Stodgy crumpet-like crumb in overnight white

There are two likely causes:

 Insufficient gluten development.

 Wrong quantities (probably too much flour): you don't mention how you measured the flour. Measuring by volume is notoriously inaccurate. It is best to use weights for everything, including water.
 Weak flour: AP flour has less protein than bread flour, so there is less gluten development.
 Strong white bread flour needs a lot of kneading, or, for no-knead methods, several shorter kneads with plenty of time in between for the yeast to act and the gluten to develop. If you only knead once, I suggest at least 10 minutes. For very wet doughs, pouring the dough out of the bowl and using a stretch and fold technique works well. (It is almost impossible to overknead by hand.) But the autolysis and overnight fermentation should have helped here.

 Not enough heat in the oven. Did you use a preheated baking tray or a pizza stone? If the bottom of the loaf was particularly gummy, it may be that not enough heat got to the loaf. Generally it's better not to use the fan in a fan oven when baking bread. You want humidity (hence the container of boiling water), and the fan will disperse the water vapour. An alternative to messing around with boiling water is to use a preheated Dutch oven. This ensures all-round heat gets to the bread, which also cooks in a moist environment.

For more advice on trouble-shooting bread dough, I recommend the serious eats article.


Is half a gallon of milk that you may not need to throw out worth getting food poisoning over? If I had to choose between possible bloody diarrhea, vomiting, severe pain, seizures and possibly even death and spending a few more dollars, I certainly would spend a few more dollars.

Throw the stuff away. If it's gone sour, you have a lively colony of bacteria in there.

They may or may not be harmful, but I cannot stress enough that it's simply too dangerous to try.


Sous-Vide Chicken Thighs - Effect of temperature swings?

I think your temperature range is good.  155 to 160 is a good place for thighs.   You will need an hour to an hour and a half.  As long as you don't drop into the danger zone you will be fine.  You could just check a thigh with a probe thermometer at the end of an on-off session to see where the temp is.  Sounds like a bit of a pain, but certainly doable.  One caution...that looks like a small pot.  If you are doing more than one or two thighs, you will crowd the bag and might not achieve even cooking...this could create a danger if the center of the package did not reach 140.  Advice:  Get a circulator!  If you enjoy eggs, for example, the price is worth egg cookery alone, in my opinion. :-)

By the way, while many people prefer this route toward fried chicken, I actually have had the best success with, and prefer Keller's Ad Hoc recipe.


Is it ok to cook beef from frozen in a slow cooker?

It's a good question since you need to be careful with keeping food in the "danger zone" (40°F-140°) for more than two hours (or more than one hour at 90°). In a 200°F oven, for example, a large chunk of frozen meat will take a long time to thaw all the way to the center.

Cooking from frozen is generally accepted as safe, and the USDA has an article dedicated to frozen meat. They say it is safe to cook from frozen and will take 50% longer to cook, but it's more complicated than this.

When you're cooking with direct heat transfer (such as sous vide or in a stew), the heat transfer is going to be much faster — especially with sous vide where convection is used. A steak in sous vide will probably thaw within 15 minutes depending on the thickness. In a slow cooker it depends on how much liquid surrounds the steak and what temperature you're using. I would probably add 30 minutes of cook time.

Also keep in mind that with a steak the bacteria is going to be on the outside, so cooking it first (as in searing) will kill most of that bacteria, making a slower cook for the inside safer. This is also a reason not to poke holes in your steak when cooking rare.

Cooks Illustrated also has an interesting article about cooking frozen steak.


How to cook spaetzle (German homemade noodles/pasta) without it ending up soggy?

Looking at your recipe I see two issues:

Two eggs plus 1/4 cup extra liquid is likely too much for one cup of flour.
My rule of thumb is one egg per 100g flour (that's the "cheap" version from the "poorer" regions that requires a bit extra liquid, more on this later). One cup of flour is about 120 g, so I would guestimate 5/6 of a cup. But you can wing it a bit. Use little liquid to thin the batter a bit, it should be still rather stiff and if you lift it with a spoon stretch a lot, not simply flow down. For your "Spätzehobel" (the grater-type thingy) you might have to thin a tiny bit more, just enough to cause gravity to let the batter form thick drop-like "blobs" underneath. If it flows, it's too much.
Ditch the milk, use water and use it only to adjust the consistency.
I see no benefit and admittedly it's a regional thing, but (and like so many things it's a cultural question) as a purist it's flour, eggs, salt. Nothing else. Off the cuff 1/4 c sounds reasonable, but follow the instructions above. You can also increase the egg amount and omit the water entirely.

The batter must be beaten well. You can do this with a mixer, but it's likely to "creep up" your dough hooks. I know a few restaurants that do even large scale recipes by hand (or arm, in this case). You need the gluten to develop and the batter to become nice, smooth and quite stretchy:

(Not beaten with the spatula in the pictures, but with the dough hook in my mixer.)

Bring a pot of salted water to a roling boil, just like you would for pasta. Use your "Spätzleshobel" (-> "Knöpfle"1 / "buttons") or a potato ricer (-> (long) "Spätzle" / noodles) to form your Spätzle right into the water. Do not put more than one "tool filling" in the pot at a time, work in batches. They will sink to the bottom of the pot. A quick stir can loosen those that may have stuck to the bottom. Once they float, take them out or leave them in the pot for another minute or two, depending on the "stiffness" of your dough. With your "Spätzlehobel" it's probably best to take them out as soon as they float to the top. Place them in a colander to drain. Repeat with the next portion.

 Left: not yet done, right: ready to take out.

When you have cooked all your Spätzle, either pour the hot water over all Spätzle or return all noodles back into the pot (give a quick stir to loosen) and drain together.

On stickiness:

Don't expect "al dente" like for Italian pasta. This is something Spätze will never be - it's simply not in their nature. That said, the goal still is to get them quite firm, never a glutinous mass (bleach!). Also, if they stay in the serving bowl, they will start to stick, period. To counter this, you can add a tablespoon (or more) of butter and gently stir to coat them. Note that stickiness isn't much of a problem in traditional Swabian cuisine because we tend to serve generous amounts of gravy with our food. (Non-Swabians have claimed that we "drown" our food, but to each his own, right?)

1 On Nomenclature:
There are regional differences on what qualifies as "Spätzle". Some will only accept the long noodles as such and call the round blobs "Knöpfle" ("Buttons"), other regions have mainly the round variety and call them "Spätzle". For your "Kässpätzle" which hails from the Allgäu, the latter is the case.


hmmm... I know that cooking (wine and other) alcoholic beverages will burn off the alcohol content, but according to this article, Hydrogen Peroxide will remove sulfites through oxidation. Go figure.


I had delicious Udon soup at a Japanese restaurant, and my attempts to recreate have failed. what am I missing?

For ramen, udon, and soba, it is not uncommon for Japanese restaurants to use multiple broths for layered flavors.

My friend is from Yamagata in Japan and several of her favorite Udon places will make a sturdy broth with dashi as well as pork and chicken stocks. When I make noodles at home, I almost always start with dashi and fortify with chicken or pork stock. While the aroma of a good dashi is strong, often times it isn't solid enough to feel full-bodied. Try adding other stocks/broths and see where that gets you. Use neckbones and feet if you make your own pork stock.


My commercial made chapati becomes brittle within 12hrs

I found they last longer if made with boiling instead of room temperature water. Which is not surprising since you will get far less long-stranded gluten formation this way (and since it is not leavened with yeast, you don't need any either). It seems some (but not most of the) chapati/roti recipes found on the internet also specify boiling water.


Healthy recipe for Quaker oatmeal packets?

Not sure if this question is off-topic (https://cooking.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic), but I'll respond on the basis that anyone looking for a non-fattening cookie recipe has probably suffered sufficiently already.

Looking on the Quaker site, they have a decent recipe albeit with butter (https://www.quakeroats.com/cooking-and-recipes/vanishing-oatmeal-raisin-cookies). Taking into account the dryness of the oats, you could try amending this and reducing the butter content and replacing that with some egg white until the consistency is close to a traditional recipe.

Another alternative is banana, see https://cafedelites.com/healthy-2-ingredient-breakfast-cookies which is just oats and banana.

Either way, you will probably be able to put something together that resembles a cookie, but for that really luxurious cookie experience, butter, sugar and chocolate are hard to beat.


We store all butter other that what's currently in use in the freezer, where the shelf life closely approximates "forever." Can't recall ever having a bad or rancid stick from the freezer. Many folks in moderate climates keep the currently in use butter on the counter, not in the fridge (spreads easy, spoils a bit faster, don't try in hot climates.)

Depending what you are using your butter for, you can also increase effective storage life considerably by making it into clarified butter (or ghee, same thing, different names in different parts of the world.)


Is it better to use oranges that are under-ripe or over-ripe to make marmalade?

Under ripe oranges are actually desirable for marmalade, as they tend to have more pectin, which helps to give the marmalade its jammy, gelatinous consistency. So have at it!


Egg slicers work very well for this - consistent, thin slices. It's also good for more than just eggs - mushrooms, avocados, mango and strawberries also slice nicely in a well-made model. Avoid the cheap ones - the wires aren't solidly mounted and will break with regular use.


When using fresh corn in place of canned or frozed, should I cook the corn first?

Good question! Corn is very versatile. I've found that fresh and frozen whole kernel corn are very interchangeable when used in casseroles. Most casseroles cook long enough that you could use either without making any adjustments.

However, canned corn is a different animal. Because it is more processed I would use it in recipes that call for it but I would not consider it a substitute for fresh or frozen.


Well, I am in position to answer my own question now. I used 6 shanks (I got two more as I got worried they wouldn't be enough) and fed 10 adults and two children very comfortably with some leftovers.

My original shank weight was 6.8Kg and I had four front and two hind pork shanks. I would guesstimate they yielded about 300g x 12 people ~ 3.5Kg so, if ever anyone needs the info:

Pork shanks yield about half their weight in pure meat

As an aside, I would advise anyone cooking pork shanks to separate them from their skins and salt and dry the skins separately in the fridge for a couple of days before crackling them on high. The crackled skins were almost as delicious as the shanks themselves (my recipe called for very slow cooked pork which turns the skin to rubber which is a waste).

Another aside, the bones from the shanks are INCREDIBLY gelatinous (and tasty). I kept them and made terrine that smells much nicer than using trotters.


What you're tasting is likely the eggplant -- eggplants with more seeds can have a distinct metallic taste, and can definitely ruin a dish.  There's probably nothing that can be done for this batch, but for next time:

Look at the bottom of the eggplant when you're picking it out -- if it has a small round indentation, then it's a "male" eggplant and will have less seeds;  if it's a larger horizontal indentation, then it's a "female", and will have a higher seed content (and ruin your Ratatouille).  Once you look at a couple, you'll see the difference -- they're distinctly different and easy to pick out once you know what you're looking for.  Google "male vs female eggplants" and you'll find plenty of pictures of this.

One note: the "male/female" nomenclature isn't exactly correct:  What they call a "male" is an eggplant that was less pollenated and therefore generated less seeds, though the eggplants don't technically have any gender -- but, this is the common terminology used to describe the difference.


How do you correctly use a meat thermometer?

With thin cuts of meat (like chicken breast or a steak), you want to make sure you put the thermometer in to the thin side of the meat so that the whole thermometer goes in to the meat, rather than putting it in through the "top" so that only a little of the thermometer is in the meat. If you're putting it in the top, you can get wildly inaccurate temperatures. Also make sure that the thermometer isn't touching a pan, exposed to air, or touching a bone. Any of those can have a negative effect.

Also, you only need to cook chicken to 74C / 165F. That may be part of the problem in your case.

You may also want to check that your thermometer is accurate. You can stick it in boiling water to check that it reads 100C / 212F (assuming of course it goes up that high).


Is it really necessary to avoid using soap on a cast iron skillet?

Here's the deal ... if your pan is seasoned correctly using an oil with a high iodine value, then no, soap won't harm it.

If it's not seasoned correctly, then it could need a strip & reseason.  If you're using a low iodine oil (the surface will be slightly tacky when the pan is cool), then it also might ablate the surface somewhat, and repeated cleanings could damage it.

If you think it needs a deeper clean, one approach is to always add a new (thin) layer of oil after cleaning the pan (and then heating it 'til it smokes) ... this means that you'll have a relatively thick layer of seasoning and if you lose an individual layer, it's not a big deal.  (and you'll add it back right after the cleaning).


What can I do with some whipped cream and egg yolk mix?

What you have sounds like a cross between a zabaione and a custard.

Depending on what equipment you have, you might consider:

heating it slowly in a double boiler while whipping it.
chill it, then use it to make ice cream.

It's likely too runny to use as a soufle base (fold it into whipped egg whites, then bake).  You might be able to augment it with more egg yolks, or try cooking it like in the first item, then adding it to the egg whites.

update: one more possiblity:

use it as the custard for french toast.


May I suggest investing in an insulated lunchbox and ice pack (decidedly un-sexy, but practical), or storing in a campus fridge?  These can extend length of time food is at a safe temperature considerably.

Thermoses are wonderful things; a good thermos that is filled with fully heated/cooled food and kept properly sealed will keep the contents out of the temperature danger zone for at least 4 hours.  The brand-name manufacturing site claims 6 hours in the safe zone for commercial products, with up to 16 for hot substances.

Failing this, cheese or PB&J sandwiches are pretty nonperishable.  Remember that cheesemaking was originally intended to preserve the nutritional contents of milk for prolonged periods without refrigeration, and harder cheeses stay safe for longer.  The catch is that they will exude some oil if kept warm.   A similar principle applied to heavily cured meats, which are treated with nitrites or smoked, allowing them to be safely kept at room temperature.

A personal favorite meal for me is baguette, cheese, and a cured sausage.  If you want to go even simpler, you can have a quite satisfying meal with  a really good artisan bread and a dipping container of herbed/peppered olive oil.


"Al dente" is used to refer to food cooked so it is still "firm to bite" but not soft

This is very important to pasta which should be removed from the cooking liquid just before it has fully cooked through, as like most foods, it will continue to cook after being removed from the heat source

Always gently stir your pasta every minute or so while cooking to ensure it cooks evenly. Then near the end of the cooking time, bite into a piece of paste every 15 seconds or so to see if it has nearly cooked through. It should be firm to bite, and not soft all the way through. It should not resist biting though

With some pasta types like Penne etc. you can sometimes actually see the uncooked inner layer (a thin white line) if you carefully slice it in half which a knife, or just bite cleanly with your teeth

If the pasta is going to be mixed into a hot liquid sauce before serving, take the pasta out of the cooking liquid at an even firmer point

The term "al dente" can be used for all cooked foods that should be cooked to just before soft, and then served (fresh greens, thin meat cuts etc.)

The reason for all of this is that there have been many flavour and nutrition benefits noted when cooking to this point. Also for pasta it tends to fall apart if cooked past "al dente"


Too much to go into here, but let me refer you to Harold McGee's less well known book, The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore, where he has an entire chapter devoted to this topic, complete with tables for a whole bunch of fruits.


You shouldn't press down in the lids when they come out of the bath although I must admit that sometimes the temptation is overwhelming.

As the bottles cool the resultant vacuum will pull the lids with a loud pop. It is obvious which bottles didn't seal. Pushing the lids may cause them to stay depressed even if the bottle didn't fully seal.

It should not take until the next day for the pop to happen. It generally happens within an hour or so.

Take the rings off your bottles and gently pull on the lid. If they are well sealed there is no risk of the lid coming off. If the lid does come off you can refrigerate and eat right away or check your headspace, clean the rim,  and try to process with a new lid.

After one day your jam is fine even if it didn't seal. It has too much sugar to grow anything but mold and not enough time for that, especially if the lids were not removed.


Making bread fast and with few ingredients

A basic flatbread can be made by mixing flour, a little oil (if possible) and just enough water to make it stick together. Salt is often added.  No real kneading is needed, just mixing, but a little kneading helps.  Then roll/pound/press flat and cook in a frying pan or on a hot stone. In Egypt I've seen something similar cooked on the side of an old jerrycan over a wood fire.  This is basically what a chapati is, so very recognisably bread (but not risen).


Does my "bagel flour" need malt powder added?

Malted syrup is a form of sugar (maltose). Malted barley flour is flour that has been partially germinated (sprouted) which increases your dough's ability to convert starch into sugar (maltose), making your bagel softer and more moist. Both will increase maltose levels in your bagels: one directly and one indirectly. I would probably try reducing some of the malted syrup in your recipe but would not eliminate it (unless you have a recipe specifically for this flour which does not include malted syrup). Also, the flour you are using is high-gluten flour which should also give your bagels the traditional chewiness.


I'd make it into ice cubes.
They'd add decorative interest too.
Fridge, maybe a week, freezer, more like 6 months.
There's a full list of storage times in How long can I store a food in the pantry, refrigerator, or freezer?


Why is 45 degrees Celsius considered the optimal temperature for coagulating milk?

45C is not the optimal temperature for the acid coagulation of milk. There are a variety of methods for milk coagulation. Different variables are at play in each system.  For acid coagulation, milk is heated to 80C for at least 5 minutes to denature the proteins.  The addition of acid, and continued heating causes the coagulation.  Perhaps you are confusing the necessity of cooling with adding live cultures, such as in yogurt making.  In this case, the cooling step is necessary to provide an environment that supportive for the growth of the live cultures.


What is this Burmese/Myanmmarese Brown to Black dried tea leafs?

These could be leaves to make "Lahpet" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahpet), so perhaps you can drink them too?


Can I serve a hot soup recipe as a chilled soup?

There's no food safety issues here, you don't have to reheat food to make it safe if it was handled properly before it was frozen. Just thaw and serve.

From a non-safety perspective if it's a soup that's meant to be served hot it will have a very different flavor cold, often being bland. You may want to test it out and tweak the recipe to make sure it tastes good.


Chicken and Beef stored in the freezer not entirely frozen - safe?

If it's not completely frozen, then it will last roughly as long as meat stored in the fridge. So if "recently" was within the last 4-5 days, it's fine. If "recently" is more than a week ago, it should not be eaten.


New Red Potatoes have pink streaks inside

According to the picture on this site and the description, it seems as if certain potatoes have a natural streaked coloring inside: http://antiquityoaks.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html (scroll down a lot or press Ctrl+F or Cmd+F and search for "potato" and it should move the focus to the relevant part of the page.

Here's the picture alone: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_jAMcel8G5to/S-I7Z4ptCXI/AAAAAAAABpE/3NLj91jFbYc/s320/French+fingerling+potato.jpg

In addition to this particular variety, you may also come across some cross-breeds or deviations from the norm. Plants, like all living things, have recessive genes, and occasionally you may find some showing themselves in one plant but not another (so you could get a bunch of potatoes and find some that have slightly different coloring than other). This is actually not a bad thing. Having crops that are genetically diverse increases the likelihood that more will survive if there are pests, fungi, infections, etc. This is because differences in traits can give certain plants an advantage over others -- a slightly different coloring could make the root less tasty to pests, or a difference in pollen or flower color could attract more pollinating insects, etc. It's actually less natural (and less adaptive, biologically-speaking) to have every single piece of produce you get look the same. The reason that many pieces of produce do look similar is more because people breed them to look more uniform. But, that's more for the sake of people's eyes than it is for the sake of the plant's strength, nutritive qualities, chances for survival, etc.


How long do vine leaves need to be cooked for?

As you're going to blanch the vine leaves until they are easy to roll, no additional time is needed to cook them...

If you add cold ingredients like cheese to the filling or if you freeze them, it's a good idea to steam them a bit more for perfectly warm and properly cooked Dolmades...


Olive oil isn't cheap enough to be an inexpensive filler, and the garlic has to be in something -- either another (cheaper) oil or vinegar.  Garlic and olive oil is a common combination.

The sort packed in vinegar also has its uses and keeps well. It's the only chopped option I can easily find without added salt.  But when the proportion of garlic in the dish is high the vinegar flavour isn't always desirable (so I use fresh then).


Can expired orange juice be used in baking

"Best by" or "Use by" dates on the vast majority of food products are indicators of quality, not safety.  As long as you don't detect any off flavors that will adversely impact your muffins or cake....bake away.


I smoke mackerel and eel just with fine salt and ground black pepper in the open belly (kept open with a couple of toothpicks). Vertical smoking about 6h at 35-40ºC smoke.

If you marinate them, I don't know if the meat wouldn't fall apart. I marinate (just the fillets and just marinated) covered with wine vinegar and lemon juice (80% to 20%), garlic, a little salt or no salt and black pepper. After 4-6h it's ready to eat over toast, as a snack with cold dry white wine. Best next day. Holds for a week in fridge (covered with marinade). Sardines are the best like this.


Very moldy cast iron cookware - what's the best way to clean it?

The most efficient method would be to skip the whole bleach step, and start right in on burning the mold (and seasoning) off either in a fire or in an oven on the self-clean cycle. Then proceed to re-seasoning.

Taking the bleach side trip adds the joy of rust removal, which you can avoid if you don't let the cleaned (by fire/heat) cast iron get damp before oiling it and starting the re-seasoning process.


Which is better to sauté with, stainless steel or Teflon?

Also, you can get uncoated steel a lot hotter than you can get teflon (which will break down -- it's basically plastic). So you can sear meats at a much higher temperature than you can cook them on teflon. For some things it doesn't matter, like sweating vegetables, but anything where you want to get some real heat involved to develop browned flavors, you're better off without the teflon.

A good compromise is well-seasoned cast iron, which you can heat incredibly hot, and stuff doesn't really stick to it much. Those pans are cheap, too, and last forever.

On the other hand, if you're cooking eggs, you definitely want the teflon, or cleaning the pan will be very frustrating!


As you would normally fill a jar of jam only to the shoulder there should be room for expansion on freezing and most jars shouldn't crack. Jams are also <50% water, and if they contain significant pieces of fruit won't even be at the same concentration so won't freeze solid at a well-defined temperature, allowing them time to expand into the headspace.

The other main risk is thermal shock (as when you poor boiling water into a cold jar).  This is unlikely except if you bring in a jar to use and put it on a hot surface or try to defrost it quickly.  To be on the safe side (and, depending on your jam, to keep the colour nice) you should probably avoid direct sunlight on the jar.

A further factor to consider is loosening  of the lids from freeze-thaw cycling changing the pressure inside -- expansion of the jam (water) will cause an increase in pressure at low tempertatures but the air will contract and cause a decrease.  The net effect will depend on the relative volumes, the temperatures, and the rates of cooling/heating. If when the jars come back up to room tempearture, the lids are loose, the jam has probably not kept.  So I suggest using proper jam jars with safety button pop-top lids so that you can tell.


I think you probably mean a Spring Whisk The ones with a flat spiral bottom can be had at Amazon. I'm not seeing any of the old style, with an open bottom. That shouldn't make much difference to an egg.


Don't make any emulsion sauces with olive oil. The high speed of dispersion, especially with an electric blender, creates unpleasant bitter compounds in the oil. But frequently, even the speed of a hand whisk is high enough to ruin the taste. Either that, or you are too slow to create the emulsion at all.

You can form yolk-fat-emulsion sauces with practically any fat, and olive oil is an unfortunate exception with its taste change. Just choose another fat compatible with your diet. From a purist's point of view, they won't be a Bearnaise, the French sauces are very tightly classified. You will also get an obvious difference in taste (only butter tastes like butter), and, if you are using a liquid oil, a slight difference in handling - you can let a liquid-oil-emulsion cool down, while a butter or lard based sauce will harden into an unpleasant grainy mass.

If your base food is very plain/bland tasting, you can play with subtle oil tastes to create an interesting effect where the main "seasoning" is the oil in the sauce.


Yes, it certainly matters. Baking is not about what goes in, it is about the structure in which it goes in (and as a consequence, the structure in which it comes out). If you start using oil instead of margarine, the results will be anything between "different" and " a disaster". Flour soaked in liquid oil behaves very differently than flour in contact with margarine, and until the time the margarine melts, a lot of other interactions should have happened, which will prevent the flour (or the other ingredients) to behave as if they had been in contact with liquid oil from the beginning.
Simply "different" is something you will get in some forgiving batters such as muffin batter (when made by the mix-everything-at-once method, also aptly named "muffin method") and some types of cookie, which will show difference in spread behavior and variables such as chewiness. Yeast doughs, which usually use the fat simply as a form of enrichment, will likely be the least affected, in fact many of them may direct you to melt a solid fat for easy mixing.
You can expect a very bad result in any short or flaky dough (pie crusts and many types of cookie), in recipes which rely on creaming the margarine (many cakes and cupcakes for the batter, and all sorts of buttercream), and laminated doughs. Probably also others, these are the ones that come first to my mind.


What are the triangular shaped markings on asparagus called?

They're something leaf-like. If you look closely, you'll find that they aren't just markings, they can be pulled away from the stem.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of agreement about the best name; you'll see "scales" and "leaves" in plenty of informal contexts, and "bracts" in some (but not all) more formal contexts.

On Food and Cooking says they're bracts, and actually mentions why they might be there:

  The stalk doesn't support ordinary leaves; the small projections from the stems are leaf-like bracts that shield immature clusters of feathery photosynthetic branches.

That cluster inside them is what makes them bracts:

  In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale.

Brittanica says "True leaves are reduced to small scales.". That's a bit vague about where it actually is on the plant, but there's an image later in the article making it clear what they're referring to:

Oddly, Brittanica's article about shoot-stem modifications goes into a bit more detail:

  In asparagus (Asparagus officinalis; Asparagaceae), the scales found on the asparagus spears are the true leaves. If the thick, fleshy asparagus spears continue to grow, flat, green, leaflike structures called cladodes develop in the axils of the scale leaves.

That does match the definition of bract. Asparagus is only tender enough to eat when pretty young, though, so perhaps when you eat it those cladodes haven't developed yet. That's still the purpose of the scales, though. In any case, it sounds like "scale" vs "bract" may just be a difference in precision and perspective.


Other than US FDA definition, are there other standards for vanilla extracts?

There's not really a European equivalent for the FDA's definition of extract (by ethanol percentage). Instead, the EU specifies what constitutes natural vs 'vanilla flavouring' (euphemism for 'artificial').

See the EU's white paper on it here (notably page 15):
AUTHENTICITY OF VANILLA AND VANILLA EXTRACTS

Also, in plainer speak, info on vanilla industry standards between the US and EU here.

Additional reading: the EU directive ISO 9235 specifies what can be listed as artificial/natural and covers vanilla/vanillin.


What is the historical origin of the sauté cooking technique?

According to The Oxford Companion To Food (1999 ed.):

  Originally, in France, a sauté was a dish of meat of poultry cut
  into pieces and cooked only in fat, but the French now also use the
  term for dishes which simply involve browning a food before adding a
  liquid.

It also says:

  The word ... has succeeded in migrating to English in both [noun and verb], with
  the same accent.

So, the answer is that it did come from French, because it was a word in French for a cooking technique, and crossed over to English for the same technique.

The Oxford doesn't give a year for when this crossover supposedly occurred, but my guess is sometime in the mid-19th century.  This is because the word originated in French supposedly in the early 1800's, so it couldn't be older than that.  And the English version is likely to be younger than the popularity of the dish
Sauté d’agneau, because that dish uses the later French meaning of the word, to fry and then cook in liquid, which is "braising" in English and definitely not sauteing.

But we can narrow it down further.  The first mention of the word I can find in an English-language cookbook is in the 1827 edition of  The Art of French Cookery.  It does not appear in the 1822 edition of The Cook's Oracle, nor in the 1823 edition of Domestic Cookery.  So it seems to have appeared as a French term in British & American recipes the 1820's and been appropriated as an English term sometime later.

ADDED TO ANSWER:

There's good reason to believe that the sauté technique, at least as a widespread practice, did not exist for more than a few decades earlier than the word in French did.

The reason for this has to do with cooking technology.  Through most of the 18th century, a majority of cooking was still done on open hearths, using a spider pan rather than a frying pan on a stove. Moving the pan to make ingredients "jump" -- an essential element of sauteing -- is very difficult with a spider.

So sauté as a common cooking technique would not have preceded iron stoves as common cooking surfaces, which didn't happen until the end of the 18th Century.


Christmas turkey help (mostly organization)

You asked for any other options.

I bet you could cook it all the way and safely rest it in a cooler (acting as a warmer).

Finishing in another kitchen is a hassle.  This leaves the oven open for other stuff.


Sure it's safe, there's no risk in putting jam in baked goods. It says refrigerate after opening so it doesn't spoil after being left out too long - some people don't realize it needs to be refrigerated after opening because it is stored in the cupboard before opening.

The important thing for food safety is to make sure that the pastries are eaten soon enough after baking. The cream cheese will go off sooner than the jam will, so don't let them sit around.


I don't see why not, it's the same process

Many commercial brewers make a barley and rye malt for beer (< 10% rye). A good brewers supply shop should have rye malt too

Rye is around ~40% carbohydrate, while barley is ~45% carbohydrate, so rye is not as sweet, but has a more interesting taste (IMHO)

The differences for making malt rye over malt barley, assuming you have hulled rye:

Rye absorbs water faster, so steep for less time (~30% less)
Do not let it go mushy or it will not germinate
Rye is more fragile with no hull and a thin "skin". So must be handled more carefully once steeped. If it is damaged it wont germinate
Lower germination rate (due to above), so less conversion, so less sugars and flavour

Otherwise just follow the normal malt barley process, which is well documented


Where can I get Chocolate Bar shaped silicone molds from in the UK?

Amazon have a couple:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silikomart-Silicone-Easy-Tablette-Mould/dp/B002VLQNBQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1320833045&sr=8-4

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ScrapCooking%C2%AE-Silicone-Bakeware-Chocolate-Tablets/dp/B0058GI0BW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1320833045&sr=8-2


Should I not sear and broil eye of round the way that I do filet mignon or chuck tenderloin?

Eye of round is very lean. Very, very lean. So as a steak, it would not stand up very well to any cooking method that gets it much beyond rare. And even then, it's going to be a tough piece of meat. My suggestion would be to prepare that cut differently (such as macerating it and making country fried steak or Swiss steak), or omitting it from your rotation. Your method is sound for preparing a steak, but I would limit it to:

Tenderloin
Strip
Ribeye
Chuck eye (not chuck steak, which is a tough piece of meat, but chuck eye, which is cut from the eye roll).

If you want cheaper beef, the last in the list is your best bet.


Yes, cakes will go stale faster in the refrigerator, as will most baked goods with a high starch content.

Staling (as discussed over at Serious Eats) has to do with starch recrystallizing.  As Harold McGee explains (pp. 541-542 of On Food and Cooking):

  Staling is now understood to be a manifestation of starch retrogradation, the recrystallization, water migration out of the granules, and hardening that take place when cooked starch is then cooled.... The initial firming of the freshly baked bread loaf, which improves its ability to be sliced, is caused by the retrogradation of the simple straight-chain amylose molecules, and is essentially complete within a day of baking.
  The majority of starch molecules, the branched amylopectins within the granule, also retrograde.  But thanks to their irregular structure, they form crystalline regions and expel water much more slowly, over the course of several days.  This is the process responsible for the undesirable firming in texture after the bread has become sliceable.

Basically, when you mix starch and liquid together in a dough or batter and then heat it, its crystalline structure breaks up and it absorbs water, giving bread and cakes their "moisture."  After the starch cools, it gradually goes back to its original form, thereby expelling moisture and hardening, producing the quality commonly called "staleness."

All of this is just as true for the starches in cakes as they are for breads.  McGee goes on to confirm that staling recrystallization proceeds most rapidly at temperatures just above freezing.  He also notes that certain emulsifiers will retard staling (such as egg yolks and true buttermilk).  I would add that in cakes, the higher sugar content and the fact that sugar is hydrophilic can help cakes retain moisture longer.  Hence, some significantly enriched breads and richer baked goods like cakes tend to stale more slowly than lean breads.

Nevertheless, the chemistry of staling in cakes is still basically the same, and it will happen faster at cooler temperatures as long as they are still above freezing.

Thus, if your primary goal is to prevent staling, storing cakes and quick breads at room temperature is best for a few days.  For longer storage, wrap tightly and store in the freezer rather than the fridge.  (Staling happens very slowly below freezing.)  As moisture loss outside the cake will accelerate moisture migration out of the starches (and thus staling), covering unfrosted cakes and cut surfaces is essential.

Of course, staling is not the only concern in shelf-life of cakes.  Some frostings may not do well sitting for days at room temperature or particularly in hot weather.  Some may even become unsafe.  Cakes or quick breads with a high moisture content due to added fruits, vegetables, etc. may also begin to grow bacteria or mold when left at room temperature for several days.  In those cases, you have to balance the benefits of refrigeration in preventing spoilage with the minor detriments of staling.  (Obviously if it's a food safety issue to leave a cake out at room temperature, it's best to refrigerate or freeze it for storage.)

What to do if your cake has begun to stale (either due to refrigeration or merely sitting at room temperature for several days)?  The starch crystallization process is mostly reversible, so heating the cake above around 140F will begin to restore the cake to its previous state (as it will with bread).  Obviously not all types of cakes (especially frosted ones) may allow such reheating, but it can help with quick breads and simple unfrosted cakes.  However, reheated cake should be consumed immediately, as the interior of a stale cake has already been somewhat depleted of moisture, and a cooled stale cake will become progressively worse (hard and dry).


How to preserve spaghetti for a short amount of time?

The technique that many restaurants will use is to prepare the pasta ahead of time and store it in or on ice water. The chilled pasta may be then submerged briefly in boiling water and served.


Condensed cream of mushroom over chicken and rice

Sound fine, but in my experience "cream if mushroom" soup in a can is not much mushroom, and a lot of thickener

If you want something real nice, and not too much work make a Duxelles (fine chopped mushroom stuffing) and stuff it under the chicken's skin (works best with legs). Cover the rice with either mushroom soup or crushed tomato and tomato juice mix, then chicken on top and bake

Example recipe for chicken part ignore sauce part for a rice bake


Is there a sweet emulsion to put on oatmeal?

The only thing that comes to mind right now is Zabaione.
Or you could try making some sort of more liquid custard or curd


Why is the salt washed off the cabbage in kimchi but not on sauerkraut?

The initial salting draws water out of the cabbage, otherwise the kimchi tends to get soggy/mushy.  As you mention, it is frequently rinsed off after the initial salting.  If you listed the ingredients that follow, I think you will see that there is quite a bit of salt re-introduced.  The recipe I use, for example, includes, soy sauce, fish sauce, and salted shrimp, among other things...this creates the brine necessary for lacto-fermentation and preservation.


How to tell if it is honey, super filtered honey, or corn syrup?

Buying local honey is one way to be sure that what you are getting is "honey".  I've never heard of people passing off something else as honey.  Isn't that why we have the fda?  If you are buying it in the store, check the lable... my honey has one ingredient; honey.


Why do you add the ingredients in sequences when stir frying?

Stir frying is a relatively quick cooking process.  Different ingredients often have different cooking times.  You add ingredients at different times so that the longer cooking ingredients will have time to cook and be ready at the same time as the shorter cooking ingredients.  If you have ingredients with approximately the same cooking times, by all means, add them together. Also, however, sometimes ingredients are added in stages so as not to reduce the the temperature of the cooking vessel/environment too rapidly...so that it can recover, and remain at a high temperature.  This would be less of a concern in a restaurant situation, where more powerful burners are used.


Why do chefs traditionally wear a high white hat?

Reaching back to my time in culinary school at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI:

The style of hat originated in the Greek orthodox monastaries during the middle ages where chefs (often taking refuge with other educated members of society) would distinguish themselves from the monks by wearing a white hat (monks wearing black).  The early chef hats were slightly elevated but not as tall as they eventually became.

Marie Antoine Careme (commonly called "Chef of Kings and King of Chefs") is credited as the father of classical french cuisine for the development of mother sauces and standard garniture and classification of terminology used in kitchens.  He's also credited with much of the organization and division of labor in kitchens still used today.  To designate role and stature in the kitchen he had his cooks wear hats of various height.  His being the tallest designated him as the Head or Executive Chef.

Traditionally it is said that the now traditional pleats indicate the number of ways that the chef wearing the hat can prepare an egg (of course this predates the disposable paper hats we now use).  100 pleats is considered to be the "ultimate" number to be desired.  However as a chef with 25 years experience in commercial kitchens, I'd be hard pressed to name 100 ways (without including eggs as an ingredient in recipes) to prepare an egg.


How long will a bread ferment last before it is no good?

It's hard to say exactly how long it will take to overprove because there are many variables involved - the amount of yeast, salt and enrichment in your dough, and the room temperature for example. However, it should be fine to ferment overnight, if you cover it well and put it in the fridge.


Is it possible to make evaporated milk using powdered milk?

The primary difference between evaporated milk and a strong milk made from instant dried milk, aside from that great caramel-y taste, is the fat content.  Most instant dried milk powders are fat-free.  The fat in the evaporated milk is an important component in a lot of recipes.  However, that can be overcome with the addition of some margarine with the milk and water.

There is a nice discussion of this option with some recipes here:

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20080525/PC1206/305259953

Perhaps that will give you ideas and a starting point for judging ingredient amounts.


Is it safe to "salt bake" using ice cream rock salt?

There are some kinds of rock salt that are meant for consumption ("food-grade"), and recipes like that salt-baked shrimp intend you to use that sort. While you're not directly eating the salt, it does come into contact with the shrimp, and there's water there to spread things around, so really, you are eating a bit of it. Even if there's not a safety issue (some things could conceivably be toxic) it might well taste bad, and some of the flavor does get into your food. You wouldn't be able to count on this being reliably the same from box to box, either; if it's not food grade, there could be plenty of variety in what the extra minerals are. Sometimes it might be fine, and sometimes it might taste awful.

It can be hard to find food-grade rock salt, though, so if that's an issue, you might consider switching to other salt-crusted recipes that use kosher salt. Especially with shrimp, this should be manageable, because it'll be on the outside of the shells, so though the salt will dissolve more easily, once you peel them it shouldn't be horribly salty.


What material/metal is typically used under the layer of coating in 'ceramic' frying pans?

There is no material which is "typically" used. The ceramic coating works on different bases, and I have seen both aluminum pans and steel pans with it. There are probably other types too.

If the manufacturer won't tell you what a given pan is made of, there is no way for anybody else to tell.


I found an answer in McGee's 'On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen'.

The basic ganache is 1:1 chocolate:cream (by weight). With lots of chocolate the emulsion can come apart.

In 'Keys to good cooking' McGee describes how to restore a failed ganache. You put it over a double boiler and when it reaches 33ºC y stir it vigorously. If that fails, start with a smaller batch, just like you'd recover mayonnaisse.

McGee recommends letting it sit on the counter to cool slowly overnight.

The relevant pages are not shown on Google Books preview.


Reusage of deep frying oil and flour coated vegetables

Cool oil.  Filter through coffee filter.  Store in refrigerator.  You can reuse.  Heat oil to deep fry temp.  Fry a neutral piece of bread.  Taste.  You can reuse your oil as long as it doesn't impart an off taste to the bread.  My guess is that, in a stove top situation, you won't get more than one or two uses before the oil is degraded too much for frying.


How can I improve rich taste of spiced milk tea?

Hmmm.....
Well, I've lived in India for 12 yrs & this is how I make 'masala chai' or 'spiced milk tea' at home & in my restaurant-

2 cups water

1 teaspoon black tea, loose leaf (I use Tokla tea from Nepal)

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

10 black peppercorns, coarsely ground

500 ml full fat 'whole' milk

Sugar to taste

In a stainless steel 3L pot combine tea, water, ginger & black pepper, bring to boil over high heat. Allow to boil for about 2 minutes.

Add milk to boiling tea, again allow to come to a boil. (Watch the pot closely in case the milk begins to foam, if it does foam- stir & decrease heat a little) Allow to simmer uncovered for 6 minutes.

Remove from heat, let stand for 2 minutes. Add sugar to taste if desired & stir. Use a tea strainer to strain into cups to serve. (or serve sugar on the side so people can add sugar to their own tastes)

Some notes-

I think you are trying to make 'tulsi' chai?
Tulsi = Indian holy basil

If so usually the fresh tulsi leaves (around 8-10) are added to the boiling tea mixture with   around 8 green cardamoms, 2 cloves, 1/4 tsp fennel seeds, and a pinch of cumin seeds as I recall. Some Indians dry roast the whole spices to mellow the flavor a bit.

Use spices like fennel, cloves, star anise, cumin sparingly as their strong flavors can take over & give the chai a 'mouthwash' taste which isn't pleasant.


What role does alcoholic liquid play in cheese fondue recipes?

The advertised reason is that the alcohol will cut some of the protein chains resulting in a fondue that is dippable and not so stringy. Obviously the alcoholic beverage of choice will also add a lot of cheese-compatible flavor as well.

Fondue recipes that don't include alcohol universally call for acid to achieve a similar effect.


What effect would boiling for 1 minute and resting have on a vinegar-based BBQ sauce?

I would think that the boil is simply to dissolve the sugar and salt.  I am sure you could consume it right away, but  there is definitely something to flavors melding with time.


How much vinegar should I use when making Salsa?

The guideline for the safe canning of tomatoes is for 2 tbsp of 5% vinegar per pint of tomatoes. If you made 16 pints then you'd need 32 tbsp of vinegar, and that is almost 2.5 cups. This isn't to prevent spoiling, the processing will do that, it's to prevent the growth of botulism, which boiling does not do.

However, the recipe above calls for 16 cups of tomatoes, 4 cups of onions and 2 cups of jalapenos, for a total of 22 cups of vegetables. That's 11 pints, not 16, so if you added 2.5 cups to that you've gone almost 50% over the amount you need, which could account for the strong acid flavor. For that volume 22 tbsp or 1.65 cups would be sufficient.

It's possible your wife's boss is adding vinegar until it tastes good, then canning the result. This isn't safe because it means there could be far less acidity than would be wise (I'm assuming that the boss is using a water bath method because that's what the recipe says, if she's using a pressure canner then it's a different story). If this is the case then this recipe will never really work as is because to make it taste right you'll have to compromise on food safety.

You have a couple of options here:

Buy a pressure canner: you can probably ebay one for not much money, and it means you can get the flavor you want. Processing time is much shorter as well, giving you superior product (the guidelines for a water bath are 40-50 minutes, in a pressure canner it's just over 10)
Try a different acid: citric acid powder adds acidity without much flavor. The guideline is 1/4 tsp per pint. Canning supply shops will carry it, it's easy to find on the internet. Lemon juice (commercially bottled for consistency) is also a favorite for salsas, 1 tbsp per pint is the guideline.

If you decide to change acids or acid levels then I suggest you do a small test batch to make sure it's good before going full scale.

A good page on canning tomato products is here.


Short answer: your probability of injury is less than 0.0002%

Long answer: per the estimates in this answer, approximately 360,000 Americans use a French Press.  In the last few years, zero consumers have reported injuries due to drinking metal fragments from their press.  There have been several reports of messes and even injuries due to broken glass carafes, but zero for anything to do with the wire mesh.

So whatever the incidence is of punctured internals due to French press use, it's clearly less than 1 in 360,000.  We'll only be able to assign it a specific number when it actually happens. You are more likely -- at least 30 times more likely -- to be struck by lightning.

Of course, if you are using an old, second-hand knockoff carafe with a visibly damaged mesh, your personal danger is higher than that.  It's also easily solved, buy a new mesh.

In the meantime, be careful with that carafe!


What can I do to add more flavor into my beef barley soup?

If you use self-made beef stock, try boiling a bit longer, so that the flavour of the beef is a bit more concentrated.
Boil your soup a bit longer.
Use more beef stock and/or cubed beef.
I don't know how much herbs you put in. Maybe a bit more pepper or rosemary can make a difference.


If you are handy with electrics and electronics, linking a heating element to a PID controller is probably your best bet for stability.

This will give you quite stable temperatures.

You can find many sets of instructions by googling homemade sous vide pid,which is a very similar application, although higher temperature ranges are usually the goal.


When heated above 200°F/95°C, the fat in meats will liquify and can be used for cooking.   This process is called rendering.  As rumtscho said, you're cooking the chicken in the fat released when it was heated the first time.

You can also use a long, low-temperature baking to render the fat out of duck carcasses and skin for use in duck confit.  In this case, the fat should be skimmed and filtered with a fine cheesecloth or fine chinois to remove bits of meat.

If you filter the fat from meat and cook off water, it will become very nonperishable, and can be used for cooking for a long time.  Bacon and duck fat are liquid gold for cooking, and can make even mundane dishes (roast potatoes) gourmet treats.


How to estimate Scoville level of home-made pepper sauce??

This can be a party activity for your friends.  The Scoville test is a dilution test, so you can reproduce it at home at least as far as informing your friends is concerned.

Get a lot of distilled water and a bunch of milk and plain bread.
Create dilutions of the hot sauce by adding 1ml of hot sauce to each of 250ml, 500ml, 1000ml, 2l, 5l, and 10l of distilled water.
Have each of three friends blind taste test the diluted sauce against a glass of plain distilled water, starting with the most diluted.
Cleanse palates between rounds with bread & milk.

The dilution at which the hot sauce's heat cannot be tasted by any of your friends reliably is its approximate Scoville rating.  Yes, it's not quite how the actual Scoville test works in the lab, but even if you don't get a rating out of it, it'll be a fun thing for your pepper-loving friends to do on a Sunday afternoon.


I would follow the age-old cooking rule that says you can always add, but you can never take away. In other words, I'd add, say, 6 chillis, see how that tasted, and add more if you think it needs it.


Essenial cookware/utensils to buy from scratch for sustanence in the US?

Remember you have to be able to get all you stuff there. Is it worth lugging a pressure cooker half way across the world to save 10$. I would bring any local seasoning that you use. Your gonna be in for some culture shock when you get there.


Is it true that honey never spoils? Why?

Honey is very stable for a number of reasons. The main ones though are the low amount of water (most honey is under 18% water) and the high amount of sugar (which is a preservative). Both of these things keep things like mold and bacteria from being able to grow. Over a long period of time (and if left unsealed) the honey could absorb moisture and then ferment (the sugar would turn to alcohol) but if sealed then your honey should be fine for a long time. This PDF from the National Honey board http://www.honey.com/images/downloads/shelflife.pdf says that a shelf life of 2 years is often stated. On Chowhound I saw a discussion that said that in the UK the "best by" dates are usually 4 years out so I'm guessing that those dates have far more to do with decisions by the respective governments (i.e. laws that state a maximum best by date no matter what the food is) then the actual shelf life of honey. As the honey in your cupboard, if it's only a few months or a year old as long as it's been in a sealed container then it most likely should be fine.


I have never sprung for copper pans, so this is just from my general research.

Here are the factors I would look at:

How thick is the copper?  You want it to be thick enough to retain and distribute the heat of the burner.
How is the handle attached?  Rivets are better than welded for long term use.  (This is general to any metal pan.)
What is the handle made of?  Is it oven and broiler safe?
What is it lined with, and what care does it require?  Copper is too reactive to use for general purpose cooking unlined.   Tin will need to be replaced over time, but probably is not in use in modern manufacture.
What care or cleaning will it require?

See also:
Navigating the different types of cookware - new kitchen advice


Orecchiette is frequently made with two parts semolina flour to one part AP flour, and one part water.  You can find multiple recipes online.  So, I would begin your troubleshooting with a recipe that uses semolina.  Then, be sure to allow your dough to rest after kneading, at least 30 minutes.  This allows the flour to hydrate fully and the dough to relax. I find resting more important than kneading.  It really doesn't take more than a few minutes of kneading...but you probably can't over knead.  From there, as long as you have the proper hydration, shaping should not be difficult.


How to make marshmallow ice cream topping without it hardening in the icecream

I've seen this mentioned on the internet a couple of times...it's not a topping, so you won't get the "swirl", but a way to add marshmallow into your ice cream, like in rocky road.
Take regular sized marshmallows and knead them between your fingers until you get a soft pliable mass.  Reserve on a plate until you have enough for your batch.  When the ice cream is almost frozen, mix them in.  Sounds like it takes a bit of work, but supposedly they don't freeze solid after this point.


Silicone utensils are extremely nonreactive, and thus do not have any impact on the taste of foods directly.

Like most utensils, if they are cut or abraded, and soil remains, that may affect taste or performance, but that is not inherent to the material itself.


Looking for some advice on cooking the puff pastry in Beef Wellington

My concern is the puff.  Generally, to get great results,puff depends on the heat to separate and fluff the layers.  I would suggest the following:
1.Get a piece of the puff pastry you will be using, and cook it at 275 to see if it puffs, or looks sort of flat like a Napoleon.  At the same time, wrap a bit of your duxelles in the same pastry, and see if the moisture changes your result.
2. By all means, use an accurate thermometer in place to get your meat to the doneness you want.  (Thermoworks.com has some good, accurate, inexpensive ones)
3. If your meat is not getting done by the time the puff is ready, consider partial pre sous vide of the meat.
3.  As the first answer, I don't see why this change will improve your results.  Lower temps generally produce more tender meat, but you are starting with filet, which is already very tender.
4.  The last concern is that at the lower temp, you may end up with a soggy bottom.  If this is so, then reduce the amount of residual moisture in the duxelles.


The general rule for foods is that they shouldn't spend more than two hours in the 'danger zone' which is between 5 and 60 degrees Celsius. So once your pie fillings have cooled below 60 degrees they shouldn't be out for more than two hours, according to the strictest rules of food safety.

That said, a pie filling is typically rather similar to a jam which is a way to preserve fruits and berries. They typically contain to much sugar to spoil, so the main risk is mold if left out of the fridge for weeks. Whether your pie filling would have that property depends on the recipe you use.


Why let a pressure canner vent, before putting the weight on?

In canning, you have to be very sure that you have produced the exact conditions needed for the process to work properly. If you deviate a bit, it can happen that bacterial spores survive. These "exact conditions" mean not only "keeping temperature X for time Y". You have to make sure that proper heat exchange happens where it needs to happen.

In the case of the venting step, it is needed to ensure that your canner is voided of air entirely. When the water starts to boil, it turns to a gas and this gas mixes with air. If you do it in a sealed container with a small exit (like a canner), the steam can push out the air, but it needs some time to do so. This is why recipes are designed with a vent time at the beginning. Air pockets would interfere with the heating process.  Only after you have achieved the canner-full-of-steam-without-air condition, can you start building the pressure.

You can see a quote for it here:

  Then allow the steam to escape for an additional 10 minutes to vent the canner. This step removes air from inside the canner so the temperature is the same throughout the canner

Which brings us to your other question, how to know when to stop. The simple answer is: do exactly as your recipe says, and don't deviate. If it says "10 minutes", put a timer and let it go for 10 minutes. OK, you do have some wiggle room in the "longer" duration, if it takes you 3 minutes to manage to put the weight on, your food is still safe despite it having been vented for 13 minutes. But don't go below what the recipe tells you. And also note how sensitive the recipes are to change - canning the same recipe in a different size of jar already changes the safe times. So, really, don't try to second guess your recipe, do as you are told.


Is it possible to remove the smell from rice mistakenly stored in a detergent box?

The simplest trick is to place all the contaminated rice in the detergent box in the nearest trash bin, then obtain new rice. When it comes to cheap food staples like rice it's not worth the risk of eating tainted product, specially with substances that can wreak havoc on your digestive system like detergents.


Gelatin sheets are soaked in cold-to-room-temp water in order to soften and rehydrate them slightly before stirring them into the (often hot) food. If you were to try to stir a sheet of gelatin directly into hot liquid, you'd find that it behaves a lot like cornstarch. It clumps up immediately and produces unpleasant-to-eat chunks that only a blender and a chinois have a hope of removing.

You squeeze it after soaking to remove excess (unflavored) water from the exterior. Otherwise, each sheet might bring along quite a bit of water, which will seriously affect the consistency of a product you expect to set up, and might affect the taste of even something like a braise to which you are adding the gelatin just for body.


Why isn't my vinaigrette emulsifying properly?

As Michael mentioned, a shaken vinaigrette is only going to stay together primarily while you're shaking it.  If it's been staying together long consider yourself lucky all the other times...this time was what should be "normal".

The more particulate such as herbs, mustard, spices, etc. that you have in a vinaigrette the quicker it will emulsify and the longer it will stay emulsified.  The particles of spice and herbs act as physical barriers that help to interrupt the droplets of oil so that they aren't able to coalesce and come together as they can when you have just oil and vinegar/acid.

When doing vinaigrettes by hand using a whisk, start with your acid and add the salt along with anything else, leaving the oil last.  Adding salt to the acid component will help it to better dissolve so you get a truer reading on the flavor.  When it's added last as it's usually written in most recipes: "season to taste with salt and pepper", the salt usually hasn't dissolved by the time you taste it and you're much more likely to add too much, resulting in a dressing that's a bit saltier than you might like.

The manner in which you drizzle the oil and manner in which you whisk it when doing by hand, are also important factors.  When whisking vinagirettes by hand, drizzle the oil form a higher level so that as it hits the bowl you have a finer stream that's easier to emulsify.  Also, use a back and forth "zig-zag" motion rather than a circular whisking motion.  The "zig-zag" motion will allow the wires of the whisk to better break up the oil into droplets and emulsify them with the acid.  Using a circular motion creates a vortex in the center of the acid where the oil tends to pool, resulting in an oily vinaigrette.

The great part of using an immersion blender (aka stick or wand blender) is that EVERYTHING can go in at once.  Use a container that's deeper than it is wide (such as 2 cup liquid measure) so that there's plenty of depth for the liquid.  Garlic, shallots and herbs can even go in whole.  The immersion blender will blend up your garlic, etc. and emulsify the oil with the vinegar.  An immersion blender or a standard blender provide you with a the most stable vinaigrette.


Why do I need to put sablé dough in the fridge?

Therre are actually two things that happen during the refrigerated rest period:

Obviously, the dough is cooled, which firms up the butter, making it easier to roll out without having it fall apart.
The starch granules absorb water, making the dough more cohesive, improving its texture, and making it easier to work

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


What temperature would you heat frozen lasagna in the oven at?

350F is the magic temp. Just about every casserole cooks at 350, and you cook it until it starts being bubbly which will probably between 30 minutes and an hour (in this case, you should check to make sure it's hot in the center as well, since you're starting from frozen). I'd cover it early, and then uncover it near the end so the top won't get dry.


How can you tell whether bread dough is ready for baking?

Unbaked lumps probably mean you aren't mixing it enough.  Try starting with a little less flour and knead in more as you go.

Another issue is you may not be kneading it enough.  Next time try using the windowpane test.  You don't have to do this every time, but if you're having trouble with a specific recipe this will help you figure out how the dough should "feel" when its ready by giving you a visual indicator.  I've found that when I have dough rising problems, it's usually because I didn't knead long enough.  This should also help fix your mixing issue.

That being said, there are two good methods to see if dough has risen enough.  One is to let it rise in a marked container (though this doesn't work well for shaped loaves or if you aren't supposed to let it double).  The other is the poke test.  From a Bon Appetit online article:

  To test for doneness, use the finger test: Poke it with 2 fingers; it holds the indentation, it's ready.

Generally I poke it and if it pops right back out, it's not ready.  For sourdough, if it holds its shape for a moment and then slowly starts to expand back, it's perfect.  For other breads, holding the indentation is a good indicator.  This isn't necessarily advisable for delicate doughs.  If you're working with a delicate dough, try the test on one loaf that you don't "need" to be perfect.  You can use this as a relative time measurement for the future.


As with all can goods, as long as the can has no physical defects (meaning swollen or dented, ectera), the contents should still be good. The date on the outside is mainly a best by date, after which a company will no longer vouch for the contents contained therein.


How can I stop my eggs from cooking when I make lemon/lime curd?

The general things to keep in mind are:

Don't mix a ton of the hot mixture into the eggs at once. Add a little at a time.
Don't use too high heat. It's better to be slow about this than to have scrambled eggs.
Don't overheat before you temper the eggs. Go only as far as the recipe says to. If it's too hot, you might be fine if you temper carefully, but then when you mix it all back together, push it over the edge and cook the egg.
Don't let the mixture in the double boiler get too hot while you're tempering the eggs. If you've got it running too hot, and you take out a lot of liquid, what's left can get hot fast, and then when you pour it back in, you might cook a bit of the egg before you can whisk and even out the temperature.

So in summary: err on the side of too slow and too cool. The worst that can happen is that you have to stir for a long time while it thickens.


Welcome to SA!
If the red coloring is wiping off, I personally wouldn't use it for food unless I could contact the maker and find out how they dyed it.  Given that they didn't know enough to seal the dye well enough to keep it from seeping, I wouldn't trust that they knew enough to choose a non-toxic dye.  And while some wood dyes are non-toxic, others are extremely toxic, even from the same source.


Why pour water over the covering plate while cooking okra?

The reason she puts water on the plate is to weigh it down so it seals better. Weight will press the plate down, less steam will escape so the okra will cook at a slightly higher temperature. It works, but it's not as good as a tight fitting lid on a good pot.


Tea-flavored concentration from a teabag

This may be an XY Problem: have you tried just dropping the teabag into the other hot liquid? For mint teabags, I suspect they'd brew just fine in Hot Chocolate to add a minty kick, and Starbucks makes a chai latte where they brew the chai and then add steamed milk after.


Is there a difference in the ease of seasoning cast iron, forged iron, and carbon steel?

I can't speak authoritatively, but I do have all three types and have had good luck with my seasonings, so I'll share what I do.

For cast iron, I use solid vegetable fat exclusively (Crisco). I did the original seasoning by coating it in fat and baking in the oven. To clean it, I use salt, Crisco and a paper towel to get any food bits off. I then get the pan hot and wipe it down with a little more Crisco. It's not PTFE nonstick, but pretty good.

For my forged iron DeBuyer fry pan, I followed the manufacturer's recommendation for initial seasoning: put enough oil in the pan (I use canola) to coat the bottom. Heat to smoking. I swirled the hot oil around to coat the sides a bit. Let it cool, pour and wipe out the oil.

The thing I've found is it takes quite a bit of use to develop the seasoning. Here's a picture after about a month's use - note how dark the sides are getting (the bottom is less dark because I learned a green scrubby pad (Scotch-Brite) will remove the seasoning entirely. Oops!).

I did some scrambled eggs for the sake of science, without adding any extra oil to the pan. They behaved as nicely as any PTFE coated pan I've ever used.

Today the entire bottom of the pan is that rich mahogany color, and a fried egg slides around in it like one of those goofy AS SEEN ON TV ads.

EDIT: Used the pan for over easy eggs this morning and snapped a new picture. This is about 3 months after the last photo.

Normally I can just wipe it out with a paper towel. If I've been cooking bacon or something that left residue, I'll run water into the pan while it's still ripping hot, then wipe it out gently with a sponge.

After that I heat the pan up and add just a tiny bit of canola oil. I wipe the oil around with a paper towel and put the pan away.

For carbon steel--like my wok--I treat it exactly the same as the DeBuyer pan. Clean gently, after each use get the pan ripping hot and wipe it down with some oil.


Is folding with a spatula really necessary?

The mechanism of a whisk is very different from a spatula. One is able to very gently fold the ingredients with a spatula while minimizing mixing. A whisk's tines will cause much more damage to the whipped mixture, deflating the fragile bubbles you worked so hard to create. It's really worth practicing with the correct tool. It won't take you long to master this.

Simply cut through the ingredients with the spatula and lift about 1/3 of the mix from the bottom and gently fold over the top, then turn the bowl and repeat. Fold as little as possible to just combine the ingredients. In some recipes complete mixing is not even necessary.


Restaurants store cut onions refrigerated all the time. They will try to use them in one shift but they can last longer if needed.

They will go soft after time and lose flavor and crispness.  As far as going bad it would take over a week.  It will be too soft before it actually goes bad.

At home I try and cut on demand. I will halve and make the vertical and horizontal cuts but only finish the dice on demand. My experience is vertical and horizontal cuts on demand causes more damage. Most of the damage is on the exposed surface, which stays the same either way. This assumes proper technique, good knife skills, and a sharp knife.

If you want slices then easy.  Just take a slice on demand.

Store them cut side down in a sealed container.


What is an elegant way to serve whole duck livers?

For presentation:  Philo dough cups precooked with either sprigs of dill or whittle blueberries on a Sterling Silver Plate or Platter.  Sterling Silver makes anything look elegant.


Burned water out of pot...popping sound a month later?

If you heated the metal to the point where you get rainbow colors on the surface after cooling, you'll likely have tempered and nontempered  areas on the pan bottom. These areas 1) have different coefficients of thermal expansion and 2) can move around with subsequent heating. The pops are likely the bottom of your pan buckling as it adjusts to different parts of itself expanding/contracting at different rates. I wouldn't worry about it.


In a cheesecake, what’s the purpose of creaming the cream cheese and sugar?

Creaming the cream cheese (fat) and the sugar grinds the sugar crystals making them smaller and also puts air in the globules of fat. Later when you bake the final mixture the air pockets expand making the baked mixture fluffier (increases rise...).


Sushi rice should be transparent when cooked?

Many questions here!!!

Sushi is simple but very difficult to do properly.

The rice is not transparent; it is only "shiny" (probably doctored for the picture). (well, maybe it is transparent and I have not seen it! :-) )

When you prepare you rice, do you add sugar and rice vinegar ? this will make the rice sticky and lump together so that the rolls do not crumble away.
When you roll the rolls, do you apply enough pressure to make a solid roll ?
Also, use a sharp and wet/humid knife to cut the rolls and do it in a single stroke (no see-saw movements).

Damp nori gets a little bit sticky; by applying a thin slice of mange or avocado, it should be enough to stick to the nori; also you can use the rolling mat to help "squeeze" the mango or avocado to the nori.


Coconut oil is a saturated fat, which makes it solid at room temperature. Above room temperature, it behaves exactly like any other oil and has a very high smoke point. You don't need to treat it in any special way.

I personally just use a knife or spoon to dig a little bit out of the container.

Coconut oil is considered to have a neutral flavour (with the exception of some "virgin" coconut oils). It's much weaker than, say, olive oil. You'll most likely not be able to detect any coconut flavour from oil alone - you have to use something like creamed coconut (a common ingredient in satays) for that.

P.S. Although it might appear to be similar to butter or margarine, keep in mind that it is actually a cooking oil, unlike butter which has milk solids that burn, or margarine which is hydrogenated to make it solid. Coconut oil is just barely solid and won't always work as a substitute for those other things.


How can I troubleshoot unsuccessful knife-sharpening?

Take a marker to your knife edge so you can actually see how you're removing material from your knife.

Additionally you probably need to get another cheap stone and soak it either in water or oil, depending on what the stone calls for. You want to make sure the stone is producing a paste for you, and you want to make sure your stone is flat. Getting better stones won't really help if you're using the stones incorrectly in the first place. Get a one dollar knife you don't really care about and then sharpen the knife till you develop a burr on one side of the knife. Then Do the same thing on the other side of the knife. Then you want to strop your knife on some news paper or on the edge of some cardboard. The actually motion for stropping a knife is the same as sharpening it only stropping is more forgiving than sharpening is.

Additionally, you want make sure you're stop sharpening your knife at the right grit for what you want it to do. I typically sharpen with sandpaper so I can't really give you grit numbers because natural stones have different grits than sand paper and diamond stones. The general rule of thumb is to start on a lower grit to remove material faster and move to a higher grit to get a more refined edge, then strop to further refined edge and to clean up the blade/remove the burr.

Generally speaking, if you're using a general purpose chef knife, you want to keep a consistent angle of around 20 degrees when you sharpen a knife. The marker you paint the edge with will help show you where you're not doing that. it will also show you where you're removing too much material from the blade and where you're not removing enough material from the blade.

A final thing you want to do is to check your blade for nicks. If your blade has nicks in the edge then you're going to have to remove material till you remove the nick in your blade. That could be the issue you're running into. orient the blades edge towards a source of light above you. If you see any reflection then your knife is not sharp there.

Finally, don't put your knives in the sink, dishwasher, or drawer. These environments are all terrible for your knife edges. You're guaranteed to dull your knives considerably if you do any of these things.

Let me know if something still isn't making sense to you and I'll explain it. I know too much about knives.


The additional technical details on extruded snacks are that they are not just extruded but do so under high pressure and temperature, so that as they come out of the extrusion nozzle they puff up and solidify. The rapid transition to lower pressure causes water in the dough to vaporize suddenly, creating air pockets (puff) and removing moisture. Since baking is primarily a process of drying this completes the cooking.

I haven't had a twiglet, but based on the little bit of info available they would appear to be made in the same manner as the bumpy sort of Cheetos, which would indeed make them an extruded snack.

It is conceivable that they are extruded at room temperature and pressure, and then deep-fried, which is the case with some Japanese snacks that otherwise resemble extruded snacks.


It means exactly what it says: the gluten relaxes. You can observe it for yourself.
When you leave the dough alone after vigorous kneading, the gluten relaxes and goes from a tensed up state to a mellow state, similar to how human muscles relax depending on the owner's emotional state. The dough goes from hard and modeling-clay-like to pliable and elastic.
The difference for the final bread is a bit indirect. While trying to bake with a completely tense gluten will probably lead to a bad rise, you actually would never do that, because you leave the dough to rise after kneading anyway, and it relaxes during that stage. The real advantage of giving the dough time to relax during kneading is that it lets you properly knead the dough. If your dough has tensed up too much, further kneading motions are not making the structure better, they are making it worse - breaking the dough, for example, and certainly not contributing to the pliable, resilient elastic mesh of gluten you want. If you try to force tensed up dough by kneading, you will end up with overkneaded dough, and if you stop at the point that it's tensed up and let it rise, it will be underkneaded. So instead, you give it a rest, the dough relaxes, and from that point on, you can continue kneading.


I have done this before and it has worked for me. It should work, but if it doesn't, I know what will. My aunt sold Jam for a while and when the pectin didn't work she reheated and added a small amount of gelatin, I helped her stir it in, and that was the final fix for her bad mix.


How to make chocolate cigarellos in a quicker way?

One thing you can do is use much longer pieces of acetate and cut the long cigarillos afterwards gently with a hot knife.  That way your spreading and rolling action is cut down to 1/2 or 1/3.


EDIT:

The cookware used is by Zwilling JA Henckels. They are Thermolon-coated, which is why I mistook it for a Green Pan--they are the same coating (ceramic.)

You can see the cookware used in the show here:

http://shop.foodnetworkstore.com/nav/department/cookware/show/chopped/0

My original guesstimation:

This looks like a Green Pan, an attempt to make an alternative type of non-stick pan (does not use PFOA to create PTFE [Teflon])

They use ceramic to try to re-create a non-stick-ish feeling, but they definitely are not as non-stick as PTFE pans are.

http://www.green-pan.com.au/en/technology-3592.htm

I could be wrong, but I haven't seen any other pans with that colour of surface, so I'm pretty sure it's a Green Pan.


Cheaper Gruyere Substitute for baking Cheese Puffs in Australia

I do love gougères and have made them with Gruyere, of course, but have also used regular Swiss and a favorite, provolone. Other cheeses that melt well and you could try are Fontina, Gouda, or good old cheddar.


When a Recipe Calls for Expensive Liquor, What's the Purpose and What Are the Substitutes?

The primary purpose is for flavor.  If it's the expense of a large bottle for a few tablespoons here and there you should be able to buy the mini bottles (as are served on airplanes) from a local liquor store.

If you don't want to use or have it around due to issues with alcohol then look for other items that have as similar flavor to substitute.  Sherry has a sweet nutty flavor to it and apple juice can often work suitably well.  Keep in mind you'll probably not find an exact flavor match but it can be close.  A small amount of orange extract could be used in place of grand marnier. Depending on the item, you might also try flavored syrups that are used for coffee drinks.  Remember that these have a lot of sugar in them so you'll need to compensate by cutting back on sugar elsewhere in the recipe and obviously don't use them where the sweet flavor wouldn't be welcome.


What are the keys to leopard-spotting pizza crust?

I would guess the secret is having your dough be irregularly textured.

The spots have to be cooking, and scorching, before the rest of the crust is even browning.  You might be able to achieve this by deliberately texturing your dough, but I expect the original reason was gas bubbles trapped just under the surface of the dough, which blistered and burned quickly due to thinness of the dough and heating faster than the rest of the crust.

So how to get this blistering?  you would need very well developed gluten, to hold thin, fragile bubbles right on the surface.  You would need very gentle handling for the crust - resting and raising again might let your dough puff up again from rougher handling, but it would probably tend to be smaller bubbles and even puffing, not great surface ones.  And you would need very active yeast, to raise great bubbles on the surface.

How exactly you get these factors will depend on your recipe and your tolerance.  You might make your dough from a preferment or a series of them, so the yeasts have time to develop better and will be more active, or you might use more yeast in general to make the dough rise more quickly to form bigger, irregular bubbles instead of small even ones.  Kneading your dough better for good gluten development might help it trap the gas bubbles, even right on the surface.  You could try long, cold rises for your dough, which should develop gluten and yeast activity better than shorter, warm rises.  You might handle your dough very carefully around the edges, using your hands to stretch rather than a rolling pin or similar, to keep as much air trapped in the crust as possible.

You might just cheat, and pinch up knobs, slice flaps, or inject air into bubbles (with a syringe, maybe, I know they're available for injecting marinades) to artificially texture the surface of your crust with thinner or upraised areas that will brown and blacken quickly - which will get your your dark spots with probably less effort than reworking your dough texture, but may not get as much of the texture or taste you're looking for, that happens to go with your spots.  It's all up to you.


Funnel-like device for putting non-liquids into a whipped cream dispenser?

Are you sure that the problem with using a funnel isn't just the size of your specific funnel(s)?

There are plenty of wide-mouthed funnels out there that you should probably try, if you haven't already, such as this Cuisinox:

Or this Norpro:

Either of those look like they'd fit into my own iSi pretty easily, but if you're sure that none of them will work for you, then I think the next best thing would be a piping bag with no tip or coupler. If you don't have one then you can always use the "snip a corner off a ziploc bag" workaround.


Is there a way to treat any firm cheese so that it can be fried?

It really depends on what you qualify as 'fried'.

You can take hard grating cheeses and sprinkle it on a sheet pan (preferably with parchment or silpat), and bake it around 300-400°F (150-200°C) to get a cracker-like item (search for 'parmesan crisp' recipes).  If you remove it while it's still warm, you can roll it into a cone or tube, lay it over a bowl or cup, etc.

For pan frying, you can coat it in flour or cornstarch, then brown on all sides (or at least top and bottom if you sliced it thinly), but you might need to let it cool down between sides to firm back up.  You might get away with rolling it in corn meal, but it's also a function of the cheese.

If you have an air fryer or a convection oven, you can do a three part dredge and then bake it at high heat, but you may need to freeze the cheese before baking so it doesn't melt too fast.

For deep frying, you'll likely have to batter it.

You can also look for other non-melting cheeses (feta, ricotta salata, paneer, etc)


Is there any way to store hollandaise sauce?

Not really. The sauce must be refrigerated but the butter will solidify when it cools. When you warm it up the sauce will break.

What I do is warm it very very gently in the microwave until it is liquid. Then reemulsify it into a single egg yolk. It costs an egg yolk but the sauce is good as new.


How to remove the flavor from whisky stones?

To eliminate any off flavors that may have been absorbed, soak them in warm water for a few hours. Be sure the stones are covered by at least a couple of inches, so that there's plenty of volume to absorb flavors.  Agitate them every now and again as well.

When you place them back in the freezer, be sure they're dry (any surface moisture will more readily absorb flavors) and keep them in a sealed bag or container.

For what it's worth, it sounds like your sub-par experience is similar to that of many whiskey nerds and my own.  There's really not much need for these things.  You can get a similar amount of chilling by using a thick-bottomed glass placed in the freezer for at least 15 minutes or so.


I've noticed that salty food has somewhat of an addictive quality; people who eat a lot of it (i.e. fast food or other processed food) tend to bury their meals under a mountain of salt, whereas people such as myself who do a lot of home cooking hardly use (or want) any.

"Season to taste" means pretty much what it sounds like; add however much salt (and other spices) that you, personally, like the taste of.  If you have a habit of eating a lot of salty foods, then you might want to add a little less than that, for the benefit of people like me who gag at heavily-salted foods.

If you use a lot of other spices, you won't need much salt - a few shakes of the shaker is enough.  If the food is basically bland aside from the salt (and maybe pepper), then you'll need to use more.  The best thing to do is add a little, then taste, and repeat as many times as it takes to get the flavour you want.  If the food you're seasoning is still raw (and can't be eaten raw), then just put in a small amount the first time you make it and keep track of how much table salt you needed to add.

Just remember, you can always add salt later, but a dish that's too salty is permanently ruined.


Is smoking with 'barked' wood dangerous?

It depends on the wood if it is desirable or not to smoke with the bark still on the wood.  I have had good results smoking with apple wood bark, but disgusting results with birch (birch bark gave off heavy soot).

Is it poisonous?  Well, I am still alive, but that's anecdotal.


I have to humbly disagree with SAJ14SAJ (I still have the utmost respect given the breadth of knowledge). Most of the steps you need to perform are regularly used by homebrewers and hobby mycologists to renew or isolate special strains of yeast/fungi that are otherwise unavailable. For instance, if you wanted to isolate the yeast used by Chimay to brew the same style of beer using the same yeast as the brewery, your best option is to culture the yeast from one of their beers. The only major exception with what you would like to do is the addition of drying at the end.

While safety cannot be guaranteed when doing this outside of the lab, following decent sanitary procedures it is absolutely possible to do at home. Some specialized equipment IS required but can be found at your local restaurant store, amazon, or a lab supply store. Basically, be clean, be sanitary, and don't be dumb and you should be fine.

There are 4 essential steps you will need to perform.

Create a sterile substrate for the yeast to multiply in
Isolate yeast cells and innoculate the sterile substrate
Wait for the yeast colony to grow until it flocculates (falls to the bottom of the solution)
Wash and dry the yeast

First, is create a sterile substrate. You can follow the steps here:
https://byo.com/stories/item/434-canning-yeast-starters OR
http://www.maltosefalcons.com/tech/starter-made-easy-pressure-cooking-your-starter-wort-ahead-time

I do disagree with their using a hot water canner in this situation. Wort can be either acidic or alkaline, so there is no sure way to know that botulinum spores have been eliminated. I would suggest using a pressure cooker at 15PSI for 15-20 minutes. Once they are cooled, they should keep for up to 1 year.

Next, take a small sample of whatever yeast you are working from (almost definitely s. cerevisiae) and use it to inoculate the cooled starter. The best practice here would be to wash the yeast first, (follow this guide: http://billybrew.com/yeast-washing). Then, mix the resulting washed yeast with a little distilled water, suck into a sterile syringe, and innoculate the starter. At this point, you want to close and shake the starter like your life depended on it. An even better option would be to use a flask on a stirplate with a stir bar. You want the jar to be protected from foreign bodies but still allow air exchange. You can modify the lid by installing an airlock, or if you really want to be avant garde, just remove the lid and use a rubber band to seal the top of the lid with tyvek. Unlike if you were trying to make beer, oxygenation isn't an issue here so the one-way functionality of a normal airlock isn't really necessary. Set it in a cool dark location at around 70 degrees F.

Let the yeast do their thing. After a few days of fermenting, you will see the yeast fall to the bottom of the jar. This is a natural process of yeast called flocculation - the small yeast particles tend to cling together, and eventually they will form large enough clumps that they will fall out of solution. The layers that form on the bottom of the vessel are called "trub" in brewing. It's a mixture of yeast and other undissolved particulates that have fallen out of solution. Once you see this has happened, you can move on to washing the new yeast using the same washing procedure as before. If at this stage you sense any off-smells, throw it out and start over - trust your nose and your eyes here. It should smell yeasty and bready. It shouldn't smell bacterial or sick-sweet.

Once you have the cake of washed yeast, you can place it on a piece of STERILE aluminum foil and place it in a food dehydrator with heat. It should dry into a large cake. This can then be crumbled down to be used as nutritional yeast. The heat should be set at 125-130 degrees, which should critically injure/kill the yeast, deactivating it.

The whole process will take a few days, but all of the steps above are done at home by homebrewers and hobby mycologists currently - there's no reason you couldn't do it yourself. Just make sure you keep everything clean and sterile as much as possible. If it seems like too much of a hassle, I'd look out for mail order sources of the yeast. I will warn you though, that this might not produce a ton of yeast without scaling things up a bit (which is totally doable).

Also in response to some other comments - bakers yeast, brewers yeast - they're all different strains of s. cervisiae. So, same species, different strains. The different strains are specialized at certain things, but can be substituted for one another in a pinch (the results won't be as great, but they'll work). Remember, baking was a byproduct of brewing as far back as Egyptian times, possibly earlier. We've been using s. cervisiae almost as long as we've had civilization. Possibly longer.

Also, fun fact - you follow more or less the same steps any time you are working with fungiculture (growth of fungi). This makes sense considering yeast ARE fungi. With a mushroom, you would take a thick sterile syringe to act as a punch, take a biopsy sample from the stem (pierce from one side clear to the other and then eject the sample), cut off the sides of the sample that were exposed to the outside world, and using the remaining portion the same way you'd use the yeast above to get a mycelial culture. The only difference is instead of using a malt starter like yeast, you use agar.


Are substitutions for vodka allowed when making a vodka cream sauce

The purpose of vodka in a cream sauce is to enhance the flavor by allowing spices that are not soluble in water to dissolve into the ethanol contained in the vodka. A suitable substitute would be any mild flavored strong alcohol.


Is eating cookie dough without egg safe?

According the the current advice from the FDA, you should not eat raw dough, even if does not contain eggs. Apparently raw flour may contain E. coli.

  People often understand the dangers of eating raw dough due to the
  presence of raw eggs and the associated risk with Salmonella. However,
  consumers should be aware that there are additional risks associated
  with the consumption of raw dough, such as particularly harmful
  strains of E. coli in a product like flour.

  “Flour is derived from a grain that comes directly from the field and
  typically is not treated to kill bacteria,” says Leslie Smoot, Ph.D.,
  a senior advisor in FDA’s Office of Food Safety and a specialist in
  the microbiological safety of processed foods. So if an animal heeds
  the call of nature in the field, bacteria from the animal waste could
  contaminate the grain, which is then harvested and milled into flour.

  Common “kill steps” applied during food preparation and/or processing
  (so-called because they kill bacteria that cause infections) include
  boiling, baking, roasting, microwaving, and frying. But with raw
  dough, no kill step has been used.

https://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm508450.htm


Does the weather outside make a diference in oven temp. for baking

A properly calibrated oven with a good thermistor will not be impacted by external temperatures or environmental factors.  While, as you mentioned, humidity and environmental factors can impact cooking and baking, which influences the end product, they will not impact the temperature of the oven itself.  I believe the problem is more related to the varying environmental factors, rather than the cooking temperature of the oven.  As such, it might require a change in baking time, and more close monitoring the bread, rather than adjusting the temperature at which you are baking.

With that being said, I would suggest using an external oven thermometer/thermistor to confirm that there is no need for oven calibration [ie make sure that the temperature of the oven is what it was set to].  I have seen ovens begin overheating/underheating within a few days span, when the thermistor went bad.  Also, it might help to make note of the ambient humidity and the results of each batch of bread you make.  As you notice differences, you could take notes of what works best at differing levels of humidity, and therefore be prepared in the future to adjust according to environmental changes.