You want it to form a thicker layer on the sheet, and you don't want to overdry it. The toughness is from drying a thin thin layer for too long. Cooking the fruit a little can help with that. So can fiddling with what fruits you use.

Thing is, though, it's not going to be like the stuff you buy. Read the ingredients: most have added sugar and some sort of thickeners like gelatin or xanthan gum.

For me, what matters is the taste. As long as it doesn't shatter when I try to eat it, I will accept a wide range of textures. I choose the fruit for flavour and availability and go for the simplest possible preparation, which is pureeing raw fruit.


Is industrially produced cream made with a gelatine sieve?

You read the site correctly, it's just that the information on the page is incorrect.

Commercial cream production consists of 5 main steps (from here, lots of info about different types of cream there too):

Skimming, centrifugation: separation of fat globules in milk. Milk skimming is done in a centrifugal cream separator.
Fat standardisation: in order to obtain the expected fat content.
Homogenisation: to prevent the creaming phenomenon during storage and to allow an increase in cream viscosity (for low-fat fluid creams)
Heat treatment: the objective is to inactivate microbial lipases and as a result destroy pathogenic germs without damaging the cream organoleptic qualities. Most creams are pasteurised.
Seeding and maturation: pasteurised creams may be matured with acidifying, aromatic or even thickening mesophilic lactic bacteria. Maturation gives more taste to the creams and protects it against lactic acid and bacteriocin production.

Gelatin would make a poor filter for this sort of thing - it is weak structurally and diffusion of the water molecules through the pores is slow - it would take days to dialyze/strain the volumes produced in a commercial system, which increases the risk of bacterial and fungal contaminants growing, and makes the system slow.

Gelatin is added to some creams (thickened cream (UK/AUS/NZ), whipping cream (USA)), to act as a thickener and produce a smooth stabilized foam when whipped. Gelatin can come from a variety of animal sources, but generally pigs and cattle which is why creams need to be certified as halal. Many commercial products contain vegetable derived thickeners (e.g. carrageenan) instead of gelatin


How do they get caffeine out in decaffeinated coffee?

The most commonly used method is the Swiss Water Process:

A batch of unroasted beans is soaked in hot water.  Caffeine is water soluble, so it's extracted from the beans.  However, some of the other substances that give coffee its flavour ("coffee solids") are also water-soluble and are also extracted.
The first batch of beans is discarded and the caffeine is filtered out of the water/caffeine/coffee solids mixture by a carbon filter.
Another batch of unroasted beans is added to the hot water/coffee solids mixture.  The water is already saturated with coffee solids, so only the caffeine is extracted from this batch of beans.
The now-decaffeinated beans are removed, the water/caffeine/coffee solids mixture is filtered again to remove the caffeine and the process can be repeated with another batch of beans or the same batch to remove even more caffeine.

There's no universal definition of "Decaf," but it generally means beans that have had at least 97% of the caffeine (by weight) removed.


Is it safe to microwave Pyrex containers immediately after removing them from the freezer and removing the plastic lid?

It not huge, it's just the difference from freezer to room temperature you are worrying about

E.g. -20°C to 20°C, is A 40°C shift. The shift was going to be 20°C to 100+°C anyway. There is no physical reasons why this would be anymore stressful

From room temperature you are raising it 80°C, from frozen you are raising it 120°C. Not a problem in the normal temperature range for glass

The freezing temperature of water (most common item in food) has no relation to the freezing temperature of glass etc

Pyrex and other glasses can be damaged if one part of them is instantly heated or cooled by a 100°C or so


What can I use hard, crunchy, leftover cookie-mistakes for?

There are plenty of uses for less than ideal cookies.  Here are a few off the top of my head:

Crumble on top of yogurt, ice cream or other deserts
Crumble up and pack it down as a pie crust (although, chocolate chips might make this one messy)
Break up, and use in a bread pudding (but you have to let it soak for a while, and do not sweeten the custard, as you need to compensate for the sugar in the cookies)


Substituting quinoa flour for wheat flour in egg pasta

I have never tried making pasta with just quinoa flour, but use a mix of potato starch and corn flour. So my pasta contains a lot of starch.

The issue is that the pasta gets really short and need to be handled quite carefully after rolling it. I have used it to make tagliatelle, ravioli, spaghetti, lasagna and tortellini with great success (my comparison is store bought pasta, not normal pasta as I haven't eaten that in 10 years when I found out I was allergic).

I don't really have a recipe, as I never follow them. But for one person I add two egg yolks, one whole egg, ~1 tablespoon of olive oil and some random mix of the flour until it feels smooth and nice to work with. I have found the resting time of this pasta to be essential, and I always allow it to rest for at least 20 minutes.


Can I separate garlic into cloves for storage?

Traditionally (at least in Spain) garlic was kept in a braided string, hung in a dry place, so that they could last until the following season.

Separating them in cloves will cause them to dry prematurely.


Chicken stock quantity to substitute for 1 stock cube (knorr)?

Per Knorr, you would dissolve one cube in 2 cups of water (500 ml), so you would use 2 cups of homemade stock and deduct 2 cups of liquid from the recipe.

Note that making stock from a single chicken carcass and 5 liters of water seems like a lot of water; you may wish to reduce the resulting stock until you only have a liter or two.

The stock ingredients have pretty much given their all into the stock.  All of the flavors and gelatin should be dissolved in the liquid, and the remaining solid mass is going to be pretty underwhelming.  It is probably best to discard.


The best recommendation I have seen is plain plastic wrap. If you have an oil mister, mist the wrap before using it. If you don't, pour oil into a bowl, enough to form a puddle, and toss your ball of dough in the oil. Then transfer your dough to the rising container (if you use the same bowl you used for oiling, take the dough out, pour out the superfluous oil, return the dough into the bowl). In the best case, the bowl will be deep enough for the dough to rise without the middle touching the wrap, but if it rises more (even with the dough pressing against the wrap), dough with enough gluten development will peel off the oiled wrap with minimal losses, even if it is wet.

The wrap will keep your dough surface moist in both the fridge and outside. It doesn't allow breathing, but this shouldn't be a concern in most cases. If you overyeast the dough, the collection of fermentation byproducts in the bowl will probably make for worse taste than if they are allowed to dissipate, but the correct solution for this problem is to not produce them in the first place. With your "very long times", this is probably not a problem in your case.

You can also use this method for the secondary fermentation. But in the final proofing stage, you have to make sure that your dough never rises enough to touch the wrap, or else the loaf will deform while you are removing the wrap. Also, if you are proofing in banettons, don't oil them, use flour combinations to prevent sticking.

If you are out of plastic wrap, substituting alu wrap is a bad idea, because yeast is very sensitive to metallic ions. Today's non-reactive metal utensils are safe enough for use with yeast dough, but untreated aluminium can be problematic. Try baking paper instead (you may have to tape it to the outer bowl walls).


Without knowing the internal temperature of your freezer for the duration of the power outages this is impossible to answer.  Since these are planned outages, I assume you have experienced them before.  Do items in your freezer remain frozen?  At the very least, they will have experienced some freeze/thaw cycling, which would likely impact the texture of the prawns.  It is obviously not ideal. So, yes, I would be concerned.  How concerned is impossible to judge with the information provided.


Keep or remove skin when grinding poultry?

I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned fat.  Leaving the skin will give your ground poultry a higher percentage of fat content, resulting a more tender and moist "burger".


Is it normal if ceramic pan looks like that after the first use?

No, I don't believe so... it looks more like cooking residue to me. But you should be able to clean it sufficiently with one of the tricks below.

One trick, which I've used for any type of pan, is to put a small amount of water in it, then heat the water to the boiling point and let it cool. It softens up anything left on the surface, making cleaning much easier.

Another thing I do on a regular basis is using one of two products: Barkeeper's Friend, or Bon Ami. Similar to baking soda [mentioned on the WikiHow page: How to Clean Ceramic Pans]. All three are gentle, slightly abrasive cleansers that should not damage your pan surfaces.


How do you cook margarine with brown sugar without separating?

I’ve had this problem several times with melting brown sugar and butter together and boiling it. The key is to start on a lower temperature, stirring the brown sugar and butter as it melts. Allow the mixture to slowly get to a boil and then leave it-allow it to boil on its own evaporating some of the liquid. Never do this on high temperature-it wrecks it every time!


What are the pros and cons of various woods used in wooden utensils?

I prefer Maple myself but the whole objective is to use wood species that have very tight grains and closed pores. The above that you mentioned all seem in line but as a wood worker I would think that birch would be on the bottom of my list as choices. If you look at hard woods like Oak you will notice a lot of open grain that makes the surface far to porous for this. You want it as smooth as possible so it can be cleaned well when you're done using it.

There could be other benefits that I'm not aware of so this is just an opinion from someone who works with wood a lot. When I mill birch it has a tendency to get fuzzy and it's very labor intensive to get the final piece smoothed out. I don't even bother with it any more.


Can a cream cheese cake be left out and for how long?

If you have a true pound cake, it should be good at room temperature for 2-3 days, well wrapped.

The title of your question made it sound like you have a cheese cake, perhaps with a pound cake base.  If that is the case:

Cheesecake is essentially a custard of cream cheese, eggs, and dairy.

None of these foods should normally be left at room temperature for an extended period of time, as they are all quite perishable.

I would recommend leaving a cheesecake out for no more than 2 hours or so, the same as any other perishable food.

See also:  How do I know if food left at room temperature is still safe to eat?


What is the difference between Pasta Sauce and Spaghetti Sauce?

Marinara sauce is a specific sauce, made with tomatoes, and probably garlic, onions, and herbs.

Spaghetti sauce, in the US, means something tomato-based, possibly with meat. I suppose it's based roughly on marinara or bolognese, depending on what variety you have.

Pasta sauce means absolutely any sauce you can put on pasta. Maybe some people have specific things in mind, certain sauces they use more often, but it's not a specific enough term that you can say "I'm making pasta sauce" and have everyone know even roughly what you mean. In the US, certainly tomato-based ones are extremely common, probably followed by creamy things like alfredo, but there's plenty beyond that.


There is a good answer to a similar question, here
What to look for when choosing a dutch oven?
but since I had already written my answer, I'll leave it.

It depends on why you are buying it.  There are several factors that go into picking any Dutch oven.

Weight/thermal mass.  The ability of the oven to retain, and release heat evenly is determined by its thermal  mass, which is why they are made of  cast iron and very heavy.  Cooking   quality for both with be comparable. Both are VERY heavy.  There are other brands that work...there is a Mario Batali Dutch oven that has gotten good reviews, and I even have a Tramontina that I bought in a grocery store that is very well made and works well.

Lid fit.  The lid has to be a good fit.  If it is loose, or warped, when you are doing a braise the liquid will escape and your braise becomes a dehydrate or a burn.  This is where "cheap" brands fail.  However, either of these brands will do you well.

Thickness/evenness of the finish.  This is, in my opinion, more aesthetic and long term care based, but if you are going to buy enameled, make sure you get a decent finish.  There are some that look more like the enamel has been painted on.  This is mostly your call.  The problem with enamel finishes is that you have the chance of cracking or chipping it, and once that's done, there is no cost effective way to fix it.  But the enamel affects the cooking least of all.  I cook most things in my Lodge cast iron (no enamel) dutch oven, and while it affects the color of some dishes, there is the additional iron that I get in my diet...no Geritol ™ for me.

Cost.  You can compare cost, but this will potentially be the biggest variable.  It's why I own the Tramontina.

Status.  This is a non-factor for me, but if you take dishes to your gated community potluck, the Le Creuset has more status.  It is, after all, French.

Both are good brands, both will allow/help you to cook good food.  You have to determine what the cost/status difference is between them, and how important that is.  If both cost the same, I would probably go with the Le Creuset.  Since they rarely do, I have more Lodge than Le Creuset in my kitchen.


Is a partially frozen chicken safe if not immediately cooked at the proper temperature?

Assuming you thawed the chicken (to the extent that you did) in the refrigerator, and further assuming that it took less than an hour to reach a safe internal temperature, I would say you are fine. An internal temperature of 180ºF (80ºC) is safe by quite a margin.

The USDA recommends that home cooks do not keep food within the "Danger Zone" of 40-140ºF (4-60ºC) for more than 2 hours. This includes preparation and cooking time. If you thawed the bird on the kitchen counter, or if your chicken accompanied you on a long journey from the supermarket in an unfrozen state, you'll have to factor that time in.

As @Jefromi's comment on another answer notes, simply reaching a high enough internal temperature is not a guarantee of safety since some microbes produce toxins that are heat-stable.


Having trouble with the sweet & sour sauce recipe

5% is the acid content of most common vinegars, and if a recipe doesn't explicitly state to use a stronger one, assume a 5% type is intended. There seem to be versions of white distilled vinegar in both 5% and 10%, an even stronger version called Essigessenz at 25% (!!!) is common in Germany. You likely bought the 9% version by accident, you should dilute it 1:1 with water or only use half the amount.


forgive me for asking, but are your capers perhaps in a jar with peppercorns?

if so, this might explain it

sadly i'm not an expert on this plant, but they might be like other flowers (a sweetpea for example comes in several colours)

oh-- i will not post a pic because someone will take points from me, but as you love capers it might interest you to know that they grow on the Western Wall in Jerusalem :)

if your caper habit becomes too expensive you might try Pickling Dandelion Buds & Nasturtium Buds


It would be ideal if you could find both wheat germ and wheat bran, but substitutes may be good enough.  I'm not sure what's in your ground husk supplement, but I'm betting it's close enough to wheat bran.  Can you find oat bran, rice bran, or ground flax?  They may work as a substitute for the wheat germ.

Wikipedia says, "Wheat consists of approximately 83% endosperm, 14.5% bran, and 2.5% germ by mass. For sifted, unbleached white flour, wheat bran, and wheat germ having densities of 125, 50, and 80 grams/cup, respectively, one cup of graham flour is approximately equivalent to 84 g (~2⁄3 cup) white flour, 15 g (slightly less than 1⁄3 cup) wheat bran, and 2.5 g (1.5 teaspoons) wheat germ."  (Graham flour contains these ingredients in the same proportions as whole wheat flour.)

If you can't find wheat germ (or a suitable substitute), try leaving it out and see what happens.


Why is there so much crema on my espresso?

Crema is basically carbon dioxide fizzing up the coffee oils. By the description you're giving, it is likely to be too much. Your beans could be too oily and/or too fresh. It could be a combination of the type of beans / blend / or the way it's roasted.

Just as a guide, it is best for the beans to rest for around about a week after it's roasted. And if your beans end up soaking in oil, that is not good!


Absent the cake portion, the ingredients are precisely as listed for the Waitrose White and Dark Chocolate Tiramisu. Recipe and image courtesy of Waitrose.com

As @ChrisH has suggested, someone may have been modifying the recipe to use ready-made cake, such as a Madeira.

  Coffee chocolate syrup
  200ml strong coffee
  1 tbsp demerara sugar
  75g plain chocolate, finely chopped

  Cake
  125g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
  225g caster sugar
  2 large eggs, lightly beaten
  1 tsp vanilla extract
  75g plain chocolate, melted
  175g essential Waitrose plain flour
  25g cocoa powder
  1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  200ml essential Waitrose soured cream

  Mascarpone and chocolate cream
  100g white chocolate, chopped
  4 large eggs, separated
  75g caster sugar
  500g mascarpone

And, in the interest of not presenting a full recipe, here is my abridged version of the directions; follow the link for the full details.

  Prepare the cake layers the day before you plan to assemble the tiramisu.

  The next day, prepare the coffee syrup. Pour the hot coffee into a bowl, add the sugar and chopped chocolate and stir until smooth and the chocolate has completely melted.

  Prepare the mascarpone cream. Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir until smooth, then set aside to cool slightly. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and caster sugar until the mixture has doubled in volume and leaves a ribbon trail when the whisk is lifted. Add the mascarpone and melted white chocolate and whisk again until smooth. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they hold a stiff peak. Fold the egg whites into the mascarpone mixture using a large metal spoon.

  To assemble the tiramisu, spoon a layer of the mascarpone cream into the bottom of each of glass and top with a layer of cake. Drizzle liberally with the coffee syrup. Add another layer of the cream, cake, syrup and a final layer of cream. Serve chilled, perhaps scattered with white and dark chocolate shavings.


Breakfast burritos from 16 egg casserole, how to cook everything uniformly?

Baked, covered, at low heat :

ovens self-regulate, so you're going to get a more consistent result each time than doing it on the stovetop.
covering will minimize evaporation, which will cool the top more.
low heat will minimize problems with the edges cooking before the middle ... but eggs also have this strange thing where it's more difficult to over cook them at low heat ... and it's not just an issue of carry-over cooking (which lower heat will help to minimize, too).

As for shape of the vessel, I'd go with a rectangular baking dish -- because then I could more easily portion out 16 equal sized servings than from a round or oblong vessel.


Can I subtitute water for milk in crêpes?

You can substitute but don't expect them to be exactly the same, of course.

The fat, protein, and sugar in milk all interfere with the flour and egg protein binding in the crepes. Milk will produce a more tender product.

Also expect the flavor to be a little less luxurious without the fat and sugar. You can use vanilla or replace some of the oil with butter (if your recipe doesn't already call for them).

Powdered milk or evaporated milk are good to have on hand for when you get in situations like this.


I've seen them called "pop pops". NatureBox sells them:
https://naturebox.com/product/sea-salt-pop-pops

Trader Joe's has a variant:
https://www.amazon.com/Trader-Joes-Partially-Popped-Popcorn/dp/B00WOQ31AY

There's also a brand called "half pops" at halfpops.com.

Googling turned up a recipe for making them, but I haven't tried it:
http://www.jenosmon.com/blog/half-popped-popcorn/


What to place underneath a convection microwave oven?

I'd get a small granite or marble "cutting" board just the size of the oven.

It will help diffuse the heat.


Is it safe to eat the clam that didn't open?

Before steaming the clams, they should all be closed. If any of your clams are open, give them a tap and if they stay open, then it is bad and you should take it out of your batch to prevent it from ruining the other clams.

After you have steamed the clams, most of them should be open. The few clams that stay closed doesn't necessarily mean they are bad. Take a thin knife and pry it apart. It's very easy to tell if the clam is bad just by smell.

Edit: After being called out on my fallacy to believe certain kitchen myths without further research, I learned that indeed it is a myth that clam/mussel that refuse to open after being cooked is unsafe to eat.

A clam/mussel has a shell with two halves. These shells have elastic ligaments that naturally want to be open. To keep the shells closed, they have adductor muscles to hold the shells together. Most of the time the heat will denature the proteins in the adductor muscles causing it to release the shells. But sometimes it can cause the muscle to "seize" and hold firm.

This article gives a background of how this kitchen myth started: Mussel Myth

Clam or Mussels that refuse to open after they have been cooked IS NOT an indicator that they are bad. Pry them open and it can easily be determined whether they are bad by the smell.


First off, measuring the temperature of an empty pan will only tell you so much. That temperature is a result of the balance of your stove putting heat into the pan and the pan transferring that heat to the surrounding air, which means it depends on the pan, and as soon as you put anything in the pan the temperature is going to change. (See also What temperatures do low-medium-high on the stove correspond to?.)

So, 260F is certainly hot enough to scramble eggs. They'll be fully cooked by around 160F, though at that point they might be a bit softer than you're used to. But the fact that the pan only reaches 260F really suggests that the stove isn't putting much heat into the pan, so once you add eggs to the pan, it might take an awfully long time for them to get hot enough to cook.

And a stove that can only heat an empty pan to 260F sounds like incredibly low power. Most stoves can easily get empty pans up to at least 400-500F. You might want to see if you can get the stove repaired or replaced.


What is the coating of this spring roll called, and how is it made?

It's regular roll made with net rice wrapper
It's common wrapper in Vietnam.
Here's site when you can see the package and rolls made with it bearnakedfood


Olive oil is not native to Japan and is never used in traditional Japanese cooking.  (Yes, olives are now grown in Japan and olive oil is readily available, but so are burgers and pizza.)

Your recipe's "vegetable oil" is almost certainly a translation of the Japanese サラダ油 sarada abura, literally "salad oil", meaning any of a number of mildly flavored, neutral oils like canola oil (probably the most common) or sunflower oil.  According to the relevant JAS standard, olive oil is explicitly not a type of "salad oil".

That's the theory, but in practice, for things like salads you probably can use olive oil without significantly changing the flavor.  Salads are also not traditional Japanese food, so there's more room for experimentation anyway.  Stick to mild olive oils though, avoid funky extra virgin and the like, and definitely do use a "salad oil" if the recipe involves frying etc.


Is there anything gained by butterfly cutting a hot dog for grilling?

Butterflying a hot dog (or any similar sausage) has two effects. First, as the moisture inside the hot dog expands during cooking, causing the casings to frequently burst due to the pressure that builds up. When you butterfly a hot dog the this is prevented. Such blistering does not 'harm' the hot dog but are somewhat 'unsightly', so I would call this an aesthetic effect. The second effect is that it allows the hot dog to cook through more evenly. Particularly for those who prefer their hot dog well done butterflying can get the insides cook through without charring the outside.

[Edit: found something interesting to add...]
If you want to impress your friend with something different, try spiral cutting your hot dog.


Best heat source for fondue? Will an induction cooktop work?

In my experience, the lowest setting of my induction cooker - 120 watts - is too high and results in scorched chocolate and will also burn dairy products like a cheese sauce. I wouldn't use it for a fondue - I would use a candle.

It's possible this restaurant had specialty induction cookers that could reach lower temperatures. My single-burner el cheapo induction cooker is standard off-the-shelf.

Edited to add:

I use my induction cooker, never my gas stove, for deep frying. With my induction cooker (which goes up to 2000 watts), 600 watts is the perfect setting for deep frying and no fiddling is required - it always works perfectly. So for hot oil fondues, where you're essentially deep frying meat, I absolutely would use an induction cooker. It would be my cooking tool of choice.


Should a [Ceramic] mug be left covered or uncovered during the tea bag steeping process?

This seems like a case where a very simple A/B comparison will give you the answer for your own personal preference. Just use two identical mugs and do everything else the same except cover one and not the other. If you really want to make it official, put a mark on the bottom of one mug and then have someone else randomize them while you look away. (p.s. not sure why this question is getting negative votes, it seems fine to me).


Waay too much baking soda, can I salvage these tea buscuits somehow?

They are probably unsalvageable, sorry.

There are two possibilities for the bad taste. If you didn't have much fat in the dough, then what you are getting is probably an alkali taste. It is bland and subtly bitter. Alkali (basic) stuff can be neutralized with acid. But for the neutralization you need to mix your alkalic stuff with acid in a liquid environment. So, you could soak the bisquits in something acidic. But it is almost certain that the cure will be worse than the disease. There is a small possibility that you can get it to work right, if you use a sugar syrup with enough acid. You will get something dripping, revane-like.

In my experience, this kind of dessert is an acquired taste, and you may not like it at all, even if you manage to execute it, and if it works reasonably well (and these are two big ifs).

The second possibility is that you had sufficient fat in the dough to saponify it with the soda. Then you practically got soap in your dough. There is no way to reverse it at all.

Any tries to add something to the bisquits will fail. Humans are very good at detecting bad tastes, even when diluted. You can only try to "remove" the taste, and as described above, your chances for success are minimal.


You can use small amounts of cheddar mixed with the other cheeses. But you'd be disappointed in the results if you tried to use it as the main or only cheese on the pizza.

Cheddar cheese doesn't tolerate sustained, high heat as well as some other cheeses. It can scorch, which tastes and smells bad, and/or the fats can separate from the solids as a yellowish oil. The sharper the cheese is, the less well it will tolerate heat.


It's definitely asking for rolled oats, not prepared oats. It's just like oatmeal cookies.

It's up to you whether you use normal rolled oats, quick-cooking, or instant. I use normal in my crumbles, but you might choose quick or instant if you think the normal retain too much texture. Personal preference! They'll all work, though, so you can just use what you've got on hand.

(When I do oatmeal for breakfast, I prepare normal rolled oats as if they were instant - just add boiling water. I like some texture.)

And while I'm at it, general advice: crumble topping is something you can easily do without a recipe, just throwing in the ingredients until it holds together a bit, but is nice and crumbly. So don't worry too much about exactness here. It'll come out great.


Could it be bad black olive that I've eaten?

Olives are naturally bitter and often fermented in brine to give a salty flavour - so they should taste bitter and salty.

American black ("California") olives are not fermented, which is why they taste milder. If you've never had European (fermented) olives then you'll notice a bit of a kick. It may be that you've never had non-fermented olives and the flavour was just new to you. Olives are an acquired taste.

Also, given that olives are either preserved in brine or fermented they're not likely to go bad for many years. They should keep at least a year, unrefigerated.

Read more about the fermenting process here.


Does it take longer to cook more pork ribs?

It's not entirely clear what you mean, but if you mean the difference between cooking 1 rack or 6, the answer is that there isn't one. The oven will heat up six racks just as quickly as one, unless you stack all of them directly on top of each other or something like that. The only thing you have to adjust is the seasoning. Otherwise, just make sure they have space and cook like it was one rack.


The more I season, the worse it gets with my cast iron

A couple of things - the first is that I often hear people say that you should strip off/remove the pre-seasoning that comes with skillets, as it is inferior or will interfere with a proper seasoning done by you. Since you are having issues with your current seasoning, and it's not getting better, it might be best to strip it away and start from scratch.

While one might think that soap and a scouring pad is an okay to remove seasoning, soap is going to leave a residue. Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen (the closest thing to an encyclopedia or the Burning Bush for all cooking-related matters) says that a great way to remove existing seasoning is to run your oven through it's self-cleaning cycle with the skillet in it.

If you do not have a self-cleaning oven, here is another article from Cook's Illustrated on how to do it with oven cleaner, soapy water, steel wool and vinegar -

  Follow this method to completely remove any residual seasoning on a cast-iron pan before reseasoning it. Easy-Off Oven Cleaner is a caustic alkali, so be sure to work outdoors, wear rubber gloves, and avoid spraying near your face or skin. The skillet will rust instantly once you’ve discarded the vinegar-water solution and rinsed and dried the skillet in step 5, so be sure to immediately apply oil to the surface.

  Working outdoors, place concrete block on ground and cover with heavy-duty kitchen trash bag, draping bag over block so that sides of bag will be easy to grasp and pull up over skillet.

  2A. Place skillet upside down on top of block. Wearing rubber gloves, spray skillet all over with Easy-Off Oven Cleaner, being careful to keep spray away from your face and exposed skin.

  2B. Flip skillet over and spray inside.

  2C. Pull plastic bag up and around skillet and tie to close. Leave wrapped, sprayed skillet outside (or in garage) for 24 hours.

  3A. Wearing rubber gloves, remove plastic bag. Scrub skillet all over with steel wool and hot soapy water to remove all residue.

  3B. Rinse, repeat scrubbing with steel wool, and rinse again.

  Combine 2 cups distilled white vinegar with 2 cups water. Fill skillet with vinegar solution and let stand for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
  Discard solution in skillet. Rinse skillet well, then dry well with paper towels.

  (start remaining seasoning process, below, here)

Cook's Illustrated: How to strip a cast iron skillet

Once you have, basically, the unseasoned metal skillet, if you want state of the art seasoning, go and find food-grade flaxseed oil. Flaxseed oil is the base for linseed oil, which is used as a tough, durable furniture finish.  Keep in mind, you MUST get food-grade oil, as furniture linseed oil has a lot of toxic chemicals added to it.

Google shopping search for food-grade flaxseed oil

  The flaxseed oil so effectively bonded to the skillets, forming a sheer, stick-resistant veneer, that even a run through our commercial dishwasher with a squirt of degreaser left them totally unscathed. But the vegetable oil-treated skillets showed rusty spots and patchiness when they emerged from the dishwasher, requiring reseasoning before use.

  Why did the new treatment work so well? Flaxseed oil is the food-grade equivalent of linseed oil, used by artists to give their paintings a hard, polished finish, and it boasts six times the amount of omega-3 fatty acids as vegetable oil. Over prolonged exposure to high heat, these fatty acids combine to form a strong, solid matrix that polymerizes to the pan’s surface.

Once you have your food grade flaxseed oil, here are the steps:

  How to Season Cast Iron with This Method
  Although lengthy, seasoning with flaxseed oil is a mainly hands-off undertaking. We highly recommend the treatment:

  Warm an unseasoned pan (either new or stripped of seasoning) for 15 minutes in a 200-degree oven to open its pores. The best way to strip a cast-iron pan of seasoning is to run the pan through your oven's self-cleaning cycle.
  Remove the pan from the oven. Place 1 tablespoon flaxseed oil in the pan and, using tongs, rub the oil into the surface with paper towels. With fresh paper towels, thoroughly wipe out the pan to remove excess oil.
  Place the oiled pan upside down in a cold oven, then set the oven to its maximum baking temperature. Once the oven reaches its maximum temperature, heat the pan for one hour. Turn off the oven; cool the pan in the oven for at least two hours.
  Repeat the process five more times, or until the pan develops a dark, semi-matte surface.

I'm going to assume that warming the skillet in the oven only set to 200 degrees, and then turning the oven off, and leaving it open while applying oil will have the oven cool enough to move to the next step. Also, saying to "repeat the process" does not include stripping off the existing seasoning each time. Just repeat the actual seasoning part.

This method was originally put out there by a blogger named Sheryl Canter. I don't think ATK added any twists of their own.

Sheryl Canter's blog entry about seasoning/polymerizing your skillet

Cook's Illustrated how-to article, NOT behind their paywall

All of my quoted passages are from the Cook's Illustrated articles.


Why does water always boil over when steaming shrimp?

Foaming is the result of proteins.   For example, urine (sorry) foams when protein levels are high (persons with kidney failure can judge their urinary protein levels by how much foaming occurs).  Vegetables have no protein;  shrimp juices, plenty.  Fats counteract protein foam formation, so egg whites ( very high protein) foam nicely, but not if any yolk or other oils are present.  cream is a bit different, in that it has both protein AND fat, but that’s another story.


Why does whip cream dispenser sometimes produce "ragged" cream?

When I first got my iSi I had wildly inconsistent results, including exactly what you're describing.  I'm not sure if you're just whipping cream or if you're whipping other cream-based preparations, but the most common reason for this happening is that the liquid going in isn't quite, er, liquid.  Any solid particles of any kind will almost assuredly cause sputtering, which is why they recommend that you strain everything through a fine sieve.

Other things I've learned about the iSi whippers to help prevent these inconsistent results:

Ignore everything the instructions tell you about how to charge it.  They're somewhere between very misleading and complete nonsense.  What I actually do is this:

Screw on a charger as described.
Shake it vigorously, as if it were a cocktail shaker.
Let it rest for a moment, then shake again.  Repeat the shaking 4-5 times.
Finally, remove the charger and screw the cap back on.

The instructions are full of ominous warnings about not being able to discharge it properly if you shake it too much because the nozzle will get blocked or something.  Never happened.  What's far more likely is that the cream doesn't actually whip fully or there are large air pockets.  Do not err on the side of caution here; many "external" iSi recipes such as those you find in the HRC actually tell you to shake frequently as the dispenser chills.  I'm not sure if I'd do this with cream (as opposed to a water-based foam) but I can't stress this enough, don't skimp on the shaking.
If you need to chill it some more after charging, make sure to chill it on its side.  The instructions are quite explicit about this and in this case they're actually correct.
Shake it again after you chill it and before you dispense any.  This is very important and conspicuously absent from the instructions.  You shouldn't need to shake as much as the first pass, but some of the gas does seem to separate over time.
Start by dispensing the cream very, very slowly, until you actually see some come out, then you can apply more pressure as needed.  If you squeeze the trigger as hard as you can right off the bat, you'll just end up depressurizing the thing before any cream has a chance to come out.  Every single time I've pulled too hard, I've ended up with spatters.
Finally, make sure that you actually thoroughly clean it all between uses, including the tiny horizontal hole in the metal tube that you screw the tips onto (I forget what it's called) as well as the socket that piece goes into.  Any blockages whatsoever, no matter how small, can cause at least minor sputtering.

Hope some of that helps.  If you do all of that, you shouldn't have any sputtering issues.  Last 7 or 8 times I've used mine, I haven't had any.


The use of chicken bones that have frost on them

Yep, you sure can. Frost, freezer burn, anything like that will have virtually no effect on broth making.


Why does my pizza dough (and other doughs) go sticky on freezing and defrosting?

There are several effects which I think are at work here:

starch hydrates over time. Sure, within an initial kneading, it already hydrates quite a bit, but if you leave it longer, it continues changing. (That's also why it is recommended to rest crepe batter). So the starch which was somewhat-dry is now completely wet, making the dough as a whole stick. If you had patches of completely dry flour on the outside left from shaping, they are now also completely wettened, giving you more initial sticking at your first touch of the dough, which probably contributes to the sticky impression even more.

24 hours is quite long for an already-risen dough, even though the temperature is very low (starts from frozen). I wouldn't be surprised if the overleavening process starts already in that timeframe, and overleavened dough is sticky.

the gluten mesh is susceptible to physical disruption. I mostly notice this with home-ground wholemeal flour, the bran basically cuts it too much for proper rising. I guess that the formation and expansion of ice crystals also has a bit of an effect on your gluten, even though it's milder because of the lack of kneading while the crystals are present.

So I think this is to be expected, and not exactly worrisome. If you want to reduce the effect, you can freeze the dough in discs instead of a cuboid or cylindrical container. You will then have shorter defrosting times, and your dough won't overleaven on the outside while the center is still defrosting.


Cups v. weighing scales - is there an historical explanation?

I'm no authority, but I have a hypothesis.

Measuring weight is more complex than measuring volume. Before the invention of the digital scale (recent history), or the spring scale (1770, by a Brit) things were weighed with a balance scale and a set of weights. Materials alone makes this more expensive than a simple cup that would hold a liquid.

Given the timing of the invention of the spring scale, and our subsequent armed revolution, and many years (decades?) of being a flat-out poor country I don't imagine that we had much money to worry about spring scales or balance scales. A cup is cheaper and simpler, and doesn't wear out or break. The durability also likely had a role to play in our journeys westward.

Likely by the time we actually could afford "fancier" methods of measurement the volume thing was just too ingrained in our heads. Plus, we tend to be stubborn (e.g. metric).


What is this type of (Greek?) chilli pepper?

It's a Frigitello pepper, although in the states they're called pepperoncini. You can grow any spicy chili pepper in the UK provided you have a greenhouse or maybe a conservatory, otherwise don't bother, it just isn't hot enough.

You can find these types of peppers in any turkish and many asian supermarkets, so no need to grow them.


How long will ground beef stay good after being frozen?

From Freezing and Food Safety published by the United States Department of Agriculture:

Is Frozen Food Safe?
Food stored constantly at 0 °F (-18 °C) will always be safe. Only the quality suffers with lengthy freezer storage. Freezing keeps food safe by slowing the movement of molecules, causing microbes to enter a dormant stage. Freezing preserves food for extended periods because it prevents the growth of microorganisms that cause both food spoilage and foodborne illness.

Does Freezing Destroy Bacteria & Parasites?
Freezing to 0 °F (-18 °C) inactivates any microbes — bacteria, yeasts and molds — present in food. Once thawed, however, these microbes can again become active, multiplying under the right conditions to levels that can lead to foodborne illness. Since they will then grow at about the same rate as microorganisms on fresh food, you must handle thawed items as you would any perishable food.

Trichina and other parasites can be destroyed by sub-zero freezing temperatures. However, very strict government-supervised conditions must be met. Home freezing cannot be relied upon to destroy trichina. Thorough cooking, however, will destroy all parasites.

Freshness & Quality
Freshness and quality at the time of freezing affect the condition of frozen foods. If frozen at peak quality, thawed foods emerge tasting better than foods frozen near the end of their useful life. So freeze items you won't use quickly sooner rather than later. Store all foods at 0° F (-18 °C) or lower to retain vitamin content, color,


Is "krapfens" commonly used to designate donuts?

I can only answer as to the USA. In the US, English speakers do not say krapfen, nor would most English speakers be familiar with the word.


Microwave more than one container at a time

There's no general answer. As you say, it's probably less than triple the time for one, and unless it's really small, it's probably substantially more than the time for one. But depending on the size and shape, it could be all over the place in that range.

You pretty much just have to try it and check periodically, starting perhaps after 10-15 minutes to get an idea. If it's relatively large compared to your microwave, you may also need to rearrange them periodically to get even heating, maybe every several minutes, in which case you'll get a very good idea how fast it's heating and don't have to worry about all the rest of this.


How can I concentrate citrus juice at home?

Some fruit juices can be heated to drive off excess water (especially those with a higher sugar content) but citrus doesn't tolerate this well.  Fresh-squeezed citrus will get bitter and acrid if reduced.

Instead, squeeze your citrus as normal and freeze the juice in an open container.  Once it's set into a solid block, place it into a funnel or strainer over a collection vessel.  The juice itself will run off more quickly and collect in the vessel, while the ice crystals stay in the strainer (until they melt, at least - don't let them melt all the way, or you're back to the beginning).  Once the ice looks very lightly colored, discard it and enjoy your concentrated juice.  You can repeat this process if you want further concentration, though eventually there will come a point where the juice is so concentrated that it won't freeze at conventional freezer temperatures.

Good instructions for this process here - it's really quite simple!


How to store homemade fresh Mozzarella Cheese

I believe that fresh mozzarella should be stored in the whey to keep it moist.


Why is "raw" honey thicker than the one you buy in regular super markets?

The raw honey at your farmer's market is likely unfiltered.

  Usually raw, unfiltered raw honey can only be purchased directly from
  the bee farm. Characterised by fine textured crystals, it looks
  cloudier and contains particles and flecks made of bee pollen,
  honeycomb bits, propolis, and even broken bee wing fragments. Raw and
  unfiltered honey and has a high antioxidant level and will usually
  granulate and crystallize to a thick consistency after a few months.
  It is usually preferred as a spread on bread and waffles, or dissolved
  in hot coffee or tea. However, as most consumers are naturally
  attracted to buying and eating crystal clear and clean honey,
  unfiltered honey which looks cloudy and unappealing, is not
  commercially available on supermarket shelves.

Additionally, the pasteurization process helps keep the honey more liquid:

  A lot of honey found in the supermarket is not raw honey but
  "commercial" regular honey, some of which has been pasteurized (heated
  at 70 degrees Celsius or more, followed by rapid cooling) for easy
  filtering and bottling so that it looks cleaner and smoother, more
  appealing on the shelf, and easier to handle and package. ... Heating
  also slows down the speed of crystallization in liquid honey. ... you
  may also find raw honey that are unprocessed but slightly warmed to
  retard granulation for a short period of time and allow light
  straining and packing into containers for sale.

http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/raw-honey.html


Do these two types of mouli graters do the same thing?

Those two are quite different.

The first is for soft food:
The "wings" push the filling through the mesh, pureeing the food and holding back tough bits like pieces of fruit skin or seeds. It's the same principle as pushing food (chunky soup, cooked fruit...) through a sieve with a ladle or large spoon, just a bit more effective and comfortable - if you don't mind the cleaning step afterwards.
The wide funnel / splatter guard and the metal "rest" at the front show that the food mill is hung over a pot, so that you can comfortably ladle your hot food into the mill and turn the crank without having to actually lift the contraption.

The second is for hard food:
It is basically a round grater, aka drum grater. The cheese (typically use case), block of chocolate,... goes into the top channel, the grating is done by the rotating "drum". The shavings drop out at the side. It's not really obvious if you look at your photos, but the handle actually consists of two parts, connected with a hinge at the outer end. The upper part can be opened wide and the to be grated food goes under the end of the handle into the square receptacle, where it is pushed against the drum by the curved end when you hold the entire handle. Here is a random open example:

(source)

It's a hand-held tool, that is light enough to grate directly over a pot, bowl or individual plate.

The third is simply a variety of the second. Same principle, slightly different construction.


How did people transport food before aluminium foil was invented?

A complete answer to this question would require writing a primer on the history of food preservation and transport.  I'm not going to write one.  Instead, I'll focus on the most common methods of personal food transportation -- (that is, snacks, meals, and travel food) in the middle ages.

Transporting foods across the village would have been a daily or weekly event in most medieval European villages, because frequently villages had a common shared oven.  This oven belonged to the baker or to the village council, and after the bread was done, the residual oven heat was used to bake beans, casseroles, pot roasts and other slow-cook dishes.  Generally, the ceramic vessels for such dishes had lids (which were sometimes sealed with flour paste to retain moisture), and transported unopened in a basket.

For road food, one of the most common methods was as pies.  Contrary to modern hand-pies with flaky delicious crust, for many medieval pies the crust was thick, dense, and inedible.  The crust wasn't part of the food, it was a sealed wrapper to protect it (with indifferent success); you broke open the crust with a knife and ate the insides with a spoon, tossing the crust to the pigs or dogs (or the very poor).

Another method of sealing food was "potting", which involved putting meat, seafood, or other foods in a small pot and covering the top with a thick layer of fat or (for expensive dishes) wax.  The potted food would be cooked with the sealing layer on top, and thus survive for a couple of days until bacteria penetrated the protective grease layer.

References:

Bakehouses and community bread ovens (oldandinteresting.com)
Pie Crusts (medievalcookery.com)
Meat Potting (archived from waltonfeed.com)

Book References (where I got most of this):

Putting Food By
Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food
Victoria's Home Companion


Margarine (liquid or otherwise) is mostly plant oils and fats that will not mix, on their own, with water. Even with vigorous mixing you will only get them to stay unseparated temporarily (as with a vinaigrette).

Apart from vinaigrettes you will generally need to use some kind of emulsifying agent to prevent separation. It is difficult to suggest such an agent without a better idea of what kind of sauce you hope to make.

Béchamel sauce, for example, uses roughly equal parts flour and fat to make a roux to which milk is then added. Flour is the emulsifier in this case.

Water and margarine on their own will almost certainly not make a tasty sauce. The closest I can come up with is Beurre blanc which is an emulsion of butter and vinegar or wine. The emulsion relies on compounds that are found naturally in the butter. Although margarine contains emulsifiers, I couldn't say whether they are sufficient to hold a sauce together. Either way, you're not going to get close to Beurre blanc, or anything else with just these two ingredients.

My advice is to find and follow a recipe.

Update: As is so often the case, once I had written this answer I started to doubt myself. Is it really not going to work making a sauce with just margarine and water? Did I really answer the question asked?

Thickened Liquid Margarine (ok, Butter) and Water Sauce

I went to the hob and measured out equal weights of unsalted butter (I've no margarine) and water. I warmed the butter (2 oz) and half the water in a small saucepan. I mixed the rest of the water with a tablespoon of corn starch an whisked this into the contents of the saucepan once the butter had started to melt.

The result is a sauce with the same look and consistency as thick custard. Without salt it tastes very bland, but a quarter teaspoon of salt is enough to make it pleasantly buttery.

Before corn starch was added I saw that the sauce visibly separated after about 1.5 minutes. After it was added the sauce became stable.

Using margarine I guess it won't taste as good, but hey, that's enough guessing.


How do I make sugar-free ice cream without a machine?

You could use sugar substitutes but you should take care to use one that is heat stable.

Sugar Substitute with Stevia as main ingredient can be used but you need to inquire to what ratios you would need to use your specific brand with.

Acesulfame Potassium is heat stable but is 200 times sweeter than regular sugar. The general rule of thumb I was taught is 1 gram per quarter cup of sugar.

Sucralose: Granulated sucralose can be used as an equal-volume substitute for sugar. (Raw sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sugar, so you'd use less, but the granulated form contains fillers to bring it up to the normal volume.) There may be some considerations in making ice cream with this as when using this for baking the baking process is accelerated to a certain degree. Be careful with this one.

Saccharin and Aspartame should be avoided because they are heat sensitive.

Other more natural sugar substitutes include honey, fruit juice concentrates and refined fructose.


How can I get more lime flavor into my key lime cake recipe?

My daughter who loves lemon cake thought of a great idea a couple years ago to knock the lemon flavor out of the park. I'm sure it would work for lime too: make a lime syrup and pour it into the bottom of the cake after poking it all over with a thin skewer. The more lime you like, the more syrup you use. As a bonus, it also adds some moisture to the cake.  Note that you may need to refrigerate the cake after this step (if it lasts more than a few hours).


Why does my bread have a dip in the center?

Two possibilities:

Your dough overproofed, or
the oven wasn't hot enough. In this scenario, the dough rises and then collapses before it can set

I would guess it was overproofed. Your recipe seems fine, though with all bread recipes, steps like "Leave for 1-1.5 hours" are highly variable depending on ambient heat in the kitchen, humidity, et cetera, and you should really employ the finger poke test to be certain.

References

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/tips/bread-troubleshooting.html
http://baking911.com/learn/baked-goods/bread/problems-and-solutions/general


How can I safely improve my cutting technique

All of the following play an important role in cutting technique/speed:

Practice! Probably the single most important.
A very sharp, clean knife. Always hone your knife before use, and have it sharpened regularly (6-18 months depending on use)
A fast and stable cutting surface. A solid end-grain cutting board is ideal.
The food should be stable. As Nick says, make a flat side to your food if it doesn't have one.
Proper off-hand placement. Your off-hand should be curled with your finger tips resting on the food. Your first knuckles should be against the side of the knife blade. Your fingertips should be tucked out of the way due to the curling. Your thumb pushes the food under the knife as you slice.
Proper knife-hand placement. This can vary based on your biomechanics, hand size, knife, etc. However, the gist is:

Don't hamfist it
Relax your hand and arm
Gripping high up on the bolster of the blade can help with control and speed. I pinch the blade itself between my thumb and forefinger.

Unless you're actually chopping (e.g. using the rocker technique to chop herbs quickly) you should actually be slicing your food. A slight forward movement of the knife blade as it passes downward through the food decreases resistance and speeds the cut. It also is gentler on your food.

To be completely safe you could use a finger guard. For example, Jamie Oliver Finger Guard. I've never used one of these, but it seems like it would significantly decrease the chances of a mishap. It also seems there are a few other brands out there to try.


Can I use soy butter instead of olive oil for baking vegetables?

Put it on the vegetables not on the tray.

Anything not on the vegetables is wasted.  You can put a little bit on them then roll them around with your hangs.  Olive oil is good for roasting.  Just skimp on it.

You can bake with any bland oil.  I used to keep corn oil for baking.  It is cheap and flavorless.  Sunflower oil is pretty cheap too, and it has a little bit of flavor that I think goes well with baked goods.  That is what I was using until I used it up this week.


Salads that are made of tomatoes, onion, chilli, coriander, salt and lemon

So, you're making a pico de gallo salad?

Throw some fresh garlic and fresh lime juice in there.  It's delicious and will prevent salmonella poisoning, which is surprisingly common with uncooked salsas.


The term Spices on food labels can cover a very wide range of ingredients. This general term is only allowed when the ingredient is in a small quantity and not a major constituent of the product. Spices can be any vegetable sourced material that is used for flavour or arroma. Spices may be whole or ground, may be dry or fresh.

For details look at this page on the FDA website:

  DEFINITIONS:
  1. SPICES - General Definition - Aromatic vegetable substances, in the whole, broken, or ground form, whose significant function in food is seasoning rather than nutrition. They are true to name and from them no portion of any volatile oil or other flavoring principle has been removed.


How do you season/prepare a wood plank for Plank Grilling?

I don't season the wood at all. I buy the planks from the local grocery store or hardware store and soak in water for 8 hours. The planks often say 1 hour is enough, but I think this is just marketing, it never seems to be enough. Weighting the plank down to keep it fully submerged will help the process.

When you're ready to cook, put the plank on a hot grill and leave it for 3-5 minutes. Once the plank starts smoking, then it's ready for your food. Don't leave it too long or it will catch fire and not smoke well as the bottom gets charred.

You need to cook this with the lid down in order to keep the smoke contained around the food and also to keep the plank smoking rather than just catching fire. You might need to play with your airflow on a charcoal grill to get maximum smoke.

Depending on what you cook, you can sometimes use the plank a second time. Although this doesn't work with Salmon, as the skin often gets left on the plate.


Acidity level not increasing when fermenting cauliflower

I don't know that I can give a definitive answer about safety, knowing little about how clean your apparatus was to begin with, how exactly you have it set up (container type, how you are "burping," etc.).  Most importantly, I don't know what recipe you used and whether it was verified as safe through a scientific process.[*See note]

All of that said, your salt concentration of 2.5% per total weight sounds reasonable and is unlikely to allow botulism bacteria to grow very efficiently.  It's pretty unlikely that you're growing anything too nasty.  Also, botulism bacteria in particular like anaerobic environments.  The fact that you are "burping" your container likely means you are exposing the surface of the liquid to oxygen, and the bubbling action will be churning things around enough that you going to get gases moving within the liquid.  Bottom line is that you are unlikely to be growing botulism bacteria significantly, though you might be growing other types of bacteria or yeasts that may or may not be what you want.  (Listeria, for example, is a common bacteria that can survive somewhat acidic and higher salt environments, and it's more likely that you'd grow that in a fermentation than significant botulism bacteria.)

Natural fermentation can take quite a while to develop significant acidity.  A lot of recipes claim you can have something "fermented" in 3-4 days, but it's pretty rare to get a stable culture in that amount of time for most foods.  I don't know what your recipe claimed, but depending on temperature and other fermentation conditions, it could easily take a week or more to start developing significant acidity, and it could take 2-3 weeks until your pH level goes down as far as you want.  (At cooler temperatures, fermentation can go on even longer.)

Bubbling by itself doesn't mean you are growing lactic acid bacteria.  Bubbling can easily be the result of other common bacteria and/or yeasts, and it often is during the initial stages of a wild fermentation.  (And yes, some of them potentially could produce nasty things that could make you sick too.  Again, the salt mitigates this risk, but it's possible.)  Exposing the ferment to air during burping does risk growing mold and other surface yeast/bacteria, which is probably a greater concern for failure than botulism.  Most likely, you will just produce a little surface "scum" that most people don't worry about.  (Not saying you definitely shouldn't worry about it; it's most likely to be the worst thing you grow in a few days, and it rarely will produce illness.)

Bottom line is that the bubbles indicate something is going on, and likely part of that something is lactic acid bacteria starting to grow.  If you don't produce significant acidity in 7-10 days, I might consider throwing it out and starting over (particularly if it smells or looks weird).  At only four days, though, and not knowing your temperature and other fermentation conditions, it's difficult to say anything's wrong yet.  I know many online recipes will claim fermentation happens in just a few days, but wild fermentation is unpredictable and frequently can take longer.

*Important note: I know almost everyone these days just throws a bit of salt and some food in a jar and expects to produce safe fermented food, but designing safe and repeatable recipes is quite difficult.  It's easy to find thousands of recipes online now, but the vast majority of them have not been subjected to scientific testing for safety.  If you really want to guarantee safety in a pickling recipe, find a safe verified recipe from a reputable source, like the fermentation guidelines from the National Center for Home Food Preservation or the USDA.  Many states (particularly agricultural ones) also host sites and recipes that have been scientifically tested.  The Ball Blue Book is another traditional resource for home canning and preservation methods that were tested.  When I say tested, it means the process has been verified in multiple tests across a large number of samples (usually hundreds of trials) not to produce pathogenic bacteria or other harmful agents with the right proportions of water, salt, vegetables, etc. done under the right times and conditions.  Different vegetables release different quantities of liquid when subjected to salt.  Different vegetables absorb salt more or less efficiently depending on their size, and the salt is necessary to cure them properly.  Etc. Scientific recipes that are verified for safety have taken all these factors into account.  Unfortunately, though, it's harder to find consumer tested recipes for fermented pickles other than cucumbers and sauerkraut as for the past century or so (until the past decade) most people tended to pickle other foods with vinegar or other acids instead.

I'm not trying to scare anyone here.  The fact is that with a decent amount of salt, you're unlikely to grow anything bad.  But if you actually want to guarantee a safe fermentation (and be more likely to succeed consistently), follow a tested recipe, along with all the preparation it demands.


The question in the title is unanswerable. Your own search shows that there is no simple prescription of what you should do.
The question "who is correct" is: both of them.
The side you are interpreting as "you should microwave sponges" tells you that microwaving kills most of the bacteria. The side you are interpreting as "you shouldn't microwave sponges" tells you that, after you have microwaved the sponges, the next generation of bacteria that grows in them is harder to kill, and potentially more dangerous to your health. Both statements are completely compatible with each other.
What is wrong is to interpret these tiny pieces of data as a general prescription for optimal behavior. They are simply not sufficient to draw any conclusions from that kind. And the way it looks, nobody has done further research (which would be immensely complicated) to determine whether it is better to microwave or not microwave, and if you do microwave, then in what pattern. It would probably take several professors' full careers to settle such a question (because you would need longitudinal studies too), and I doubt that there is enough public interest to finance that, seeing that nobody has identified a major public health problem stemming from washing your dishes with a sponge.
So in the end, you will have to base your personal decision to microwave or not, and base it on some criteria other than which one presents a higher risk to your health, since that information is presently unknowable.


How can I achieve an even heat across a large paella pan?

The oven can work, however, if you have the option, I would suggest outdoors over fire.  Paella is a festive occasion, and this adds to the spectacle.  For your 20 inch pan, you could construct a temporary brick fire pit sort of like the one below, as a friend of mine regularly does.  Alternately, you can place your pan over a charcoal grill, provided it fits. Mine, for example, fits into the opening of my Big Green Egg smoker/grill.  If you don't have those options, using the stove top will mean a constant rotation of the pan.  That gets messy and potentially dangerous once liquid is added. So, I would agree with the oven recommendation...if it fits.


Does wrapping turkey while resting make the skin soggy

Most likely the skin would get less crisp, as towels would trap steam inside.

Also, skin (as with bacon) crisps as it cools, so if you keep the turkey warmer then the skin will crisp up less than if you let it rest to a lower temperature


The production description doesn't mention it for some reason (maybe they think it is obvious), but this is a cast iron pan. Every cast iron pan, including this one, will work on an induction cooktop.

Many iron pans are not machined finely, so if you use cast iron on induction with glass surface (as are practically all modern induction heaters), you risk tiny scratches. I don't mind them and use a very similar pan, but if you want to keep your cooktop magazine-shiny, you should buy enameled or forged iron, or leave iron completely out and buy steel.


What is the difference between "water/drink enhancers" and cordial?

They wouldn't use the name "cordial" because it has a different meaning in the US.  Over here, "cordial" is some sort of flavored alcohol, usually with a sort of connotation of something that rich people drink after dinner or as something refreshing that some rich people on a southern plantation might drink.  (so it's not only alcoholic, it's classist/elitist, too)
They wouldn't use the term "squash", either, as to most Americans, that's a vegetable or maybe a sport that rich people play.
...
I'm not aware of any specific food labeling requirement, but the term "water enhancer" is fairly well known to Americans who go camping, drink well water, or disaster preppers.  It's used as catch-all term for anything to be added to water to improve its flavor.
So it would include powdered drink mixes such as Tang and Kool-Aid, which is why I would assume they specified that it was a "liquid water enhancer" to distinguish themselves from those other things.
But in the past few years, there have been a few companies selling tiny little squirt bottles of flavorings for bottled water.  (the first one that I remember seeing was Mio)  They're not like liquid drink mix concentrates like what you're describing, as they're typically just a few drops to flavor a bottle (500mL) of water instead of something that's diluted around 1:5, like you would for a flavored heavy syrup.
So basically, not only does 'cordial' not mean the same thing in the US as it does in Australia, but what you're dealing with isn't exactly the same as a 'cordial' from Australia, either.


What are some suggestions for cooking tools/techniques for people that have arthritis?

You should certainly look at the OXO Good Grips brand of tools, they all have fat grips that are easier to use.


I know that probably this is not what you want, but the simplest way to get lemon flavored oil is by infusion with a neutral oil. Non-polar dissolve non-polar, so this will do the extraction. But you won't be able to separate the pure lemon oil.

Now, if you really want pure oil you probably have to go for distillation. For that, you will need a distill like this or that.

Some people make it, but you can find either version on Amazon (which is safer). Once you have that, it is not that hard. There are many video tutorials like this one or this one for the pressure pan setting.

It is important to keep in mind that any essential oil extraction has an extremely small yield. As you can see from the video, you need a huge amount of initial material to even be able to see the oil layer floating above the liquid phase.


What is the best type of plastic to store alcohol?

In the United States and Canada much of the plastic bottles used to package alcohol are made with PET (polyethylene terephthalate). I also know it is used in Europe.
This site may be useful - https://www.creativemechanisms.com/blog/everything-about-polyethylene-terephthalate-pet-polyester

I believe some bottles are'laminated' with several different plastics and PET being the 'contact' layer.

I have been told that plastic beverage bottles have a relatively short shelf life, but never had reason to research this.

Anyroad, this information might provide a starting point for your project


How do I tell if my fermented sauce has gone bad?

The thing about fermentation is that it's a biological process. It's been used for thousands of years to prepare a wide variety of foods, it's extremely easy, and it's (generally) pretty safe if you follow the appropriate guidelines. But biological processes are inherently messy, and things can go wrong. You must be aware of this and able to identify as best you can when a product has fermented unsafely.

One thing to note here is that the related answer's comment about "nightmare juice" is related to the potential consequences of not adding enough salt. This is one of the basic guidelines of lactic fermentation. You need a high enough salt concentration to kill or render inert most of the bacteria that are naturally present in our air and food, while still providing a hospitable medium for the cultures that process food through lactic fermentation. (On the flip side, adding too much salt will prevent much of anything from surviving, in which case you're salting or curing rather than fermenting.) As the food ferments, those cultures will produce enough lactic acid that they'll kill off most anything else trying to grow. But there's always the risk that something hardy enough to survive that environment and potentially harmful to humans will make it into your ferment.

Other guidelines for the process include using clean equipment (to reduce the risk of adding unintended or unsafe bacteria in the first place), making sure your ferment stays submerged (to maintain the salt level throughout; this is less a concern with a blended product like your pepper sauce), and releasing excess gas if you're using a sealed vessel (so it doesn't explode).

Once your ferment is completed, you'll want to check for certain indicators of spoilage or fermentation issues:

Continued outgassing. Lactic cultures will usually produce a lot of gas during the first week or two, and then slow down; if you're seeing a lot of excess gas produced after about a month of fermentation, it can be a sign that some other opportunistic organism has moved in, and it's best not to risk consuming the product.
Discoloration. Like canning or other preservation methods, fermentation will usually oxidize the bright chlorophyll greens of certain vegetables (beans, cucumbers, etc.) and it will mute some other colors. But it should not drastically change the color of the food otherwise. If you have pepper puree that's predominantly orange when it goes in, it should be mostly the same after fermentation. Big patches of different color are a major indicator of spoilage.
Obvious surface scum or growths. Anything that looks like it's growing on the surface of your ferment isn't a good sign; it can indicate unwelcome bacterial or fungal growth and should generally be considered unsafe.
Unpleasant smell. This can be a little tricky; lacto-fermented foods do have a certain tangy, vinegar-ish smell, and that's to be expected. But if your ferment smells like it's rotting, it probably is.

As far as adding other ingredients... as long as your salt balance isn't affected, this won't usually disturb a ferment too much. As the many varieties of kimchi show, lots of different vegetables can be fermented successfully and eaten safely. But like canning, it's best to work from an established, known-good recipe, particularly if this is the first ferment you've tried on your own. Added ingredients can make it more difficult to detect things like color changes; you may instead wish to find a similar recipe that includes the sort of flavor additions you want, and work from that instead.


First off, that probably isn't the best brand of coconut milk. I've never been that impressed, and Cook's Illustrated's review agrees, saying it was "too 'liquid-y' and 'thin'". They like Aroy-D, Roland, Goya and Chaokoh better as of May 2017.

But on top of that, you probably got a lot of water from the eggplant. It's mostly water, and it releases plenty of it as cooking breaks down the structure.

I might try stir-frying the eggplant first, or roasting if you prefer, then adding it to the curry at the end. That way the liquid will be pretty much just coconut milk.

If it still seems too watery, you could do the same for other ingredients. Chicken breasts can release some water, and peppers too, but nowhere near what you get from eggplant. This does let you make sure they're cooked exactly as much as you want, so you might like it regardless of the watery issue.

You can also always just add more curry paste. Often the ratios suggested on storebought curry paste yield a less flavorful curry than what you probably get in restaurants.

To answer your side questions: long cooking is fine, and you don't have to do anything special to coconut milk to make it work.


You hit the nail on the head.  The seasoning is coming off.  It's just chunks of fat/oil with bits of black rust, or black oxide.

The solution is to either stop using the pan to cook scrambled eggs, or strip the pan down to the cast iron and re-season it.  Seasoning is a two part process. The first part is developing the layer of black rust, and the second part involves coating the pan with oil and then using heat to turn the oil into a polymer that provides a non-stick surface.  If seasoned properly, you really shouldn't see any issues.

There is an interesting series here on the subject of seasoning cast iron:

http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/02/black-rust-and-cast-iron-seasoning/
http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/


The other answers make good points, but OP in comments keeps asking whether alcohol helps ingredients "release their flavor" more.  And yes, it does.

As to how it does so, one reason is simply because alcohol is a good solvent.  Many things dissolve more easily in alcohol than in plain water.  (Note that alcohols are often used in other household applications requiring solvents, stain removal, removal of other "gunk" when cleaning, etc.  Household cleaning fluid can make use of various alcohols -- not just ethanol, as found in wine -- but the chemistry of how most alcohols work in creating better solubility is similar.)

Another comparison to think of is the use of alcohol in creating things like extracts.  You'll get more flavor out of a vanilla bean by soaking it in high-proof alcohol compared to plain water.  That's the same rationale behind the concept of a "vodka sauce" too.

Obviously wine doesn't have as high of an alcohol content, but the alcohol that is present can help "release flavors" through better solubility, part of the reason why wine is often used for deglazing pans too during cooking.  (As mentioned in other answers, the specific flavor components found in wine are also tasty in and of themselves.)


The original author is in error adding baking soda (bicarbonate), and indicating it will help rise.  For leavening, you require acid for the sodium bicarbonate to react with.  The original base recipe has no significant acid ingredients; even the modified version you used has only a trivial amount of acid from the molasses in the brown sugar.

Therefore, the only effect of the baking soda is to increase the pH of the dough, which will encourage browning.  However, as the cookies are full of sugar, encouraging browning is not generally a problem.

The creaming method creates bubbles in the solid phase butter, and encourages rising and a more cake-like result, especially when paired with an effective leavening agent.

Resting the dough also hydrates the flour, and allows the butter to re-solidify, both of which inhibit spread and contribute to a higher cookie.

For a chewier result, do not use the creaming method.  Melt the butter instead, and then combine your ingredients.

You may also choose to reduce the baking soda to reduce the metallic taste it brings without anything to react with.

If the cookies are now too dense, you might try adding (starting with smaller amounts) 1/2 tsp  to 1 tsp or so of baking powder which has its own acid to react with, to help leaven the cookies.

See also:

What is the purpose of baking soda in chocolate-chip cookies?
How can I get chewy chocolate chip cookies?
How do I get my chocolate chip cookies to turn out thick and soft?


How long should I cook a carvery shoulder of lamb, and at what temperature?

As long and as slowly as possible. In practical terms, place the shoulder in a roasting tin with some sliced onions, whole, unpeeled garlic cloves and rosemary. Cover the tin tightly with foil. Preheat your oven to its maximum temperature, place the lamb in, then turn it down to 150°C/300°F and cook for 4-5 hours. It should come out so tender that you can pull the bone out easily.


Do you heat the pan first, then add oil? Or put the oil in and heat up with the pan?

The typical rule of thumb is that if it's a non-stick pan you do add a little oil to the pan first before heating.  Most manufacturers usually recommend this to extend the life of the non-stick coating.

For regular pans (those without non-stick coating) you should heat them dry until you can feel the heat radiating from the surface when your hand is held about 6-inches above the bottom.  Add your oil at this point.  You'll actually need to use less oil because the same amount will spread across a greater surface area due to its decreased viscosity as it heats.  Plus, your oil will heat up instantly and when you add your food it's less inclined to stick.  Most people get impatient waiting for pans to heat (and in general) and this also ensures that the food isn't going into a pan with oil that's cold or not hot enough.  When cold oil goes into a pan and cold food ends up on top of it you'll end up with one big sticky mess.  As for adding oil before heating the pan, the longer fats heat without anything else in the pan, the quicker they'll break down and burn.


For the reason salt is most commonly used: it's a flavor enhancer.  We're not used to thinking of dumpling dough as possessing a lot of flavor--especially when it's there to provide a bland contrast to the savory filling of the dumpling.  But salt in the dough will "make it taste more," as my mother used to say.  Specifically, you'll taste the subtle richness of cooked flour more easily than if you omit the salt.

The same thing happens when you cook dry pasta.  Few amateur cooks salt the cooking water enough.  It should be sufficiently salty that some of the salt penetrates the pasta as it cooks and softens, so that by the time it's done, and ready for saucing, its intrinsic flavor--flour and egg--is heightened.  Slightly.

In both of these examples it's very easy to use too much salt.  When I'm cooking something new and I don't know how much salt to use I try, in tasting, to see if I taste the dish itself better with more salt without actually tasting a salty taste, which indicates oversalting.

Chocolate-chip cookies are so much more delicious when properly salted, as is, believe it or not, blueberry crisp.  Generously salting the bread crumb topping of a blueberry crisp brings out the tastes of the ground nuts, the flour, and the butter, and makes it an even more lovely contrast to the cooked fruit.


Amish Friendship Bread starter with buttermilk

Probably not...

Though there are plenty of starters that include dairy, instant mashed potatoes, fruits, etc to inoculate or feed the starter; the goal of any starter culture is to grow and maintain a of yeasts that can efficiently and effectively raise bread, normally wheat or rye-based bread.  Any ingredient added to a starter other than water and wheat/rye, in my opinion, only increases the chances of ruining a perfectly good starter through contamination. The species of yeasts and bacteria that flourish in milk or on fruit may lead to off-flavors.  In cultured buttermilk (widely available in the US) the milk is first pasteurized then inoculated with a mixture of bacteria to produce the tangy flavor and thicker texture.  Unfortunately, this often includes bacteria from the genus Leuconostoc which are known to cause off-flavor in starter cultures and their resultant breads.

On the Other Hand...

Unlike sourdough starters (where a procession of bacteria acidify the mixture to the point where only wild yeast and certain bacteria will happily live there) your buttermilk starter probably has a pH around 4.5.  This is the pH where commercial yeast functions optimally, lower than that (pH 4) the yeast will produce less gas, a lot lower (pH 3) they won't produce any gas at all and may die off.  Refreshing the starter regularly with a mixture of buttermilk and flour provides food for the yeast and helps maintain that optimum pH.

If your friend stopped feeding the starter with the buttermilk mixture and just used a flour & water mixture, I suspect it might stop leavening properly.  As the bacteria from the original buttermilk keep working they will acidify the culture,  over time it could reach a point where the commercial yeast is inhibited, and if it is kept covered in the fridge there probably won't be enough wild yeast to raise the bread.

In conclusion...

If you or the person you plan to share this starter with is likely to feed/refresh it regularly with the buttermilk mixture, then by all means try it out.  If not, you're probably better off just starting a more traditional sourdough starter.  You can always add milk or buttermilk when making dough to get the flavor and texture you want without the risk of contaminating your starter.


With all due respect to them, the health service doesn't have to eat the results of their recommendation.  Bread without salt is nigh-inedible, and the salt isn't just for flavor.  Reducing it also hurts the texture.

To quote On Food and Cooking (page 535): "Though some traditional breads are made without salt, most include it, and not just for a balanced taste.  At 1.5%-2% of the flour weight, salt tightens the gluten network and improves the volume of the finished loaf."

This means that a less-salted loaf will be denser and less chewy, and an unsalted one even more so.  Now, you can knead more to compensate for reduced gluten development, but it still won't be as good. Having baked and eaten bread without salt due to a hung-over cook forgetting to add it to the dough, I can confirm the changes in texture.  It also seems to rise differently and overproof faster.

Oh, and it also tasted like cardboard.  But again, the health service doesn't have to eat the results of their recommendation. I could go on an hour-long tirade about the culinary atrocities committed in an effort to reduce sodium.


Has anyone ever made margarine out of butter?

You may be allowed to sell butter as margarine since the the composition of the lipids for margarine allows also bovine lipids in general and butter fat in particular (and some margarines partially consist of butter fat).

But it doesn't make sense economically: margarines are butter substitutes prepared from cheaper lipids (mostly(?) vegetable oils that are hardened: saturated, but also e.g. tallow).

When you clarify butter, you keep the lipid fracton, the butter fat. For  margarines in the usual sense of the word, the lipid fraction of the margarine will not be the same as butter fat.

I see from the comments that you are actually wondering whether the clarification process can be reversed.

The traditional clarification by heating is probably difficult, since the proteins undergo heat denaturation, and that is irreversible.
However, industrially, butter fat is apparently prepared by a cold process, and that may be more suitable. The product also has less fat (>96 % compared to 99.5 % with the heating process), while of the remainder only up to 0.2 % - so the remainder are probably mostly leftover proteins. (source, sorry, in German)

German language Wikipedia says about clarified butter (Butterschmalz)

  Die europäische Butter wird zur Entwässerung – das entwässerte reine Fett ist das Butterschmalz – nur bis etwa 90 °C erhitzt und kann im Bedarfsfall durch Zugabe von Wasser wieder teilweise in Butter rückverwandelt werden. (Die Proteine bleiben denaturiert.) Ghee wird bei Temperaturen über 100 °C entwässert und ist gar nicht mehr in Butter rückführbar.

translation (deepl translator with small corrections):

   For dehydration - the dehydrated pure fat is the clarified butter - European butter is only heated up to about 90 °C and can be partially reconverted into butter by adding water if necessary. (The proteins remain denatured.) Ghee is dehydrated at temperatures above 100 °C and can no longer be re-converted into butter.

Side note: in German, "Butterschmalz" (the clarified butter obtained by keeping the butter molten for a time, maybe half an hour: the protein denatures and one fraction sinks to the bottom, another fraction yields a "foam" and the water evaporates) is subtly different from "geklärte Butter" (literally clarified butter, prepared by melting and immediately taking off the foam and decanting from the whey fraction below the molten butter).

Apparently, there was a time when emulsifying clarified butter would have made sense:

German language Wikipedia on Butterschmalz:

  Die Herstellung von Butterschmalz wurde eine Zeit lang von der EU subventioniert, um den (damaligen) Butterüberschuss („Butterberg“) abzubauen. Um eine Rückführung in Butter durch Emulgierung zu verhindern, was einem Subventionsbetrug gleichkäme, musste (gesetzlich vorgeschrieben) Stigmasterin dem Butterschmalz zugefügt werden, das dann als Indikator diente. Da der „Butterberg“ seit 2008 kein Problem mehr ist, endete die Subventionierung und mit ihr auch die Pflicht zur Beigabe von Stigmasterin.

translation, again deepl + a bit of help:

  For a while, the EU subsidised the production of clarified butter in order to reduce the (then) butter surplus ("butter mountain"). In order to prevent a return to butter by emulsification, which would have been tantamount to subsidy fraud, stigmasterol (required by law) had to be added to the clarified butter, which served as an indicator. Since the "butter mountain" is no longer a problem since 2008, the subsidy and with it the obligation to add stigmasterol ended.

(Stigmasterol is a substance naturally occuring in plants and also in [some] vegetable oils, but not in butter)


How long will a refrigerated risotto stay safe to eat?

The reason people won't answer these types of questions is that there are too many factors, and are (perhaps errantly?) concerned about liability. Was there any cross contamination? How long was it left out before it cooled? Will it be reheated to cooking temperatures before it's consumed? What's the internal temperature of the refrigerator?

Many foods, such as rice, also have special concerns. Bacillus Cereus can survive cooking, and if the rice was left at room temperature for a number of hours before it was refrigerated, can produce toxins which will make you sick even if the rice is reheated. This has a tendency to hit sushi places particularly hard.

The truth is that there's no binary "safe/unsafe" with food— it's all about reducing risks and making judgment calls. Considering we have the binary choice about whether or not to eat it, that makes questions like yours a bit difficult to answer remotely.

All that said, if it was my rice, I'd make some risotto balls, bread them, fry them, and eat the ever-living-sh** out of that tasty leftover risotto. Should you do the same? Uh... Let me point you to a stackexchange answer-turned-community-wiki-entry on the topic... ;-)


Is it safe my leftovers in freezer are not frozen yet?

You say they started in the fridge, then you put them in the freezer, which is colder. If it would have been safe in the fridge, it will be safe in the freezer. So unless they had been hanging around in the fridge for a long time, they will be fine. Only you know what these bags of food were, and how long they'd been in the fridge, but most leftovers keep for several days in the fridge (rice is an exception according to some guidelines). Bought foods should have a use by date, and this is increasingly being described as use or freeze by (with the assumption that they'll be eaten just after defrosting.

In the future, try to disperse the food to be frozen. Your freezer may have a fast freeze button and shelf, which you can use in this case.


How can I get my Starbucks coffee to taste like the Starbucks store?

I cannot tell you how they do it at that specific location, how your method differs, or what you're doing wrong. I don't really even know exactly how you're brewing your coffee. However, I can tell you how to brew a consistent cup using the best possible practices.

Here's a list of things to consider

Grind your coffee immediately(not the night before) before brewing

Use a Burr Grinder, not a blade grinder. This will ensure that the grounds are of a consistent size, and provides even extraction. There is no reputable coffee shop that uses a blade grinder, and with good reason. Get a Burr grinder. If you don't want to drop the cash you can get a hand mill for about ~$20-30.

Weight your beans, do not measure them by Volume.

Beans from different regions and varieties vary in density, and size. This can really throw off volume measurements.

Use filtered water.

Most coffee shops will have a filtration system for the entire store to prevent mineral build up in their coffee and espresso machines, as well as providing a better cup of coffee.

Learn how coffee hits your palate, and learn how to adjust your brewing variables(grind size, water/coffee ratio, brew time, temperature).
Ditch the auto-drip. Learn how to do a manual pourover or press pot. You'll have much more control over your brewing variables, and be able to pin point the extraction method that fits your palate best.

I deeply urge you to try coffee that isn't Starbucks. Starbucks might be a notch above grocery store coffee, but isn't at all interesting(to put it lightly). Try Stumptown, Blue Bottle, Intellegensia, Ruby's Colorful Coffees. You'll likely forget about Starbucks soon after trying coffee's from any of the roasters I listed.

Like I said. Starbucks isn't really interesting coffee. Its pretty bland, brewed with a standard auto-drip. If it tastes different it could be for many reasons, such as sitting in a thermos for a long period of time, or the grounds may sit too long after being ground. Typically larger auto-drip machines use a coarser grind because the hopper is larger. This can affect taste. There's too many variables to nail down how to brew exactly like that starbucks store.

In the mean time, I urge you to try more interesting bean varieties. You're really missing out.

For the record, Starbucks main competition... McDonalds. Give it a read Is Starbucks Coffee Actually That Good?


Difference between butter and olive oil?

The only reason to use butter instead of olive oil would be for the butter flavor. In restaurant cooking the steak is finished off with butter for flavor. If you do cook with butter you need to remember butter has a much lower burn point than olive oil.


How long can I keep unleavened dough at room temperature?

A mixture of flour and water at room temperature is a very hospitable growth medium for many bacteria, yeasts, and molds; and indefinitely is a long time.... Even if you are extremely vigilant when it comes to kitchen hygiene, the mixture will eventually start to grow some form of microbes. This process could take a week or more to become obvious.

If you use the batch up within a week or so it is unlikely to cause any problems.  For longer storage you should refrigerate the dough and/or add salt (in the proportional amount you would use for bread).  If it develops an off smell or visible mold you are better off throwing it away.

Keep in mind that hydrating flour, especially whole grain flours, activates amylase enzymes that break down starches into simple sugars.  This process, called autolysis, improves browning and flavor, but if allowed to go on too long it leads to a gummy crumb or poor overall structure.


Do I need to season an old cast-aluminum pan?

Yes, cast aluminum should be seasoned.  Here are some instructions from cookingforengineers.com:

How Do I Season It?

Wash the cookware with hot soapy water.
Dry it and then coat it thoroughly with vegetable oil. The easiest way is to pour the oil onto a paper towel and work it well into all the surfaces.
Put the well-coated cookware into a 250 degree oven and leave it there for 2 hours.
Never use scouring pads or detergent on cast ware. Simply wipe it out using a damp cloth.
If food starts to stick to the cookware, just season it again.

How Do I Look After It?

Repeated washing in a dishwasher will strip off any seasoning, can cause discoloration and is not advised. Remove the staining by boiling something acidic like tomatoes or apple peelings and then re-season.
Don't leave it to soak in soapy water
Don't use steel-wool pads to clean it
You can use non-abrasive cleaners or a paste made with baking soda and water. Use either of these with a gentle, synthetic scourer and your sheet or cast aluminum will shine!

Here's one more tip I learned the hard way.  Don't use aluminum cookware on glass ceramic stovetops!  The aluminum can permanently discolor the glass, or perhaps even fuse to it.  I've never actually seen an aluminum pan fuse to a stovetop before, but I did permanently mark my stovetop the first time I put an aluminum pan on it.


Dry milk in bread: purpose, and substitutions

Milk is added to bread for flavour, a tender crumb and well-coloured crust.

Dry milk is used because it easy to store and easy to use in bulk. Milk also contains an enzyme called glutathione which can weaken gluten and result in a poorer quality loaf - the drying process destroys this enzyme.

You can substitute regular milk in various proportions, but you may as well simply replace the 2 cups of water with it, which will give you a nice soft loaf. Opinion is divided whether you should scald the milk (by heating to 180°F/82°C according to How Baking Works, page 150) to destroy the glutathione, but in any case it's probably a good idea to warm it anyway, to help the rise.


How do I control the smoke from a chimney starter?

First off, I'd cease using paper as your tinder. While it is the cheapest way to get your charcoal started, it does create a lot of smoke and ash flying around. And avoid oil-soaked paper. This will create even more smoke (I speak from experience).

I started using firestarter cubes, as they burn hotter and longer, meaning my coals are ready for cooking faster. Also, another side effect has been that the only smoke I see is from the charcoal itself. I started using the Weber ones, but they are expensive and don't burn as long. So I switched to a different fire lighter. You'll have to forgive me, as the name escapes me -- once I get home I'll edit this answer with a picture of the bag. Anyway, they're cheap, at about US$ 5-6 for a bag of 72. And they burn long, hot, and smoke-free.

The only remaining problem you'll have is that when charcoal begins igniting from a low starting temperature, it puts out quite a bit of smoke. If you are still worried about smoking your neighbors out, you will probably want to experiment with different brands and types. Stubbs briquettes are a bit less smoky on ignition, as is most lump charcoal. If you use lump, though, you should make sure you pack the charcoal ring in your WSM nice and tight, or it will burn very hot and fast. Also, put a piece of expanded steel on the charcoal grate to keep the small pieces of charcoal from falling through.


Are there any vegetarian applications for transglutaminase ("meat glue")?

As a matter of fact, here is a link to a PDF of a technical article that talks all about using microbial transglutaminase on vegetable proteins.  This article is not for the scientifically faint-of-heart, and it does not contain recipes, but it does review ways industry has found to use transglutaminase in making vegetable-based food products, using things such as soy, wheat, rice, pea, sunflower, and sesame.

I have never tried using it to mix vegetable proteins with animal proteins, but chemically speaking it should work.  Unfortunately, I have no source of recipes; you might just have to experiment.