First, the short answer:

There's a lot of erroneous information circulating concerning glass bakeware, and very few reliable sources or repeatable experiments seem to be cited.  In general, I'd say that the variance among different metal pans of different materials, colors, thicknesses, and coatings will have more significant effects than the difference between glass and metal.  So, if you're someone who worries a lot about pan color or thickness and adjusts your oven up or down by a few degrees for it already, then yes, this may be a concern.  If you're someone who just assumes all metal baking pans are equivalent anyway, glass is not going to behave much differently -- I'd just say monitor your food when trying a new pan/dish, and adjust your time and temperature accordingly.

Now, the long answer:

Part of the problem with comparing glass and metal is that there are so many differences:

Metal pans conduct heat faster than glass, which can change both how evenly the heat gets distributed throughout the pan and how fast things cook.  But this is mostly relevant when the pan is changing temperature (as when first put in the oven) or heated unevenly.
Metal pans can vary in color: darker pans will cook faster, while lighter or more reflective ones will cook more slowly.  Glass is generally transparent, which decreases some types of radiative heat from the pan color, but it also allows infrared light to pass through which increases radiative heat.
Metal pans are usually quite thin compared to glass.  Glass therefore heats up and cools down more slowly, so it will be less responsive to changes in baking temperatures.  (On the other hand, metal pans can also vary significantly in thickness, too.)

Each of these factors may be more or less relevant depending on your specific baking situation and recipe.  For example, if we take the last consideration from the list: if you're cooking something for a relatively short time, glass dishes may spend most of the baking time just warming up, which will affect browning and doneness on elements in contact with the pan.  But if you're baking a dish for a long time, this factor is less relevant, and the extra heat which is transmitted through the clear glass may actually cause food to cook faster.

There's a common rule-of-thumb passed along in many cooking sources that one should decrease the oven temperature by 25F when using a glass baking dish and perhaps decrease cooking time as well.  Other sources agree with the 25F decrease, but recommend that cooking time will be increased.  But I've seen no reliable source justifying when this is necessary or what exactly we are comparing the glass dish with!  If we're comparing glass to its closer cousin, a ceramic casserole dish, then yes, in many cases a glass dish may cook slightly faster due to the extra heat transmitted through the clear glass.  But it's much more complicated for comparisons to metal.  Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking seems at one point to lump glass together with light-colored dull metal pans in terms of overall baking properties, pointing out that both will transmit heat better than shiny metal pans and thus will cook (about 20%) faster.  But dark colored or black pans will increase browning and cooking even more.  I recall seeing a Cooks Illustrated test some time ago that basically claimed the oven temperature reduction for glass was generally unnecessary, but I don't recall the details (and can't find the reference now).

In terms of actual empirical data, well, there's this source on browning, which baked dough for 15 minutes in four dishes of the same size but different colors and materials.  Glass here performed slower than a black pan or thin (shiny) aluminum, but faster than white ceramic.  But we can draw few conclusions from such a limited test, since (as I pointed out above) glass dishes take longer to heat up and would likely have performed differently in a longer bake.

All of that said, I would offer a few general guidelines:

If baking for a short time (say, less than 20-30 minutes), the lag-time in glass warming up will be significant.  Cooking may be somewhat slower for food in contact with the glass surface compared to a metal pan.  In a hot oven, it may be useful to lower the oven temperature somewhat and cook longer to allow the food in contact with the glass to "catch up" with the top of the food (which might otherwise brown faster).
When baking for longer times, glass will cook and brown somewhat faster than shiny metal pans, about as fast as dull (light) metal, but not as fast as dark metal pans.  In that case, you may want to make small adjustments in the same way as you might for different colored metal baking pans.
If baking a casserole or similar wet dish and using glass instead of opaque ceramic, it may cook and brown somewhat faster due to heat transmitted through the clear dish.
Glass will generally retain more heat when removed from the oven than metal pans, so baked goods or other food left in the glass dish will continue to cook somewhat longer.  In some circumstances, this may justify removing the dish from the oven when slightly underdone or else removing the contents (particularly baked goods) from the pan earlier.
I don't think there's any truth to the general statement that glass always "cooks faster."  Lowering the oven temperature slightly may be a good idea if you are concerned about the top surface browning before the bottom in a particular recipe, but glass is not a unique material to do that for.

Overall, I'd recommend just using other doneness indicators (internal temperature, browning, texture, firmness, etc.) to determine when your food is done.  The one nice thing about glass baking dishes is that you can view the food from many more angles, which can often give you information about how fast the dish is cooking on the bottom as well as the top -- and you can adjust oven temperature as needed to try to even things out.


how can I save banana milk shake from being black?

Bananas, just like for example apples, oxidise when exposed to air. The precise reaction is between oxygen in the air and a chemical called polyphenol oxidase in the fruit. Within a few hours they will start browning. This cannot be fixed by simply putting them in the refrigerator. The reaction will slow slightly, but not stop. What you can do is add an acid, such as lemon juice, as well as do your best to store it in an airtight container. These measures should slow the browning.

Note that something like a smoothie should really be consumed within 24 hours of making it. You should not be storing it for longer than that in the refrigerator, even if it doesn't turn black.


It's definitely an unusually long-lasting melon, although sources list a few different timeframes.
Sowing New Seeds says

  if kept in a cool, dry, frost-free place, they keep very well for several months, and reportedly over a year.

The Curious Gardener increases that:

  If kept dry after harvest, a fruit can last several years.


How can I address watery eggs in a microwaved breakfast sandwich?

I see two possible problems with what you've described --

If you don't freeze the egg quickly enough, you're more likely to have larger ice crystals form, resulting in a puddle of water no matter how you defrost it.  You should be able to test for this case by just putting the frozen egg in a covered bowl and let it come to room temperature.  If this gives you a lot of water, you can freeze the eggs on a sheet pan lined with waxed paper or parchment, then assemble the sandwiches to freeze.
Overheating eggs will cause the proteins to tighten resulting in puddles of moisture.  (this is mainly a problem with scrambled eggs or egg casseroles).  The solution to this is to heat it as little as possible.

As for the bread soaking through -- you can also look for alternatives.  Bagels and crusty rolls hold up much better to moisture, but bagels in particular can end up really chewy after microwaving.  A thicker roll would also have more crumb to absorb moisture.

You can also try spreading something on the bread to prevent the moisture from soaking it (although, it can make for messier eating if the sandwich is dripping).  For egg sandwiches, I like hot pepper jellies.


How to make a gel that doesn't harden at below freezing temperatures

There are a number of ways to depress the freezing point of a solution, the most common of which in an ice-cream context would be adding sugar and adding alcohol. Another solution, if you're not married to the idea of the lemon custard being a separate swirl mixin in differently flavoured ice-cream, would be to have the lemon custard be the custard for the ice-cream in and of itself.
For the first option, the higher the sugar and alcohol content of your lemon swirl mixin, the lower the freezing point will be, and the softer it will end up in the final product. The fat content of the lemon custard might increase and sort of 'spread out' the freezing point also. To this end, you could try making your lemon custard with a higher sugar content than usual and maybe some added vodka (or limoncello if you can get it) and seeing how that freezes. If it still freezes too hard for what you want, you might abandon the idea of a lemon custard and go with a lemon syrup or puree that might be closer to the consistency of more conventional berry swirls you see, while relying on the ice cream itself to provide the creaminess and fat content you expect from a lemon bar custard.
Serious Eats has a guide for making such a thing here.
You might also consider, instead of mixing in a lemon swirl, replacing the ice cream custard itself with something to evoke your lemon bar topping. I don't know what your recipe for lemon bars uses - I'd be familiar with a 'lemon curd' mixture made from lemon juice, zest, sugar, eggs and butter, but you might be using something more 'custardy' with cream and/or milk as the dairy component. In either case, if you modify that recipe to proportions more typical of an ice cream base (presumably by adding or increasing dairy content), you can skip the lemon swirl entirely and just have a shortbread mixin.


Mix it into new batches of artisan bread. It will give you some awesome flavor.

I doubt that sealed in the fridge it was able to pick up any interesting bacteria that would make it a sourdough starter but it would still be a more adventerous flavor than a young dough.

You could try making bread with just this dough but I would be afraid of it being too acidic and strongly flavored. I personally would just use it as a starter for other batches of bread.


Crispy pork belly, how can I cook the inside more?

It might be sacrilege, but how about microwaving briefly? The crust won't burn anymore, but the heat will help render the fat. Worth a shot. But probably not the best flavor.

I'd probably experiment with pan frying some slices at different temperatures to see if you can get the meat and fat done before you over char the crust. Try slicing it vertically into 1/4" slices with the crust on the top 1/4" edge. That will minimize the crust and maximize the surface area of the inside.


There are 2 main points that will affect the thickness of your porridge :

The oatmeal/milk (or water) ratio
The temperature reached by the oatmeal. Litterature says the oat starch gelatinization (that gives said thickness) happens at around 80°C. From experience, higher is better (probably because heating isn't homogenous in a micro wave, and you'll need to be close to the boiling point on some parts of your bowl to reach at least 80°C everywhere).

So, what I would suggest is :

Put your 40g of oatmeal and 220mL of milk, and measure the exact time it take it to boil in the microwave. If it's significantly higher than 2min30, and the result is thick as you want, just microwave it that long every time.
If it's still not thick enough, add a bit more oatmeal untile you reach the desired thickness.


The lid on a Dutch oven retains heat and traps moisture as it evaporates from the bread, giving the loaf that beautiful artisan crust. Foil will neithe trap the moisture adequately, nor will it retain heat, but it will slow your crust from browning too quickly. If crust is what you’re going for, try adding a pan to the lower rack in your oven, then when you put your loaf in, pour a cup or two of cold water into the pan. The steam will approximate (but not equal) the steam that a professional oven creates.

One of your commenters suggested a Pullman loaf pan. It’s a box with a slide-off lid. It makes a perfectly square loaf that is perfect for sandwiches, but the crust and crumb more resemble store-bought white bread than, say, sourdough.


Kimchi is probably the biggest use I can think of, but there's also steamed egg: http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/egg-side-dishes

Otherwise, 새우젓 is frequently used as a dipping sauce for foods like marinated pigs' feet (족발) and blood sausage (순대). Also added wherever appropriate for a little umami punch.


If bacon tastes like fish, is it still good to eat?

I raise my own pigs and don't feed them any fish. I feed all kinds of fruit, avos, eggs, acacia tree leaves, red apple succulent etc. All past pigs were excellent and not fishy. I never had the fish taste problem before this"girl" pig. It tastes like fish when cooked. It is like fresh fish, not fishy bad fish. It does not smell like fish or good or bad. I was wondering if it had to do with her having had a hip injury when she was young. She limped and did not run around much. Some other parts do not taste like fish. I keep it in the deep freezer well wrapped with no fish. I ate it and it seems fine.


I come from a culture where rice is our staple and I have a rice cooker. Here are some of the advantages from my perspective:

Rice is perfect everytime – not stuck to the bottom, not watery, not mushy and stuck together, etc.
If you make rice in a pot, and the heat is too high, it will boil and spill over creating a mess.
You can switch the rice cooker on and go do other things, whereas it is dangerous to walk away from a stove.
The rice cooker can be used for other things such as cooking lentils and steaming vegetables.
Rice cookers are cheap.


After further inquiries and experimentation I have discovered when cooked salmon is left out for a long time it starts to turn dark orange at the edges, probably due to oxidation. So, possibly the browning is due to being left out a long time, not over cooking, however, it could be due to overcooking.

After I complained about steamed salmon being sold as "poached" salmon, the supermarket changed the label on it.

There are apparently steam ovens and also "combi ovens" that cook with both steam and heat. If they were using a combi oven in heat/steam mode, which a lot of places due because it cooks faster, then the salmon could be getting over cooked.


Does it matter what order ingredients are sauteed in?

Your first suggestion is only partially valid. Let's say you add your onions first as many would do. After that your stew as a whole will most likely be too wet to get a maillard reaction going for subsequent additions. For me, the order of additions to a stew is roughly determined as such:

Put the ingredient that you most want to caramelize in first (usually meat or onions, but never garlic)
If you have ingredients that transfer their flavour more easily to fat than water, always put them in early, because once your stew becomes more watery that flavour will no longer be transferred
Put items that rely on their fragrance in late (For instance fresh basil)
Bell peppers always go in late for me, but that is partially because I always peel them
Give everything a cooking time that allows the ingredients to transfer their flavour to the stew while also maintaining some texture (basically your second point)

In the end it all comes down to adjusting your process so that everything you add to your stew is able to do what it's there for, which might be adding flavour, texture, colour, wetness or anything that takes your fancy.


Is buttermilk preferred for sourdough starter?

Normal sourdough starter is usually just flour and water. However, there are less common alternatives such as using fruit yeast and other sources of yeast.

The main problem with using things like milk or buttermilk is the danger of causing spoilage.

As another commenter already added,

  "Adding milk works because milk is mostly water. It might even work
  better, as it also contains sugar (lactose) which will be eaten by
  your starter's yeasts and bacteria.

  But it also contains other stuff, such as fats. And fats, after some
  time, get rancid. You probably won't want that taste in bread or
  pancakes. I would stick to water (which quite probably you'll find
  cheaper than milk).

  Don't worry about rotten milk: your starter is already rotten. And
  it's a hostile environment for most microbes. It's very very
  improbable new microbes would survive there. But if they do, they'll
  be quite similar to the already existing ones."

A great overview from this comment:

  "A sourdough starter is just Flour + Water + Time

  Some add catalysts such as pineapple juice or grape skins etc. But
  what is fermenting is the flour! and this is the starter.

  Once the starter is made, however you choose to make one, the finished
  starter will be a flour + water. The added "catalysts" are just to
  help make one. Once it is made then generally it is just fed flour +
  water to be kept going indefinitely.

  There is such a thing as Yeast Water which is made and kept going with
  fruit but that is different.

  When a starter is used in a sourdough it will be flour + water. The
  temperature and feeding schedule will affect the starter either making
  it more yeast or bacterial therefore making it more or less sour. But
  what also effects the final bread is how the starter is used within
  the dough, i.e. how much starter to use, how long the dough is
  fermented and at what temperature.

  So many factors involved here.

  No two people have exactly the same starter. And one starter can bring
  out different qualities in different breads depending on how it is
  used. And a change in feeding can change your starter.

  Welcome to sourdough."

Best practices from Colorado State University:

  "Considerations for bread starter variations: Amish Friendship Bread:
  Although rare, there have been incidents of foodborne illness
  associated with friendship-style bread, which differs from traditional
  sourdough by addition of milk and sugar, and thus provides an
  environment which could support growth of harmful microorganisms. To
  limit introductions of harmful bacteria in friendship bread starter,
  use pasteurized milk or cultured (soured) dairy and ferment in a
  refrigerator, not at room temperature."

Signs your starter may have gone wrong:

  "Signs of Contamination A starter should be white, light gray or light
  tan. It should smell like bread dough, of yeast or of its ingredients.
  It should bubble subtly and occasionally burp. If the starter has
  liquid on top of it -- this is called hooch, and it is the alcohol the
  starter’s yeast produces from fermentation -- it should be clear,
  white, light gray or light brown. If the starter or its hooch is pink,
  green or dark brown, discard the starter. If it smells or looks moldy,
  discard the starter. If the starter is fizzing or the starter has
  spots or patches -- which are signs of foreign bacterial growth --
  discard the starter."


Flour and water... at which temperature?

Pizza Dough is usually a yeast bread so you want your water to be warm (100-110F) to activate the yeast without killing it.

Quiche crust, like pie crust, develops the best texture when the flour is mixed with the butter (or shortening) in a solid state, so you want to add other liquids at a cool temperature to prevent melting the butter to a liquid and creating a less flaky crust.

I am not really sure about tortillas, but with the first two examples you can see that temperature is important and differs from application to application.


Good Idea to Buy Discount Meat For Freezing?

I suggest you read the transcript to the Good Eats show on freezing, or, better yet, find a copy of the episode to watch.  (Good Eats is an American TV show focusing on food science.)  Here are some relevant excerpts:

  [In the freezer,] any present bacteria are going to have a devil of a time finding the moisture they require to live, breed, survive. Since they themselves contain a considerable dose of H2O, freezing halts bacterial activity altogether, though some of the little beasties can survive to decompose another day.  While it is in this frozen state, the meat will remain unspoiled for years. But there's a problem. You see, home freezers work very slowly. That means that as those little H2Os start to line up inside, they'll create huge, sharp, jagged crystals that will rise up, slicing and dicing their way through cell walls, muscle fibers, and pretty much anything else that gets in the way.  Now while frozen, you won't notice this damage. But when it comes time to thaw, all of those perforated cells will start to leak out moisture all over the place. It's called drip loss and it's not a sign of good eats.

Therefore, if you are buying the meat fresh (i.e., it is not already frozen), then you need to take special care in how you freeze it:

  One good way to prevent drip loss is to freeze the target food very, very quickly to a very, very low temperature. So that instead of creating huge, jagged, nasty ice crystals, you get very, very tiny little ice crystals.

The episode goes on to describe a process for freezing meats at home (basically, the idea is to use small pieces of meat, freeze them separately on a sheet tray, and then once they are frozen transfer them to a bag for long-term storage).

Even though the meat will technically be safe to eat for years, there are a few caveats.  For one thing, the environment in the freezer is very dry.  That can cause moisture on the surface of the meats to sublimate and form ice crystals, otherwise known as freezer burn.  This can be avoided by packaging the meat in a vacuum (e.g., vacuum sealed bags), however, if you don't have a good vacuum sealer, I would suggest limiting their freezing to 6 or 8 months in order to avoid freezer burn.  Another reason to make sure you use an air-tight container is that fats are very good at picking up flavors of other items you might have in the freezer.

I am fairly certain the "fats will surely go bad" claim is a myth, especially since fat alone is a good preservative.  Perhaps you should ask that question on Skeptics.SE.


An oven is the way to go.

Toasting on a frying pan is a pain because you have to stand there shaking it for so long and it is far to easy to scorch if you pause.

I have seen some recipes call for low oven temps but I use 350F (175C) for 10 to 15 minutes stirring a few times. Some sources online recommend as low as 5 minutes but I personally have not ever had them done that quickly. They still have to be checked or they will burn.

I like to use my toaster oven because it heats up faster and is cheaper to run.

I have used an air popcorn popper with good results. Don't overfill it and remove them when they smell nutty. It goes very fast but you have to do them in batches if you have many.

For a pie or other sweet applications, I like to toss the nuts in butter and brown sugar and let them candy in the oven. The fat makes it harder to burn them. Obviously this won't fit for all recipes.

I personally have not had good results using the microwave. Some people swear by it but it seems to me to make them a little gummy.


Can I substitute parchment paper for foil?

Short answer for a short question: Probably. Assuming you're using it to line the pan, paper might leave the cookies less browned than you'd like, but it will provide a physical barrier between cookies and pan just fine. If you're using it to cover the bar cookies to keep them warm, foil works a lot better than paper. If you're cooking the cookies in a makeshift pan made solely out of foil by shoving the whole thing into a campfire, paper will definitely not work.


Is there ever a reason not to use baking beads when blind baking?

There is no reason to use something else, except that you either don't have pie weights (another name for ceramic baking beads), or you don't have enough of them.

Most Americans don't have pie weights in the kitchen.  Even those who do, often have a single chain of them, sufficient to cover the bottom of a pie crust but not to fill it.  Certain preparations, such as blind-baking a butter crust, require filling the pie crust to the rim in order to deter slumping, which could require as much as 5 cups of weights.

So if you don't have any, or don't have enough, use rice/beans/spare change.

COUNTERPOINT:  Stella Parks makes a good case why you should use sugar in preference to pie weights in her article on blind-baking.  Do note that using sugar requires you to blind-bake at low temperatures, because at 425 that sugar would turn to caramel.


Most bread products cook well at about 200C.


Is it safe to defrost cooked meat and eat it (without reheating)

There is no mention on the fact sheet of needing to recook previously cooked, frozen chicken. However, be mindful of proper defrosting techniques, as not doing so may open the food up to contamination.


The texture is little bits of fried dough. The way to reproduce it is to mix some of the wet into the flour and mix with fingers until some bits of dough form among the flour.

From Kenji Lopez-Alt:

  Finally, I used a trick that a friend, a former employee of the Chick-fil-A Southern fast-food fried-chicken chain had told me about. He'd mentioned that once the chicken was breaded, the later batches always come out better than the earlier ones as bits of the flour mixture clumped together, making for an extra-craggy coat. Adding a couple tablespoons of buttermilk to the breading mix and working it in with my fingertips before dredging the chicken simulated this effect nicely.

The Food Lab: The Best Southern Fried Chicken

And the result is:

More Flakes

However, if you want it to be more flaky than clumpy, add more wet to the dry to make lots of clumps and then pinch the clumps to flatten them into flakes.


Is it possible to make transparent / translucent pastry?

With great skill, a true artist could do what you describe with Thai/Vietnamese rice paper, the dinner plate sized, extra thin ones, like for Fresh Spring Rolls.

I will never apply for the job, I promise.


How to cook waffles intended for freezer-then-toaster?

We always make extra waffles for later use. For short term storage (1 - 2 days) I put them in the fridge. For anything longer I freeze them.

You definitely do not want to fully cook the waffles as they will become hard when you reheat them. (Especially if you like them crispy.) So to your point, intentionally undercook them. I usually cook them to about 2/3 - 3/4 of the way done.

Re cooling them, you want them completely cooled before bagging them. Otherwise you risk condensation inside your bag. You can use a cooling rack or, as I do sometimes, put them on the oven racks in a cold oven. (You would only put them on a hot oven rack if you wanted to keep them warm.)

When your waffles are completely cooled either bag them individually or, if you want to put more than one in a bag, make sure you have a sheet of parchment, wax paper, or foil between them.


I don't remember what the Lembas are supposed to be like in the original text, but whatever Tolkien intended them to be, the recipe is not for a bread-like item in the sense modern US Americans understand it. It is more comparable to waffles.

This is why it got wrong when you tried to treat it like bread. It is a batter, not a dough. The slow indirect heat of an oven is wrong for it, and it is not supposed to be able to hold its shape as a loaf. If you don't have a pizzelle iron, use a waffle iron for making them. If you don't have a waffle iron either, use a griddle or a hot pan and form and bake the lembas like pancakes, turning them during the process to get both sides baked.

Although I am saying "pancake" here, it refers to the cooking process, not to the final texture. If the chef who made the recipe knew what he was doing, the result can be crispy and flaky, similar to a dried tortilla. It will indeed be calorie-dense and durable, just like the fictional lemba.

As I don't think Tolkien gives anything closely usable as a culinary recipe, I guess that the chef just baked anything with these two qualities and called it "lemba". You can probably take any other kind of durable bread and use it as your recipe if you don't like this one. Knaeckebrod is probably a good starting point, considering that it has similar properties, and it is probably appropriate, seeing how much Tolkien was influenced by Nordic mythology.


What fruits keep their sweetness when baking?

You cannot simply replace sugar with fresh fruit in baking recipes.  Sugar is, well, 100% sugar.

Fruit is mostly water, on the order of 70-90% depending on the particular fruit in question.   The remainder is usually sugars, starches and pectins for the most part.

Any recipe not specifically designed to be sweetened with fruit is going to fail spectacularly if you try to substitute.   To do so, you would have to calculate the water weight in the added fruit and remove it form elsewhere in the recipe (if there is enough liquid elsewhere in the recipe to do so) at the very least.

Sugar is also extremely important to the structure and moisture retention of baked goods (with the notable exception of yeast raised breads), and simply substituting it out is going to have a deleterious effect on the texture.

Instead, you should search out recipes that are sweetened in a manner that meets whatever requirements you have.   Applesauce and cooked down pears, as well as bananas might be suitable, but it would depend on the specific application.

In any case, almost no sugar will be lost during baking; all fruits will retain essentially all of their sugar.

Except at the very edge of the baked good, where browning occurs (indicating caramelization and the Maillard reaction are taking place), the sugar will be unchanged by the baking process.   The amount of sugar lost to browning in the crust is vanishingly small.


Prime rib weight on a restaurant menu - raw or cooked?

I don't think there is consistent rule - I have seen restaurants sell meat in 100g portions, where they literally weigh it as they carve it off a large roast joint, and also restaurants where the raw weight is listed, then they roast a piece of meat of that weight (often for two or more to share).

The best policy is to ask each time!


Name for turning ingredients to powder / mush, and then molding back into their original shape

Reformed

This is most often used to describe meat products such as "reformed ham" or "reformed scampi". You can occasionally see onion rings made with chopped onion described as reformed, e.g. here.

Pringles could be described as "reformed potato snacks" for example. Pringles are less than half potato though, so that may not be entirely accurate.

As for doing this at home, it's common to bake a potato, scoop the potato from the skin, mash it up with some seasonings and then put it back in the skin, thereby reforming the potato.


Are commercial foods adjusted for integer cooking times?

No. Pasta certainly can be varied by 1-2 minutes depending on the degree of bite desired (assuming the commercial, dried variety). Furthermore, height above sealevel determines air pressure and the boiling temperature of water, which further complicates things.

For microwaving, a similar problem occurs with power: not all microwaves have the same effective power, which means that you can't have an integer number of minutes of cooking time. In fact, if you see 600 W : 8 minutes, 1000 W : 5 minutes, you already know that they're rounded numbers (600*8 = 4800; 1000*5 = 5000, ignoring the larger heat loss in the first case)

[edit]
A bit of math on the back of a napkin suggests that even at a fixed altitude, the difference between high and low air pressure is significant enough. No, they're not adjusting the ingredients to come up with an integer number. Besides, it'd be far easier to vary the thickness a bit.


Gas grill: soaked wood chips vs. dry wood chips

If you're putting your wood chips directly on a fire, it's good to soak them (and that means real soaking--a few days--not an hour or two). This prevents the wood chips from actually catching fire, which can cause off flavors from combustion chemicals settling back on your food. Tastes kinda like a brand new telephone pole smells on a hot day. Tar/Creosote, and not a nice flavor.

But on a gas grill, if you've got your chips in a pan or wrapped in a fairly tight foil pouch, you needn't worry so much about the chips actually catching on fire. As long as they just smoulder, you're good to go.


Chemically, what happens when you temper an egg?

One of the reasons is what cantido probably meant: you can overheat the eggs quickly if you pour them into the hot milk. Heat transfer is proportional to the distance from the boundary between the two materials. If you pour a thin stream of hot milk into tepid eggs, most of the eggs don't get heated, because they are far away from the boundary. They only come into contact with the milk after it has cooled down a bit. Also, the milk you pour is somewhat cooled down before it hits the eggs because 1) there is no burner underneath it (which may still be on, or, if you are not on gas, will give off considerable heat even after turning off) and 2) it cools down while being poured through the air. Thus tempering prevents the localized overheating which would happen if you would add small amounts of egg to hot milk.

But there is also some magic that I can't explain, although I've seen it referenced in reliable books (Cookwise). The temperature at which eggs overcoagulate is dependent on the speed with which they are heated. The coagulation of an egg is a slow process, and there are many intermediate stages along it, from absolutely liquid to absolute rubbery. But the weird thing is that this process's speed depends on the rate of heating - eggs which have been heated from 25 Celsius to 80 Celsius slowly can create a pleasant soft custard, while eggs which have been heated from 4 Celsius to 80 Celsius quickly can curdle the mixture. I wish I knew why this is so, and hope that somebody else will provide this final piece of the puzzle in another answer.

So, by tempering, you achieve a slower, more even heating, which extends the temperature interval between raw and curdled, and gives you a pleasant texture overall.

As for the chemical process of thickening-and-curdling in eggs, Chef Code explains it well. It starts with a soft web of coagulated protein which loosely holds the liquid trapped (tasty custard) and ends up with a very strong web of very deformed protein which expels liquid (curdling).


Yes, I think you can.  The page you link does list the oil as "food grade", and specifies no added solvents... so there's probably nothing dangerous in the jar and it can be safely used for cooking.

In general, though, you usually shouldn't equate cosmetic treatments and edible substances, even if some of the ingredients are the same (soaps often do this, list all food sounding ingredients until a second glance reveals it, well, soap), or even if the base substance is the same but may have undergone different processes (like coconut oil or cocoa butter).  If the coconut oil had been processed with some non-food grade solvents or processes, it might be perfectly safe for topical application, and still be quite dangerous to consume.

If you are questioning whether a substance might be an ingredient as well as a cosmetic treatment, look up the information, and I mean brand-specific product page, and see if it mentions "food grade" - that means exactly the bit of information you're looking for, that it is of a high enough quality that it passes the tests they use for product meant to be eaten.


How do I get the smell of burnt food off of the inside of my microwave oven?

Working in restaurants similar things to this happened a lot. Our quick fix that usually did the trick was 50/50 vinegar and water and boil it off as mentioned above. Lemon juice or even orange should work instead of vinegar for a better scent.
At a guess, the more acidy fluids help break down any splatter that may have gone into the vents.

Hint: this is also great to do just before cleaning the microwave, even baked on splatter comes off easily after the steam.


It is safe to consume the guts.
Many people do.

More Info:

After digging deeper into the above article I spotted it contains the answer.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/oct/07/features.food7

  They're so small (only up to 12cm long) that they're often cooked whole - head, guts and all. If you prefer, however, you can open up the belly with your thumb and rinse out the innards, and prise out the gills with your thumb and forefinger.

Regarding their association with brisling, it seems that the two terms are synonymous (though somewhat contextual):

  Sprats are sometimes also known by their Scandinavian name, brisling, especially if they've been smoked and canned.


These are probably mineral deposits.  Boiling water or washing with hard(er) water can leave them.

You can scrub with a plastic pad, use vinegar, etc.  I have found that denture cleaner works well for this.  Drop one or two tablets in a pan full of cold water, let it sit for 20 mintues, and then rinse it well.  A sponge or plastic abrasive pad should remove any remanents easily.

The film will probably reappear in a few months, so regular treatment is recommended.  As for the denture cleaner, a generic brand with a hundred or so tablets will cost you a couple bucks.  Also good for cleaning stains off porcelain.

That said, it shouldn't affect the flavor or healthfulness of your food.


How Does Too Much Oil in Indian Mughlai Food Makes It Tasty?

Oil is a great non-polar solvent and will dissolve many flavor molecules that don't dissolve well in water.  “Like dissolves like”.  For instance, capsaicins from chili peppers, zingerone from ginger, piperine from black pepper, and many others, dissolve sparingly in water but well in oils.

Not just hot flavors, either - limonene (citrus), carvone (S and R forms, from spearmint and caraway), and other essences are non-polar.

Once dissolved, they're mobile and easier to taste.


In my experience, that is completely normal and will not harm its flavor at all. You just need to warm it up before serving so that you can re-mix / emulsify your sauce / dressing. It congeals in the fridge much like any other fat will (think butter or bacon grease). Apparently, extra virgin olive oil may suffer from condensation in the bottle affecting the flavor. It may also turn cloudy.

But in general, you should be fine. Even if it does go bad, it should just affect the flavor and not be harmful, just gross. So if it tastes bad, toss it. Otherwise you're fine. Note: I'm just talking about the oil going rancid, not anything else you might mix with it.


forgot the shortening (1/2 cup) in banana cake. How can this be served, or rescued?

Removing fat from a cake recipe does not generally make it "heavy". Fats weigh down batter or dough, impeding its rise. In fact your basic sponge cake (sometimes called a fatless sponge) has no added fat other than egg yolks and rises quite nicely regardless. I suspect there is another problem with your cake; perhaps expired leavener or inadequate incorporation of air.
(Cake without fat can be tough, but from your question this does not seem to be be your problem.)
If the textural problems are minor enough to still serve your cake, there are plenty of options to add fat and flavor. Fatless sponges are often paired with flavorful fillings. For example, a Victoria sponge is filled with jam and whipped cream. But you can be more creative with flavors to complement the banana: pudding, buttercream, and ganache are all great cake fillings or toppings with plenty of fat and flavor.
Even if the texture is unappealing, the cake can be repurposed to some degree. Cake pops are a dessert where crumbled cake is mixed with frosting, formed into balls, stuck on lollipop sticks, and dipped in chocolate or ganache. This project re-purposes your failed cake and hides both leavening issues and missing fat.


What's the difference between bacon and gammon?

I did my internship for culinary school in London, and if I recall correctly from what I saw in the markets there, what you call Gammon would be equivalent to our Ham - both coming from the pig's rear leg.

What we call bacon is what you'd call "streaky" or "streaky bacon" which is made from the pork belly.

Streaky would be the best substitute in recipes calling for bacon.


It really depends on how much salt you like in your food.  Most recipes are written for unsalted butter because it makes it easier to control the amount of salt.  If your butter is salted, you can use it and it will probably still taste good.  Although, you may need to reduce salt a bit elsewhere in the recipe if it uses a lot of butter.  When in doubt, go with unsalted, then add salt as needed.


How are chemical leaveners affected by moisture and cool temperature?

Chemical leaveners all work the same way. You have a basic salt (like sodium bicarbonate) and an acid (incorporated in baking powder, like cream of tartar, or coming from the dough itself, like a baking soda leavened cake with yoghurt in the batter). You have probably seen the reaction at some point in science class, but if not, go mix a teaspoonfull of baking soda with a teaspoonfull of vinegar and watch.

In this reaction, the acid reacts with the base, creating new compounds. Some of these compounds are gaseous, so they make a foam in your baking soda - vinegar experiment. When baking, these bubbles of gas stay in the batter and get trapped there when the batter sets, resulting in a sponge-like structure.

To start the reaction, you need both the base and the acid. When using baking soda, you have no reaction before it is added to the acidic batter. Baking soda is a mix of baking powder and what I called an acidic salt, but in reality, the salt itself is not acidic. It forms acidic solutions with water. Remember, an acid is a proton donator. pH is a measure for the amount of protons swimming around free, waiting to react with something non-acidic. A salt has a firm structure, it is an ionic grid. No protons are swimming around in a salt, they stay at their places. Dissolve the salt, and they start swimming and become available for reactions. So with baking powder, too, the reaction starts once you mix the baking powder with the moist ingredients. This is the effect of moisture and the reason why batter goes flat.

The coolness in the fridge doesn't have much of an effect. If anything, it probably slows down the reaction somewhat, but not enough to stop it.

In a nutshell, what happens with the batter in the fridge is exactly the same thing that happens with the batter in the oven. Only as you are not baking it, the bubbles don't get trapped in the setting dough, but swim around until they reach the surface and leak into the air. This continues until the reactive compounds are exhausted. When you take the batter out later, the reaction is over, because there is nothing left to react, and it does not rise in the oven, because the rising is already over.


Where can I find an extremely slim wooden stirring spoon?

We've got one or two that shape (perhaps with a slightly thicker handle but ergonomically that suits me). Without any particular reason to buy them, and knowing that they're quite light and very similar to some others we have I can be fairly confident that they came in a multi pack of cheap spoons. Maybe everywhere you've looked is too up-market


This is not that big of a decision.

Two weeks is a short enough time that, if the bread is sealed well and kept frozen, you are unlikely see much of a difference in quality either way.

Sliced bread has more surface area and so doesn't keep as well. Unsliced can be inconvenient to slice when fully frozen.

The worst thing you can do is to let the bread thaw before slicing and refreeze. From your question it seems you recognize this.

If you only plan on consuming a few slices a day and all the bread within two weeks, I would recommend slicing before freezing just for the convenience.

I have done it both ways but usually freeze my loaves whole because we consume them a loaf at a time.


Meringue Imitation to practice decoration

they make this stuff called Presto Pastry Pride ready to whip topping. It's pretty similar in consistency and can be piped very well. It's also pretty great as frosting. I think it would be perfect for you and it's pretty cheap. You can find it in the frozen section at smart and final.


making jam with brown (raw) caster sugar

Yes, that's perfectly fine. I've done so myself (using raw cane sugar) because I like the taste, at least for some kinds of fruit.

My health store has different brands, some lighter, some darker. If your store does, too, you might want to consider using the lighter variety - the darker ones sometimes can impart a slight bitterness (just an undertone, really), which can be "too much" for some fruit.


How can I figure out cooking times for an Instant Pot?

Instant Pot has a page with cooking times for various things on it:

https://instantpot.com/instantpot-cooking-time/

However, there are also lots of good pages out there with more specifics.  For example, chicken thighs (fresh, frozen, bone in vs. out, brown first vs. not):

https://paleopot.com/recipe/instant-pot-chicken-thighs/


It can be safe - people use gas burning stoves inside on a regular basis.
The one thing you must do is ensure that there is adequate air-flow in your kitchen so as to prevent the build-up of carbon monoxide. This is as simple as leaving a window partially open when cooking.
Another concern would be how stable one of these is on your bench/work surface. Placing a large pan on top of a small foot-print stove will make it decidedly top heavy, so you should get one that is either low and flat (much like a regular cooking stove in a kitchen; e.g. this one) or one with feet that limit the movement/tipping capacity (e.g. this one). I have no affiliation with either product and make no claims about their ability to cook things, other than that MSR is a reliable outdoors brand. After all, you don't want your cooker to tip over and set your kitchen on fire or cause you to get burned from the hot food/pan and/or from the flame.


Risk of eating potato skins with anti-germination treatment

The toxic stuff enters not only the skin, but even to 1 mm flesh.
Washing the potatoes is useless.
So, always peel your potato


Making cherry ice cream, should I macerate the cherries?

tl;dr Either way is fine.

When making ice cream- your quest is to bind up water. Water crystallizes and makes ice cream icy instead of creamy. There are a lot of ways to keep water from freezing in ice cream from reducing the volume of water in the mix, to using natural antifreezes, to binding the water up with gums or starches.

Sugar loves water. The water will eagerly hook up with sugar and won't be able to freeze.

If you macerate your cherries two things will happen-

1- Water will be drawn out of the cherries and
2- The water that is left in them will be saturated with sugar and slower to freeze.

The result is that the cherries will be softer, sweeter (of course), be slightly more concentrated, and not freeze solid.

If you don't macerate them then they will be little chunks for cherry ice.

Both ways are perfectly tasty and I've had ice creams that do it either way. It just depends what you want to make.


What are the breads with big holes and small holes called?

I don't think there is a general answer to this question.  There are hundreds or perhaps thousands of styles of bread around the world, with a a great variety of textures and distributions of the holes.

There is no particular word that covers this aspect of bread...  for example, both challah and brioche are finely textured enriched breads with small holes, but there would not likely be found under "sandwich bread" and I cannot think of a single keyword that would include them both.

Similarly, the Italian bread ciabatta and the now-famous "no knead bread" are both large holed breads, but I am not sure what search would encompass them both.  (The link is to Kenji Alt's recipe, if you want to try it.)

The closest you may come is the notion—which may be particular to the US, I am not sure— that "artisan bread" has large holes, since it seem to be a code word for a particular type of loaf made with a long fermentation and high level of hydration which therefore causes large holes, and a very chewy and crusty texture.   (Personally, I find that label silly, as if the notion that brioche, a highly enriched finely textured, small-holed bread doesn't require just as much artisanship to create.)

If you really want to explore this topic, I suggest learning more about bread in general through one of the many excellent books available on the topic.  They will give you both a survey of some of the world's breads, and an introduction to the techniques used to create them.

Three choices that may get you started include:

The Bread Baker's Apprentice.  Very highly regarded by many.
Beard on Bread.  A classic.
The Bread Bible  More current, and from an author you have previously indicated you liked.  She also has very well laid out and easy to follow recipes.

Personally, I own all three of the above.

Edit:
In advance of trying a recipe, there is no single way to know whether the outcome will be large holes or small holes.  There is no sufficiently standard terminology that you can apply all of the time.  Some terms that come to mind to look for include:

For large holes:  Open crumb, open texture, airy.

While not strictly directly addressing the size of the holes, loaves labeled "artisan" or "rustic" likely fit this category.
For small holes:  Closed crumb, fine texture, dense.

Again, while not absolute, enriched breads (lots of eggs, dairy, or sugar, or all three) tend to fall in this category.

Still, the only way to know the intent of the author for sure is to read the description they provide carefully, and look at any pictures they may have shared (assuming they show the cut loaf, and not just the crust).


It's very common for coil type electric elements to heat a little bit unevenly, even when they are brand new. If it's really uneven it's usually due to:

The element wearing out, leading to some parts being hotter than others
The element warping, leading to a loss of contact with some parts of the pots and pans you use

From the picture you've sent it could be a mix of both of these issues.

A pan with an uneven bottom can lead to this as well, if your pan rocks back and forth on a flat surface it's a sign maybe the pan is part of the problem.

You can't fix these elements, when they're shot they're shot, so if it's due to worn elements replacement is the best bet (if you live in a rental ask your landlord, you shouldn't have to pay for it). They don't cost much, you could probably do all 4 for less than $50 USD. Some brands have upgrades where you can install ceramic or maybe halogen ones instead, if I owned it that's the way I'd go, but they are more expensive.


Replacing toaster oven with convection oven or convection microwave?

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if I've read your question correctly, you already have a toaster oven with a convection function and are considering options for replacing it. If that's the case, you know how convection cooking fits into your lifestyle, and when and why you like to use it.

Hopefully I can help with one part of your question! We recently bought a new regular oven and a new toaster oven, both with convection options. The convection functions work exactly the same way and serve the same purpose, which is primarily to cook food more quickly and evenly. My oven takes longer to pre-heat, which makes sense because it's bigger, but that's the only major difference. The actual cooking time doesn't vary, even though I originally thought it would. I use each appliance at different times depending on various factors, but I cook the same foods in both, and the end result is very much the same.

I don't have any experience with convection microwaves, so I'm sorry but I can't help you there.


Why is the milk used in latte steamed and not boiled?

A latte is similar to a cappuccino but with different proportions. It's unsurprising that a similar method and equipment would be used. Cappuccino needs steamed milk to get the froth, so a coffee bar machine has a steam pipe. To boil the milk for a latte would require an extra piece of equipment and the associated space.

Is perfectly possible to make an espresso-based drink with milk heated on the stove or in a microwave, that would be a close approximation to a latte -- possibly indistinguishable. But if you boil the milk, it will change the flavour.


Two different gynostemma teas taste completely different, why?

If they come from 2 different brands, there can be many reason why they taste different.

Could be harvested from different areas; picked at different time/season and/or mishandled.

Could have been badly stored and packaged.


Baking scalloped potatoes at 275 °F instead of at 400 °F

Timing can be more challenging than creating a meal itself. When this combo is part of a family gathering, I take timing out of the mix by baking the scalloped potatoes first, cover and set aside. Then do your ham. While the ham “rests”, to redistribute the juices, put the potatoes back in the oven, turn oven down to 300F & warm them. Good luck!


Details of pre-cooking chicken before shallow-frying?

I often precook chicken (generally sous vide or slow roasting in a low oven) before frying (American style) fried chicken. The cooking method for the precook essentially doesn't matter. However you precook, you just want to have it reach a suitable temperature to be thoroughly cooked to a food safe temperature.
I usually precook a bit in advance (or the day before) and after precooking, I cool it back down and refrigerate it. This helps to keep the collagen and other "juicy" parts inside by resolidifying in the fridge.
Then I take the cooked, cooled chicken and proceed with the recipe as normal. Cooking is primarily about reheating the chicken, and cooking the breading. I no longer have to worry about hitting the exact food-safe temperature (because I already did that on the first cook!).
For American-style fried chicken, other than starting with fully cooked chicken, the recipe and method can pick up from the "bread/batter then fry" step as normal. This should translate well to other recipes as well, as you're essentially just searing & reheating the chicken at the end in your pan, rather than cooking it.


Wondering if the bottle of wine I have is still good or not

If you want to make sure your wine is still good without opening the bottle (wine, vinegar or broth), there are some things you can check. This doesn't give you 100% guarantee that the wine is actually any good.

Did the bottle lay horizontally (good) or was it standing up (bad). The wine must be in contact with the cork to hydrate it. This way the seal stays intact and the wine doesn't spoil.
How 'aged' was the wine? Normally a young wine will last about one year (maybe two in the fridge), a reserve or great reserve can last longer. Some wines will mature for 25 years or more.
Check the seal. If it's in good state (no 'dirty' spots), that's good.
Check the cork (without opening the seal). If the cork is pushing the seal out, then your wine may have suffered from heat (the air in the bottle pushes the cork out). This may cause your wine to taste of cork (broth).
Remove the seal and check the cork. If the cork is clean, that's good. If it has red spots (see point 4). If it looks dry... you may have a nice vinegar.
Substances floating in the wine doesn't mean the wine is bad, but you'll need to decant the wine carefully.

But anyway, open the bottle soon. Waiting any longer won't make the wine any better.


Why doesn't milk create gluten when combined with flour?

Milk does create gluten1 when combined with flour.  The water in the milk does create a gluten structure.  If it didn't, any bread made with milk would be dense and flat.  But the dinner rolls I made yesterday (with no water, only milk) were light and airy.  Milk clearly creates gluten.

Note that gluten isn't only about elasticity.  Beginning bread makers often associate gluten with stretchiness, but gluten is also necessary for the structure of bread.  Without gluten development, bread won't rise high.  Without gluten, gases will escape and bubble out, rather than stay in the dough.  Without gluten, the final risen loaf of bread could collapse into a flat, dense pancake.  Different doughs may be easier or harder to stretch into long strands, but that's not all that gluten development is about.

The other ingredients in milk will tend to alter how gluten behaves.  As Jeffrey Hamelman notes in his book Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes:

  Although the lactic acid in milk tightens the gluten structure, the
  fats present soften the structure, and the result is baked products
  that have less elasticity and an even grain.  [...] When milk is used
  in yeast breads, it should be heated to about 190°F, a temperature
  higher than pasteurization, in order to denature the serum protein.
  Unheated, the serum is active and has a weakening effect on the
  structure of the gluten.  Bakers often replace whole milk in formulas
  with dried milk, first for convenience, and second because the serum
  protein is deactivated in dry milk.

A couple takeaways from that:

Milk tightens the gluten structure (which means it won't stretch as easily)
The fats in milk soften the structure, leading to more fine-grained bonding
Some milk proteins can weaken the gluten structure (which will make the dough easier to tear and bread won't rise quite as high; as Hamelman mentions, a remedy for this is using heated milk or dried milk, but bakers often also just use a high-protein flour that generates more gluten to begin with)

The question specifically mentions pizza, and the above issues are one reason that milk is less commonly found in pizza doughs than in things like soft rolls or soft white bread.  Pizza dough needs to stretch easily, and it needs a very strong gluten structure to be stretched thinly.  (Also, the sugars in milk will cause faster browning, which for pizza baked at high temperature may result in a crust that's quite dark.)

1 In response to a comment, I should clarify what I mean as the word gluten is used in modern English in several different ways.  Gluten comes from a Latin word for "glue" and, when used in the context of preparing dough, generally refers to a network created when certain proteins combine with liquid to form a sticky and elastic mass.  The properties of the combined liquid and protein mixture are different from the protein alone, so most cooks use the word gluten to make reference to this specific mixture and its properties.

Nevertheless, as the proteins that occur in flour were isolated historically, the term gluten (or glutens, in plural; in wheat specifically called glutenins and gliadins) also came to refer to the specific proteins generally involved in creating this structure.  Hence, one may also use the word "gluten" sometimes to refer to proteins in flour even when it is dry.  And this dry substance can be isolated and sold separately as "wheat gluten."  (Important note: occasionally, one sees people using the word "gluten" as a synonym for "protein content" of flour.  However, other proteins that are non-glutinous may be found in flour as well, so the total protein content -- often found on labels -- is often different from the fractional amount of that which is gluten.)

This ambiguity of usage -- a wet, elastic substance vs. the dry ingredient that enables its creation -- can be found in many sources.  For a few examples, Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking writes:

  Gluten is a complex mixture of certain wheat proteins that can't
  dissolve in water, but do form associations with water molecules and
  with each other.  When the proteins are dry, they're immobile and
  inert.  When wetted with water, they can change their shape, move
  relative to each other, and form and break bonds with each other.

Here McGee tends toward the second usage, but in subsequent paragraphs he switches nomenclature to refer to the dry components as "glutenins" and concludes by noting: "The result [of bonding and stretching of glutenins] is an extensive interconnected network of coiled proteins, the gluten."  Thus, in McGee's usage, "the gluten" only comes into being in the presence of liquids, conforming to the first usage.

Michel Suas in Advanced Bread and Pastry tends toward the first usage, stating:

  The two primary proteins in wheat -- glutenin [...] and
  gliadin [...] -- are responsible for the formation of the dough.  Depending on their quality, these proteins can absorb 200 to 250
  percent of their weight in water.  As they inflate, they become
  attracted to each other and form chains of proteins called gluten.

Some sources go further and even deny the existence of dry gluten (a view conflicting with the standard second English usage and product labeling). For example, Modernist Cuisine states:

  Gluten is formed when two of wheat’s native proteins, glutenin and
  gliadin, come into contact with water. That’s why it’s more accurate
  to talk about the gluten potential of a particular flour, rather than
  its gluten content.

In any case, it's important to note the distinct meanings of the two uses of the word gluten in English, which can usually be understood from context.  In dough formation, as here, it's quite common to talk about the "formation of gluten" through the addition of liquid, which is what I assume OP was referring to by the phrase "create gluten," a phrase I also incorporated into my answer.


Is the cockchafer grub edible, and how best to prepare it?

A Coupl of years ago there was acase of a guy who to show his machismo gave himself and his girl some raw snails and a few weeks later they died from having their brains eaten away,
cook creepy crawlies.
quote:
Tests found that his meningitis was caused by a worm normally seen in rat lungs, but also carried in slugs and snails. He was hospitalized for 17 days with brain lesions, and it was five months before he could resume classes. A friend of the student also ate some raw slugs as part of the dare but threw them up, losing the bet. The doctors said there had been numerous cases of meningitis since 1971 caused by snails or slugs. One Australian child died after eating live snails, and one patient contracted meningitis after eating lettuce covered with snail slime, according to a report in the Medical Journal of Australia.
and:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiostrongyliasis


Preparing slow cooked meats for the next day

I would suggest you follow your plan, but reserve and refrigerate the cooking liquor to reheat the meat in, which will help with restoring juiciness.

However, be very careful when reheating and keeping meat warm. The meat should not be in the danger zone (5-60°C/40-140°F) for more than 2 hours, cumulatively, throughout its 'lifetime'. You should avoid moving the meat through the danger zone too often as well. This means you need to cool the meat quickly, reheat it quickly, and minimise the time it takes to get to the plate. If you've got a long drive to your picnic, or it's going to be a while before you eat, I'd consider serving it cold instead.


What is the difference between a salsa, a sauce, a gravy, and a chutney?

In their various parts of the world, all of these words mean sauce, at least some of the time.

They come from different cultures, though, and carry different connotations at least in US usage.  Short answer, though:  there are no absolute differences that you can count on.

Salsa

This is a generic term in Spanish, and in South American cuisines.  It can cover everything from a thick, dark mole, an adobo, a light and piquant salsa verde, or the typical tomato, onion and pepper sauce often served with chips in the US.

Some salsas are smooth; others are chunky.  They can be cooked or raw.

Many people use the word to indicate the red, fresh or lightly cooked tomato salsa with onions, garlic, peppers and usually cilantro often served in Mexican restaurants in the US, but this is only the beginning of what salsas can be.

Sauce

The generic term.  Almost any flavorful liquid put on another food to enhance it.  These range from elegently smooth (such as hollandaise) to quite chunky such as putanesca sauce.

Gravy

Gravy tends to be a sauce made from meat drippings, and thickened to serve with the meat or its accompaniments.

In Italian-American usage, it often covers "Sunday Gravy" or a ragu made from tomatoes and one or more (or many meats) that in some communities was traditionally made on Sunday; and more generally, any sauce with meat in it.

I am told that in Italian in the context of pasta sauces, the actual word is (forgive my spelling) accompanimento, an accent for the pasta which is the star.

Chutney

The word chutney derives from the India/Pakistan region, where again there are a myriad different sauces that carry the title.

In the US, it tends to be used for a chunky, acidic sauce made from fruit and/or vegetables.   This overlaps considerably with jam or preserves, in this sense, although chutneys tend to be much more strongly spiced, and may contain complex combinations of complimentary ingredients.

Still, this doesn't cover the full range such as a chutney of pureed cilantro and/or mint, which is much more thin and sauce-like than the above more typical US usage.

Conclusion

You cannot really draw strict distinctions among these categories.  You have to know what the specific sauce or item is that is being discussed to strongly draw inferences about it.


Paneer is a fresh cheese, which gives it a short shelf life, typically under two weeks if kept refridgerated.  Outside we are talking a few hours.  The higher water content of soft cheeses makes them a better medium for the growth of pathogens.

Paneer will go bad before one can tell from visual inspection.  If you are like 90% of the population, trying a small piece will not harm you.  If it tastes like sour milk, toss it.

Using vinegar is an old habit from times when refrigeration was not common.  On foods with low moisture content, such as dried meats, a small spot of mold may have been washed with vinegar (an acid) preventing it from growing further.  That idea must have transfered to paneer, but it is not applicable there because its water content makes it likely that the pathogens are also inside.


Could Agave syrup be used as a substitute for Golden Syrup?

It'd probably work. It won't be quite the same, as golden syrup has a distinct flavour of its own, but it may well still be quite tasty.

Agave syrup, as far as I recall from last time I used some, is a bit runnier at room temperature so depending on the recipe you may have problems with it being too liquid unless there's something else holding it together.

Flavour-wise, I believe the golden part of golden syrup comes because it has a small amount of molasses in it, so you might try adding a very small amount of that - but it may not be a strong enough flavour to make it worthwhile to go to that much trouble. As you mention, agave syrup has its own flavour so the result could still taste great.

The big thing to be wary of is comparative sweetness. Agave syrup is almost entirely fructose, while golden syrup is a mixture of fructose and glucose. Fructose tastes sweeter, so agave syrup may oversweeten if you use it 1:1 as a substitute.


What is the source of the very strong flavour in some bad fats (or dairy products?) that only some people can taste?

Let me start by saying that I'm not familiar with the problem taste you're describing in dairy foods.
I am, however, quite sensitive to bitter tastes in many other foods, which is linked to a phenomenon often studied in genetics classes: The ability or inability to taste PTC, PROP or thiourea, chemical compounds associated with bitter flavors.
The ability to taste them or not, and whether you're a "supertaster" who's very sensitive, is genetic, and appears to have a significant impact on food preferences.
Here's an article that explains it better than I can: Supertaster
I don't know that this is associated with dairy products at all, but it's worth a look in. And for what it's worth as a strong--if not super--taster, I have a hard time dealing with some blue cheeses that my wife who is a weak to non-taster doesn't find strong at all. So maybe there's something in it.


Every sourdough starter has different characteristics, a ladleful of one will give a different result from the same amount of another. The recipe is right in that there's no way to say what result you are going to get, so why be exact.

The point I would make is that you want repeatibility, and the capability to adjust your amounts over time to suit your taste. So whatever you use to get it out (ladle, spoon, measuring cup, hand) I would weigh and record how much starter you use, you can add more or less and see how you get. As long as you keep using the same starter you can adjust to your taste.


Should I add binder to a giant, "chicken fried" Latke?

I wouldn't add binder in this case. When you cook the chicken over the potatoes the drippings have a lot of water, not just fat. Also the baking dish isn't going to reach frying pan temperature. Under those conditions flour will turn gluey and you'll get an uncooked flour taste with it. Egg is more likely to work, however it's a long cooking time and likely to get rubbery. I'd treat this more like a hash brown, shred the spuds long, then get as much water out of them as you can before using them. I'd be interested to know the results if you try it, potentially sounds delicious.


Why don't chicken and turkey sausages typically have sodium nitrate, but other meat sausages do?

Check this essay: Time-dependent depletion of nitrite in pork/beef and chicken meat products and its effect on nitrite intake estimation

Check the Figure.1, while preserving meat in long days, the nitrite content in chicken sausage is much higher than pork/beef sausage.
For food safety, Nitrosamine where is transformed from nitrite is an important cancer factor. So there are only pork/beef(red meat) sausage in market but not for turkey/fish(white meat).


Is there any way to revive popcorn that is making too many duds?

I store my popcorn in the freezer in an old mayo jar with the lid tightly screwed on. As Michael says, dud popcorn has lost moisture. Add a tablespoon or so of water to the jar and put in the fridge (not the freezer for this part) a few days and see if that helps.

Storing uncovered in the fridge or freezer will remove moisture if you have a frost-free refrigerator.


Ok, from the clarification in the comments:

I'd say that roughly speaking, "high" cooks twice as fast as "low". This is a very rough estimate, and also depends on the slow cooker a lot (they vary in temperature...). So, each hour you spend on high is like spending two hours on low. You can use that to figure when to turn your slow cooker up so its ready on time.

  Example: You have 7 hours until dinner. Recipe says 9 on low. So you do 2 hours on high and 5 hours on low. The 2 hours on high count for 4 hours of cooking on low, so you have the 9 hours the recipe called for. And 5 and 2 are the 7 actual hours you have until dinner.

Given how approximate the conversion is, you should probably plan to have it ready a bit before time, and then turn it down to "keep warm". Note that cooking will continue on "keep warm", especially as it'll take a while for the food to cool. Keep warm should be around 150°F, which will keep the food safe to eat (its out of the danger zone), but will actually continue cooking, just very slowly.

Also, you should check on when its done by visual clues (as much as possible), and (as quickly as possible) check the texture. You want to keep the lid closed as much as possible, opening it will slow it down a lot. Check no more than once per hour.

If you have a thermometer you can leave in the meat, you could use its internal temperature. My newest slow cooker has a temperature probe, but most don't, so that's probably not an option. Though depending, you may be able to stick a probe thermometer through one of the vent holes in the lid.


For the best of both methods, cook the pasta most of the way in water, then strain and dump into the sauce to let it finish the last few minutes of cooking.


Try using double-zero (00) flour, available from Italian specialty stores. You might also prefer a recipe that uses more egg yolks, or only yolks and not whole eggs. For example: https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/fresh-pasta.


Can I cook my apple butter on high when it suggests low?

While different cookers have different opinions about how hot "high" and "low" actually are, I still wouldn't gloss over such a large discrepancy, unless I knew enough to make the call.

However, you can easily lower the temp of your crockpot on it's high setting. Try putting a terrycloth rag between the metal case and ceramic pot. This will reduce the heat transfer from the coils to the food, resulting in a stable but lower temp. Use a thermometer to check before/after temps and adjust the amount of "insulation" to get the temp you want. Low on my cheap consumer crockpots is around 120-140F.


How to make mayonnaise with a cooked yolk?

Regarding Romanian recipe...

Actually in Romania people tend not to use raw yolks so much. Most often we eat relatively raw yolks just in fried eggs or soft boiled eggs.
In most of recipes the yolks are cooked.

Regarding mayonnaise there are three ways of preparing it: using just raw yolks (most simple), using raw and cooked yolks 50-50, and using just cooked yolks (harder).

For the last one, which helps storing mayonnaise safer and longer,  the eggs are well boiled and then the yolk is removed. After cooling done until lukewarm it is finely crushed (often by passing it through a sieve several times) and then oil is added little by little. Sometime a small quantity of soft mustard is added for creating more chance of success. For one yolk about 100 ml oil can be incorporated (depending yolk size, as well). The mayo resulting it is slight harder then regular one. For making it softer, if you would like, you can add at last bubbled water (like a teaspoon), some lemon juice and even a tablespoon of cream or yogurt. Enjoy! Pofta buna!!

PS: we have some recipes of mayo without yolks, at all. These are for the period when we traditionally fast and no animal product is allowed.


Turning raw/baking cocoa powder into instant cocoa (Kaba/Nesquik)

The magic emulsifier is probably soy lecithin.

According to Wikipedia:

  It is used commercially in foods requiring a natural emulsifier or lubricant. In the food industry it has multiple uses: In confectionery it reduces viscosity, replaces more expensive ingredients, controls sugar crystallization and the flow properties of chocolate, helps in the homogeneous mixing of ingredients, improves shelf life for some products, and can be used as a coating.

The magic soluble is probably a hydrochloride:

  Converting insoluble amines into hydrochlorides is a common way to make them water- and acid-soluble


That "stale oil" smell was probably the small amount of fats in the crumbs going rancid and forming butyric acid. I usually do not cook with anything that smells bad, my thought is that it just isn't worth the risk, but risk tolerance varies.


Proper way to calculate the amount of sugar in a drink

Thanks to all the people who commented in the question post. I wrote a tweet to the manufacturer of the drink and they told me that the ingredient list is wrong because they increased the amount of lemon juice from what was originally planned but did not fix the label, so the sugar should have been after the lemon juice and not before in the ingredient list, hence making the nutritional values compatible with it.

They also told me that the label containing the ingredient list will be fixed in the future.


Is there a reason for storing ground spices separately (unmixed)?

I'm aware of three reasons that you might not want to do so:

You tie up spices that you might want to use in other dishes individually
You don't always want to add the spices at the same time.
You can't always keep spices well-blended.

If you only tend to cook one dish or you leave some of each spice in reserve, the first one isn't really a problem.

The second one is a function of the dish being prepared, which I'll assume isn't the case here.

The last one is less of a problem with ground spices, but can be significant for whole seeds -- as you jostle the container with use, some spices will tend to float to the top, while others sink to the bottom.  The end result is that when you go take your measure of mixed spices, it might not have the same proportion as what you had expected.

You can partially mitigate the issue by taking your container and rolling it around on its side for a bit before righting the container and taking your measurement.  It's not perfect, but it will help in re-distributing the spices.

If there are certain spices that would be a major problem if they weren't help in balance (eg, ground hot peppers), you can blend everything else and leave that one item separate.


Direct vs. Indirect Heat are terms usually used when referring to American style BBQing or grilling. While the terms can apply to other areas of cooking as well their usefulness makes the most sense in this context.

Direct Heat

A method of heat transfer in which heat waves radiate from a source (for example, an open burner or grill) and travel directly to the item being heated with no conductor between heat source and food. Examples are grilling, broiling, barbecueing, and toasting. (source)

Keep in mind that the grill itself doesn't really act as a conductor as much as a way to hold the food in a static position relative to the heat source. To better understand direct heat, understand it's complement:

Indirect Heat

When using indirect heat, your goal is to never have any part of the meat directly over flames or charcoal. You can only do indirect cooking with a charcoal or gas grill that has a cover. In this respect, it acts very much like a convection oven... the heat swirls around the inside of the grill and the meat is cooked from all angles. This also eliminates the need to 'flip' or turn your meat during the cooking process. (source)

This is generally used to cook large pieces of heat that need a long time to cook. A smoker is an example of the kind of equipment used to cook with indirect heat.


Assuming both have been pasteurized, the nutritional value is the same...You're certainly not going to be drinking milk at pasteurization temperatures.

For raw milk, you have to weigh the risks of bacterial contamination. It's rare, but it can be exceedingly nasty.


When boiling potatoes, should I put them in with the cold water or in to the hot?

Cold, it gives the inside more time to come up to the same temperature with the outside, for more even cooking.


choosing a saucepan material for creams and caramels

Unlined copper is sometimes used for serious sugar work, but it is very expensive and requires maintenance.

For general home use where you want to get more than one use from the pan, a good multi-ply stainless pan is probably the best choice in terms of utility and easy of maintenance.

You do not want ceramic coatings which can craze at high temperatures, nor teflon which can off-gas high temperatures, and which wears off over time.

For sugar work, non-stick is essentially not an issue at all:  short of completely burning your confection, the worst case for clean up is that you put water in the pan and bring it to a boil until the sticking candy dissolves.


For whole cuts of meat such as a steak or a chicken breast, I find it's better to freeze without cooking. These cuts aren't as moist after thawing them and re-heating.

For ground meat, it doesn't seem to matter. If I have the time I will cook and then freeze to save myself the effort durring the week.


Is it safe to eat sauteed onions left at room temperature?

After being cooked, the onions are much more subject to spoilage than they were whole.

After 2 hours (4 hours at the outside) cumulative at room temperature (well, between 40-140 F/4-60 C), they should be considered tainted and discarded, per standard official advise for perishable foods.

See also:
https://cooking.stackexchange.com/tags/food-safety/info


A soubise is a classic french onion-based sauce.  Really it is just slow cooked onions with a bechamel added.  Of course, bechamel has flour in it to thicken.  However, I have seen recipes where the bechamel is replaced with heavy cream.  For example, here, onion, cream, and vadouvan spice are blended together to make a flour-free soubise.  It would make a terrific pot pie filling!


Do you need a rice cooker to cook sticky rice?

Rice cookers are not magic.  They do not do anything, for any type of rice, that cannot be done with a more traditional pot and heat source.

What makes a rice cooker effective at what it does is that it has a thermometer measuring the temperature of the pot, at least at the edge.  This allows it to detect when all of the water has been absorbed, because only then can the temperature rise above the boiling point of water.   The logic or circuitry built into the cooker than shut off, or change the heat level to warming.

So of course, with experience and good technique you can cook anything in a regular pot that can be cooked in a rice cooker, including sticky rice.

Did you mean to ask how to properly cook sticky rice with traditional equipment?  You can google a myriad of recipes.  The common theme appears to be soaking and steaming (as you mentioned), for best results.  For example, this one from Food Network requires no rice cooker.


Attempting Tartine's basic country bread

You're almost certainly fine. 2-3 days is too early to really tell; and often the most off-putting period, both visually and olfactorily. Unless there is visible mold (green, black, or pink), I'd keep going.

Your culture is fighting for it's life right now, waging a battle against all the other natural bacteria that you don't want in your starter. Give it a rousing speech after feeding and carry on. Good luck on your new hobby!


Why do my stainless steel fry pans always develop a residue?

I use stainless daily, and they are pans I have had for almost 20 years.  The outside of my pans look like crap, but the inside looks like your final pic.  My tips are: (1) Reduce your heat a bit when you can, as high heat will polymerize the oils in your pan, creating the coating that is difficult to clean.  (2) Make sure you are using proper cooking techniques, particularly when it comes to using the correct pan for the job, and deglazing. Also, your pan does not have to be smoking hot before you add oil or ingredients.  Be gentle. (3) Clean pans right after use, and when you see a hint of polymerized oil (the brown haze) work hard to get it off (it's actually not so hard...just takes some effort, and sometimes some scouring powder and/or pad).  Any residue you leave behind will worsen with time.
The pans pictured can certainly be cleaned up. It will now take some elbow grease, but it would be in your best interest.  Use a scouring powder with just enough water to make it a paste.  Let it sit on there a while, then scrub with a scouring pad.


While I agree that the question is unclear, there is perhaps a clear answer to this from either of the directions that I can see.

If you are intending on making the thighs into stock -, add your other ingredients (veges, herbs etc), if any and cover with water.

If making soup from these and adding stock + water to cook the thighs so that they are eaten as part of the dish as a whole - then again, cover them with liquid. How much of each component you use is up to you, but I would suggest all liquid stock for this scenario. If you have a more concentrated stock, then dilute to taste with water.


Does adding vinegar to soup make it spoil faster?

I think it makes no difference as the vinegar does not contain bacterial spores. If so much vinegar that makes the soup significantly more sour then it can eventually go wrong even later as bacteria don't prefer the acidic environment.

To add a concrete quantitative example: while cooking 3 pieces of beetroots I added 5 tsp 6% acetic acid balsamic vinegar. 7 days later kept in fridge (~4C) is still good. I am quite sure it's because the acidity as meals used to go wrong much sooner than 7 days.


How would I go about recreating beef/hamburger taste/umami, strictly vegan?

Cooks Illustrated has an ultimate veggie burger recipe that you can adapt. Their key to umami is cremini mushrooms.  I've made that recipe and it was well received. Of course, no one mistook them for real hamburgers, but the patties tasted quite good.

MSG (monosodium glutamate) is to umami flavour what sugar is to sweet flavour. So if you're pro-msg, you can try that, too.  And pleanty reasons not to ;)
I recommend trying shitake mushrooms as well.
Also try up to 5% wheat germ/flour which should help with the caramelization and related flavours.
grated vidalia onions in the patties also help (caramelization and umami).


How to cook perfect meringue in a gas oven?

I usually go with residual heat.
But I use Pavlova meringue recipe (with teaspoon of potato flour) which call for baking for 30 minutes in 120 degrees (I adjusted time to around 18 minutes to compensate for the 130 temp).
Then I open it a little for around 2 minutes to lower the temp and keep closed for another 2 hours.
When I was making typical meringue I just put a tray in the oven when the temp dropped to around 100 degrees on gauge (old type gas oven with gauge in the middle of the glass) and just let it sit there for 5-6 hours.


Best Way To Remove Fajita Contents From Marinade

A colander over a bowl. That saves the marinade, so you can use as much as you want. Be sure you completely cook all of the marinade that you use, and discard the rest. It is not safe to reuse it.


How to thicken Chili without compromising flavor

As noted above, reducing the liquid through evaporation will thicken up the chili but you run the risk of burning/scorching the bottom and it can take a long time at lower temperatures. What I like to do is to take some of the beans (I prefer black beans in mine) and mash them up into a thick paste and then stir that into the chili. The starches from the beans will help thicken up the chili and you aren't adding anything that isn't already there. I have also seen people do similar things with cornbread.


what i used to do for popping whole cubes is-take out the ice tray from freezer. Put it under running tap of normal temp water(for 2-4 secs) from both sides of ice tray,from top and bottom back of ice tray. then twist the trays to remove ice. It pops out shattered ice less frequently.


I'd say that's not strictly true,mostly because no salt substitute I've ever seen can get the same taste anyway.

"Real" salt is sodium chloride (and maybe iodine, or minor impurities if it's sea salt). Most salt substitutes are partly or mostly potassium chloride. This is technically a salt (chemically speaking) and does have a similar salty taste, but it doesn't taste quite like sodium chloride, and can be bitter or metallic-tasting. Some salt substitutes add herbs or other things to help make the potassium chloride more palatable. Sounds like your has some "regular" salt as well, if it's got a significant sodium content.

So while you are right that there's likely a "catch," it's more likely to be that your salt substitute will never taste quite right, or will be bitter, and less likely that you'll be piling loads of extra on in an effort to get the right saltiness.


Does wrapping a bottle of whisky in plastic affect the taste?

Plastic isn't going to cause heating, and won't impact the quality of your whisky. Plastic wrapping is likely to trap moisture, however, which could be a concern as it could damage the labeling on the bottles. If you want to protect the boxes with plastic wrap my advice would be to make sure you have airflow.


Is butternut squash with veins OK to eat?

I know this is old but figured if you come across this again.
Squash generally last about one month after they are harvested. If the inner flesh contains any dark or mushy spots, discard it immediately.
I have had some white veins in my squash but they were just harvested and it tasted just fine.  Being that they are at 2 months old I would not risk it.


How do I adjust cooking time for an under-powered microwave?

1100 Watt means 1100 Joules per second (energy over time). 1100 Watt over a period of 240 seconds therefore is 264000 Joules. To deliver 264000 Joules of energy with only 800 Watt takes 330 seconds (5.5 minutes), as you expected.

As KatieK noticed, there are some additional concerns. A good recipe will tell you to let the cooked product stand for a while. This allows heat diffusion, so all those Joules of heat will be distributed well. But if you cook at lower power, then the heat will already be diffused more. I.e. at lower power, you don't need to rest the product as long.

Another difference might be that you're not just heating the product, but you're relying on a secondary effect such as killing germs. For that, you'll need to have the entire product above a critical temperature for a certain time. This in general means that you don't need to adjust the times as much as you'd expect by the simple formula.

On the other hand, a warm product will lose heat to the environment over time. I.e. not all of those 264000 Joules will stay in the product you're heating. And with more time spent at medium temperatures, there's more heat loss in a low-powered microwave.


Is there a quintessential Italian hot sauce?

Bottled hot sauce is not much in demand in Italy. I'm in central Italy, but I think in the south where spicy food is popular, chili is added fresh or dried to a dish rather than through a bottled sauce. I did find one example from Delizie di Calabria which is a common brand: http://www.deliziedicalabria.it/notizie/145-nd-sauce-la-salsa-piccante-senza-compromessi but I wouldn't call it typical. In my local supermarket (Tuscany) the only hot sauce available is Tabasco! Again, I welcome anyone from the south to correct me if I'm mistaken, but hot sauce is definitely not a thing here.


The "danger zone" is 4.4° C - 60° C, so it was in the danger zone. It should not be left there for more than a total of 2 hours - and yours was 2.

On top of that, freezing does not reset this countdown, it only stops it temporarily. You probably shouldn't eat this piece of meat, it isn't worth the risk.


Why is my sugar in my recipe becoming gritty and dry after baking in the oven. This is something new for me

I'm guessing this is for some type of fudge or praline?
There are a lot of variables that can change the crystallization of sugar when making a sugar syrup. Things like temperature, how clean your pot is, whether a wooden spoon is wet, how fast and when you stir, etc.
Using an interfering agent like butter or cream helps prevent the solution from creating large crystals. But even with those agents undissolved sugar or impurities can grow into large crystals.
Without seeing what you're cooking and how you're cooking it I can't give you a direct answer. But the best course of action you can take is to pay particular attention to cleaning and drying your pot, the implement you use to stir, and the complete dissolving of the sugar during the initial creation of the syrup.
This article has a lot of good information on sugar syrup and may point out something you're doing that could be done better.
https://www.finecooking.com/article/learn-how-to-control-crystallization-for-successful-sweets


What kind of cheese does Pizza Hut or Domino's use?

Pizza hut uses skim milk mozzarella on it's pizza, at least in the USA.  Not sure what they use in other countries, but I would imagine it is still the same.  Skim milk mozzarella is extremely stretchy, but loses a little on the flavor end.  More expensive pizzerias normally spring for the full fat mozzarella cheese.

Dominos uses a mix of cheese, made up of mozzarella, Pecarino, Parmesan, and asiago cheeses. I think in their most recent reboot they switched to part skim mozzarella but I am not one hundred percent on that.


What can I do with a large amount of glacé cherries?

If you search for glacé cherries you're going to get nowhere; these are much more commonly referred to as candied cherries and there are plenty of recipes to be found.

More specifically, the most common pairing seems to be almonds. Seems you can make just about any confection from almonds and candied cherries: cookies, nut brittle, bourbon/almond balls, cookies/biscotti, quickbreads, and even fudge.


Where in Pakistan can I buy a kettle BBQ?

You can buy it online. Here's a decent one. Here are cheaper ones from the same site. Here's another site with some smaller options.

When we discussed this in chat you told me that you'll be staying with your uncle. The advantage of buying it online is that you can have it shipped to your uncle's address so that it's there even before you arrive. You'll be all ready to fire up the corncobs on the very first day.

Amazon India has the hands down best selection, and if they don't ship to Pakistan you can use this service to get it delivered. But do be wary of potential customs fees and extended delivery time if you go this route.

You might have to ask your uncle to use one of his payment cards (in case some of these vendors don't accept foreign cards.)


Should leftover meat be stored in cooking juices?

If not consuming right away, it is often recommended to allow meat that was braised to cool, and be refrigerated in its juices.  For this reason, many recipes suggest making a braise a day ahead for better flavor.  I don't think your concern is break down of the protein, as much as it is shelf life.  If you are not going to fully consume the product within 3 - 4 days, freeze a portion of it.


Water collects around cooked idlis in my steamer

Maybe try using less water next time and boil the water before putting in the plates. Usually too much water is what causes the lower plates to have water.


Can a jar that has had botulinum food in it be cleaned

Typically if you suspect that a jar is actually contaminated with botulism the procedure is to leave it sealed and throw it away. This is due to the ability of botulism to become airborne.

(see: http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/general/identify_handle_spoiled_canned_food.html )

The washing of old gross jars is usually aimed at high-acid foods that may have popped the seal and become mouldy, stinky, or just plain old.


How do you calculate volume of pasta from its weight after cooking down?

Because of the different shapes, different pastas will occupy different volumes of space both before and after cooking.

There are two answers that readily occur to me, one simple one more complex.

The simple solution, of course, is just to make too much.  Cook your pasta, put in the casseroles with sauce or adding the sauce after, depending on your recipe, and if you have too much (you should, you planned for it) let it cool, add mayo, mustard, onion, some pickle relish and make pasta salad.  Or throw in soup.  Or ....

Option two is to measure your pasta by volume when dry, assuming that it approximately doubles in size.  So you'll need to fill one of your casseroles with dry pasta, and that should give you enough to make two casseroles worth, once you have cooked the pasta.


How to clean a "plastic" chopping board?

Stick it in the dishwasher.
A short soak and a stiff brush.  Then some disinfectant of what kind you use, let it soak for a bit, then rinse off.

If you're not able to get your plastic clean reliably, you're better off with a good wood board. Some research shows that they're more naturally anti microbial.

Based on your comment

It sounds like a good 'wooden endgrain board' may be in your future.  When well cared for, they 'self heal'.  The knives don't leave deep groves when used properly and they're somewhat anti-microbial according to the earlier link.


How should I store leftover rice noodles?

From the point of view of someone who used to work in a Chinese restaurant, we used to prepare vermicelli which are really thin rice noodles by soaking the uncooked dry noodles in cold water for about 1 hour or until it is flexible. We then can store this soaked, but uncooked noodle covered with a plastic wrap in the refrigerator for several days. They don't need to be oiled. To cook it, we just submerge it in boiling water for about a minute and then prepare it however we need it. With the soak it takes practically no time to cook at all.

Perhaps in the future you can follow this method and pre-soak your noodles. Then you can use however much noodles you need from that batch and save the rest for later. Plus it'll save on cooking time.


How can I fix rips in a puff pastry sheet?

I think it depends how fussy a presentation you are working on. If it has to be perfect, there really isn't going to be any fixing it. If some variation is acceptable, just wait til it is a bit softer and patch the rip back together like you would any other dough. You'll get less nice separation of the layers in that area.