Cutting marbled pork without it falling apart

You need a slicing knife - a very thin, very long, very sharp blade, with kullens. Thin (measured top to bottom), because you don't need the heft or maneuverability of a chef's knife, and the less metal in contact with the meat as you cut it, the better. Long, because you don't want to saw at the meat - the metal that is in contact will pull a small amount as you slice, and changing direction will pull tender meat apart. The less back-and-forth, the better, and that means longer strokes, which means a longer knife. Kullens, as they "release" the blade's hold on the meat as you slice: you're reducing the surface area of the knife in contact with the meat, essentially (tho how much they actually help is somewhat in debate.)

It may be instructive to google "slicing brisket" - as BBQ brisket is a similarly tender and delicate dish, and the very active BBQ community have experience with the various slicing options to keep the slices intact. There are a number of messageboard posts and videos on the subject.


Lower your oven temperature to about 320 F. You need the heat to penetrate to the centre of the cake and at 350 F based on your post, the temp is too high and you're forming a caramelized crust, giving the indirect oven heat more difficulty to penetrate.

Trust me, lower your oven temp and add some time.


I tend to agree with SAJ14SAJ here. Enriched doughs such as this quickly overcook. The size of your buns, which unfortunately are not in the recipe, will vary your cooking time greatly. Try a higher temp oven for a shorter period of time or try larger rolls. Use a thermometer and shoot for no more than 190 degrees Fahrenheit.


What is the difference between how nut flours and nut butters are made?

It is both, depending on what you understand under "nut flour".
The first kind of "nut flour" is something that may more precisely be called "nut meal" or "ground X" (where X stands for the nut, as in "ground almonds"). Nut meal is simply nuts reduced to small particles (larger than flour particles though) and is created by cutting up the nuts with bladed machines. You can make it at home in a food processor.
The second kind is true nut flour. It has finer particles, good water absorption, and behaves more like an actual flour in baking. For that product, they de-fat the nuts, and then I assume they actually grind them up instead of using a bladed machine. I am not entirely sure how these flours are produced, AFAIK there is no way to make them at home.
Nut butters are created by grinding in a mill, using actual shear force and not cutting, and may need adjusting the ingredients by adding more oil, but that depends on the nut, with e.g. peanuts grinding up nicely without needing extra fat.
I also suspect there may be a difference in water levels, with nut butters working better with fresh nuts, nut meals getting no special processing (but they do dry out quickly after grinding) and true nut flours probably needing a dehydration before they can work well. This is more of an intuition of mine, I don't know if producers actually have to do it that way.


Who originated the dangerous avocado-pitting technique?

I sincerely doubt any particular chef or "popular show business personality" is responsible for this, though perhaps one or more such people have done this at one time or another.

Many people are used to taking other fruits in one hand and a knife in the other and preparing the fruit for eating.  I distinctly remember my father showing me how to core an apple with a pocket knife when I was about five years old.  Yes, I believe there was a warning about not stabbing yourself with the point, but people commonly use paring knives all the time with fruit held in your hand to peel things, take unedible bits off (as in hulling strawberries), and sometimes to remove pits and seeds.

I think many people who are unfamiliar with avocados attempt similar maneuvers. However, the avocado pit is much larger and more difficult to dislodge with a knife than with many small fruits.  There is also a smaller proportional distance between the pit and the surface of the fruit than many other fruits (again due to its size).  Simultaneously, the avocado flesh is much softer than many fruits people are used to dealing with, thereby making it much easier for a knife to accidentally slip completely through it than with, say, an apple when coring.  Finally, the skin of an avocado is what I'd call "deceptively hard": when you try to slice into an avocado, it may seem quite firm compared to the interior, but it's quite easy for a knife point to slip through the skin from the interior to the outside (particularly when one is applying leverage to try to dislodge a large pit).

So, you have people doing similar things with a knife to what they might do with an apple or a peach, except they end up exerting more force for the large pit while the knife slips through the flesh like butter, and the knife goes awry.

I don't think it's a great mystery why this happens.  One might equivalently ask why bagel slicing sends people to emergency rooms.  (It's one of the most common pathways from the kitchen to the ER.)

EDIT: Well, I've been downvoted -- not sure why, but I'm going to assume because I didn't cite sources.  So, I'll try to bolster my point.  (Pun intended.)  Here you go:

A recent study estimated approximately 8900 avocado-related hospital visits in 2018.  The study notes: "The oldest person to visit the ER for an avocado-related laceration was 75, and the youngest was 8. Most of those hurt by avocados were, in fact, millennials."  So, there's a wide range of ages reported, making it seem less likely that all such injuries occurred because of bad instruction from a single source.  I've skimmed at least a dozen articles on avocado-related injuries and have not seen a single mention of any celebrity chef or other "popular show business personality" as the source of the bad knife technique.  (To the contrary, many articles cite authorities who give better techniques.)  And then you have an explanation offered by a doctor in this article regarding bagel injuries:

  Maybe it's just their shape. "Any spherical food, like tomatoes and onions, and particularly bagels, people tend to hold and cut in their hand," Dr. Smith-Coggins says.

Indeed, a decade ago, in another study the top five foods related to knife/finger injuries were (in order): chicken, potato, apple, onion, and bagel, each of which also results in thousands of serious injuries.  As avocado consumption has increased about five-fold in the U.S. in the past couple decades, it seems they're the new spherical food causing injuries.

As a final note, it is commonly recommended by many chefs to use the blade of a knife to remove an avocado pit (as here, for example, which also shows the somewhat dangerous practice of scoring the avocado in your hand after depitting).  This pit technique apparently does cause some injuries, particularly as people struggle to get the pit off of the blade of their knife.  (The more I read about the stuff, the more weird ways it seems people could get injured dealing with avocados, so I'm not sure "avocado hand" is caused by only one type of mishandling.)

In any case, I have yet to find a similar example of someone famous telling people to stab the pit with the point of a knife while holding it in one's hand.


Is bread that can go mouldy better than that which does not?

Bread which is left out can have any number of things happen to it, all of which are usually progressing at once, although one will win out as the primary thing you experience:

It goes stale, that is, the starches in the bread lose their hydration and re-crystallize giving the bread a harder texture
It dries out, losing moisture to the atmosphere (or if it is very humid, it can get soggy, gaining moisture from the air)
It molds, if it is moist enough for molds to thrive
Its gets eaten by humans, insects, dogs or other large scale breadophilic creatures

The only question is which happens first or most dominantly.

This can depend on the moisture level in the bread, natural anti-bacterial or anti-fungal agents in the bread (like honey) or artificial preservatives, the particular environment the bread is in (and how many mold spores there are)--any place that has had moldy bread is going to have more mold spores for future moldy bread than average.

I would not try to relate any of this to nutrition, or to a veiled evaluation of the relative quality of benefit of the bread that is available in one country or another.

The notion that mold requires nutrtion is true,  but it is not the whole picture:  it also requires a hospitable environment (pH neither to high or low, not to much osmotic pressure from salt or sugar, sufficient moisture) and so on.  Chocolate is extremely nutritious in the sense that it is composed nearly 99% of things that are metabolized, but it does not host molds because it is also 100% dry.  Dried salted cod, again, highly nutritious, but not hospitable to molds.

You cannot take only the growth or non-growth of molds as an indicator of level of nutrition.

Furthermore, the notion of "nutritious" is extremely complicated.  It involves requiring sufficient calories (as from fats or sugars), as well as vitamins, minerals and other micro nutrients.  It is not a simple yes or no thing.


Does traditional Pesto Genovese contain garlic?

According to the CONSORZIO DEL PESTO GENOVESE, which defines what is considered official Pesto Genovese, it does contain garlic. They suggest that traditionally it contained less garlic than the current official recipe calls for - one clove for 600g of pasta versus two.  Later on they mention that it contains one clove for each thirty leaves of basil, and also leave the following suggestion:

  The garlic must be sweet, it must not prevail while making itself felt in the background ... in short, it can not be missing!

Note that pesto is traditionally not cooked at all; it’s made solely in the food processor (or of course a mortar and pestle or mezzaluna truly traditionally).

As far as your taste - I would suggest leaving out the garlic if you truly don’t like it!

Some suggestions for keeping the garlic taste down:

From Cooks Illustrated:

Blanching the garlic (briefly cooking it in boiling water).
Microwaving the garlic until warm
Toasting the garlic in a dry pan

From Fine Cooking:

Remove the germ, or the thin center piece of the garlic, which often turns green (like a sprout); this is more bitter than the rest of the garlic.

Avoid cooking it in butter or other preparation methods that will substantially alter its flavor, as that will also alter the flavor of the pesto excessively (unless you like that flavor change!).


Should I brown meat for a stew before freezing it?

It might save you a few minutes when you decide to use it. Meat that has been frozen takes a bit longer to brown, since it will exude a bit more moisture.

But it's probably not worth it. Browning meat, then cooling it to freeze, is a huge hassle. Plus, you'll lose the fond on the bottom of your pan (unless you de-glaze and save that too.) That's a huge amount of flavor loss. You might as well just make the stew and freeze that (which is also good).

If you're going to freeze the meat, freeze it in the form that you got it. Defrost carefully (in the fridge, not the counter) and dry it thoroughly (e.g. paper towels) before browning.


How long should bread dough warm up after cold fermentation?

...as long as it needs to, depending on a wide variety of factors.

You can shape it for baking, put it in the fridge, let it rise, pull it out of the fridge and put it in the oven - no warming up time at all.

If you are going to punch down/knead/form after it comes out of the fridge, you can do all that cold, and let it rise as long as it needs to before baking - which will depend on the dough and the room temperature.

Or you can let the bulk dough warm a while.


Does aged onion/garlic turn green when frying?

I've also had this happen when cooking an onion-garlic paste. I've found several web pages where the phenomenon is discussed, listed below. In summary, it's normal and happens due to certain chemical reactions between the garlic, cooking utensils and water. In your case, it's probably not due to the age of your garlic or onions though, as one source suggests it is less likely to occur with aged garlic. I've only seen the paste turn green myself, though interestingly you could also get blue garlic:

Garlic contains sulfur compounds which can react with copper to form copper sulfate, a blue or blue-green compound. The amount of copper needed for this reaction is very small and is frequently found in normal water supplies.
Garlic Can Turn Blue
Raw garlic contains an enzyme that if not inactivated by heating reacts with trace amounts of sulfur (in the garlic) and copper (from water or utensils) to form blue copper sulfate. The garlic is still safe to eat.
Garlic can turn Green
If the garlic was not fully mature or dry, pigments in the garlic may turn green when in the presence of acid. Garlic will also turn green (develop chlorophyll) if exposed to an temperature change or is exposed to sunlight. Some people say it can be stored for 32 days at or above 70 - 80° F to prevent greening, but I'm not yet sure that is true. Green garlic is safe to eat.
Source: http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/pickle.htm

Some other pages where this is discussed: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/471608, http://www.cheftalk.com/forum/thread/45254/onions-turned-green-while-frying, http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/bluegarlic.htm.


Culinary term for frying in water (without oil)?

If the veggies are barely submerged, you're effectively steaming.  It is not as pure a method as actually raising them slightly above the (I presume very rapidly boiling) water, but if you keep them moving enough, the result is going to be more similar than it would be to be boiling/poaching/simmering.

In case you are unaware, you can get very inexpensive steamer baskets that fit into any size pan.  This is a pretty effective way to cook vegetables.  It also means you can cover the pan and not have to keep everything moving.  If you have layers of veggies in the steamer you may want to rotate them around occasionally.


How do espresso machines hold pressure at all?

I can't speak for the new high end machines that provide pressure profiling, or the cheap domestic machines, which work who knows how, but the standard system for distributing pressure on the coffee is the e61 group head, and most machine group heads are based off the original design.

The e61 group is pretty much just a system of 3 pressure valves that allows the pressure to slowly ramp up 9 bars and then maintains that 9 bars of pressure while the pump continues to work. Some versions include other steps such as pre-infusion, or on newer high-end machines the ability to create pressure profiles which adjust the pressure at any point during the espresso shot.

Also note that all the resistance HAS to come from the coffee puck, so you may be grinding too coarse or not tamping hard enough. If you need to measure the pressure from the grouphead, espresso machine techs use a device like this.

You could probably make your own at home if you are so inclined.


What causes chicken fat on the surface of soup, and does it add flavor to the dish?

Although the fat may add some flavor to the soup it also changes the mouthfeel. Instead of having a nice clear broth soup which is light and refreshing the fat in the soup with coat your mouth leaving a greasy feeling and taste. I cant be completely sure but if you were using the chicken thigh to just add flavor and not leave the meat in the soup you could use a chicken stock that your either make or buy from the store. As was stated above you could remove the fat from the soup. I would like to add another method to what Foodrules stated.

-Take a metal ladle and fill it with ice. Dip the ladle into your soup being care not to go deep enough to actually get any liquid in the ladle. They key here is that the cold ladle will solidify the fat and have it stick to it. You just remove the ladle wipe it clean with a paper towel and repeat until the fat layer is gone from your soup. Its very effective and easy.


I'd be fine with it. Salt is a preservative, and it was still cold to the touch - not the same as if it had spent 24 hours in a 70 degree F environment, or a 40 degree C environment.

The default mantra for this site is to throw everything away. If you or someone you are feeding actually is immune compromised, this makes sense - if not, it's a rather extreme view, but that's the way the wind blows here, so that's the advice you can expect to see upvoted.


How long can I hold brown rice between boiling and steaming?

You can wait as long as you need to between pre-cook (that's the simmering) and finish (the steaming), it's how things work in restaurants.

The steaming time will only go up if you let the temperature drop appreciably.  Even so, you shouldn't need more than an extra minute or so.  Steaming is pretty benign to rice.

As far as the safety concerns...if you keep the temperature above 135 F, you are out of the danger zone, and you can hold there forever.  The danger zone is 41 to 135 F, but the goal in cooling foods is to get it from hot to cool in 6 hours...below 70 in two, and then 4 hours to make it below 41 (yes, I'm ServSafe certified).  So your hypothetical 30-45 minutes shouldn't cause you a problem.  But watch it if you start going long.


What causes the black discoloration on this plastic electric teakettle?

See this previous post that explains how to clean an electric kettle. The suggestions include boiling citric acid, vinegar, or descaling solution in the teapot.

Presumably these are impurities from the water that have solidified on the plastic. It is possible that the lack of texture that you mention is because the impurities have bonded with the plastic.


I assume that this is a bread loaf with one side cut open and in addition, you dusted off all ants that you could see from outside.  Ants cannot go too far into a bread loaf through the open end.  You can cut another piece off from the open end and use the remaining loaf.  (If you do not mind using the piece where ants were, then you could remove the ants easily from the cut piece now.  I would not mind eating it as this is what typically happens in tropical regions.)

As a solution to not letting ants get on the bread in the first place,
(1) you could place it in a plastic bag and form a knot so that ants cannot get through.  or
(2) Place the bread on top of a cylindrical object (for example, a used powdered milk container) and place the object (and the bread) in a (big enough) bowl (a wok) with water.  Make sure that no parts of the cylindrical object are touching the lateral surface of the bowl.


What is the technique for Vacuum Flask Cooking?

It's a slow-cooking technique involving a thermal cooker, or vacuum flask, The pot/flask and contents are heated to cooking temperature, and then sealed in the flask. The flask more or less eliminates heat loss, so the food remains at cooking temperature for a long time, and slow-cooks without continued heating.

See this Wikipedia article for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_flask_cooking


What is the difference between baking bread in a loaf pan made of stoneware vs metal vs iron cast?

Sandwich or quick bread has different heat requirements than artisan breads.

Artisan breads require a blast of high heat and humidity right from the beginning. They are usually baked on flat, preheated stones that store a lot of heat.

With breads baked in loaf pans the bread is proofed in the pan which is obviously not preheated. The goal is not a blast of high heat but generally even heating.

Stoneware and cast iron will hold a lot of heat but that isn't very useful for this type of bread. The big difference that a stoneware loaf pan will make is in the bread's crust. Unglazed stoneware will let some moisture escape during baking. Stoneware loaf pans are often used for dishes other than bread such as meatloaf where the even heating and heat retention when serving is valuable. Bread baked in stoneware will be crustier in the area covered by the pan than bread baked in metal. This is a more compelling advantage with quickbreads. In my opinion sandwich bread doesn't need to be crusty.

Metal bread pans are cheaper, lighter, and less fragile. They won't even out any heat gradients in a sloppy oven. If you know your oven is unreliable consider getting a thermal mass (such as a pizza stone) to even out the temperature.

I haven't used a cast iron loaf pan but my first inclination would be to use it for southern-style cornbread. This type of cornbread is normally cooked in a cast iron skillet. The pan would be preheated with hot fat and the cornbread batter would be poured in. The stored heat in the pan would fry the bread before it rose and set. I don't know why a cast iron pan would be used for normal bread.


Is it advisable to use the Extra Virgin Olive oil for Indian cooking, and baking?

I would not use olive oil in indian cooking and baking. The olive flavor is not compatible with the flavors of most styles of indian food. I wouldn't use it for baking cup cakes in any style of cooking, I would recommend a more neutral flavored vegetable oil.


Help! What have I made? Is it safe to eat?

It sounds like you may have made paneer. Rubbing undiluted lemon juice and vinegar on the pot, then drying it without rinsing, would leave a significant amount of acid dried on the surface. That acid dissolved into the milk, curdling it.

If so, it's safe to eat. Generally paneer is rinsed after curdling to remove the acidic taste.


Water boiled away during canning - now what?

Yes, reprocessing is okay, and it's probably a good idea. Steam doesn't necessarily transfer heat as well as boiling water, so if you end up with too little water, the odds of unsafe results increase. To get the safety out of the process, you have to have followed all the steps, and that includes keeping the water level high enough.

The most obvious way things could fail is simply by not getting good seals. But you also didn't heat the contents well enough, and that's part of the processing too.


Can I preserve the shelf-life of a cannoli?

I think you've proved already there's only one way to do this - buy the shells "unloaded" and fill them when you get there.

Assuming the bakery people are nice, ask them to put the filling in an icing bag and refrigerate that until you arrive. Put the shells separately in a cake tin, load the shells when you get to your destination.

I'm sure that everyone concerned will understand why you want to do this...


I use salted butter all the time in my baking and never "incredibly salty" results.  I think you must have used salt instead of sugar perhaps in your recipe to get that result.  Try it again with salted butter and make sure you use "sugar" that is called for in the recipe and it will be just fine.


Biologically, they can't be salty when fresh. The tree would die if its internal juices were salty.

As Elendil said, fresh olives are practically inedible, or at least have a very unpleasant taste. This is why you can only get pickled olives, never fresh ones.

But olives differ by salt level. The worst offenders are probably Turkish stafidaki style olives (for some reason, they are saltier than Greek stafidaki style). They are small shrivelled black olives sold dry (without a brine). On the other end of the scale, you get some black Mamuts which are pretty bland. Markets with multiple olive types will sometimes note unusually high or low salt content on the label.

I find that many olives are not too salty to be eaten by themselves. They are salty, sure, but not more so than some dried meats. You may have gotten one of the saltier styles. You can try another style next time.

When you buy olives without knowing how salty they are, and they turn out too salty, you can remove the brine and keep them in clear tap water for 2-3 days, then eat.


Sous vide effectiveness without using a vacuum sealer?

The main problem I've found is that air pockets can cause the bag to float, causing uneven heating. If your bag sinks, or if you have something to make it sink, it should be fine.

(Note: I find the water displacement method to be kind of a pain and not really effective. I use a cheapo manual vacuum pump, which I got for about ten bucks. It's very slightly more effective, and cheap.)


Celery has a very specific flavour profile.

The closest substitute for a soup would be parsley leaves and stalks.

To get even closer to the flavour, you could add celery salt or vegetable stock powder/cubes.
In my experience, the most dominant flavour by far in soup stock is the celery.


Unless your garlic has fungus growing on it or is badly discolored it's unlikely this flavor is from it. Garlic generally keeps very well and is still safe to use, and still flavorful even when it's a bit shriveled.

It's much more likely these off flavors are coming from another ingredient, and could be a sign of some sort of contamination, in which case you should chuck it. Even if it isn't you can't get rid of the flavor, so my recommendation should be to get rid of it and order some take-out.


Of course you can freeze meat. If it would be unsafe, your local supermarked wouldn't be allowed to sell it.
What you have to keep in mind when freezing your own meat:

Storage time is limited, for guidelines see here or here.
Freezing does nor remove bacteria, mold and other "nasties", but stops them from multiplying. Rule of thumb: What's on the meat when it goes into the freezer comes out again. So follow the usual safety procedures for raw meat before and after freezing.

-----EDIT------
As the subject of fat going rancid has come up several times in comments: That's one of the reasons the recommended freezing time for bacon is 1-2 months only, for game meat up to 8-12 months. Rule of thumb: The fattier the shorter.


If you store it properly (i.e., dry), it won't go bad in the unsafe sense. It has a pretty long shelf-life. Its possible that it'll lose some gelling strength eventually, particularly if stored in harsh conditions (elevated temperature, exposure to humid air, exposed to sunlight, etc.). Like anything else, it could conceivably pick up off-flavors if not stored in an air-tight container.

I'd make a small bit of agar-agar gel with it, to see if its still OK. I expect it is.


Use a larger bowl than you'd think (or less starting product); you want your product to be able to move around. Hold the bowl on an angle so your whisk can shear through the liquid as much as possible. Other than that, you want to go in a fast circular motion, dipping in and out of the liquid in order to incorporate air.

Only way to avoid the fatigue is practice. You should see one of our prep cooks! She used to be patissier for a very rustic chef--no electric mixers in that kitchen. I've seen her whisk meringue by hand and then move on to making aioli without blinking. Girl's got pipes I tell you.


Adding sugar and honey to sourdough culture

Adding sugar or honey to a sourdough culture will increase the activity of the yeast for a little while, but it is unlikely to create "new types of flavour". Honey and Sucrose (Table sugar) are both just simpler sources of glucose and fructose that the sourdough microbes usually get from breaking down the starches in flour. Unlike flour, honey and sugar do not provide much (if any) protein which the sourdough microbes need in order to grow and reproduce. The effect of sugar or honey on the lactobacilli isn't predictable without knowing which specie are active in your specific starter.  Some prefer maltose almost exclusively and would slow down if fed sucrose or honey, while others prefer fructose and would become especially active if fed honey; possibly leading to more sourness in the final product.

The purpose of a starter is to leaven bread composed of mostly flour and water. As such, it has always been my opinion that you should only feed your starter flour and water. Adding other things only serves to contaminate the culture or "teach" it to need additional food sources.

If you just really want to experiment feed you mother culture normally a few times, let it become active then set aside half of it for experimentation and half for safe keeping.

See Also:

Sourdough starter developing alcohol


Well, the good thing is, what you smell is everything that left your stew in order to float around in the kitchen. My attempt, with no guarantee for success, would be to seriously reduce the sauce down to jus/gravy and then fill it up with water again. Then use some cream to soften any remaining taste.


How can I improve a dish with badly cooked spices without recooking?

If there are truly offensive aromas (eg burnt smell) in there that you cannot mask with other aromas, or if there are serious textural flaws (brutally adstringent mouthfeel, unpalatably hard pieces...) the dish is beyond help.

If there are aromas missing - add aromatic seasonings, herbs, spices (probably in oil).

If the dish is too diluted (tastes watery, does not stick well to grains or bread...), try reducing it (cooking it down) or thickening it.

If aromas seem to be present but subdued, try adding fat (eg butter or coconut oil) or acid (vinegar, lemon) or sugar.

If there is too much bitter/metallic/strawy taste, it could be missing salt. Or be oversalted, ironically.

If too salty: try diluting it.

If it is too sour, add sugar; if cloyingly sweet, add an acid.

If it somehow isn't fun to eat even if all the elements are there, try adding umami (MSG, nutritional yeast, soy sauce...).


Risks of allergen cross-contamination (and how to avoid)

If you do need indeed an allergen free kitchen, you have to ban the allergen in question from the kitchen. Cross contamination will happen in all situations you describe. Even for non-porous surfaces, your allergens will live on in your dishsponge and get redeposited. The other option beside outright banning is to keep a second set of utensils, dish sponges, towels, etc. which never come in contact with the allergen, and wipe down surfaces and so on before cooking for the allergic person - which is rarely practicable.

The other question is whether you actually need the kitchen to be allergen-free. In typical allergy cases, there is a tollerable daily intake which will not trigger the allergy. It differs by allergen - for example, if you live with a celiac patient, the tolerable bound is so low you will always exceed it if you don't keep the kitchen free of flour. In fact, the flour particles left in the air after baking are sufficient to trigger a celiac episode. But for many other allergens, the person can eat from a contaminated pan, and as long as they are not actively biting into the allergen, it won't cause a reaction.

So, speak to the person you need to protect, and ask what level of cleanliness is needed. You cannot rely on the average tolerable limits per allergen, since some patients react to smaller amounts. They are likely to have been in this situation before and can tell you whether the cross contamination from washed utensils matters to them or not.


How can I tone down the heat in hot oriental mustard, without making it sweet/significantly altering flavor?

I came across this article.

It explains where mustard get its heat from:

  Mustard seeds come from the mustard plant, a member of the cabbage family. They contain two sulphur compounds, myrosin and sinigrin, as well as an enzyme, myrosinase. When the seeds are broken and water is added, the enzyme breaks down the sulphur compounds. The result is the sharp tasting oil that gives mustard its pungency, and helps explain why the name mustard comes from the Latin words mustum (much) and ardens (burning).

In addition, it recommends adding some flour to tone down its heat.

  In the case of prepared mustards, the reaction is toned down by using additives such as flour.


You are probably stirring the pudding too much. Cornstarch starts thickening at about 205°F/95°C. Once the pudding has got to that point and has thickened, stop stirring, otherwise you will interfere with the starch formation that causes the thickening. Using electric beaters probably means you are missing the point when the pudding has thickened and quickly beating the living daylights out of any starch formation that has occurred.

It may also be the case that you are beating so much air into the pudding that it just doesn't get hot enough to activate the cornstarch in the first place. I would use @ecnerwal's suggestion of a double boiler, along with a balloon whisk, and some patience.


Risotto and a complementing/contrasting broth corresponding to the meat

I have never seen a recipe for seafood risotto that used chicken broth. Commonly, clam juice or seafood stock is used. To me, chicken broth would clash. That seafood stock or clam juice is more common in seafood risotto recipes is confirmed by a Google search.

Personally, I would never use chicken broth to make seafood risotto.

If I wanted a risotto to compliment seafood not actually in the risotto, I would also use a seafood based liquid.


For a home cook: Honing should be done before or after heavy use or once every couple of weeks, depending on how finicky you are about the blade itself. Proper honing can stave off the need for an actual grind/sharpen for years.

-Honing realigns the existing edge. Just a few strops on each side of the honing steel. It doesn't take much.
-Sharpening grinds it down, takes away steel, and makes an entirely new edge. It's not something to be done often, or even routinely. I get mine professionally done at a kitchen shop.

If you're a pro, you want to hone any and all serious knives before each shift.


What is a good way to steam tamales without a "tamale steamer?"

Alton Brown recommends steaming them right in a normal tall pot with a steamer insert (your typical expanding/contracting one many people have on hand), directly in their husks.  Basically, you put a couple inches of water in, and then a steamer insert, and the tamales (in the husks) go on top of the steamer.

You can find his recipe/method here.

You can also watch the episode on YouTube, go to about 4:45 in to see the tamales in the pot.

If you don't have a steamer insert of any kind, I would imagine you could fashion something out of aluminum foil without much problem.  The most important thing is that you keep the tamales out of the water.  In a pinch, an upside-down colander would work if you have a pot that's large enough to hold it.

Another (very low-tech) option is this hack, that basically uses a disposable aluminum pan to create the steamer/upside-down colander part of the rig.  This seems like a pretty easy, straightforward solution.

Edit: as Michael points out in the comments, this seems like it could be a huge mess.  I would recommend getting a disposable pie pan that's just smaller than your pot, poking holes in that, and putting it upside down in the pot like a steamer insert - seems a lot safer and more efficient than a large rectangle on top of the pot!


You didn't knead it enough in the first place. 2 minutes is too short even with the pasta machine afterwards.

Pasta, especially the classic semolina pasta (which is mae with durum semolina), is a high-gluten product. To make it correctly, you need to develop that gluten. I don't make semolina-water pasta, but knead my flour-egg pasta for around 8 minutes. It makes a great dough, and you can feel the change in texture while kneading. Of course, dough with that much Glenn is way too tight to work it. Very hard to roll, resists cutting. That's what you need resting for: to relax the gluten. Else, shaping becomes a heavy chore.

There is no food police which will come to arrest you if you make noodles with underdeveloped gluten, but most people prefer the slightly resilient texture of developed-gluten noodles. You describe yours as "having a great bite", and apparently they didn't fall apart in the boiling water. So you could make both side-by-side and decide which is more to your taste. I you stay with the ess kneading, you will need less to no rest.


Just a note, a pet peeve of mine and something that may help you feel better, that red liquid is not blood. It is Myoglobin, a protein that found only in muscle. Blood tends to spoil very rapidly and meat which was not properly drained of blood will typically spoil or at least taste unlike what you want. Myoglobin however as it ages is what helps give aged meat its distinct, and for many, better flavor. When meat is seared, it also contributes to the caramelized crust, another level of flavor many like.
 Myoglobin is related to Hemoglobin, red blood cells, and works with it to deliver oxygen to the muscle, but it is not the same and does not age the same.

As to what to do when repacking, well, as comments have given multiple answers, I would also say that is personal choice.  For me, best taste is to still have some, but a lot of the liquid is just messy, so I would tend to pat some off but not rinse or wash.  Rinse if you prefer, but I certainly would not soak or scrub.  When you thaw, almost certainly more will be released from the steak, so in the end the results will likely be about the same between patting and leaving it.  I would just think you will want to minimize introducing ice crystals which may reduce the quality of the frozen and thawed meat.


Does cooking octopus in salt or pastry crust produce juicy octopus?

ok, so octopus either needs to be cooked for a very short amount of time (just until it's barely cooked through) to keep the muscle tissue tender or for a very long amount of time (2 hrs plus) to break down the connective tissue. The tenderization methods that involve beating it against a rock or whatever are usually for short-cook methods like grilling from raw.

So if you're baking it in a salt crust or pastry crust, that wouldn't be particularly conducive to short-cook methods... it's going to need to be cooked for at least two hours. The main problem I see with cooking octopus using this method is that octopus gives off a TON of liquid when slow cooking, and it would a) dissove enough salt to make it inedibly salty, b) dissolve the salt crust completely leaving you with a salty mess, or c) both. With a pastry crust, you wouldn't have to worry about the octopus being salty, but you would have to worry about the crust becoming a juice-soaked sloppy mess.

Frankly, I'd just give up on the salt crust. You might be able to fashion a crust using salt and egg whites which would stick together, but I really do think it would be inedibly salty.

If you pre-slow-cooked the octopus and made a gravy out of the cooking liquid, you could definitely get in into a pastry crust. That seems like it's more work than what you're looking for though. Good luck!


Should I fry mushooms before adding to a red meat sauce?

You are right on track with pre-cooking/frying the mushrooms instead of dumping them just into the dish. I think they benefit greatly from it, especially flavor-wise, which gets a lot more concentrated. Whatever you choose to do, remember that mushrooms will exude a lot of liquid during frying.

So if you add a significant amount to your meat, it will likely interfere with the browning. The same is true if added to your vegetables from the beginning, but it won’t matter as much.

I recommend you either

brown your meat, then add the mushrooms and use the liquid for a first „deglaze“ or
sweat your vegetables and add the mushrooms when they are like half-done.

Of course you can fry the mushrooms separately, but why bother with an extra step?


Substituting meyer lemons for sour oranges

Interesting idea.  I use Meyer lemons regularly, but wouldn't have thought to substitute them directly for sour oranges.  My usual substitution would be more your 2:1 ratio of sweet orange and lime juice (certainly not vinegar, eeeck!).  Unless your Meyer lemons are exceptionally sweet, I'd add a bit of sweet orange juice to them.


Does a change in altitude affect baking time or temperature?

Usually this question goes the other way around (how to adjust recipes for high-altitude cooking)...

The main effect that altitude has on cooking times and temperatures is how it affects the boiling point of water. At higher altitudes, water begins boiling at a lower temperature, so anything boiling will not reach as high of a temperature, and often needs to be cooked longer.

Higher altitudes can also cause leavening to have a greater effect. You may need to add extra leavening (yeast, baking powder) to get the same amount of rise that you had at a higher altitude.


Is it safe to eat smoked bacon without grilling?

I might disagree a little with rumtscho - traditionally cured bacon is one thing, what you get in packets from the supermarket is another. It looks similar and it tastes similar, but commercial products are processed rapidly and not tested for immediate consumption without cooking.

Products like Parma ham and Schwartzwaldschinken are proven to be adequately preserved for consumption without cooking. Modern bacon is not, in general. OTOH I know for a fact that raw packet bacon is commonly eaten in Spain without cooking, and I've met people who eat raw sausages (not a good idea in my opinion).

Me, I wouldn't eat it uncooked ...


A choux is an interesting batter that is created in a way that maximizes gluten structure. It is essentially cooked twice.  You combine and heat water and butter, then add flour and continue cooking the resulting paste. That paste forms a ball, and then several eggs are beaten in.  This batter is then piped onto a sheet and baked.  In addition to the gluten structure, the initial cooking also causes the starches to gelatinize, further reinforcing the structure.  In essence, you have created a deflated balloon.  When the piped shapes are baked, steam develops and inflates the "balloon."  It's all explained quite clearly right here.


Different types of tins are intended for storing different types of foods (dry crackers are very different from cheeses that contain some moisture).  And as mentioned previously, linings can chip when the tin is being cleaned.  Food grade does not mean that they are reusable - I'd contact the source and ask them.  Usually the I&I (industrial and institutional) market has sturdier packaging than home use.  If the I&I is not to be reused, I'd really doubt yours is suitable, especially for moist products.


What's the best water temperature for making Pizza dough

Choosing a temperature means choosing between proofing speed and flavor + gluten development. Higher temperatures (say 80-90 f) will get you a fast rise, but less flavor and gluten is not as well developed. A long, slow rise in the refrigerator takes much longer and typically gives you better flavor and texture.

Here's a link to a good page on temperature and yeast.


Is ginger soluble In water, fat or both?

No, by strict interpretation of your question, ginger itself is a plant. Plants are typically insoluble as they are composed of chemicals that are fat and water insoluble to a greater or lesser extent.
However, the major spice component in ginger is [6]-gingerol, this is a volatile ketone that is soluble in a range of organic solvents (oils/fats seem likely), but only very barely soluble in water. There are a range of other flavour/scent compounds found in ginger, some of which will be water soluble, some will be organic solvent soluble, that play a role in the taste of ginger, but these are too abundant to go into.
Note that water or fat solubility has only a partial influence on your ability to taste the ginger. You can make tea from ginger and taste and feel very strongly the gingerol, but this is because the gingerol is forming a fine layer of oil on the surface of the water and you can taste minute amounts of it. In addition, it scores 60,000 on the Scoville scale - similar in range to a cayenne pepper and much hotter than a jalapeno, so in a tea with nothing to cushion the effect, the heat is very obvious.


What ingredients make powdered sugar not gluten-free?

The simple answer to your question is the kind of starch they use. Most use cornstarch or tapioca starch, neither of which contain gluten, so most powdered sugar shouldn't contain gluten. If the type of starch isn't listed, don't buy that product.

For absolutely no gluten, it gets a bit more complicated.

A Google search for "Gluten Free Powdered Sugar" only yielded a few brands that make a "gluten-free" claim. Since most brands of powdered sugar don't contain any ingredients that would normally contain gluten, look for the line "This product is processed in a facility that also processes wheat". Choose a powdered sugar that lists the starch used as cornstarch, tapioca starch or other non-gluten starch and that doesn't have that line on the label. Of course I can only speak to US labeling, other countries may be different.

One brand, Domino Sugar, stood out to really stand by their claim of gluten free.  Domino's Gluten Free Claim  (C&H is Domino, BTW). I happen to have some C&H powdered sugar, so I looked at the label. There is no "Gluten-Free" claim on the label, but the ingredients listed are only sugar and corntarch, and there is no "this product is processed in a facility..." warning. Walmart brand also pops up on the "Gluten Free Powdered Sugar" search, they say "Naturally gluten-free food". The FDA requires that claim not be misleading, so if they do use equipment to process the sugar that also processes gluten-containing ingredients, the sugar cannot contain more that 20 ppm gluten.

There is one way to know for sure about any ingredient you use, or to even to check your final dish. Elisa Technologies, a very well respected name in medical laboratory testing, has put out home test strips sensitive to 10 ppm, that's half the concentration of gluten the FDA allows for a product to be certified "gluten-free".  If a product tested contains less than 20 ppm gluten the US, Canada and the European Union allow that product to use "Gluten Free" on the label. FDA Announcement At over $10 a strip, you'd want to use them judiciously, but if I or someone I loved had serious health issues that did not allow gluten, I'd get these strips. Test Strips


Siphon for testing new recipes: 250ml or 500ml?

Well, if you want to make 500ml, nothing stops you from using the 250ml one twice, right?

250ml is sufficient to judge a recipe - of course, if you do test runs with your family of 6, 250ml might be a bad choice.


The biggest reason to heat milk to almost boiling before fermenting is that it improves the texture of the yogurt.

During fermentation the bacteria consume lactose and produce lactic acid which causes the milk proteins to denature and coagulate trapping most of the fat. The proteins involved are primarily the casein proteins.

When this happens, there is still quite a bit of protein left that isn't bound up in the new casein mesh. All of the albumin proteins are water soluble and will not add to the structure of the yogurt.

These albumin proteins denature when they are heated. For this reason recipes universally call for the milk to be heated to 190 and then cooled. The albumin is denatured and is able to tangle up with the casein during fermentation and add to the yogurt structure.

Skipping this step will make a very profound difference to the structure of your yogurt. Without it your yogurt will be thinner and much more fragile. When you scoop it there will be more whey and all that albumin will wash out in it.

According to Harold McGee (On Food and Cooking pp 48)

"These treatments improve the consistency of the yogurt by denaturing the whey protein lactoglobulin, whose otherwise unreactive molecules then participate by clustering on the surfaces of the casein particles. With the helpful interference of the lactoglobulins, the casein particles can only bond to each other at a few spots, and so gather not in clusters but in a fine matrix of chains that is much better at retaining liquid in its small interstices."


How long can chocolate be held at temper?

I am not an expert in tempering, but I think the long standing time at 33˚C can contribute to V crystals reforming as VI (after all, they do this at room temperature over time). If this happened then it would cause the tempered chocolate to thicken and require melting and tempering again.

Will look forward to more answers on this.


How to Replace Icing Sugar in a No-Bake Cheesecake

Can you make cheesecake with honey instead of sugar? Sure!

Is it as simple as just replacing it 1:1? Not quite, there's increased moisture, but check the top answer here.

You'll need to reduce any liquid you might be adding a bit.  Without seeing your exact recipe, I can't give you an exact answer there.

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa....thats not cheesecake, thats no-bake 'cheesecake'. And that's not normal sugar, that's icing sugar.

No bake 'cheesecake' is much more forgiving about the ingredients - you'd not trying to set a custard like, you just want a thick, flavored, semi-firm pie filling.  Add the honey, but leave off a touch of the creme, maybe 20-30 g overall?  Icing sugar will actually thicken it a bit as its not only not a liquid, but its also got cornstarch in it.  There's about 1/4 tsp of cornstarch in that much icing sugar, so I'd add that.  If you're against cornstarch, I don't think it'd be the end of the world to leave it off.

I'd add the honey and then add 350 g of creme and see how the consistency is. You'll probably end up adding another 20g or so, but I'd wait and see.


Many of us lack sufficiently reliable sunlight and use a food dehydrator. These may be electric, but can also be solar, accelerating the process compared to open sun-drying. They have to be ventilated, to allow the moisture to get out, but still significantly reduce exposure to dust (and also stop the herbs blowing away).

Solar dehydrators can easily be made from readily available materials, even scrap, and there are plenty of plans online. All you really need is a clear plastic container with holes in the sides (holes low and high on all sides will improve airflow) and to spread the herbs in a thin layer. If drying thicker things they may need to be raised on a grid to allow the bottom to dry out.


I baked custard at too much heat, is there a name for what I created?

What you made is a baked custard, and it sounds like it came out rather well.

A runny/pouring custard is made in a pan on the stove top, rather than baked, but has a similar ratio of ingredients, sometimes with added flour or cornflour to thicken it.


If it's a "ham" it's already fully cooked, so there is no danger in eating any part of it. If it's a leg of pork, that's a wholly different animal: different texture, flavor, everything, and...not to belabor the point...it's raw.

That being said, you can lump all the bones in the pot together, no problem. You'll get better results though if you cook the raw bones for a while in the oven first: 425 for ~15 minutes, or until they start to brown a bit. Not only will you lose a little fat, but the crispy carcinogens of the maillard reaction will add more body to your stock.


plastic cutting sheets. how to use properly

The rough surface faces downward to prevent the board from slipping on smooth surfaces.


Can nutritional yeast flakes be used as a bread leavening?

Well, your own link states clearly:

  When the yeast is ready, it is killed (deactivated) with heat and then harvested, washed, dried and packaged.

So no, you can not use nutritional yeast to leaven your dough.

Only live yeast manages to create CO2 bubbles as byproduct of its digestion. Many novice or careless bakers inadvertantly kill their yeast by using too-warm liquid - and end up with a dough that never rises.


Maintaining crispy fried potatoes while cooking with onions and peppers

You probably should keep #3, but use a much higher temperature for the vegetables.

Non-starchy vegetables contain lots of water. If you shallow fry them at a leisurly pace, their juices flow out and stay in the pan, making everything a bit soft. You also get a bit less grilled-like taste.

If you saute them instead, you'll end up with dry vegetables. Their juices will evaporate the moment they hit the pan. When you add the potatoes, they will stay crisp.

You'll have to use a non-nonstick pan for that, it needs temperatures which will destroy a PTFE coating.


Wrong consistency when making "after eight" chocolate

Recipe requests are off-topic but I can solve your problem nonetheless:

After Eights are filled with soft fondant, which is sugar, often glucose syrup and water boiled to the soft ball stage, then whiped. If you google "poured fondant" you should find enough recipes online.


Why do fridge temperature standards between US and other countries differ?

As a starting point, I found this article, which says:

  The suggested temperature specification for refrigeration of foods has been revisited from time to time as knowledge and technology have advanced. Initially 7°C (45°F) was considered the optimal temperature; however, technological improvements have made it economical to have domestic refrigeration units working at a temperature of 4-5°C (40-41°F). For perishable products ≤4.4°C (40°F) is considered a desirable refrigeration temperature. ... Even these measures cannot control all pathogenic bacterial growth. For example L. monocytogenes, Yersinia enterocolitica, Aeromonas hydrophila, B. cereus and C. botulinum will multiply at recommended “good” refrigeration temperatures (5°C [41°F]). There are other bacteria (Salmonella spp., E. coli and S. aureus), that, although unable to grow at temperatures below 5°C (41°F), will take advantage of temperature abuse and grow. ...

If you're interested in additional detail about all that, the article does have a bibliography, but most of it is not accessible online. I did find this table of temperature ranges for growth for several common bacteria, though. Note that for example C. botulinum grows down to 3.3C/38°F, and L. monocytogenes (listeria) grows down to 29.3°F (-1.5°C)! So even 4°C isn't stopping everything.

In any case, there definitely is concrete benefit from the 4°C guideline: many foodborne bacteria will definitely multiply above 5°C, which would lead to shorter safe refrigeration times (or more foodborne illness if you times aren't adjusted) at the 7°C or 8°C temperatures used in Germany.

I don't know anything concrete about why Germany has chosen to tolerate this risk, however. The historical progression to lower temperatures cited there does suggest that Germany simply hasn't adjusted their standards lower as technology has improved (as mentioned in the article) but it's not clear why.

A side note: outside of food safety, the primary way fridges can have an undesired effect on food is by accidentally freezing it. (Temperatures vary by position in the fridge, and by time.) There's a balance here between reducing temperature as much as possible for safety, and keeping far enough above 0°C that variance doesn't routinely freeze your food. Given that some things grow even below 4°C, I'm guessing that if it were possible to hold temperature more constant, we'd actually see even lower temperature recommendations, in the same vein as previous decreases in temperature recommendations.


Substitute Sherry for Wine in Sour dough cookies?

Sherry is wine, so yes, you can use Sherry in your recipe. Sherry is fortified, so its percentage of alcohol is perhaps a third more than most other wines. You don't say what kind of wine you usually use, but you could slightly dilute the Sherry with water to give it a close to equal percentage of alcohol as your usual choice. That would be the safest way to make the substitution.


Is there another name for unrendered lard?

As the Wiki says, unrendered lard is "adipose tissue", also called "fatty tissue". It's often referred to by the specific piece of fatty tissue that it comes from: fatback, belly fat, leaf (from around the kidneys, the equivalent of beef suet).

It can also simply be called "fat". I see, for example, many articles to render fat into lard. That's more ambiguous than "fatty tissue", but it's much more colloquial and it's usually clear from context.


You could use them, together with the core, to make apple-glaze (for your pie).  Cover everything with water, simmer about 30 min, strain, simmer until you reach the desired density.


How To Tell When Corn is Done With Boiling

It does depend on the corn.

Eat some raw... Notice the starchy taste (Still yummy, just starchy)

What you want to do is boil it just enough to drive out the starchy taste.

I would get 3 cobs, break them in half, and pull one out every minute.

Then have a taste test.


Yes you can create sourdough from regular yeast, but it's not necessary. Ordinary flour comes with a trace of yeast. In the San Francisco area, that yeast is famed. Just mix flour and water 50/50 to make a batter-like mixture and leave it in a jar on the counter. Put a lightly fitting lid on the jar.

Add more flour and water every 12h (give or take). You should be doubling the initial amount each time, so 1 teaspoon, 2 teaspoons, 4...

After a couple of days you'll see bubbles developing in the sourdough. Once you're at that stage, you can reduce the amount of care. 'Refresh' the sourdough once a week: mix, take out 1/2 of the sourdough, add the same amount back (50/50 flour/water as before), mix. According to the Wikipedia, this can be kept at room temperature.

Sourdough is a mixture of flour, water, yeast and bacteria. When unattended for some time, 'water' forms at the surface. This liquid contains some alcohol that adds to the flavor of the dough. It's part of the sourdough and should be mixed in when refreshing the dough.


Almost all fermented dairy products curdle under heat. When this happens, the milk proteins bind to each other into a rubbery mesh, which can't contain all the moisture from the original product, and it is squeezed out.

Creme fraîche tends to be an exception. It contains a high amount of fat. This fat lubricates the proteins and gets in the way, so they can't bind to each other and form the mesh. However, the fat content of creme fraîche isn't all that high (just enough to allow for the effect I described), so it is finicky when heated.

As you don't seem to have acid in the recipe, the trouble probably comes from water. It dilutes the creme fraîche, making it more probable that proteins will meet and bind without a fat droplet coming in the way. So, if you want to keep the recipe as authentic as possible, try to reduce the amount of water exuded by the other ingredients.

The first thing to check is whether you are actually using creme fraîche. Sometimes people make a substitution with a similar product, but continue calling it the name of the original product. Sour cream, smetana, creme legere, plant substitutes, etc. won't work in your case - 30% fat is the minimum for baking, the higher the fat content, the better is it suited. For the rest of the answer, I am assuming that you are using the creme fraîche.

My suggestion would be to drain the broccoly very well (I assume you mean blanched or nuked broccoli, baking them in the oven would be strange), maybe even try to use a salad dryer. If the salmon comes from a vacuum package, drain it well too, and pat it dry with a paper towel. Take the potatoes out of the boiling pot and leave them alone for a while, the cooling startch will absorb some moisture. Also, use a mealy type of potatoes, the starch in these could absorb some liquid from the other ingredients. Another thing which should help in any case is to reduce the oven temperature, as the gentler heat will affect the creme fraîche less.

If this fails, you should consider adding other ingredients to stabilize the creme fraîche. It will change the taste, but not necessarily for the worse.

A stabilizer should help. For dairy, carrageenan is very effective and its taste is not noticeable, but most people don't have it in the kitchen. Starch will also act as stabilizer, take just a small portion, maybe a teaspoonful per 200 g creme fraîche. Dissolve it in a teaspoonful of cold water before adding it. You could also use flour. Both will affect the taste somewhat, the flour will be more pronounced.

The second solution would be to raise the fat content. Adding pure fat is counterproductive, as the fat droplets in dairy products are much smaller than what your blender would achieve. But you could mix or substitute the creme fraîche using a dairy product with a higher fat content. Mascarpone, kaymak, katuk, clotted cream, or creme double should work. Or maybe cream cheese, even if it doesn't have a higher fat content, because it contains stabilizers. A full substitution will alter the taste substantially, but a partial one will probably be OK.

If all else fails, you could try if you can't change the recipe to accommodate a more traditional gratin liquid (how is the stuff called in English?). While I agree that pure creme fraîche will work best with what you listed, a mixture of eggs (or just yolks to keep it more liquid), milk, the creme fraîche, and a tiny bit of flour would also provide a moist binding. Use less eggs/yolks than in a normal gratin to keep it from setting too much. It will be a big change, but if nothing else works, it will still taste much better than curdled creme fraîche.

Or if you are a risk-embracing nature, you can continue using pure creme fraîche, just with the moisture reducing techniques, hoping that this will be enough. Each time it separates, you should drain the whole dish, catching the liquid. Scum off the curds, or strain them. The whey will have a nice taste, similar to a stock. Take out some new creme fraîche (not heated), and mix it with the liquid. (Reduce it first to avoid making it too liquid). Add it back to the remaining ingredients. This will keep the taste even if the curdling occurs, but will require lots of work.


When making crockpot chili and adding raw hamburger, won't that make the chili greasy if not strained?

The amount of grease the meat exudes is dependent upon the amount of fat in the beef. If your beef is lean (<10% fat), you will not likely notice a difference in the greasiness in the final product by not straining. If your meat is fatty (ground beef in the US can contain up to 30% fat), then the final product will have noticeable grease. The fat contributes in a good way (IMO) to the flavor and mouth-feel of chili if the meat is in the 15% range.


How important is drying hands for sanitation?

If you are immediately going to moisten your hands your hands anyway, I can't see a difference. But otherwise, food safety studies do say that you should thoroughly dry your hands after washing using a clean (or paper) towel.

Decades of research from hygiene authorities suggest that wet hands transfer bacteria much more readily than dry ones, as the residual moisture left on hands after leaving the wash station allows bacteria and viruses to transfer to food and solid surfaces by touch...
Multiple studies have looked at the effectiveness of air dryers versus hand towels and results strongly favor paper towels. For example, one study published by the University of Leeds in 2014 found that levels of airborne germs collected and counted near warm air dryers to be 27 times more than those near paper towel dispensers. Another paper, published in 2012 by the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, which observed research from a dozen investigations, stated that “from a hygiene standpoint, paper towels are superior to electric air dryers” and “should be recommended in locations where hygiene is paramount.”

-Food Quality and Safety Magazine (A source of peer-reviewed scholarly articles)


Why did my tenderloin end up undercooked inside?

I am going to guess that your 4 oz tenderloin was probably about an inch thick.  Not moving that, in a hot pan, for only a minute and a half left it under cooked in the center and over cooked on the outside. The pan was too hot and the cook time was too short. Given your limited experience cooking tenderloin, I would suggest a couple of adjustments.  First, get a thermometer to accurately measure the temperature of your steak.  Identify the doneness you prefer and look up the associated temperature. If you are cooking in a pan, on the stove top, then turn the heat down to medium at the most...add some fat to pan.  Cook your steak, flipping every 30 seconds for about 5 minutes.  Check the temperature.  Continue flipping regularly until you are 5 - 10 degrees below your target temperature.  Remove from the heat, tent with foil, and allow to rest 5 - 10 minutes (carry over heat should get you the rest of the way to your target).  With experience, you will gain a feel for the doneness and can eliminate the thermometer.  Time is not an accurate measure, as there are too many intervening variables.  So, get a feel for temperature instead; not only measured temperature, but actually touch the cooked meat to see what it feels like.  Over time, with experience, this can guide you quite well.


How to make a Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread in time for breakfast

I have developed the following method for "no knead" bread, it works EVERY time and is scrumptious.

Mix 650gm strong white flour in a bowl, pinch of salt, slug of olive oil, 440 mls warm water and 5 (yes 5) teaspoons of dried yeast.
Mix with food mixer for 4 -5 minutes.
Place in oiled plastic bowl, and cover bowl with oiled clingfilm.
Fill a stainless sink with very warm water. Float the bowl with the dough in the water. Leave the bowl to proof for 1 hour (don't touch it).
The dough will have doubled in size. Remove the dough and place in a greased baking tin. Turn on the oven and pull out oven shelf as far as it will go. Place the baking tin with the dough inside on the extended shelf of oven for 30 minutes.
Place a metal pot of water in bottom of oven. Put bread now into a fairly warm fan-forced oven (220°-230° C).
Bake until you can smell aroma (approx 25 -30 mins). To test for being done, the loaf should sound hollow when knocked. You now have stunning "artisan type bread" and you haven't had to knead anything or get your hands dirty.

This works well during the summer and winter and can be made in time for breakfast, i.e. 2 hrs start to finish and needs no help from you.


My grandmother scraped both her parsnips and her carrots. Basically you hold your knife perpendicular to the vegetable and drag it down the length. It's the same action as using a peeler. In fact, I usually just peel mine with a peeler. But scraping leaves a tiny bit more of the vegetable.


I work in a commercial kitchen and I've seen this happen before, which is why we do not use copper-plated cookware. This can happen whenever you have two different alloys welded together and apply heat to one side or non-uniformly; An effect known as 'thermal shock'. What happens is one metal expands faster than the other, causing a deformation or fracture. Think of it as one side trying to 'pull' the other at the edges. The pop you heard was undoubtedly this delineation occurring, followed by the kinetic reaction of the pot jumping.

I find your claim that the pot leaped through the air difficult to believe, but I have observed audible pops and visible movement when they fail. If you have a flat top (like an electric stove), it could skid for up to a foot from this due to the lack of friction and possible presence of condensate (water) on the surface which can at certain temperatures act like a nearly friction-less cushion. Oil doesn't do this, only water.

If you've ever been in a commercial kitchen you'll notice every cookware item is made of a single cast of metal (most usually stainless steel) because of this. Welded alloy pots and pans just don't last very long -- the effect observed so violently happens at a smaller scale with every heating cycle, eventually resulting in ruined cookware. Also, being a line cook means being exposed to things exploding, dying, catching fire, etc., on a near-daily basis, not to mention an assortment of knives that would make most Hollywood bad-asses blush, so obviously we try to limit the number of things that can go wrong.

Do yourself a favor -- if you stick with the copper-bottomed pots and pans, make sure to put plenty of water or oil in them. Heat with nowhere to go will cause failure quickly.


How can I get cuts of beef I recognize when in Italy

As someone who has moved from the US to another country I can relate and have some general advice. Rather than spending time trying to find the US equivalent of something try to take advantage of what's good and plentiful locally. If there's something you desperately miss there's always an online store to help, the trick is not to miss those things as much.

I wrote a meat app years ago and did a lot of research as I wanted to make an equivalents table for meat cuts across the world. I gave up because it was impossible: cuts are very different from country to country, there may be no exact equivalent for what you are looking for. Instead I would suggest you try a different approach by describing what you want out of the meat and how you plan to cook it and relying on the butcher to give it to you. Rather than saying 'New York Strip' tell the butcher you want a tender cut for charcoal gilling, for example.


How do I choose between shredded and finely shredded cheddar cheese?

You probably want to check for the lowest proportion of added anti-caking agent (here potato starch is used).  That's the reason it doesn't melt very well.
If you're going to freeze it, you could grate a large batch of a block you like and freeze that - the best of both worlds but a fair bit off effort in one go. If I was doing a lot I'd use the grater attachment for my food processor.


When I retard dough in the refrigerator and then plan to do a final proof in a proofing box, I tend to put it right in from the fridge.  I don't know that there's any advantage to letting the dough come to room temperature first, other than making your final proof take longer (and there's no advantage to that, given that you've already developed flavor through retarding the dough).

In fact, for shaped rolls that have been retarded, I'd worry about taking too long for the final proof: I'd be afraid the rolls might deform with a longer proof and/or the outer skin of the dough would lose elasticity and cause the rolls to spread horizontally, rather than rise high during the bake.

So, for preshaped rolls, I'd put them in the proofing box right from the fridge.

If. on the other hand, you've retarded the dough in bulk or in rough rolls you plan to reshape before the final proof, then perhaps it would make sense to wait for the dough to come to room temperature -- then shape and do final proof.  (Though in that case, you can also bring the dough to room temperature in a proofing box too if you like.  I'd just wait to do final shaping when the dough is closer to room temp.)


What temperatures do low-medium-high on the stove correspond to?

They don't correspond to a temperature, they correspond to a rate of heat input.

The elements in your oven are connected to a thermostat with regulates their temperature, they are really constant heat/fixed temperature devices, like the heat in your home. The oven turns the elements on and off to regulate temperature, but the elements are only ever ON or OFF.

The stovetop elements, by contrast, are variable heat/variable temperature. There is no thermostat, but the elements can be variably adjusted between MAX and OFF. For every setting the temperature will just keep getting hotter and hotter (unless something is removing the heat, like cooking food) - the higher settings will just get hotter faster.

The important thing to know (for an electric range) is the wattage of the elements - most 8" elements are ~2500W, and most 6" elements are ~1500W. But there is a lot of variability. Additionally, if you are living in a home with 240V power but have recently lived in an apartment (which likely had 208V power, but 240V elements installed in the oven, even if you didn't realize it), your heater elements will seem much hotter than before. It is also possible that the oven maker or previous owner installed higher wattage elements (perhaps by installing elements intended for a 208V service in a home with 240V service, which would have the effect of "turbocharging" them a bit).

Temperature measured with an IR thermometer may not be useful for you to determine if your oven is hotter than usual, since an empty pan on Low will still reach 400+ degrees (it will just get there slower).

What might be more useful is to find out what setting people do certain cooking tasks at, and see if that is different than what works on your oven. You can also remove the elements and find the voltage/wattage stamped on the bottom - let us know what those values are and we may be able to tell you if they are abnormally high.

Personally, I sweat onions on 4/10, fry an egg at 6/10, simmer soup at 2/10, and maintain 1 gallon water at a consistent, but not vigorous boil at 8/10.


Why is  Ice Cream used in Hot Buttered Rum?

I don't think I've ever even had hot buttered rum, but I can take a stab at some of your questions:

1 part ice cream and 2-3 parts boiling water will still average out pretty hot. If the ice cream is at, say, -20 to -10C, that'll get you in the 60-70C range initially, which is I think fairly normal for hot drinks. And of course, if you keep it in the refrigerator instead, your drink will be hotter!
I suspect mixing ice cream with butter will help it all mix together better in the end, by helping disperse the fat.
Ground spices aren't going to need a ton of steeping. I imagine the boiling water would be enough, and if not, the pre-cooking could easily compensate. And since some recipes just have nutmeg sprinkled on top, it sounds like steeping isn't necessarily the goal. If you're really aiming for spiced hot buttered rum, you'll probably want more spices than those recipes, and perhaps to cook them briefly with the butter.
If you intend to freeze the "batter", including ice cream will help keep it soft enough to scoop/slice. If it were just butter and sugar, it'd get quite hard in the freezer.
Yes, the milk/cream content of the ice cream would make the drink a little creamier - but I don't know whether hot buttered rum should be a bit creamy. It sounds like it'd be fine either way - personal preference, perhaps?


In general bitterness isn't an issue but I wouldn't recommend it - I've brewed many herbal teas, and I've never had one that benefited from being steeped too long. You can steep them longer than real tea, but not forever as you end up getting an "overcooked" flavor. Mint is a good example, you steep it for 10 minutes, but after 20 you start to get murkier flavors.


Why has my cold smoking stopped working?

It sounds like you may be over-curing the fish. The salt and sugar draw water out of the fish, the longer it's applied the more is lost, and you can go too far. When I cold smoke a side of salmon it's only cured overnight, say 8-10 hours, not for a whole day.  I imagine there wouldn't be much left after that.
Try reducing your dry brining time to 4 hours, then rinse, pat dry and let them dry out overnight in the refrigerator.


How long can century eggs last refrigerated and unrefrigerated?

Was the limestone and hay wrapper cracked or the egg shells?
Century eggs are really only a few weeks-months old, actually. Though they do keep for long periods at room temperature. They're also damn tasty and have a lot of ammonia i.e. Very high PH (basic) so unlikely to spoil.


Why do hand held can openers stop working so quickly?

Can openers do break.

But if they're breaking quickly, then I'd suggest you're buying very cheap can openers.

One of these should cost $10-20 and should last at least a year.


Why are my commercial fries going soggy almost immediately?

It's hard to know without more information, but one thing to keep in mind is that it's the release of steam from the food that keeps the fat out when you deep fry. It sounds like the frozen fries are keeping enough steam from releasing. You might try letting them come to room temp first before frying them.


As a mushroom variety that is associated with allergic reactions to some, I don't think it is advisable to dehydrate it. This would only serve to increase the concentration of toxins that likely cause the allergies in the first place.
As Stephie mentions in her comment the safest solution would be to pick and sauté only fresh young brackets, then separate and freeze them in portions as needed.

As a side note, most of the brackets you have there are quite large and mature. If you haven't eaten this particular mushroom before or are not sure of its origin, I wouldn't recommend eating them as they may cause the allergic reaction I mentioned or even vomiting and diarrhoea.

As another side note, try sautéing the fresh ones with butter a hint of Chardonnay and some teriyaki sauce.


How to decide how much to dilute extremely hot chillis

Given that you don't know what you have, I'd favor making up "more of less 100% chili sauce" or as close to that as your methods come, taking care, and not tasting it.

Then take one tiny amount of that (a drop, a 1/4 teaspoon, a mL) and dilute it in whatever seems likely in your estimation (I suppose based on "possibly 1 million Scovilles" and some reference sauce you like) to be "more than plenty" of filler (1000X? 2000X?), mix throughly, and taste. If not hot enough, add more, mix again, taste. If still too hot, dilute more, taste. Keep careful track and you'll have the correct ratio for sauce you can stand.


Should I pre-boil then rinse chicken bones before making stock?

This sounds counterproductive. Making stock means that you let the boiling water leach nutrients, flavors, and other stuff from the bones. Then you remove the solid parts (bones, scum) and are left with the gelatine and flavors dissolved in the water.

Now, if you preboil the bones and throw away the water, you throw away all the flavor which has been leached in this boil. Sure, some flavor will remain in the bones for prolonged boiling, but it will be less, and it won't be the same flavor (some tastes will cook out sooner than others). In short, the process which creates scum is the same which creates stock; you can't have one without the other.

In your home kitchen, you can mostly live with cloudy stock if you don't feel like skimming. Clear stock is more desirable, but you can keep that for special occasions. And exactly these occasions are the one when you want the most flavor, so don't compromise by preboiling.


Rigging equipment for steaming large amounts at once

Assuming that you're planning to do the steaming at home (your question is kind of confusing that way), the cheapest way to go is to create ad-hoc "steam ovens" using disposable aluminum foil pans.

Buy some disposable aluminum foil baking pans, as large/deep as possible, like a 20" x 12" x 3.5" pan.
line the bottom of these with cookie cooling racks (if you don't have these, use an appropriately-sized disposable rimmed cookie sheet and punch holes in it).
pour in a little bit of water, below the tops of the racks.
put in the buns (should hold a lot of them in each pan)
seal tightly with extra-wide, heavy-duty foil on top.
bake in your oven at 350F

Now, the catch to this is that the cooking time will be different than it would n a regular steamer, because you're getting some heat from the top, and I don't have a ready conversion for you; you'd have to test a bit.

If this is something you do a lot, I'd recommend buying a Thai/Vietnamese-style multi-level steamer, which would allow you to steam batches of 12 to 30 buns pretty rapidly.  You can buy these steamers at Asian grocery stores a lot cheaper than you can find them online.


That's normal for honey. When you buy good quality honey, it will always crystalize, no matter what you do. The speed and crystalization and the appearance of the crystals depends on the plant from which the honey was made.
If you want honey that doesn't crystalize, you can go to the supermarket and look at the cheaper honeys. If they are liquid in the supermarket already, there is a good chance that they have been treated in ways which prevent crystalization. Alternatively, you can buy products which are a mixture of bee honey and other sugars, which can also be formulated to not crystalize.


You absolutely don't need a bread maker for good bread.  They have been making bread for at least 22,000 years and I promise, in the vast majority of those, having a bread maker would have gotten you stoned as a witch (if you had electricty to run it).  However, a good bread maker will vastly cut down on the time you have to spend making bread.  Basically, bread by hand requires a few hours and lot of physical kneading to develop the gluten that gives bread it's structure and in a bread machine, you dump the ingredients in, turn it on and walk away, then come back and enjoy some fresh bread.


You can use 1 teaspoon of potato starch (or maizena).


I believe the cattle you're referring to are Japanese Waygu - there are a number of breeds under this rubric, but there are notable points:

Genetic predisposition to exceptional marbling and tenderness
The animals are hand-massaged by the farmer, due to insufficient space for the cattle to wander freely
Grain fed rather than grass fed, as the cattle is generally tethered or penned for its life.


Deep frying - caloric-intake difference in saturated vs. unsaturated oil

The calorie intake is the same; a gram of fat has 9 calories.


Soymilk for drinking vs. soymilk for tofu making

Your title, your problem and your question (btw question is general but complicated) while on the same subject matter are not the same.

In regards to your quest for firm and extra-firm tofu, the OP doesn't state much about the process after the coagulation.  Which similarly to cheese making is the (arguably) the most crucial factor in the final texture.  firm and extra-firm tofu is pressed with heavier weights, and for longer periods of time.

The choice of coagulent (nikari, gypsum, acid, etc), temperature of the milk and the mixing method can also affect the texture of the final product.


Round popcorn is just made from a different variety of popcorn, called mushroom popcorn. The "normal" kind is called butterfly popcorn, or sometimes snowflake popcorn.

The two are mentioned in the wikipedia article (last paragraph of the linked section), along with a photo. It looks like it's pretty easy to buy online, if you prefer it.

Mushroom popcorn kernels are a little sturdier and easier to coat, so it's well-suited for prepackaged popcorn and especially things like caramel corn, but at least to me that sturdiness is also a slight toughness, so I prefer the butterfly-style popcorn most of us are used to.


When, if ever, are dried herbs preferable to fresh herbs?

Dry rubs are one case that I can think of where dry is specifically necessary, so you can grind them up properly.

The main advantage to dry herbs is that they're available year round.  When you're dealing with winter dishes, dry herbs would've been the norm to have used at that time.

If you are going to substitute, you'll need to add more (typically about 3x as much, as the dry is usually more concentrated), and you'll want to add it late in the cooking process, while dry herbs are usually added early.

One exception to the rule is bay leaves -- you'll still need to add them early, and you'll want to reduce the number.


I think you're misunderstanding the claim slightly. You do not heat an already pureed soup, you puree and heat in one step. You can indeed make a hot soup from cold ingredients using certain high end blenders. The only one I've verified this with is the vita-mix.  To do this, you put your ingredients in to the blender, turn it on, and let it run about 5 minutes. The friction from the blades heats the soup while chopping the ingredients. The soup will get piping hot.

Why would you do it? It's easy. It takes about 2 mins to get the soup really smooth, so it's 3 more minutes to get it hot. That's faster than you would be able to do with a stove, although maybe slower than a microwave. Is it more efficient? I don't know, but I doubt the difference in electrical efficiency is really sufficient to drive a choice one way or the other.

In terms of cleaning, you already need to clean the blender because you pureed the soup. There's no additional cleaning to do if you cook it there too, versus additional cleaning for stove or microwave. And the blender is easy to clean as it's one piece; you just add soap and water and turn it on for 30 seconds, then rinse.

Personally, I do not think this is "one of the main selling points". It's a neat trick, and it's useful. However, I think that it's more interesting as an indication of the blenders power. You can use these blenders to make exceptionally smooth soup, make peanut butter, properly crush ice for frozen drinks, etc. They do this much better than a 'normal' home blender, but just saying 'better' probably wouldn't sell a lot of these things at 4x the price, so they focus on something that the standard home blender most certainly cannot do.


Part of the problem could be the refreezing of the ice cream.  You know when you take out ice cream, eat at it for 5 or 10 minutes and then put it back in the freezer...and then the next time you take it out, some of the ice cream is a little icy and bit grainy?

I'm not sure you can solve this if you use the same recipe.  Instead, I would recommend using the highest fat chocolate milk you can find instead of using melted chocolate ice cream.

I really doubt the pudding didn't get dissolved completely.  If that really was the case, you could heat the mixture before you put it in the pie crust.


How do you cook a steak like those found in fine steakhouses?

The most important thing you can do is buy quality beef. You can throw a USDA Select steak on a 700 degree charcoal grill, cook it perfectly, and it'll still be tough and not at all what you'd get at a fine steakhouse.

In the USA there are three grades of beef available to a consumer: Select, Choice, and Prime. There are lesser grades but they go to fast food joints, prisons, military personnel, and miscellaneous other weird uses.

In most american supermarkets you will find only select, period. This is an "average" steak. It's typically devoid of marbling, and results in a rather flavorless tough steak.

To find choice steaks you have to go to a higher end supermarket, e.g. Whole Foods You will pay significantly more for a choice steak, but the difference is marked. The marbling will result in a tenderer steak due to the internal fat melting and tenderizing the steak.

Finally, prime cuts. These are very hard to come by in any supermarket unless you live in a bigger city. You typically have to go to a specialty shop or butcher for these. Less than 2% of all beef is classified as prime. On top of this, restaurants get first pick. So even if you do buy a great prime steak, you are likely getting the lower end of the prime spectrum. However, the difference is amazing. The marbling is more intense, more evenly distributed and when cooked properly results in a steak that melts under your knife.

Another one-up a fine steakhouse has on you is they age their beef. Any steak you buy in the grocery store is minimally wet aged. The finest steakhouses dry age their beef. The difference? Wet aging consists of simply vacuum packing the meat (as in a whole side of cow) and refrigerating it for about a week. After that, it's cut smaller and sold to stores. Dry aging is a more complicated and expensive process. Dry aged beef is hung for at least two weeks in a refrigerator. Moisture in the meat is allowed to escape and evaporate, which concentrates the beef flavor of the beef. The beef also grows a moldy rind which is cut off and thrown away. After the aging is complete you're left with 75-80% of the meat you started with. This commands a premium price.

Unfortunately, you can't dry age a steak in your home. There are some refrigerator aging processes that you'll find on this site and others, but they aren't a true comparison.

Another variation that has become more popular is grass-fed beef. This has become a recent fad, at least in the USA. Cattle are traditionally fed corn which makes them fatter and "juicier", but it also leaves the meat tasting very bland. Likely, if you live in the USA, every steak you've ever had was corn-fed. Grass-fed beef on the other hand is fed predominantly grass, they're allowed to graze as cows should. This is good for the cows, because they don't actually eat corn. A cow is made to eat grass. Corn is rather harsh on their digestive system, but they are given no other choice. In the wild a cow would never eat corn. The end result is a very different flavored steak. Grass-fed beef has a much richer, meatier flavor. However, it's also tougher than corn-fed beef. For this reason a steak you will be served in a fine steakhouse is likely not to be grass-fed unless it is specifically designated as such.

With all that out of the way I suggest doing what I do. When I feel like an amazing home cooked steak, I'll splurge on a nice choice ribeye, dip it in a mixture of melted clarified butter and oil, season liberally with salt and pepper, and pan fry it.


Dough safety and viability after overproofing

It is safe to eat?  Almost certainly, especially if you bake it.  Your dough doesn't contain anything that will "go bad" in 15 hours at room temperature.  Many bread dough recipes containing only flour, water, salt, and yeast are left to proof at room temperature for 12-24 hours, though they generally start with a much smaller amount of yeast.

Could it "go bad"?  That would only be possible if one of your ingredients was already contaminated with significant amounts of bacteria, mold, etc.  If you saw weird things growing on the dough or it had a foul odor, I suppose that could be an indication that something was "bad," but none of that should be possible in 15 hours for normal bread dough, assuming your ingredients weren't contaminated to begin with.  (Under normal conditions, it will probably take a few days or more at room temperature for bread dough to start actually "going bad" and growing mold, etc.)

However, the bread dough has probably "gone bad" in the sense that the bread produced will likely be inferior in flavor and texture.  If you bake the dough "as is," it will likely collapse significantly in the oven and be rather dense.  Chances are the dough will taste a bit odd after baking -- overly "yeasty" or "beer-like," with some "off" flavors.  It won't be completely inedible, but it probably won't taste great.  Personally, I wouldn't waste my time doing that.

The above answer I believe covers the specific question, but what can one do in this circumstance to "save" the dough?

It is possible to try re-kneading it for a few minutes and see if it will rise some more (re-kneading will redistribute the yeast and allow them to perhaps find more food), but that seems unlikely after such a long proof with so much yeast initially.

At this point, the likely only way to save it as bread would be to use it as a "pre-ferment" for another batch, that is to cut up the dough into pieces and mix into another batch of dough (perhaps tripling the overall batch size, while using no yeast or perhaps only a small amount).  Then let proof, divide, and bake.  But I personally wouldn't do this unless I were sure the dough didn't taste bad, because in your situation the dough might have acquired some less desirable flavors, and you'd be wasting more ingredients to produce bread that tastes a little "off."

If you were desperate to use the dough for something and didn't want to risk an even bigger batch of inferior bread, I'd knead the dough a bit, divide it up, and use some sort of fast cooking method, probably with some other food or flavorings where a significant rise isn't needed (e.g., pizza, flatbread, fried dough, etc.).


what happens when one mixes flour into batter?

Many, many things happen when flour flour is mixed into batter.  From your description, though, it sounds like you are interested in what leads to and relieves clumping.

When water (whether it is just plain water, in milk, in juice, or whatever) and flour are mixed, the water will begin to expand and penetrate the starch granules in the flour.  The starch will swell, and become sticky.

Now, imagine a small clump of flour, with water penetrating from the outside.  The outside surface of the flour clump will swell up as the starches become staturated with water.  They are also sticky, so they tend to not separate--the surface sticky flour tends to stick to its neighbors and the flour on the inside.

Once the outside surface of the clump is saturated with water, it is very hard for more water to penetrate the clump, so it tends to persist.

The main way to mitigate this clumping is to stir vigorously, immediately upon introducing the flour and liquid.   This will tend to distribute the flour particles throughout the liquid before significant swelling occurs.  This is why when making a flour slurry, you whisk or beat it quite briskly right away.

Additionally, slowly over time, water will also penetrate the clumps, slowly swelling and hydrating the starches in the center, but then you tend to have quite sticky lumps, like in lumpy gravy, and those are nearly impossible to dissolve, so you don't want that to happen.  Immediate agitation is the key.

In the batter you describe, it is probably the additional mixing more than the the additional flour that relieves the clumping.  You have said that it doesn't happen until the flour is added, but it may be that the additional volume just makes your mixer more efficient since it has more to work with.

Still, nothing is simple.   If you have a lot of water, and a little flour, stirring easily creates a slurry without lumps.

If you have a much larger ratio of flour to water, there isn't enough water to make a liquid phase, and so you get clumps.  Within limits, over time, the water will distribute itself throughout the flour phase, and you will get a continuous mass of dough.  This is what happens (ignoring the effects of shortening for flakiness) in a pie dough, for example, which is quite dry.  It needs the resting time for the water to hydrolyze the starches, and spread evenly throughout, so what you have is one moderately hydrated clump, as it were.

This is only a the tip of the iceberg of complexity that is just flour and water.   The ratio, the temperature, the type of flour, the way it is treated all matter.

The interaction of starch and water is only one important interaction.

Another very important and complex interaction is the formation of glutin (a strong, stretchy protein that forms the primary structure in yeast-raised breads, among may other things) over time in the presence of water, and with agitation (as in kneading bread).


I've used both a Vitamix 500 (not extensively) and a Thermomix TM31. I didn't know there was a difference in RPM, but I didn't notice too much difference in end-effect when both were turned up to full power. So I think it doesn't make much difference at those speeds anymore.

If you're having trouble milling spices though, it helps to heat them a while in the oven, to get rid of humidity and therefore make them more brittle.


Can you use marinade twice if it was first used on precooked meat?

The general rule is that if the food has not been exposed to potentially dangerous temperatures (40 - 140 F, 4 - 60 C) for more than 4 hours cumulative over its lifetime them it is safe to use.  This would apply to your sauce, so if it was hot the entire time it was being used, it should be okay.

If your marinade meets that constraint, then you might consider reusing it.  However, it will have been diluted and infused by the meatball flavors, so the result may be strange or it may be fantastic, depending on how those flavors interact.

Given that ribs are not inexpensive items, I would start with a new "marinade" sauce, so that you have consistent and predictable results.

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


If I cook chicken breasts in instant pot for a "longer time" would they come out super tender? I'm thinking 12 minutes or so

Time in the pressure cooker will depend on the thickness of the chicken breasts. I'd say 12-15 min on high pressure should give you meat that can be shredded easily (I've cooked a few times following some variation of this recipe, which yields similar results).
Cooking any meat on high heat (or high pressure) for an extended period will both:

denature more the proteins / collagen making the meat more tender;
"squeeze" more water out of the meat, making it drier / chalkier in texture.

At 12-15 min range the chicken meat will dry out some, but let it rest in the cooking liquid for a few minutes before cutting and it should be able to re-absorb some of it (or not release more).


Common sense tells us that beverages can contact some of the outside surface of their container while being poured, especially with cans (which also sometimes open by pushing a bit of the outside ... INSIDE the beverage). Also, if bottles or cans are served as-is, people's lips are not unlikely to contact surfaces that were exposed in storage.

Also, beverage containers are typically served from raw, unlike other canned ingredients.

Also, while pathogens might have a hard time surviving on a reasonably clean metal or glass surface, storing them like that could potentially coat that surface with a layer of gunk that can harbor them.

While these risks seem to be commonly accepted, negligently exposing the containers to a risk of having their outside surface contaminated with concentrated pathogens - and nourishment for them! - seems to be something that might or might not be against regulations, but is certainly negligent and putting patrons at an avoidable risk.