Are mascarpone and clotted cream the same thing?

They are completely different.

Clotted cream, also called Devonshire cream, is made by heating unpasteurized milk until a layer of cream forms on the surface. The mixture is then cooled, and the cream skimmed off. It has a butterfat content between 55 percent and 63 percent. Unlike creme fraiche it is not a cultured milk product, and is typically eaten as a tea-time accompaniment to scones or bread. Clotted cream is also naturally thickened by the heating process, whereas tartaric acid (a thickening agent) is added to mascarpone to create a firmer, smoother texture.

Mascarpone is classified as a curd cheese, unlike clotted cream and creme fraiche. The fat content in mascarpone is 25 percent. It is made by heating cream and adding tartaric acid to the mixture to further thicken it. The mixture is then cooled and strained, yielding the creamy-textured mascarpone. Mascarpone may be used as a dessert filling or as a thickener in savory sauces. Some methods of mascarpone production call for initially culturing the cream prior to heating and mixing it with tartaric acid.


Are there certain kinds of salts that work best for baking (cakes, bread, etc)?

Salt that is used for food consumption is always meant to be sodium chloride (and may or may not contain other things such as iodine). Other "salts" (to use the term in the chemistry sense) such as potassium chloride are not generally used by themselves for human consumption or specified in food preparation, even though they are potentially safe to eat.

Sea salt is still 85% sodium chloride but because it has additional chemicals/elements/compounds in it, does have a different taste.

For best results when baking, use plain table salt, sodium chloride, with or without iodine (which is added to provide a necessary nutrient for those not living near a salt-water source of fish or not eating enough salt-water fish). Note from the link that sea salt does not contain enough iodine to supply a nutritionally adequate amount.


sourdough bread making-without bakers yeast

Without seeing the loaves or knowing your exact procedures, it's hard to guess. My money would be on too dry a dough. Could also be inactive starter, too long a bake, not a hot enough bake, not enough rise time/temperature. So I'll just talk about how I make sourdough in the hopes it'll help. These are techniques I've learned from various books (most notably Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice) and experiences.

If I did it right, you can click any of the thumbnails for full size images.

First order of business, of course, is having a nice, active starter. I build my final starter from the barm the day before. Depending on my schedule, I either leave it at room temp all night or feed it earlier in the day and pop it in the fridge. It then comes out to warm up a few hours before I bake. It should show strong signs of life. This starter was made with nothing but flour and water--no grapes, no commercial yeast, no juice.

Then comes mixing and kneading. I like to mix the starter with the water first, allowing the starter to break up and dissolve a bit. This ensures good mixing with the final dough. Then I add the flour and salt, mix to a coarse ball...

...and switch to the dough hook for 5 minutes or so. The dough should be stickier than you think it should be. Turn it out onto a floured surface for 4-5 minutes of final kneading by hand to adjust the flour. It should be smooth and supple, still be a bit tacky, and pass the windowpane test. When you stretch it to form a boule, the outside should be smooth and not tear.

Let it rise 3-4 hours at room temp or slightly warmer (a closed oven with a bowl of hot water works well). Then shape and proof for another 3-4 hours.

I start with a very hot oven. 500-550F for artisan loaves. If using a stone, get it in there 45-60 minutes before baking, that way the stone and oven get a good heat soak. Then when the loaves go in, you want to create steam to allow the bread to rise before the crust hardens. A steam pan is a good idea, and I also spray down the walls of the oven with a squirt bottle. Be careful of squirting the light bulb--it will shatter. Don't ask me how I know. After a few squirts, turn the heat down to your final baking temp. I usually go with 450F.

Don't forget to slash them, too. That helps them expand and prevents blowouts. I had some issues getting these guys onto the stone (not my finest hour), but they were still outstanding. You can see the crumb is open and light, but still gelatinized and chewy. Perfect, in my book.


Will coated chicken fry up ok if not fried right away?

How are you coating it? Is it coated in eggs and then flour? If so, then yes. That's exactly how I make mine. The egg ends up sticking better if you do that. I learned this from Alton Brown's cookbook, and use the method all the time.


How long do uncut, fresh strawberries last in the refrigerator?

It's very variable. I've had them last well over a week especially the best of the small ones I grow (if they're a little overripe they get eaten immediately, if slightly damaged they get frozen to make jam when I have enough). On the other hand one soft one in the bottom of the pack can reduce it to a couple of days, and this can be due to damage in packing or transit. If you spot the soft ones straight away you can still eat them and the rest will keep, but left too long they'll go mouldy.

I haven't noticed a difference between the keeping properties of organic or cheap berries in the same type of packaging.


Is there a kind of food like bread that I can use to absorb sauce but that doesn't dry out so fast?

Here are a few ideas, starting with how you can make bread work, based on my comment:

Bread rolls often keep better than loaves, because they have a crust all round. You can often buy them singly. Demi baguettes are similar but about twice the size.

Part baked rolls keep for months (sealed, once open keep in the fridge and use within a few days). You finish cooking them just before serving, which is easy if you've got the oven on anyway.

Bread freezes well, at least for short periods, as does home made dough. You could form it into rolls, freeze, defrost in the fridge, and bake twice a week.

Many of these ideas require using an oven. If you don't have one or don't want to use it daily, you still have the option of flatbreads. Chapatis, for example, are intended to eat sauce with, and cook in a dry frying pan. They're simple to make fresh or, as with flour tortillas, you can buy or make a batch, keep in the fridge, and reheat in a microwave. You can often find prepacked flatbreads in 2-serving packs; until opened they keep for weeks, after that, seal them up and you've got a couple of days.

If bread is getting a little dry, toasting it makes it nicer (especially if you melt butter with crushed garlic and spread that on it).

Moving away from bread, rice and pasta don't really absorb much sauce, but couscous does (especially if you are a little mean with the water when cooking it. Boiled, jacket, or even roast potatoes can be mashed into gravy with your fork.


Baking Jiggly Cheese cake in microwave oven convection mode

This looks like quite a fussy recipe - the author says Keys  for perfect Japanese souffle cheesecake is "meringue" and "oven temperature". After so many trials and errors, I present this cheesecake before you...  That's not to say you can't do it, but getting the results you want may take a couple of goes.

A good microwave oven convection mode is a reasonable imitation of a real oven (mine is Panasonic which should be comparable to Samsung) but the top heat can be a little fierce especially for tall things, which may be a further issue as you don't want to open the door.  This may actually be the hardest part to deal with.

Heating is quick enough to be comparable to a normal oven when you turn the temperature up.  Cooling may be a little quicker - you have less thermal mass and the insulation tends not to be as good as modern ovens.  Quoting from the recipe:

  bake on the lower rack of the preheated oven at 120 degree Celsius for
  20 minutes

  then increase the temperature to 150 degree Celsius and
  bake for 40 minutes

  now reduce heat to 120 degree Celsius and bake for
  30 minutes

  now turn off the oven and keep this in the oven for 10
  minutes

  the temperature and timing may vary depending on oven

(emphasis mine)

I'd expect the second 120°C period to be a little short - so maybe increase to 35 minutes (or perhaps even increase the length of the 150°C bit by 5 minutes).  If the cooling when you turn it off is a little quicker than expected it may not finish cooking in the middle.  One thing you can do to increase the thermal mass (i.e. make it change temperature more slowly) is to preheat and cook with a large lump of ceramic in there, for example a pizza stone or a couple of stoneware dinner plates.  This should reduce the cooling when you open the door to put the cheesecake in, reducing the amount the (top) element has to run, as well as slowing the change when you change the setpoint.


The only way to get the mixture crumbly is to cut the margarine into pieces, then freeze the pieces while making the main part of the recipe, then use the frozen pieces in the topping.


Yes, you can freeze mirepoix, but it'll be pretty soft once defrosted, as Peter V noted. Onions and celery do not freeze well, though carrots do okay.

All three vegetables, when whole, should be blanched for a few minutes before freezing. For vegetable-specific freezing instructions see the National Center for Home Food Preservation's Freezing Guide.

It's best to use fresh, but blanched for 1-2 minutes then frozen works okay. I do not blanch diced vegetables for more than 2 minutes.


what does it mean to incorporate in recipes

It means mix until the 2 things are evenly mixed, so that they are 1 thing now.

You want to just mix enough so they are evenly mixed and no more as sometimes mixing more than necessary can spoil the recipe


I've seen it in a lot of grocery stores either with the baking ingredients or at the meat counter. If your grocery store doesn't carry it, you might be able to request it. You might also be more likely to find it at an ethnic grocer, as it is traditionally used in tortillas, tamales, ramen, etc .


What is the ideal hydration for bread dough?

Bread hydration varies widely.  The "standard" bread using all-purpose (plain) flour has a ratio of water to flour weight (hydration) 60-65%.  Flour with a higher protein level, labelled as bread, strong, or high-gluten, tend to use 65% hydration.  Ciabatta and rustic breads generally use more water than normal.  The extra water gives them more large, uneven holes in the interior of the bread (called the crumb), and generally leads to a higher-rising bread. These wetter doughs are often referred to as "slack" doughs in baker's parlance.

Here are a couple sample hydrations from Hammelman's bread baking:

Baguettes with poolish, 66% hydration, all bread flour
Ciabatta, 73% hydration, all bread flour
Pain Rustique (rustic bread), 69% hydration, all bread flour
Country Bread, 68% hydration, all bread flour
Roasted Potato bread, 61% hydration, 85% bread flour / 15% whole wheat flour / 25% roasted potatoes
Whole wheat bread, 68% hydration, 50/50 whole wheat and bread flour
Semolina (Durum) bread, 62% hydration, 50/50 durum and bread flours

Mind you, it is quite possible to make a bread with even higher water content, if one is a skilled baker.  Wetter breads (70% hydration and up) generally cannot be hand-kneaded normally, and require a mechanical mixer, stretch-and-fold kneading with a spatula, or autolysis. Autolysis is when you mix water and flour before adding yeast, and then allow it to sit.  This allows enzymes in the flour to develop gluten before the rising begins, and can supplement or replace normal kneading.

Another approach, called double-hydration, is to add only part of the water before kneading.  This allows you to knead the bread to develop gluten structure before it becomes too wet to knead.

For extremely wet breads, these methods may all be combined.  I'm looking right now at a double-hydration, mechanically mixed, autolyzed, poolish-using ciabatta recipe that sits at 76% hydration.


What ingredients to use to prevent steak from drying out on the grill?

I was going to address your post point-by-point, but I think it's probably better to start over. It sounds like you've done quite a bit of workshopping here. I disagree with a number of the conclusion's you've reached. If you really do want a juicy steak beyond well-done, I don't think you're going in the right direction to get the results you're looking for.

In a steak— which for the sake of this answer I define as a quick-cooking cut of beef, rather than the more accurate definition which specifies which way it's cut— the thing that makes it 'juicy' is the moisture that's trapped in the muscle fibers. When that muscle fiber tenses up, either through heat or acid, it squeezes out the moisture. Asking how you can keep a steak juicy beyond well-done is like asking how to keep a bag of sponges wet after you've rung them all out. The most likely explanation for your vinegar onion mixture keeping the steak from shrinking is that it already shrank from the acid in the marinade before you put it on the grill.

Enzymes will only succeed in killing the structural integrity of the muscle fiber. By the time they're decomposed enough to not squeeze out the moisture when they're cooking, you're going to have meat gruel rather than a steak. If you're interested in eating mushy steak, you could probably succeed in using enough of an enzyme like papain (which is usually what's in the 'meat tenderizer' jar in the spice section of your grocery store) to do that for you.

Taking a standard steak cut, marinating it, and grilling it ded is going to produce a dry, powdery, and/or mushy piece of meat every time.

Now, consider a piece of braised beef. It's FAR beyond well-done, (over 190F/88C) but it's pleasant to eat. This is because good braising cuts— think brisket, short ribs, chuck, or anything that would go in a beef stew—have a whole lot of the connective tissue collagen, and when cooked gently for quite some time, that collagen dissolves into gelatin. The muscle fibers themselves are quite dry and stringy, but each 'bite' is juicy thanks to all of that gelatin packed into the meat in between the muscle fibers. If you were to take some shredded, braised pork and rinse it in some water, it would immediately cease to be a luxurious rich shredded meat, and become a pile of dry stringy garbage.

The only way I can think of having beef beyond well-done on the grill which is not extraordinarily unpleasant to eat is to use a cut like chuck, lightly braise it first (you don't want it falling-apart tender,) let it cool in the braising liquid, and then finish it on the grill. It will keep in your refrigerator quite nicely after it's braised, and you can reheat it on the grill; no need to heat it beyond 135 or so when reheating it, so it won't dry out. If you reduce the cooking liquid, it will make an incredible glaze that you can brush onto the meat as it grills. If you're looking to get more of that raw-steak-on-grill flavor, sear the meat on very high heat on the grill before you braise it. The flavor will be infused throughout the end product.


Since you note that the inside was nice and juicy, I doubt that salting 30 minutes in advance was the culprit.  Either sear at a slightly lower temp or do it for less time.  I just got a new grill and the "high" setting was much hotter than I expected and my first steaks seared much quicker than I expected.

A note on the salting in advance:  Cook's Illustrated highly recommends the practice of liberally salting and then allowing to sit for an extended time. Provided that the meat sits long enough it actually acts like a "dry brine".  The salt initially draws out moisture but due to the high concentration of salt on the exterior of the meat, the salt is drawn into the tissue through osmosis (same as brining) and the juice re-enters the tissue at which point it retains the juiciness from the moisture retention capabilities of the salt.

You might try salting the meat immediately upon removing from the refrigerator to provide additional time for the "brine" that forms to be reabsorbed by the meat.


Why do we use so much water to cook spaghetti?

A tall thin pot is a hazard as it can be tipped over all too easily

The book says use lots of water to ensure even cooking and to stop the pasta sticking. But regular stirring will solve this problem too

Just use less water in a regular pot and feed the pasta into the boiling water. It takes about 30 seconds for long spaghetti to soften enough for it to fit into a regular pot. It cooks just fine WITHOUT breaking it up if you give it a quick stir after a minute, and then every couple of minutes or so

If you know your stove temperature and spaghetti type, it will only take a couple of goes to work out the least amount of water you can use. I use about 1 l of boiling water for three adult servings of spaghetti in a medium domestic pot. With the lid half on it is cooked to a firm bite point in less than 8 minutes, and the water just covers the spaghetti when finished


There's not really a definition as precise as you're looking for. Picante sauce refers to either Pace or something similar, depending on the person. So yes, picante sauce is a somewhat ill-defined type of salsa - nothing that people call picante is not a salsa. As you point out, it does not actually mean intense heat; the regular/medium is not particularly hot and even the "hot" isn't all that hot, and people will refer to any variety of Pace Picante (or similar) as picante.

Pace's distinction between the two is more of a branding/marketing issue than anything else. They have to keep making picante, without changing the recipe too much and certainly without changing the name. They also want to make other things, and salsa is a pretty natural name. That doesn't mean their Picante isn't a kind of salsa, just that they're choosing not to market it as one. But as long as you consider basic mass-produced jarred salsa to still be salsa, Pace Picante is definitely an example of it.

The reason there's no satisfying answer or precise definition is that all usage of the term like this stems from Pace Picante sauce. It's just the name someone chose for their sauce in 1947, and since that sauce eventually became widespread in stores across the US - stores that likely didn't have a lot of other salsa - people ended up using the term in a more casual, generic way.


Panang paste usually contains peanuts and tastes sweeter, so it depends on how you feel they go with duck.


Why should we add alcohol to make extract

Simple. The compounds that give mint its minty flavor are alcohol soluble, so with alcohol present you can "extract" them.

There are other things use can use, propylene glycol is one. Basically you need a solvent that can also serve as a carrier for the flavor you want. Water doesn't work, most flavors are not water soluble. Many are oil soluble, but using oil gives you a different product entirely, as does using vinegar for the acid, which is also a solvent.

If your final product is high in alcohol, propylene glycol or acid, it will also be well protected against quick spoilage.


I'm glad the kosher worked for you. I wouldn't say "avoid sea salt", I'd say "avoid fine salt". When you get right down to it, All salt is sea salt. It's mined from oceans dried up millennia ago, or taken from current oceans and evaporated. Kosher worked better for you because the crystals were larger. Some sea salt crystals are huge, Maldon, for example. It's a lovely finishing salt, you'd never want to use it for an application like this.

I would avoid iodized salt in anything involving fermentation, some people can taste it (or swear they can), plus the iodine can inhibit some beneficial bacteria. Here's a nice short article all about choosing a salt for fermenting.

Fermentation opens all kinds of doors to really good eats. Enjoy!


If you are referring to gochujang, gochugaru and gochujang have significantly different flavors (gochugaru is thought to impart a "cleaner" hotness to dishes, while gochujang tends to be a bit more complex due to aspects like added sugar and grain e.g. rice flour (which adds a thickening element) and some fermentation.
Thus Korean recipes will often use both, and as a rule of thumb gochugaru is the more flexible of the two (due to being mainly used for only hotness and color). In addition, while gochujang is reasonably replaceable with gochugaru + some sweeteners and thickeners, trying to replace gochugaru with gochujang is generally a bad idea. I'd recommend trying a different kind of relatively fine red pepper flakes - preferably a less spicy and less "aromatic" (i.e. one that has few flavors and aromas outside of "hot") variety, although your mileage may very depending on the type your local market has.


Egg nog recommendation diabetic friendly

Eggnog can be easily adjusted for diabetics by removing as many carbs as possible. I recommend using heavy whipping cream and unsweetened almond milk, both of which have 1 or fewer net grams of carbs per serving. For a sweetener, I recommend using erythritol (or the brand name Swerve), as that is the only sweetener that I have come across that has no effects on insulin, blood sugar, or digestion. Here's a low carb eggnog recipe that only amounts to <0.5 g net carbs per serving (2/3 cup).


There are any number of home dehydrators available commercially, such as the Nesco FD-75PR. I have one like this and it works well. However, as Alton Brown demonstrates in this excerpt from Good Eats, a dehydrator for fruit can be constructed quickly and easily as well.
[Edit]
In the video Alton demonstrates using a typical box fan, home AC filters and inexpensive plastic mesh, all bound with a couple of bungie cords to create a simple, but effective, dehydrator. If the video remains down you can also find it on You Tube by searching for "Alton Brown Fruit Dehydrator". (thanks for the update @Aaronut)


Can I bake a cake in a toaster oven without temperature control?

In general, yes.  But it's going to take a bit of effort and monitoring.

Your results may not be ideal (in particular don't expect the highest rising cake or the most even doneness), but it is possible to bake a cake in something like that.  There are three main issues:

The device you linked looks like it doesn't have temperature control.  It looks like it just turns elements on the bottom and/or top on and off.  So, you'll need to regulate the power yourself, turning the power off before the oven heats up too much and turning it back on when it starts to cool down.  If you're not experienced with baking without a built-in oven thermometer, you might want to try to pick up a cheap thermometer which you might be able to fit inside and help regulate temperature.
If there are electric heating elements on the top and bottom, they may be much closer to the cake than they would be in a larger oven.  That could lead to excess browning on the surface and/or the bottom of the cake.  You may need to bake at a lower effective temperature to avoid browning or even burning the crust.
The heat produced will be more uneven in general than a large oven.  That may interfere with rising or doneness in the cake.  There's not much you can do about that other than monitoring and making sure the cake is cooked through before removing.

I personally wouldn't recommend trying this unless you already have experience baking/cooking with this appliance.  Cakes are bound to be more sensitive to things like temperature fluctuations and radiant heat than many other things you might cook in such an appliance.  But if it's your only option, it may be workable.


How to prepare butter for baking when time is limited?

To get your butter up to room temperature faster, you can slice it into very small pieces or grate it with a cheese grater and then leave it out in a single layer. It will get where you want it in around 10 minutes that way.

You cookies taste better with room temperature butter because they have more air in them. When you mix the butter, sugar and eggs in your cookie recipe you're creating an emulsion of oil, proteins and air. Those little air pockets in the cookie dough then help the cookie puff up when it bakes. When the butter is melted all the way before you mix it in, this emulsion has much less air in it than it should, so your cookies' texture isn't as good.


What can I substitute for soda pop in a sweet pork recipe?

Apple juice is good with pork.  The frozen cans of concentrate are cheap and perfect for this use.
Apple juice lacks the dark notes of cola.  To get those I propose you add hoisin sauce.  It is very sweet, a great mix with pork (I have some boneless ribs soaking in some right now awaiting the grill) and will lend the apple juice more of a dark sweet tone.
If you want to stay pure to your recipe, sub in one of the organic root beers on the market. They are easy to find and they will brag about how they don't do the stuff you dislike about Big Cola.  Whole Foods has a store brand one you could use.  Root beers vary a lot; try some first to make sure it has flavors you want for your pork.


can the degree of white to black parts make coarse ground pepper taste mild?

Yes, the white pepper is the whole black peppercorn with the skin removed (and possibly fermented via a water soak). A lot of the pepper flavor is in the pepper skin (the black part) which is removed in the process of making white pepper. The compound that gives pepper its flavor is piperine which isn't found in the pepper berry as much as it is in the skin.


What's a good way to taste a variety of alcoholic beverages?

As far as beer goes: Many brewpubs will offer a sampler (or flight) of beer that includes small (few oz) glasses of many of their beers from IPA to stouts and wheat beers. You get a few sips of each beer for the price of a pint (or so) and you can determine what you like or don't like. Also, sometimes brewpubs offer samples of their beers if you ask. I went to a place offering habanero beer, and definitely wanted  a sip before buying a pint. It's not always advertised but worth asking if you have an interested in something in particular.

For wine: Many places that sell wine also offer tastings on occasion, also wineries generally have tastings if there are any in your area. Wine stores usually will have a red and a white available during tastings and the person in charge of the tasting can recommend what kind of food to pair it with. Tastings are a great way to get to know what kind of  wine you like!

For liquors: Finding a local distillery can be tricky if there are none where you live, but I'm lucky to know of a few near me that have tastings for a small fee. A caveat, though, liquor can be hard to drink for some without being mixed with some sort of mixer (juice, soda, etc). So just keep that in mind, when you sip some gin, you may enjoy it mixed with tonic even though you dislike it on its own.


How does a splash of vinegar help when poaching eggs?

Vinegar and salt both help the proteins (albumin) to denature (unwind) more quickly and link up to form a network of proteins, thus setting the egg.  The quicker the proteins denature the less feathering there will be around the edges and the nicer looking the egg.


can I freeze jalapeno peppers then use them for pepper jelly when my green peppers comne in?

Yes you can. Just take the peppers out of the freezer and thaw and drain. Then use them as usual in your jelly or pepper mustard...whatever recipe you want. I freeze mine all the time.As a matter of fact, doing so now.


Preheat the pan for longer than you expect, then preheat the oil as well. Cast iron takes a long time to heat up. With some foods you can get away with not preheating so it may seem silly to just let the pan sit on the burner with nothing else happening, but the potatoes will test your patience because of how much they can stick to pans.

Once you add the potatoes to the hot pan with hot oil, let them sit. They will go thru a stage of raw -> starting to cook -> cooked and starting to brown but sticking -> deliciously brown and movable from the pan.


How does pepper enhance/increase the saltiness of a dish?

It's not just saltiness, but various taste sensitivities that are impacted by pepper.  Basically, piperine (the component in black pepper which causes its pungency) and capsaicin (the "hot" chemical in hot peppers) cause mild irritation and inflammation in the mouth when consumed.  That inflammation leads to additional sensitivity of taste receptors.  Saltiness, acidity (i.e., sourness), and feelings of hot and cold are generally the most impacted by this inflammation; all of these sensations are enhanced.  (For a brief summary of some of the various impacts of pungent pepper compounds, see here.)

However, in excessive amounts, piperine and capsaicin can inhibit the normal taste receptors for the major flavors.  But a small amount of inflammation, as produced by the relatively mild form of black pepper's piperine, will make parts of the mouth more sensitive and thereby enhance certain flavors, including saltiness.

(I don't know the details for which other spices you mention, but many spices have effects beyond the basic taste buds.  In fact, many substances are chosen as spices for the wide variety of bodily sensations they can cause, often resulting in pain or irritation, which is why they tend to be used in very small quantities.  Particularly other "pungent" spices -- ginger and cinnamon, for example -- also have mild irritating effects on the body, which might induce alterations in sensation and taste.)


You can certain lyophilize fruit. It's done commercially and there's no insurmountable barrier to doing it at home. Since water basically 'boils til it freezes' in a vacuum, then slowly sublimes, you're not likely to get much improvement on a dehydrator's  12-24 hour cycle. For some fruits however, product can be much better when freeze dried. Here's some examples of what you can get: Bananas, peas, tomato slices, carrot slices, spinach, beans, mango, whole berrys etc.


Flan recipe calls for a blender; how can I make it in a mixer instead?

In this particular case, you'll be fine using a mixer instead of a blender. You are absolutely right about having the cream cheese at room temperature. Start your mixer at low speed and gradually increase to high. It might take a bit longer - other than that, just do what the recipe says.

Using a mixer instead of a blender would really only make a difference if you were expecting the blades to "cut" an ingredient, like making pesto from basil. Here, you are really only mixing, that's what mixers do best.


Some quick research indicates there are enzymes in freshly-squeezed juice that will degrade it fairly rapidly, and that they can be deactivated by heat. Of course, that also changes the flavor (especially since you're not going to be able to quickly heat and cool it, as it apparently only takes 30 seconds, but any method doable in a home kitchen will keep it hot much longer than that). So heat-deactivation is out.

Even commercially-produced (that is, both pasteurized and enzyme-deactivated) juice is only supposed to keep 6 days in the fridge, so that's out.

Your best bet, then, is to freeze it. According to the University of California's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Publication 8199, you can freeze in clean glass jars or rigid plastic freeze containers. They also note that navel oranges (and their juice) do not freeze well—they will become bitter.

Well, either that, or store the fruit instead, and only juice it as needed.


What are some flavors that have a strong early presence?

I've never tasted soylent. But note that in order to make a flavor more powerful, you'd want the flavor ingredient in most quantity and a higher concentration. And the easy way to make any flavor "appear first" is to make it touch the tongue first.

Say, if you mix in lemon juice for flavor, consider spreading finely chopped lime zest on top of the glass. And maybe also throw in the drink something that goes with lemon. Perhaps mint leaves?

Now, as you bring the glass to your mouth you'll first smell citrus. next, the sour-bitter-sweet zest will touch your tongue and hopefully be more to your preference of dominance. Later you will encounter the mints, as if you were casually eating a rarely disgusting Ben & Jerry's.

Of course I don't know if Soylent goes with lemon. But either with chocolate, hot spice or tea (can you infuse tea in it? maybe on a very low flame?) I think the general approach is worth trying.


You can use sweetness to cut down on the sourness and spiciness. Use ingredients such as carrots, onions, tomatoes etc. along with kimchi to mellow it down. Or else you can blend a little portion of kimchi while making biryani(rice).


Buckwheat seems to have fallen out of favor in the US. In other countries it is still a staple.

In Russia buckwheat (grechka) is eaten as a hot cereal- just boil it until it bursts and add some sweetened condensed milk. Delicious. In fact- the best way I have purchased it locally is by finding international grocery stores that have a Russian section.

It has a very distinctive nutty, earthy flavor. You would recognize it if you have had it so it seems unlikely to me that there might be some clandestine usage and you are "out of the loop" at all.

Although it is very nutritious (a whole grain and all), it is used in pancakes just for the flavor. It's usage in pancakes seems to be purely traditional and taking informal surveys of my friends (in Texas) it is uncommon for anyone to know what it is at all.


Professional sharpeners here (The Netherlands) would charge around 50 cents per centimeter of knife or, more common, just 5-6 euro per knife, regardless of size.

You paid around 10$ per knife (9 euro and a bit). The price of the knives alone (150$ for 14 knives 12 years ago, let's say 190$  corrected for inflation) doesn't sound like a price I expect to pay for quality knives.

My advice: If the prices for sharpening are anything like they are over here, scrap them, invest in good knives, and maintain them.

Good whetstones aren't cheap either, and given the state the knife/knives is/are in, you'll be whetting for some time to come, unless you go hardcore, and do it the belt sander way.

In addition: Think about if you will like sharpening knives. It's not a 5 minute process, and, as Rumtscho mentioned in his answer, it will take practice (indeed: DO keep that old knife around for learning how to sharpen!).
I happen to like it, I find it a very meditating thing to do, but one knife will take 30 minutes for sure, and that's when I don't go all the way to the 10000 stone (I really, really like sharp knives). And depending on how picky you are about maintaining the sharpness (and how much you use them and on what), it's not a yearly drill too: Every two/three months they're up for sharpening, while in the meantime stropping them before use.

It can be pretty steep investment, but good knives will last a lifetime. I tend to keep in my mind what my grandparents used to say: "We're not rich enough to buy cheap". Cheap stuff you'll have to buy again and again. And again. You're better of with a one-time bigger investment.


Will a hood vent increase rate of evaporation?

I'm boiling down some maple sap this year on the stove top. A bit late but thought I'd give it a whirl even if it only yields a quart or two of maple syrup.

It takes between 20 to 60 quarts of sap to make 1 quart of maple syrup.

  Will keeping the hood vent on increase the rate of evaporation?

You'll want to do it outside, too much steam; sap is mostly water. If you are insistent on doing on the stove top then keep the hood fan on, enjoy the smell, and be prepared for flies and bees to have an inexplicable attraction to all the surfaces near your stove.

Your kitchen stove's hood fan is too far away to affect the boiling, or capture all the sticky steam. 20 quarts is 5 gallons, and 60 is 15. A 6 gallon pot is approximately a foot diameter and a foot high. Providing those measurements in metric won't make it seem any easier. :)

  Conventional logic makes me think yes, but I just read a few threads on this topic and left feeling a bit confused since some people indicate that the hood reduces the surface temp and creates an inconsistent boil which can decrease the rate of evaporation.

Venting is necessary, even outside it's desirable, just to get rid of the steam. In your case you'll want to vent, and there'll be no effect on the temperature. Professionals vent, those that don't say that the next thing they are doing is inquiring about getting some vents.

Check out these two threads, it's all steam; everything will be soaked.


Can you make bitters and spice-flavored tinctures at home?  Absolutely you can!  I do all the time - in fact, I've successfully engineered a couple of bitters recipes, and even gave a homemade "holiday" bitters to friends as a Christmas favor last year.  The process itself is simple and easy; what is not easy is duplicating a commercial product such as Angostura.  If you're going to try, there are a few things you need to consider.

First, extracted spice flavors will be different than the dry version.  While many flavors in various spices and herbs are alcohol-soluble, not all of them are, or at least not to the same degree.  You'll also experience the flavor differently in a liquid form, backed up by the burning sensation of alcohol.  Although you can expect to extract a very similar flavor to the raw spice, or similar to the flavor you'd get in cooking or baking, it won't be exactly the same, and thus your palate isn't always the best guide to figuring out a precise blend of dry ingredients.

A second related point is that of relative concentration and change over time.  Some flavors will extract very quickly, and very strongly; others take a while longer to mature.  Cinnamon and clove are two very potent spices that come to mind; use too much, or infuse too long, and they'll completely dominate. (Some bitters-makers get around this by infusing each of their spices separately, and blending them together until they get a desired combined flavor.)  Some spices will also develop a distinctly bitter note when infused.  Since this is in fact bitters, that's not a bad thing; but again, it will be different from what you experience in the raw version.

A third point is familiarity.  Many of the spices used to create commercial and craft bitters are quite foreign to home cooks, even those who are pretty spice-savvy.  Peppercorns, cinnamon, and dried citrus peels are all pretty common.  But I bet you don't have quassia chips, orris root, horehound, or scores of others found in bitters recipes.  So here you've got the problem that you simply may not be able to identify many or most of the constituent ingredients.  Angostura reputedly has over 30 spices and botanicals that go into the mix.  If your palate is sharp enough even to untangle them all, I salute you; if you can identify them all too, you may be superhuman.

In point of fact, it's really difficult to duplicate Angostura at home.  What you can do more easily is create similarly-styled "aromatic" bitters, or entirely original creations (I've got an apple-cranberry bitters that I'm quite proud of).  All you really need to do is add your spices to a strongly-alcoholic base and let them sit for a couple of weeks in a cool, dark place, agitating them every once in a while.  Easy, but lengthy, so trial-and-error also takes a while.  Many people start from a pre-existing recipe and that's what I would recommend to get started.  You can find good recipes in many craft cocktail books (including one I'd recommend that is devoted to bitters) or by scouring online.  This will give you a good base to start with, and you can then start tweaking recipes that you like to branch out.

Having done this myself, I'll offer a couple of tips based on my own experience:

You can use any spirit, but higher proof will produce a better extraction.  Vodka is actually the best to use if you want a "cleaner" extraction - it will mask the flavor of the spices less than brown spirits.  A lot of recipes use whiskey or brandy for the flavor that they add.  In any case, I typically use spirits that are at least 100-proof (or 50% alcohol by volume).  They help grab those alcohol-soluble flavors more effectively.
Pay careful attention to quantity, whether you're working from a recipe or developing your own.  If your recipe calls for grams, don't approximate - break out the scale.  Remember the interaction of extraction time and relative concentration.  Deviate too much and you can totally throw off the balance of your bitters, especially with stronger spices.  The result probably wont be bad, but it will be different and probably not quite as good.  This is why good bitters recipes are to be prized.
Find a good source for your spices.  The better product you start with, the better your result will be.  You can find a lot of the less common ingredients in co-ops, health food grocers, and herbal-medicine shops.  Usually you can buy these in bulk for a pretty good price.  There are lots of online vendors, but I haven't found a single one yet to strongly recommend; some have great prices but poor selection, others it's the other way around.
There is no better infusion vessel than wide-mouth mason jars.  Don't infuse in plastic, or  flavors will leach their way into the vessel as well.  Glass mason jars don't have this problem, they are cheap, and they are ubiquitous.

Keep in mind that all of this applies primarily to how I'm interpreting your question: regarding the infusion of dried spices, herbs, or other botanicals.  Infusing liquor with fruits is also a worthy project, but a whole different one.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that as mentioned in comments, there are other, more technologically advanced ways to infuse too.  Using a sous-vide bath, you can infuse rather quickly, although the heat involved in the process will change how the flavors are extracted.  I have also seen techniques that use a cream whipper to produce "rapid bitters"; the idea is that high pressure and tiny nitrogen bubbles penetrate the spices, and extract flavors when the pressure is released.  Pretty cool, but I haven't tried this yet.  Start simple, instead.  Get yourself a basic recipe that sounds good and have a go.


Liberal amounts of olive oil is a must. I'm not so sure about the idea of adding hot water to the precooked pasta. It is usually the other way around.

Some italian restaurants will pre-cook pasta al dente before the meal time rush, drain it, mix it with olive oil and then will dip it back into boiling water for a minute before draining and serving.

https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/cooking-tips/article/make-ahead-pasta


How to do hot spiced apple cider without apple cider?

According to Wikipedia, apple cider (US usage) is different from apple juice (US usage) in that:

  "Apple juice and apple cider are both fruit beverages made from apples, but there is a
  difference between the two. Fresh cider is raw apple juice that has
  not undergone a filtration process to remove coarse particles of pulp
  or sediment. Apple juice is juice that has been filtered to remove
  solids and pasteurized so that it will stay fresh longer.

Or, in translation, "apple cider" is apple juice; "apple juice" is filtered apple juice.

So in Italy you should look for brands of apple juice with words like "with bits" or "unfiltered" on the label.


The EC-155 comes with two coffee filters and a measuring spoon; the smaller filter one is for one shot of espresso and the second filter is for two shots (see user manual at, e.g., here).

Fill the smaller (or larger) filter with one (or two) loosely filled spoons and press lightly using the disc that is attached to the machine.

A single shot is considered to be about 30 mL (1 US fluid ounce) but this is really a matter of taste and personal preferences. For a single shot in a standard size espresso cup, I would suggest starting with filling half a cup and then adjusting the amount of coffee that you pour to accommodate your taste (and need for caffeine...).


How to make paneer at home like the packaged ones?

You probably need a (small) cheese press and a proper cheese cloth. My attempts to improvise using chopping boards never drained well enough giving the effect you describe. It also doesn't brown nicely when you cook it, if it's too wet. When properly pressed it will cut into better pieces.

You also need to press with some force for quite a while. Recipes can be optimistic (or assume better quality equipment than I have).


Can I adjust soup texture right before serving?

This will also water down the flavour of the soup. Depending on the type of soup you are making you may have some cooking liquid left over which would be far preferable to plain water.

In fact it's not a bad idea to start with a little more cooking liquid than necessary. Use a fine-mesh sieve to separate the soup ingredients from the cooking liquid. You can then re-introduce the cooking-liquid a bit at a time until you arrive at the right texture. That gives you a margin of error.

Adding milk, cream or sour cream are also possibilities, again, depending on the soup.


Even after I heat and oil, why does food stick to my stainless steel pan?

Stainless steel pans are not non-stick by default, since they don't have a non-stick surface/coating.
You can recognize a non-stick pan by the non-stick coating on the inside of it. (It's usually Teflon (a black coating), but there's also things like ceramic)
As far as your pan goes, it looks like a plain stainless steel pan to me, no coating to make it non-stick.


Cutting the stems of banana instead of wrapping them when preserving them

I eat a ton of bananas and was excited when I heard about this...but it’s a total lie. I did it for 2 weeks (2 bunches) and saw no difference. So, I did an experiment. I did 2 with and 2 without...then took a pic...then left them untouched on my counter for 4 days. Then took another pic. The ones wrapped looked EXACTLY the same as the ones with no wrap. Both equally spotted and soft. No preserving what so ever! I’m going back to using the “green bags”. They don’t work great but definitely better than doing the “plastic stem wrap”. I don’t see an option to attach the pics here but I’ll find another site that I can.


Scaling up a risotto recipe x4. Things to consider?

If you haven't done it before don't do this for Xmas day, it's not worth the risk. Always practise on less important occasions

You need a wider, rather than taller pot. Nearly a paella style pan. And a strong arm

Ingredients wise, I don't know of any magic scaling tricks for risotto

The hardest part is stirring enough, but not too much, and doing an even job of it

Probably easier to have two pots going at the same time, rather the one large pot. Then you can have two different flavours going!


This question is a bit hard to answer because there are just so many variables. Let's do some troubleshooting.

There are two ways I could see your problem: badly proofed bread or underbaked bread. It's fairly easy to tell which.

When your bread is rising it should double in volume. If it doesn't rise enough then your bread will be dense and won't blow up with stream as it bakes. This will result in a loaf that is doughy much as you described. If the dough rises too much the protein bubbles can tear and the bread will fall. The dough will be limp and the bread will come out similarly to it being under proofed.

If your bread is under baked it will go into the oven puffy and full. It will puff up with steam but the proteins won't be set. It might fall as it cools or just be a bit mushy inside when you cut it. Especially when just learning to bake bread, it's helpful to take your bread's temperature with a probe thermometer while it is baking. When the bread is done the interior temperature will be just barely under the boiling point of water at your altitude.

You said you doubled the yeast and used AP flour instead of bread flour. Doubling the yeast doesn't guarantee failed bread, it will speed up the rise time and change the flavor to be more yeasty but less complex. Using lower protein flour will make the bread more dense and less able to hold bubbles.

This would imply to me that your bread over proofed but without pictures of the dough it's impossible to say for sure.

When bread comes out of the oven, even when it baked completely, the starches aren't set. The bread needs to cool, out of a bread pan, for steam to escape and starches to set. If the bread is sliced before this happens then the interior of the loaf will a gummy mess. While this could also be the cause of your issues, you'd notice as the texture would be noticably improved when you slice again after the loaf has cooled.

I suspect your bread may have suffered from a combination of these problems.

Don't be discouraged! It doesn't take that much practice to be able to recognize how the dough should look and behave at each stage.


What vegan substitutes are available for cheese?

Many vegans use nutritional yeast as a cheese substitute.

There are also "vegan cheeses" that are available.  However, check the ingredients closely as many fake cheeses contain casein and thus are not vegan.  Some vegan cheeses will melt and some will not.  I've never tried them in a sauce.

Here's a link to The Vegetarian Resource Group that has more information about vegetarian and vegan cheeses.


You may need to cook for a little longer because your ingredients are piled a bit deeper, but it should work more or less unmodified.


Does cooking vegetables increase their flavor?

One simple reason to cook vegetables is to kill microorganisms, which can make you sick.

In Chinese wok cooking, very high heat is used to get wok hei.

  The distinct taste of wok hei is partially imbued from previous cooking sessions. In practical terms, the flavour imparted by chemical compounds results from caramelization, Maillard reactions, and the partial combustion of oil that come from charring and searing of the food at very high heat in excess of 200 °C (392 °F).[11] Aside from flavour, there is also the texture of the cooked items and smell involved that describes wok hei.


Does caramelization refer strictly to sugar or the cooking of anything?

Caramelization is defined as the pyrolysis of sugars.  Pryolysis is decomposition due to high temperature.  So, yes, caramelization is always an effect on the sugars present in an ingredient. The Maillard reaction, as pointed out in a comment above, also contributes to flavors and browning when cooking.  However, the Maillard reaction specifically refers to the interaction between amino acids and reducing sugars.  The two processes can happen together, but they are different processes. They are both forms of non-enzymatic browning.


Looking at King Arthur Flour's website it appears that both their Sir Lancelot flour, and their bread flour have Malted Barley flour added, which is likely the source of that extra flavour you experience.

As far as I am aware this isn't a style of flour we much have in the UK, anything here which is headlined as 'malted' will be more like what you may be familiar with as a sprouted grain flour, I believe.

Your best bet may be to import Sir Lancelot for yourselves or to look for 'Diastic Malt Flour' or 'Diastic Malt Powder' and experiment with adding that to see if you can hit the right result.

That said, most supermarket bread flours are not as strong as Sir Lancelot eg Sainsbury's is 13.6% protein to SL's 14.2%. I understand that this is just a product of the fact that the UK climate just doesn't grow such hard wheats as the Americas. The flour I use for sourdough bread and pizzas is Marriage's Very Strong Canadian at 14.9%


How to sharpen knife with chunk missing?

Grinding the blade down that much would potentially change the shape of the blade. Due to the full depth bolster you would have to either try to reshape the bolster as well or create a blade that tapered very differently.
The knife is an Oxo Good Grips 8” chefs knife which sells for around £20. It’s difficult to see that either of your options would be as effective as replacing the knife, unless it has sentimental value.


I'm a professional baker and my daughter is allergic to peanuts and peanut anything is my husband's favorite, so we have had to learn to adjust.  I use soy nut butter.  It doesn't contain any peanuts or tree nuts or even sesame so it's safe for most allergy sufferers (except soy). To me it tastes more like real peanut butter than sunflower seed butter.  The brand I like is called Wow butter and comes in crunchy and creamy varieties.  It has a slight aftertaste, but you get used to it if you dont eat PB regularly. You can find it at most health food stores.  Another great option if you can eat almonds is Barney butter.  It's made purely from almonds in a peanut free facility.  It's pretty pricey - almost $9 a jar, but it is delicious and works well in baked goods if you don't mind paying for it. I typically just use this one as a straight substitute in pb&j. Nutella is delicious of course, but not PB flavor.  if you do bake with it though be sure to undercook just a bit because it burns more quickly and will turn your treats into little bricks.


Answer: No oil.

I don't use oil. I use a non-stick pan or I grill it in oven.

I don't understand why people are using oil to do injustice to salmon. I want the salmon to be firm and not mushy. I already face the problem of having to take care of the juice/oil flowing out of the salmon. I don't want more fluid added which would further mushify the fish.

Pan-poaching:

Place the slice of salmon on its skin, on the pan.
Gradually turn the heat up to moderate.
As the skin-side gradually becomes firm, turn the slice over.
When the other side also becomes firm, turn the slice back to face the skin-side down to brown the skin on strong heat.

The problem I face is too much juice/oil exuding from the salmon.

Continually notice if salmon juice/oil is flowing out, to drain the juice/oil into a bowl. After cooking salmon is complete, place salmon into serving plate and the pour salmon juice back into pan. Add diced garlic, chopped cilantro and onions. Or use pre-fried onions bought from Vietnamese store. Stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Resultant is a nice gravy to be used as topping for the salmon. Sprinkle blue cheese bits.

Broiling (set the oven to broil):

Place salmon skin facing up on oven pan.
For soft steak: use a smaller pan so that the juice/oil that flows out would not spread out to be being burnt away by the heat. So that the juice/oil keeps the salmon moist and soft.
For firm poach: Drain the pan frequently.
Use various apparatus to elevate the pan so that the salmon is 1 inch away from the top heating element of the oven.
Turn oven to 180 F for 30 minutes. This is to firm up the salmon and let its initial flow of juice/oil out of the salmon.
Then turn the oven up to 240F till the fish is cooked.
Gently separate the skin from the fish without injuring the flesh.
Broil the skin at 350F till it becomes crispy.

Crispy salmon skin biscuit = heavens!
The crispy salmon skin must be eaten within 30 minutes - otherwise, it would soon absorb moisture and becomes flaccid.

See, no oil involved (other than the oil exuding from the fish).


The salmon will get water logged and mushy (and consequently release a lot of water during the cooking process) if you omit the bag. It's not unsafe, but it will decrease the quality of the salmon.


What you are asking for is physically impossible.

There is a reason why the color system when working with physical dyes (as opposed to colored light) is called additive. You cannot take out a color which is already there. When we are talking about a cake, cocoa powder or pure chocolate can be considered a pigment, and Guiness a pre-dyed liquid.

The first of three methods would be to add your cocoa and guiness as they are, but try to mix them with other stuff so You can use them to make new, darker colors by mixing in other pigments, or lighter colors by diluting them. You can certainly mix white cake batter with food coloring of other colors (yellow) and the right amount of chocolate to achieve a caramel color, but this will be very far from the proportion which gives you a chocolate cake which tastes of chocolate and has the right texture.

The second method would be to try to discolor the cocoa and guiness. But the problem is that you cannot change the color of a pigment without changing it chemically. Assuming that somebody can come up with a process which can bleach cocoa or chocolate, it will certainly change the taste a lot, if it is food safe at all. Probably not doable in a home kitchen either.

The third thing would be to replace the chocolate entirely. But there is no substitute which tastes like chocolate. I have never heard of the "chocolate extract" which Catija refers to, but even in cases where a flavor is dominated by a single note which is easily reproduced chemically (vanilla, banana, etc.), the stuff which makes up that single note does not taste like the real deal. And if something had exactly the same composition as cocoa, it would not only taste like cocoa, it would be cocoa, with its normal color. And that part concerns the flavor only. Even cocoa powder changes the texture of a cake, while real chocolate changes it much, much more. If you could make chocolate-perfumed cake, it would still not have the mouthfeel of chocolate cake.

Beside all the reasons why you cannot get chocolate flavor paired with a strange color, there is something else: Human perception is not limited to one sense. People rely a lot on vision when eating, and the experience of eating a strange-colored chocolate cake will not be the same "taste" experience as eating correctly colored chocolate cake. There are some fun studies with gummy bears and red/white wines which got lots of press about that, and some marketing gimmicks like the recent Mystery Mueller Milch in Germany, but this is not the place to elaborate. If you want your guests to enjoy a chocolate cake, you have to make a real chocolate cake, with the correct flavor, texture and color.

For completeness, you have the following options instead of making an amber chocolate cake (some already suggested in comments):

make a non-chocolate cake and use food coloring to make it amber
make a standard-color chocolate cake and decorate it with amber icing (again, use food coloring)
make a standard-color chocolate cake with any color icing, or without icing, and have some color contrast at the wedding :)


How do I make canned tomato sauce delicious for pouring on top of steamed vegetables?

So, let me get this correct. The tomato product is right out of the can?

OK most people notice a distinct metallic taste when consuming (especially acidic) things directly out of a can. It is often less noticeable with sweet things, but I find that I simply can't stomach tomatoes directly out of a can.

Fortunately there is an easy fix, heat.

Simmer the diced tomato with your spices (and perhaps a little S&P) for 30 minutes or so and that may give the spices time to meld and reduce the metallic taste.

You could even try some fresh basil as that goes wonderfully well with tomato sauce.


I accidentally added butter into flour/cocoa powder/baking soda without beating first

Think shortbread / pie dough:

If you have a food processor, dump the butter & dry ingredients in, pulse until you have a coarse crumble. Add some liquid - either your egg (beaten!) or, even simpler, just as much milk as needed to help the dough to stick together. I personally would use milk instead of egg for lighter cookies. Eggs might make them too dense. Chill for half an hour or so, then roll and cut or shape otherwise.

If you don't have a food processor, a pastry cutter or two knives works just as well. Or rub the butter into the flour mix.

You might not end up with your planned cookies, but the result should be nice enough to eat. No need to discard the ingredients.

And remember:
Sometimes the best recipes started as accidents!


Definition 1:

  A smoothie (also known as a "smoothy") is a blended, chilled, sometimes sweetened beverage made from fresh fruit (fruit smoothie) or vegetables and in special cases can contain chocolate.

Definition 2:

  [...] a thick beverage of fruit pureed in a blender with ice and milk, yogurt, or juice.

Ketchup is not considered a beverage by anybody I know.
Ketchup is not made only from fresh fruit and ice/milk/yogurt/juice.  It has many other ingredients.
Ketchup is probably not made in a blender.
There are plenty of food items made from fruit that aren't smoothies (is applesauce a "smoothie?").

So, no, it's not a smoothie simply because it contains a fruit.


Can meat flavored tomato sauce be used without heating?

Yes, you can buy tomato sauce with meat chunks around here
Yes they're safe to eat cold


I think if you knead the dried out part back into your dough, and spritz in a little more water, then let it come back to room temperature, it will be rehydrate and be fine. I'm assuming it is say 5% of the dough that is dried out. If it is 25%, go ahead and cut it off.


Is it really that easy to make safe cured salmon with a 3 min sugar/salt brine?

There are lots of ways to "cure" salmon. Salt, acid, smoke, etc. Max's comment on going for a longer curing time makes sense. Keeping salmon out of the bacteria temp range, keeping it dry (salt and sugar absorb water, but only salt kills) and verifying it cured properly or cooking thoroughly is your best bet from getting botulism.

http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/tan/x5902e/x5902e01.htm
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/12/how-not-to-die-of-botulism/281649/


Is it okay to marinate brisket for 48 hours?

Generally, yes, you can leave a brisket in a marinade for 48 hours or even longer. The exception would be a marinade that is very highly acidic, but not that's not likely to be a problem with a commercial marinade.


Is it possible to prevent a japanese cheesecake from deflating or sinking?

Try letting it cool in the oven.

The tip is from the blog "The Little Teochew", which writes:

  Leave to cool in oven with door ajar, about 30mins to 1 hour. Sudden changes in temperature may cause the cake to cool too quickly and collapse.

Further tips can by found in the blog post: Japanese Cheesecake


Remember that the potato is a member of the nightshade plant and you can use a potato as a battery. Better even if cooked. What you are tasting is basically the solanine (which often has a battery taste...I believe there is a correlation there somewhere but it could help people remember not to eat bitter potatoes). I've tasted it too but not everyone has the same taste buds as we do.

Also, the battery (essentially the life of a plant) that I'm referring to starts when the sun comes into through the leaves (Solanum tu-berosum) and producing the starch, "which is transferred through the plant to its underground stems, known as stolons. Starch collects at the end of the stolons, forming swollen sections called tubers. These are the potatoes." Just like any living plant, the tuber stores energy for the plant. "The complex process of turning sunlight into food energy is called photosynthesis. ... The potato plant can live for six months without the energy of the sun, because it survives on its stored chemical energy in the form of starch in tubes, or small sacks called tubers."...(http://www.simpsonstreetfreepress.org/science/plants-and-photosynthesis)

When your potatoes sprout during storage, they’re using available light and stored starch". During harvest and storage, "When exposed to light, potatoes manufacture increasing amounts of chlorophyll as well as two bitter-tasting alkaloid compounds, solanine and chaconine" especially prolonged exposure to light with improper handling and storage. "In high concentrations, these can not only make potatoes taste bitter but also can cause headaches and stomachaches" (among other things). "A 4-ounce (114 gram) potato naturally contains 5 to 6 milligrams of solanine and chaconine, which is considered harmless. But when a potato looks green from an increase in chlorophyll, it indicates that it will also have higher levels of these alkaloids-  as much as 20 times in potatoes that have turned completely green." I have read here that you can "deeply cut away any green parts" (...https://www.finecooking.com/article/the-science-of-cooking-potatoes-2);but I have also read conflicting information asking to avoid them altogether. I already do not eat potatoes when dining out including fries but I also avoid eating potatoes within a couple of days from each other. According to the Smithsonian... (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/horrific-tales-of-potatoes-that-caused-mass-sickness-and-even-death-3162870/); "A general rule for avoiding illnesses like the ones described above? Green and sprouted? Throw it out." On the site, the Smithsonian will give you many links that I've found interesting. Where I live, the potatoes are mostly green and I plan cooking potatoes when I see good ones on the shelf. We have a small offshoot grocery from a big named chain so we get all of the bad stuff here. I makes me sick every time I see them selling otherwise discarded produce to uneducated victoms.

I'm glad you are ok now.

..."A 4-ounce (114 gram) potato naturally contains 5 to 6 milligrams of solanine and chaconine, which is considered harmless. But when a potato looks green from an increase in chlorophyll, it indicates that it will also have higher levels of these alkaloids-  as much as 20 times in potatoes"...

Here is a link with more information:
https://www.finecooking.com/article/the-science-of-cooking-potatoes-2 and check out an unbiased article on Mother Earth News at https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/green-potato-myths-and-safe-potato-eating-zbcz1509

Here is a very scary place to research. It may make you never want to eat potatoes nor any nightshade ever again. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/killer-tomatoes-and-poisonous-potatoes/

As we know, our diets are lacking and research is all over the charts but until our governments step in and investigate the money hungry monopolizing industries; it is to each his own so research and research again but it is always a good idea to not rely on only one source of information.


I think of the typical Thai flavor profile as garlic, ginger, lemongrass, some kind of spicy pepper, and Thai basil.


How do these flavors of liquid smoke differ?

Mesquite is a very assertive flavor that typically goes with beef, especially fatty beef.

Pecan and hickory are stronger than apple, but milder than mesquite, and are great for pork or poultry, and work just fine with beef.

Applewood is very flexible, a bit lighter and sweeter. It's the only one of the woods you mentioned that I would consider using with fish.

Ultimately, there's no hard and fast rules - taste things and do what works for you!


Custard should taste eggy. This is a feature, not a bug. However, from your mention of flour, I think what you're talking about is a souffle, not something like a creme brulee or along those lines. Would that be correct?

Edited based on subsequent clarifications:

Ah. Your method is sorely lacking, and your ingredients are off. You need to temper the yolks first, you need to use yolks only, and use cream instead of milk. Here is a smaller version of what I use at work for creme brulee:
- 1L 35% cream
- 11 egg yolks
- 1C sugar
- 1 vanilla bean, scraped

Bring cream to a simmer with the vanilla seeds and pod (you can use approx 1.5tsp vanilla extract, pure not artificial, instead). While it is heating, beat the yolks and sugar together until just incorporated. Pour the cream into the eggs whisking briskly to prevent curdling. Pour mixture through a fine chinois. Skim off foam, pour into ramekins. Place ramekins in a pan, add water to 1/2way up the sides. Cover pan with foil. Bake at 275 (convection) or 325 (non convection) for approx 40 minutes, until wobbly in the centre but set. Chill until set, eat.

The deflation is caused by a souffle effect coming from including the egg whites, which are never used in a custard--custards, creme anglaise, etc, are always yolks only. When you include the whites, air will be trapped inside temporarily, and will escape/collapse when the mixture cools. If you bake until fully stiff with my method, you will get hard and rubbery custard by the time it is set in the fridge.

Also, save the whites--they freeze well--for meringues or souffles.


Can regular sugar be substituted for maple sugar?

If maple is intended to be a significant flavor in the cake (i.e. you're making a maple cake, or a maple rum cake) it's not going to be the same without it. The best substitutions would be maple syrup, or white sugar plus maple extract, so that you still get that wonderful flavor.

As for quantities, looking around online, the common recommendations for replacing 1/2 cup of maple sugar seem to be:

3/4 cup white sugar and 1 teaspoon maple extract; or
1 cup maple syrup, and reducing other liquid in the recipe by 1/4 cup.

If you can do without the maple flavor, then you could just use the 3/4 cup white sugar, but I suspect it wasn't a superfluous ingredient!

In the case of this recipe, it looks like the maple is important, but there aren't liquids to reduce. That probably means that the easiest option is the maple extract, but you could also take the recommended amount of maple syrup, and boil it down until you've lost the right amount of water. (For example, for 1 cup of maple sugar, take 2 cups maple syrup and reduce it to 1.5 cups.)


Yellow sticky film on coconut meat - is it bad?

From the question and the comments, this looks a lot like bacterial film growing on the inside of the coconut near where the water was housed, that is the area with the most moisture availability for the biofilm to form.

Coconuts are meant to be quickly eaten and / or processed after opened, if you want to save the meat for later, open the coconut, take the meat, dry it out and preferably freeze it or if you are in a dry sunny place, you can sun dry it.

Leaving it opened in the fridge without any further processing is more or less playing russian roulette with nature, it is only about luck and only a matter of time until it gets bad.


What's different between canned beer and bottled beer?

Cans have a lot of advantages over bottles: they don't allow light in (light spoils beer), are easier to stack (and take up less space when arranged tightly), the materials for each can are cheaper, and so on. From the consumer perspective, this results in cheaper and higher-quality beer, all else being equal.

The reason craft breweries have been using glass bottles rather than cans is largely historical and aesthetic. Some hip craft breweries started using cans recently, and it led to a trend.


In my opinion, sous vide is the way to go here.  Throwing this in an oven is going to mean that you are likely going to overcook the outside, by the time the inside is at a safe temperature.  Because you have to cook these birds whole, there is really no way to differentiate between dark and white meat no matter what approach you take. I would sous vide at a temperature that is slightly lower (by a couple of degrees) than you like, then toss it in a very hot oven (or hot pan and baste) to crisp the skin.


Settling Up the Dispute over Poached Egg's Definition

As far as I understand it, poaching is poaching (cooking in simmering liquid)...whether it is an egg or a portion of fish.  It is the cooking process. I don't think this is debatable.
While acid in the poaching liquid helps to denature the proteins and allow the white to more readily stay together, there are other ways to achieve this, by using the "vortex method", for example.  No one could logically argue that this egg is not poached...and no one uses the phrase "shell-less boiled egg"....right?


How to store honey so it's fresh and the opening of the container is not always a mess?

There are a variety of storage containers that can keep honey fresh, as long as the container is airtight. When I buy local honey in jars, I leave it in there; if I buy a squeezable container with a small dispensing hole, I leave it in there.

The key to avoiding sticky buildup (which frequently makes it difficult to open the jar or bottle, beyond just being icky) is to wipe down the container after dispensing honey. A damp cloth or damp paper towel, or even a slightly damp forefinger, is sufficient to remove the small amount of honey residue and leave the container clean for storage.


It's doubtful that you'll get any spoilage in your freezer. Not much grows at -20°C, with or without liquid.
Your chutney is likely not freezing because of its high sugar content: Freezing Point Depression. That's perfectly normal behavior.


There is not enough flour in this recipe, increase the amounts to 2 cups.  When using an equal amount of flour and butter you will form a short-crust type texture, this is why it was so crumbly.  It may seem counter intuitive but you actually need more flour to hold all the liquid.


How do I cook any recipe with frozen eggplant?

If the slices are thin, you could bake/roast straight from frozen. I do believe the texture will be quite soft so use a parchment lined sheet if you wish to roast it. I like to brush a bit of miso mixed with honey on roasted eggplants.

Another option would be to lay it into a lasagna. I think this option is the most appealing. I wouldn't bother to thaw it if your slices are under half an inch thick.

If you sliced it only in half, such that you have two "boat" shaped halves, I would thaw it fully first. It'll take a while to thaw in such large pieces. Baba ganoush would be a good option in this case.


In industrially produced soup, how does each can contain equal parts of all ingredients?

Obviously, every manufacturer is going to have their own proprietary methods.

However, canned goods are often made by combining ingredients (possibly partially cooked) directly into the cans, and then pressure cooking them in the can as part of the canning process.

So, for example, the broth, some celery, and some carrots might be added to the open can in measured amounts.  Then, the can is sealed, and pressure cooked to both sterilize the contents, and to cook the celery and carrots through.


Does glutinous rice flour function differently from regular rice flour as a coating?

I haven't tried either but I found this, which seems helpful:

"there is a big difference between the two..where i come from.(malaysia).we use rice flour to make banana fritters (deep fried in rice flour batter thus giving it a crispy crunchy batter) while glutinous rice flour will give a sticky texture..u cant deep fry the batter but its normally used to make sweet desserts where u boil the cakes in boiling water..when they are cooked they will float and voila... "

I found this recipe online that uses egg whites for the coating. The recipe says wasabi peanuts but picture is of wasabi peas.


You don't need to buy your cookware in a complete set like this. I would start collecting a few pieces at a time, of reasonable quality, though you will pay a bit more per piece. You're really not saving money if you have to replace all your cheap cookware every few years.

You could probably handle 90% of what you want to cook with only a skillet and a 2 or 4 quart sauce pan. Buy whatever pieces fit your cooking style.

Steel, non-stick, and cast-iron all have advantages and disadvantages. This information is probably duplicated elsewhere on this site:

Steel - non-reactive and durable. More difficult to make delicate foods like fish and eggs, due to the food sticking.
non-stick - Well, it's non-stick. Food doesn't stick to it. However, even a high-quality non-stick pan will wear out over several years. Also, it's difficult to sear meats.
cast-iron - Properly cared for, can sear meat AND be non-stick, and will last a lifetime. However, it's heavy, and requires knowledge of how to properly care for it (see questions on this site)

Steel cookware can have a few upgrades:

A "disk" of aluminum or copper, welded to the bottom - greatly improves heat distribution from plain stainless steel. Thermal shock can make the disk fall off, though.
"Clad" steel, where a layer of aluminum is sandwiched between layers of stainless steel - even better heat distribution, more durable, but more expensive

If I could only buy 2 pieces, on a budget, I would buy a cast-iron skillet and a disk-bottomed sauce pot.


You are correct in that salt fish are very salty. Where we live salt herrings are a tradition. The way to remove the saltiness is to soak them, changing the water every few hours.

The trick here to really getting the saltiness out is to split the back. (The belly should already be split.) This is really important.

I once had someone cook them for my family and they were so salty you could barely stand to eat them. When asked if they had soaked the fish they replied that they had soaked them for two days! Then someone asked if they had split the back and, of course, the answer was no. They didn't know to do that.

If soaked properly the fish should not be totally fresh but should taste like fresh fish that you seasoned with salt.


How do you determine whether a chocolate is sweet or semisweet?

Sweet, semisweet, etc. are American terms for the different chocolate "grades" and are determined by the amount of cocoa mass in the chocolate. In many other countries, terms referring to "darkness" are used.

But don't go ahead and use just any chocolate labelled "dark", because there are huge differences between brands. I have seen 40% chocolate marketed as "very dark" or "bitter" chocolate. You should look at the ingredients instead. They list the amount of cocoa mass (= the sum of cocoa solids + cocoa butter).

White chocolate is always clearly labelled as such, and seldom has a percentage listed for the cocoa mass. This is OK, because you can easily distinguish it.

Milk chocolate has around 30% cocoa mass, and contains milk in addition to the other ingredients.

Semisweet chocolate has at least 35% cocoa, but can be anything between 40% and 65% depending on availability and taste. Here you get into "real chocolate" territory. The only ingredients should be cocoa (can be listed as cocoa butter, cocoa solids, cocoa mass, cocoa liquor, or cocoa particles), sugar, and maybe some vanilla. Different forms of sugar are OK, for example organic chocolates often use raw cane sugar. Stay away from anything with vegetable fat, emulgators, and/or E-numbers listed on the package. If you have the choice, prefer chocolates with higher cocoa butter to cocoa solids ratio (but this information is seldom available).

Bittersweet chocolate is somewhere in the 70% to 99% range. It has the same ingredients as semisweet, just in different proportions.

Unsweetened or baking chocolate is essentially 100% cocoa mass, and may or may not be processed or conched to the same smooth texture as chocolates intended for eating or candy making, depending on the manufacturer.

Be aware that the limits are somewhat arbitrary - some authors count a 72% chocolate to the semisweets, not to the bitters. But I have found these ranges to work well. Usually, you have some leeway, because the texture of whatever you bake (and even of conditor chocolate items) doesn't change all that much with ten percent difference in the cocoa amount, there are factors which bring in a larger error anyway.

To warn you, almost none of the popular chocolate brands for eating are good for serious baking, including the ones you linked. Cadbury, Milka, Hershey's and so on are no good. Also, what you see in the baking aisle sold under the name "baking chocolate" or "block chocolate" is probably no good either. At least here in Germany, it is made mostly out of hardened vegetable fat mixed with some cocoa solids. Pure chocolate is too expensive to gain popularity. The cheapest one around here is Lindt excelsior (not the Lindor line which has vegetable fat) for around 2 Euros per 100 g. If you are in the supermarket, you should try looking through the ingredient lists of the "premium" brands to see if one of them is good enough. Else, you can try to find good chocolate online. Some stores will even sell true conditor chocolate (Varhlona, Callebaut) in household amounts, but this is still very rare.


Will a fishmonger or bait shop clean a fish you caught for a fee?

It depends upon where you plan to fish. Communities that have a big fishing tradition will certainly have people that will do that. The bait shops near the fishing spot will know who to ask.


Is the caramel recipe wrong, or is it my technique?

I like the recipe from Gourmet magazine because I don't have to try to stand apples up in hot caramel. It uses the same amount of butter, less sugar, and no water. Works for me every time.


Chorizo sausage as a ground chorizo substitute?

I think your best bet if you can't find any Mexican style (raw) chorizo (either loose or encased) is to just use some ground pork and add spices - the spice list on that product is:

  chili pepper and less than 2% of the following: pork broth with natural flavorings, salt, dextrose, garlic powder, flavorings, spice, oleoresin of paprika, BHA, propyl gallate, citric acid.

So there's not much to add or find a recipe so you don't have to guess. There are a couple of them. Or just add a packet of "Mexican seasoning" to the sausage. I think this will actually take quite a bit less time than trying to prep Spanish style chorizo.

You're literally just mixing in some spices.

If you don't want to buy the spices, just switch to any "spicy" raw sausage. For example Jimmy Dean Hot. Again, this will be an easier option for you than using Mexican (hard) chorizo.


Typically bouillon cubes include a pretty hefty dose of salt, so you're probably fine without adding more. You can always salt the finished fried rice if it needs more seasoning.

All your calculations look fine to me, but one thing you might need to consider is that the salt would raise the boiling point of the broth and potentially affect how the rice cooks.  Probably not a big deal, but if the recipes you've found are particularly insistent that the rice be cooked only with water, that might be why.  Just hedge any cooking times a little and check the rice as it cooks, and you'll be fine.


Do you de-hull seeds when making pumpkin seed flour?

Whether or not "you" specifically choose to de-hull pumpkin seeds before grinding them to make flour, pumpkin seed shells are certainly edible, both raw and roasted. The first source you name certainly seems to be referring to pre-shelled pumpkin seeds, not just because they mention it being green, but also because their image of finished pumpkin seed flour is comparable in color to the ground pumpkin seed flour I've made from just the kernels.

  Note 1: It is green…so you might not want to use it for almond flour
  vanilla cake (or other such light colored dishes). I am sure even if
  you used sucanat for a sweetener in a baked good it would be enough to
  cover up the light green color.

Hulling pumpkin seeds is a chore without a hulling centrifuge, but the easiest way I've found is to roast them, chop them in a food chopper, and then separate the kernel bits from the hull bits using a bowl of water (the kernels will sink, the hulls will float).

While pumpkin seed hulls won't damage your GI tract the way other nut hulls will, they're mostly fiber and some carbs, with a little boost of zinc in the attached endosperm. Thus, the relative difference in protein/fat/simple-carb/fiber levels will affect the texture and nutrition of your final flour product, so the choice of whether to hull or not depends primarily on whether you want this to be more of a protein powder or more of a baking flour.


This is actually not answerable as an absolute.  One of the Great Unknowns when baking with flour is how humid it has been in your flour storage recently, and thus how much water is already in the flour.  I've had a few cups of flour require as much as half a cup extra water to get the right consistency depending on the season.

My usual approach for making the driest dough I can is to instead of pre-measuring, add the liquid gradually to a spinning food processor that contains the dry ingredients.  It will lump up quite quickly when the liquid is right.


Do "Chinese Ironwood" cutting boards dull knives quickly?

Based on its density when compared to other hardwoods, I would say it would (see here). Also, having used one (I had a nice circular board, when I lived in China actually) and I noticed it as well. Just like you say, in order to keep a good edge on my knives I was sharpening more often than I was accustomed to with my endgrain cutting board (made myself out of maple and walnut) as well as my bamboo one.


Where do I get weights for a Dutch-style cheese press?

I'm not sure about weights specifically for this cheese press. However, as an avid fisherman I use weights designed to be hung off of various types of lines and/or clasps. While most are made of lead, you can get tungsten, stainless steel, and even rubber coated ones now. I have seen them up to 3lbs, mind you if you live near the ocean I am sure (almost certain) you could get larger.


I personally don't use the stems directly, and I suspect that might've been your problem.

As for bitter flavors ... salt will help to mask bitterness (it's considered a 'competitor' against bitterness, not an enhancer), but it's frequently paired with sugar and/or an alternate flavoring to further hide the bitterness.


What ingredient, besides beans, creates a complete protein together with rice?

Rice tends to be high in the sulfur-containing amino acids, cysteine and methionine, but low in lysine.  So want you need to complement the rice are foods high in lysine.  Remember that the average adult male only needs about 3g of lysine daily which is easily provided by 3-4oz (90-120g) of meat, eggs, dairy, or soy protein (tofu, tempeh, lufu, miso, etc).  Since you do eat meat, all you need to do to save money and still get a complete protein is to eat less.  If you need more bulk in your meals, include a variety of vegetables, or a salad topped with nuts or seeds.

People who eat meat and other animal products to meet their recommended protein intake don't need to worry about not getting enough of any individual amino acid. Even vegetarians usually don't have a problem with this as long as they eat a variety of different plant-based protein sources, since beans with grains, beans with nuts or seeds and grains with nuts or seeds are all combinations that provide enough of all of the essential amino acids.

Also, it is not necessary to take in the full complement of essential amino acids in one sitting, as long as you eat at least the minimum required amounts over a 24 hour period.


how much powdered gelatin to one gelatin leaf?

According to Modernist Pantry and thanks to SAJ14SAJ:

You can successfully substitute sheet gelatin for powdered gelatin in
any recipe by using the following scaling.
1 (0.25 oz.) envelope granulated gelatin = 1 tablespoon [(15 ml)] powdered
gelatin = 3 sheets leaf gelatin.

and so one sheet of leaf gelatin would correspond to ~1 teaspoon (5 ml) of powdered gelatin.
and a bit extra info from Modernist Cuisine

Gelatins are measured by what is called their Bloom strength (usually labeled as bronze, silver, gold, or platinum). Knox brand has a bloom strength of 225. If you are making a recipe (not just one of ours, but any recipe), be it a Jell-O wreath or a pâté, you can use a different Bloom strength than what the recipe calls for, but you’ll have to do a little math. You can convert the recipe to use whatever gelatin you have on hand if you know the weight (MA) and Bloom strength (BA).
For gelatin A, you can find the equivalent weight of gelatin B (MB) with a Bloom strength of BB by using the formula MB = MA × BA ÷ BB. For example, if a recipe calls for 2.6 g of Knox gelatin, you could use 3.7 g of silver gelatin, which has a Bloom strength of 160 (2.6 × 225 ÷ 160 = 3.7). To make a vegetarian panna cotta, we substitute 0.8 g agar and 0.65 g xanthan for the 4.3 g gelatin the recipe normally calls for.


How do I stop my steak from leaking juice?

A lot of people had good questions in the comments. The best being Kenji's article from serious eats .com. Read that.

Chances are if a lot of juices are coming out of your steak, its because you are cooking it past medium. I like to think the proportion of 'grey' meat in a cooked steak indicates how much red juice has been 'squeezed' out of the meat fibrils and is now on the plate. If your steak is still medium or medium rare, there is lots of 'red' meat that has the capacity to hold the juice!
-Most important: Let rest ten minutes (longer for bigger cuts/roasts etc) after cooking. Seems like you're doing that.

Heres one link to a Serious Eats article by Kenji. This one explains some myths, including 'locking in juices'.

Serious Eats - Steak Old Wives Tales


Is it possible to make guacamole without acid?

At its simplest, guacamole is just mashed avocado. Avocado is not particularly acidic on its own, so add whatever non-acidic ingredients you like.

Consider cilantro, sour cream or whatever low or non-acid flavorings suit you.

See: Browning Avocados - What Helps? for more on acid and avocados.


How to stop spices burning when browning meat?

You've got a few options:

slightly cooler can make a big difference (basically buying you time to keep things moving).
or hotter can brown the meat faster if it's going to be cooked through in a sauce.
(more) oil should stop the spices sticking to the pan; that's when they burn
if they're big chunks of meat you can turn them individually rather than stirring. Less will fall off.
when you can't stop the spices burning the meat is probably browned enough, even if you'd like a little more colour. Have your liquid ready to add
if you're browning before a long cook in liquid, do you really need to season the meat before it goes in the pan, or can you add the spices when the meat is nearly browned?

Many spices want to be browned to release or improve the flavour, so it's probably a small adjustment that you need to make.


Something I've never tried, however, my immediate thought is the comparison of cooked cabbage to cooked spinach.

I imagine nothing more than a jar full of green-black slime.

I'd love to hear what happens if you try, though ;)


You should throw them out. Mussels that don't open were quite possibly dead and decomposing for an unknown period of time prior to cooking. You don't want to take a chance here.

Just in case future readers don't know, mussels, clams, and other in-shell shellfish are still alive when you buy them, and they should be still alive when you cook them.


A traditional Manhattan is two shots of rye or bourbon, one shot of sweet vermouth, a dash of bitters and a cherry, shaken and strained into a martini glass. I prefer on the rocks in a rocks glass, myself.

A perfect Manhattan is similar, but uses a half shot each of sweet and dry vermouth. They tend to be more interesting when paired with a higher quality whiskey.

I'm also a big fan of white whiskey (aka, high quality moonshine) in Manhattans.


How to get uniform bubbles in simple dutch oven bread?

Given that the second picture is what you desire, your bread is over proofed. The large irregular bubbles and flat or sunken overall shape is indicative of such. There are a couple of things you can try:

Make sure to form the loaf such that it has a nice taught skin on the outside prior to final proofing. You will notice in the second picture, the bubble structure is obviously interrupted from where the loaf was folded inward onto itself to stretch the outer skin tight. (Note the concentration of large bubbles towards the lower mid-left of the loaf)
Don't let your bread proof for so long. Typically the longer the proofing period, the bigger the bubbles.
Punch the bread down more vigorously between proofings. This helps to pop the bubbles that have gotten too large.

That said, I would much rather eat the first loaf of bread, as that open structure and sturdy crust is what a lot of us home bakers enjoy most.

Extra Credit:
If you want your loaf to be tall instead of flat there are a few other things to try.

Develop a stronger gluten structure by kneading or stretching.
Make sure to form a taught skin around the outside of the dough when shaping the final loaf. This will help to constrict the outward spread of the dough.
Use a structured vessel to support the dough during the final rise. If you try to make a loaf like the one pictured on a flat surface, it will inevitably spread out and droop. Cheers!


To release the bone marrow, which is excellent source of protein and has medicinal properties.


What type of Paprika is the generic stuff one buys at a grocery store chain?

This information should be indicated on the label: sweet, sweet&sour, spicy, smoked...

Generic paprika is sweet and will probably not have much flavor (that is why paprika can be used in paella together with saffron - see this question)


Tips for making lean ground beef patties tender?

I use only 5% fat beef - which I would assume would be considered 95% lean, though the UK doesn't measure it that way.
I cannot abide fatty meat, but that's a topic for another day ;)

For me, a burger is 500g beef mince, an onion, either finely diced, or pre-fried [different flavour profile], 1 egg, a good handful of breadcrumbs [somewhere between 1 & 2 tbsp, I guess] a little salt & pepper & often a hint of cayenne. You could get adventurous with a hint of dill or even some finely-diced pickled gherkin.

That will make 4 large patties or 6 - 8 small ones.
I shape to 'about 1.5x the diameter of the bun it will go in' to allow for shrinkage, maybe 5 - 7mm thick.

Grill, medium-high, one side until it 'looks done' [1], browning nicely & bubbling any fat/water off - I've never measured a temperature in my life - flip it, give it maybe half the time again on the 2nd side. Cheese optional, takes about the same time to melt the cheese as it does to toast the bun on the inside.
 Done.
If you still find that dull, try a side of home-made cole slaw. Add to that a dash of Tabasco for an instant hit, or some coriander [cilantro] & lime juice.

btw, there are a million things you can do with mince, even if many of them are tomato-based.
Chilli, curry [& how many different curries are there?] bolognese, shepherd's [cottage] pie, meatloaf, meatballs, kofte, kebabs, stuffed peppers...
& that's before you even think about chunks rather than simple mince.
Goulash, youvetsi, tagine, Ethiopian wat, rendang, Irish stew... the list just goes on & on...

Pick a different continent every day. [2]

[1] Until you get used to the timing, just break it in half when you flip it, so you can get a visual clue as to how far through it's cooked. After a while you'll be able to tell by just looking, or by poking at it with your finger.

[2] This is our family's cooking motto.


Do I need to keep white peppercorns on hand for making stock?

White peppercorns are used purely for aesthetic reasons- just to avoid black specs in a pale dish.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, white peppercorns taste absolutely terrible. They have a sour, astringent, flavor not at all similar to black peppercorns.

I don't think black pepper looks objectionable so I always use it.


Suitable oils for roasting chicken at high temperature in cast iron

Omega-6, omega-3, and other polyunsaturates will likely be kaput anyway after cooking at 230°C, so oil selection criteria valid for finishing/salad/cold cuisine oils should not be blindly applied here. What will remain of the polyunsaturates after that treatment is more likely to be a nuisance in terms of both taste and health than a benefit. So with the exception of peanut oil (see below), a highly refined oil high in monounsaturates or saturates will serve you best.

Oddly, peanut oil, while high in polyunsaturates, is well known to be pretty heat stable in practice, and one of the favorites for high-heat wok cooking for that reason - it will not quickly develop objectionable off flavors or heavily smoke when overheated.

For this kind of use, since you are using the oil at its limits, the actual refinement process used can matter as much as what the oil is made from - eg there are highly refined olive oils that are very heat stable and that you could use well here, however extra-virgin or even low-refinement types would likely fail. The same applies to safflower oil. Oh, and be aware that there are multiple, completely different types of sesame oil - many grocers would assume you want toasted sesame oil if you ask them for sesame oil. Toasted sesame oil would be completely, utterly unsuitable here.

The optimum oil for your needs would probably be highly refined, desodorated coconut oil (not extra virgin, which the often stated smoke point of 177°C applies to) - this is a mostly-saturated, heat stable fat.


You can try to tossing some Flour on your Aga toaster first, but it will give you extra grill marks on your toast.


Why when I add garlic to an existing flavor base with veggies, it rarely gets golden brown?

One thing you can do is push the rest of the contents aside and make a little well into which to add your garlic directly onto the bottom of the pan. Give it a little stir (I assume it's crushed or finely chopped) and then mix the other veg back in. If you haven't got room to do this your pan is probably too crowded already.  You may want to add a few drops of oil to this clear spot just before the garlic, up to a teaspoonful.  This would be my preferred approach if the garlic doesn't get much more cooking, e.g. in a stir-fry (which can also tolerate a little more oil).

Another approach is simply lots of of stirring and a nice hot pan - if the other ingredients burn you added the garlic a touch too late.  It can be hard to tell when the garlic gets golden brown this way as it disperses into the rest of the veg, but it works well for slower-cooking dishes.

With onions I've found that recipes frequently imply a much quicker process than in my kitchen, and the same may be true for garlic.  I suspect that the pros use a hotter, heavier, pan, and having everything prepped already keep things from burning by lots of stirring.


Amount of ingredients for 3 boxes of cake mix

Yes. For three boxes of mix you would triple the eggs, water and oil listed on one box.