Color of fried beef steak: sometimes dark, sometimes light-colored. Why?

It's quite likely that the steaks that ended up darker were dry when you started cooking them.

If you don't dry off the surface of your steak, the heat is used to evaporate the moisture on the surface, which ends up steaming the steak rather than developing a good char/crust.

The darker colors are the result of a chemical reaction that results in more flavorful compounds being created.

As for the juiciness, the higher heat (as there wasn't evaporative cooling) will brown the outside faster while leaving the inside more rare (and therefore moist/juicy).  When it steams, we leave it cooking longer, which can result in the middle overcooking (squeezing out moisture).


Are you opposed to "fake cheese", AKA "cheese food products"?  The best known at least in the US is Velveeta, but there are alternates including recipes you can find to make your own.  They would have a different flavor profile than Swiss and others that I call white cheeses.  Home made versions are usually a combination of America, Cheddar, and milk or dried milk.

Con side: It is what many refer to as cheese flavored plastic and cheese purist scoff at even considering it.  The flavor profile tends toward bland, not the more complex flavor of name cheeses.

Pro side: It was specifically developed to melt smoothly, consistently and without lumps and far less tendency to separate into a layer of oil than many real cheeses.  It is largely credited with the rise of popularity of grilled cheese sandwiches in the US years ago due to its ease of melting and that it will stay melted.  It is commonly used in many quick cheese sauces for the same reasons.

If you mess with one of the home made recipes to duplicate it, it will typically take a few hours to prepare it (some use gelatin and are faster), but also gives you the opportunity to customize the flavor profile.  Commonly spices and tomato are added.  You could then experiment with adding your own favorite cheeses to see if you could duplicate the ease of remelting while retaining closer to your taste in flavor.


Volume of a 10" cake pan will vary with the wall height (which varies by manufacturer).  The 11 cup measure is for a 2" tall pan; if it calls for a taller pan, you might have issues.

As for how to deal with preparing the pan as you can't use parchment would be to butter and flour it; it generally works better than most cooking sprays.  If you use a cooking spray, look for a baking specific one -- they have flour in them, so it behaves more like a floured pan when releasing.

You can also make 'cake release', which is a blend of shortening, oil and flour (equal parts by volume) that you can paint onto the nooks and crannies of pans with a pastry brush.

As for the cooking temperature, I would shorten the time before I started checking for it to be done, but I don't know that I would drop the temperature; when you do, you end up with less doming but a denser cake.


Your friend is correct. The only way your chest freezer is too full is if the lid does not close properly. I imagine you could construct a way to fill the freezer such that some sectors of the freezer may not reach the correct temperature, but that would be a real challenge on most modern chest freezers.

There are even some advantages to keeping your freezer full (see this question):

  if you need to survive intermittent power outages, having a lot of ice or food in the fridge will keep it cool longer
  a larger amount of food in the fridge/freezer will make it easier to chill or freeze new food more rapidly, which may sometimes aid in
  food safety/preservation
  similarly, having more food may help to minimize small temperature fluctuations when opening the door frequently, again perhaps aiding in
  food safety/quality in some cases

There are some disadvantages to having a full freezer, like it may take longer to find what you are looking for or if you are like me it may be hard to even know what is in your freezer. That can lead to losing track and having some food stuffs that could be years old stuck at the bottom of the freezer. But in general, there's nothing wrong with a full freezer.


Your question is ...did I use too much cure1...which is sodium nitrate? I dont think there is a safe and not safe limit for this..the more, the less healthy, but there is no poisoning within large margins...

Wikipedia:

Health concerns

Studies have shown a link between increased levels of nitrates and increased deaths from certain diseases including Alzheimer's, diabetes mellitus and Parkinson's, possibly through the damaging effect of nitrosamines on DNA, however, little is done to control for other possible causes in the epidemiological results.[10] Nitrosamines, formed in cured meats containing sodium nitrate and nitrite, have been linked to gastric cancer and oesophageal cancer.[11] Sodium nitrate and nitrite are associated with a higher risk of colorectal cancer.[12] World Cancer Research Fund UK,[13] states that one of the reasons that processed meat increases the risk of colon cancer is its content of nitrate. A small amount of the nitrate added to meat as a preservative breaks down into nitrite, in addition to any nitrite that may also be added. The nitrite then reacts with protein-rich foods (such as meat) to produce NOCs (nitroso compounds). NOCs can be formed either when meat is cured or in the body as meat is digested. For most people, the highest dietary source of nitrates is from fruits and vegetables and no studies have conclusively linked nitrates and nitrites to cancer or any other form of diseases. On the contrary, some research has hinted to beneficial properties of nitrites such as lowering blood pressure by slightly expanding arteries. [14] The only reason nitrates and nitrites came under such legal scrutiny is when the US Food and Drug Administration presented a brief report which stated that some adverse effect was observed on mice (“depression of growth”) when their intake of nitrites was up to 90% of daily diet.[15]


I've never seen the kind of garlic bagels spiceyokooko is talking about, but I am familiar with garlic bagels of the variety you're referring to. I don't usually make garlic bagels at home because I'm happier with simpler ones, but I have made some ages ago.

I've usually found most things stick just fine to recently boiled bagels, but for fresh garlic, you may find it more reliable to brush an egg wash (roughly equal amounts beaten egg/water) on the top of the bagels before sprinkling on the chopped garlic. That'll work almost like cement to keep most of the garlic in place after baking.

There's some possibility that the level of moisture in fresh garlic may make it harder to just press the egg-washed bagels into a bowl of chopped garlic, as you would likely do with seeds.

Also, I wouldn't expect that all of the garlic will stay stuck. But with the egg wash, most of it will.

As for the texture of the garlic, there's a pretty wide range of common results at the variety of bagel shops I've tried in my life; some are golden brown and some are near burnt. That's a matter of cooking time, mostly, but also the starting moisture content of the garlic.

I would expect that most bagel shops use bulk, pre-minced garlic so that they can save on a little labor. This is typically a bit drier than if you fresh chopped the garlic at home. Consider buying the prefab stuff and see if that gets you closer to what you want. If it does, and you prefer to do the heavy lifting on your own, mince the garlic and let it sit on the counter to dry a bit.

Another strategy altogether is to mince garlic and mix it with some oil, and smear it atop the boiled bagels with your hands. I think this should stick reasonably well, and will affect the texture of your result.

Since I'm not 100% sure what your platonic ideal is for the garlic texture, I can't say whether the oil-mixture or egg wash route is going to be a better choice, or some hybrid, but those are some options to explore that I think will get you closer to your target.


How to make softer frozen whipped cream?

My advice is to use inverted sugar

Inverted sugar helps to avoid crystallization and the frozen cream will be substantially smoother.


What are the different flavors of sources for homemade baker’s yeast?

The differences will be down to the strain or variety of the yeast that you cultivate from the source. Generally baker's yeast is considered to be Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is a eukaryotic organism with a large genome. Many of the genes produced are involved with metabolism of various sources of energy for different environments and disposing of waste compounds from metabolism. In addition, the yeast that you "isolate" is very unlikely to be a single strain or even a single species, all of which taste and smell subtly different to each-other. For instance another yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is also present on grapes and is commonly used in wine making. If you used grapes as your starter source, you are likely to get this yeast too or maybe instead of baker's yeast.
Some of the waste compounds involved are things like esters which are produced as by-products of metabolic activity of different carbon sources. Esters are often short-chain volatile compounds with distinctive smells/flavours - if you like candy/lollies flavoured as "banana", the flavour is often the ester amyl acetate. These are the different flavours that you get from different yeast strains.
As to which flavours they are exactly - well that will depend on exactly which environment you have got them from - grapes will be different to tomatoes, which will be different to apples etc. Now you might think "well, I'll just get some [insert favourite yeast source here]" and that each time you did this you would get the same result, but it isn't that simple - the yeast that you get will also be dependent on where the yeast source came from, the time of year, the stage of fruit ripeness, how the grower treated their plants, what's floating around in the air at the time... etc. and finally exactly which mix of yeast strains are present at your location.
Some of this complexity is seen in wine and beer manufacture - not all locations are equal in terms of wine flavours because of the wild yeasts that are present on the grapes or barley when they are crushed/malted to get the fermentation started, so most vineyards and breweries now add bulk stocks of single-source yeast to overcome this problem and standardize the flavours their vineyard/brewery produces.


The safety issue isn't so much the egg glaze, it is the fact that your bread was not cooled properly before covering it. This left a warm, humid environment for bacteria to grow. Because of this, I would not serve it. However, the best way to judge whether there is a problem or not is to use sight and smell. If you weren't the one to make it, would you want to eat it?

The solution would not necessarily have been to refrigerate it, but to make sure it was cooled before wrapping. Refrigerating would have also caused condensation, although it would have reduced the amount of time the bread was warm. Next time, allow the bread to cool uncovered inside or outside of the refrigerator. You could partially cover it, leaving a hole in the top for the humid air to escape. When you think it is cooled and OK to cover, check back in a half hour to look for condensation. If there is condensation, uncover it and allow it to cool a little bit longer before rewrapping.


Yeast dies at about 130-140F.

Bread is done baking at 200F or so.

Almost all the yeast is dead when the bread is done.

Edit
I wrote "almost" because in the context of cooking nothing is ever 100%. Not all alcohol boils it off a sauce. Not all microbes are killed. Etc.

The longer and hotter you cook the more are killed until there are too few to be an issue. We're content if 99.99% of bacteria or yeast are dead - but there are always a few that survive.

As an example- Russian kvass is made by putting well toasted black bread in water with a little sugar until it is carbonated. There is enough yeast alive in the bread even after baking and well toasting.


I want to add milk powder in my bread recipe - what ingredients below do I reduce and by how much?

None, will be a perfectly fine "adjustment" to the other ingredients - just toss in the milk powder and leave everything else the same.


Barleywines initially have a large amount of sugars in them before fermentation, and brewers balance that by adding a large amount of hops.  There is a large bitterness factor in a barleywine, which you may or may not notice, depending on your tastes and the individual brew.   If you try to reduce it like you might with a wine, the bitterness may quickly get overwhelming.

With that in mind, I see no reason why you couldn't use a barleywine in any recipe that would work with a strongly flavored beer.

Check out The Home Brewed Chef for some great ideas for how to cook with beer.


What went wrong with my Chocolate Chantilly (Hervé This' recipe)

This dish should taste like the chocolate you use and have the texture of a mousse. I'm not familiar with Weiss chocolate, but I don't think 57% is adequate. I would suggest at least 70%.

Perhaps you should try a different brand? Again, I'm not familiar with Weiss, but is it any good? Do you like the taste of the chocolate alone? You should. If you try a different brand, I'd suggest Valrhona.

Update

The graininess is a result of over whisking. If you over whisk you can simply return it to the pot and start again.

Also, I looked up Weiss chocolate with 57% cocoa solids, and I'm more confident that this is the primary cause of your flavor problems. The breakdown for this is: 57% Cocoa, 42% Sugar, 36% Fat (the fat is included in the cocoa solid). Cocoa butter (the fat) is what carries the chocolate flavor (provided by the non-fat cocoa solids) and provides the richness and body of the chocolate. Chocolates with 57% Cocoa typically contain 33-36% fat content. Whereas chocolate with 70% cocoa solids typically have a fat content in the range of 40-42%. This lack of fat can lead to a "blander" taste in the finished dish.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this dish gives you a fair amount of wiggle room. If you whip it up and it feels like it's still lacking in some fat, then melt it, add more chocolate and start over. If you end up with something that isn't light enough, you can simply start over and add a little more water. As long as you don't burn anything you can do this indefinitely.

Finally, if you feel like experimenting you can use something besides water. In the original article Herve This recommended orange juice or blackcurrant puree.

Another Update

I found a video that uses tea in place of water. It also demonstrates how to do it without whisking, using a N₂O siphon.


Fenugreek Sprouts - How am I doing? Am I done?

According to Sprout People. sprouting fenugreek should require about 2-3 days, which you are already passed.

They show pictures of the various stages; yours look quite similar to their "ready to harvest" picture:

The sample ones show a sprout length of about 2.5 - 3 times the length of the initial seed; the ones you show are close to 3-4 times as long.  This would suggest they are quite ready.

Note that in some sense, sprouting is a zero-sum game.   They are not rooted in soil, and so cannot absorb any nutrients.  Any growth of the sprout is paid for by consuming the calories and nutrition in the initial seed.  Waiting too long will just cause them to die.


Does olive oil and balsamic vinegar together need to be refrigerated?

I don't think so unless it's not pure mixture of oil and vinegar as I think both of them can be stored un-frigerated independently.


How long can refrigerated eggs last past their date?

Yes, you can use eggs well past their "sell by" date.  A week past shouldn't have a noticeable difference.

The older the eggs get, the more evaporation that will take place (because the eggs are washed, so they don't have a protective layer).

You will notice in older eggs that there's a growing pocket of air inside the egg when you break them.  (for me it tends to be on the more rounded end, but I don't know if it has to do with how you orient the eggs in storage).

I know that I've used eggs more than a month past the "sell by" date, and I wouldn't be surprised if I've gone two months.  It's only really a problem in baking, as the egg whites won't contribute the same amount of moisture as if they were fresh.  And maybe for hard boiled eggs if you want them pretty, as you'll end up with a void where the air pocket is.


How does pineapple affect umami when used in vegan-fish-sauce recipes?

Umami is the result of glutamic acid (ions) getting in touch with the tongue. Glutamic acid in fish sauce is the result of a fermentation process, which involves bacteria doing the work of breaking down fish components. Glutamic acid easily dissolves in water though. This is after all, how it was detected millennia ago and centuries ago verified by creating glutamic acid salts: Cooking seaweed in water and boiling the result down.

The wakame is added due to its natural content of glutamic acid. There isn't anything special the pineapple can/has do to it that regular water can't do.

Therefore the answer is: No, the purpose of the pineapple is not to increase the glutamic acid of the substitute.


You didn't have any leavening agent, simple as that. Add about 5-7 g baking powder to this amount of flour and you'll get a normal cake.


The crucial observation is that cooking a smaller cut does reduce the cooking time, but not that much. Cheap cuts contain connective tissue, which consists of collagen. Converting the collagen into gelatine takes time. The conversion from collagen to gelantine begins at 70C (160F), so it important the braising keeps this temperature.
How long the conversion needs depends on the cut of meet but I think your 60-90 minutes are not long enough. I would make it at least 3-4 hours.

Suggestion: Cook the your roast in one piece. Cut it in serving portions and freeze.
Thaw and warm at serving time.

If you want to speed up the braising process consider using a pressure cooker.


Botulism from *uncooked* potatoes wrapped in foil?

One of the nicer things about botulism (there are not many) is that heat does neutralize the toxin. So unless you are licking the raw potatoes, not likely to be a problem.

The odds of the foil-wrapping being actually airtight are also about zero, so it's unlikely that you'd actually get botulism, as that requires an anaerobic environment.

Now, why you'd buy foil-wrapped potatoes in the first place is beyond me, but I'm not seeing a safety issue here.


What type of devices, could increase dim sum output, short of a complete expensive, automatic machine?

Three sets of tools would help you speed up your operation, with some caveats:

Circle cutters, particularly ones that allow you to cut a lot of circles together like this kind.
Dumpling molds in a variety of sizes.  There are even some that mold-and-cut, but that's not actually a big help since you have to "pre-cut" the dough anyway.
Cookie scoops for portioning fillings.

The biggest speed-up here comes from having sets that match: cutters that match the size of specific dumpling molds and a cookie scoop that portions exactly the amount of filling for those molds.  You'll also want at least a half-dozen molds of each size so that you can assembly-line it.

Now, the caveats: first, molded dumplings will never look as good as hand-folded.  Second, certain shapes aren't possible using a plastic mold, such as Siu Mai or the classic Har Gow shapes.


Hams are either ready-to-eat or not, thus spoke the USDA. And, by its regulations, a ham that must be cooked has to show cooking and safe handling instructions.

  Hams that are not ready-to-eat, but have the appearance of ready-to-eat products, will bear a prominent statement on the principal display panel (label) indicating the product needs cooking, e.g., "cook thoroughly." In addition, the label must bear cooking directions

The 'cured with' portion tells you that you have a wet-cured ham, one that was either injected or soaked in a solution of water and salt, sugar, etc. According to the label, it was smoked after curing.

Yes, you can keep it in the freezer, frozen; in the refrigerator section, it will gradually come to the same temperature as that area, which is how you would want to thaw before use. It will slice like other proteins, such as chicken or beef, using a regular knife. It is ready to consume, sliced, diced, or chopped into a ham salad. It can be fried up as a breakfast steak or heated, either as is, or glazed and oven-baked to 140°F internal temperature (safe because it is cured and pre-cooked).


I have family in Reunion Island - one top seller of bourbon vanilla. The only vodka they have there is imported, and rhum (or rum if you prefer to spell it that way) is readily available.

Personally I would recommend:

150 ml / 5 oz. of neutral alcohol (e.g. rhum, vodka, eau-de-vie)
2 beans
8 weeks (6 min) without light, occasional shake

You can also use syrup instead of alcohol, but concentration / flavor will be different.

5 oz agave or sugar cane syrup
2 beans

AFAIK:

vodka is not mandatory
use any vodka you like (e.g. could be in your cupboard already)


Can I make white chocolate brownies based on a normal brownie recipe?

As you noticed, white chocolate doesn't have the same fat or solid makeup as regular chocolate, and in baking that will make a huge difference. The proportions of starch/binder (flour) to fat (butter & chocolate) to protein (eggs) are what make the difference between cake, brownie, fudge and everything in between.

White chocolate tends to melt faster than regular chocolate, so the baking time will be shorter, and there'll probably need to be extra flour & butter to make up the difference.

Go ahead and google for a basic recipe & then you should be able to make most of the same add-ins (nuts, extracts/flavorings) as any regular brownie recipe.

I would warn you to stay away from the "marble brownie" recipes though - they're really popular, but these are not two batters that play well with each other.

EDIT: Regular chocolate varies broadly in its fat makeup - different countries have diff regulations on what types of (natural) fats and (artificial) emulsifiers can be added to chocolate and chocolate-derived products. White chocolate has the same ingredient list as milk chocolate (w/o the cocoa solids), but again, the proportions and allowed/disallowed additives may be different. So you have to mind your brands/country-of-origin, as well as the "family" of chocolate.

Hershey's (US): http://www.thehersheycompany.com/nutrition-and-wellness/chocolate-101/types-of-chocolate.aspx

EU standards: http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/consumers/product_labelling_and_packaging/l21122b_en.htm (If someone can find a more consumer-friendly explanation of EU chocolate labeling, that would be great.)


I would like to make my own Chicken Stock, any suggestions?

Note that for maximum benefit I am answering the question regarding chicken stock first and at the end have included information on other stocks such as fish and brown chicken and veal stock.

Properly made stock is made from bones only.  If you cut up your own chickens then save the backs and wing tips in the freezer and use for stock.  You might ask at your grocery store or butcher and be able to purchase backs from them if you want to make stock but don't have enough.  Chicken feet are rich in gelatin and can be added to the pot to help add body to the stock.

Place chicken backs/wing tips in a large stockpot (about a 3-4 gal. stockpot).  Cover with cold water and place on stove.  Bring to a gentle simmer for about 10 minutes.  This is known as "blanching" the bones and is done to help dissolve the blood and other loose proteins from the soft bones.  These proteins will form a gray scum on the surface.  Once the scum has formed, drain off the water disarding it in the sink.  The more clear a stock is the longer the shelflife as it's the additional proteins making a stock cloudy that also cause it to spoil much more quickly.
Return bones to the pot and cover again with cold water.  Add a sachet (cheesecloth pouch containing a couple of bay leaves, about a teaspoon of whole peppercorns, a handful of parsley stems, and 8-10 thyme branches or a teaspoon of dried thyme) that's been tied up with some string.  Bring the pot to a very gentle simmer once again and allow to simmer for about 3 hours.
After 3 hours add the mirepoix (carrots, onions, celery).  Plan on 1-2 lbs. of mirepoix (combined vegetables) per 8 lbs. of bones.  I also like to add leeks as they not only add flavor but are supposed to help in clarification of the stock.  Continue to simmer the stock for 1-2 hours.  (If you're not going to be around to add the vegetables at that time they can be added with the bones but need to be cut in large pieces to avoid cooking down and disintegrating.  I would typically start chicken and veal stock at night before leaving the restaurant and allow it to simmer overnight until the next morning.)
Strain the stock through a fine mesh strainer or several layers of cheesecloth.
Cool the stock in a metal container (another pot) in an ice bath until cool to the touch and then place in storage containers and refrigerate or freeze.
Once the stock has chilled the fat will have formed a solid layer on top of the stock. Carefully remove and either discard or use for sauteeing (such as duck or chicken fat).

Additional Notes:
The same process would be followed for white veal stock (not frequently used)

If preparing a brown stock (roasted chicken, veal, beef, lamb, duck):**
These stocks are made by first rinsing the bones and then roasting in the oven at about 400 F degrees until medium brown (think iced tea color).

Once bones are browned, smear them with a tablespoon or two of tomato paste and roast for another 5 minutes or so.  Be careful as the concentrated sugars in the tomato paste can cause it to burn and create a bitter tasting stock.

After bones and tomato paste have roasted, place them in the stock pot and add the mirepoix to the roasting pan, tossing to coat with the fat that has rendered out and roast the mirepoix until lightly browned.  Add the mirepoix about 2 hours before finishing the stock.  Be sure carrots are cut rather large to avoid having them disintegrate and adding a strange excessively sweet taste to the stock.

Recommended cooking times for stocks:

-Fish: 30-45 minutes.  Use lean white fish bones and heads.  Lobster/shrimp stock is made from the shells and will usually yield more flavor if first roasted.  Remove gills and eyes from fish heads to prevent clouding the stock.  Do not use carrots in mirepoix or it will color the stock an orange hue.  Use onions, celery, leeks, mushrooms, and sliced lemon.

-Chicken/Duck:  4-6 hours

-Veal/Beef/Lamb:  8-12 hours (knuckle bones of veal will have the greatest amount of gelatin since the bones haven't hardened as much as those of beef)

Stocks should not be seasoned with salt as one of the primary purposes is for them to be a "stock" item that can be used for a variety of needs: soups, sauces, rice, etc.  The salt is added to the final preparation not the stock.  If stock is salted and then used for a reduction sauce the resulting sauce will be too salty.


If you are frying sausages on a hot pan then it's very hard to brown them on all sides for a couple of reasons:

the curved shape will cause it to flop along the curve, they are hard to stand up
if you do get them stood up only the small area touching the pan will get color

So you are frying on a flat pan you can spend a lot of time messing around trying to get color on the sausages, I personally don't think it's worth the effort and just fry them on the sides they rest on. However, I rarely cook sausages this way, I usually use my broiler/grill. The advantages to this are that the sausages get more evenly browned and that the wire rack I makes it easier to stand the sausages up or down as opposed to side to side.

If you do plan to use a frying pan you could get one with ribs in it which will help position the sausages.


If you want to make "falafel" out of lentils, then you should look to folks who actually make deep-fried lentil balls regularly, and that's Indians.  Dal Vada, balls of lentils that are deep fried in vegetable oil, are always made with lentils of some kind that have been soaked by not cooked.  Cooked lentils, like cooked peas, will not hold together.
My suggestion is that you look through the various dal vada recipes online, and change the spicing on them to match falafel spices (cumin, onion, garlic, parsley, and Aleppo pepper).
However, one thing to notice is that most recipes use chana dal (black chickpeas), moong dal (mung beans), or black-eyed peas. So it may still be the case that trying to get patties to hold together using grey/red lentils is very difficult, even if you don't cook them.


Fatty liquid vs non fatty liquid in dough

The reason that your enriched bread handled completely different than your initial bread is because eggs, sugar, and oil all inhibit the formation of gluten. Sugar attracts water, so it competes with the proteins gliadin and glutenin in flour for binding to water (glutenin+water+gliadin= gluten) added to the mixture.

Egg Yolks contain a high percentage of fat and liquid oil by definition is 100% fat. Fat uses a different mechanism than sugar to inhibit gluten formation. Fats coat the individual gliadin and glutenin proteins. Because fats are hydrophobic (not attracted to water) they effectively shield the gliadin and glutenin from water, which inhibits gluten formation.

With this collective reduction in gluten, the bread becomes much denser because the carbon dioxide produced by the yeast doesn't have enough gluten to use for expansion of the bread. If all other ingredients and factors were the same between your initial and enriched bread recipes, but you increased the amounts of sugar and fat the result is a denser bread.


Do plastic cutting boards dull knives faster than wood boards?

There is such a report, but you're not going to like the result.  According to KnifeGrinder's scientific test(PDF), plastic board materials other than low-density polypropylene are the least edge-wearing board materials you can get.  Wood wears the edge more than plastic, as a rule.


Should I freeze gyoza before or after cooking?

Either would be safe.

You will get better quality by freezing them uncooked.   They should not get soggy due to the freezing, as neither the meat filling, nor the wrappers, are particularly subject to ice crystal damage.

Gyoza are very small, so you should not need to thaw them:  just begin the steaming phase right out of the freezer, and they will thaw while cooking.   If you do wish to thaw them, do it in the refrigerator and they will be perfectly safe, despite the raw filling.

You are correct that if you freeze them after cooking, you will loose the crispy bottoms--this would be true if you save them as left overs in the refrigerator as well.


Parmesan Crusted Steak - Replace olive oil with honey

If you're trying to avoid char, then switching to honey or any sugar is probably in the wrong direction.  Sugar burns...quick.

I'd recommend three things overall specific to this crust:

Use less oil.  If your oil is dripping off in buckets and causing significant fires - you've got too much.  Just try a light brushing on the meat.
Use a different oil.  EVOO isn't recommended for grilling mostly because of it burning at lower temps.  It turns black, kinda nasty, and loses all its good flavor if it goes too long, too high.  You can try extra light olive oil or really just a more standard canola or peanut oil.
Use the lid on your grill.  A real fire in your grill consumes oxygen fast.  If you leave the lid off, it can burn for much longer.  With the lid on, fires are much much shorter.  I'm an avid fan of grilling with the lid on and I never knew why people complained of flair ups till I did something with the lid off, its a lot worse for flair ups.

A general steak tip, especially for something like this with a crust - make sure your steaks are at room temperature before they go on the grill.  If you're starting with a cold steak, you're going to have to grill it longer and there's a much greater risk to burn the crust.

Also, consider a quick sear on each side over direct heat till your crust gets the color you want, and then move it off to indirect heat to finish.


Yes, you can dump both sugars in together.

This recipe is not based on the creaming method.   Instead,  the butter is melted for a chewy cookie.
You want the butter melted,  but not browned (although that may add flavor it is not called for in this recipe).

The  chilling and resting are essential for success.   During this time the starches will hydrate, the butter will chill,  and the dough will firm.

Your expectations from creaming method recipes do not apply, so don't worry that the dough doesn't seem exactly the same.  The color will be darker than you may be used to.   That is okay.

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


Why does Wusthof call Honing Steel 'Sharpening steel'?

I know Wusthof know better, but I suspect that they suspect that consumers don't know better. Honing does make a blade "sharper", after all... if someone just knows that their knife is dull, they won't necessarily know that the thing they need is called a "honing steel", just that they want to make their knife sharper. Looking at Amazon search results, the same decision has been made pretty widely.

If you want to make very precise distinctions, "sharpening" is not a good word, because both honing and grinding make a blade sharper. ("Grinding" is not often used to describe what you do to a chef's knife with a finely-grained stone, but that's the most precise description.)

Oh, and just to make things even more confusing: The term "honing" is actually a little inaccurate too. "Honing" in the context of machining actually refers to a form of grinding. A honing/sharpening/whatever steel mostly works by burnishing and bending the edge back into shape.


What's the name of this Indian dish I had?

I guess that you have tasted chicken 65, which is a dish from Andhra Pradesh. Chicken 65 is also known as Andhra chicken. It is fried and coated with spices. You can Google chicken 65 recipe. I hope my guess for that may right.


I've found a cookie jar buying guide on Walmart.com that has some interesting tidbits. For functionality alone, looks like a glass jar should do the job well. Something like this would have an advantageous shape to make cookies easier to reach, and the jar less prone to falling.

One feature you may want to look for specifically would be an hermetic sealing lid, which would help keep moisture in the jar and slow down the drying. Same kind of jar that is often used to store flour, sugar, coffee, beans, etc.

  Is light sensitivity a factor?

I don't think it would be, in most cases, unless you kept your cookies in an area that is heavily lit by the sun.


Are tomatoes worth rinsing off if you boil them soon after?

Boiling can take care of any bacterial contaminants.

But boiled dirt still tastes like dirt. And boiled pesticides are probably still not good for you.


Difference between tzatziki and Indian mint dip (mint chutney?)

As far as I'm aware, the traditional Greek tzatziki doesn't generally include mint at all.

It's a cucumber dip that is made of yogurt and sometimes includes dill or mint as a flavoring:

  Tzatziki (Anglicized: /tsɑːtˈsiːki/ }; Greek: τζατζίκι [dzaˈdzici] or [dʒaˈdʒici]) is a Greek sauce served with grilled meats or as a dip. Tzatziki is made of strained yogurt (usually from sheep or goat milk) mixed with cucumbers, garlic, salt, olive oil, red wine vinegar, and sometimes dill. American versions may include lemon juice, mint, or parsley.

The main ingredients in all of the recipes I've looked at in researching this, are yogurt and cucumber and the flavorings are usually dill but occasionally either dill or mint. The Indian mint dip doesn't ever contain cucumber, as far as I know.

So, no I don't think they're similar products at all, mostly because tzatziki isn't "mint sauce" it's "cucumber sauce" that may happen to include mint.


What is the ideal temperature for water added to chickpea flour for falafel?

I have always used room temperature water, & have never had any problem. Generally I take the water from the Brtia filter sitting on my countertop.


There are a couple of reasons why 'resting' meat is a good idea. First, as the meat cooks the muscle fibres contract, which forces the juices out. Letting the meat rest helps the muscle fibres relax so the juices are re-incorporated into the meat and not lost on the chopping board, which would happen if carved immediately.

The second reason to let meat rest is to provide an evenness. Basically as the meat rests it continues to cook slightly and it allows the meat to gain an overall 'doneness'


Best practices to minimize smoke when cooking meat using a cast iron skillet

Do make sure you are using a high quality refined oil that is good for high temperature cooking, and has a high smoke point.  Grapeseed is nearly ideal, although it can be expensive.  I have heard good things about avacado oil, but haven't tried it personally.

You might wish to oil the meat rather than the pan, so that you are not getting smoke from oil away from the food you are cooking, but this unlikely to make a large difference.

Still, if you are searing at high temperatures, some smoke is inevitable.   Of course, lowering the temperature at which you cook can eliminate the smoke, but it also changes the result, sometimes for the worse.

In truth, for high temperature searing, you simply need to have good ventillation.

You might also want to temporarily take the battery out of the kitchen smoke detector—just remember to put it back in when you are done.


IMO, stated again, IMO...

It is an old research paper (1967) about mostly transformed (grated and dried) coconut.

A quick googling does not really give more warnings for whole coconuts (FDA or other sources).

Like all things "exotic", wash the exterior under clean water before opening and use properly clean knives and other kitchen tools.

Enjoy the coconut.


Like you said, the main benefit is control. I'd say the two main variables you're controlling for are amount of fat in the mixture and the tenderness and quality of the cuts used. Depending on the application, you might use a different mixture of meat. (For burgers, Alton Brown uses a 50/50 mixture of chuck and sirloin.)

Grinding your own could also be considered a play for increased food safety. If there are any bacteria on the surface of the cuts of beef that go into the grinder, they will be pretty well distributed throughout grind. The longer (and warmer) the ground beef is stored between when it is ground and cooked, the more chance that the bacteria could grow to sufficient numbers that they could do some serious harm to the consumer. This is why it's recommended that ground beef is cooked to a higher internal temperature than say a steak. In grinding, everything effectively becomes surface area so you have to cook a burger all the way through to be sure you've killed any bacteria.

If you're grinding you're own, you can make the interval between grinding and cooking arbitrarily short, so if you want to take your chances with a rare burger, this would probably be the best reason to grind your own. You're still running a risk in this case as any bacteria that were on the outside of your meat are now on the inside of your burger and won't be killed if the meat is left rare. You would just be trusting that the butcher did a good job of keeping the outside of the cuts you purchased relatively free from infection. Also, any food safety benefit assumes you're doing a good job of cleaning your equipment. Meat grinders can be a real PITA to clean well.

As far as the flavor difference is concerned, I would assume that to be minimal, again if you control for any difference in quality and cuts of beef that might be used. If your butcher grinds the beef and stores it cold in a case or wrapped for a day or two before it goes out the door the flavor shouldn't change enough that you'd notice it after seasoning and cooking. Oxydation would have had a chance to change the color of the meat over that period, the reason why ground beef can look brown on the outside but still nice and pink when broken up. But there shouldn't be enough time for there to have a marked effect on the flavor.

If there is any perceptible flavor difference you'd probably notice it more in a burger where you're tasting the meat by itself for the most part than in something like a chili or stew. (As an aside, you don't necessarily need to grind all the meat in those anyway as they tend to be cooked long enough to soften bigger chunks of tougher cuts.)


As @brhans mentioned, standard air fryers have a drip basket and by their very design will not hold a sufficient quantity of liquid to submerse an oxtail, which is an essential part of cooking such a tough joint successfully.

Oxtails are generally braised or stewed over a very long period to break down the meat fibres, the stock or liquid helping to keep the meat moist. Air frying will rapidly dry the meat out, and most of the fat will render out as part of the cooking process.

The best solution would be to find a small Pyrex or heatproof dish that fits inside your air fryer, brown the meat uncovered first, then add some stock and cover with a well fitting lid or some securely fixed foil. Provided you have at least a cup or two of stock in there (the oxtail doesn't need to be covered), this would be closest to the traditional method. You could always top the level up during cooking if required.


What is the origin of spam musubi, a Hawaiian dish?

Spam became prevalent in the US occupied Pacific islands during World War 2 since fresh meat was difficult to procure at the time.  Since it was a primary food staple, it was incorporated into various dishes, and has remained a popular food.  Spam musubi is just an an extension of this.  Making do with the meat available to create a tasty dish, obviously influenced in this case by Japanese culture.


Would toasting a croissant make it catch fire

It's not uncommon for them to catch fire in the conveyor belt toasters common in hotel breakfast buffets. This is because they toast faster than bread, and the process is self-accelerating: the dark (hottest) bits absorb more heat, meaning that they then get very hot, which can ignite the fat, of which there is much more than in bread.

It doesn't help that in those toasters, there's no instant way to stop the process - the element takes a while to cool down after power is removed, and you can't easily extract the scorched bread in time. That's why there are often stern warnings about using them to heat croissants, even though it's perfectly possible to do so with care.

At home, with familiar equipment and your undivided attention, it shouldn't be much trouble, though warming gives a nicer result.


how to extract Glycyrrhizin from liquorice root?

Assuming that you have Glycyrrhiza glabra, the glycyrrhizin content should be somewhere less than 25% of the content - which is plenty for an extraction, and means you won't need a whole bunch of root and specialist techniques to extract it.

A quick google search leads me to believe that the procedures for extraction of the glycyrrhizin are fairly simple - maceration (literally chewing, but in this context meaning mashing/grinding/blending) followed by steeping for about 4 hours at room temperature (see also here).  It looks like water alone is a pretty good solvent for it, but a mixture of 10% ethanol and 90% water is better.

From Wikipedia, it looks like the solubility is about 10 mg/ml (milligram/milliliter) in water. This is assuming that you can get a saturated solution from a pure compound. You will likely not get this sort of concentration, at least not without a bunch of other compounds coming across and giving you a strong liquorice flavour. Note that the average detection limit for sugar/sucrose is about 12 millimol/litre or about 4 mg/ml by my calculation - so with something 50x sweeter, you should have no problem sweetening things to a similar level as sugar using a solution with as little as 0.08 mg/ml. Your major problem with attempting this process is going to be how to measure how sweet your extracts are - you can do it by taste, but that will be very subjective.

Also note that many recipes for things like cookies call for crystalline sugar to provide structure in the batter rather than purely for sweetness, so you will need to substitute some of the liquid for your liquid sweetener and work out something to add to maintain the structure. I am sure that there this is a well worked out solution for this already for people wanting cookies without the sugar, so I will leave it to you to research.


Should pasta be started in cold or boiling water?

As stated in another answer, Italian tradition is that all pasta is cooked in boiling water. A reasonable explanation for this usage is that it's easier to get the time right this way.

Pasta is very sensitive to cooking time, and will easily turn from 'al dente' to an overcooked mush if left on the fire a couple of minutes too much. By cooking it in boiling water, you ensure that it cooks in uniform conditions, always at the same temperature, regardless of the starting temperature of the water, the temperature of your kitchen, and the power of your burner. So it is a safer bet that cooking it for the same amount of time will work.

In my experience, the time marked on the package is almost always accurate for pasta cooked in boiling water. So it gives you a useful reference point, which you don't have if you cook it starting from cold water.


What tools are needed for making wafer cookies?

Perhaps you can use one these?

http://www.thecooksden.com/cuisinart-pizzelle-press-grill-brushed-stainless-nonstick-wm-pz2/

Buying one these might be little over the top:
http://hanshuangying.en.made-in-china.com/product/IoQnJEqGOOkC/China-Complete-Full-Automatic-Wafer-Press-Machine.html

Pizelle maker at Amazon


Can I use sona masoori rice for making dosa?

@tcb,  I have successfully used sona masoori rice for dosa batter.

try this method:

Preheat oven to 200 degree F. Then turn off the oven. Then put your batter-pot in the oven on a tray.Check after 5-6 hours. If temp are really low outside, and you think it is still not fermenting ,again turn on oven for a couple of minutes and turn off. Batter should be ready in 9-10 hours.


Your picture makes me want to say that it's a classic case of underproofing, but... You also mixed that dough at a pretty high speed. I think you may have over-developed the gluten. Sometimes if the gluten is too tight, it won't be stretchy enough to accommodate proofing and oven spring, which can lead to a rough surface during proofing and ripping while baking. This is more frequently a problem for buns since their shape requires them to be molded tighter than a loaf would normally be, and their small size means that they rise faster than the gluten can relax. You might have better luck only mixing for the recommended time on the lower speed, and then folding it once or twice during the rising time.


I would prefer to give an answer that doesn't involve spending hundreds of dollars, but Modernist Cuisine has a great table about the consistency of custards comparing cooking temperature to egg concentration. If you can find a copy at your local library the kitchen guide has a table on page 233, otherwise check out volume 4 page 84.

Quick synopsis: What sets the creme brulee is the egg proteins coagulating. If you were to take the weight of the liquid in the brulee and add 30% of that weight as eggs and cook it to 181 degrees F you would have a creme brulee texture. Overcook to 190 F and you have flan, undercook to 176 F and you have creme anglaise. The two main factors are egg concentration and cooking temperature.


Is synthetic astaxanthin (salmon "dye") safe?

Yes, the FDA has determined that astaxanthin is "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS), at 0.15 mg/serving. This doesn't indicate whether there are any health considerations associated with it (that's not on topic for this site), but it's not poisonous.


Why does prepackaged deli meat taste better when you take each slice and "fluff" it?

This deli meat you speak of is generally made of small scraps of mechanically-separated meat that are essentially "glued" together into a solid mass by enzymes that partially break down the tissue. This processed "meat brick" doesn't really have the same texture as an intact muscle tissue, which has individual muscle fibers aligned along a "grain" that makes it pleasantly chewy. Folding/layering/rolling slices of processed meat gives it more of a texture and chew, and tricks you into thinking you're eating an actual piece of animal muscle instead of meat-flavored jelly.


How to make a sauce using sugared citrus rinds?

There are noted resources for flavor pairing, many of which you can find on this site.  Check out flavor.  You'll find:

Why some flavors work better together than others
A list of books and websites providing information on flavor combinations, including suggestions for

FoodPairing
Khymos
The Flavor Thesaurus
cuuks (here's a start for your combo)
The Flavor Bible

How to determine if two ingredients will go well together

For your specific question of what goes well with citrus rind, you already know chocolate is a good match and that you are putting the sauce on brownies.  Nuts in your brownies will be a good match too, especially pecans.  Caraway, thyme, cardamom, or black pepper might add an unexpected note with orange.  Rosemary is a very nice match for lemon.  I recently made cookies using orange zest and black pepper that came out quite well.

If you want the citrus flavor to dominate I would leave out the berries.  Otherwise I'd definitely use the raspberries, which go well with citrus.  The bluberries would be fine, but I wouldn't consider them your best choice.


What variety of green beans make the best pickled green beans?

The tradition has been to use the Blue Lake variety for canning and pickling, even though Kentucky Wonder is judged as having a fuller flavor.  One has to be careful with Blue Lake, as it is being bread for easy mechanical harvesting, with less attention being paid to flavor, according to the UCSC Agrecology Center.

When I grow stuff, I buy my seeds from Burpee.  The customer favorites list for snap peas (what they are now calling string beans, as the string is gone in many varieties) lists a stringless cross between Blue Lake and Kentucky.  That would be my choice for a pickle.  I would try to grow them slowly by not overwatering, as that increases the calcium content of the plant and how well the beans keep their texture submerged in a jar.


Food kept at refrigeration temperatures is relatively safe.  Any potential pathogens can not jump or fly about without something to propel them. Dripping can potentially contaminate. Cooking can render many things safe (if initially stored properly).  Keeping meats in closed containers is more sanitary (and respectful of others). However, to suggest that refrigerated unwrapped chicken, in a container, is "life threatening" sounds a bit extreme to me.


Why does Weikfeild cocoa powder does not taste bitter?

I'm not familiar with that brand, but cocoa powder can be processed differently. The major categories are "natural" and "dutch processed", the latter being less acidic and having a somewhat milder flavor. And of course various brands may vary.


Could I use a blast chiller to make modern frozen meals at home?

Supermarket frozen food is not leftovers.
Aside from the fact that some things freeze well - chilli is almost impossible to break - & some things freeze badly … don't freeze leftover risotto, it is not a joyous reheat candidate … I think the significant difference is not in how fast they're frozen, but in the preparation method itself.
Supermarket chilled & frozen food is not leftovers, it's specifically cooked to be able to survive that last 15 mins in the oven or 3 mins in the nukerowave.
Pasta isn't cooked to be edible in the factory, it's cooked to be edible after having been chilled, then had some cold, half-cooked sauce dribbled over it, stored for 6 weeks, then nuked to death.
Rice, for instance, whether 'Chinese fried', 'Indian byriani', or 'Uncle Ben's plain boiled' never sticks because it was par-cooked (likely from already polished quick rice, then chilled & surface-dried whilst being separated further (see any online fried rice recipes for how this works to separate the grains) & not until then mixed with whatever 'chunks' or sauce are required for the final dish.
This then has been cold for most of its life already. It wasn't made to eat now.
Vegetables will be given little more than a par-boil (or microwave) so that they don't fall apart by the time they're married to whatever sauce. They're not fully cooked until the consumer has finished heating them. Can you even imagine giving garden peas an extra 5 mins in boiling water… no, so they won't even go in heated at all, they'll just go in raw, cooked only by you.
So, in short, your chilli will never need that kind of care & attention; your delicate broccoli florets will not survive having first been cooked sufficiently to eat.
Personally, I portion & freeze things that freeze well with no special requirements. Chilli, curries, stews are all completely unaffected by 3 months in the freezer (if they ever last me that long). Raw burgers, if a little more likely to get surface water whilst cooking don't suffer much. Pasta, no; rice, no (unless it was a 'dry' rice, plain boiled or similar, never in any kind of sauce) pastry, only uncooked… etc.
One thing I would say, as a home cook with nothing but "life experience" to tell me all this is…
"if it will freeze for a week, it will freeze for 6 months"
This is not a health recommendation, merely a guide as to what will ruin by the time it's frozen compared to what is indestructible. Compare frozen chilli to frozen beansprouts for a lesson you could learn in 24 hours ;)
(I realised I cannot comment on supermarket sauces, as I've never really found any that aren't just as bland as all heck compared to home-cooked.)


One of the most important things to consider when designing a dish is the balance of tastes in the dish: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami.  Remember that certain tastes can combine with each other to cancel each other out, enhance one another, and sometimes even create new tastes.  Here are three rules of thumb that should help:

Sweetness can complement and even suppress bitterness.  As an example, think of beer.
Saltiness, in general, enhances the other tastes, and can often be masked by them.  Sweetness, for example, can suppress saltiness and, at the same time, saltiness can enhance sweetness.  That's why many baked confections contain salt.  Also, that's one reason why a classic pairing for salty feta cheese is sweet watermelon.
Sourness/acidity can make fatty foods seem less fatty.  That's one reason why fatty meats are often served with vinegar-based sauces.

It is important to think about what each ingredient contributes to the dish in terms of taste, flavor, texture, and color.  If two ingredients are serving the same purpose, then chances are you don't need one of them.  In your specific case, here is what some of your ingredients contribute in terms of taste:

Feta: Salty.
Onion: Sweet.
Mushrooms: Umami.
Spinach: Bitter and slightly sweet.

The other ingredients are mostly just adding flavor and texture, which may not be necessary in your case.  Also, keep in mind that the oil, feta, and tortillas (assuming you are using flour tortillas) all contain fat, so you may want to bump-up the sourness a bit.  Also, if you found that the spinach was too bitter, you could offset it by reducing the amount and perhaps caramelizing your onions a bit more to add sweetness.  You could also add some balsamic vinegar to your onions as they caramelize which will both make them sweeter and also add some acidity.

As a final suggestion, make sure to write everything down!  That way, then next time you try this recipe you will know (1) how much of each ingredient you used before, and (2) what ingredients you'd like to alter.


Green rhubarb safe and tasty for use like red?

There are many cultivars of rhubarb, just like there are for most other vegetables.  Surprisingly, it seems some cultivars with the best flavor have less of the prized pink color.  The color of any particular rhubarb stalk will depend on both the cultivar, and how it was grown.

You should treat it the same way, regardless of the color.  So yes, green rhubarb is safe to eat, with the same caveats as apply to any rhubarb.  Especially, don't eat the leaves.

In On Food and Cooking (2004 edition), Harold McGee indicates that rhubarb tends to be about 1.5-2.0% acid by weight (mostly oxalic acid), which makes it quite tart.  This is an inherent aspect of the vegetable.  The only way you really will reduce it is to use proportionately less of it in your recipe, by either reducing the absolute quantity of rhubarb, or increasing the quantity of other ingredients.

In pies and coblers, this is usually done by combining the the rhubarb with another fruit like strawberries, as well as a great deal of sugar.

Oxalic acid is soluble in water at about 14 grams / 100 mL, and even more soluble in ethanol at about 24 g / 100 mL, per Wikipedia.  This means that anything you infuse into vodka is likely to be extremely tart, perhaps unpleasantly so.  You will want to carefully control steeping times and or ratios.  While I have never tried this, I would imagine the tartness would overwhelm whatever rhubarb flavor you might pick up.  There might be a reason there are so few famous rhubarb cocktails.

Still, there are a number of rhubarb cocktail recipes that you can find by googling "rhubarb cocktail".  They tend to start with a cooked down puree of rhubarb, rather than an infusion, however, and it seems to often be used in the sour role.


It's for the same reason that all sparkling wine is in America is called 'champagne'.  We don't participate in PDO / PGI / DOP / etc. agreements with most foreign countries.  We do have requirements for specifically American-made items to have similar tules, such as Bourbon (so Jack Daniels is Tennessee Whiskey, not Bourbon).  But just as America doesn't recognize the European protection for parmesean, champagne, etc, European countries don't recognize the American protections.

I've talked to a local Wagyu farmer, and he said that true Kobe has to be processed in Japan (and he said it in an ambigous enough way suggesting that it might be possible for American-raised cattle to be shipped back to Japan for processing), and they're given a specific diet and treatment that doesn't happen in the US.  (I also tried to talk him into selling me 1/2 a cow, and at the time (3-4 years ago?) he said it was in such high demand that all of his cows were sold before he even started raising them.  At that time, Wagyu was still pretty rare in the US, and it was being sold as Wagyu ... it only seems to be more recently (last 1-2 years) that I've people selling it in the US as 'Kobe'.

Most of the "American Wagyu" has also been cross-bred with an American cattle.  (The story I've heard is that the sperm was brought over, not live cattle, so they had to start with American heffers).  So it's going to have some percentage of Longhorn or Angus in it.


According to the manual of the Ninja Professional Blender:

  CAUTION: Do not process food or liquid that is hotter than 180°F/82°C. Allow very hot ingredients to cool before processing.

Source: http://www.ninjakitchen.com/manual/BL500_30_IB_ENG_110223_2.pdf


Adjusting baking powder to work with almond milk

Baking soda reacts with acid to create CO2 and lift.
Baking powder already has the necessary acid included.

Cow's milk is slightly acidic. Almond milk is slightly alkaline.
It may be that there is just a little bit less of the necessary acid to make your leavening react.

Experiment adding a little acid. Cream of tartar would be nice because it wouldn't throw off your liquid ratios or change the flavor. Lemon juice could also be used. I would start with 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar.

However, browsing around there are plenty of people online who don't seem to be having any trouble using almond milk in baking. It may be that the almond milk is a red herring and there are other variables that aren't controlled.
For example: Maybe the leavening was stale? Maybe the temperature of your oven was off?


How can I remove excess fat from stews or soups without refrigerating?

If you want to be really lazy about it, just get yourself a fat separator.  Pour in the soup, the fat will rise to the top, and you can do what you want with it (i.e. dump it).

If you're reading this in an emergency, you can do this with just a strainer.  You'll get better results if you chill the strainer before each skim, i.e. by rinsing it with very cold water.  The fat will tend to congeal on the cold strainer the same way it congeals when it's actually chilled.

I've also heard that the fat will cling to certain leafy vegetables, like lettuce.  If you have a lettuce head kicking around, try peeling off a leaf and dusting the top of the pan with it.


What other Italian cheese(s) could be substituted for parmesan in most recipes?

Pecorino Romano has a similar texture and umami, but slighly different flavor profile.  It is used in many Italian dishes like Parmesan is used.  You could also look for Grana Padano as a less complex substitute for Parm.


How to cook rice with fish without overcooking the fish

While boiling/cooking rice and fish is safe for consumption, the cooking method gives the rice an extremely fishy taste. If you crave that flavour, go ahead with cooking the two things together.

However, if you wish to retain the individual flavours of the food, par boil the rice while you can pan fry the fish pieces in a separate utensil (to get rid of the excessive sweet/salty fishy flavour). Add the fish to the rice at a later stage. By doing this, not only will the fish pieces retain their shape and form after frying, but your rice would remain fragrant on its own as well.


I have tenderloin for beef Wellington that I'll make in 3 days - how do I store the meat?

I don't know if much moisture leaves the meat through evaporation from more than just the very outside, even with a longer wait. I would be surprised if this made a big difference to the quantity of juices released during cooking, so intuitively I would not share your worry about the steak getting too dry.
However, I would worry about an uncovered steak getting dirty, absorbing unwanted smells or flavours, or having some kind of pathogen or mould growing on it.
If you want to give it a go a good way to do it with less risk would be to put it in an airtight Tupperware container big enough for there to be space around the steak, with some kitchen roll in the box to absorb any moisture released. Changing the paper if it gets damp should be enough to keep the air inside the box dry.


Warm moist air goes into the fridge and condenses. This is where you get the moisture. Normally, there's a drain, perhaps below the veggie drawers, that ducts the excess moisture away to a tray below the evaporator coils.

It's common to have this drain clog. You can try pouring in boiling water to clear it, but you may overflow the bottom tray and need a mop.

You can also try soft copper wire, like 14 gauge stripped electrical wire, which should not poke any holes in anything yet still be stiff enough to clear the jam.


Accidently mixed instant and cooked pudding packages

update: It seems that the salts used in instant pudding are heat stable (one turns into the other one at 450°C), so it's possible that it might work by following the cooked directions ... but I'd advise a slurry as a backup.

You're going to have to add something to fix it.  Either more gelatin (to have it set cold), or starch to have it set when boiling.

I'd probably go with the hot method -- you'll bring it to a boil, which will screw up the setting properties of the gelatin.  I suspect that you'll want to let it boil for a minute or so, to make sure the gelatin isn't going to set at all (and possibly make it too thick, or interfere with the starch).

You didn't say which size of boxed mix you're using, but looking at a few recipes, it seems like you want 3 to 4 TB of cornstarch to set 2 cups of milk.  Use that as a basis to scale your recipe.

(updating instructions per DebbieM's comment)

So :

Mix cornstarch (1.5 to 2 TB per cup of milk needed for the instant pudding) with some (less than 1/4 c.) of milk in a jar, seal and shake to make a slurry.
Stir in the cold milk (the sum of what's called for on both boxes).
Heat to a boil (see notes from cooked pudding package about stirring, etc).
Check to see how well the pudding coats the back of a spoon.  (wipe a finger through it to get an accurate estimate of how thick it is)
If not thick enough (note: it will thicken more when cooled), add some of the slurry, and let it boil for a minute or so (keep stirring or whisking during this).
Repeat 4 & 5 'til you've achieved the thickness desired.
Follow the cooked pudding package instructions from there.

If you don't have cornstarch, I've seen some recipes that use flour (about 1/4c. per 2 cups of milk), but they're always chocolate ... I suspect it's to cover up the raw flour taste.

If you have unflavored gelatin, you could also bloom some in some cold milk, and then mix it in with the cooked pudding as it's cooling to try to achieve the desired thickness, but too much might end up setting like a blancmange.


When making bechamel, why does the roux need to be room temperature?

It doesn't need to be room temperature. All combinations of cold, warm or hot roux with cold, warm or hot milk work.

The problem is that the whole process is somewhat finicky, and cooks need some experience until they reach a good match between the speed of pouring and the speed and area-coverage of whisking, so that the sauce does not lump. Once they have it, it only works for a given combination of temperatures - if they were to change the temperature, their usual way would stop working.

This is why most cooks believe that making roux is temperature dependent. Once they have perfectioned their own process, they start prescribing its parameters in recipes when they pass them along. And that's how requirements like "the roux must be room temperature" get embedded in recipes. But if you prefer to learn doing it at a different temperature combination, you can - the only problem is that, if you already learned one combination, your first sauces at a different one will fail until you have relearned. Also, the colder processes are somewhat more forgiving than the warmer ones, as you have more time to react before lumps solidify.

The roux itself is typically smooth, I am not sure how you would end up with grainy roux, especially for the lighter kinds. As I don't remember using grainy roux, I cannot say with certainty it won't work - if yours turns out grainy, try it and see what happens.


A very common technique for maintaining moisture in meat is to dry brine it. That is, shake salt on both sides of the raw breast to the same degree you would to serve it. Wrap and let it rest for at least an hour. I like to add the salt the day before. Before cooking you can add other rubs or seasoning but be careful with store bought seasoning that is normally high in salt. Search on dry brining and you will find a lot of info.


Can I still use meat left out in the trunk

If the ambient temperature outside (and thus in the car) was below 40 F / 4 C the entire time the meat was left out, then yes, it is still safe just as if it had been in the refrigerator (or freezer as the case may be).  If that is not true, discard.


Can I substitute vanilla powder for cocao in a quinoa cake recipe

Typically no. You need much more cocoa powder for a chocolate cake than you need vanilla powder for a vanilla cake. Adding a cup of vanilla would be both very expensive and very overwhelming in terms of flavour. And the vanilla doesn't have the same chemical properties as cocoa. Cocoa has a bit of fat in it, so a substitute should include some fat.


Is roasting a whole duck something a beginner should avioid?

What I learnt from my neighbor:

The most critical part also the most enjoyable part for the diners is to make the skin crispy. For this many factors should be taken into consideration (e.g. the type of oven you use, room temperature where the oven is, etc).

But the trick for the skin to be crispy is how much the skin can become detached from the meat while it is cooked, thus a layer of heat remains between the skin and the meat.

This is what I learnt:

From the inside of the duck, carefully poke holes with a toothpick through the meat but not breaking the skin.

Second, use a pan where there are holes on the bottom and place another pan directly underneath it to collect the fat / oil while the duck is being cooked.

At the very end, take the duck out of the oven and quickly turn up the oven to even higher temperature.

Once the oven has reached the higher temperature, pour evenly the collected fat / oil on top of the duck and put it right back to the oven and let it cook shortly.

The result is the skin will be very crispy and with you taking out the duck at the last step while the oven's temperature is turned up higher, the duck will not be over-cooked.


How to make a custard (royale) that sets up firm on the stovetop?

A custard royale is not stirred during cooking, this leads exactly to the scrambeled eggg effect you had. This is fundamentally different from the standard custard process you are probably familiar with.

The (preheated) cream is mixed with the egg and/or yolks, then put in the vessel it's supposed to be cooked in.

It can be cooked over barely simmering water or in the oven in a bain marie at 90C. You simply give it enough time to solidify, which may be somewhere between half an hour to almost an hour, depending on the thickness. Cooking in an oven tends to take a bit longer than on stovetop.

Let cool completely before unmolding and cutting.


Can I make a hollandaise sauce from mix the day before?

I don't think it will work... at least reliably work.

Point of reference: I once worked in a restaurant under a frugal French Chef (I know, a redundant term). The only thing that was always thrown out at the end of the night was the Hollandaise, no matter how much was left.

Hollandaise is a delicate chemistry of proteins, fats, carefully applied heat and whisking. Surviving the create with heat, cool down/store, reheat cycle is a long shot. ..and, as you suggest, there may be safety issues.

Of course the restaurant made Hollandaise from scratch. But I doubt package mix is much more robust. Note these ingredients on McCormick mix:

Those egg solids are going to be delicate, and maybe unpredictable. The lecithin may also bring surprises. The citric acid may also cause issues in storage--maybe breaking protein/fat bonds.

Or, I could be wrong. Maybe the high amount of starch will make the sauce robust. Example: you don't hear of many fruit pie fillings breaking overnight.

I'd spend the money and do a trial run to know for sure.

End Note: Consider Knorr brand Hollandaise mix. I never used McCormick, but I have used Knorr and liked it.


The flip answer is that sauteed food will taste good, and the microwaved version you're describing will not.

A more useful answer, however, would consider physics and chemistry. Microwaving excites molecules, resulting in heat, presuming an adequate supply of water molecules to excite. Sauteeing conducts heat from the heat source to the food by way of the pan.

Microwaving falls somewhere between radiant heating (like an oven) and steaming, though the results from conventional methods are generally superior. Sauteeing can transfer enough heat quickly enough that desirable effects like caramelization and similar effects like browning are effected with the help of fats and sugars (often referred to as a Maillard reaction), which produces volatile compounds that are very aromatic and contribute a lot to our perception of flavor. It's exceptionally hard to create the same effects with a microwave.


Flattened chicken breast returns to original size when frying

As you cook meat, the proteins in it contract and denature.  This is part of what cooking actually is.

This will cause all cuts to shrink, whether they are hamburgers, roasts, or pounded chicken breasts.

You can minimize the effect by not overcooking.   Different major protein groups denature and contract at different temperatures, the last one around 160 F.  Chicken is thoroughly palatable and safe at 155 F.  Of course, this is a tricky range to hit in a frying technique which is very fast.

To minimize the shrinkage when cooking chicken breasts:

Remove the tenderloins before butterflying or pounding.  They might be good in your recipe on their own, or can be saved for another use.  They contribute to the extra thickness on the fat end of the breast more than the thin end.
Butterfly or slice the breast in half before pounding.   This will minimize the amount of pounding you have to do, and start with a thinner base cut.

I know you prefer whole breasts, but they will simply shrink more, and have a more uneven size.   Whole breasts are more suitable for roasting, braising, or deep frying which are applications where they will not be pounded.
Pound only until the breast reaches a reasonable and even thickness.
Do not overcook.

Depending on the item you are making, you may slice off the narrow end of the breast, and then butterfly the thicker half of the breast, so that you have more even overall thickness across the pieces to start with.


I don't know much of the science behind the super-soft bread on supermarket shelves, but I can give some insight into the history that led to it becoming so ubiquitous in the US.
The idea that whiter breads are classier than darker breads goes all the way back to the 5th century BC.

The belief that white bread was superior to dark bread, a common theme in many cultures over the ages, was already taking hold in Greece by the 5th century BC. Darker, denser breads made from barley or rye were the breads of the poor. White breads were believed to be pure, more refined, more cultured. They cost more too, since growing wheat was more labor-intensive than other grains. And on top of that, removing the bran and the germ to make wheat flour white instead of brown increased the work and the cost still further. Interestingly, up until the 17th century there were even separate baker's guilds for bakers of white breads and brown breads. This prejudice against darker breads generally continued all the way until the 1960's, when growing health consciousness finally seemed to turn the tide.

From Zingerman's.com
The desire for soft came a bit later (same source):

I've often wondered why bread baking in this country-descended as it is from the great European traditions-turned so . . . let's say. . . soft. The decline of good bread baking may have had its roots in the 18th century. The introduction of pan baking made bread softer and puffier. In the 19th century a distaste for "sourness" (ironically the same "sourness" that makes San Francisco sourdough and other sourdoughs so great) led to the introduction of baking soda to bread, which made it puffier still. In the 1870's industrial milling techniques were introduced. Flour became whiter and whiter, and "deader"-bakers began adding sugar to get yeasts to react as they had in the past, and bread got puffier still. Bread continued to get sweeter and puffier, until finally in the 1920's, we reached the pinnacle of puffiness-Wonder Bread.

It's with the birth of Wonder Bread things really take a turn for the insiped. Did you know you can squeeze an entire loaf into a ball the size of a tennis ball? I once know a guy who never missed an opportunity to show off that little stupid-human-trick...but I digress...
Alexander Taggart, the founder of Wonder Bread, was a marketing genius. In the 1890s he sold the first company that he had built to The United States Baking Company and he accepted stock in The United States Baking Company as a part of the purchase price. The United States Baking Company subsequently became a part of the National Biscuit Company. You might know that company by another name, Nabisco. So at this point he owned a chunk of Nabisco, but he sold that to start another baking company, the Taggart Baking Company, out of Indianapolis, Indiana.
At first he zeroed in on the large number of German immigrants in the area, and prior to WWI he advertised heavily in German language newspapers using a Puritan logo:

From Cluster Mag
This was a good time to own a baking company in the USA. Between the start of the century and the end of WWI, the market was burgeoning.

between 1899 and 1919 the value of bread and bakery products produced in Indiana grew 620%. Americans were rapidly growing richer, and they could afford to replace labor-intensive homemade goods with manufactured alternatives. -Cluster Mag

But events of the era were causing a shift in the attitudes of American consumers. The war and its aftermath caused a tremendous amount of discrimination against German immigrants, and in Indiana, Germans were plentiful enough that there was a significant backlash to those attitudes. To make matters worse, Protestants in Indiana were banding together against Catholics, and the KKK was getting hugely powerful in state politics (an interesting bit of history in its own right Wiki-Indiana Klan). Our marketing genius knew just how to capitalize on the social unrest.

In 1921 the Taggart Company had a new wrapping technique that could keep bread fresh for several days, and set about to rebrand the product.The new Taggart bread wouldn’t carry religious or ethnic connotations that could hinder it’s sales, or even falsely identify itself with the work of Puritan mothers – it was going to be better. It was going to be from the mechanized world of the future, a utopian world with factories suspended from the clouds by the thread of their smoke; bridges with the leap of gymnasts… and the gliding flight of aeroplanes whose propellers sound like the flapping of a flag and the applause of enthusiastic crowds – a vision outlined in Filippo Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto, published in 1909.
The new Wonder Bread didn’t suggest hearth and home. On the contrary, the unnaturally vibrant colors of the logo and visual purity of this new, virgin white, 1.5 pound loaf perfectly evoked the otherworldliness of the enormous manufacturing system that was seen as America’s future. -Cluster Mag

It was the right place and right time for the birth of a product so lacking in character that its very name has become synonymous with lackluster conformity. Wonder Bread's timing was more fortuitous (for them) than even they knew at the time.
When was the last time you heard that something new was "the greatest thing since sliced bread"? At that time, the greatest thing since sliced bread was, well, sliced bread. On November 26,
1928 a patent was filed by Otto Rohwedder of Iowa for a commercial loaf-at-a-time bread slicer.

picture from Mental Floss
The new invention was first used by Chillicothe Baking Company, in Chillicothe, Missouri, for their Kleen Maid sliced bread. But it was Wonder Bread (now owned by Continental Baking) that took it nationwide in 1930. Consumers were intrigued by pre-sliced bread, but were concerned that it would quickly go stale. HA! Wonder Bread, the amazing never-staling bread. How perfect is that?? Incidentally, for a time during WWII commercial bread slicing was banned (only whole loaves could be found on store shelves) due to the steel shortage. The ban caused such outrage that it was lifted only two months later.
During the 1940s it was becoming clear that by being so nutritionally bankrupt, Wonder Bread and its clones were actually causing great harm to the health of the American public. Wonder bread became "enriched" as a part of a government sponsored program to combat certain diseases. It worked, incidents of Beriberi and Pellagra were quickly significantly reduced. Never slow to take advantage of a good marketing angle, Wonder Bread was now advertised as a health food. "Wonder Bread builds strong bodies 8 ways. Look for the red, yellow and blue balloons printed on the wrapper!"
Vintage Wonder Bread Commercial
Once again, the marketing worked.

during the late '50s and early '60s, Americans ate a lot of it. Across race, class, and generational divides, Americans consumed an average of a pound and a half of white bread per person, every week. Indeed, until the late '60s, Americans got from 25 to 30 percent of their daily calories from the stuff, more than from any other single item in their diet (and far more than any single item contributes to the American diet today—even high-fructose corn syrup).

From The Believer
Thankfully, the trend is reversing. Wonder Bread, the big daddy of them all, has been in financial difficulty for 20 years.

In 1995, Continental Baking was bought by Interstate Bakeries Corporation, now known as Hostess Brands. In 2004, Interstate Bakeries declared bankruptcy, putting the future of Wonder Bread in some doubt. In February 2009 Interstate Bakeries emerged from bankruptcy marking a "new beginning" for the baking company.  In 2012, Hostess Brands declared Chapter 11.

From wherefoodcomesfrom.com
Whole grain breads are just now starting to outsell white bread (by dollar amount), and have nearly closed the gap by unit.

In August 2010, for the first time,  annual whole wheat bread sales outpaced white bread sales – at $2.6 billion vs $2.5 billion. Of course part of that was because whole grain breads often cost a bit more than white bread. Even looking at volume, however, whole grain was closing the gap. From August 2009 to August 2010, Americans bought 1.5 billion packages of white bread, and 1.3 billion packages of wheat.

From The Whole Grains Council
Whole grain, multi-grain, Artisan and old-style European breads are back in fashion; cookie-cutter, pillow-soft, white breads slowly losing their grip. Halleluiah!
Epilog
The tastes of the American public are fickle, but those Taggarts are wily. They always come always come out smelling like a rose.

From Cluster Mag


This is most likely the “Castello” rum-and-nut covered cream cheese ring by Arla. The shape, the chopped nuts and slight sweetness are pretty unique.

Arla sells its products in supermarkets, but is also a big supplier for larger catering customers. You should be able to find it in most larger supermarkets.


How much fresh yeast should I use if I want to use it instead of dry yeast?

Look at: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/yeastbreadtip.htm

  Conversion Measurements for Using Different Yeasts in Recipes:

Multiply the amount of instant yeast by 3 for the equivalent amount of fresh yeast.

Multiply the amount of active dry yeast by 2.5 for the equivalent amount of fresh yeast.

Multiply the amount of instant yeast by 1.25 for the equivalent of active dry yeast.


Yes, they are not roasted. I think you can do this in a normal oven, but I have never done it myself so I cannot advice you on temperatures etc.


What parasites are problematic in sous vide?

All information that gives safe cooking temperatures without reference to time at that temperature is wrong. The FDA guidelines, and state and local health dept. guidelines not only confict with each other, they are flat out wrong!

They all represent efforts to simplify molecular biology to two or three mindless rules. In the process, they guarantee that you will either overcook your food, or (if you care about good food) ignore the rules. Or possibly both.

For a summary of the actual bacteriocidal data, take a look at Douglas Baldwin's site: http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Safety
He has compiled information based on the actual growth and death curves for the pathogens that concern us most in the kitchen: salmonella, e.coli, lysteria, clostridium perfringes. Taking care of these will also get you out of the woods with protists, parasitic worms, norovirus, and everything else besides bacterial spores (another subject ... more relevant to canning).

For an even more thorough examination of the issue, take a look at the Microbiology for Cooks chapter in Vol. 1 of the Modernist Cuisine series. Both Baldwin and Myhrvold have arrived at the same conclusion by consulting the actual science. The official guidelines are irrelevant.

The original question is "what is the shortest temperature and time to kill all parasites." By "parasite" I'm assuming the OP means pathogen, since parasites are technically just one type, and not usually the most important.

There's no good answer if we take this question literally, because killing all of anything is almost impossible. Autoclaving in a pressure cooker at 250°F / 121°C for 30 minutes still leaves about one in a trillion botulinum spores alive. Pasteurization leaves about 1 in 300 million pathogens alive (by definition, actually).

Cooking guidelines aren't about trying to kill everything; we just try to bring pathogens down to a safe level. A safe level is one where if you eat the food that's been refrigerated properly, in a reasonable amount of time, and you have a reasonably good immune system, it will be very unlikely that you'll get sick. I know that's a lot of disclaimers, but it's a messy world.

Here are some basic guidelines. You'll get much more thorough versions looking at the above (or similar) sources. This stuff is best expressed as a graph. I'm padding it a bit for simplicity and safety:

126°F / 52°C for 6 hours

130°F / 54.5°C for 2 hours

135°F / 57°C for 40 minutes

140°F / 60°C for 12 minutes

150°F / 65.5°C for for 1 minute 15 seconds

160°F / 71°C for 8 seconds

This is the time for killing salmonella (the most heat resistant of the pathogens we care about) to pasteurization standards.

Please note that these are not cooking times: these are times the food needs to be held at the temperature after reaching it. Normal minimum cooking times just reflect how long it will take for the center of the food to reach a given temperature. The above times are additional.

You may have noticed that the first three temperatures above are well within the FDA's "danger zone." It's curious that the official guidelines consider your food in danger when it's actually in the process of being pasteurized.

But it's not necessarily that complicated. We don't really have to pasteurize food most of the time. If you eat conventionally cooked medium-rare steak, fish that doesn't taste like rubber, or chicken that still has some juice left in it, then you eat un-pasteurized food. It's not a problem, because with the exception of ground meat, virtually all pathogens reside on the outer surfaces of the food. And they get more than hot enough when you sear the food, whether the main part of the cooking was sous-vide or some other way.

Pasteurization is mostly an issue with cook-chill sous-vide, which is where you prepare food for reheating many days (even weeks) later.

Botulism is not a concern unless you're doing cook-chill and trying to keep the food for way, way too long (or in a much too warm fridge). The bacteria does indeed like the airtight bag, but it doesn't like the cold.


One good method that can help you get solid  results is grinding some of the oats in your recipe into oat flour.

Grinding the oats allows the starches in the oats to absorb liquids, which then swell and solidify when baked. This is the same way that all cookies and the like get their solidity, by starches that set.

My suggestion is to take a portion of the oats that you are using in the recipe and grind it in the food processor until it resembles coarse flour. After mixing together your wet ingredients (oil, sugar, honey), add  the oat flour and mix well before adding in your inclusions (whole oats, nuts, dried fruit, etc).

In addition, don't stir during baking, as this will allow the clusters to form better.

I personally make granola bars with this method, and they come out quite good.


I can't speak to the chemistry but I can describe the approaches I use in different spices and see if that helps. As Willem mentions in his comment, different cuisines may treat spices differently to bring out different aspects of the flavor.

Dried Herbs: typically I will add once I've begun the "watery/saucy" stage of a dish. I want these to simmer in the dish typically. Examples of these are Dried Oregano, Dried Rosemary, Dried Basil, Bay Leaves.
Fresh Herbs: typically I add these later in the cycle; many recipes will call for X tsp dried or X tbsp fresh of a particular herb. In these situations, my assumption why I prefer adding them later to the dish is that they are directly providing the flavor instead of diffusing the dried form into the sauce. I add cilantro as a finishing in both Mexican and Indian dishes. Similarly Basil is often added as a finishing ingredient.
Garlic: is a good example of multiple preparations used to bring out different aspects of the Garlic flavor. Roasting the garlic tends to mellow out the sharpness/spiciness of the garlic. This is done for some soups and often when making garlic butter for garlic bread. Raw garlic has a sharp kick that is used to flavor pestos. Sauteing garlic with onions or red peppers is a common starting point that isn't as sharp as raw garlic and not as creamy as the baked garlic.


Both. Is it soggy with moisture? Or is it soggy with oil?

In both cases, the problem isn't excess oil, after all, French Fries are usually deep fried. The problem is that the moisture isn't adequately driven out of the fry and/or that the fries sit in cold oil.

The crispiest French fries (read that non-soggy) are first soaked in cold water to remove excess starch, dried, deep fried in lower temperature oil to drive out all of the excess water, then deep fried in hotter oil to crisp the outside.

Then they are well drained while hot.

Unless the fries get quite crispy, they're going to get soggy with oil as the oil on the outside of the fries cool, even if there really isn't all that much oil clinging to the fry. Unless the moisture is well driven out (interior of the fry is fluffy), the fries will get soggy with moisture as they cool.

In the worst case scenario, you can have both greasy and wet cold fries.


I would say he is referring to farmed rabbit which does have a very mild flavour akin to chicken especially compared to the wild stuff.


How to Adjust Biscotti Recipe When Using Salted Pistachios

The only thing you can do is not add any additional salt, although I think you might still end up with a result that's too salty. As a commenter mentioned, you could get an indication of the amount of salt from the nutritional information on the packaging, but my suspicion is that in 3/4 of a cup of nuts there will be more than half a teaspoon of salt.
There is a question elsewhere on the site about unsalting salted nuts, where the consensus was that it wouldn't easily be possible. Tap as much salt off the nuts as possible before you use them.
If the nuts are going to get wet anyway (because there are other wet ingredients in your recipe that you haven't mentioned) then you might as well try to wash the water off; do it quickly, and pat the nuts try with paper towel immediately so they absorb as little water as possible. Tasting a few of them should tell you whether you've washed most of the salt off (in which case add it back according to your recipe) or not (in which case don't add any additional salt).


What's the best time and temperature for tenderness when baking red potatoes?

It depends greatly on how hungry I am. :-)

350F for about an 60-90 minutes, depending on how many are in there.

425F for about 40-60 if I'm hungry and impatient.

Microwave on high for a few minutes (few holes poked in it with a fork) if I'm really hungry and really impatient.

They're done when a fork goes in easily.


Can onion based recipes such as bolognese be cooked in slow cooker?

With regard to your comment, "what can you cook in a slow cooker", I cook almost everything in the slow cooker!

With regard to onions, I suggest that you precook the onions so that they obtain the texture that you want and then add them to the slow cooker. For example, when I cook stew, I caramelise the onions before placing them in the slow cooker, for the cooking temperature is too low for Maillard reactions.


It probably won't make a huge difference, but since marinade primarily flavors the surface of the food it contacts, it might affect how long you'll want to marinate.

If you tenderize first, the marinade will work into the small holes and cuts that tenderizing  will create. That means more of the marinade flavor. And, if using a marinade high in acid or containing fruits whose enzymes break down meat proteins (such as mango, I believe) any further tenderizing effect will be enhanced by greater surface contact. Accordingly you could marinate for a shorter amount of time.

This effect might be undesirable if you're marinating for an extended period of time (i.e. overnight). But there is no hard rule.


What is the trick to create 4 layer Chapati?

Layers depends on type of flour you are using. I suppose if you are using wheat flour, then before each folding add some cooking oil between folds. Repeat this process for each extra layer. Remember to add cooking oil in each fold to make sure that do not stick together again. Roll it gently, do not apply to much force.
To understand more about layer Chapati,
Click here


What's the secret to making good turkish bread? (pide)

Three reasons come to mind why your bread may have turned out too hard-

1- If you didn't let it rise enough.
Flat breads often don't have a proofing step. The dough should double in size on the first rise and then after you divide the dough let it rest to make rolling out easier.

2- Working the dough too much without resting.
When rolling or stretching the dough be gentle. You don't want to force all the air out. If you do think that you overworked it, letting it rest for a while will let the yeast work a little more.

3- Too low of oven temperature
Traditional flat breads are often baked in large, wood-fired, brick ovens. Your recipe calls for 475F and I would say that that would be a lower bound. Since flat breads are so thin they dry out quickly. In general the hotter you can bake them the better. Try throwing a couple loaves on a very hot grill but indirect heat. Expect this to take less baking time than your recipe. If you get some charring that is ok and even desirable. If you get charring that goes all the way through then you rolled the loaves a little too thin.

Personally- I am skeptical of the milk basting. This would keep the surface of the bread moist but it would cool down the oven which would be horrible for the bread. I never saw turkish bakers basting their flat bread but maybe it is a regional thing.


Mixed instant and cook and serve pudding

If you are interested in food safety alone, there is no problem. You might get a bit of a "starchy" or "floury" taste, but not necessarily so. The main ingredients are some kind of starch, sugar or other sweeteners, flavour and possibly some additives. None would pose a problem if eaten raw.

But the real issue is that the texture of your dessert may be off:
The main ingredient in an old-fashioned pudding mix is starch. That starch needs to be heated to gelatinize or, in other words, to thicken the liquid. To achieve good gelatinization, you need to boil the starch for a few minutes.  For instant pudding, the starch is pre-treated and often other thickeners are included, so you can skip the cooking step.

Depending in the recipe, using the type of pudding that needs to be cooked instead of instant, will likely result in a more liquid or soft dish. As you don't give the recipe you used, it's hard to say, how much it depends on the pudding for consistency, so you could end up with anything between a total failure and perfectly fine.


For Pressure Canning, can I use any other jar than Ball’s Mason Jar?

The important part of the system are the lids. The ideal lids are the Mason-type (no matter which company produced them), with a flat top and a separate side piece with thread.

Another type that works is the older Weck style jar, which consists of a glass jar with glass lid, plus rubber steal and metal clamps, no threads. This system is as safe as the Mason style lids. It might require frequent rubber replacement when pressure canning, because the gasket gets quite deformed in pressure canning as opposed to water bath canning, and in the extreme cases, some jars don't seal properly because the gasket gets sucked inside. This is not a safety issue, because it is easily recognized when it happens, and you just remove these failed-to-seal jars from your batch.

What you cannot use is single-piece twist-off LIDS as in your picture. They are not suited for pressure canning at home.

You might be able to use these jars, if you can find ones with the proper size mouth and threads to fit Mason-style lids on them. They will either seal properly and be safe, or not withstand the pressure and break apart while being heated in the canner. You will lose some jars that way, and will have a mess on your hands to clean, but you will not get food poisoning from improperly sealed jars. See https://www.healthycanning.com/re-using-bottles-from-store-bought-products/ for some expert opinions on that.


How can I maximize the storage life of fresh beef in the refrigerator?

If you can get a good tight wrap of plastic wrap around it and store in the bottom of your fridge, where the temp should be approaching 32F it should last out the 5 days just fine. If you have a rub in mind for it you might apply that first then wrap and store.

Remember that beef is usually hung anywhere from 5 to 30 days at 33F in quarters before being butchered. If you don't have a thermometer for your fridge, get one (or two even, one high and one low) so you have a good idea of what your temp range is. If the coldest region of your fridge is over 35F you should turn it down some. See @HoboDave's answer for a better commentary on fridge temps.