that might work, or you could try thinning it with water)


How does grill/broil mode in a convection oven work?

You can do something approaching it, but it's less efficient.

Basically, you want to place the food close to the top element, and crank the heat all the way up.  An extra pan on one of the lower racks of the oven will help to deflect some of the heat coming in from the lower element.

For non-countertop models, you'll also want to leave the door propped open -- if you don't, the oven will heat up and cycle the elements off.

That being said ... the model of oven you linked to mentions "Independent upper and lower element temperature setting" ... so it might be possible to set the upper element on high while the lower one is off or at least on low.


It's pretty easy:

Soak wood chunks or chips over night in water.
Start hard lump charcoal in BGE (or any smoker)
Scatter wood over the coals
Let salmon sit out for 15 - 20 mins to come to room temp
Get  BGE smoking and adjust temperature to 180F to 200F
Put salmon on grill
Smoke till finished. About 35-45 mins for 1 1/2 lbs fillet. It wants to be cooked through and flakey.

I'll often do this while smoking a Boston Butt, which is an all day affair. If I've got room, I throw a salmon fillet on in the middle of the day for lunch.

If you're just getting in to smoking with the BGE, I highly recommend the book Smoke and Spice.


How do I make cumin and herb cheese at home?

A lot depends on what kind of cheese you are making.

I will assume that you are making a standard, medium-firm, rennet-set cheese.

I have had the most success adding seasonings and herbs with the salt. That is- after the curd has set, been cut, and drained but before it has been pressed at all. Work in the salt and any other flavors before placing the curd in the mold.

I imagine any herb or spice would work- it depends what flavor you want. I have used basil when I had a bumper crop. I have also used dried peppers.

As to dry or fresh- either would work. As with anything if you use dry then use a lot less. I prefer fresh because it is more tender.

Other cheeses might be a little different but as a rule of thumb adding with the salt should work. Mozzarella seems like it would be trickier because the kneading of the curd would change things.


As the comments note, this hasn't been done before because by definition, it's not frying.  Frying always involves cooking with a liquid fat.  This is a bit like asking what happens if you boil something in bacon grease.  You can do something similar, but technically it's not quite the same thing.

Terminology aside, you will probably want to use only a very small amount of soy sauce - too much, and you'll wind up tasting pure salt.  I think you might have trouble getting this evenly distributed with straight soy sauce, so consider diluting with 1-2 parts water as well before you add to the pan (which would make this a good candidate for Jolene's method).  You'll also probably still want to have some fat in the pan for the flavor it will add and to help reduce sticking.


Equivalent of dried (ground) pepper when the recipe calls for crushed

Here's what I've been able to find (looking at crushed red pepper flake substitutions):
This site says to 2/3s as much ground as crushed:

Substitute 1⁄2 tsp (2 mL) ground cayenne pepper with:
• 3⁄4 tsp (4 mL) crushed red pepper flakes

I'm not sure why the mL are doubled but the tsp are 2/3s
This site says 2/3s as well:

1/2 tsp Cayenne powder per 3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

So, in your example from your other question, you would use 4-1/2 tsp of the chili powder mixture (6.75 tsp x .666).


What considerations should be taken into account when adding any fruit to any cake?

Adding fruit will change the ratio of dry to liquid, so it may require more flour. It would also add some sweetness, so you may want to reduce the sugar a tad. But citrus fruits in particular are acidic, which might affect the leavening. I suspect it would depend on the type of fruit and how it's prepared.


I want to cook chicken legs, but will be out of house for 2.5 hours at what temp do I need to cook it at so it's not over or under cooked

Operating an oven when no one is home is not a good idea, although some people would disagree with me.

If you can find an appropriate slow cooker recipe that you like, that would be your best best bet.  Dark meat chicken is well suitable to braising, which is what slow cookers are best at.

I cannot give you an exact temperature, as most slow cookers or crock pots have only "high" and "low" as settings... the real issue is leaving the chicken in long enough, but not so long it turns to mush and gets that overcooked taste.  Your three hour interval is certainly long enough to be safe.

The hardest part is finding a recipe suitable for your three hour time interval.  Most slow cooker recipes are designed for around 8 hours, so you can leave them while at work, although I suspect they would actually work very well in 3 hours--you could certainly try them and googling them is easy.  I actually suspect most 8 hour slow cooker recipes are badly overcooked, but haven't done experiments to find out.

Many more traditional chicken braising recipes are much shorter; again, they can probably be adapted to your slow cooker at three hours as dark meat holds up well to longer cooking.

By googling three hours chicken legs, I was able to find some promising recipes, including this one for very basic "barbequed" chicken legs.  That could be adapted easily for almost any sauce you like.


What is the substitution ratio for mini marshmallows to large marshmallows?

Kraft's Jet-Puffed brand claims the following conversion factor:

  1 Regular Marshmallow = 13 Mini Marshmallows

That puts you at around 156 Mini Marshmallows for 12 Regulars.


Properly melting butter and sugar together for butterscotch bar recipe

In the past I have had a similar issue with making a butterscotch drink recipe.  What I have found is that adding a bit of water to the melted butter (1-2 tsp/1/2 c, 5-10mL/120mL) helps dissolve the brown sugar and prevents graininess and seizing.  Sugar is not readily soluble in fat, so it needs water in order to dissolve.

I suspect one of three things happened:

Different batches of butter may have different water contents.
The brown sugar may have lost some of its moisture as it sat around in the
pantry.
Some of the water may have evaporated off while melting the butter.

If you heat brown sugar in butter without enough water some will dissolve in the water present from the butter and the brown sugar, but it will become grainy and seize as the water is evaporated and the undissolved sugar granules act as nucleation sites.  Meanwhile the undissolved sugars are being lightly fried in the fat from the butter.


I think your best solution will be to thaw them before you cook them and then follow the same time and temperature settings (unless the contents start out hot, which they do in some cases). As long as you remember move them to the fridge in the morning or the evening before, they should be defrosted enough by the time dinner comes around.

Cooking raw meat from frozen is not (in my opinion) a good idea. The outside will start defrosting and cooking long before the inside even defrosts, which means you're likely going to have issues with very undercooked centers of your food... which is particularly an issue with chicken. And, even if you do wait to take it off the grill until the chicken is fully cooked through, the outside will likely be overcooked and unpalatable.


Adjusting cooking time and temperature when making smaller portions

There is no good formula to calculate the time needed for baking custards. It depends on way too many variables, most of which you cannot know, and the calculations would be way too complicated too (a system of differential equations, IIRC). So the sensible way to go is to monitor when it is done and remove it exactly then, not to try to predict the time.

The easiest way to monitor it is by using a thermometer. Without flour, you aim for 83 Celsius final temperature. With flour, it is something higher, maybe 90 Celsius, it will depend a bit on the proportions. Simply stick a roast thermometer into it and bake until it's there, then remove from the oven.

As for the temperature of the oven setting, the lower you can go for a custard, the better. Depends on your patience. I've made creme caramel at 120 Celsius, took close to 3 hours, but the result was great. Setting it around 150 is more common, no matter the amount you are baking. But try not bake a single very deep dish, either make it flat and wide, or use multiple dishes.


How to prevent fresh peaches from sinking to the bottom of a buttermilk pound cak?

Dust them in flour or powdered sugar.

This trick is most commonly used with blueberry muffins.


Cooling multiple items on a sheet pan rack

I do not know your setup and why you'd have something above or below something else when cooling but I'll answer from a physics point of view. When you take something out of the oven and it is still hot it will heat the air around it. The hot air will rise and come into contact with whatever is above it. If that happens to be unbaked items then heat will be transferred to them, and for many things you don't want that. So if I had to put fresh baked goods above or below unbaked ones I would put them above so that the unbaked ones stay cooler.

My recommendation would be to keep the unbaked items separate if you can as even putting the baked ones above would still heat the ones below somewhat.


Which parts of a spring onion should I use in a pasta salad?

Using both is fine. I would reserve some of the green end to sprinkle on top for presentation. The white part is stronger so you may want to add it a little at a time.


Process fresh salmon into Sushi / Sashimi salmon?

Sushi fishes are usually flash frozen for a few days before being used for safety (to kill off bugs)
It might change the texture of the fish as it is unfrozen; the better the restaurant the better the fish will be unfrozen.

http://www.pbs.org/food/fresh-tastes/myth-sushi-grade/

  For fish that contain parasites, the FDA provides guidance under their
  Parasite Destruction Guarantee. This states in part that fish intended
  to be consumed raw must be “frozen and stored at a temperature of
  -20°C (-4°F) or below for a minimum of 168 hours (7 days)”.

As for the fluid, I don't know, maybe fat or just water with dissolve fish protein (the thing that turns white when you cook salmon).


Balancing out a good souffle and burnt cheese on top

One thing you could try is pre-cooking the Parmesan. Basically, make crisps, like this:

But perhaps a bit darker. Allow them to cool, then crush them or even give them a quick whirr in the food processor. Top your souffle with the cooked cheese crumble instead of uncooked Parmesan.

BTW, that picture is from Giada De Laurentiis' recipe.


first question: it depends on the pizza restaurant, smaller pizzeria might do the pesto in house, bigger pizza chains will use commercial pesto.

second question: in the case of washing, normal (very hot water and soap) washing procedure will clean up everything.


Can I dump Jello into a pan and boil it to get it to set?

Yes, you can boil the whole thing. You need to get the temperature high enough for the gelatine to activate. The reason jello reserves half the water is to cool it down faster and reduce set time, there's no issues adding all the water in the first place other than taking longer to cool down enough to set.

If you are in a hurry you can cool it down afterwards by putting it in an ice bath and stirring it for awhile.


Substituting fresh shitake mushrooms for dried

Based on my experience with dried and fresh shiitake mushrooms, and the guidance from Gaku Homma in his book Japanese Country Cooking, I'd say that you will simply get different results with fresh shiitake.

There's actually a fair amount of flavor concentration that happens as a side effect of dehydrating mushrooms, and this is particularly pronounced with shiitake (and, for example, porcini). It's not possible to extract these flavors by boiling/simmering fresh shiitake in a way that will match the results of dried. Fresh shiitake will have a superior texture (especially if you are grilling or frying the mushrooms) to the dried ones, but for the purposes of extracting flavor, there is actually a functional advantage to dried ones. This is true for other common Japanese soup stock ingredients, too; nobody I know would use fresh kombu for a soup stock, but they'd consider using it for a salad or salt pickles; dried kombu is more useful for developing flavors in simmered dishes. You'd also get a very different result from fresh skipjack tuna than you'd get from the smoked, fermented, dried katsuobushi.

Any chance you have any other dried mushrooms? I think dried porcini work really nicely for sauces and even Japanese-style soup stock.

In any event, you may get a perfectly serviceable brown sauce with fresh shiitake, but I don't think it will have the same flavor as the version using dried mushrooms. You may be able to simulate drying putting fresh shiitake directly over a gas flame to char, then sauteeing with a flavorful fat. Butter or perhaps a gently heated pumpkin seed oil could work nicely. I don't think there's a simple ratio conversion that you could use for this purpose; I'd use a much larger number of fresh ones than I'd use dried if I wanted to maximize flavor and aroma.


Does leavened bread made with yeast require gluten to rise?

Yes, rising is very dependent on gluten. In almost all cases, you won't get any rising without a gluten-rich flour. Even if you use wheat flour, but one that has the wrong proportion of gluten, you will get a disappointing rise. If you were to try making a bread recipe calling for AP flour (8-10% gluten) with bagel flour (14-15% gluten) or a recipe for bread flour (12ish percent gluten) with pastry flour (6% gluten), one prominent problem will be very little rising.

I said "in almost all cases" and not "in all", because some clever people have found limited ways to get rising without gluten. The limitations of such baking are:

you can't achieve most traditional bread textures with this kind of baking. You only get bread that resembles the cottony, light bread with soft crust that is the prototypical bread in an American supermarket.
you can't use any gluten-free flour. What you need is a flour that is almost pure starch. Rice flour can be used to make a gluten free bread recipe, defatted peanut flour won't work well.
You have to use something to replace the gluten, typically a combination of thickeners like guar gum.
It is a very finicky process. Making up your own recipes by experimentation will have an immense failure rate. Instead, you should follow existing recipes to the letter, and live with the fact that you will need quite some exercise to learn to execute them well, if the recipe was any good to start with.

So, if you manage your expectations and invest some time in choosing and learning a good recipe, you can get risen gluten-free bread of a certain type. In that sense, yeast bread doesn't strictly "require" gluten to rise, but for most practical purposes, the answer is quite close to "yes it does".


What takes over the functions of gluten in gluten-free bread mixes?

To summarize the points of Aaronut's answer and provide a framework for answering:

  'Gluten is responsible for elasticity of dough, which is perceived as chewiness','The "rising" in baked goods is essentially just
  stretching of the gluten network', 'Gluten is also exceptionally good
  at both absorbing and retaining moisture'

Dough's rising is catalyzed by the yeast eating sugar and giving off gas, the gas becomes suspended in the gluten network which has body from absorbed moisture and is restrained and stregthened by the salt. The end.
In the absence of gluten, there is no network for the gas to lift. However, when you add xanthum or guar gum, their qualities as hydrocolloids allow them to swell with moisture and rise with the gas.

Modified rice starch imitates gelatin in some applications, gelatin also produces flex and supports a smoother texture (common complaints about gluten-free breads refer to their grainy texture).
If you remove the gums and hydrocolloids from the gluten free dough you'll get a sopping wet mess that does nothing; using flax and chia seed will pull it back into shape. Both seeds, when milled will gel andprovide the meringue-type (though not as effective or durable) effect.
Tapioca starch also gives body and accommodates a smoother texture, hence it's addition to the King Arthur's gluten free flour mix.

  'When baking without gluten, you will have to be very precise about all of your measurements', as gluten is more forgiving due to its
  slow-acting nature

Yep.
In gluten-free baking one must substitute precision for not precision. Over kneading can be fatal especially in recipes with flax and chia.

  'Its coagulation action is actually very similar to that of egg whites... gluten is basically doing the same thing inside of whatever
  you're baking'

Gluten allows you to replicates the function of eggs in some use cases.
Flax and chia eggs as well as Ener-G egg replacer are common vegan replacements to eggs, but as this question is simply about gluten-free baking the answer is to just use an egg; some recipes call for one, some don't. However, there is no likely use case where the functionality of an egg being replicated by gluten would preclude using an egg.

  'Finally, it provides nutritive protein when eaten. Wheat gluten is about 75% protein':

Yep.
Get protein somewhere else. There are 2 grams of protein in a slice of white bread, have an ounce of black beans.

  'In short: Gluten does a lot of things. Keep in mind when doing
  gluten-free baking that a lot of the substitutes only replicate one or
  two of the effects.':

The combination of multiple agents is generally necessary to provide the same functions. If you look at this methodology for high-rising gluten-free dough from King Arthur's, you'll see that the bread flour alone contains a super-fine flour, potato starch and tapioca starch. The recipe calls for xanthum gum and an egg in addition to the tapioca and potato starches. There you already have four ingredients doing the work of the gluten.


Are Gem Squash Edible After the Green Rind Turns Yellow/Orange?

Generally, aging/ripening squash does not pose any food safety problems. You can eat all members of the family. You just have to make sure that they are only overripe and not rotten. Rotten squash will have areas which are much softer than the rest, and usually somewhat slimy.

It is a different matter if you want to eat overripe squash. Both the taste and texture will change, becoming mealy, or soft, or spongy, and the taste can get bland. You can try cooking it the same way as young squash. If this doesn't work, you can also try some recipe which masks the taste and texture change, for example something involving a puree or a coulis, and adds spices.


Why do brinjal change their color when they being cut? How to keep them not to change color?

Aubergine change colour because they are oxidizing, potatoes are in the plant family(night shades)   and turn brown too.  The best way to prevent browing is to immerse in water as soon as they are cut. Rubbing them with oil will help too, but not as much as  soaking them in water.


The problem was a malfunctioning freezer; this is why ice cream melted overnight in it.


Devil's food cake turned out dry and dense

For this recipe, the most likely issues are:

overbaking and wrong oven temperature
Simply put, removing too much humidity during the baking process. Wrong oven temperature can aggravate this problem, especially if it is too low (to hot = burned edges and wet center).
over-mixing
This recipe is very sensitive to overmixing, which means forming gluten strands that make your cake dense. Alton Brown specifies the mixing time in seconds for a reason. As a beginner, you could use a whisk instead of a mixer and stir just until the "just combined" or "no more lumps" stage, not more.
Technically it uses the same technique as muffins, not the beat eggs / butter / sugar until fluffy technique known from cupcakes
waiting before baking
This recipe gets its "lift" almost exclusively from baking powder. It is activated the moment it gets wet and then even more when heated. So if you don't bake the batter right away, it may "fizz out" somewhat, leaving you with a dense cake. This will take longer to fully bake and again be dry.
wrong measurements
The recipe states "ounces", which is a weight unit. I other words, you need a scale to measure your flour and cocoa. While a (US) fluid ounce is two tablespoons or 30 ml, an ounce is 28.3 grams. So for water, you can roughly exchange one for the other, but never, ever for other materials, especially light and dry stuff like flour.
(Yes, I have seen this happen.)

From your comments, overbaking might be the main problem here, possibly combined with overmixing.


I've had gritty chocolate ice cream when I didn't get the chocolate melted all the way. I was using a combination of unsweetened chocolate squares and cocoa powder. I've found that if I heat it on the stove with the milk until it starts to bubble (stirring often), it changes from looking like milk with little specks of chocolate in it, to smooth, consistent, chocolate-colored cream. That's the point to take it off the stove, and it's always super smooth.


I usually cook Pork Butt (or Boston Butt) for around 20 to 25 mins per pound

This link http://m.recipetips.com/kitchen-tips/t--907/pork-cooking-times.asp has a list of suggested cooking times.

I usually do my pork at around 160f to 180f. And would worry that cooking at such a high temperature would mean the meat would be over cooked on the outer parts before the inner part was cooked, meaning some of the meat might be quite tough.


You might consider making your own membrillo.

  Quince cheese, also known as dulce de membrillo, is a sweet, thick, jelly made of the pulp of the quince fruit. Quince cheese is a common confection in several countries, where it goes by various names, such as [. . .]

It's a really great option and pairs beautifully with cheese and crackers. I've never made it before but there are some guides on the web and, considering it's essentially a very dense jelly, it may be ok with your dense quince fruits.


Does reheating a roux based sauce thin it out?

I would think that if there were a change, that the sauce would be thicker, due to water vaporizing and the fridge that tend to dry things out.

So, I think it's in your head, but of course I could be wrong.

The one reason why it might appeared so, is because the sauce will become thinner if you reheat it, compared to the consistency it had when it was in the fridge or at room temperature.


How to adapt recipes to hard wheat flour

I can't speak to your specific flour but I have worked with coarsely ground whole wheat flour.

My standard bread recipes required quite a bit more kneading than usual. Additionally I had to work with them while they were still quite sticky to eventually get them to an elastic consistency.

I use a stand mixer to do the kneading for me- I'm afraid that it would be quite a mess doing it by hand. Remember that, when forming gluten, you can always trade work for time. If you can't find finer flour then I would recommend kneading the dough as much as you are able, let it rest for 15 minutes so the proteins relax, and then knead it again and see if you can't get the consistency you want without kneading all day.

Make sure the flour isn't so coarse, or has shards or bran, that would actually cut the gluten and prevent it from forming sheets. If this is the case then I don't know if you could make bread out of it predominantly. Perhaps if it were soaked overnight as in a poolish?

I mill my own flour to the finest possible setting and this seems to produce a much better textured bread.

As for the lack of rising and yeast- it is the same problem. Yeast are perfectly happy eating damaged starch in your flour. Adding sugar wouldn't necessarily help. If your dough was not elastic and failed your window pane test then there is nothing to really hold the structure of the bread. Your yeast may have been going crazy and there was just no balloon for them to blow up.


Does it make sense to refrigerate the dough made for Parathas to be used after 8 hours?

You should have no problem refrigerating the dough. I have done it with chapatti dough, which is essentially the same thing, without a problem. It's only flour, water and salt after all. You might find it a little hard to roll out straight from the fridge but nothing some brute force and ignorance (or letting it warm up a little) won't cure.


Wine selection when dining on horse meat?

Having not had horsemeat myself, I can only inquire with one who has: they found it to taste like bland but tender red meat.  So, use mild reds for pairing like you would for beef tenderloin:

Cabernet Sauvigonon
Pinot Noir
Lighter-bodied Shiraz/Syrah


Make a cheese sauce that doesn't go solid when cooled

Your sauce is thickening up too much because it's losing moisture. After you cook your cheese sauce to perfection and mix it in with your pasta 2 things are happening:

The sauce loses moisture due to evaporation. It's hot, and even with the lid on you will still lose moisture
The pasta will soak up water from the sauce. It's just starch, and starch sponges water up. After being mixed together the pasta will continue to soften by pulling water from the sauce

The solution is easy - add more water to replace the lost moisture while it is still warm. When I make this sort of thing I let it cool somewhat and then add pasta water in small amounts until I get a slacker sauce, then I refrigerate or freeze it. Once you get the idea of how much extra moisture you need you can add some of it to the sauce to begin with, but reserve a bit for after cooking as changes in pasta types and how done it is makes a difference in how much the pasta will soak up.

I have also had some success in rehydrating too thick mac and cheese by reheating it partially mixing some water or milk in, letting it sit a couple of minutes, then reheating the rest of the way slowly.


It depends on what you mean by "spoil".

The purpose of the fridge is to prevent food from growing pathogenic organisms. There is a clear dependence there: The colder the environment, the slower food gets "spoiled", or unsafe to eat.

But we also want our food to be tasty. And cold temperature does change the texture and taste of some foods, especially fruit and vegetables. If it stays above freezing, some of them still get unpleasant, especially tomatoes and tropical fruit. The worse problem is if the temperature gets below freezing. Then everything turns mushy and unpleasant. And because fridges do not have a very precise temperature control (due to imprecise sensors but also to the fact that the temperature and humidity varies throughout the space of the fridge), a thermostat set too high can lead to temperatures below freezing at least in some parts of the fridge, rendering some vegetables, specifically green salads, practically inedible.

On this one, I side with your roommates. I have never seen a fridge which had it necessary to turn the thermostat all the way up. Milk and cooked food does great at temperatures just below 4 degrees C, which for most fridges I've seen corresponds to a middle setting. Expiry dates are based on this temperature. Cheese actually prefers higher temperatures, like 15 degrees, people just keep it in the fridge because they lack a better space in a typical kitchen. Setting the thermostat on the highest setting gets the fridge around, sometimes even below, the freezing point, and yes, it makes it impossible to keep vegetables in the fridge (I've seen them turn bad in the closed vegetable drawer too), and wastes lots of energy besides.


Which types of chilli work for homemade chilli oil?

You can use any type of chili depending on how spicy you want the oil to be.
You could use ghost peppers to burn the insides of your mouth, or perhaps use Jalapeno for a more milder heat.

You can use the Scolville Scale to decide which pepper to use. At the end of the day it comes down to your personal preference.


Whats the simplest possible spicy thai curry?

Yes, you will need to buy a pre-made curry paste if you want to get anywhere near 5 ingredients. Mae Ploy is a reputable brand.


The short answer is no. There really is no good solution short of making a double batch. I'd recommend looking for cake recipes from scratch as you might have the ingredients on hand, or go to the store and buy a second cake box.


Steeping green tea leaves - how many times can I steep them, and do they lose flavanoids over steeps?

Nutrition itself is off-topic.  However, keep in mind the following:

There are many compounds in tea leaves and some dissolve early, and some a little later.  At some point (around 5-10 minutes of steeping at ~95°C), you will lose majority of the 'good stuff' and continue picking up less desirable compounds.

You will notice that while colour might persist, the taste will be come less and less desirable.  In some cultures re-using tea leaves is considered a faux-pas because of this.

If you find your tea to be too strong after steeping, the best thing is to reduce the amount of leaves for the next time; as opposed to steeping them multiple times.


Yes, 7-12mg is a perfectly reasonable, very conservative amount. 12mg of caffeine is about equal to the amount of caffeine in a liquid ounce of 'average' coffee. (Source USDA)

Take care not to pack the scoop. Pure caffeine is a potentially dangerous ingredient. Microscoops vary even more than what is implied by your question, I've seen them as large as 50mg; a comment here tells of a 100mg microscoop.  Again, take care, and know exactly what you have.

For greater accuracy, consider a milligram scale which can be had for about $20 US.


For a firm loaf you want more gluten development. So:

Cut out the fat: it impedes the reactions forming gluten.
Make sure your yeast or sour-dough starter is active, or use instant yeast (very reliable in my experience): the carbon dioxide created as a by-product of fermentation promotes gluten development.
Use stronger (that is, higher protein) white flour rather than AP flour
Work the dough thoroughly: it is hard to overknead by hand. Several short kneads can be more effective than one long knead.
Try giving the dough a long rest, for instance overnight in a fridge.
Avoid granary flours or seeds with sharp edges: these cut the developing gluten network and make for a weaker loaf.


I'm sure you'll be fine.  The yogurt would actually have to come into the temperature zone for harmful bacteria to become active, and then would have to have enough time for that bacteria to actually multiply enough to make you sick.  I have eaten room temp. yogurt many times.  You have nothing to worry about.


Does toasting and grinding whole spice really improve curry flavor?

I don't think roasting spices "improves" them or rejuvenates stale spices but it certainly does change the flavor profile in ways that may be desirable in some cases, for some spices, less so for other spices in other cases. This is common sense to me and also what I got out of the article. I think the heading of the article is too absolute for the content.

Whether or not dry-roasting is "better" depends on which spices and what you are doing with them - how long they will be in the recipe, what else is going in, etc, and what flavor profile you are looking for. I think the article goes into a lot of detail about this and has some good references (it looks like an interesting blog, thanks for sharing.)

For example, fresh, dried coriander seeds don't taste the same as toasted coriander, and fresh, untoasted, whole cumin doesn't taste like toasted/dry-roasted cumin.

If you add it raw vs dry-roasted, in general you are going to impart a slightly different flavor profile to the dish. Some recipes are complex and/or delicate enough that this matters, and as the article notes, this will be specified in recipes from trusted sources.

If you are making an uncooked chutney that you want to season with coriander seeds or fenugreek seeds, you need to toast them before grinding them if you want them to taste cooked. Or if you are seasoning your raita or lassi with cumin, it will probably taste better (or more like what would be expected) if you toast it.

But "better" really just depends on what you are looking for. The author of the linked article talks about what flavors she wants to impart to her squash soup, and that is great. If it's her recipe and her tastes, she should make it how she will enjoy it. But if you are trying to replicate a traditional recipe, you may want to follow the traditional methods for that dish at least the first time you do it, which may or may not use the spice how you are used to using it, it's even possible that the traditional way won't taste as good to you as using them how you're used to.

So again, that's fine, adapt the recipe, with the understanding that it may be a bit less traditional. That's how we end up with fusion cuisines, like Indian-Chinese, or British-Indian or American-Italian, adapting traditional methods to new ingredients or to differing tastes and preferences.

For the most part, in my Indian cooking, I rarely toast spices before adding them in unless I'm making something where it isn't going to be cooked further. I hadn't heard or been told that you "always" should roast all spices before grinding them.

In fact, most of the Indian cooks I've learned from use pre-ground spices for convenience, and I sometimes get weird looks from people in my generation when I make things less convenient and start from fresh, whole spices instead of spice blends. My point here is that there is sometimes a difference between what is ideal for a dish vs what is ideal for daily cooking. Both the daily "easy" method and the for-special-occasions-only multi-step preparation can be equally traditional for what is ostensibly the same dish.


What's the difference between latte, mocha, and all the other drinks on a coffee-house menu?

I am surprised no one has mentioned this wonderful graphic (Credit: Espresso Field Guide by the aptly named Jay Mug ):


The best way to remember a recipe is to understand the relationships between the ingredients. If you know what determines how much butter you need, you'll never have trouble remembering how much to put in.


How long can eggs be unrefrigerated before becoming unsafe to eat?

I never refrigerate eggs. They are marked for room temperature storage in UK and perfectly safe up to (and after) the use by date. Three days should be no problem unless you live somewhere really hot.


What happens if I use fresh mushrooms to make vegetarian Chinese mushroom soup (冬菇湯)?

Fresh/raw mushrooms are quite bland by themselves (yes I know there are exceptions).
I suggest pan fry in oil them before using them in the soup, or chop them up and bake them in the oven on a sheet pan.
When you are using dried mushroom, you will re-hydrate them in water and you will usually use the resulting liquid which contains a lot of flavor in the recipe.


difference between pan-cooking with and without oil

Sure. Oil gets quite hot, and it'll cook areas that aren't in direct contact with the bottom of the pan, which will certainly speed cooking time. The technical term for cooking with a small amount of oil is Sautéing. Without oil, you might call it grilling or searing? With more oil, frying.


How to know the doneness for a tough cut of meat

There are two basic cooking methods for tough cuts:

Cook for a long time ("low and slow"): this is appropriate for large pieces like roasts
Sear very quickly on both sides and remove while barely medium-rare: this is appropriate for thin steaks

The thing is, while many people mention the second method, it's still going to produce a relatively tough piece of meat.  Some people claim that you could take a piece of chuck steak or round steak and make it as tender as a ribeye as long as you cook it fast and don't overcook it.  That's just not true, but it's a way of cooking the meat fast, while minimizing the amount of toughness that occurs with fast cooking.

Usually you'd want to do this either with very thin steaks (which is one the reasons flank is often sliced very thin) or with the type of meat that you'd slice into thin strips before serving.  Many people cook a traditional "London Broil" this way (which tends to be a relatively lean and somewhat tough cut): very fast cooking on both sides, then slice thinly and serve.

The reason for these two conflicting pieces of advice is that "tough" meat reaches its maximum toughness when it's just "well-done."  You generally want to cook it to medium-rare, because that's when beef is juiciest, so you get juice and still less tough.  But once you go beyond medium-rare, it just gets tougher and less juicy.  At that point, the way forward is to continue to cook for a long time, which will eventually break down the tissues that make the meat tough (as you note), so you'll end up with thoroughly cooked but more tender meat in the end.


Cooking, freezing, recooking, and refreezing chicken

Yes, you can. You're not facing a food safety issue at all except possibly for violating the "time in the danger zone" rule, and then only if, in fact, the rule has been violated. Look at What do I need to know about temperature and food safety? for more on that. For what (admittedly little) it's worth, I find the strict interpretation of that rule (2 hours, cumulative) overly conservative in a home environment assuming healthy, non-pregnant, adult eaters, but that's not my call to make concerning your food.

What you may face is a quality issue. The texture of your chicken may be negatively effected by refreezing. The smaller your pieces of chicken, and the saucier the dish, the less likely it is that you will notice this negative affect on the chicken.


Is a longer defrost better than microwave defrosting?

Microwaving meat to defrost it tends to start cooking it at the edges and generally make it go weird and rubbery (scientific terms I know). So yes, it is better to defrost 'naturally' in the fridge, in terms of quality.

Freezing damages meat by bursting the cell walls as their water expands. This affects the texture more than the flavour. The damage is done when freezing, not cooking from frozen, so the latter should not effect taste. The main issue with cooking from frozen is that if the item is big (say, a roasting joint), the outside can be overdone by the time the middle gets up to a safe temperature.


In my experience, the two things you can do to most improve the crumb of your bread are:

Autolyse - Basically this means that once you combine your
flour    and water, let the dough sit for awhile (I usually autolyse
for 20-30    minutes).  This allows the flour to more completely
absorb the water,    and results in a more extensible dough.  Some
say that you should    wait to add salt until after you autolyse,
but I have seen no    difference after trying it both ways.
Take your time - An extended period of raising and proofing your dough almost always results in a better and more flavorful loaf.  Don't hesitate to use your refrigerator during your first or second rise to delay the activity of the yeast.  For sourdough, I prefer to use the fridge for my final, shaped proof.  This has the additional benefit of some nice effects with the crust.

There are quite a few other factors that may be contributing to your difficulties.  It sounds like your starter may not be active enough when you mix everything together. I would recommend more time feeding and preparing your starter before using it.

You might also benefit from some additional tricks and techniques.  Using your list of ingredients, the method I would use to bake bread is as follows:

Combine your flours and water (Yes, you may be autolysing for several hours, this is a good thing).
Activate your sourdough starter.
Combine your starter, the autolysed dough, salt, oil, and honey.
Knead. (I use a stand mixer on medium and go until the dough pulls away from the sides. Be patient here and try to resist the temptation to add more flour at this step, unless you've kneaded for 10 minutes and seen no change, but then only add a tablespoon of so.)
Place your dough in an oiled container (these are awesome). Put the container in a warm place until the dough has doubled.
Once your dough has doubled, gently remove it from the container onto a lightly floured surface. Stretch and fold your dough (in thirds, like a letter). Then rotate and do it again. Gently return the dough to your container for a second rise.
Let your dough rise until doubled again (I use a crayon to mark the side of my container so I know exactly where double should be). If your dough has been pretty active so far (if your first rise took less than an hour to double), I would do the second rise in the refrigerator.
Gently remove the dough from your container, onto a lightly floured surface and gently shape your loaf.  (One option is the batard.)
Place the shaped loaf on a lightly greased cookie sheet, on a SilPain (I love mine thoroughly), or on a nice layer of cornmeal on your peel, ready to slide directly onto the stone.  Cover the dough. (I use either loosely tented plastic wrap, or a clean dishtowel.)
Turn on your oven. Set the temperature 10% higher than the recipe calls for.(I preheat my oven during all of final proofing, with my bread stone on the lowest rack so it will be nice and hot. If you haven't tried baking with a stone, I cannot recommend it too highly.  The higher temperature is so your bread will have a nice initial spring in the oven.)
When your loaf has nearly doubled in size, mist it with water and slash it several times. (If you did your final shaped rise in the refrigerator, you don't need to let it sit at room temperature before putting it the oven.)
Get a cup full of ice cubes ready.
Open your oven, place the loaf on the stone, and drop the ice cubes on the floor of your oven (If you care about water stains in the bottom of your oven, you can place a cookie sheet or cast-iron skillet in the bottom to catch the ice cubes. If you do, put it in the oven before preheating.) Quickly, but gently close the door.
After 5 minutes, reduce your oven temperature to the normal baking temperature.
After another 10 minutes, crack the oven door briefly to release the steam.
A loaf like this will be done when the internal temperature reaches about 200˚F.
Remove the loaf to a cooling rack.  Resist the temptation to immediately devour it, as the texture of the crumb and the tenderness of the crust will be adversely effected if you cut it before the loaf has cooled somewhat.

Some resources that have helped me in my bread baking:

The Bread Bible
King Arthur Flour
Using a kitchen scale to measure by weight, rather than volume. (I understand the desire to throw a loaf together, eyeballing the ingredients, kneading with your hands.  It seems as though something as organic as creating bread should be like that. Every time I have tried, my loaf has been inferior. I have been baking bread for 20 years and am sad to admit that if I want my bread to be amazing, I have to measure everything precisely and use a mixer.)


What are safe temperature ranges for fermenting miso paste?

According to http://www.soya.be/make-miso.php

"If temperature is too high the koji culture could become inactive."

"The container should be place in a clean room with moderate temperatures (15°C – 25°C)."

Like yeast I think the only danger is that if temperatures get too hot it will stop working or living. Your best bet at keeping it cool is likely putting it in a dark cupboard or somewhere dark with some kind of insulation ideally to stop large temperature fluctuations and stop it getting too hot. You get foil insulated picnic bags for example. Or newspaper or foam would also help insulate.


It is the fat and connective tissue breaking down that give pulled pork the luscious mouthfeel you describe. Smothering it with barbecue sauce would probably help, but my favourite thing to do with leftover or less than successful carnitas is a pasta sauce. I just add the meat to a good tomato sauce with appropriate seasoning and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes.


Avoid non-stick pans.  Heat the pan before you place the meat or fat in the pan.  Use medium to medium high heat.  Add fat (oil, butter, for example).  Add the meat (pat dry), but don't crowd the pan.  Cook in batches if necessary, but too many (more than 2 or 3?) will mean that the fond will burn, so you may need a bigger pan, or two pans.  Place meat in pan.  Don't move it until you notice browning and it releases naturally from the bottom...or with very gentle pressure.  By the way, vegetables can also produce a fond.  Same rules apply.


Technique to bake donair meat in an oven

Disclaimer: I have not made Donairs at home.  However, I think the same principles apply to döner kebabs, gyros, shawarma, and really almost any fast-food meat.

I rather suspect that the problem is that you're using an oven.  Donairs, döner kebab, gyros, are all similar and are all intended to be cooked on a vertical spit that puts out upwards of 50,000 BTU.  Although that cumulative heat is usually spread across a few individual broilers and designed to cook a very large amount of the stuff at a time, the fact remains that this type of meat does best with quick, high, direct heat.

The grill on a gryo machine is much closer to a BBQ or stovetop than it is to an oven.  Ovens impart heat very gradually by comparison, giving the meat plenty of time to dry out.  And the oven does dry meat out; so much so that it's actually possible and relatively straightforward to make jerky in an oven, but that's a topic for another day.

Meat starts to release all its juices at 130° F / 54.5° C.  If you hold it in an oven at 375° (F or C, hardly matters at that point) for an extended period of time then it is, quite literally, going to turn into jerky.  By the time it gets above 150° F it is way overdone.  Note that at 180° F or 82° C, the collagen breaks down and converts to gelatin, which gives that really succulent and tender texture found in slow cooking, but in order to accomplish that you need to find a way to preserve moisture while the temperature rises (i.e. by brining, braising, or steaming).  More on this at the Science of Slow Cooking, if you're interested.

But, I suspect that you're not shooting for slow-cooking, so I'm going to suggest the next-best thing, which is to grill the meat instead of baking/roasting it.  Just don't use the oven.  When you grill it you are just searing the outside; the inside will not have a chance to get overdone or eject too much moisture (although you will still lose some, but gyros/donair meat is supposed to be a little dry).  The cuts tend to be so thin that it should only require a couple of minutes on the grill.

Grilling the meat should get you very close to the kind of consistency you get with a high-heat spit.  Most "street meat" I've eaten (not that I eat a lot of it!) has the consistency of grilled meat; well-done on the outside, medium or medium-rare on the inside.

If you insist on using the oven then use the broiler, which is also very similar to the vertical spit (although it won't broil the meat as evenly).  And if you insist on using the oven but not the broiler then I can only recommend that you use the highest temperature possible and take it out a few minutes before it reaches the desired tenderness, because even thin slices of meat will continue to cook and dry out for a few minutes afterward.


Dough whisk as a substitute to a mixer or wooden spoon

My dough whisk, Vera, is one of the most useful utensils in my kitchen. There's something magical about the loops that cause whatever you're mixing to combine easier and faster than using a spoon.

Not to be confused with a wire whisk, a dough whisk won't whip very much air into the mixture — unless you want it to. For making your shortbread, operate it just long enough to combine the ingredients, but not so long that it starts kneading the dough.

After mixing, the dough whisk will do a superior job of scraping down your mixing bowl. It requires no electricity, takes up less storage space, and cleanup is a breeze compared to other kinds of mixers. They're so inexpensive, no kitchen should be without one. If you've never tried using a dough whisk, you don't know what you're missing!

Oh, and don't let the name dough whisk fool you. Just as an egg beater can beat things other than eggs, a dough whisk can be used for many things besides dough. Beating eggs, for example; it's so lightweight and balanced that you can flick it rapidly, whisking in air much like a traditional wire whisk, to create a fluffy mixture.

A dough whisk can simplify your kitchen and cooking workflow by replacing several other, bulkier, harder-to-clean utensils. There are many to choose from on Amazon, but they're essentially the same except for size:

My Vera is the larger 14" size, she sells for less than $8. I bought a second whisk which also claimed to be "large", but as you can see, is somewhat smaller. They both work great!


In an ideal world, you would chill any hot food product rapidly before putting it in the refrigerator.  However, modern refrigerators can handle the load from a mass of hot food, so it is better to put the food in the refrigerator than to hold it at room temperature to cool.

The goal is to minimize the amount of time in the danger zone (40-140 F, 4-60 C) during which pathogens can grow.

See also:

What are some techniques to cool down a dish so that we can store it in the refrigerator safely?
How effective are modern home refrigerators at keeping other foods cool when hot food is introduced to the space?
How do I know if food left at room temperature is still safe to eat?


Dried beans, cooked in an acidic sauce, haven't softened enough - can I do anything now?

Blender.
That will get them soft.  Then you can fry the bean paste, like refried beans.


How are powdered emulsifiers (such as monoglycerides) prepared for use in cooking and baking?

Emulsifiers are a type of surfactant that helps combine oil and water. They are polar molecules with a hydrophobic side and a hydrophilic side (one side attracts fat and one side attracts water). They can be used in many, many ways, so it's difficult to answer this question fully, but I can give you a few examples.

First, I make almond milk all the time. It separates rather quickly, so I generally just shake it up right before use. But I sometimes put soy lecithin in it and put it in my Vitamix, heating it up (which helps with the emulsification) and blending in the emulsifier. This keeps the almond milk from separating in my fridge. The more I use the less separation I find.

You can use sodium stearoyl lactylate in breadmaking, mixing it with the flour before adding the other ingredients (whisk it together). This will give you a softer crumb, more volume, and a longer shelf life.

There are many ways to use common emulsifiers as well, such as egg yolks and mustard in mayonnaise. You can also use a little mustard in a vinaigrette, or egg yolks in a hollandaise sauce.

If you are making any food which is an emulsion (such as a forcemeat) and you're finding separation of the fat/water, try using an emulsifier.


What is the impact of repeated cooling and reheating of maple syrup?

The Cornell Sugar Maple research program website has a couple of relevant points:

If you find mold inside a newly-bought, previously unopened bottle of syrup, it is probably spoiled because of improper packaging.

  What causes syrup to have a musty or moldy flavor or smell?
  Syrup that is improperly packed will mold, sour, or ferment. Syrup must be packed
  at 180°F and at a minimum of 66 Brix to avoid spoilage.

(Brix is the measure of sugar in the syrup.)

In your particular case where you see mold and want to reheat it, it seems that yes, you can reheat the syrup but it may crystallize a little:

  If a consumer finds bacteria, mold, or yeast growth on syrup he or she
  has purchased, he or she should remove the visible growth and reheat
  the syrup to a minimum of 180°F (do not boil), skim any visible
  growth, filter, and repackage the syrup. If syrup still has an
  off-flavor, it should be discarded. Also, the sugar content may
  increase causing sugar crystals to form.


Boiled chicken breast skin tastes like soap

Maybe it's not soap that you taste.  At least here in the US, most chicken bound for the supermarket is sprayed or dipped in a bleach solution.  It could be you are picking up on that, but it is not a taste I've ever noticed.


They have it on major electronic marketplaces like Alibaba and Amazon. The amounts can be household-friendly, e.g. by the kilo (2.2 pounds).


Pumpkin Bread that is similar to Banana Bread

Is pumpernickel a form of pumpkin bread? No, definitely not. Pumpernickel is defined by the grain used (specifically rye) and not by any added ingredients.

Can you make bread with pumpkins? Sure! Pumpkin bread is generally a moist quickbread, and like banana bread is often intended as a breakfast food. Unlike with bananas, the pumpkin usually has to be roasted to soften it before use, so it can take a bit more effort (though there is an excellent instructional guide on the old SA companion blog) unless you use a pre-cooked canned pumpkin.

The moisture, protein, and fat content of pumpkin (or any squash, really) will also differ from banana, so you are best off not substituting into a banana bread recipe. Fortunately, a quick Google search for "pumpkin bread" shows dozens of recipes from different sources. Pick one that looks good to you and have a go.


Why does cold coffee taste sweeter with the same amount of sugar?

This research paper suggests that, in general, pH, temperature, and ions don't generally significantly affect our perception of sweetness intensity.  Since temperature and acidity are the two major differences between iced and hot coffee (depending on preparation), this more or less rules out the possibility of a chemical difference.

  "The main finding from this three-part study was that temperature, pH, and ions had little effect on the perceived sweetness intensity of the sweeteners studied. Even when significant differences were found in the temperature study, the effects were very small."

This, to me, suggests it's either due to larger "sips" of cold coffee and more of an opportunity to taste the sweetness or because sugars dissolve less readily in the cold coffee and it's easier to perceive the sweetness when it's not in a solution.


Sourdough starter without whole grain flour

Yes, a sourdough starter can be made from AP flour. Rye and other whole grain flours are recommended because they can generally be built up more quickly, given the higher level of nutrients available to yeasts and bacteria, but I've been able to make the process work with AP flour.  It is fairly likely that you will need at least some whole grain flour if you get into bread making.  So, it's not a bad idea to have a small amount of whole grain flour on hand.  In either case, give it a go.  There is not much to lose!


Does putting salt in coffee really remove bitterness?

In a Good eats episode from the 13th season (The Ballad of Salty and Sweet), Alton Brown explains how salt (specifically the sodium) blocks your tongue's taste buds from sensing bitterness. Sweetness however is not blocked. It also is known to enhance other flavours. Salt on chocolate is awesome for example. Salt also has the ability to still taste salty while doing all the rest.


Does the "plunger" type cherry-pitter work?

I actually just pitted about 10 gallons of cherries using a plunger style pitter very similar to that one.

The cherries are gravity fed from the hopper into the chute. Only one cherry can fit at the bottom of the chute and it lines up nicely with the plunger.

From time to time cherries would fail to fall into the chute and I would have to clear the traffic jam. The majority of the time they fell in just fine and I could pit about a cherry a second.

The plunger does not have to line up with the top of the cherry, it will eject the pit from any orientation. Manual pitters do make for more attractive presentation because you can pick the exit wound location. I used a metal straw to good effect but it was just too slow to pit in bulk.


How to neutralize candied glacé strawberry and kiwi

Glacé, or candied fruit, is basically fruit preserved with sugar.  So, yes, it can be very sweet.  Even for sugar lovers, it is hard to eat much.  I would suggest using it in cake or cookies.  Italians have a tradition of such cakes and cookies that call for the addition of chopped candied fruit.  I am sure other cultures do as well. I would suggest using them as an ingredient, rather than attempting to somehow remove or reduce the sugar content.


Pressure cookers and pressure canners are the same thing; with the canners being larger, and often having a pressure dial. Both can reach the same pressures and therefore temperatures if designed and manufactured correctly

The pressure canners dial gauge is more accurate for adjusting for food types and altitude, as you can get exact numbers not just 10 psi and 15 psi as with typical weight regulated pressure cookers. But for low acid foods you need 15 psi anyway

Pressure preserving is done because of the higher temperatures reached. This saves time and energy, and some food react better to a short 250°F (120°C) cook that an long 210°F (100°C) cook

Pressure preserving high acid food is worth doing as long as the food does not deteriorate quicker due to the high temperature (some soft fruits will)

For preserving low acid foods you need a known good pressure cooker that can reach 15 psi (103 Pa) and therefore 250°F (120°C)

With a commercially published recipe that has been acid level tested, you will have a published time that will be safe. For a home-made recipe you have to take the worst case scenario for the acid level of the main content, and cook for that. Your local government health department will most likely publish tables for this that you should be using. Remember to use altitude adjustments for timings too

Just relying on adding a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice per jar is not a safe and scientific method for raising the acid level, though many people do it, and have not come to any trouble with it?

You pressure cooker should come with a manual that confirms what it can or cannot do. Download a new copy if this has been lost

Also see What kinds of pressure cookers are there, and what are they good for?


What is the internal temperature a steak should be cooked to for Rare/Medium Rare/Medium/Well?

Extra-Rare: 125F (52C)

  Rare: 135F (57C)

  Medium-Rare: 145F (63C)

  Medium: 160F (71C)

  Well-Done: 170F (77C)

Note: Extra-Rare and Rare are not recommended by USDA


How to Prevent Apples from turning Brown

The fast food chains that sell pre-cut apples in bags use Nitrogen or similar food inert gas. But I can't see this being practical in a normal kitchen

Acid is the answer, try slightly less noticeable acid sources such as fresh (as in you squeezed it) orange or pineapple juice

They should not taint the taste so much if you just lightly brush it on the exposed surfaces, don't soak the apples in it


Blending pastry cream right after cooking: does it change final consistency?

Yes. Yes it does. Unfortunately, I did something similar once, and it basically gave my pastry cream the consistency of creme anglaise. It made a delicious ice cream base, but failed as a cream puff filling.
My best explanation is that the blender destroyed the protein structure of the partially cooked egg, but my attempts to look into it in the past haven't been successful. However I also know that an immersion blender cannot be used to whip egg whites, and in fact makes it much harder to do so. (They did whip somewhat, but still had a kind of slimy texture.)
Having said that, it's hard to comment on your recipe ratios when they aren't included, but the use of a blender definitely changes the texture of cooked custard/pastry cream and makes it much thinner.
If something like this happens again, keep a pan of warm water in reserve. Chocolate will melt at far lower temperatures than would damage your cream. Just place the bowl of cream and stubborn chocolate back over the low heat and stir until melted.


Taste difference of bottled beer vs. canned beer

According to the only study we have(PDF of original study) on the topic, it does not make a difference whether beer comes from a bottle or can.  In this study, participants who were shown the bottle or can had a preference for bottles, but participants who were not shown the beer container did not.

Results from the blind taste test – when participants had no knowledge about the beers or where they came from – showed that there were no preferences for bottled or canned beer, one way or another. Nearly 45% of participants rated the canned beer better than the bottled, 41% of participants rated the bottled beer better than the canned, and close to 1.5% said they both tasted the same.

Of necessity, the participants in this study were drinking from a plastic cup.  So it remains possible that you can taste the container directly if you are drinking straight from the bottle or can, with the glass or aluminum touching your lips.


Can white rice be burned without looking yellow, brown or black?

Probably no. Burnt rice will smell burnt and turn black and impact a lot of the rice.

I've burn rice, and it ends by discarding everything.

On the other hand,
There is a brief moment between cooked rice and burnt rice when the rice on the bottom of the pan is just getting crispy, like the Paella's socarrat.


In a cup with water. You place them straight up in a small cup with a little water. Just like you would if you were storing flowers.

You'll want to store this in your chill chest on the top most rack; to avoid any cross contamination from other possible food products (chicken, etc).

You may want to leave the rubber band on to allow it to stay tidy. If you must you can cover your asparagus cup with a zip lock bag on top.

With this method we usually can store asparagus for 5-7 days.

If you must keep them longer it maybe better to just freeze them in an air tight bag. after they're dried out.


How can I remove the greasiness from my ice cream?

I'd find a recipe without cream cheese.

You can make ice cream with all the other ingredients without it being greasy, assuming "glucose de 46" is just glucose. Cream cheese can be greasy, though, so it's almost certainly the culprit. (I suppose you should also check that you're using the right kind, i.e. not using full-fat when the recipe calls for low-fat.)

There's not really a lot of point trying to modify the existing recipe to remove it; you'd have to look at other recipes to get the right ratios anyway, so you might as well just make one of those other recipes.


Why do spots appear on iceburg lettuce during cold storage？（0~4℃）

The brown spots you see are known as "russet spotting". This is a reaction which is believed to be caused by ethelyne gas emitted from citrus, such as apples, bananas, etc.

Bottom line, the lettuce is completely safe to eat. It's certainly less visually appealing, but it is indeed safe to eat. For ideas on preventing russet spotting, check out the source linked above.


Honey is not vegan.  In short, the core tenet of veganism is living without exploiting anything in the animal kingdom, and most (if not all) vegans consider taking honey from bees a form of exploitation.


How to find a good sweet potato fry cutter?

I have the Progressive International Jumbo Potato Cutter and it works well for sweet potato fries. The product spec for them lists "Yams" which are sometimes what sweet potatoes are called in the U.S. (technically, yes, yams are different but real yams are not often available in the U.S.). The LEM Products Commercial French Fry Cutter specifically lists sweet potatoes:

  Makes French fries, sweet potato fries, zucchini sticks and other
  favorites


You can roast them, or shell them and then put them into soups/congees.

This article seems to have pretty clear instructions:
http://www.thekitchn.com/ingredient-spotlight-ginkgo-nu-105591


What is the difference between the dairy products quark and skyr?

Stiftung Warentest, a famous German consumer protection agency, actually tried to answer that question and even had trained food testers try to determine the difference in taste. The result was basically that Skyr is very close to lightly beaten (Mager-)Quark, but with a higher acidity closer to traditional Yoghurt than traditional Quark and with a higher calcium content.


Best pan to use for cooking in olive oil?

First of all, a Teflon pan will get gradually ruined anyway. Even when you don't use oil, the heat and the food itself will wear out the coating, it is just very sensitive this way. Using oil will speed up the process.

Second, both existing technologies for nonstick pans, PTFE (Teflon) and ceramic, will get ruined by oil. If you want to cook with olive oil and the pan to last forever, you will have to switch to pans without nonstick coating. Practically any other pan will work here (except tinned copper, where the coating also gets worn, independently of oil this time). But you will have to build up much better cooking skills to prevent your food from sticking to the pan. You will also have to increase your oil use. Seasoned iron or carbon steel pans offer a certain amount of nonstickiness (certain combinations of food/temperature still stick), but they also require a bit of maintenance and knowledge.

For many people, the tradeoff is not worth it, and they stay with teflon, replacing the pan every now and then. If it is worth it for you, there is no single answer to suggest, different pan types are optimal for different applications.


How to reduce the bitterness of tonic water in a non-alcoholic citrus drink?

EDIT: My original version of this answer came from my incomplete recollection of a chapter in Kevin Liu's Craft Cocktails at Home on flavor balancing.  Now that I have the book in front of me again, I'm adding more relevant detail and revising the parts I got wrong.  In all fairness, salient points are already covered in other answers, but I think the science here is neat.

Bitter flavors in general are fairly difficult to mask.  This is possibly an evolutionary adaptation - bitterness can be an indication of toxicity in wild plants, so a sensitivity to bitter compounds in very minute quantities may have helped our ancestors avoid being poisoned.  In order to produce flavors of roughly equal intensity (using a perceptual measurement technique known as the Labeled Magnitude Scale), it takes about 3000 times the concentration of sucrose (sweet) to equal one part of quinine sulfate, the principal bittering agent in tonic water.  (It takes about 1500x relative concentration for sodium chloride and 50x for citric acid).

Relative concentrations aside, you get some interesting effects when these flavors begin to interact.  (Liu reproduces a number of figures from a fascinating paper published by Green et al. at this point.)  Perceptually, sweetness is also very difficult to suppress (another likely biological preference, since sweetness often indicates a concentrated source of energy in the form of sugar) and it will tend to dampen the perception of other flavors.  This is one of the reasons why commercial tonic water typically includes a pretty hefty amount of sugar or corn syrup (somewhere around 30 grams per 12 oz).  Adding sourness to the mix will suppress bitterness further; fortunately you're already doing this by using citrus.  Finally, salt will substantially reduce the perception of bitterness, while remaining barely detectable in the final mixture.  Salt also has the unique effect of "leveling out" sourness and bitterness when added to a solution that contains both (compare the rightmost two groupings from this figure) and as a result, Liu concludes that "Salt = magical fairy dust".  Yes, that's a direct quote from the book.

The lesson to draw from all of this makes intuitive sense: since bitterness is so difficult to cover up, you want a lot of other flavors in combination.  Adding sugar for sweetness will help, and including acid from citrus will too; it sounds like you've discovered this on your own.  The counter-intuitive part is that adding salt will further suppress bitterness and mellow out the acidity as well.

I would add a couple other observations from personal experience.  Because bitterness is detectable in low concentrations, you definitely don't want to add any more.  Steer clear of citrus that has a significant bitter component (like lime or grapefruit) and be careful to avoid introducing pith (the bitter white part of the peel).  If you're adding sugar, you can be much more liberal about the amount of salt you add; sweetness has a strongly suppressing effect on saltiness.  You could probably get away with a teaspoon or so in a gallon of tonic water if you're adding a couple tablespoons of sugar too.  As others have mentioned, this will all be much easier to combine if you make solutions of the sugar and salt (for simple syrup and, ah, salt water respectively) and then combine those into your tonic instead of just adding the dry forms.

Finally, don't give up on the tonic too soon.  It's a bit of an acquired taste, but I find that slight bitterness can lend some depth to mixes, and some guests really enjoy that; there's a reason why the gin and tonic is so popular.  If the quinine is really too much for you even after extensive modification, try diluting with additional seltzer or club soda.  Don't toss it out; instead, try using it in small dashes in other drinks as you experiment.  Trying new combinations is the absolute best way to learn what you like.


You're missing an important step here: You need to use cold water immediately after the boiling water in order to halt the cooking process.

Boil them for about 1 minute, then drain.  (You can pour boiling water over them, as in the case of almonds - it doesn't really matter how you do this.)
Submerge or rinse in cold water, to prevent any further cooking and softening;
Peel them.

For the case of almonds, you should not rub them in order to peel.  Just pinch the end - they should pop right out of their peels.  If you find it taking any more effort than this, stop, don't waste any more time on peeling, and just blanch them again.  If you've blanched them long enough, peeling will be very easy.


Are bubbling preserved lemons a sign of spoilage?

This is totally not a problem.

This style of lemon preservation relies on fermentation. The salt is not intended to halt all fermentation- it just restricts it to the tasty kind. Fermented pickles are a common and traditional way to preserve food because the salt and acid and thriving tasty bacteria make a very inhospitable environment for bad bugs.

The production of gas is just a symptom of the fermentation and not a problem. I regularly make Indian lemon pickle, which sounds like a similar recipe, and it produces some amount of gas. Recipes will typically call for the lid to be gently closed to allow some of the gas to escape- just to prevent the bottle from exploding.

This is not your typical canning. Typical canning uses acid or high temps to stop all bacterial growth. In that kind of canning gas production would be a very bad sign and you would have to throw it out.


Why did my brown beef stock end up yellow?

The brown color of the stock comes from the cooking method, not the kind of bones, a chicken stock cooked in the "brown stock" method can be as dark as what we expect beef stock to be.

Roasting the bones was a good start; but you also need to brown the vegetables, either with the bones for the last half hour or in a pan on the stovetop.

One of the most important parts of brown stock is to add tomato to the vegetable mix, either finely diced or more often tomato paste. Cooking the tomato to a dark brick red will round out the components needed to make a very dark stock.

Whether you roast all the ingredients together in the oven or separate the vegetables to the stove; deglazing everything as you did helps the flavor, color, and of course makes cleaning the pans easier :)


Can I use an enameled trivet on the stove top?

I would not recommend using this trivet on any heat source. First, because that is not what it is designed to be used for. Secondly the description says that they have rubber feet, not a good match for a heat source. And while I suppose you could remove them, I couldn't recommend that in good conscience.
EDIT
As per @Jefromi's comment below and as evidenced on  Dictionary.com , there are two types of trivets.

noun
1.a small metal plate with short legs, especially one put under a hot platter or dish to protect a table.
2.a three-footed or three-legged stand or support, especially one of iron placed over a fire to support cooking vessels or the like.

The type shown in the ad/picture in the question is designed to be used to protect table tops and counter tops from the heat of a hot pot or pan.


The stems are edible and flavorful, with a crunch that may or may not be desirable in your dish,  but the lower portion of them tends to be a little stringy.  I always trim off the bottom,  but as for the rest of the stem,  it depends on what I am making.

For raw dishes where it is chopped quite finely (koshimbir, pico de gallo) or even ground to a paste (chutney), or if there are other crunchy textured ingredients,  I will chop and include the stem (the middle to upper part, where there are also leaves branching off, or as much of it seems tender).

If I am cooking it (as a seasoning in a soup or dal) or if it will be wilted and steamed as it is tossed with a hot dish, then it is also fine to include it (chopped).

For other things (raw, where a crunch will be out of place), I only use the very tender parts of the stem with the leaves. Or if the leaves will be more visible as a garnish or accent,  I might strip the leaves from the stems more carefully and not use any (or much) stem.

This is generally how I treat most herbs that don't have a woody stem,  at least,  if the stem has a nice flavor like the leaves.


Precise temperature reading on induction cooker

I use a Sunartis E514 digital household thermometer on an induction stove, and I get normal readings.

I can't say it is the best thermometer out there, as it is a bit slow. The specification is 4 to 10 seconds measuring time. From experience, it doesn't need 4 seconds to change the display when immersed in hot liquid, but while it gives you the temperature with 0.1°C precision, I guess this temp is slightly lagging. That can ruin a batch of candy or dark chocolate, but these are still doable if you are mentally accounting for the lag. It is great for everything else. The low price is another advantage.

I can't promise 100% that it will work with any induction stove. Mine is a small portable one, and maybe its magnetic field is weaker than that of a full-sized stove. For temperature-sensitive applications, I usually cook on 500 Watt, but I've had the thermometer inside (also very close to the bottom of the pot) at higher settings, so I hope it will work. Nevertheless, it is probably a good idea to get it from a place with good return policy.


Duck feet will render plenty of gelatin because of the amount of cartilage, same as chicken feet. Any bird's feet are a good choice.

The method for making stock is pretty much the same no matter what you put into it, so yes, you can follow your favourite recipe for chicken stock and substitute duck feet. The only thing to keep in mind is that duck feet, like any other duck parts, are substantially more fatty than their chicken equivalents, so assuming you want a clear or mostly-clear stock, you'll have to spend a lot of time skimming.

Alternatively you can "clean" the feet and other bones by boiling them in plain water for 5-10 minutes, then dumping it all out and starting over - which is what your linked recipe suggests. I don't usually do this for brown stocks because you lose a lot of flavour, but if you're starting from raw then it won't make much difference and it's an easy/lazy way to get rid of a lot of the fat at once.