What are the reasons for using an egg whisk to cook scrambled eggs?

I think, like several questions on this site about scrambled eggs, this comes down to ones preferred curd size. There are many different ways of making scrambled eggs: at one extreme one heats very slowly, stirring gently with a spatula, and getting very large curds. Some people say this gives a sloppy texture, others prefer the smooth mouth feel. At the other extreme, one heats quickly and whisks, breaking up the curds entirely, and giving a fluffy mousse like texture.


Why do you need to heat the pan before heating the olive oil?

TL;DR: heating the pan before the oil has no useful effects in most cases.

While this is a duplicate of another question, I'm going to answer it again because that question's accepted answer provides zero evidence or citations to back itself up.  Which is important, because the accepted answer is wrong.

The popular myth is "Cold oil in hot pan and food won't stick".  Like most such cooking myths, this one is nonsense; as Kitchen Myths points out:

  What you really want is “hot pan, hot oil” and that’s what you are actually getting because the cold oil heats up almost instantly when added to the hot pan. You’ll get the same results if you heat the oil along with the pan rather than adding the oil at the last minute. In fact some cooks prefer this technique because the appearance of the oil in the pan can give you some indication of when the pan has reached the proper temperature.

Serious Eats says the same thing:

  The thing is, only raw proteins will form this bond. Heat causes proteins to fold in on themselves, or even to break down and form all new compounds. Once in their folded or rearranged form, they no longer stick. So the goal is to get the meat to cook before it even comes into contact with the metal by heating oil hot enough that it can cook the meat in the time it takes for it to pass from the air, through the film of oil, and into the pan.

So, you want a hot pan with hot oil.  Most of the time, this means that you want to preheat the oil with the pan, not add oil to a preheated pan, although the latter doesn't do any harm.  It just doesn't provide any benefit.

You'll notice I said most of the time, though.  There are times when you do want to preheat the cooking vessel before adding fat, and both of those times have to do with needing to heat the metal hotter than the smoke point of the oil you are using.

If you are cooking with a wok, getting proper "wok hei" (searing) requires heating the wok above the smoke point of vegetable oil, dry, a technique called "long yao" (video, skip to 3:22).  Classic cast-iron steak cooking uses a similar technique, heating the pan to 250 °C/500 °F before adding the oil or meat.
When cooking with butter as your fat (or a few other low-temperature oils like unrefined coconut oil), the burning point of the fat is sometimes a lower temperature than you want to cook at.  If so, the only way to get the pan hot enough is to preheat at dry plan, add the butter or fat, and then quickly add the food before the butter burns.

Neither of these cases has anything to do with preventing sticking, though. They are both about not burning the cooking fat.  And the first technique only makes sense if you are using cast iron or carbon steel; it can damage other types of cookware.

You might ask: doesn't this apply to cooking sofrito, though?  And the answer is no.  Filtered olive oil has a smoke point of 210 °C, which is plenty hot enough for the very wet ingredients in a sofrito, which will drag the real pan temperature down to 105 °C or so in a few seconds anyway. Further, a sofrito is made up entirely of non-starchy vegetables and aromatics, which means that sticking isn't a serious concern.

So, myth busted!


Where to learn what ratios to use in cooking?

How about Ruhlman's book, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking?

The entire work is dedicated to breaking cooking down into ratios, and it includes recipes.  I hear the bread recipe is particularly good.


Turning home made chicken stock into broth

If you are just going to season your stock (according to the formula "broth = seasoned stock"), simple math will suffice:  4 cups = 32 * 1/8 cups -> 32 of your cubes.
But if you are planning on using the stock and re-boil it wit fresh meat and vegs you should consider using more stock, because you will have to calculate for evaporation. Depending on your habits (do you cover your pot, how long are you boiling it) I'm guesstimating between 10% and 20% extra. If you end up with too little, you should be fine with a dash or two of water without compromising the results.


Why fry a teaspoon of dal to start an Indian dish?

In a dry dish - eg lemon rice, or a dish following the thoran pattern - a teaspoon  of urad dal will definitely be noticeable by giving a crunchy element.

Do not forget that indian recipes tend to use old school spoon sizes for measurement - a random piece of contemporary flatware will not give you a good approximation here.

Washing and soaking the urad dal for an hour or so can be a good idea if you do not know hold old the dal you are getting is (especially if cooking such dishes when not in India) - too crunchy urad dal could turn into a molar menace.


I would advise against it. Cooking in acid makes vegetables firm. Sometimes this is a good thing, but if you want to mash your potatoes afterwards, you want them soft. Else you'll get the wrong texture.

There are numerous recipes for adding dairy products to the mashed potatoes after they have been cooked and mashed, and they taste well. You can look for them, or experiment yourself. It's a matter of what taste/texture you like, there aren't any physics involved which you'd throw off with a "wrong" ratio.


Maybe just not enough salt? Perhaps you forgot to add salt, or you switched from tahini with salt to without. Lack of salt, to most people, will make something otherwise well-seasoned taste bland.

Beyond that, since you're saying it also smells less garlicky, perhaps you used garlic that wasn't as strong as usual, or less of it.

The fact that it partially froze probably didn't matter, unless it was perhaps still partially frozen when you ate it. This is more in the domain of frozen desserts usually, but cold does numb the senses a bit, and the things you normally smell aren't as volatile at lower temperatures. We can make guesses about compromised texture and separation from freezing, but really, none of this is going to make something go from flavorful to completely bland.


How do I remove a sheet cake from a pan?

Let the cakes cool in the pan for 15 minutes.
Carefully run a table knife around the edge of the pan to make sure the edges of the cake are fully released from the edges of the pan.
Place a wire rack over the cake pan, then invert the rack and the pan.
Pull the pan off of the cake. Let the cake cool to room temperature.
Invert the cake again onto some plastic-wrapped cardboard.
Move the layers on the cardboard to your freezer for at least 2 hours.  We usually bake the cake the day before and let them freeze overnight.  We always had an upright freezer in the garage, and 2 layers would fit next to each other on one shelf.

When you pull the cake layers from the freezer, they'll be solid and reasonably sturdy, but you should still exercise care, using both hands to support them.  It's perfectly fine to assemble and ice the frozen cake layers.  I've never had a problem with them sweating as they thaw.  But, there's no harm in letting them thaw a bit after assembling if you're worried.

Bonus: there are fewer crumbs when you ice a frozen cake.


The cause of the lids bulging during processing is pressurized air trapped in the jar. This happens when the lids are too tight (not leaving sufficient head space can also be a factor). The bands should only be finger tight - From FreshPreserving.com

  CLEAN mason jar rim and threads of jar using a clean, damp cloth to
  remove any food residue. Center lid on jar allowing sealing compound
  to come in contact with the jar rim. Apply band and adjust until fit
  is fingertip tight. Place filled jars in canner until recipe is used
  or canner is full. Lower rack with jars into water. Make sure water
  covers jars by 1 to 2 inches.

Creased or dented lids have a high failure rate, as such, storing them on the shelf would not be considered safe.

To be safe, the jars with buckled lids can be reprocessed with new lids within 24 hours, refrigerated and treated as if open, or the contents could be frozen.


What is the purpose of the sugar in ketchup?

High fructose corn syrup is a preservative. While sugaring your ketchup is good for flavor, HFCS is great for shelf stability, as is the vinegar.

The reasons you typically see HFCS in American Ketchups is that it is (1) heavily subsidized and domestic and cheap, (2) farmed by the same companies making the tomatoes, and (3) a preservative. Also, it helps to improve flow while maintaining viscosity.

Sugar generally can be used to cut the acidity in a tomato dish without inhibiting the taste or outshining the tomato. My stepfather had digestion issues with high acidity meals and swore by a teaspoon or two of sugar to help aid the stomach issues. Likewise, the acidity of ketchup may well be mitigated by all the sugar.


What makes pacman muffins different from any other muffins is only their decoration, not their content. So of course there are no special recipes for them.

You should pick any recipe for iced muffins, or even pick two separate recipes, one for plain muffins and one for icing. Buttercream would be a good choice, as well as other soft types of icing. Then you have to color your icing yellow and black, and place it on the muffins in the desired shape.

As it seems that you are a beginner in cake icing, some help would be good. Icing can be a messy process, and creating patterns is harder than plain icing. I would place a paper strip folded in the middle on the muffin to separate the yellow and black areas, and only remove it when both colors are done. Fixing with toothpicks may be helpful.


Can jerky be re-dehydrated within 24-hour of removing from dehydrator?

The main concern is that bacteria can start to grow in moist meat. If you first heated the meat up to 160-165F then started drying it, then you're probably in a better situation, but if you didn't pre-heat it, then the question is, does it just have fat on the surface or does it still have water inside it?

Interrupting the drying process for several hours puts the meat in the "danger zone" temperature range longer. If it is thinly sliced and the dehydrator isn't overloaded and it's been in the dehydrator over 10 hours at around 140-145F then according to the USDA recommendations it should be safe. If it was interrupted before that, or if it is thick pieces, or if the temperature is significantly lower, it may not be safe.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/meat-preparation/jerky-and-food-safety/ct_index


You can either bake them in something, and typically be fine (there are lots of cookie recipies out there that use them; search on the internet for 'biscotti ai pinoli'), or you can toast them ahead of time, and then encorporate them.  (often, you toast them, then mix in, and bake).

But a word of caution on toasting them -- they burn very easily.  I've typically done it in a dry skillet, where I can keep an eye on them, and quickly get them off and to a try to cool.  I seem to recall an interview with Alton Brown where he mentioned that toasting pine nuts was the number one ruined dish on Iron Chef America, because of chefs leaving them alone for too long.


Chicken bone broth, what is the brown stuff at the bottom of the pot?

Could be a lot of things, depending on how clean the bones were, but assuming everything was clean, then my guess would be bone marrow. It's exactly that color and texture:

(Source: My Life As A Foodie)

It gets darker when cooked - refer to the link above for more photos. Don't worry about safety, bone marrow is nutritious and delicious.

You're more likely to end up with marrow in your broth if any of the bones were cut, cracked, or broken, either intentionally or during the cooking process.


Lining a frying pan with aluminum foil to reduce post-cooking cleanup?

Lining with foil works well with cooking methods like baking or broiling, where the food is not stirred or manipulated much, and so the foil can sit undisturbed.

With stir frying, you are quite likely to break through the foil while doing the stirring, and have to clean up fully in any case.   Also, you probably would not get as good a stir fry due the thin layer of insulating air between the pan surface and the food.

This is not something I would try.


Unsweetened Cocoa powder is a very bitter ingredient, and 1/2 a cup of it seems like a lot considering the ratios. If you want your brownies less bitter then you may want to reduce the cocoa some, or add more sugar, or do both. Try reducing your cocoa by 2 tbsp and adding 2 tbsp more sugar, adjust the ratios that way until you have the right balance.


How to "toss to coat" ingredients in a sheet pan?

You use your hands. Or, if you're not a fan of getting your fingers oily, use a pair of tongs.

Drizzle oil over the ingredients and then pick them up with your hands and move them around to rub over each other and get evenly coated.

If you're happier with the results when using a bag or a bowl, there's nothing wrong with that. The only downside is that you're getting another dish dirty and you're losing a small amount of the ingredients that would otherwise be coating your sheet pan. If you keep using a bowl or bag, I recommend possibly rubbing a thin layer of oil on the pan as you're not "tossing" the ingredients directly in the pan.


To which internal temperature should I cook beef for rare/medium/well done?

|  Rare         |  120 °F to 125 °F  |  49 °C to 52 °C   |  center is bright red  |
|  Medium Rare  |  130 °F to 135 °F  |  54 °C to 57 °C   |  center is very pink   |
|  Medium       |  140 °F to 145 °F  |  60 °C to 63 °C   |  center is light pink  |
|  Medium Well  |  150 °F to 155 °F  |  66 °C to 68 °C   |  not pink              |
|  Well Done    |  160 °F and above  |  71 °C and above  |  brown throughout      |


What are good techniques to prepare liver?

Liver (like any offal) needs to be as fresh as possible.  Liver naturally has a dense texture, so over-cooking it results in the dry shoe leather effect that causes most people to hate it.

Soaking it in milk is a common technique, but I grew up with venison liver cooked quickly in a pan with spice mixes (usually a slightly spicy "cajun" or lemon-pepper).

I would suggest looking up some more modern recipes to see if you can find one that appeals to your tastes.  Chefs like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who are keen on re-introducing people to these less popular cuts, tend to have recipes that will appeal to a modern palate.


How to protect hand skin when preparing food

I wouldn't wear the medical type gloves recommended in the other answers. They are disposable, and once you get them off, you can't put them back on because they cling to themselves on the inside. So if you were only to wear them when you are working with water, you'd go through 4-5 pairs while preparing a dish. This is not only wasteful, but they also contain a layer of talcum on the inside, and coating your sensitive skin with drying talcum 4-5 times in the time needed for cooking is probably a bad idea.

You are probably thinking that this is nonsense and you were planing to wear them throughout the cooking, not taking them off. The problem is that they are sealed from air circulation, so they get hot on the inside. Your hands sweat and sweat and sweat. The talcum helps a little, but it is used up quickly. After 5 to 10 minutes, your hands are immersed in a permanent sweat bath. Which means that they are actulally much moister than if you are submerging them in water for a quick unprotected wash and then drying them. So this is practically worse than no gloves. The transparent gloves used for petrol or hair coloring don't cling to the skin and don't have talcum, but still make you sweat just as bad as the medical ones.

The cleaning gloves you linked are a better solution. They are non-toxic, so they are safe for handling food. Practically any material used for washing gloves is food safe. You just need to wash them on the outside with soap as often as you'd wash your hands. They won't make your hands sweat as bad, because they don't cling to your hands. There is air between them and your skin. The good ones have a very thin layer of some kind of fuzz on the inside, which absorbs sweat, but is not as drying as talcum. Also, they are reusable and keep for a lot of wears. You can put them on for washing, then remove them, and only put them on again for the next washing.

They also have their disadvantages. First, you must take care that no water comes on the inside, because then you'll have a permanently wet glove. Second, they are not especially thin, so tactile input and dexterity are impaired. Third, when they are wet, they get slippery on the outside. Most producers reduce this by covering them with a thin raised pattern, like an inverted tire profile. This worsens the problem with the missing feel and also makes them somewhat worse from a food safety point of view, as the structured surface gives pollutants more oportunity to cling to (but is probably still safer than your fingers with the ridges of your fingerprints). Fourth, they are very easily punctured - a touch with a knife which you probably wouldn't have felt with your skin can puncture them - and useless once they are punctured. But still, if you want to wear gloves, this is probably the way to go.

If you want to go gloveless, you need to find a moisturizing agent which does not impair your food even if a significant amount is transferred to it. Some organic hand creams, a homemade hand cream, or pure oil should all do the trick. Then you have to keep a thick fluffy towel nearby (a normal muselin kitchen towel is probably not good enough). Apply the moisturizer before starting the cooking. Then apply it again, thick, before washing the food, wash the food, dry immediately with the towel, and apply moisturizer again.

An interesting thing to try out would be to use the medical gloves together with oil or a deep conditioner for skin, or something like a facial mask. Sometimes people condition their hands by keeping them immersed in a warm bath of either. You could try applying a very generous dose to your skin, much more than it could absorb, and then put the gloves on, eventually adding some more oil/conditioner (you'll probably with a syringe without a needle for that, as there won't be enough space for pouring). The sweat will still develop, but it will disperse in the big amount of oil or conditioner, so your skin will be kept in a fatty conditioning environment instead of a moist drying out one, which means that you can keep them on for the duration of the cooking. You will still experience the disadvantages I listed for the washing gloves, some of them even stronger (e. g. slipperiness). You may wish to use an edible conditioner or oil, because a puncture could result in everything leaking over your food.


How do I maximize the shelf life of my homemade hot sauce?

Vinegar and sugar make good preservatives. Provided you use sterilised containers - place them in boiling water for twenty minutes, add the sauce, seal, then boil again for ten minutes - you should be fine. Store the bottles/jars in a cool place out of direct sunlight.

Avoid using oil during preparation, as you run the risk of introducing Botulinium into the mix. This would probably be neutralised by the vinegar, but it really isn't worth the risk.

As always, if the sauce smells or looks suspect when you come to use it, throw it out. Again, it's not worth the risk of food poisoning.


Some quick things which you may or may not find in your nearby stores which can act as sweetners:

Honey
Jaggery
Corn Syrup
Some citrus fruits like oranges
Berries
Winter Squash like Acorn, Butternut


Why potatoes need to be boiled in order to make alcohol?

Vodka by definition is a flavorless distilled alcohol, retaining any of the organoleptic properties of the grain or potato could be considered as ruining the end product.

Potatoes are a good source of starch, but brewers yeast has a limited ability to break down starch into usable fuel; its preferred fuel sources are relatively simple sugars like mono and disaccharides.  In order to efficiently convert the starch in potatoes to sugar the potatoes must first be boiled so that the starches gelate.  Once gelated, the potatoes are then Mashed-in with malted barley or wheat at a temperature around 150˚F so that the diastatic enzymes can break those starches into the sugars that yeast likes to eat.  These same steps are used when making vodka from non-malted grains such as corn (maize).

Boiling the potatoes also helps reduce the number of surface microbes that could end up influencing the final product.  Bacteria and wild yeast strains can lead to moldy, grassy, sour, and other unpleasant flavors that may necessitate multiple distillations to remove.

Making a mash of raw, peeled potato would likely yield something closer to a sourdough starter with a mix a naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria producing a small amount of alcohol along with acetic and lactic acids, as well as other compounds.


How to use a preferment / poolish? Cake vs ADY?

On the preferment: I have never seen the yeast in it included in the calculation. See it as "just another ingredient" and calculate the rest just as you would if it hadn't been there. For example, Reinhart's formula for poolish ciabatta is:

  poolish: 169%, bread flour: 100%, salt: 3.3%, instant yeast: 1.3%, water: 33%.

It doesn't eliminate the need for yeast at all. But as you see from this recipe, you will mess up the hydration if you try to add poolish on top. You can try recalculating it based on what hydration you already have in the preferment, but you won't end up with the same texture as the same hydration without the poolish, because it behaves a bit differently. So it will be easier to not manipulate recipes, but to choose another recipe which includes a preferment from the beginning.

On the question of taste: if you want the yeasty aroma you smell in cake yeast, you shouldn't be using any preferments at all. This kind of aroma is what you get from an overactive yeast colony, and for that you have to use high amounts of yeast (about 8-10% cake yeast or 3-4% dry yeast) with a very quick and warm rise, ideally around 35 C. Proof for 1-2 hours only, but pay attention to not overproof. It doesn't matter if you start with cake or dry yeast here, it's about the conditions in which the yeast grows. The preferment does the opposite of that.


Soaking starches in water for better frying

This is a common technique and should work well. It is important that you dry the fries thoroughly before adding them to the oil, otherwise it will boil out of the pan.

If you have the time, you can lay the fries on a rack and place in the fridge for a couple of hours, which dehydrates the surface nicely. If not, pat them dry with lots of kitchen paper.


Is it possible to prepare store bought corn tortillas so they don't fall apart?

It sounds like you're just buying poorly-made tortillas, or old ones. A reasonably fresh corn tortilla is plenty sturdy for use in tacos or enchiladas. As they get older, they dry out and become more brittle. If you live in a place with a large Mexican population, you may be able to find a local tortilleria which makes fresh tortillas. Failing that, corn tortillas from the grocery store can be adequate as long as they're relatively fresh.

You can also make tortillas at home pretty easily using just corn flour (also known as masa, masa harina, or maseca), water, and a rolling pin. If you want to shape them more perfectly, or if you're going to be using lots of tortillas, you can get a tortilla press:

They are usually made of iron or wood and will let you press balls of masa dough into perfectly-flat tortillas.


Is it wise to use vinegar to handle rust for cooking utensils?

If you want to clean rust from steel utensils, I recommend Barkeeper's Friend. I find it works well on stainless steel … not so well on carbon steel.

And always rinse with water and dry by hand to ensure no rust in the future.


How can I store root ginger for maximum shelf life?

It will definitely last longer in the refrigerator than at room temperature.  You can also freeze it whole and then grate off what is needed as you need it.


How to avoid using artificial food coloring in cookie and cake decorating

Natural food coloring kits, consisting of powdered concentrates, are available at health food stores in some regions, eg http://shop.biovegan.de/biovegan-farbspass-farbende-lebensmittel-5x8g is common here... and in this case, there is no cochineal in there, since insects/arachnids do not widely qualify as vegan, and this brand (as the name says :) specializes in organic and vegan products.

Turmeric, Annato, mild paprika and similar spices color extremely strongly, one would need to add little enough not to mess with the cake chemistry. Coloring juices (beet or blueberry juice etc) could be cooked down to a high concentration. Some of these color differently based on pH (turmeric, anthocyanins like beet juice), but one might need to compensate taste-wise for the colored layer being alkaline or at least less sour than one would prefer...

Turmeric, especially fresh, can help with the brightness even if you aren't aiming for yellow - stuff's strongly flourescent (means: will emit visible light when excited by ambient ultraviolet light) and will make everything appear more radiant in sunlight and many types of artificial lighting. Same would go for quinine (as can be found in certain drinks) if the food can take the bitterness, but quinine has more of a blue flourescence that won't come across as very bright.


What are the visual signs of uncontaminated margarine spoilage?

Margarine should be stored in a refrigeration situation.  While not a safety concern, the main risk is rancidity.  This can happen as quickly as over night, if margarine is left out of the refrigerator.  Visual signs of quality degradation are a dark, hard, or waxy appearance. In this case, it might smell like soap or old microwave popcorn.  Also a possible sign of spoilage is water droplets on the surface of margarine (except if it had been frozen.  In this case it can be re-mixed.). Given the high concentration of saturated fat, margarine is a difficult medium in which to grow mold, which would be an indication of spoilage. Typically the mold is growing on bits of food left behind in the margarine.  In this case margarine might become a health risk and should be discarded. You can find more information here.  Safety is not about the type of emulsion, but the ingredients in the emulsion, the water activity in the system, and the storage environment.


Are you supposed to get most of the air bubbles out of dough before the second rise?

Whether or not to get the bubbles out is a matter of what type of bread you are making. Something with a tight crumb structure, like a milk bread or bagel will probably have a pretty vigorous punch-down before a second rise, but something like a ciabatta might just have a gentle fold.

Any air bubbles left in your bread for the second rise are only going to get bigger (and eventually collapse). If you want a fine crumb, punch it down and get rid of them. If you want an open crumb, try to keep them


Do breads always have to be baked in some vessels in an oven? If yes, then what shaped vessels would those be?

The general answer is that you use a loaf pan if you want the common rectangular loaf shape (it's good for slicing for toast and sandwiches), and otherwise you don't need one.

For example, the link you gave for french bread completely describes how to shape and bake the loaf. There's no wrapping in foil or anything; you coax it into that shape, and it's flexible and stretchy but won't spread out or anything. I'm not sure why it refers to a "baking vessel", implying that it's something that contains the loaf. All you need is a flat baking sheet.

Once you've made bread dough this should be pretty obvious - it's not a big wet mess, it's something with structure that you can work with and shape. It's pretty much the same with all other shapes of loaves - you get them into the general shape, toss them on a baking sheet, and bake them. You can make small circular rolls, small oblong rolls, big circular loaves, big oblong loaves, whatever suits you. There are certainly traditional shapes for some breads, and you should probably follow recipes, since baking times are of course affected by size, but the general principle remains the same - you shape it how you want it.


Must rice always be cooked with some oil or lard?

Oil or fat is absolutely not necessary to cook rice.

I suspect you may have been taught the pilaf method where the rice is first sauteed in oil or butter, and then liquid is added and the rice is fully cooked.  The purpose of the pilaf method is to add depth of flavor.  When making pilafs, additional herbs, spices, or aromatics (such as onions) are often included.

If you have been taught to add oil without the sauteeing, then the only purpose of it would be to add flavor.  It won't really help prevent sticking, and isn't needed for the rice to cook properly.

There are many methods to cook rice in addition to the pilaf method, and many to do not require any fat.  Simply boiling or steaming in water is completely traditional in many Asian cuisines.

In some cuisines, the crusty rice that sticks to the bottom of the pot or rice cooker is actually highly prized (see Wikipedia's nurunji article).

You can mitigate the crusting of the rice by making sure to use the lowest flame or heat setting that will keep the rice steaming.  I actually prefer to put the whole pot in a moderate oven, rather than do it on the stove top.

You can also use the pasta method of simply boiling the rice in water, and then draining it when it is done to your liking, to completely avoid the crust.  This will result in less sticky rice since the surface starches will be left in the boiling water.  I understand this method is popular in some parts of India and Pakistan.


Sous vide bath cooled after reaching cooking temperature, still safe to eat?

The danger zone is between 40 and 140 degrees F for 2 hours or more. The closer to the upper end of the scale, the less time you have.  It doesn't matter how it was packaged or prepared.  Your short ribs spent far too long at too low a temperature.  I would not consider them safe.


What kind of oven do they use on the GBBS? When they tell the oven temperature, they follow the number with the word "fan". Is this a convection oven?

The Great British Baking Show is actually the Great British Bake-Off, they seem to change the name when it goes onto PBS for some reason. The ovens they use are Neff "slide and hide" models with multiple settings. The fan mode is convection mode. If you don't have a convection mode the recommendation is to increase your temperature by 15 degrees C, or about 30 degrees F. Conversely if you have a convection oven and you want to use a non-convection recipe you'd drop the temperature by the same amount.


How can I thicken this cranberry-pepper jelly?

I found a site with another cranberry sauce maker complaining of the end product being too runny.  What I learned is that cranberries have lots of natural pectin that is released when they are cooked past bursting.

If it were me, I would:

cook it some more, keeping it at a boil but watching it carefully so
it doesn't boil over and does not start to scorch at the bottom of
the pan (in other words, stir and WATCH IT!)
When the cranberries have deflated from releasing their inards and
some of the excess liquid has either boiled off or thickened, your
recipe should be salvageable.

Best of luck!


What do you use to get the vegetables out after steaming?

I imagine you are asking about steamer baskets like this:

I think most people just reach in with an oven mitt or pot holder, and lift it out with our hand.  This particular image has a ring, but some have a knob to make gripping easier.

You can also lift out the food items themselves with tongs, and then wait until the steamer assembly cools and simply take it out with your hands.

If you are talking about oriental style steamers, traditionally used with a wok:

Again, just a tea towel or oven mitt is needed.  The bamboo ones don't tend to hold as much heat, but I would certainly not pick up the metal variant with a bare hand right after steaming.


These are technical terms that are meaningful only in the original Thai. The English translations are meaningless and have no relevance to cooking.
http://www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/DATA/PDF/2552/E/132/15.PDF
So you should say 'น้ำตาลทรายขาว' ('white sugar') and 'น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ' ('refined sugar')
น้ำตาลทรายขาว is further divided into 3 classes.
This results in 4 grades:

น้ำตาลทรายขาว grade 3 99.0% sucrose by ISS standard, 0.2% max reducing sugars
น้ำตาลทรายขาว grade 2 99.5%, 0.1% max reducing sugars
น้ำตาลทรายขาว grade 1 99.5%, 0.1% max reducing sugars
น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ  99.8%, 0.04% max reducing sugars

Max humidity and conductivity ash each then then 0.1% for น้ำตาลทรายขาว, and 0.04% for น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ.
These numbers are almost certainly useless to the cook.
The FAO has more useful standard names:
http://www.fao.org/input/download/standards/338/CXS_212e_u.pdf

white sugar - 99.7% pure sucrose
Plantation or mill white sugar - 99.5% pure sucrose
icing sugar - white sugar which has been finely powdered
soft white sugar - Fine grain purified moist sugar, white in colour with a
sucrose plus invert sugar content of not less than 97.0%
Soft brown sugar Fine grain purified moist sugar, light to dark brown in
colour with a sucrose plus invert sugar content of not less
than 88.0% m/m
Raw cane sugar Partially purified sucrose, which is crystallised from
partially purified cane juice, without further purification,
but which does not preclude centrifugation or drying, and
which is characterised by sucrose crystals covered with a
film of cane molasses.

Both น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ and น้ำตาลทรายขาว are in fact highly refined.
Tesco Lotus charges 22THB for น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ and 21THB for น้ำตาลทรายขาว
However if you refer to

น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ this is 22THB/kg
and this is 34THB/kg

I believe that legally this is also  'น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ' under Thai classification
Caster sugar may also be referred to as 'superfine' sugar. This is quite different from powdered/icing sugar as it is a process of making small crystals, not of grinding sugar to a powder. The smaller crystal size makes it very good for baking as it blends with butter etc. more easily than larger crystals.
Highly refined sugars as all those mentioned here are not necessarily good in that there are lots of flavours in sugar cane (all Thai sugar is obviously cane sugar), and personally I prefer to make for example banana bread (which is cake, not bread) using completely unrefined aren sugar made from arenga pinnata, which is around 0.5% ash, typically slightly fermented, and contains numerous impurities. The taste of the cake is far better than using highly refined sucrose. I'd probably use dark brown sugar if it were cheaper, but where I live aren is the cheapest so I use that.
In Thailand, Indonesia and probably quite a few other neighbouring countries sugar prices are highly regulated, and the terms น้ำตาลทรายขาว and น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ are likely to reflect political issues both as a key grower and exporter, but also consumer prices. Unregulated sugars for rich consumers could be much more expensive.
It does follow that น้ำตาลทรายขาวบรสิทธุ is slightly higher quality than น้ำตาลทรายขาว, in that the goal of both is simply to be pure sucrose (which actually varies slightly because cane sugar and beet sugar, due to different carbon isotopes), and if you were to choose only one, you might as well have the one with the smallest crystals and highest purity (in that order). But the purity is much less important than crystal size.


Recipes - Adding up calories and nutritional info?

SAJ14SAJ's answer is very good for the basic case. There are a few exceptions.

First, if you have an ingredient which is partly discarded, it can be hard or impossible to find out what part ended up in your final food. If you deep fry vegetables in oil, you will have to calculate the change in oil weight to find out how much oil got absorbed. Worse, if you soak cookies in milk, the cookies will absorb lots of whey, but no milkfat, and probably no lactose. On the other hand, some of the sugar in the cookies might get leached out into the milk. So, in this case, you can't get a good calculation even if you measure the amount of milk you throw out.

Second, if your cooking process involves fermentation, all bets are off. Yeast and bacteria will eat some of the carbohydrates, but not all. They will convert them to alcohol (which has calories) and carbon dioxide (which does not have human-digestible calories). It might be a small error in something like bread, where there are so many carbohydrates that the amount eaten by the short fermentation is noise. But if you are fermenting liquids with relatively little carbohydrates (kwass, alcoholic drinks), the result will be very different.

Third, alcohol also has calories (about 7 per gram). In most recipes, a part, but not all of it, evaporates during cooking. You can't control well for that, and it can make a significant difference in dishes with lots of alcohol, like coq au vin.

Fourth, the rule will hold for the macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, fats) and their energy content (calories), as well as some stable micronutrients (predominantly trace minerals like calcium). Fragile micronutrients such as vitamins can break down during cooking. Also, if you are interested in a specific subtype of nutrient, that can also change. For example, you can start out with sucrose (table sugar) and end up with a mixture of glucose and fructose. This will still be the same total amount of carbohydrates, but for some diets, the difference in sugar type is important.


How much difference does the placement of the shelf in the oven make to the final outcome of a cake?

Yes, it makes a difference. In a conventional oven (even one with a convectiono fan), anything placed on the bottom rack is going to absorb less radiation heat from the oven element. That means longer cooking times and possibly the need for a higher temperature setting.

If you're following a recipe then it's best to use whichever rack the recipe says. If the recipe doesn't specify, it's usually designed for the center rack.

Now, using a different rack is completely different from actually baking one thing on top of another thing, on a higher rack. That will have a significant effect on whatever is underneath, and if it is particularly sensitive to the time and temperature (many baked goods are) then it is very likely to fail entirely. I once tried to bake two layers of cream puffs and the ones on the bottom were still practically raw by the time the top was done. I doubt you'd find much better success with cakes.

A convection fan may help in this case, but I still don't think it's enough to compensate for the temperature gradient you'd create by "eclipsing" one dish underneath another in the same oven. You are literally blocking the heat from reaching the bottom dish.


How long would a homemade pancake mix keep?

A dry mix should keep essentially indefinitely if well sealed, and these are all dry, shelf-stable ingredients. We used to mix the flour, baking powder and sugar for pancakes when camping, then add an egg and measure the milk to the top of the handle on a mug. This simpler mix kept from one year to the next in a sealed bag. Using the earliest best before date on any of the ingredients would be logical.

The chocolate chips won't keep quite so well as my mix did - they'll possibly bloom. You could present them separately as is often done with the garnish in gift hot chocolate kits.

If you add the liquid, then it's a few days in the fridge. So consider how you present it to achieve your goal of ease. Perhaps a big jar and n tablespoons of mix to m of milk (or whatever your recipient uses for milk), or a jar a day with a mark for how much milk to add.


Most recipes I am aware of simply press crushed pepper onto the steak. It is true that some will fall off, but these recipes apply pepper generously with that in mind. I have not come across the egg white method (not sure I want egg white on my steak), but I did see a recipe that adds crushed pepper to melted butter, then coating the steak with the mixture, then chilling before cooking.  Regardless of the approach, I think allowing the meat to chill with the pepper will help.


How do I prevent mini cheesecakes from stick in muffin pan

My first choice would be to get a bunch of small spring molds for round cakes. That probably would be my first choice if you really didn't want to use cup cake liners.

If you really want squares, then I think your best bet is to use parchment paper. Cut the parchment paper to fit the full cup, then carefully fold it at the corners just so, so that the uncooked cheese cake will fill the cup without wrinkles. It will take some trial and error, but once you figure out the correct angles, it should be easily to duplicate. You would then need to carefully remove the cakes from the parchment cups you made, but that should be much easier than trying to get them out of the pan if they've stuck.

Alternatively, you could try silicone moulds, but I don't know whether the cheese cake would be too sticky or too soft for that or not.


It could be the allithiolanes in the onions (and to some extent, garlic) at work. You can't smell them, really, but they come out of chopped onions gradually and have a very acrid / bitter taste.
There's no way to eliminate it 100% except for cooking, as far as I know, but you can peel and halve your onion and soak them in clean cold water with a bit of acid added (lemon or lime juice) for about 20 minutes before you use them. This should lessen the extent that you notice the taste. Alternatively, or additionally, you could use shallots or other smaller, milder red onions which don't have as much of a problem with it.
It comes out in that sort of "milky" liquid that you see when you cut open most white onions.
Commercial salsa gets rid of it through the manufacturing process.


I would assume that this depends highly on the exact source of the aroma/smell.

One extreme is the highly volatile components of essential oils found in many fruits, berries, spices and herbs, which are the main source of their respective aromas or smells. It is easily observed that especially spices and dried herbs loose their aroma over time, which is basically caused by the aromatic components vaporising even at room temperature and actually vanish from the original product. The same would happen to fruits and berries, if they wouldn't decay for other reasons long before the aromatic components are "used up". Heating would cause the vaporising rate to increase and speed up this process. If you for example try to reduce fruit juice to a concentrated syrup by heating, you can easily end up with a bland, highly acidic residue, even if you have a nice fruity smell in your kitchen during the process. First the aromatic components vaporise, then the water and left over are perhaps not much more than the solid components in the fruit juice and most of the fruit acids. In this specific case, the aroma is actually in the air, because it has left the food.

One of the other extremes is where a heat induced reaction in the food is required to create the aromatic components. The most well known example is perhaps the Maillard reaction between sugars and amino acids responsible for the darker, brownish colour of roasted meat and on the surface of bread and pastries. The Maillard reaction creates highly aromatic components, which are responsible for much of the flavour or smell. The typical bread aroma is for example mainly caused by 6-acetyl-2,3,4,5-tetrahydropyridine, which is the result of a Maillard reaction between different components of the flour. Not using enough heat when baking bread would prevent this aroma component to be created in the first place, so baking bread at low temperatures is not a particularly good idea to get a more tasty bread. The main cause of the difference in taste between boiled and roasted meat is also the lack or presence of the results of the Maillard reaction.

In case of meat, other heat induced reactions except for vaporisation is also responsible for loosing aroma during the cooking process and may justify low-temperature cooking. When heating meat above a specific temperature, connective tissue (mostly collagen) contract and cause moisture to be pressed out of the muscle fibers in between. This moisture seeps out as meat broth, in which many of the meat's aromatic components are contained. Some of the aroma will probably vaporise and "be in the air", but in this case, the flavour has left the intended food (the meat), but most of it is still contained in a by-product (the broth).

As you see, there is no generic answer to your question, but having a nice smell in the kitchen when preparing food does not necessarily cause a catastrophic meal. There are lot of different physical reactions going on when preparing food, and understanding a few basics is very helpful when evaluating different techniques or experimenting on your own with new ways to achieve a tasty result.

Edit: After actually watching the video, I just wanted to point out an issue not directly related to the question. In the video, the chicken is roasted until it reaches a temperature of 60°C. In many countries, chicken meat is often infected with Salmonella bacteria, and at this temperature, they are not necessarily killed. Wikipedia tells that Salmonella is killed after 12 Minutes at 60°C or after 90 Minutes at 55°, so even if you measure 60°C at one point in the chicken, it is not unlikely due to uneven temperature distribution, that other parts are a few degrees colder, at which bacteria can survive for longer periods. To safely consume Salmonella prone food, it is recommended that the food is heated to 75°C at least for 10 Minutes.


Does commercial sour cream still contain live bacteria?

It's hard to get a straight answer online, unfortunately, as most sour cream manufacturers don't mention either way.  Daisy brand, for example (one of the mass-market brands that is relatively unprocessed) doesn't mention it on their website, nor do they on their containers, though some people have said they do contain live active cultures - but nothing reliable that I see indicates that.  Breakstone's mentions that their cottage cheese has prebiotics, but nothing about sour cream, leading me to think they probably don't.

A few brands pasteurize and then add back in the L. Acidophilus and Bifidus Regularis (or similar) cultures afterwards, presumably to improve taste as they continue to break down the lactose (similar to how some mass-market yogurts do so); for example, Organic Valley mentions on their website:

  Our sour cream is a cultured blend of nutrient-packed organic cream and skim milk. When the sour cream is pasteurized and homogenized, active cultures acidophilus and bifidus are added to boost the tangy flavor and create a consistently dense cream. The active cultures also serve as probiotics to improve the microbial balance of your digestive tract.

If you're looking for a brand that specifically does contain live active cultures, you should look for a mention on the label.  Any brand that does not mention it on the label may or may not contain them.  The indication of live and active cultures is not mandatory, as far as I can tell; the National Yogurt Association has a voluntary compliance process involving a seal that indicates live and active cultures, for example, but it is strictly voluntary.

However, searching for a brand that does not contain live active cultures, your best bet would be to contact the manufacturers directly.  I don't think there's a reliable way to prove they don't contain them.  Fat-free sour cream is also unlikely to contain live and active cultures (as it's not really sour cream, it's a flavored gelatin product more or less).  Alternatively, you can cook the sour cream yourself (or only use it in cooked applications) to ensure the bacteria are not live, though in this case you should talk to your doctor to find out in what applications this may be safe.


Why is syrup added to a cake before frosting?

Brushing a cake with simple syrup before frosting is done to prevent the cake from drying out too quickly, and sometimes to add flavour (if a flavoured syrup is used instead of just water+sugar).


Why is my whipped cream dispenser stuck?

I have several of these and what you are describing is a common occurrence.
As cream is either 'whipped' mechanically or put under pressure with a NO2 cartridge bubbles become trapped in the cream to 'fluff' it up. As the now whipped cream is allowed to rest the bubbles will slowly rise to the top and allow the gas to escape. While the pressure within the vessel remains mostly the same the gas is no longer suspended in the cream and does not get driven out of the container as you are expecting.

(note: do not 'just' add another cartridge of NO2 at this point. turn the canister upside-down and allow the pressure (and some of the cream) to escape (provide a bowl for the cream). Once depressurized you may open the canister and start over, I'm fairly sure you can reuse the cream if you choose)


First, clean them. You basically just remove the stuff that you don't (normally) eat from a hard shell crab.

Using some kitchen shears just remove the following:

Their face. Just one snip should take off their mouth and eyes. You have to cut it at an angle.
Their gills. Peel back their shells and cut the gills off. There is a set per side.
The apron. This is the triangular tail like thing under the crab. Just turn it over and cut it off.

Then you can just dredge them in seasoned flour and fry in hot oil (375 F).

Update

I found a video showing how: http://www.chow.com/stories/11245 He uses his hands for the apron and gills.

As far as "putting it out of it's misery", I'd go with the face cut first. It still twitches afterwards, but that's as good as it gets. If it really bothers you, I suggest eating something else, or having someone else prepare it for you.


I'm in the US and I had never heard of a green meat radish. However, based on information I found on Specialty Produce, I would think you could substitute almost any regular variety of radish you find at your local grocer.
Excerpts from the linked page:

Description/Taste
Green Meat radishes are easily distinguished by their shape and color. The swollen and elongated taproot is two-toned like several radish varieties, yet it is unique in its coloring. Its upper half near the stem end is lime green colored, and its tapered lower half is cream colored. It can be harvested when as small as five inches or as large as ten inches. Its thick skin covers a green to creamy white flesh which offers a crisp texture and a radish flavor that can vary from mild to hot depending upon growing conditions and maturity.

and

Applications
The spicy flavor and crisp texture of the Green Meat radish shines in fresh preparations. Slice thin and add to sandwiches, salads or wraps. Use to add a spicy accent to tacos, nachos, and Mexican soups. Slice lengthwise and pair with cream based dips or soft cheeses. Grate and serve as a condiment with sushi or sashimi or add to slaws to give them a spicy kick. In China Green Meat radishes are popularly pickled along with Sichuan peppers. Green Meat radish greens can be added to soups and stir-fries. To store, keep Green Meat radishes refrigerated and used within one to two weeks.

More interesting reading on the linked page, also.


A few things occur to me:

Fat content is significantly different between chuck and bacon.  Chuck is generally about 15-25% fat (depending on the cut); bacon is often more than 50% fat.
The cuts are not equivalent.  Chuck is from the shoulder of beef; bacon is usually made from the belly or side.  The muscles thus receive very different amounts of work and thus have different textures.  (Also, the fat in chuck tends to have sections which are harder and take longer to render.)  The equivalent beef cut would be from the plate -- the short plate in particular (between the flank and the brisket) is often used to make "beef bacon."  It also has a much higher fat content than chuck.
Curing the meat makes chemical alterations that often cause fat to soften and render faster, as well as tenderizing the protein and muscle portions.

In sum, bacon has a lot of fat, is located in a region of the animal with less work (less toughness), and the curing allows the fat to flow out quickly where it can be useful in frying.

What makes bacon crispy is what makes all fried foods crispy -- you dry out the cells by cooking the water out, and the remaining structure firms up.  Given the high fat content, a lot of the remaining structure is remnants of the fat sections, rather than muscle tissue (which generally doesn't crisp the same way, even in bacon).  Since fat allows cooking at a higher temperature than water, more desirable flavor reactions can also happen (those flavor compounds are also released more in curing).  Whereas a more "meaty" piece of meat would go from wet and "boiling in its own juices" to cooked to dry to burnt, the high fat content raises the temperature more quickly but then stabilizes it, which completely alters the reactions that happen in cooking.


No. Monosodium glutamate is a salt, and like most salts is essentially insoluble in oil.


How do you ensure a tortilla keeps all its contents when making a burrito?

Folding a burrito is serious business. Get it wrong and you'll end up dumping most of the contents all over the place and look like a burrito noob. Get it right and your hands and plate will be perfectly clean, and you'll no longer be hungry. Beware: publicly flaunting these skills might lead to people wanting you to fold their burritos for them.

General Tips

First off: make sure your tortilla is ready to be folded. A cold or dried out tortilla is likely to crack or split. Use a warm and moist tortilla.

Second: don't overfill the tortilla. If you have small tortillas don't try to make a giant burrito and expect that to work.

How to fold

Now that we have the basics out of the way let's get to folding. See the flash animation at Chow.com (which I've converted into an image here):

Place the contents in the approximately center of your partially folded tortilla. Leave plenty of room on the ends otherwise you'll most surely have food spilling out once it's folded up. Hold the filled tortilla so the weight of the filling pulls it tight. If your burrito busts through now, it will certainly burst later. If not, proceed to step 2.
Fold one end towards the center.
Fold the other end over.
Roll the bottom (the end nearest you) up towards the top. This isn't the intuitive way, but it's the right way. Make sure not to let the food squeeze out. I hold it with my fingers at the crease where the bottom edge that's been folded up meets the food.
Keep rolling it up.
Om nom nom.


Bell peppers become either crunchy or soggy

There is a slight carry over with most things you cook. However I think the answer to most "Why is my stir fry not like the restaurant's?" questions, has to do with heat. Their stoves are much, much more powerful. You simply can't get that with a typical home stove.

So, the way to get closest at home is to preheat your wok (or your largest flat, not non stick skillet) till it is screaming hot, add a bit of oil and cook your food in batches; No more than 1 layer and nothing crowding one another. Chef Ming Tsai suggests if you have a stainless steel wok that can go in the oven, to preheat it in there.

It should sizzle and keep sizzling through your cooking. If it isn't, you are steaming it, which will cause your softer texture. The key to stir fry, is to cook it really quickly. With the smaller batches, it'll all cook pretty quickly that in the end it doesn't take that much longer.

Edit: You asked about blanching. You might blanch some harder vegetables, to cut down on stir fry time but I can't see that helping for peppers of any sort.


How can I substitute Tender Quick® for pink salt + kosher salt?

This question is almost entirely a duplicate of this one on corned beef, sodium nitrite and Tender Quick..  Please see the answers for that question.

The only thing not covered in that question are the proportions of salt, sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate in Tender Quick.  You would need to calculate those ratios, and compare them with the ratios in pink salt + kosher salt called for in the recipe.  This information is not available on the Morton's web site; you will have to call them to get those proportions.


Basically the hotter you get the sugar, the harder it sets.

One thing you should take note of is the color, the darker the color, the hotter you got it.

Go slowly when melting the sugar, get it to the temperature you want, and then add the rest of the ingredients in. Melting the sugar slower, makes sure that the edges don't get overcooked and burnt.

The more liquids and fats you add, the softer it will set.


It's hard to tell, since it depends on a lot of different factors. I would estimate that you should reduce the cooking time by about 20 minutes. For the future, I would recommend investing in a meat thermometer. Then you can tell when the meat is done without relying on oven temperatures and times.


Why do scrambled/fried eggs stick less when cooked with butter instead of oil?

Technique is the key here. If she is using oil expect she is adding the eggs before the oil is hot, she is probably also rushing her attempt to turn/flip/scramble/move them. One of the hardest things to learn when frying eggs is to walk away immediately after adding the eggs to the hot pan.
I notice you are in Germany, I don't know what your access to the USA's "Food Network" is but this episode of a Alton Brown's "Good Eats" can show your wife "eggsellent" technique.
(pardon the pun, couldn't resist...)
New Links:
Good Eats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx8up7UJv2s
Alton Brown on CBS Morning Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD3QeyK4bJY


Does bacon need to be fried until crisp?

In my experience, you'll get the best bacon if you start with a cold pan.  Throwing it onto a hot pan sounds impressive (it sizzles right away), but it will also make the bacon shrink/curl up much more and faster.

I cook bacon half by look, and half by sound.  After you cook it a couple times you'll see (hear) what I mean - the sizzle changes significantly as the fat renders off.  I usually flip it as soon as the sound starts to change, and I flip more than once to reduce curling (unless you have a bacon press, see below).

If you don't have one, I recommend a bacon press, especially if you like crispy bacon.  It also helps it cook faster.  In a pinch, you can use the bottom of a smaller pan - I cook bacon in a 12" cast iron pan, and use an 8" pan as the bacon press.

If you don't have a splatter guard, you're going to want one...

...unless you wanted to cook your bacon in the oven.  This is great for large batches, reducing splatter, and unattended bacon cooking.  Steps to oven bacon:

preheat oven to 400
cover a
cookie sheet with aluminum foil
put bacon on foil, leaving a little
    space between
cook for 12-18
    minutes depending on desired
    crispiness.  I lean towards crispier
    bacon so I usually start watching at
    12, pull it out at 15.

One other note, no matter which method you use, you're going to want to take the bacon off the heat a minute or so before it's at the desired crispiness - it will continue to cook slightly after you take it off.  There have been a few times I've made it to my desired doneness, tasted it out of the pan, been very happy with it, moved it to paper towels to drain, tried it a minute later, and it was too crispy.  So be aware of that possibility.


Can we use white sugar, instead of brown sugar?

You can substitute white sugar for light brown sugar with no problem, in my experience.

Make sure you substitute by weight (grams/oz), and not by volume(cups/spoons). This is because brown sugar is slightly more dense, so you get more sugar in a cup than you do with light brown.


What is the sign of mozzarella being old?

Mozzarella comes in different variations...  There are a few things to look and smell for to determine it they are "off".  Aged or drier varieties may have visible mold on the exterior. Pre-grated mozzarella can also exhibit visible mold as well as a sour or yeasty smell.  Brined varieties may have a musty, sour, or smelly-foot odor or an excessively cloudy brine.

If you see visible mold on a drier variety, you can just cut it off and use the remaining cheese as normal as long as it doesn't smell.  If you plan on cooking or melting the cheese, it would likely be safe to eat, but may not taste normal.

Moist cheeses like mozzarella can harbor Listeria, E coli, brucella, and salmonella so if you are in doubt and not interested in a bout of food poisoning, it's best just to throw it out.

To keep brined varieties fresh longer keep it refrigerated and replace the brine daily, the replacement brine should taste salty like the ocean. Even so, it should really be eaten within 2-3 days.


Should I preheat a pan, or start the cooking timer immediately?

If you cook (or bake) using a timer, you should always use preheated equipment.  Your stove top may differ from my stove top in terms of the length of time it would take to get to high heat (hell, my stove top wouldn't even hit high heat in three minutes), and this would greatly effect the final quality.

Always preheat, the instructions expect it.  Otherwise, it would tell you to put a pan on the stove top, place in pan, and turn on to high heat.  Leave for three minutes and remove.


Should I polish a cast iron pan for use on a glass cooktop?

This will be a short answer as there is not much to say:

I have used cast iron pans on my glass stove top for about five years, and the surface does not show any scratches or marks. I have not taken any special care to protect the surface, and certainly have not polished the iron.


I bet it would be delicious with beef. Beef and berries are great together.

Other ideas I just thought of -- use it like you would use jalapeno jelly -- to top baked brie or in a sandwich or spread with cream cheese.


Keeping pizza crust from getting soggy from fresh tomatoes

Here are a few things that have worked for me:

Brush oil on the dough before applying toppings.  (Already suggested)
Scoop out the seeds and guts and then dice your tomatoes instead of slicing.  This should get rid of some of the moisture.
Add cheese and then place tomatoes on top.
Stretch your dough evenly and not too thin.

I usually don't precook tomatoes (sauce at least) because it ends up getting gummy since they get cooked twice.


What setting on a thermomix would create a simmer?

(Disclaimer, I don't have thermomix)

Simmering is usually just below boiling temperature (100c), so I would set at 80c and see how it goes depending on the marmalade consistency.

Most recipe I've seen just say to simmer the marmelade; no set temperature.

I'd also look at the Thermomix user manual or user community to see if there are instructions or marmelade recipes


What is the name for the 'sweetness' of cooling roast pork?

I don't think there is a word specific to the "sweetness of cooling roast pork" in the English language. This is simply an "aroma", and more specifically, the "aroma of roasted pork". (Or, in my house, "the smell of porky goodness") It is produced by caramelization of the sugars and the Maillard reaction that occurs during roasting.  These are the same mechanisms at work when you caramelize onions, as you point out.


Building pressure chamber for fizzy fruit - PVC safety

I would advise against your approach, as you are potentially building something that could explode and seriously injure someone.  If you have an ISI (or other brand) whipper, you can do this safely.  Alternatively, you can use dry ice and a Styrofoam cooler for the same effect.


What makes rice come out chewy and how do you prevent it?

I use par-boiled long grain rice, and DO NOT pre-soak or rinse it.  Put your rice into a good heavy based pan, add about three times as much cold water and bring to the boil, yes, you can stir it once or twice if you want.  Boil for about a minute or two, turn off the heat, leave the lid on and wait about 30 mins (some times it might be up to 45 mins), the rice cooks very nicely.  Strain and use as required.  This always for me makes perfect fluffy non sticky rice - I have never had an issue with rice with this method. Of course this is for par-boiled long grain rice, other types of rice might act differently.


White wine vinegar in sweet and sour sauce

Sure. It will taste a little different, but fundamentally, the main thing is the acid - you'll just get some extra flavor (which you may or may not consider an improvement) from white wine, cider, red wine, rice, malt or balsamic vinegar, rather than white.


Why is there liquid at the bottom of my lemon meringue pie?

Water seeping from meringue is practically always coming from the egg whites. There are a few standard things you can do to reduce it.

First, do not overbeat. For some reason, recipes love to direct people to beat egg whites "to stiff peaks". These are almost never needed, and can easily lead to self-destructing foam (the proteins continue tightening after the beating, squeezing the water out and creating large, easily-collapsed bubbles). Go for soft peaks at most. I have found that using a high speed setting also helps, and beating per hand almost always leads to weeping, even if stopped early.

Second, use cream of tartar to create a stabler meringue without too much beating.

Third, the cornstarch isn't binding enough of the free water. If you whip less, you will have less free water, but if it is still not enough, you can use something more effective, e.g. xanthan.

Look around the site for more advice against weeping meringue. Also look at the pictures in that answer - the meringue there is for macarons, which are very sensitive to the meringue quality.


What could go wrong? Probably not much. The same process that turns beef into corned beef turns pork into corned pork - and if you use another piece and compare recipes, you might recognize the process from curing ham. You might have to compare recipes a bit - curing times ranging from two to ten days depending on the author - and the actual cooking process could require a slightly different timing, but overall, nothing specific to the animal.

And like corned beef, corned pork is sold canned as luncheon meat. The iconic Spam being an (slightly infamous) example.

I even found one writer that claims pork was actually the more „Irish” version for Irish families (beef being more expensive and mostly exported), while using beef became the American-Irish tradition, resorting to the (Jewish) brisket when beef was actually cheaper and easier to get than pork.


My slow cooker manual gives, for 500-800g (1-1.5lbs) of poultry 3.5-4 hours on high.  However I find this one a little fierce, so I looked in an older recipe book.  Recipes for similar amounts of poultry with sauce also come to 3.5-4 hours on high, but assume you brown the meat first (but nowhere near fully cook). This book says to add 1-2 hours if you don't pre-brown the meat.  It also assumes that you preheated the crockpot, if not add half an hour. On that basis I get to 5-6 hours assuming you preheated it, which fits with what I recall from when I used to cook this sort of thing in the slow cooker.


Is there a difference between boiling water and almost boiling water?

There are two main differences, obviously: five degrees, and no boiling action.
As Cascabel mentioned in a comment, dried pasta will "cook" even in water that's well below boiling temperature. However, a rolling boil serves to constantly stir the contents of the pot, much more than convection in heating water would. Without that mechanical action, pasta is more prone to stick to itself and to the bottom of the pan. So stir a few times.
For fresh pasta, it's more important to use boiling water (and lots of it), because adding the pasta to the water will significantly cool the water below the point where the pasta can actually cook. The sticking concerns apply even more there: fresh pasta has more loose surface starch to cause sticking if you don't stir.
Incidentally, you mentioned in the comments that you assumed it was slow to bring water to a boil "because of the phase change involved". But there is no phase change involved below 100 degrees. In an uncovered pot, it takes a while to push water from a bare simmer to a rolling boil because the evaporation cools the water more quickly as the temperature increases. Covering the pot will significantly decrease the time to come to a full rolling boil (or to return to the boil once you've added the pasta).


What can I do to make beaten egg puffier and fluffier?

Yes, a few suggestions:

(1) You are most likely cooking it at too high a temperature. Scrambled eggs will come out maximally tender if you do them over very low heat, stirring almost constantly. High temperatures cause the egg proteins to knot up and become tough. For 4 eggs, figure on at least ten minutes of slow cooking.

(2) You can incorporate more air by whisking more vigorously, or if you want them really fluffy, by running them in a blender before cooking.

(3) To increase tenderness, you can also add an extra egg yolk, or more butter.


Can vegetable oil be used in place of butter?

The cooking snobs will say that butter is better, and even my fading taste buds can sometimes detect the difference.  But much of the time you can make the substitute.  BTW the reason for the 7/8 figure is that butter runs about 1/8 water.  So you may have to use 7/8 cup of oil and 1-2 tablespoons of water.

The biggest difference between solid fat and oil will occur when you see lines like, "Blend together with a pastry blender until you have crumbs the size of a pea.  A pie crust made with oil will not be a tender flaky crust.

However for bannock making in the bush, corn oil works fine as a substitute for lard. and it's a heck of a lot easier to keep.

A comment below mentions cookie recipes.  For this to be successful, the flour to fat ratio has to be fairly high.  Bannock is 1 cup of flour to 1-2 tbs of fat.  This is small enough that the flour absorbs all the oil.

Another signal:  If the directions call for chilling the dough then there is enough fat in the mix that using oil would make the recipe way too liquid.  I suspect this is the case with many cookies.

Cake recipes usually don't have as high a fat:flour ratio as many cookies, but cakes are often very fussy about ingredient ratios.

So:  Test before counting on it.  It does work for bannock.

1 cup flour
1 to 3 tbs fat or oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
Tiny amount of water.

If you are going to fry the bannock, go light on the oil.

Mix flour and salt and baking powder.
Mix in fat.
Mix in just enough water to make a stiff dough that holds together.  It is very easy to overdo.  Knead only long enough to mix.

Cooking:
1.  Shape into long strips about 3/8" thick, wrap around smooth pole and bake over a 10 second fire for 15 minutes rotating slowly. (A 10 second fire:  YOu can hold your hand where the cooking happens for 10 seconds)

Pat out into 3/8 to half inch slabs.  Cook in a frying pan over a 20 second fire for 5-10 minutes on a side.
Pat out to 1/8" thick.  Drop into a bucket with 2 inches of smoking hot lard in the bottom.  Lift out with tongs after 30 seconds.

Method 1 will keep campers busy for a long time.
Method 2 makes bannock you can use for a meal later.
Method 3 is the fastest method, but it is dangerous.


From personal experience, rice doesn't refrigerate well; I tend to buy quick-cook rice that I can just microwave so it's fresh when I need it, but I hear that it freezes better, with less moisture loss. Perhaps the vegetables can be frozen as well? If you spread them out on a baking sheet when you freeze them, they should be easily portionable later, but I don't know which vegetables you're cooking or whether they are hardy enough for the freezer.


Is it dangerous or unhygienic to deshell an egg over the bin?

Not aware of anything in the handbook specifically.  But the intent and spirit of the handbook is important. While what you've done isn't a kitchen crime. I'd be proud to go to, or work in a kitchen that is this pedantic about safety. here are some points to think of:

Generally you want to treat the vicinity of the bin as a one way. Food goes to the bin and doesn't comeback.

One issue might be that if you lose the egg, you can't recover and the optics of it is not good.

The other problem is that you know there is bacteria in the bin and long past the food safety safe zone.  Why hang out there with food to be served and with eggs which bacteria love.

Presumably you're standing over the bin and there may be splashback, shrapnel, or other spoilage making into your apron/hands etc.

Part of Mise en Place is a clean set up and what you describe isn't exactly Mise en Place.


Yes that looks like limescale. Are your water mineral rich?
Limescale comes in different colors depending on minerals in water. Mostly common, white, greyish or reddish. Iron.

Vinegar may leave a taste, so you can considder to buy commercial descaler from the supermarket.

Should be totally safe to boil water in.


What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

It's called deep pectoral myopathy or "green muscle disease", and it's a problem with heavy breasted poultry. The vessels are unable to supply enough blood to the muscle, with the result of death of the muscles affected. It's not detectable until the chicken is cut open. By the time you see the green colour, muscle death occurred a couple of weeks prior and fibrous woody tissue has developed. Since breeding practices for roaster chickens and turkeys often favor heavy-breasted poultry, this is likely to be found more often until that changes.

There is no odour or bacterial growth with this, and the meat itself is safe to eat, though no one would eat the green part. The Occurrence of Deep Pectoral Myopathy in Roaster Chickens, from The Journal of Applied Poultry Research, has extensive info available about it.


What's the best way to store (freeze) purchased ground beef?

It is not only sane, it is safer than any other packaging you can make.

At least here in Germany, meat from the supermarket is not just wrapped in celophane, the celophane is glued to the tray. The packaging is air-proof. And the air inside the packaging is not normal air, it is a mostly sterile atmosphere with a composition different from normal air, which hampers bacterial growth (I think it has lowered oxygen content, but I'm not absolutely sure on that detail). This means that 1. no bacterial contamination is possible after the meat has left the packaging plant, and 2. the bacteria already present in the meat when it was packed grow slower than normal. So if this is your type of package, do yourself a favor and leave the meat in it.

I haven't frozen such packages, so I don't know how big a problem they have with freezer burn. But it may become a problem in the long term, as the moisture from the meat will sublimate on the inside of the celophane.

If this is not the type of package you get, and you have just plain clingy film wrapped around meat and a styrofoam tray (I've seen other products wrapped this way, but not meat), there is still no problem to freeze in it. The pad full of meat juices (this is not blood btw) is a good feeding place for bacteria, but the meat itself is as least as good as the pad, so you won't be reducing the risk if you remove it. By leaving the meat in the original package, you reduce the risk of additional bacterial contamination during transfer. And no other container will offer better food safety.

You can still consider a transfer for reasons other than food safety. First, you can portion and/or preshape the ground meat before freezing, and then you'll have to repackage it. Second, if the package is not tight enough, you risk freezer burn. But if these don't apply, it is probably best to leave it in the original container - this is convenient, and not dangerous at all .


Can you put a bottle of whiskey in the oven

In general, you wouldn't want to put a sealed glass bottle filled with any liquid in your oven.
If you want to try and are still working on it, remove the cap, empty the alcohol into another container, bake the bottle and cap covered in clay separately leaving room to screw the cap on.
Let the bottle cool completely, then add the alcohol back in.
It's imperative that you let the bottle cool to room temperature, the shock of the oven hot bottle having liquid poured into it would probably shatter it.
In my opinion, baking a sealed, full bottle, is just asking for either a dangerous accident or a big mess.


Is "medium white sauce" a usefully distinct term?

After spending more time on search engines and thanks to the comment from belisarius...

Medium refers to the thickness level of the final sauce, and is controlled by the ratio of roux (butter/flour) to milk. For 1 cup of milk:

thin = 1 tablespoon each flour/butter
medium = 2 tablespoons each flour/butter (a "standard" bechamel)
thick = 3 tablespoons each flour/butter

Sources: 1, 2


Why are the cinnamon sugar bagels I buy becoming so wet?

Sugar is hydrophilic (literally, 'water loving').

This is useful in some baked goods -- sugar will help to keep them moist, but in this case, it sounds like you're in a high-humidity area where it's pulling too much water out of the air.

My only suggestion would be to squeeze as much air out of the bags before sealing them, to avoid trapping moisture in there with them.


Does brining a chicken/turkey before roasting really make a difference?

Assuming you don't normally buy pre-brined / injected birds, you should notice a difference... As roux notes, it should be noticeably moist and tender, especially the white meat.
A couple of things to try:

Increase the time in the brine. 10 hours is plenty for breasts or quarters, but a whole chicken may take longer. A whole turkey will definitely take longer!
Check your salt. A cup of small-crystal table salt per gallon of water should be fine, but if you're using flakes (kosher and some sea salt), you may be producing too weak a brine! If in doubt, weight it out.

See also: What are the basics and options of brining meat, for example chicken?


Forgot to put brown and white sugar in cookie dough

I suspect the cookies are baked now, but still:

If you increase the amount of dough, will you be in trouble?
You could just add the sugar now, but that will most likely mess up the texture (still, they are chocolate chip cookies, they are always good ^^)

Get the sugar you missed the first time.
Calculate your recipe down to the smallest amount you can make (this will most likely be whatever amount you reach when using only one egg).
Start this second batch as usual, but try to incorporate at least part of the "first batch"-sugar to the creamed butter... cream this REALLY well.
Finish remaining dough, as normal, adding any sugar you could not cream with the flour.
Fold both batches together.

This way, you should get at least some of the texture that the creaming creates :).


Is there a special Wasabi paste/powder I should use when I'm making Wasabi ice-cream?

To my knowledge wasabi paste is just wasabi powder that has had the water added to it by the factory.  So if you are looking at paste vs powder I would go powder.  The question to me would be to make it a paste before you add it to your ice cream base or to add the powder directly to the ice cream base.  I would venture to say you should be just fine adding the powder directly to the ice cream base.

Now, for the ugly truth.  Pretty much all you wasabi powder sold in the US or Japan for that mater isn't really wasabi(or contains very little wasabi).  It is horseradish, that is colored green and has some sort of mustard or turmeric added.  And really not what I would want to try in an ice cream.  Plus the flavor of the pastes are not like fresh (even with horseradish).

If I were doing an ice cream, I would want to stay away from the powder all together. I would visit my local specialty food market or online specialty market and see if I could source real wasabi.  But cost might be prohibitive for you as it is very expensive.  Next the good news is, there are some powders out there that are actually dried ground wasabi powder such as this one at "The Spice House".  It was most likely something like this that your friend used if she did use a powder.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful to you.  And good luck.


Short Answer: No. Change your tea vendor.

Long Answer:

My sweetie is a tea drinker, and gets Chinese teas from many premium vendors in the US, including Ten Ren, Jasmine Pearl, Silk Road, Vital Leaf, Red Robe, and others.  We currently have a kitchen cabinet so full of teas that bags fall out every time I open it.  Most of these teas are from China, as that country is both the origin of tea and the biggest producer.

In 10 years, I don't recall ever encountering garbage like you describe in tea.

I suspect that you are getting your tea from a bargain-basement source, were you buy tea for $10/lbs or less.  That's going to be one of the things that makes cheap vendors and grades different from premium ones.


Why does fat make chapati/parathas/pooris remain soft?

The "moistness" of the bread - the soft texture - is actually from oils and fats as well as water - grain has some of these naturally, especially whole grain. Adding in extra fat, such as butter, shortening or cooking oil, makes the baked good seem extra moist and soft - here is a good overview of baking, and the role of various ingredients in dough. Fats are a tenderizer when added to a dough - it makes the baked good softer, which we associate with "moist."

Fats and oils also evaporate much more slowly than water, and prevents water from re-absorbing into the bread, keeping the bread from becoming brittle and hard and off-tasting (stale) for longer.

Without extra fat, the bread relies on the oils and protein found in grain, and the water content of the bread. This water will eventually evaporate, leaving the bread brittle - and worse, it will slowly re-absorb some moisture from the air, and this can lead to a dry, mealy, chewy texture and unpleasant flavor - staleness, in other words. (This is why croutons should be baked for best flavor rather than just left to go stale.) The natural oils and proteins will likewise firm up and stiffen as the bread cools.

For leavened flatbreads, preferment is a common technique to extend shelf life (and improve flavor) - this method of leavening does a good job of locking water-moisture into the bread without requiring extra fat or other preservatives. Here is a method of prefermenting naan.

For unleavened bread, Mexican cuisine is where you should look for techniques involving storage of whole-grain flour flat breads - in some regions, flour tortillas are eaten with every meal, but generally only prepared once a day.

Air-tight storage is key. A zip-close plastic bag with a cloth to absorb excess moisture is ideal.
Re-heat the bread in a microwave. It will soften the proteins and oils, without drying out the water content the way an oven or toaster will.


Fire alarm keeps going off when roasting in oven. Advice please?

Make a cover for the alarm. Get velcro tape from a hardware store and attach one side of the tape to the alarm or to the ceiling. Then, make a cover out of foam rubber or whatever is convenient and attach the other side of the tape to the cover. Obviously, it needs to be airtight. Note that frames can be made by bending a coat hangar. Coat hangars can be cut by a chicken wire cutter, available at any hardware store.

When you cook, attach the cover and when you are done pull it off and put it away.


Does my electric stove heat up quicker on the highest gear?

Yes, it will bring you to a boil the quickest.

Many heating systems we encounter in everyday life have thermoregulation, and it is counterproductive to run them at full blast at the beginning. For example, an AC unit will "know" on its own to run all the time until it reaches the target temperature, and then start turning on and off as needed to sustain it.

Stoves are different. They don't have any temperature feedback, and all you regulate for them is the total output of energy fed into the hob. It doesn't matter if their lower levels are solved by going off part of the time, or heating constantly but with less energy. They are not even supposed to reach a constant temperature, and for any given stove mark, the final temperature in your pan will be quite different depending on factors such as the pan material and the amount of food you are heating. Some fancy new stoves try incorporating a sensor below the plate, but the one I have used was so far off that I found it useless and cooked in "constant energy" mode with it.

So yes, whatever the technology of your stove, your water will boil quickest if you use it on the highest setting.


Could you use a bread tin as a pate mould?

I've used a small loaf pan as a pate mold, worked just fine. I don't see any reason really not to use one as long as the size is good for what you intend.

I don't like the plastic wrap idea, I'm not interested in cooking with plastic in a high temp environment. With sous vide you know that temps aren't going to get above a certain temp but in the oven I'm not convinced that the edges of the wrap won't heat to a point where it's breaking down. Typically when I do a pate I'll use thin sliced bacon to line the pan which presents a non-stick layer as well as some flavor. More traditional is the use of caul fat which is a thin sheet of fat that surrounds the stomach if I am remembering correctly.


How should I pre-cook a burger to be micrwaveable?

I think a microwaved, reheated burger is probably not going to compare favorably to a freshly-cooked burger. With that said, I think the main thing for the pre-cooking is that it would need to be start off a little undercooked, otherwise the heating process is going to result in it being overcooked (since you're saying you're looking for some pink in the middle).

Other than that, I think the key is more in how you microwave it. Obviously, you want it to cook evenly. I'm assuming you're starting from refrigerator-cold. If you start from frozen it is going to have a lot more trouble heating evenly. Also, it might go without saying, but I'd cook the meat on its own (no bun or condiments).

Most microwaves tend to have hot spots in certain areas. There is a pretty interesting (IMO) blog post that demonstrates this using papadam (those crispy lentil crackers you get at many Indian restaurants). The ones tested in that experiment, seemed to mostly be good directly in the center of the tray, so that might be the best placement. If you want to be really super-scientific about it, you can try to replicate that method and figure out how to arrange your food in your microwave.

But if you don't have any papadam handy and you don't know what your office microwave is doing, you may want to find a supposedly-microwave-safe plate that still tends to get hot in the microwave and heat your burger on that. I think the plate is going to transfer heat more evenly to the burger than the microwave would. (On the other hand, I sometimes question whether dishes that get really super hot in the microwave are, indeed, as microwave-safe as they claim to be, so use caution....) Using a real plate, though, instead of a paper plate should help with the evenness of the heating.

I'd also suggest cooking it in short bursts (15s at a time) and letting it rest in between, or cooking it on low if your microwave has power settings (which just does the same intermittent power thing anyway).


Should Pickle Slices be Above or Below the Hamburger

As you might guess there is not hard and fast rule for this.  It depends on when you want to have the flavor of the pickle hit your taste bud; before the savory or after the savory (meat).  Additionally it could be complicated by other condiments you have mentioned above.  However there is a bit of science you can employ here as well.  Pickles (assuming you are using dill) activate the sour taste buds in our mouth.  Savory (umami) is not as widely distributed as sour. So from that standpoint if you really like that savory flavor from a freshly grilled juicy burger, you would want to put the pickles underneath the meat.  If you prefer the pickle taste to be front and center place them on top.  I've included a reference for you as well.  Happy eating! http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0072592/


Preventing chocolate from burning, when its used as the crust of a New York style cheesecake

A few things I noticed:

The cooking times/temps are different... You need to somehow account for that. 350 for 15 min and 250 for 60-90 vs 350 for 25-30 min is a pretty big difference it seems. I'm not experienced to know how to modify it...
The chocolate recipe specifies cooking in a water bath. The cheesecake recipe does not. I would definitely cook my cheesecake in a water bath. I have had great luck with the techniques described in The cheesecake episode of Good Eats.
Have you thought abou using a more standard chocolate cookie based crust and making a sauce with the similar chocolate/liquor flavours?


I have learned from SheSimmers that the primary ingredient and scent of these candles is frankincense. It "imparts the scent of frankincense, ylang ylang, patchouli, and mace oil to the food." I will expand upon this answer after my candle arrives from Amazon within a few days.


How long does pancake batter last in the fridge?

Bisquick-originated pancake and waffle batter lasts a day, two at the most.

Data: in college, I made pancakes or waffles every day for a year and a half, making the batter on day 1 and then cooking it on days 1, 2, and 3. Once in that time I got sick on Day 3. Based on that experience, more than 24 hours is getting sketchy, though 48 seems to work most of the time.


What temperature is the "warm" setting on a conventional oven?

The collagen in the ribs needs to get to a temperature of about 160 F to start breaking down into water and gelatin.  If your oven can be set as low as 175 or 180 F on a normal bake or convection bake setting that is probably a better alternative unless you have access to an oven thermometer and can measure what temperature the warm setting on your oven attains.


Should I sear meat which is cooked sous vide before it goes in the bag, or after?

After a bit of googling, I found this which suggests that searing twice (both before and after) might be preferable.


What's the correct temperature to prepare confit cod?

The official position of the USDA is that all fish must be heated to 145°F (63°C), else it is considered undercooked. In practice, most people don't do it, because fish is terribly overcooked at this temperature, and they seem to mostly live through it without ill effects. With salted fish, there is even less actual risk of foodborne illness. Still, I don't think that anybody will assume the responsibility to tell you that it is "safe" when the responsible officials say it isn't. You are taking a risk, but none of us can quantify it or tell you if it is justifiable. Food science books often recommend preparing fish at temperatures lower than 63°C, but include a disclaimer that this is against food safety guidelines.

A lower oven temperature can definitely produce a better result for your problem, because slower, more gradual heating means that you have a lesser heat gradient within the piece of fish. This means that the thin parts will overheat less in the time the center of the thick parts reaches 40°. However, this will only alleviate the problem, not eliminate it completely, unless you go for a very low temp cooking method like sous vide. If the lower oven temperature isn't enough for you, you might try other tricks to eliminate the problem, like changing the shape (e.g. by creating rolls of fish).


Why does a microwave rotate the food being cooked? And is there ever a time when it shouldn't rotate?

Microwave ovens have a turntable because the microwaves themselves form what are known as 'standing waves'. This means there are essentially static columns of microwave energy inside the cabinet itself.

You can see this for yourself - spread a tray or plate with grated cheese, take the turntable out (or press that button), and zap it for a couple of minutes. You should see bands of melted cheese interleaved with unmelted cheese. Thus, the food is rotated to ensure even heating.


Shelf life of open jarred anchovies and anchovy paste in the fridge?

I would assume there is enough salt content to render these fairly stable in the fridge.  I would just avoid fingers in the jar to avoid any potential surface contamination.  In the long run, I would go with whole, salted anchovy, which have an indefinite shelf life.  I keep an 800 gram can (opened, but covered with foil) in the fridge, using one or two anchovies at a time.  It lasts me 8 - 12 months easily.


How do you make sauce for a Thai dish such as Chicken Pad Khing?

I just joined the other day after much lurking. Figured, I could help with this question. When I worked in a Thai restaurant, I had a couple of staple stir-fry sauces on hand. The basic one I had come up with had the folllowing:

1 part thin (white) soy
2 parts dark (black) soy
1 part Golden Mountain brand soy (as this imparts a little bit of a different taste than the other thin soys imo, but really, it's just a thin soy, ultimately)
1 part fish sauce
5 parts oyster sauce
1 part cornstarch

The sauce will last forever, covered in the pantry or fridge. You'd just need to stir it up before using and, aside from being so versatile (with the exception of coconut soups, I may have put some of this in every Thai dish we served), the great thing is your dishes will be consistent. I'd just make it up in 5 gallon buckets and fill my little jug that I kept wok-side from the walk-in bucket. From this basic sauce, I would add sugar, vinegar, and hots to it to make a drunken noodle stir-fry sauce, or thickeners to it to make the sauces for other noodle dishes. My aunt likes to add Maggi to her stir fry base, but I don't like the way Maggi sauce smells. One of my employees would throw in a handful of fried garlic and vegetable oil to her sauce, and that was a great addition that saved a couple steps in the cooking process. You can totally make this sauce your own.

The basic stir fry sauce (a few tablespoons) is added to vegetable stock (a good bit, at least 1/2 cup) in stir fry recipes and if I wanted a dish to have more sauce, like I always do in Gai Pad Khing, I'd add more stock and more stir fry base, tasting as I go along and usually having to add a few more teaspoons of sugar for my tastes, letting it reduce a little bit in the pan, then finishing it off with a ton of white pepper, again, my tastes. And I'd usually not use a thickener in this dish, because my dad didn't use thickener when he made it for me growing up.

And, the fish sauce smell doesn't really go away when it's cooked. I'd avoid adding more than a single tablespoon to any one dish.

Hope that helps!

Source: I'm Thai, have been cooking Thai food for 20plus years.


Wikipedia's article on Wendy's says it was added to the menu full-time in 1996, and was a promotional thing before then. There's no source given, unfortunately, but I found this 1996 shareholder report saying "This year we added two permanent additions to the menu -- the innovative Spicy Chicken Sandwich...", and on youtube you can find tons of copies of their ad marked as being from 1996.

I think it was first sold as a promotional thing in 1992, but I didn't find a really solid source yet. The best I've found is this ad for the new spicy chicken sandwitch marked as being from 1992.


The only ways I've figured to use the inter-seed pulp is to juice it or mechanically sieve it, such as in a food mill, coarse stainer, or colander.

This article from EHow suggests to blend or process the seed-pulp mixture, possibly with a bit of water, then sieve or strain. It might be possible to blend slowly enough to disrupt the seeds without pulverizing them. It sounds like guava seeds are edible, so if you damage them it's not harmful, but may make straining more tedious or less effective. I use a manual food mill and it works adequately.

If you're going the pure juicing route, see also this previous SA question on how to make guava juice.

I have the same problem with other fruits with similarly tricky seeds, like prickly pear cactus fruit. Pages like this one a rather brute-force (or perhaps "scorched earth") sounding policy of juicing the whole thing.

However, all of those are a little dissatisfying (to me) because they destroy the texture of the flesh, and oxidise even more quickly.


Is it important to warm the flour before making bread?

I beleive this to have some historical base (no citation just me) as historically, storage of flour in underheated homes was in cooler areas, or in a dark/cool place such as a cellar (in quantity) and adding enough heat (via water source) is insufficient to obtain a nice even yeast growth from a starter (also cool).

I say this as my great grandmother used to move her flour and she said this gave a more even texture (less holes) while having fluffy bread as it was stored in an unheated room - which also helped protect it from insects during long storage terms - this was a LONG time ago when I was a kid so I don't remember the exact way she said it.

EDIT: Just a thought: I wonder if kneeding on a warmed surface such as a granite block would do the same thing?  Now I have a reason to install high-end counter tops? :)